Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

It never worked.

It didn’t matter what I tried, I still had to do upgrades manually!

As far as I was concerned, this was just how it had to be and there was clearly a bug or a conflict or something in WordPress.  One day, I even went through the process of uninstalling all my plugins just to see if the WordPress upgrade would run.  It didn’t.

So I’d resigned myself to a life of manual upgrades and decided that I’d only upgrade once every few months.  Then I started running some sites on HostGator.

Imagine my surprise when “just for fun”, I tried to run an automatic upgrade for one of my plugins on this new Hostgator hosted blog, AND IT WORKED!  I hastily went through all of the automatic upgrades that were available and EVERY SINGLE ONE WORKED!!!

Hmmmmm…….

Clearly, the problem was with 1&1.  I validated this by testing a number of other blogs hosted on the same platform and sure enough, the problem only ever manifested on 1&1.  When I finally reached the point of helping a friend with their blog which was also hosted on 1&1 (thanks to MY recommendation!) I decided it was time to find a fix.

It turns out that the fix is really easy, once you understand the problem.

Inside the WordPress admin interface, the upgrade processes take quite a bit of memory.  On Hostgator, the defaults for PHP are set high enough that you shouldn’t encounter a problem, but on 1&1 they’re set too low for our needs.  To fix this, all we need to do is to set a higher memory limit, which we do by creating a php.ini file.  This file needs only one line:

memory=32MB

Once you’ve created the file, upload it to your wp-admin directory and you should find that the problem’s been fixed!

Hope this helps!

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For my own writing, like I said, a calendar is probably my most valuable tool as it helps me to see what’s going on and what’s planned.  These events often lead to great inspiration for what to write about when applicable, but often we’re still left staring at a blank screen.

Another idea that I got from Copyblogger is to look to quotations and see how we can work our posts around them (see the full article here).

However, my favorite approach is to be more scientific.  I start by thinking about keywords that I want to write about.  I have a list of keywords and themes that I’m working on getting my blog known for and these can often inspire posts all by themselves.  Other times, I’ll go into EzineArticles and search using my keywords.  This invariably leads me to more content that I’ll ever need – all with great titles that I can use for inspiration.

Just to be clear, I don’t use the articles from EzineArticles (although I may read a few if I’m having a really bad case of writer’s lock) I simply use them for ideas.  That way, my articles should always be fresh and in my own voice.

Other ways that you could apply this idea would be to use other sites such as YouTube or even something more obscure like Twitter.  The trick is to get creative about how you find your inspiration, and your writing will reflect that creativity.

I’d love to read about how you come up with ideas for your own blog.  Please share in the comments and let’s see how many other creative techniques we can come up with!

Is Your Blog Really Sick? 8 Health Check Points – I’ve mentioned Patsi’s blog in the past and it says something about the quality (and abundance) of her writing that I’m continually including her posts in my blogs of the week.  In this post, she’s taking a quirky look at how we can measure the ‘health’ of our blogs.  I can certainly relate to some of the sicknesses that she’s alluding to with my own blog and I’m sure that you’ll relate to it too!

One Foolproof Trick to Blast Writer’s Block – As bloggers, we all know what it’s like to sit in front of the computer screen and have nothing to write about.  I’ve partly overcome this by scheduling my blog posts in advance (see ‘Organize Your Blogging‘) but even this strategy leaves us vulnerable to the dreaded writer’s block.

Another of my strategies is to regularly read blogs related to copywriting such as the excellent Copyblogger.  In this guest post, James Chartrand (who’s actually a woman) shares a great strategy for beating writer’s block that I’ll be putting to good use in future posts.

Create A Blogging Strategy & Avoid Burnout – It’s taken me some time (about 3 years to be precise) to realize that a blogging strategy is key to successfully growing your blog.  Don’t you love it when you think you’ve got something figured out then you read something that blows your preconceptions out of the water?  Well, that’s what Lynn Terry’s blog post did for me!

I consider myself well read in terms of what makes up a successful blog.  I know that consistent, regular quality content is all that you need.

Wrong!

Want to know why this is just the tip of the iceberg?  Read Lynn’s post…!

18 Blog Tips to Help You Succeed in 2010 – In this guest post on DailyBlogTips, Tony Hue share with us the basics for having a successful blog.  In my opinion, if you take everything in this post and combine it with the content in Lynn Terry’s post (above) you can’t fail to make it as a professional blogger!

Use it or lose it! 5 Tips on How to Keep Your Blogging Regular – Darren Rowse knows a thing or two about blogging.  In fact, he was co-author on THE book on blogging professionally!  One of the things that I really like about him is that he’s just s quick to share his failures and his successes.  When he does this though, he always does it in a way where we learn the lesson with him and come to the end of his post with new knowledge to apply to our blogging.  This post is a case in point – check it out to see what I mean.

That’s it for this week.  As ever, I’d love to get your thoughts about the posts that I’ve shared as well as any that you think I’ve overlooked.  If you have a blog of your own and you’d like me to consider including your posts in the future, please let me know.  The best way to get in touch regarding this post is via the comments below.  I personally read and reply to every comment.

Have a great week!

I feel that by staying at least one month ahead in my planning, I can never use the excuse that “I’ve got nothing to write about” or that “it’s hard to come up with ideas”.  My ideas are on paper already so now I just have to write.

On top of this, by working ahead in this way, whenever I’m feeling creative I can sit down and plan a little further.  My goal is to always have the current month and next month fully planned so at the end of January, I’ll sit down and finish at least through to the end of March.  Of course, at any time I can add ideas to future calendar points as the idea strikes me, or I can add additional posts if I want to get something timely out.

In terms of finding the time to write, the trick here is to use the tools at hand.  I work with WordPress which allows me to save posts before they’re finished and come back to them later.  It also allows me to write a post and schedule it to be published at a specific time.  For example, I’m writing this post on Saturday evening but have scheduled it to publish mid-morning on Monday.  I’d actually like to get Wednesday’s post written before Monday so that I have time to work on other things during the week!

If you consider that I work full time, this means that I can use my time very effectively on a weekend to produce the majority of my content for the coming week, and have only minimal work to do on an evening to keep everything ticking by nicely.  If you consider that this is for 2 blogs, you’ll see just how effective this strategy can be.

I would encourage you to look at your own blogging and consider how you can apply these ideas to become more organized.  I’d also love to read any tips and tricks that you use to keep your blog growing consistently.  Please use the comments to share these ideas – I’ll read every one and may even include some of the best ones in a future post!

The Blah Blah Blah Blogging Rules. F It. – Long time readers of this blog will know that I’m a fan of ProBlogger.  I particularly like his maverick style and this post really sums it up!

Without Backlinks, You Have Nothing. – Lynn Terry has a reputation for being one of the top affiliate marketers of today so I’m a regular reader of her blog.  This week she pre-launched a fantastic new service that aims to give you thousands of backlinks to your site.  Read the post to find out more…

The Oft-Confused Features And Benefits – One thing I can’t stand in a sales letter is when it sells nothing more than features!  This is not only irritating for the reader, it also kills conversions!  Learn from Michel Fortin, one of the Internet’s top copywriters, how to make sure you get your sales copy right and sell only benefits.

Dumb Excuses for Not Blogging – I’m sure everyone finds blogging a bit of a drag sometimes.  However, if we’re relying on it to support our families or to maintain our brand, then we have to make ourselves do it.  This post from Patsi Krakoff reminds us of the importance of our blogs and encourages us to give them the priority they deserve.

21 Outstanding WordPress Plugins – I love a good, effective WordPress plugin, don’t you?  This post describes 21 of the best – some of which I already use, and some that need some investigation.  If you use WordPress as your blogging platform, I’d encourage you to check this post out!

It’s All About Free, Baby! – You’ll hear a lot of successful Internet marketers talk about giving stuff away.  Some refer to it simply as ‘freebies’, others as ‘paying it forward’, and the fancy guys out there call it ‘moving the free line’.  In this post, Jessica Swanson (the Shoestring Marketer) gives us her take on the part that free products play in your marketing strategy.

Get More Subscribers: Seal the Deal with Incentives – I recently started using Aweber for all my new mailing lists.  This week, they posted as item on their blog dealing with how to incentivize people to sign up.  I figured that if I’m going to learn about sign-up rates and how to improve them, then Aweber is as good a place to start as any!

Finally, I wanted to share one more post with you.  This one is not something that will make you more money, but it’ll give you a good laugh:

Advice for Bloggers: Karate Kid Style

Enjoy!

In order to achieve this, I’m having to get über-organized!  To start with, I’ve downloaded the fantastic blogging calendar from BlogEnergizer.  This calendar not only has space to plan out all blog posts for the coming year, it also has all important dates and events included to help you find inspiration.  I’ve printed this out and started a new folder for each of my primary blogs and am planning to work at least a month in advance in terms of planning.  I’ve already completed my plans for January and February for this blog and my new self help blog and will complete March once this month draws to a close.

The other major thing that I’m looking to introduce is some regular features:

• Book of the Month – This is where I’ll write a review of a book that I’ve found useful in my own Internet business so that you can find out if it’s right for you without having to spend any money.
• Top Blogs This Week – I spend a lot of time every day reading other peoples blogs.  Occasionally, one of the posts will stand out and I’ll be collecting these and bringing them to your attention towards the end of each week.
• Product of the Month – Just like the Book of the Month, I plan to write detailed reviews of products that I either use on a regular basis, or have at least bought myself so that you get to find out the pros and cons without parting with cash.
• Mini-Series – A Mini-Series is a great way for me to deliver more content to you without you having to wade through one long post.  I already have a few planned for the coming months, and I think you’ll find them beneficial.

Of course, with all of this extra workload that I’m putting on myself I need to step up my discipline and start working ahead on my posts.  Having the calendar helps of course, but I’ll need to start focusing my daily work more effectively in order to keep things moving.  I have some ideas on how to approach this and I’ll share what works and what doesn’t once I’ve been doing it for a while.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you.  What do you think of my new strategy?  Is there anything else that you’d like to see in addition to what I’ve mentioned above?  Do you have any tips for time management that you’d like to share?

Whatever your thoughts, please don’t be shy – please share them in the comments below.

In the longer term, my plan is to have a dedicated, custom theme for this blog too, so it was important to me that I could have a new blog where I could play with themes.  Ultimately, I plan to have a similar look and feel on all my related blogs to create a sense of branding.  This is something that you would do well to consider on your own sites, too.

I’d love to get some feedback on the new site, and would love it even more if you’d care to sign up for updates!  In any case, please leave feedback in the comments to this post, as well as any questions that you might have.  Also, if anyone’s interested in the plugins that I use on all my new blogs, please drop me a comment and I’ll write a post on it in the new year.

1. All of my posts were tending more towards Internet Marketing in any case and being restricted to just a “tech blog” meant that I sometimes found it hard to write about what was important to me.

2. If I’m honest, it’s Internet Marketing that excites me – not technology itself!

With this in mind, I’ve decided to rebrand the blog and start focusing more at Internet Marketing in general and specifically, how technology can be harnessed to help you succeed more quickly and more effectively.

If you’re new here, please consider signing up for the newsletter (which is also in the middle of a makeover) as we’ll soon be releasing “subscriber only” content and freebies.  In the meantime, if you have any comments or feedback, please leave them against this post – I do read and respond to every comment, where appropriate.

Please note that these blogs are in no particular order, other than the order that I’m pulling them from Bloglines:

1. Alex Mandossian – Not only is Alex a great and prolific marketer, he also comes across as a gentleman.  As well as reading his blog, look out for the podcast that he does with Paul Colligan.
2. ClickNewz with Lynn Terry – I first came across Lynn on the Internet Marketing This Week podcast where she co-hosts with Ed Dale, Paul Colligan and Michelle MacPhearson.  One of the great things about Lynn is that she doesn’t pull any punches.
3. Daily Blog Tips – With Daily Blog Tips you get exactly what it says on the tin – new tips about blogging every day.  I strongly recommend that you subscribe to this site as they publish some real gems!
4. John Taylor – Anyone who’s a regular on the Warrior Forum will recognize John Taylor as another no-nonsense blogger.  Again, he’s someone who’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers in order to maintain his business ethics and he should be applauded for that.
5. Frank Kern – Now Frank isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.  He’s often irreverent and doesn’t care too much for the language he uses in his video blog posts.  However, as far as he’s concerned you either accept it, or don’t visit his site.  If you can look beyond this, you’ll find some real nuggets of information that he gives away for free in order to let us all understand how great his paid stuff is!
6. Michel Fortin – Michel is one of the best copywriters on the Internet.  If you haven’t heard of him, you’ve probably read some of his sales pages!  He publishes regularly to his blog and the content is almost always fantastic.
7. ProBlogger – No list of influential bloggers would be complete without including Darren Rowse (aka ProBlogger).  Darren has built the empire that he has today simply by being a consistent blogger.  We can all learn from this!  He’s also the co-author of a fantastic book called “ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income“.
8. Shoemoney – Jeremy Schoemaker is another familiar name in blogging circles.  Like ProBlogger, he’s a proponent of making a living from blogging although he also has some amazing products to make you a more successful blogger.
9. Michelle MacPhearson – Another co-host of the Internet Marketing This Week podcast.  Michelle is great at reminding us of the fundamentals of Internet Marketing.  She’s currently running a series called the “31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover” which is helping her readers take stock of everything that they have and to organize and streamline everything with the aim of spring-boarding into 2010 with some real momentum.
10. Seth Godin – Seth’s posts are interesting as it’s not always obvious what he’s getting at.  Sometimes he’ll post real clear guidelines and others, he’ll post something quirky or controversial to get you thinking.  Bear in mind that with what he’s achieved, he’s more than entitled to be quirky!

So that’s my top 10, but I wanted to also share a couple of Web Design blogs that I’ve started following, as I’m getting some great stuff from them.  Consider it a bonus…!

• Web Design Ledger – This site has some great inspiration and ideas for web design.
• Webdesigner Depot – Another inspirational site.  This also features one of my favorite regular posts – the Tweets of the Week!

I hope that some of these sites are new to you and that you find them useful.  I’d love to learn about the sites that YOU turn to for inspiration – please leave a comment so that we can all benefit from the knowledge of everyone else.

In the meantime, remember to head over to Daily Blog Tips to review the other sites taking part in the Group Writing Project.

• Best of 2009 (Amazon.com)
• Best of 2009 (Amazon.co.uk)

It’s worth looking at this not just as a great opportunity to get some popular Christmas presents (yes, it’s only a few weeks away right now!) instead, look at what Amazon are doing through the filter of your own business.  How can you produce a “top <something> of 2009″ list?  How about a “top blog posts of 2009″?  Or “top products of 2009″?

If you’re an affiliate, look at the products that sold best this year, then do a “top recommended products of 2009″ list.

What else?

Well, how about how about writing a report on the “top <something> of 2009″ and offer it to new subscribers?  This report could be made up of lists of your favourite books (all with affiliate links to Amazon, naturally) your favourite affiliate products and also your top blog posts.  In essence, you’re giving away something of perceived value in exchange for an email address, then funnelling this new subscriber straight back into your sales channel.

Now you know why Santa always says “Ho, Ho, Ho!”