[Uptrenda]

In psychology papers they repeatedly talk about intrinsic motivation (internal things that you yourself value) being more reliable than extrinsic factors (like money, bigger house, etc) for motivation. I don't think $blogs ideas are that useful given that they're mostly about small, repeatable, extrinsic rewards.

In experiments done on paying people for tasks to see the impact on performance there's data that shows it only works well for large amounts. So I question small external results from the get-go. The other issue is relying on external factors to boost task performance is bad in general because experiments also show that when they're removed your performance drops lower than if you had of started with no external carrots.

In this case: what happens if OP writes something and its a dud? Does he keep writing? What if the next 10 articles are ignored? Compare the same process to someone who loves writing for their own reasons. Maybe they have been reading since they were a kid and have come to appreciate prose. No carrot is needed so they will keep writing long after most quit.