Feeling absolutely incapable of writing anything worthwhile, I’m sticking to reading right now: Here’s some of the best articles I’ve found in the last few days:

  • Simon at the eminently readable Pingable.org asks us to consider 10 writing errors that makes your blog less good. Leaving aside the debatable grammar of that title (sorry Simon…..) there’s some excellent points on spelling, punctuation and other aspects of writing that anyone who’s remotely serious about blogging should read. I don’t care how good your content is, if your writing ability makes you look like an idiot, you’ll lose credibility - everyone lets a little mistake slip through now and then, but I’ve seen some cringe-worthy examples of poor spelling and grammar in the past.
  • Skellie from the disgustingly young and popular Skelliewag.org blog (Me, jealous? No…) has written a very comprehensive guide on how to create and publish your own eBook with a $0 budget - offers like that always catch my eye! There’s really everything you need to know here, and it’s something that most of us can do. Even if you think that you wouldn’t be able to write one, if your blog’s old enough, the majority of your possible content probably already exists within your archives-what better way to re-present it, and demonstrate the value of your writing than offering a free eBook of your past articles to anyone subscribing to your RSS feed?
  • Everyone posts a list of their favourite plugins at some stage, and Shawn from DestyOnline is no exception with his Top 19 plugins. The benefit of these lists, is that no two are ever the same, and I usually find out about a cool plugin I’ve not heard of before: in this case the Google Analytics one. I hope though, that he (and you!) also make use of the WordPress backup plugin, or that you do it the old school way via PHP: Whatever you do, a backup can save a lot of heartache in the future.
  • If you’re in a mini-slump, or just wondering whether it’s worth keeping up with blogging, then you may appreciate the advice from Stephen from Daily Blog Tips on how to reignite your passion for blogging. You can sometimes feel like you’re talking to yourself, or a ‘bad stats day’ can make you wonder why you bother, but instead focus on your triumphs, however small, and keep going. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Lastly…..

This text should appear in a rather spiffy little box, useful for highlighting or emphasising text, instead of using blockquotes. If it does, and you’d like to know how to do it, head over to More Than Scratch The Surface, where Stephen will show you how to make your own simple CSS text box in posts.

Excellent.