In my last post I wrote:

So now I should really look at what I have learned this year and whether it has been worth it to run this blog, but more importantly, why I should keep it going another year. Before writing a post with my conclusions later this week, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all my readers and commentators who have participated and made this year of MeMyselfAndIBlog a joyous one!

That was after realizing I had actually missed the first birthday of this blog. Obviously the MeMyselfAndIBlog is going to be around for another year, seeing that I did pay the domain name again.

Over the course of last week I have been thinking hard about where to go with this blog, whether to continue writing here, what to write about but more importantly why I should keep on writing anyways.

One thing was clear though, things have to change. First half year I have spent a LOT of time reading… some may say I have wasted that time, others may say “cool, nothing wrong with reading, more power to ya!”.

So now it is about time to put the reading I have done and the things I have learned to work. Not halfheartedly but with utter complete focus. Basically what it comes down to, I will have to put on blinders and put all the things I have learned over the past year to work, and work hard.

So what is that going to mean for this blog?

It means I am going to strip it down to it´s bare basics. Straight forward posts. The clutter removed from the side-bar and most “monetization” removed (yes, that means I will cancel the exit traffic on this blog). If ever something shows up in the sidebar promoting something, I will let you know why it is there. 

Another thing is that I won´t be doing any promotion for this blog at all. Maybe I might put the occasional comment on a blog post here and there, but not with the idea in the back of my mind of “creating backlinks to my blog” or “driving traffic” or anything like that.

Yep, I am crazy like that…doing no promotion at all is probably going to be complete blogosphere suicide.

But remember the name of this place?

Me Myself And I Blog

Feel free to keep stopping by to read or subscribe to my RSS, feel free to keep on commenting, but I am going to do a really selfish thing and that is focus on ME.

My Time.

My Dreams.

My Work.

My Future.

What will these changes mean for You?

Well… I really don´t think your world will stop turning or that your life will come to a hold.

You will be able to read at least one post weekly, written by yours truely, with updates on my new ventures and how things really are working out.

You can comment and get some exposure for your website through my commentluv plugin. You can show up in the Comment Champs Top 5 with a link to your site if you make comments that add to the value of the posts, say hi, make me laugh with a funny comment or just let me know how plain selfish I am.

Whatever rocks your boat.

I might also occasionally start sharing what is working out for me.

I might even think of writing a few short downloads that could be useful for you, sort of step-by-step blueprints or whatever you want to call them.

The posts that I will be writing are hopefully going to be so darn helpful, so bloody motivational or just so plain annoying and/or provocative that they will tease you into linking to them.

The biggest change that is that this blog is going to be:

• About productivity – the real thing, not goofing around online
• About challenging myself to reach higher and maybe challenge you
• About showing what works and what doesn´t
• About walking the walk without so much talking the talk
• Maybe even about inspiring you to get to work too.

Yeah…. I guess that will do it for now

As a result of drastically wanting to change my life, I have started to put all my time and effort into learning about blogging and working hard on improving my own knowledge and skills. Over the last half year I have been doing a lot of research online, reading material of successful bloggers and people who are only just starting out, but what I mostly found was posts on how rich and happy they already were or on how rich and happy they wanted to become, without really sharing what to do in order to become succesful.

Some blogs sparked the light of hope and wanting to achieve things for myself, other blogs actually got me down and discouraged, thinking I would never make it.

A lot of material I came across felt like yet another post on the same, over and over again. The funny thing is that, once in a certain circle, you keep bumping in to the same bloggers, the same comments and the same blogs over and over again, which is curious if you come to think of the amount of blogs out there and diversity of interests all over the world.

But last night, when I was just about to reach my cut off time and ready to turn off my computer, I ran into a blog I wish I had found before. A blog packed with so many great posts and original content that it had me up and reading till 5 am this morning. A blog so inspirational that it had me going back when I finally woke up today.

Going back to its first post, dating the 12th of February 2007, I realised it has not even been online for a year and when it was started, it kind of felt it hadn´t found its own voice yet, although I believe the owner of the blog, Courtney Tuttle had his vision and goals well worked out.

I was searching for mistakes newbie bloggers make, because earlier that day I had seen a post of a Blogger Biggy making fun of newbies with a patronising and denigrating tone to it, an attitude I can´t stand in people. In retrospect, I actually am grateful he ticked me off, for it was because of that post that I came across Courts Internet Marketing School.

If I could only read one blog, this would definitely be the One, for it goes way beyond other blogs, offering sound advice, inspiration, motivation and tools to improve and keep improving my work. His list of 102 Ways to Make your Blog a backlink Superstar should be obligated material to read for any blogger out there who has a true desire to improve their blog.

So, if you could only read one blog, which one would it be?