I love to blog and most days, I’m pretty eager to get to my blogging.

But I blog at a lot of blogs - my own, ones I co-own, and ones owned by others where I blog on a revenue share basis. I have to say, too, that the whole “blogging for dollars” perspective can add to the blogging pressure. So some days, I get the blogging blues, and find it really difficult to get back into that space where blogging is fun.

I call it Blogging Burnout, and over the last year I’ve developed some strategies to get out of burnout, or totally avoid it altogether. These methods are all personal to me, my personality and my blogging style, but there might be one or two or ten that you can make use of, if you ever find yourself facing Blogging Burnout.

1. Change your blogging routine. If you’re like me, you have a bit of a routine to your day, and that includes your blogging. For example, I typically blog at my “bread-and-butter” blogs late in the evenings, after I’ve met all my other deadlines. I’m not too sure why I do this, except that I just don’t like deadlines hanging over me and most of the time when I’m blogging, the fun of it all is very important to me.

So when I’m starting to feel a little burned out, I will sometimes change my blogging routine. Instead of getting other stuff done first, I will get all my important blogging out of the way before I do anything else. Just the shift to a different time of day can sometimes lift me right out of that feeling of burnout.

2. Rethink your posting frequency. Okay, I know this has been ingrained into a lot of us - “you MUST blog at least daily, and even more often than that, if you want to have a successful blog”. I personally think this is BS - it’s not one-size-fits-all, and so much depends on the type of blog you’re running and the niche you’re in. And one surefire way to head off burnout is to rethink your posting frequency.

Sure, if you’re aiming to be the next Engadget, Gizmodo, MicroPersuasion or Problogger, then yes, this might not be a tip you can take advantage of. But most of us aren’t aiming to become THE industry expert, so sitting down and giving some thought to how often you’re posting, and more importantly, how often you actually want to post, can help de-stress you and get you back on the blogging track.

3. Take a day off. This is a variation of “Rethink your posting frequency”. And depending on how heavily you’re subscribed to the notion that you must blog every day, this could be (1) hard to do, (2) really hard to do, (3) really, really hard to do or (4) the blogging equivalent to life’s ultimate challenge.

The good news is that once you take that first step, and give yourself a one/two/x-day holiday when you need to, you’ll likely find yourself coming back to your computer the next day fully refreshed and raring to go. Plus it gets easier to take a day off the next time you start getting stressed and face Blogging Burnout.

And no, it does not mean you’re wimping out. You’re getting real, that’s all. And taking care of yourself. I mean, if you ended up with a mental breakdown, unable to blog for months, where would your readers be then?

(And before you start panicking that your readers will unsub from your feed the moment you miss a day, let me ask you this: when was the last time you unsubbed from any feed? If you’re like me, you do a vague sort of housecleaning about once every three months. And even then, you’re cleaning out the feeds that YOU don’t get to, not ones that missed a day of posting.)

4. Be prepared. When you have a few moments and you’re nowhere near feeling burned out, jot down ideas for future posts. Brainstorm a list of posts you’d really like to write for your blog. There are great ideas for getting ideas at Problogger, Successful Blog (and here) and SEOMoz.

If you have even more time, start the draft of a new post. Pick something that’s timeless, so it’s on hand for whenever you need it. Save it. Write another draft. Save that one.

This works fantastically if you just can’t bring yourself to indulge in tip 2 or 3 above. That way, you actually CAN take a day off without feeling like you’re letting everyone in the Universe down.

5. Read, read and read - just as long as it’s not on your computer monitor. Most niches have at least one magazine or newspaper devoted to the discussion and love of the niche. If you’re blogging in a niche you’re quite passionate about, you probably spent a lot of time reading these magazines or newspapers before you got bit by the blogging bug.

The thing is, there’s still a ton of great offline content. And grabbing a magazine is a good way to get yourself re-inspired. There’s something about lounging on your couch, hot chocolate in hand, idly turning the pages of a magazine, that gives the term “taking a break” all its juice.

Another thing to try: head out to a magazine stand, and buy a couple of magazines that you normally don’t read. This is the type of thing that can get you going again, too.

6. Retire some of your blogs This one is sure to make you wince, but if you’re running a whole lot of blogs right now, there are probably a few that feel kind of stagnant to you. To put it frankly, you’re bored to tears with them even before you log into your Wordpress admin panel.

Well, guess what? Just because you start a blog doesn’t mean you have to keep going with it. And when I say “retire”, I’m talking about a temporary thing that might, eventually, become permanent. It’s kind of like the blogging equivalent of that organizing principle which says to throw all the stuff on your desk/shelves/junk drawer into a box, and if you don’t open the box after a year or so, you know you can safely trash it without an ounce of guilt.

And sure, we might even be talking about blogs that have actually been inactive for a while - it’s just that you haven’t made a concrete decision to can them temporarily. So why would making this decision make you feel better and not quite as stressed? The thing is, if you haven’t actually made a decision to retire a blog, it’s still always there, hovering on the periphery of your mind. Every time your subconscious glances around, there it is, clapping its hands and chirping, “Hey! Remember me? You haven’t blogged here for xx days/weeks/months, you slug.” When you can grin and say, “Yeah, so what? You’re retired”, that naggly little voice is totally busted - and you feel big relief.

7. Start a new blog. What’s up with this? Didn’t I just tell you to retire some of your blogs, and now I’m saying, “start a new one”?

Yes, and yes.

Let’s face it. We’ve all read that statistic, that there are 100,000 new blogs created every day. Creating a new blog doesn’t cost much. You buy that perfect domain name, and chances are your web host gives you unlimited domain hosting, so you click that Fantastico button on your admin panel and you’re off to the races.

Well, don’t look down on this ability to create a blog quickly, easily and with hardly any cost. Take advantage of it.

The beauty of starting up a new blog is that you’re probably interested in blogging at the new blog. All of a sudden, the world is full of potential again.

And one thing I’ve found is that the passion for blogging is contagious. When you’re on fire about one of your blogs, generally speaking, lots of your other blogs benefit. Often, you’ll find yourself getting new ideas about your existing blogs, too. Maybe new topics for posts, maybe a new direction you want to try out. You go from feeling totally unmotivated to working out ways to make more time for your blogging. You’re interested in blogging again! And isn’t that the whole point of getting out of Blogging Burnout?

8. Remember you have a life. Yes, you do. I know you do. Remember all that stuff you used to do before you “became a blogger”? Get off the computer, and start doing some of them again.

The thing is, everything in life, including blogging, is about balance. And if you’re spending 18 hours a day in front of your computer monitor, blogging, reading other blogs, commenting on other blogs, IM’ing other bloggers, emailing other bloggers, making up link lists, checking out Digg or Techmeme every ten minutes, you don’t have balance.

And that can lead to burnout.

So … rejoin that health club, take a cooking class, start running again, pick up the phone and actually talk to someone who is not a fellow blogger, hug your pet or your child or your parent or your sibling or your significant other, read a book, make love in the middle of the day, go shopping, hit the pubs with your drinking buddies. Get off your computer for ten minutes, an hour, a couple of hours.

Take a walk and really notice things. Like that building on the corner that’s now gone and there’s a parking lot in its place. Or it’s actually winter now, and brrr, it’s good and cold outside, isn’t it?

And stop eating breakfast/lunch/dinner in front of that monitor.

9. Keep your eye on the money. So what if we’re talking about feeling burned out about blogging at a “bread-and-butter” blog? You know - the one that is in a niche in which you have absolutely no interest, that you decided to start up because the Adsense clicks looked pretty good (CRM comes to mind …), that is so boring you fall asleep while you’re writing your posts. The one that is actually making you some money and financially justifies your existence as a blogger.

In other words, nothing I’ve mentioned so far can possibly help make you more passionate about blogging at this blog. But blog there you must.

In that case, keep your eye on the money. Log into your Adsense account, and don’t just check out what you’ve made for the day. Run a report just on the Adsense channels you’re using for that bread-and-butter blog (and I hope you’re using your Adsense channels fully). Check out what that blog has made you this week so far. This month so far. Last month. This entire year.

Cut out a picture of something you’d love to buy. Glue it to a piece of paper, and write underneath it, “Bought with my blogging income”.

Check around for yet another way to monetize that blog. Scrutinize your traffic logs and see what search terms are landing people on your blog. Brainstorm variations of these phrases and write posts about them.

With every movement of your fingers over the keyboard as you’re writing out your posts, hear that cha-ching! and keep plugging away.

10. Outsource. And if you’re making pretty good money, but just cannot stand to blog anymore at your bread-and-butter blog, outsource the work to another blogger. As long as you’re pulling in more than you’re paying out, it’s a good deal, and every post added to the blog means potential additional income.

Don’t just look among other bloggers to outsource to. Maybe you want to keep your niche secret because it is such a good niche and you’re riding the top of the SERPs (search engine results) with most of your posts. Find a college student or high school student who can write well and follow instructions. Train them.

So there you have it - my ten tips. Blogging is supposed to be fun. And chances are, you started blogging because you thought it would be fun. Even if you got pulled in by all the blogging for riches stuff, the bottom line is, you’d probably make more money working part-time at McDonald’s than you would the first four to six months of blogging. Maybe even the first year or two of blogging. But you’re not flipping those burgers right now, are you?

Because blogging looked like it would be more fun.

When you’re having fun, you’re usually not stressed. And when you’re not feeling stressed, you’re not going to get burned out.

So if all else fails? Remember, blogging is supposed to be fun.