You know how the minute you tell a kid not to do something and they do it the minute you look the other way? I was never that kid. But apparently, I am that writer.

Every time I come across something about writing that I find I’m doing right and get smug about it – I end up making that very same mistake. My muse gets quite a kick out of it and doubles over laughing having the time of his life making an idiotic writer out of me.

If you’re the lucky ones and have no clue what I’m talking about then let me give you a few examples.

I was going through George Orwell’s ‘Politics and English Language’ and at the last page came across his five rules for better writing. The very first one states;

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

At this point I was thinking, “Hey avoiding metaphors is going to be a breeze! I only use them to add some flavour to my writing anyway. It’ll be fun to try and write with out them.” So what happens the next time I let my fingers loose on the keyboard? I come up with a paragraph that is so filled with metaphors, I can’t believe my eyes, brain or muse! Needless to say, the paragraph got deleted and since then I’ve been having trouble replacing metaphors.

Have you ever faced a problem with your writing? How did you get past it?

How cool is that?! All you have to do is subscribe to Yan Susanto’s Thou Shall Blog’s e-mail updates, blog about it and leave a comment letting them know you did. Of course the blog is worth subscribing to. I’ve been going through it for most of the afternoon and found quite a few gems. Love the lay out too by the way.

I have my eye on most of the stuff offered by the sponsors! Let’s see, there’s the Ipod Shuffle with free shipping anywhere in the world (yes, even to UAE!), Free domain and a 6 month free hosting (Me! Me! Meeeee!) a couple of WordPress themes, and a copy of Problogger book. Of course these are just the ones I liked. There are a few consultations up as well.

It was like I stumbled onto an early Christmas! All right, only if I win something but still! The idea is exciting! Still not convinced? Check out the top 10 reasons to subscribe to Thou Shall Blog.

Subscribe to Yan’s blog now and you might stand a chance to win some awesome Christmas goodies courtesy of Blog for Beginners, Become a Better Blogger, Blog Setup for Beginners, Blog Blazers, Internet Marketing with Joe, A Blogger Blog, Site Flip Remix, the Marketing Vision, How To Blog, Extreme Ezine and the Ultimate Blogging Theme.

Have you found other Christmas offers that made you rubs your hands in glee?

I first heard about Site Build It! at Problogger where Darren had put up a glowing user review. To be honest, I was skeptical reading the review. The review was altogether too praising and there weren’t any disadvantages listed. Then I started reading the comments and realized that there weren’t any cons pointed out because people hadn’t found any.

Site Build It! targets everyone who is confused by keywords, search engine optimization and ad placements. If you want to focus on your writing and not spend weeks trying to grasp the countless aspects of monetizing your website then SBI! is for you.

SBI! is on my list of things to get as soon as I reach a few goals and complete the timeline I’ve set for myself. But you don’t have to follow my timeline. They have a great ‘Buy-1 Get-1 Free’ Christmas offer going on. When you buy one SBI! they give you another free of cost. It would make for a great Christmas gift to someone, or you can use this offer to set up two sites.

The cost of Site Built It! is not too high, but it costs enough to make you look into it thoroughly before making the purchase. You will have to renew your SBI! every year. If the testimonials are anything to go by, that’s not an issue if you’re hosting your business through it as the returns make up for the yearly renewal.

Their offer ends at the stroke of midnight on Christmas day. Surprise your loved ones or yourself and order SBI! before then. Got Questions? Contact SBI! and get answers.

Nothing like a weekly post to tell you how fast a week goes by. I’ve recovered from the flu which saw me sleeping for 10-12 hours a day, thanks to all the flu meds that seem to have so much sedatives in them. All that’s past me now and I’d much sooner forget being weak as a babe. This week saw me reading and loving the following posts.

1. The Renegade Writer’s Blog has an excellent post about distracted writers. It was like Linda was inside my head when writing the post. Of course, I was no where near as constructive about my lack of focus as Linda. Must learn.
2. Robust Writing tackles the problems of overstatements in writing.
3. Thinking of starting a freelance business? Freelance Folder has an excellent post that covers the basics of starting a freelance business.
4. I’ve been curious about e-books for a while. So it was a joy to read Confident Writing’s guide to compiling a free e-book. Joanna offers great resources that got her started. I’m thinking it will make for a great fun project!
5. This one’s my favourite. I love books and can never have enough of them! Allena Tapia has an excellent list compiled about writing books. Check out her top ten books to get your freelance writer for Christmas.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! And with these gems SLOD takes your leave. Till next Sunday! Before then watch out for a post about a certain stubborn muse I know.

As bloggers, our worst nightmare is waking up one day and finding out that our blog has disappeared. The mere idea is enough to make me break out in a sweat! There are quite a few online services that store back ups of blogs. I found Blogbackupr to be the most hassle free. A quick rundown of its important features.

• It runs over the Internet.
• Requires no installation.
• Stores media, template and images.
• Support WordPress and Blogger.
• Makes daily back ups.

To back up a blog, all it requires is an email address and the blog’s URL. The back up starts immediately after which an email is sent which contains the password. This procedure is as simple as it gets. For a service that’s still in its beta version, it works surprisingly well.

Note: For a blog to be backed up by Blogbackupr, it must have an RSS feed.