Layoffs, nowadays, can happen anytime, to anyone. In the times of crisis and recession, you don’t have to be a second-class employee to wake up one day and find yourself losing your job. Even worse, it can happen totally unexpectedly.

How to stay motivated after a layoff

The airline industry has an apt term describing the first ninety seconds after a disaster. They call it “the golden time”, because if you are able to act quickly in this short period of time, your chances to survive the plane crash dramatically increase. Similarly, rapid and appropriate action is inevitable if you want to stay on the surface after unexpectedly losing your job. Follow our tips to do just that.

Don’t panic

You’ve read Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, haven’t you? Avoiding panic is the first and most crucial rule if you find yourself in a situation to which you were unable to prepare.

Unlike a plane crash, losing your job won’t threaten your life in any way. Although it may endanger your carreer and it may also cause long-term damages, there’s no real reason to panic. Chances are, that you’ll just find another job, and everything will return to a normal daily schedule, but being laid off can also be a possibility to find a better job, than the one that you’ve just lost. You don’t know what’s ahead, but it may have been the best thing that could happen to you.

Update your resume

You’ll have to dust off your resume as soon as possible. This step is crucial, firstly to “get you in the mood” for looking for a job, secondly to draw a balance of your last position.
When you update your CV, by filling in your responsibilities and achievements, you will be able to see clearly what you have gained from the last couple of years.
You have surely become more experienced, more mature and ready for bigger challenges.

Get What’s yours

Sure, your boss has told you that the company was in trouble, and they regret it, too, but don’t let yourself be lured into generosity towards your own company. They’ll never return the favor.
Talk to a lawyer and ask for everything that’s yours. It’s useful to know the Labor Codes in most countries are very biased protecting the employees: you can ask for a broad range of things, as the employer will do its utmost to avoid a lawsuite.
A win-win situation may not be achieved (as you are losing your job in the first place), but get the most of the situation for yourself, and don’t let emotions drive you.

Prepare a plan

Losing your job definitely hurts, but it’s a huge opportunity to step back and evaluate your career from a slightly bigger distance. Before you start looking for a job, you will have to know exactly what you are aiming for. Ask yourself whether you want to stay in the same industry, or start something completeley different. Ask yourself if you aim for a first class position at a smaller company, or you settle for a lower post, but you want to work for the market leader. Don’t miss this opportunity to start over, if that’s what you really want.

Use your network

It’s essential that you don’t feel ashamed of your situation. Tell your friends and partners about it, but instead of complaining, focus on the fact that you are free to be hired. Use all available resources, like the numerous social networking websites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, and tell your old classmates about the position you’re looking for. Send them your CV as well - if they can’t help you, they may forward it to someone, who can.
If you’ve been building a “favor bank” while you were in your previous position, there surely are a couple of people out ther, who “owe you one”. Now it’s high time they return the favor.
Never underestimate the power of your personal network.

Relax

If your previous period was really stressful and busy, just feel free to recharge your batteries before you dive into an active job search. Give yourself a couple of weeks, spend time with your family, find a hobby that you always wanted to do, just never had the time for it. Start studying something, be it a new language, or a professional skill you lacked. The time and money you invest in yourself will surely pay off, when it gives you a carreer boost.
Looking for a job requires a real effort, so make sure you get ready, before you start it. When you begin attending job interviews, you’ll have to make the impression of a competent and a confident candidate. If you haven’t slept for weeks, you’ll fail.

Start freelancing

You may not be able to find a new position immediately, but you’ll almost definitely find works that are need to be done. Start freelancing, or temporize with part-time jobs, even if you want to go back to a cosy full-time employee position.
The experience you gain and the references you collect will make sure that the “carreer gap” between your last position and your new one is not wasted time.

Photo: ramenlover

How much of your grown-up life have you spent with blogging?

Some of them yes, but life moves on, and it is very hard to stay in touch with friends when you move abroad. Even if I’d stayed in the UK, I’m sure we would’ve drifted apart, mainly due to finding a new job.

I’m not sure I can answer that question. Things seem to be in a period of transition at the moment, as quite a few of the blogs I was reading in 2008 have slowed down, disappeared, or haven’t kicked off since Xmas and New Year. I don’t read a lot of the bigger blogs because they seem to post more often than I can keep up with. I do read ProBlogger but he’s had a lot of guest posts, and a lot of them don’t interest me.

Everybody seems to be nuts about Twitter these days, and although I’m a real greenhorn compared to some of the Twitter-Top-Guns, even I find myself checking my Twitter homepage before opening my mailbox first thing in the morning. Those who use twitter for professional purposes agree that, the key of a successful Twitter profile is constantly sharing (rather: tweeting) value with your followers.

how to share value on twitter

When I first read these words of wisdom, a pretty natural question popped into my mind: how the heck can you share value in 140 characters?

I was unable to answer this question aptly enough, so I’ve plowed through a couple of thousand tweets to find some real value on Twitter. Here’s what I’ve found.

How to share value on Twitter?

Share a read!

It’s easy, because you don’t have to squeeze it into 140 characters. Just punch a title and a URL, and you’re done. If it’s your own piece, add: New blogpost, if it’s someone else’s that you’ve just come across, add: Reading.

It’s always more valuable, if you share someone else’s articles or posts (and similarly, it is more valuable for you if someone else is sharing your ones), but as long as the read you’re offering is valuable and not completely off-topic, feel free to push your own stuff, too.

Share a tip

A tip or advice can arrive in the form of a tweet (you have to be really smart to give an advice in 140 characters, but I’ve seen people succeeding), or in the form of an URL. Tips, advices and how-to-s are always worshiped by Internet users, and Twitter is no different.

Share a handshake

Twitter is a networking site, after all. Say hello to a friend, who just joined the conversation, welcome your new followers, or say goodbye to someone who’s going to sleep a couple of continents away when you’re slurping your morning coffee. You can do it in a direct message as well, however, if you do it publicly, you show their Twitter names to all of your followers, and they’ll just love it.
People come to Twitter to garner attention, so everybody will appreciate a bit of extra limelight.

Share a hug

Attention, fame and referred visitors are one thing, but people also tend to like the idea of being popular. If a tip you received was helpful, say thank you. And do it in front of the crowd of your followers. If your fellow-Twitter(er) made you happy, you should return the favor. (Hint: you can also show your gratitude by ReTweeting the original tip, for the sake of extra publicity).

Share a wink

Be useful by not being so useful all the time! After all your Twitter-friends are not just cold machines. If they tweet that they’ll try to make the most of their day, tell them, you keep your fingers crossed. If they complain about the London weather, tell them it’s the price they pay for the awesomeness of Marmite. Make their day in 140 characters. What can possibly be more useful than that?

Share a laugh

It’s a professional world we’re living in but everybody will appreciate a good laugh. If not, he or she will immediately unfollow you. And that’s the way it should be.

Do you have any other ideas how one can share value in the 140 characters provided by a Twitter Tweet? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. And if you liked this post, let your followers know!

Photo: nathan

Most bloggers will agree that, a relatively low number of posts generate the vast majority of their blog’s traffic. How easy and simple it would be, if only you could see which posts will become these traffic generators before actually writing them (and especially before writing all the rest, that later prove to be useless).

I’m pretty sure that you have quite a lot of topics in your head that you are planning to write blogposts on. This easy-to-use checklist helps you determine whether they are worth the effort of writing them. This list, of course, cannot guarantee success, but it can provide you with solid guidelines for providing value for your readers that can result long term high, quality traffic (significantly different from the traffic you receive when you ask your friends to digg your article).

Is it useful?

It’s a real no-brainer by now, and you have heard it gazillion times: if you are running a professional blog, the value you give your reader is measured in usefulness. There are several ways to provide useful information, just to list a couple:

• Inform your readers about something they’ve never heard of
• Write a post that shows your readers how to do something
• Write a post that shows your readers how to do something they frequently do in a way they’ve never tried (and in a way that is supposedly better or easier than their old methods)
• Write a plan that they can act upon
• Share your experiences (positive or negative), and add a step-by-step guide that can be repeated

Of course there are a number of other ways to be useful, too. But you have to find a way to serve your reader with usefulness. If the topic you’re thinking of is not like that: don’t bother.

Is it striking?

The phenomenon that makes articles or blogposts go viral is the “Wow factor”. If your piece (or at least a part of it) makes your reader say: Shoot, I should have thought of that before he did, the reader will most definitely forward the article to his or her friends (or digg it, stumble it, youname it…).

While most “how-to-go-viral” guides will focus only on the post’s title (due to the harmful practice of Digg users of digging articles without actually reading them first), I think the Wow factor can be placed inside the article, too. But it has to be there, somewhere.

Is it a dupe?

I should have asked whether it is unique, but I haven’t.

This is because at times dupes can appear very unique for the first sight.

In fact, dupes can be different from word-by-word, copypasted articles. I don’t consider an article unique, if it’s:

• An article rewritten from another article
• An article recompiled from various sources
• An article without any new information in it

Unfortunately, most of the “27 ways to do thisorthat” type articles, you see out there are dupes. These lists can still be useful, but I think a blogpost or article is worth writing only if it has something in it, that hasn’t ever been written down by anyone before.

To cut a long story short, there are only three things that can make a blogpost unique:

• If the question it asks is new
• If the answer it gives to the question is new (regardless of whether the question is new in itself)
• If its approach is new

If someone is trying to sell you something, that none of the above, as new, he’s trying to make a fool of you.

An obvoius rule here is Googleing your subject in the research phase (ie: before you start writing it) and searching major social bookmarking sites, like Digg or Delicious for duplicates, exactly as Digg would do if you submitted an article. If the subject has already been covered, you have two options:

• Forget it
• Think of a very different approach

If you decide to go for the second option, make sure you include the link of the original article in your post, and reflect on it in a few words (saying how great that article is, although you disagree with it etc). This way your readers will know that you haven’t plagarized the original post, but you have additional (or different)thoughts on the subject.

Are you any good in it?

The most common mistake I see in the blogosphere is covering topics that the author knows nothing about. Some bloggers seem to think that reading three posts on a certain subject will make him or her professional enough to write a fourth one, while posing as an expert.

It is both lame and transparent.

If you are not an expert, you don’t have to pretend you are. If you have no clue on the subject you are planning to cover, I suggest you to drop it. But if you insist on covering it anyway, you still have a couple of options:

• Report on your personal experiences as you begin to have them
• Ask your readers’ opinions
• Try to implement some of the how-to-s out there in the subject, and report on what happens in reality

All of these options are better than pretending that you master a subject if you don’t.

Is it witty?

Would you give it thumbs up?

• Don’t miss the upcoming pieces of this series. Subscribe to my RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter!
• Did you like this article? Share it at the social bookmarking site of your choice!
• Care to disagree? Please leave a comment!

Do you consider yourself creative? I sure do.

If you are anything like me, you are always full of brilliant ideas, and these ideas seem to come faster, one after the other, than they could be accomplished. If you are anything like me, you take a piece of paper and a pen, and write those ideas down, so that you don’t have to keep them in mind, and also to make sure that they are not forgotten. And if you are anything like me, you have at least three notebooks (the analogue ones) full of these ideas, many of which you will never achieve.

I have a creative job (I’m an editor and a journalist, beside managing the newspaper I write for), and I started both my personal blog and this one, to write a piece of my creativity out of me, then, after a while, I noticed something.

And if you’re anything like me, that’s bad news for you, too.

Your blog’s success, and your personal success as a blogger has nothing to do with creativity. In fact, for reasons that I will unravel in another post, your creativity can be the greatest hurdle and threat to your blog’s success.

Let me explain!

Of course, it used to be different back in the old days. Around 2000, blogging in itself was a groundbreaking, creative phenomenon. The very idea of publishing by a click of your mouse and writing articles on anything that was on your mind for millions to read (potentially) was a revolution and a frenzy of creativity. But although it does not appear too remote on a historic scale, times have changed a lot since those early days.

Blogging, by today, has evolved into a fully-fledged business model . I think I’m not far off the mark guessing that I’m not the first one telling you this, and part of the reason you started blogging was (apart from getting rid of your overflowing creativity, of course), that you’ve heard about this business model.

While finding, exploring and building up a business model is one of the most creative tasks I can imagine, once the big work is done, and the model is working, creativity becomes secondary, if not less important than that.

Think about the subtlety of McDonald’s’ business model, and the enormous work its founder, Ray Kroc has achieved. Still, if you ask your former classmates, who ended up working for McDonald’s, creativity is not likely to be among the first qualities they will highlight describing their jobs. But even if you consider the ultimate source of creativity in the corporate world: Google. Their founders and employees had to be extremely creative to make it what it is now, but once the AdSense system is all set, you just buy and sell based on a certain algorithm, exactly as you’d do at a traditional shop or market. Without any creativity, whatsoever.

Blogging is no different. It’s business model, of course, is still very young, and is undergoing a constant maturation. But the changes that took place in the recent years already rewrote the rules that draw a line between successful blogs and those that will never make it.

And while the process of writing may still remain a creative activity (within strict limits, as I’ll tell you later in details), whether people will actually find and read what you wrote (ie. your blog’s success) has nothing to do with creativity. If you write for yourself, for your close friends, as a part of a therapy or you are simply having fun writing, it may even be fine for you.

But if you’re chipping in to the business section of the blogosphere, your blog’s traffic is a much more important measurement of its success than the amount or the quality of its content. Coherence between the two, obviously exists. But there’s no easier way to put it than this:

1. Low quality content + Low traffic = Unsuccessful blog
2. High quality content + Low traffic = Unsuccessful blog
3. Low quality content + High traffic = Successful blog(?)
4. High quality content + High traffic = Successful blog

While many will argue whether combination #3 can be called a success (in fact, it’s a very rare combination, and I firmly believe that high quality content is a prerequisite of sustainable, high quality traffic), one thing is for sure: creativity in itself will never take you to #4.

Even when it comes to using your creativity to drive traffic to your blog or website: you may have brilliant ideas or tiny tricks or secrets that have never been used before: but the big picture will more likely be defined by how you utilize those techniques that you didn’t have to find out, because they are echoed all across the blogosphere.

In this upcoming series of blogposts (I have written down at least 50 topics to cover by now, so the series is likely to last all year), I will show you how to fend off the temptation of your creativity, and focus on what you really want: making your blog successful.

• Don’t miss the upcoming pieces of this series. Subscribe to my RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter!
• Did you like this article? Share it at the social bookmarking site of your choice!
• Care to disagree? Please leave a comment!

1. Blogger vs. Wordpress

The first dilemma when launching a new blog comes pretty early. You have to decide which one of the numerous blog engines you want to choose to provide the CMS background for your blog. Although there are a number of available options, the vast majority of bloggers tend to pick one of the two (three, really, but I only want to cover free services here so that disqualifies Movable Type immediately) most popular blog engines: Blogger or Wordpress. The subject of which one you should choose has an extensive literature on the web, so I’m not going to dive deep into details here.

Wordpress

For me (and for those, who are really serious about blogging) categories are really crucial to have, so that (and the infinite options of highly customize a Wordpress blog) decides the question. Especially so, when you decide to register an own domain for your blog instead of using the web hosting either of these engines offer at yourblogname.blogspot.com and yourblogname.wordpress.com (warning: Wordpress’s own hosting site won’t let Adsense ads in, as it doesn’t support any form of JavaScript. You’ve been warned.)
My choice: Wordpress.
Google - Blogosphere - 0:1

2. Google Docs vs. Zoho
A few bloggers will doubt that the era of desktop word-processing is simply over. While some people will compose their blogposts directly in their blog’s admin area (all of the blog engines offer auto save functions by now), I personally prefer to compose posts, drafts, and basically anything in online word processors. I’ve already tried a couple of them, including Google Docs and its main competitor, Zoho.

Google docs

Zoho is stunning. It offers a whole set of office applications online, and while most of its advanced services are not free, even its free and basic services, such as word document and spreadsheet processing look way more hi-tech than that of the flat look of Google Docs. Unfortunately, most of the additional services and options Zoho offers are exactly those that I never ever use. So having everything else (the basics, really) more complicated for additional functions that are of no use for me seemed kind of a bad deal after all.
Furthermore, since I use these cloud office applications not only for composing blog posts, but also for creating my weekly and monthly reports and figures, I really missed the function of freezing table columns and lines in Zoho’s spreadsheet processor (the function is available at Google Docs). So after several weeks of testing both services, I’ve finally settled with Google Docs. If you want to read different reviews, here are three of them, from Lifehacker, from Life2.0 and from Google Operating System.
My choice: Google Docs.
Google - Blogosphere - 1:1

3. Google Reader vs. Netvibes.com
Bloggers write blogs and bloggers read blogs. The metaphor may well be frowned at, but it is a bit like MLM marketing. Similarly to Amway, Avon or other MLM products, the business keeps going because its resellers also use the products they sell, therefore creating a substantial amount of demand. No offense, but many of the blogs out there keep going because other bloggers read them, because other bloggers comment on them etc.
To cut a long story short, if you become a blogger, you’ll need to read a lot of blogs, and for this, you’ll also need a feed reader. From here on, at least for me, the discussion is over, because I have never ever seen a feed-reader that is capable of competing with Google Reader. Not even the ever-so-popular Netvibes, although others may have different thoughts on the subject. If you ask me, Google Reader wins with a technical KO.
My choice: Google Reader.
Google - Blogosphere - 2:1

4. Google Blogsearch vs. Digg or Del.icio.us
Not only will you have to read blogs, but you’ll also explore other blogs either to catch up with others, who are also interested in your niche, or to check whether a subject you are about to write of is already covered or not. Google’s rarely used Blogsearch service may be far from perfect, but (along with its News Aggregator and Search service if you have a news-focused blog) but it just about does the trick.
Alternative options may be searching social bookmarking sites, such as Digg or Delicious, and, quite frankly its hard to predict which one will deliver better results. So without further arguments I’m suggesting you to use both Google and non-Google services when exploring a subject, because a couple of more searches just can’t do any harm.
My choice: I use all of these. It’s a draw.
Google - Blogosphere - 3:2

5. Google Bookmarks vs. Del.icio.us
At the moment I have five different browsers installed on my home computer. An Internet Explorer, a Firefox, an Opera, a Google Chrome, and the one I use most of the time: a Flock. Mind you, this is only my PC laptop I use at home. I have an iMac in the office (with an additional Safari, but without the Google Chrome), and there are quite a lot of other computers I regularly use (for example my wife’s).
I store my bookmarks online, no question about it.

delicious screenshot

As there are an awful lot of social bookmarking services, I definitely haven’t tried all of them, but one of the first service I tried was Del.icio.us (called Delicious.com for a couple of months), and the user experience was so great that I’ve stayed with it forever. I’ve tried a couple of others, too, including Google bookmarks, but no, I will never abandon Delicious for the sake of the big G giant. (By the way, did you know that Delicious.com can live in your Flock browser, so you can save your bookmarks directly to your Delicious profile? You can also access them directly from the browser.) Others may disagree.
My choice: Delicious.com
Google - Blogosphere - 3:3

6. Google Calendar vs. any other calendar
Everybody who does business of any sort needs a proper calendar. Especially those, who do freelancing or blogging (because they don’t have any other sources of warning for deadlines, things to remember, like those who have colleagues do). Google’s Calendar is particularly cool, because you can share it with anyone who has a Google account (frankly, all of us have at least one Google account by now). It’s like having an Outlook without the annoying bugs (and with everyone else having an Outlook, too.) I cannot even name any competitor of the same level, but if you can, just name it. Google wins. (Hey, did you know that Google Calendar was able to send you SMS reminders ?)
My choice: Google Calendar
Google - Blogosphere - 4:3

7. Google Adsense vs. Chitika
First, let’s make it dead clear: it were Adwords and Adsense that made Google what it is now, so it’s no surprise if you are unable to find a competitor that matches these products.
But on the other hand, it’s a common experience among bloggers, that when it comes to monetizing a website (a blog in this particular case), Google Adsense is not always the best option. As I said when I discussed the things Rome taught me about blogging and in an earlier comment Google Adsense may be the universal weapon, the colt, but there are certain situations when you are better off having a pocket knife, than a revolver.
I have tried a couple of Adsense alternatives, such as Bidvertiser or ExoClick, but with no or very little success. But considering that both Microsoft and Yahoo have already thrown in the towel after trying to compete with Adsense, what else could you expect.
And there comes Chitika. Although I have already signed up and my site has been approved, I am yet to have experiences with that. But from what I’ve heard Chitika is a serious choice when considering how to make money with your blog.
Of course, I’m cheating here. A little. Because Chitika is not a head to head Adsense competitor: in fact, these two are fine sitting on the very same website or page. Anyway, I suggest you try both of these, too.
My choice: they drew a tie.
Google - Blogosphere - 5:4

8. Link:mysite.com vs. Yahoo Site Explorer
We’ve been here before. I’ve already mentioned that, when it comes to finding a certain site’s incoming links (not only your site’s, because there are better methods for that, but, for example your competitor’s), Yahoo handles this task way better than Google does. Even if you take allinurl:mysite.com into account as well. I don’t claim that Yahoo’s solution is perfect, but it’s definitely far ahead of Google.
My choice: Yahoo Site Explorer
Google - Blogosphere - 5:5

9. Gmail vs the email provider of your choice
I’m not sure if it’s even a question. Sure, when you launch a new site or blog, you’ll have to have a dedicated email address. You can use one of the domain’s addresses (eg. info@mysite.com), but I usually prefer creating an own Google Account, with a mysite.com@gmail.com email address for each and every one of my sites. When you later want to subscribe to newsletters, forums, or simply want to communicate on behalf of your new blog without giving out your “regular” email address, it’s the perfect thing to do.
When I first used Gmail (say, five years ago - I needed to get an invite back then) it all seemed very odd to me.
I religiously used Netscape 4.57’s mail application and I couldn’t imagine there was a way of sending an email other than hitting the Ctr+Enter key combo. Cut to today, I am perfectly comfortable with the Tab + Space, and while I’m still not a native thread-based emailer, I’m more than happy with the 15Mbyte limit per email, and the lots of other services Gmail has to offer. I have tried Yahoo, too, yes. No way.
My choice: Gmail
Google - Blogosphere - 6:5

10. Picasaweb vs Flickr
You have to know that I’m a photo junkie. I had a period in my life, when I was Flickr -addict, and although I tried to get distracted by other photo sharing websites, such as Picasaweb or the various functions of Facebook, all my attempts proved unsuccessful.

Flickr screenshot

The addiction is fortunately gone by now, but Flickr remained a far better-built service than Picasaweb. (I dig the desktop version of Picasa, though).
My choice: Flickr
Google - Blogosphere - 6:6

Feels pretty close, huh? Well, here comes extra time and sudden death. None of these services have non-Google real-life competitors I know of. It’s like a penalty, with the goalkeeper being out for a beer with his pals.

11. Keyword tool
When you start to explore your blog niche’s possibilities, you garner ideas for your upcoming post or you just want to harmonize your site’s content with what people find interesting, it’s just a matter of time when you’ll have to plunge into keyword research. Google’s Keyword Tool is a free service that is designed precisely to do that. And although I said it had no competitors, it’s only partly true: the competitors it has are all paid services. If you Google “keyword research” you’ll find a whole bunch of services offering better and better services - for a fee (look for the sponsored results). For now, they are all disqualified: Google is free.
My choice: Gmail
Google - Blogosphere - 7:6

12. Sitemap an Google webmasters’ tools
Since these tools are built solely for the purpose of improving your site’s Google Rankings, no wonder that Google has no competitor in this field at all. Your blog’s SEO plugins, and a whole lot of manual work can help, too, but SEO is really worthless without using the very tools Google offers for it.
My choice: Google Sitemap and Webmasters’ tools
Google - Blogosphere - 8:6

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. You may or may not like New Year’s resolutions, but since New Year’s Eve is literally around the corner, it is worth to give change a thought. Especially, since, we’re closing a year so full of changes. To make the process of picking your perfect New Year’s resolution, and more importantly, to help you stick to it, I have put together a vast list of brilliant resources on the subject. Forget the financial crisis: 2009 is just gonna be great! So, without further ado, here comes everything you’ve always wanted to know about New Year’s resolutions, but never dared to ask.

My personal favorites

The Psychology of New Year’s Resolutions

• 75 percent of people will fail with their New Year’s Resolutions, according to this article written by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. at Psychcentral.com. The article is pretty deep and scientific, so you’d rather read it before the new year’s party.
• Psychology Today’s blogger Michele Weiner-Davis says that your New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t focus on yourself, but on your relationship with your significant other. “Why don’t spouses sit down together and truly think about where they want to be six months or a year from now, setting relationship-oriented goals that can make marriages richer, healthier and longer lasting?” she asks. Hmm, I guess she has a point. There has to be room for that kind of improvement, too.
• The Simple Dollar has put together a list for Defining and Sticking To a Successful New Year’s Resolution. Not only financially. The piece is from 2007, but it’s still a good read.
• U Turn Ahead’s 8 Tips for your New Year’s Resolutions’ success is also more than a year old, but it is very worthy of reading nevertheless. My favorite is #2: Spend some time thinking about the specific change you want to make. I agree, sometimes it is not as obvious as it may seem.
• Sharon Michaels’s How To Make A New Year’s Resolution You’ll Keep is a well-written article, without any really unique content or thoughts. If you want to reassure what you’ve already read in the previous articles, then give it a go.
• Michael Riley at MyCentralJersey.com argues that New Year’s eve may not be the best time to pick resolutions for the whole year. He may be right.

Lifestyle

• High Plains Buddhist’s Ten New Year’s Resolutions are funny, wise and provocative. I’m not quite sure how Buddhist they are, though. But maybe this is not even important in this case, is it?
• Living the Good life’s New Year’s Resolutions are, on the other hand, surely of religious motives. If “Pray more often” is a New Year’s Resolution you are about to consider, don’t miss this blogpost.

Fitness

• Fitness and working out has always been a favorite among New Year’s resolutions. So why don’t you head over to Fitness.com, and have a look at their list? I promise they won’t stop at Take the stairs instead of the elevator. They’re just warming up for the rest.
• Momlogic.com’s New Year’s Resolutions sound slightly more attractive for a lazy guy like me, even if improving the health factor still remains in focus.

Fun

• I guess that (if you have read at least some of the articles I suggested), by now, you are really confused concerning your own New Year’s Resolutions. No worries, help is on the way! Generate your New Year’s Resolutions by a single click of your mouse at Dagblog.com.
• Finally, indulge yourself with a whole lot of useless trivia on New Year’s eve and on New Year’s Resolutions. You deserve it!

• I got rid of the black background. (I don’t know why, but people apparently don’t like it)

• I’ve changed the font face of my titles.

• I got rid of all the lowercases

• I got rid of AdSense (for now)

• I wrote an about page, and got rid of the default Wordpress links in my blogroll

That was it for now. If you have any other idea, what I should change in the look of my blog (without diving deep into developing a custom Wordpress theme), I’d appreciate if you let me know in the comments section. Thank you.

But while everybody is busy with preparing for the next year I also wanted to remind you that 2008 is far from over! If you want to make the most of the last days of this year, here are the six things you’ll definitely need to do before 2008 is coming to an end.

1. Write a plan for the new year
I know, I know: you already have plans. But by “write a plan for the new year”, I mean: write those plans down!

It shouldn’t take more than, say, twenty minutes, but those twenty minutes will be some of the most usefully spent twenty minutes of your entire week. Your plans don’t have to be forecasts, guesses and they don’t even have to be entirely grounded. But still, every written plan (even those, coming from thin air) is better than not having one. At least you can change or ignore it later!

2. Thoroughly analyze this year
Analyzing the previous year is usually the first task of the upcoming one. But if you ask me, that way a review, an analysis or a report will eat up much of the impetus of a new year.

I assume you don’t expect groundbreaking events in the remaining six-or-so days. If this is the case, everything is given to think this year over, and have the analysis ready by the end of the year. This way you can use the strength and the energy of the new year on more important things.

3. Thank someone for the best moment of this year
When you prepare your analysis of this year (I suggest you do this in written form as well), you will obviously encounter your personal top lists. While these are mostly nostalgic lists (the best trips, the best jokes, the best foods etc), you might find some of these very useful, too (like, for example, the list of your biggest mistakes or worst failures).

Some of these lists will include only you, while others will include, well…, others as well. I guess you will find these lists quite self-explanatory, but if you have absolutely no clue what to do with them, here’s an idea: make a list of this year’s best moments, and thank someone for the moment on top of that list. You won’t regret it, I promise.

4. Forget something
Lists, again. I’m sure you had your ups and downs, just like everybody else. Pick the moment you’d most want to forget - and forget it. If a person is involved, forgive him or her. It’ll well pay off, too.

5. Choose a goal for the next year
Goals are, of course parts of your written plan (see the first point), but picking one particular goal and making it major your goal for 2009, will help you focus on that one thing. Write it down, too, and you’re already closer to that goal than 95% of people are to his or her goals.

6. Leave a comment!
Do you have other ideas? Do you want to share your written goal or do you want to say thanks for your best moment in public? Please leave a comment and do so!