Open Discussion: Where are You Stuck?

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Michael Martine • 25 Comments

Some things in our blogging & businesses are easy and we love to focus on those and ignore where we’re stuck. Thinking about where we’re stuck makes our heads hurt. It feels like the gears are spinning in “neutral,” but not engaged in anything real. You look stuff up online about your problem but it doesn’t make any sense to you. Or you try to implement it but it doesn’t work.

Confession time: what makes you feel stuck?

Filed Under: Blogging

http://johnhaydon.com John Haydon

Michael – Having to deal with taxes makes me feel stuck…. In fact, the accounting side of my business is something I've always struggled with.
- remarkablogger
  
  Me too, actually. I'm going to get an accountant.
  - http://johnhaydon.com John Haydon
    
    How much are those things?
    
    On a serious note, I started using Freshbooks which helps a great deal with P&L, invoicing, reporting. It's Quickbooks for people who hate numbers.
    - http://journeys.alaivani.com/ Jennifer
      
      John Can you explain how you use Freshbooks? Thanks.
      - http://johnhaydon.com John Haydon
        
        Jennifer – I use it to see my profit and loss, track expenses, create
        estimates and manage invoices.
  - http://www.nextlevelblogger.com Christian Russell
    
    oh man let me tell you…a good CPA makes a huge difference! Make the call today!
http://osaka-is.blogspot.com/ Josh

Not sure if this counts, but here goes. I get stuck when I am trying to write something profound(while blogging or otherwise), and I wind up losing or muddling up the point.
- remarkablogger
  
  Thanks for sharing, Josh.
http://www.theskooloflife.com/ Srinivas Rao

Hey Michael,

I guess for me I've become stuck at how to develop passive income streams. I've figured out how to develop active ones through consulting work, but I know that scalability will be an issue in the long run. IT's strange but despite higher levels of engagement (i.e. more comments on posts, more subscribers), my traffic has hit somewhat of a plateau. I'm not really depressed about it because I have so many projects going on, but would love to hear your thoughts.
- remarkablogger
  
  Srinivas, are you actively executing a specific plan that has a goal of
  increasing traffic and subscribers? Consider creating one if not.
  
  Consulting is a natural lead-in to info products, which is a complimentary
  revenue stream (it's never “passive,” because you want to actively launch
  and promote it, and relaunch the new version, etc.).
- http://www.nextlevelblogger.com Christian Russell
  
  Careful with that word “passive”. Diane Kennedy (a great CPA btw Michael!) wrote a rockin post on this a while back.
  
  http://www.businesstoinvestment.com/2009/01/22/5-myths-of-passive-income/
  
  I agree with her 100%
seogreece

Having to deal with our public services here in Greece make me stuck. And a lot of times the writing in English make me stuck (i m greek)
- http://journeys.alaivani.com/ Jennifer
  
  seogreece. Hi! What are your major challenges with English? I am happy to talk them out with you! Stop by my site and drop me a line! (I tutor English as Second Language Learners in USA).
http://evengrounds.com/blog Julius

I get stuck when I'm trying to find unique topics to write about.

Also, I get stuck when I'm thinking of a good opening paragraph.
- remarkablogger
  
  Thanks Julius! Here's a tip for better opening paragraphs: begin by stating
  the big benefit readers are going to get if they read the post.
  - http://journeys.alaivani.com/ Jennifer
    
    Good tip! I will take you up on that !! I get stuck creating a title!
  - http://evengrounds.com/blog Julius
    
    Thank you for the tip.
http://twitter.com/SellingOmaha SellingOmaha

I get stuck when I try not to offend anyone. It results in boring posts that no one reads. I'm also really good at coming up with topics and tons of thoughts to include in a post – while driving and don't have anywhere to write it down. By the time I do sit down, I can't come up with anything more than a sentence. Frustrating!
- remarkablogger
  
  If you're not offending SOME people, you're not doing anything worth talking
  about. As far as ideas for posts go, sounds like you need an “idea
  capture” system, like a voice recorder or a little notebook.
ahughes3

Hi,

Really need some help, I know this might not be the right place to post the request but I've looked and can't find anywhere else.

Is there a widget available for wordpress that will allow my feeds to appear on my homepage or a particular/multiple web pages?

Any help would be truly appreciated.
- remarkablogger
  
  If there are such plugins, I haven't seen them or know them by name. But you
  can search for plugins right from within WordPress at the plugins
  page. The Headway
  theme <http://headwaythemes.com> lets you add any RSS feed from any source
  you want, but that function is built into the theme and is not a plugin.
ahughes3

Another question for you or anyone. I read something which intimated that having my blog on a subdirectory within my domain was a bad idea. Is this true?
- remarkablogger
  
  Not at all, but it depends what else is on the site and why you want to put
  the blog in a subdirectory. Most of the time, a main site already exists and
  there's no intention to redesign it or change it much. It makes sense to put
  the blog in a folder in that case.
remarkablogger

If there are such plugins, I haven't seen them or know them by name. But you
can search for plugins right from within WordPress at the plugins
page. The Headway
theme <http://headwaythemes.com> lets you add any RSS feed from any source
you want, but that function is built into the theme and is not a plugin.
remarkablogger

Not at all, but it depends what else is on the site and why you want to put
the blog in a subdirectory. Most of the time, a main site already exists and
there's no intention to redesign it or change it much. It makes sense to put
the blog in a folder in that case.

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