Some days I ask myself why I’m still doing xyz. Why do I keep going? Why do I keep promoting, writing, designing, etc.

I’m sure you’ve had those days.

Days when you’re discouraged and wonder “what’s the point?” But don’t give up. Keep moving. Promotion, like many things takes dedication, time, and perserverence. Same with writing. Selling real estate. College.

There are, of course, times when it’s smart to quit, but that’s another post. For now, don’t give up. Find a new angle. Find your passion. Keep going.

Start with content.

While most everyone wants to go after colors, imagery, and awesome design elements, it’s better to develop the content for your website and let that determine your layout and design. How much content you have can determine your layout and even your design. Will you offer lots of video clips? Is it important that those clips are as large as possible? Then you’ll need a wider layout.

So, content first. Determine the number of pages/sections you’ll need. Get everything you want included down on paper. And then start daydreaming about colors, fancy bullet points, and other flashy things.

Time to update your wordpress installation. One feature I’m sure many of you will be extra excited about: a built in image editor! Yay!

Download 2.9 here and many thanks to the awesome programmers over at wordpress.org.

The New Year isn’t here yet, but that’s no reason you can’t get a jump start on your goals for 2010. Start today. What do you want to achieve next year? And what will it take to make those goals happen?

Create a list of last minute gift ideas for your niche and post the list to your blog or website. Announce the list to your newsletter. Include pictures if you can. And if you’re an affiliate of the site that sells those items, include the referral links too.

Throughout the month/quarter, keep a running document of content for your next newsletter. Including press or media attention, newsworthy items, reviews, testimonials, an introductory letter, or whatever else you think will be of interest to your newsletter readers. Then when you go to put your newsletter together, pull the best content, format it, and send your newsletter.

Do one thing each day to promote your business, even if it’s just including a brief signature in an outgoing email.

You don’t have to have a fancy press kit on your website. In fact, depending on where you’re at in your career, a small, one page Press Kit may do the trick. The key here is to make all your Press Kit copy clean, typo free, and ready to be copied, pasted and redistributed by those who can promote you and your business/organization.

For authors, I suggest a minimum of a brief bio, photo, recent cover, book list, review teasers and a fun fact or two.

For unpublished authors, same thing minus the recent cover and booklist. If you’ve won contest, include those instead of review teasers.

Real Estate agents will want to include a bio, photo, sales statistics and areas you work in.

Restaurants: a blurb about your restaurant, information on the owner & chef, photos, a sample menu, reviews.

Churches: a blurb about your church, information on Pastors/Priests/Elders, photos, service information

Every press release should also include contact information. Make it easy for others to promote your business/organization.

You’re busy. You have a lot going on in your life. I have a tip for making life a little easier. Make use of RSS. RSS isn’t just for blogs anymore.

Idea 1: Use an RSS reader (like Google Reader) to subscribe to blogs you often visit. By subscribing, you’ll see all the latest articles from those blogs each day when you check your RSS reader. A great way to stay on top of what’s new in your industry and community.

Idea 2: If you watch TV on your computer via hulu, tv.com, or one of the other networks, see if they publish as RSS feed for each show. You can get a notice in your feed reader each time a new show is ready to watch. This saves you from having to scour the web to see if there’s a new episode ready for viewing.

Idea 3: Keep a google calendar with your events, appearances, deadlines, or specials. Then use an RSS feed or the generated XML to display those dates on your website. (Hint: If you use Wordpress, check out this plugin.)

No matter what industry you’re in there’s probably a blog or two (at the very least) that you could guest blog on. Guest blogging entails writing a thoughtful, well put together essay style article for another blog. Either you or the blog owner posts your piece, hopefully others will come and comment on your piece, and then you’ll join the discussion.

What does this do for you and your business? It spreads your name (increasing name recognition), establishes your as an expert (increasing your value), and creates good will within your community.

Most blog owners are willing to bring in guest authors as it provides content for a day (or a week or more) with very little work on their part.

When you contact the blog owner, be professional, courteous. Explain that you’d like to offer yourself up to guest blog for them. Share a few well thought out ideas you have for a piece and ask if they have anything they’d rather see you write. Mention a few dates that work for you and be prepared to submit your piece well before an agreed upon publish date.

For more tips on guest blogging, I recommend this article on problogger. Tip: Don’t make your blog post a promo piece for yourself. Consider your audience and make is helpful, useful, and timely.

Do you spend a lot of time on the computer? Wonder how much time is spent on productivity vs. games or internet? There’s an application I use to help me stay on top of everything called Rescue Time. You can use it to rescue your time too. Check it out and see where you’re losing valuable hours and minutes.