A lot of productivity gurus hate on the New Years Resolution, but I’m still a fan. Likely, it’s because unlike most people who make New Years Resolutions, I tend to keep mine.

Read On…

The best blogs on the whole internet are Niche Blogs. Blogs about cake decorating. Blogs about gothic home decor. Blogs about Japanese pop music. Blogs about lavender. Blogs about cross-stitch swear words … These blogs are the easiest to find readers, the easiest to monetize with ads and products, and the most fun to write, because you get to spend every day writing and engaging others about your absolute favorite topic in the world.

But creating an awesome niche blog isn’t easy. Some niches have hundreds of established blogs. Some niches can such a myriad of differing opinions and schools of thought your blog can end up a warzone for various people’s agendas. Sometimes, your blogs seems to suck, and you don’t know why.

If you want help working on your niche blog, pop on over to Waxing UNlyrical, the blog ofShonali Burke (a PR professional and all-round lovely lady), where I’ve written a little post on How to Be Awesome at Niche Blogging, which I think you’ll enjoy.

Alternatively, you can have a look at my Grymm & Epic Guide to Blogging book.

You might also enjoy the Grymm & Epic RSS feed, and my newsletter.

You ever have one of those weeks when everything seems impossible? Where all your savings are spent on emergency car repairs and replacing broken drum pedals and stolen car stereos and your work seems pointless and your goals seem impossible and the whole world seems to hate your guts?

Yeah, me too.

I’m currently facing the reality that – even though I reached my income goal for 2010 – we now have next to no savings left. I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that not only will we probably not be moving to Germany next year, we can’t even technically afford to go to Wacken and see our amazing friends. I’m waiting and hoping for a cheque that was supposed to come in October, a cheque for over 2 months worth of work that I will likely not be paid for. I’m looking at spreadsheets and to-do lists and all the amazing things I wanted to do next year and just feeling like the world’s biggest failure.

I feel like I’ve let my husband down, and myself, because I had set these goals and, even though I achieved them, it’s all come to nothing. We still won’t get to do what we’d set aside all that money to do. I’ve been busting a gut working 60 hour weeks for over a year now, and I have nothing to show for it.

I have given myself permission to wallow. And hence, with a plate of my killer chocolate and beetroot brownies, I am sitting at the computer, the cat in my lap, listening to Opeth and throwing an epic pity party.

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It may shock you to learn that not everyone on the internet likes you. It sure killed me.

The first time someone posted a negative comment on my blog, I cried. I obsessed about it for days. I returned to high-school Steff, wondering why no one likes me. The comment made me read and re-read my article, searching for whatever I’d said that offended this person so. I thought about taking the article down. I toyed with deleting the comment. I cried some more.

The supposed anominity of the internet gives people a “safety screen” from which they can launch their own personal attack on the world. Sometimes these attacks are well-meaning, meant to educate people about important social, humanitarian or rights issues. Sometimes these attacks are meant to persuade or encourage debate, which is the most important aspect of the awesomeness of the internet.

But sometimes, the line between “I’d like to disagree with your point and offer these thoughts for discussion” and “You’re a fuckwit and I wish all your children were born with three extra fingers and a piano falls on your cat” gets crossed. Sometimes it gets trampled. Sometimes, a piano falls on top of it.

And what can you, as a blogger, do about it? Plenty. You can delete it, launch into a debate, crush them with a piano, run their name into the dirt with the awesome power of your twitter friends. What should you do about it? Not much at all.

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Today, I wrote 2000 words on my novel, finished some metal album reviews, helped a creative lady in Aussie brainstorm business names, wrote some website copy, produced a Braille novel, gave an agency a quote for a new batch of work, and finished up by writing this article.

What a fun day that was! Most of my days are like this (barring the days when I’m sleeping off a metal concert or off climbing over castles with my husband). A mix of interesting work from clients and agencies alongside my blogs and fiction writing. Not only that, this unique and interesting range of work is my success “secret”.

Bloggers love catchy titles like “3 Secrets of Freelance Success” and “21 Ways to Scam Some Poor Sucker out of $50″. For years, I’ve been writing blogs for clients with titles like this, and there is definitely a place for them.

Numbers in titles and buzz words like “Secret” and “Sure-Fire Method” force people to pay attention. They ooze confidence like a confident sausage-making machine. Readers think “A person who didn’t know what they were doing wouldn’t come up with 21 steps”.

I know – the numbers and buzz words hook me, too. Even though I’ve been freelancing for 5 years and probably know all the secrets by now, I still read posts titled “5 Freelance Writing Secrets”. I can’t stand not knowing a secret – I’m a nosy bugger like that.

But none of this secret stuff is really a secret. Most of it is just common sense. Even the most “sure-fire” method doesn’t work for everybody. Often, it’s the people rocking the status-quo who make all the money and get all the girls.

Here’s a “secret” of mine. Even if it was a secret, which it isn’t, I’ve totally ruined my chances of making it as a freelancer by letting you get your fithly paws on it.

Read On…