You’ll be interested to hear that the blog article coming out tomorrow is a direct result of our discussion. I just wanted to thank you for the idea

And thank you.

As for keeping up with the blogosphere I couldn’t agree more. Get inspired don’t regurgitate. Don’t respond, create. Too many people just repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat ad nauseum what everyone else is saying. That’s the last thing you want to do. I absolutely agree.

It’s too bad you’re in the UK. It is an interesting group. But just because it’s over here, doesn’t mean you can’t start your own

Thanks for this. Your answer made me think of this article on the NYT website:
http://tinyurl.com/29unqh
The guy says (towards the bottom of the 1st page of the article):
“I tell my agents to assume that every customer is their mother or father”
It looks like that’s what you already do. If you spend as much time answering the questions of your customers as you do it here on your blog, I’m not surprised they like your customer service!
Going back to your answers, I would be careful with ‘keeping up with the blogosphere’. I read a few blogs on a regular basis and sometimes I can’t help but think that some bloggers are just copying others (a blogger would post about a given subject and suddenly other bloggers would do the same for no particular reasons). When this happens, I feel a bit cheated.
As for MyOpic, being based in the UK, it will be difficult to attend. Looks interesting though.

I just realized I forgot to answer your second question. MyOpic is a local area passive income club that can only be joined by invitation (MyOpic stands for My Ottawa Passive Investment Club), it’s not publicly marketed. The group usually meets once a month on the first week of the month. Each month there’s a different presentation given, either by a member or by a guest speaker (it varies depending on the topic). The presentations aren’t available online.

However you can visit the discussion forum at: http://www.learningcentre.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13 Here you’ll find that there is some discussion about the meetings, etc. Sometimes people follow-up on some of the discussions. Unfortunately if you haven’t attended, some of the threads may not make as much sense.

The members also have other discussions on the main forum located at: http://www.learningcentre.com/forums/index.php which you might be interested in…

Please find the answers below:

1. How do you come up with ideas of posts?

That’s a really good question. And honestly from a lot of different sources. Looking at the last few pages of my blog, here’s some examples of where I got the inspiration for some of my latest posts.

Most of my ideas do come from my own direct experiences running my company LandlordMax and writing this blog. All the things I’ve tried, I’ve learned, etc.

Examples include:

http://www.followsteph.com/2008/02/07/the-importance-of-writing-your-blog-posts-ahead-of-time/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/12/16/2-very-simple-ways-to-significantly-increase-your-productivity/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/11/21/12-tips-on-how-to-prepare-your-laptop-for-a-presentation/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/11/12/yours-truly-is-in-the-press-again/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/10/10/what-is-scope-creep/

After that, I get a lot of ideas from keeping up with the blogosphere. Seeing what people are saying. What catches my attention.

Examples include:

http://www.followsteph.com/2007/12/31/be-the-best-at-something-instead-of-average-at-a-lot-of-things/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/09/30/developer-debt/

And after that, books can be a great source of inspiration. They generally go deeper into a topic, which makes you think more. This is where a lot of my more detailed analysis come from.

Examples include:

http://www.followsteph.com/2008/01/02/now-thats-motivation/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/12/28/another-record-for-this-housing-market-crash/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/10/16/306/

As well, there’s all the discussion I have with other people. I pay careful attention to what people are saying, how I respond, etc. Lots of great ideas come from here.

Examples include:

http://www.followsteph.com/2008/01/21/whats-the-secret-how-do-you-have-time-to-do-all-that/

And lastly, I just keep my eye open to what’s around me. Things I see. Things I experience.

Examples include:

http://www.followsteph.com/2008/01/23/12-search-engine-optimizations-seo-you-should-always-do/
http://www.followsteph.com/2008/01/11/why-coupon-codes-are-bad-on-websites/
http://www.followsteph.com/2008/01/08/hd-dvd-versus-blu-ray-from-the-consumers-perspective/
http://www.followsteph.com/2007/11/16/free-business-idea/