Last weekend I sat down to read the free ebook from Chris Guillebeau, 279 Days to Overnight Success, and it didn’t disappoint. Chris is a blogger, bestselling author, travel junkie, and all-around inspiring guy. His main passion is spreading his message of non-conformity, that “you don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”

See why I like this guy?

The ebook is free and doesn’t require you to fill out a long form with all of your contact information or anything. Its 79 pages are full of inspiring stories and facts about how Chris built his blog, strengthened his brand, avoided the negative “vampires” who told him he couldn’t do it, and developed a full-time income stream in the process.

If you’re a blogger or have ever wanted to be a blogger, and wouldn’t mind making more money, you might want to check it out. Even if blogging isn’t your thing, check out Chris’s site. I think you’ll find it fascinating and well worth your time.

279 Days to Overnight Success, free ebook: Details | Download

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Also, I recently read Chris’s published, full-length book The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, Change the World (affiliate link) and would highly recommend it. It’s a short and sweet read full of actionable recommendations.

I learned how to further define the terms of what I want my unconventional life to be (more emphasis on community service, family, maybe book publishing, less emphasis on where I’m living and travel), was inspired by the stories of how Chris has built his business around his life (instead of the other way around), and wrote down a dozen ideas for how to grow my blog, strengthen my networking contacts, and get more done in less time.

Also, Chris’s plan for the One-Year, Self-Directed, Alternative Graduate School Experience is worth the cost of the book alone.

Happy reading.

So…yeah. This is my first blog post in two and a half weeks. Helloooo there!

What better topic to tackle then, than motivation. Specifically, how to stay motivated when it comes to blogging.

How I Do It

My key to keeping my motivation when it comes to creating content for this blog is that I don’t have a key.

I mean, I do. But I don’t. Meaning, yes I always have an open mind when it comes to post topics, and yes it’s ingrained into the background of my everyday thoughts, and yes I do whatever it takes to record a post topic the moment it pops into my head. However, I don’t push it.

On Not Pushing It

I tweeted yesterday that if you have to sit down in front of Twitter.com and “think” of something to tweet, you’re doing it wrong. You’re pushing it. You’re manufacturing it. Blogging, for most of us, is the result of a passion. And you can’t force passion.

There’s a fine line between forcing passion, yet still building your blog and providing content and expanding your business behind the blog by continuing to do it even when you don’t feel like it. Yes, keep your business going (if you have turned the passion of your blog into a business), but shy away from forcing it.

So when my passion shifts focus outside of my blog for a period of time? I let it.

Take Advantage of the High-Passion Moments

Focus intently on creating habits to keep your blog in the back of your mind at all times. Look at your every day experiences in a new light; how could they be valuable to your audience? Record them immediately for later use. Record them so you don’t forget them later, and so you can promptly forget them in the now. This is the efficient, business part.

The business part wouldn’t exist without the passion part, though.

When your passion is overflowing, add the business piece and record those topics like you’ve never recorded topics before. Write out full posts until your heart’s content.

When the passion wanes, don’t force it for business’ sake. If you have to choose, pick quality over quantity. Both are preferable, but quality wins by a hair.

Let what’s important take the lead. When you’re letting the passion drive you, manufactured motivation takes a back seat, you see?

The Short Version

How do you stay motivated to blog? Find your line between passion and business, and go with the flow. The motivation will come along with the rest.

(Thank you, James H, for suggesting I finally record how I “stay motivated.”)

Agree? Disagree? Let me hear it in the comments.

Wowie zowie. Sometimes the blogosphere (or at least the teeny tiny piece of it that I monitor) seems to blow up about the same topic all at once. Perhaps it’s like some blogger, mind-reading thing? Or maybe they get together in secret and plan it out? Who knows.

What I do know, though, is that a couple weeks ago several high-profile business/blogging/social media bloggers all published on the same topic:

Guest Posts.

Many of you know how much of a fan I am of guest posts. I think, hands down, that they are the #1 way to increase traffic, reach new audiences, and build your brand. Both for the blogger hosting the post and the blogger contributing the post.

Which reminds me, who wants free content? Contact me here if you’re up for it. :)

Side note: yes, I do have a project in the works, a web-app of sorts, that relates specifically to guest-posting. (Coming soon.) Because of this I am probably more sensitive and observant to catching discussions about it. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, am I writing about this topic now because I felt strongly about guest posting before or because it relates to one of my new projects? Probably a bit of both.

Scan the following posts and form your own opinions on the topic, whatever they might be. Promise me, though, that you will at least educate yourself by reading the viewpoints of some of the uber-successful.

Yup, it’s that important.

Escape Your Blog To Grow It, by Chris Garrett blogger & internet marketing consultant, co-author of ProBlogger

Guest Posts and Traffic, by Chris Brogan President of New Marketing Labs, #2 ranked blogger from AdAge’s Power 150

Diary of a Wimpy Blogger, by Stanford Smith VP of Marketing at Fluency Media, blogger at Pushing Social

Thoughts?

Are you on Tumblr? I’ve had an account for a while, as I think it’s one of the most powerful blogging platforms out there (with all of its integrated social networking snazzyness), but since this site is my home base I wasn’t quite sure how to use it.

I think I’ve figured it out.

AnnieSorensen.com represents who I am as a brand, everything live-your-best-life-everyday. My personality is most definitely a part of that, but the content here still has a professional bent. I will be using Tumblr as more of an unfiltered version of what I present here. Still me, still my brand, but a bit more rag-tag. Perhaps a bit goofier, a bit off-topic or inconsistent, but still swirling around my passion of inspiring you to live just a little better, to do a little more.

Stop by and say hello, won’t ya?

I just read a fantastic, thought-provoking article this morning on creating content in the online media space that I couldn’t wait to share. In the blogging, podcasting, online video, etc world you constantly hear that “content is king.” Meaning, nothing else matters unless you are consistently producing quality content. If you ARE consistently producing quality content, then everything else can and will fall into place if you keep pumping it out.

But is that really the case? Is it TRULY the content that’s king online? The thoughts of the brilliant Chris Brogan:

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Content is not king. You are. (or Queen.) Content is currency. You’re the king.

What do you say?”

Part of one of his last sentences made me smile…”focus on relationships.” That’s been the number-one, driving factor for why I have been blogging, networking online, and posting videos throughout the past year – I want to meet new people and develop quality relationships. The kind that, whenever the future need might arise, connect two people who have the potential to, together, create greater good than they could have individually.

Awesome to see what I’ve been doing stated so concisely by an online media maven.

Thoughts?

A quick update from BlogWorld, day 2, about a super-exciting gentleman I had the honor of meeting today, couldn’t wait to share it with you:

The point of all of this? Go check out JB. His site is awesome, his podcasts are awesome, and he is one amazing guy. His passion for personal development, for personal evolution, and inspiring others is massive and it’s beyond motivating to see and meet someone who’s generated so much success within the personal development realm online.

Go. Be inspired.

So. Here I am. I’ve made it through my first day as a nervous, excited, eyes-wide-open newbie at the biggest blogging, online media, and podcasting convention in the world. Nice.

So now I’m sitting here going through all my notes and thoughts and ideas from the day, letting them bounce around in my brain for a bit, and trying to puke them back out as some coherent grouping of sentences. Yeah, pftshh, it’s not going well. And it’s not because I didn’t see or hear or learn anything worthwhile but precisely the opposite. I absorbed and experienced and thought about so much that it’s going to take me more than few hours to digest it all. Much more. I mean, this is motivation, people. Talk about a place where brilliant minds come together. WOW.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling. The point is, today was eye-opening, and not just because of everything I learned but because I am really launching myself out of my comfort zone by being here. I’m a relative newcomer to the blogging industry, I mean, come on, my Twitter account hasn’t even hit its 1st birthday. I don’t know every famous name in blogging or every influential person in social media. Those nichely famous names that, when a panelist drops them into their presentation, everyone laughs but me. I don’t own a Mac, I don’t make any money from blogging (unless you count $.12 per day as money), and I can’t tell you what it was like to blog back when no one knew the definition of the word. Also, I traveled here and am attending the conference all by myself. I registered and booked the trip on a whim, simply because I just knew I should. So today was eye-opening because I grew. For entrepreneurs and those that strive to always be the best person they can be, stepping outside of your comfort area isn’t anything new. But there are always those times when you realize that you’re not just stepping, you’re launching outside of that zone. And today I did it.

I DID it! And tomorrow I’ll do it again.