Recently I recieved a mail from Bruce of Authority Directory. I know I am a free lance web designer, but I didn’t know that I am a stamp designer also. In this mail I actually get to see my work on a mail stamp. Wow that is some publicity.. I am sure Bruce will mention to his friends when they ask him about the stamp.

Here are a few photos

If you want stamps like those visit Stamps.com, and you can get your own stamps created there. If you want a cool image, you guys know how to contact me

Don’t forget to visit Authority Directory. Thanks bruce for sending me this.

So what keeps you motivated in doing what you have been doing? Why do you keep blogging or making websites when you don’t make any money from it? Why do you blog when your user base is so low? Why do you keep blogging when your traffic is not high enough?

So many of these questions asked by so many different people on so many different blogs. Some one over at Darren Rowse’s blog asked this question, but instead of answering this question Darren put it up for other users to discuss this in the comment box, so really you would have to scan through bunch of different comments to get the right reason. But you know the truth is that there is no right reason. Due to the fact that reaons to be motivated varies from person to person making it a huge amount of reasons, the right reason would be the reason that keeps YOU motivated.

I have already told everyone Why do I Blog, and in this post I will tell you guys how do I keep myself motivated to blog every day.

While I might not have as many users in my subscriber list as many of the other known bloggers have, I still blog every day. I know that you cannot make a huge reader base in a course of months. To build a loyal reader base, it takes time, quality content (lots of it), and more time. I am certain neither of the bloggers who have over 20k subscribers had that right when they started, so just knowing the fact that every one has to start some where. I keep blogging considering this as my starting point. Hence why the slogan of this blog is Vision for Success. It is my vision that I will attract more users as the site grows and features thousands of resourceful articles written by myself.

Another reason why I stay motivated as a blogger is I am doing this for myself also. I am not a mega genius, nor that I am a memorizing god. It does not mean that when I post some codes in a tutorial post of the blog.. I have it memorized. I need references as well, but instead of looking it up in google now I can look that up on my own blog. Much more reliable source because I know it won’t be suffering from downtime like many other sites does. So everyday when I write an article, I also keep it in my mind regardless of the fact that Balkhis is a growing blog… This resource also helps me, and I don’t want to write some crappy post that won’t help me therefore I always try to keep the quality of the blog post. Believe me when I say this that when in the future I feel discouraged, I will come back and read this post and get some motivation from myself.

Once again, even the number of subscribers hasn’t hit in the thousands yet, I care about the users that I have right now. Each and everyone who is a user on this blog is much appreciated. They appreciate my posts by commenting on my posts. How can I be selfish and not post quality content on the blog? My active users, are also the ones who keep me motivated to blog. Thank you Bruce, Jeff, Chetan, Dr. Teeth, and many others who have supported this blog (Don’t take it wrong if I didn’t put your name because if I start doing that I will have a big list here :P).

Progress is what keeps me motivated. Now that Balkhis is over 3 months old, I have seen this blog grow. The progress that I have made in the past 3 months, I am very proud of. I was very proud when I saw the thousandth comment hit on the blog earlier this month. Those are the thousand comments I didn’t have when I started.

While this post is very touching and everything I am writing is coming straight from my heart, It is meant to provide a lesson that should be learnt by all starters who are coming into blogging because these can be one of the reasons that will keep you motivated as a blogger or a webmaster.

Well today, here with me is the youngest memeber of Balkhis. Yup this is Zain Balkhi, the lucky boy who the zainu template is named after. Download that template now.

Anywayz getting back to the point, Zain is 4 years old right now and he has shown alot of interest in computers. Yeah he can turn the computer off, type his name on the computer, find his favorite movies in the computer and much more. All the stuff my mom can’t do …. So he is very helpful specially when I need my computer on to remotely access it from somewhere, or need to turn it off when I am away. He is a big critic on all my designs eventhough I don’t pay much attention to his criticism because he wants fun in the design … Its funny to listen to all the stuff.

Next you will know is a 7 year old making more money than you will because I am thinking with the pace this boy is going he will be helping me generate more revenue than any other Balkhis member in the next 3 years. It is so easy a 4 year old can do it (Thats what I will tell to all the people who can’t use computer like my mom). What are you doing right now …. Hahahaha

Even though the Balkhis shirt is too big on him, He wears it around the house and outside when he is playing. I got to get him some shirts in his size in different colors. If anyone of you guys know a best place to get the shirts made for business please let me know in the comment box. I am looking for quality shirt printing in various sizes…….

In the meantime enjoy his pictures

Are you interested in finding this one out? Well I found out how rich I will be in the next 10 years. Ofcourse it is not that big of an amount but I am happy with it. This was one of the cool things that I discovered on Chow’s website and thought it would be interesting for my users to see as well.

Chris Angus has created a new website called How Rich Will I Be? in which you will take a short 15 question survey, and it will tell you how rich will you be in the next 10 years. Ofcourse the site has refused to reveal the algo, and they claim it to provide very precise results. We will see now won’t we…..

Remember this is not a serious thing, so don’t stress out before taking it. This is just one of the fun activities you can do while taking a break from your work.

I decided to take this test twice, once was last night before I was going to bed and I forgot to copy and paste the banner code therefore I had to take it again. My results improved by 2 million. What you know. I guess it is true that you think better right when you get up.

According to this I will earn $16,722,553 in the next 10 years.

16,722,553

Try it now and let me know what your numbers were. Also let me know if anyone scores a really low number around 2 million or so because it is unreasonable if everyone gets a really high number…

Did you ever wonder how to market yourself without really marketing yourself? I know the question sounds a bit confusing, but did you? Let me explain what I am asking. Well you know most businesses just buy ads on the websites to market themselves, but there is a way around that which is called Indirect Marketing. Atleast that is what I call it.

I really learnt this idea from Market Leverage. Every blog that I check on daily/weekly basis, I see the staff of Market Leverage there. Photos of their staff in the brand T-Shirt. I checked their webstie multiple times. Finally have decided to sign up with them today.

What this company has been doing is buying shirts of that particular site such as Shoemoney, ZacJohnson, and many other blogs and just wearing it and taking a picture and send it to the blogger, so they can post it. Pretty smart. Not just that, but they have taken it to the next level by making personal relationships with the bloggers by giving gifts to them. What else would you want in an affiliate company? Props to Market Leverage.

But what do you learn from this? Well I learn that sometimes you have to drive the audience from your competitor in a nicer way by offering them gifts and making personal relations with them. Also you can network with your audience. As my audience is bloggers, I try to network as much as I can on the IMs through facebook and others. I will be attending a few conferences as well. But most importantly, I have been making some traditions on the blog such as Pimp my Blog. With things like this I can attract more visitors, and I have noticed after the first blog I pimped, the number of subscribers have increased, and I am certain it will increase as I pimp more and more blogs.

I have been trying to find local online businesses who are located near where I live, so I can go meet them and make connections. As I already have mentioned that I will try my best to visit Microsoft’s headquarters on my trip to Seattle. I have also realized that Market Leverage is based in Florida, so I might visit them also because they are only 2 hours of a drive away. Hoping it will be ok with them. (I will contact ahead of time), or maybe one of them will find this post and reply here.

Sending business gifts is another way to make more connections, and do you know Business Gifts are exempted from taxes. Well, as you guys already know I promote all the companies who send me free gifts. Many other blogs do the same as well. I have alot of Balkhis shirts laying around, so if anyone of you are interested in buying one, the price is $25 / shirt. If you get this shirt and take a picture in it. I will post it on Balkhis and give your site a mention

So the key point of Indirect Marketing is networking and making more friends so you get more promotion through them. Eventhough I haven’t recieved anything from Market Leverage, they have already got me on their side. You can also do the same by using the techniques used by this company. Even a simplest act of linking to another site and giving them a mention if you like them can come in handy in a long run because webmasters do check who is linking to them and who is not.

Let me know what you guys think about this topic…