GoPro founder Nick Woodman recently released its latest update to HERO3, called the HERO3+ which improved the lens among other additional features for the same price. The GoPro allows you to take awesome action sequence pictures and videos since it’s small and can be easily mounted anywhere (even Superman is in on it).

However, there are plenty of accessories that can even take your GoPro Hero3+ to greater heights. From giving you plenty of mounting possibilities to letting you film underwater, some of these accessories go to extremes so you can get the most of your extreme sports experience.

Some of these accessories should even work with the HERO3 or HERO2 as they share the same mounting holes, but please check the product page to ensure it’s compatible before making any purchase.

Recommended Reading: Capture Jaw-Dropping 360-Degree Videos And Panoramas

Zipmount. Here is a mount that can be mountained on bars of any size by cable tie. Its adhesive mounts are reusable, a plus compared to other similar products. [$28]

Octomask. Scuba divers can record a first-person view of their underwater encounters with the Octomask. Mount your GoPro on the in-built on top of the mask. [$79]

Morpheus Stabilizer. The Morpheus Stabilizer is an all-in-one device that can function as a stabilizer, tripod, dolly, crane and slider for unique GoPro shots. [$139]

EasyGimbal. For stable shots with your GoPro, try the EasyGimbal. It is an electronic stabilizer that can detect the orientation of the camera and keep the camear level with built-in motors. [$619]

Handle Mount. For extra stability and a unique filming angle with the GoPro, the Original Handle is perfect for. Works particularly well for capturing low angle and third-person shots. [$30]

Handlebar Mount. Cyclists would love this handlebar mount that can be used on 31.8mm bars to capture all your high-action cycling shots. [$34.99]

The Arm. The arm attaches to the standard mount, extending the placement of the GoPro and giving you the ability to capture the reaction of your face as you do attempt extreme sports. [$19.99]

DJI Phantom 2. To take great aerial shots with the GoPro, you can use the Phantom 2 quadcopter. Your GoPro will be mounted to the underside of the drone. [$889]

Backscatter Flip 3.1. The tiny GoPro camera sensor can sometimes distort color, especially when filming underwater. With this interchangeable lenses, and color filters, you’ll be able to record with more accurate colors. [$149.75]

Gun Rail Mount. For paintball, airsoft or even gun owners, this Gun Rail Mount will give you a first person view of what your gun is aimed at. [$15]

RollPro III. For GoPro enthusiasts, this field pack ensures that all your mounts, thumbscrews, cables, batteries and even cameras can be easily and securely brought about. [$79]

Lehmann Aviation LA100. You can mount a GoPro to this gliding, autonomous UAV drone to capture an awesome aerial view of the surrounding area. [€990]

The Bobber. The Bobber is a 2-in-1 gadget that attaches to the mounting holes of the GoPro. Not only is it a handle for stability, it is also a floating device, great for use at sea or in your regular swimming pool. [$29.99]

GoPole Reach. This device would allow you to take great shots of yourself having fun on your adventure with the GoPro. The GoPro attaches to the end of the 17" pole that can be extended to 40". [$54.99]

Cobalt Cage. The Cobalt Cage is for users who want protection for their GoPro. It also comes with many mountain holes for greater versatility for their GoPro. [$99]

Ribcage Mod Kit. This modification kit turns your GoPro into a camera that accepts interchangeable lenses, giving you a very unique recording experience. [$249]

Aluminum Housing. For a sturdier than the regular plastic housing you get with your GoPro, try out this inexpensive aluminum housing for better protection for your GoPro. [$40]

Aluminum Mounting Accessories. Mounting accessories that come with the GoPro are made of plastic, however, you can buy these aluminum third-party pieces that not only look great but are extra sturdy. [$9.95-29.95]

Fat Gecko Mini Mount. This is no ordinary suction cup mount as it gives the GoPro more flexibility with its pivoting arm and rotating head. [$39.95]

Clamp Mount. Clamp and mount your GoPro anywhere to get the best angle of your antics and stunts. [$25]

Underwater Lighting Set. For scuba divers who want to capture everything they see on a night dive, this underwater lighting set with 2 powerful LED lights will do the trick. [$1099]

GoTough Wedge. The GoTouch Wedge is the handlebar-like device you see that allows you to mount DSLR, multiple GoPros and even LED lights. [$149.95]

Silicone Cover. These colorful silicone covers add a little personality and safety to your GoPro’s waterproof casing, protecting it from scuffs and scratches. [$19.99]

Aluminum Lens Ring. Replace the standard plastic lens casing with this aluminum one that features a ring allowing you to securely tether your GoPro. [$10]

Floydie Wave 360. Mount your GoPro on the back of your hand, via a secure globe for the best view during your extreme sports. Great for third-person views. [$54.95]

Working as a freelance designer, writer, video editor is hard. There’s usually no support – it’s a lonely road. The most annoying thing about doing creative work on your own is the "creative blocks" (should we call them monsters?) you hit from time to time.

They’re scary, those damn monsters. They’ll get your agent angry, your readers unhappy and your clients running. The reason they attack is because your day-to-day state really affects your work. The way you feel on a consistent basis determines the quality and refinement of your efforts.

But there’s a way to survive. First you can avoid everything by just making sure you keep the monster inside you happy. Here’s how.

Recommended Reading: 7 Ways To Increase Your Creativity

Create your micro-cosmos

Your workspace is like the painter’s canvas. Don’t keep it clean, keep it inspiring. If you’re a neat, tidy person and order inspires you, then yes, clean it up. If not, and you’re like the majority of creators out there, make sure your workspace is:

• Comfortable for your body
• Isolated/Undisturbed by outside presence
• Easy to get to, preferably in your house
• Has writing equipment for jotting down ideas
• Full of the things you like (no matter how ridiculous others may think it is)

Read Also: 10 Ways To Stay Creative While Working From Home

Set a quota

Set a goal for yourself. If you’re a writer, set a daily amount of pages you’ll write. Anthony Trollope, a well-known, successful novelist of the 19th century was known to force himself to write 3000 words (250 words per 15 mins, for 3 hours) before going off to his job at the postal service. This he kept up for 33 years, in the span of which he wrote more than 2 dozen books.

If you’re interested in other funky targets and rituals that creative people have used over the centuries, check out Daily Rituals: How Artists Work.

Set a routine: Don’t be afraid to innovate!

Unlike some people think, a routine work schedule helps your creativity in that it helps you achieve the before-mentioned quota. A routine is just another sort of ritual, which takes place in your micro-cosmos.

Here are some examples:

Nude Ritual: Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame while in his house, totally naked.

"Done by noon, drunk by three" routine: The phrase comes directly from Ernest Hemingway, who used to apply it thoroughly while writing The Old Man And The Sea. He stops working at noon and gets drunk, daily. Fun times.

Writing horizontally or vertically: Albert Camus wrote while standing. Prust, Twain and Orwell did so while lying in bed horizontally. Heck, Kafka is rumoured to have stood on his head for creativity. Whatever floats your boat, really.

Not sleeping: Painter Salvador Dali is famous for his sleep tricks. He’d use all sorts of waking up mechanisms as soon as sleep would take him – slipping keys from his hand which banged against carefully placed metal plates for example. He said it made him more productive.

Read Also: How To Condition Your Mind For Higher Productivity

Killing the "Monster"

If all else fails, and you find that you’ve awakened the monster, and the giant comes running at you, grabbing you by the neck, you should, with the last life you’ve got left in you, do the following.

Start working anyway, despite the fact you don’t feel too creative. Don’t analyze your work, just compose. No judgement, just creation. Go ahead and create, not thinking about the way in which you do it. Often times, that’s enough to loosen the monster’s furry grip.

Read Also: How To Find The Writing Zone And Stay There

If you’re still barely clinging on to life, do the exercises below. Their goal is to jumpstart your brain’s software, literally "warming up" your creativity by putting your synapses and neural pathways to work!

Exercise 1. Inner World Reflection

This comes straight from philosopher Robert Anton Wilson’s bestseller, Prometheus Rising. In the book, Robert talks about conquering our potential through understanding the way our brain is wired. One of the exercises goes as follows:

Think about the electrons in your body. Then go bigger. Think about the atom containing them and their movement. Then ponder about your molecules. Scale up and think about the nucleus of the cell which contains all that matter. Then the cell itself.

Work your way up through the body, thinking about each tiny bit, constantly increasing the size of the lens through which you look. After that, your body, your room, house, neighborhood, area code, district, city, country, continent, planet. Try to have a satellite view of each, thinking about as many details as possible.

In the end, you should be at the edge of the observable universe. Here’s a tool to help you with this exercise.

Exercise 2. The Daydream Rapid Synapse Connection

This exercise is my favorite. It’s tons of fun.

Just pick something to think about. Let’s say a rabbit. Then, as fast as you can, find the next logical connection in your mind. Let’s say rabbit makes you think about running. Then what does running make you think about? Maybe Usain Bolt, maybe the speed of sound or maybe standing still. This exercise works on your own personal universe of mind connections. It should be done for at least a few minutes.

In that time, you should have covered dozens of even hundreds of elements, and you’ll find yourself in a very, very different space then when you’ve started.

Exercise 3. Inspiration by Visualization

Go online and watch videos like this:

Check out sites like 500px, deviantART, or Tumblr or photography and art blogs such as this. Search for tags such as "weird". You’ll be amazed at what you find.

Exercise 4. Shifting Your Reality Tunnel

Find something you’re really against and write 5 arguments if favor of it. Make it a really taboo topic. Trying to understand somebody else’s totally different belief system and values (even when they are totally wrong) will develop new neural pathways. Make sure it’s something you have a strong opinion about, like teenage pregnancy, abortion, death penalty or your mom’s cooking.

Whatever the topic, shifting your reality tunnel and your beliefs, even for just a moment, by looking through the eyes of "your enemy" is hard – but it’s sure to get your creative juices flowing.

It is day-4 of a 5 day project that you should’ve finished by now. You have to pull an all-nighter but you cannot think of anything interesting to say. Don’t worry, you’re going to be okay despite that inner alarm telling you otherwise.

It may not be writer’s block. What may be happening is a lot like erectile dysfunction. The problem is not in your head, but a symptom of some other malady such as stress. In most cases, It’s not that you can’t make an idea or two work for your project. The problem is something else that exhibits as writer’s block or a limp brain. Any number of chemical imbalances can cause limp brain.

The question is, how do you overcome it to get some ideas laid and get paid? Here are 6 of my own tricks of the trade to help you out.

1. Clear your Mind

I always thought clearing my mind meant meditating and focusing on nothing, like a monk trying to find inner harmony. Truth is if you want to really clear your mind of all the trash, go in the opposite direction. Exercise is really the fastest way to get there.

If you don’t smoke, run. Run until the burn has come and gone and there’s little left of your reserves except what your will power can scrape off the bottom of your soul’s shoes.

Read Also: 8 Quick-Fixes To Boost Your Creativity Instantly

If you don’t run, grab a stationary bike and pedal as hard as you can instead. As you come up on your third wind, there will be a moment of clarity that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. (Do run this plan by your physician first before diving right in.)

As soon as you’ve experienced this life altering state, hitch-hike back to your computer. You are ready, grasshopper.

2. Finding what is not there

If exercise is not your thing and you prefer sitting in your reclining chair, don’t sweat it. There are other ways to generate an original idea. For instance, check out a popular, mainstream news website and perform a search for the topic on which you’re supposed to write. Take notes and draw a line connecting the posts that are related, noting why.

Next, look into social media and see what topics are trending and what’s being said. Compare this to the news website results. Now for the most important part of this exercise… ignore it.

Throw all that work away. Look at the overall popularity of topics and comments and figure out what’s not been said. There’s something in the last 24 hours that’s been neglected and it is your job to point that out. The ideas are out there waiting for you!

3. Free Writing Exercise

My favorite idea-generating exercise is free writing. Take the topic you are struggling with and write it in bold letters across the top of five blank pieces of paper. Underline it and close your eyes for a moment, thinking about nothing but the topic.

Now forget it and just start writing. Start with random words in no particular order. In about a minute, you will begin to write sentences. They may be unrelated but they are sentences and that indicates progress.

Read Also: 6 Ways To Unleash Creativity In The Workplace

Keep writing, regardless of what is happening around you. Within a few minutes, your subconscious mind will start giving you words related to the topic. When you get to page five, stop and read the last two pages. You’ll be amazed at what you find.

In essence, you are allowing your subconscious mind to take control of your hand and feed you the ideas buried under the surface. That chemical imbalance can’t stop your mind from coming up with ideas. It only prevents you from recognizing them through the clutter.

4. Where is Your Inspiration?

If you need to be inspired, turn to the person you’re in love with. If you’re not in a relationship right now, that’s okay. The fact is all of us have something that inspires us to be better than we think we are. Believe it or not, around these sources of inspiration – be they people, places or things – we’re at our best.

For me, an inspirational book or movie can bring out a man in me that wants to succeed. Do you know that point in a movie where the good guy has taken a severe beating for an hour and fifteen minutes and then catches in his hand, the fist that is flying in for the kill shot? “My turn,” our hero says and we’re ready to jump out of our seats and roar, “YEAH! Now somebody’s going to PAY!”

By the time the end credits roll, I’m passionately ready to write – or rumble. The movie, “Remember the Titans” is pretty uplifting for me.

Read Also: 10 Things You Should Know About Passion (And How To Find Yours)

5. Being Insanely Inane

Being ridiculous in content writing is not a wise thing to do except in the inspiration creation phase. If you can’t find an original idea in your brain, get ridiculous. Write the wildest and most inane prose that comes into your head that relates to the topic.

This form of free writing will surprise you. Once you have enough material, go through it and see just how much of that nonsense actually applies, if written in a different voice. Some of my best material came from being ridiculous and then editing the crazy out and turning it into something that makes sense.

Read Also: 7 Insane Habits To Destroy Your Freelance Writing Career

6. Keeping Those Eyes Closed

Ironically enough, it was my wife who pointed out my greatest weakness when it comes to being blocked. She had recognized the trend years before but figured I would catch on myself.

"When was the last time you had more than a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep?" she asked. Then it dawned on me. I had been writing for 14 hours and this was my MO(Modus Operandi).

Read Also: Pocket-Sized Healthcare Gadgets You Can Use On The Go

“You work all night and all the next morning, only taking a break here and there, and then wonder why your brain is shutting down? You do this at least once a week and have been for years. You are 53 years old, for goodness sake. You need to sleep, and not that half-sleep, jump up in two-hours, energy drink induced semi-coma that you put yourself into, either. Get yourself some real sleep.”

Cramming 48 hours worth of work into 24-hour writing marathon will lead to some road closed signs along the way. If you’ve already gone through menopause or “manopuase,” you’re particularly susceptible to some-timers disease, where you forget to think sometimes. Sleep for a solid eight hours and call me in the morning.

The internet is filled with search engines that helps anyone find anything. If it is on the Internet, a search engine can find it, provided the searcher uses the correct keywords and is prepared to dig through pages of other, similar websites that use the same keywords.

Many websites incorporate their own search engines. Some are simple, but many, like LinkedIn’s learning search engine, are pretty sophisticated. Of the numerous search engines, (including locals) Google is perhaps the most sophisticated.

The successful freelance writer knows how to use search engines to find pertinent and true information about the topics they choose or are hired to cover. Google’s advanced search is one of the most comprehensive and thorough search engine devices on the planet. Knowing how to utilize the advanced Google search is a major plus for the content writer or anyone looking for specific information.

Recommended Reading: 5 Steps To More Accurate And Efficient Google Search

A Social Disease

You do not have to be sick in the head to know that social media holds the key to today’s most talked about topics. Social networks may not be the place to find perfect information on anything… but they are the best place to find out what is being said about any topic on the planet.

Knowing what social media, or the trillions of people that use them, think about any topic always makes for great material for the content writer. Even better however, is in knowing what people are not saying. That is why the good researcher knows what to look for, and recognize what is not there.

Read Also: 55 Interesting Social Media Infographics

New News Vs Old News

The most interesting articles, posts, and copy are those that go the extra mile when it comes to any given topic. New content writers know enough to look up the latest information about their subject and write about it but it is usually the practiced writer that looks up older posts and outdated news along with it.

This allows the writer to pose more interesting material, show contrasting ideas and growth, and use quotes both old and new to indicate change in subject, and popular opinion shifts.

As an example, the Empire State Building was completed in 1931 and was at that time the tallest building on the planet. While this is interesting, it is even more compelling to learn that the Chrysler Building; completed a year earlier, was the tallest building (for 1 year) and it was not believed a building could go any higher. The pyramid shape of the Empire State Building, the first to use it, is how this was accomplished.

Without looking at older posts on the matter, a researcher would not find this in articles about the Empire State Building. It shows not only a shift in beliefs less than a year apart, it also tells the reader how it was accomplished.

Quibbling in Quotes

You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time. [Sic] This quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln. or P.T. Barnum, depending upon where you find the information, also applies to freelance content writing.

It is the perfect example of solid research and why it is so important to do so with every post you write. Among others, you provide these three services.

1. Find a direct quote, not someone’s paraphrasing of it. This is what the [sic] indicates.

2. Show the varying beliefs of to whom it is attributed. Many feel P.T. Barnum said it about his world famous sideshows when someone said they were faked. His "freaks of nature" were real people. The original quote, however, is not found in copies of Abraham Lincoln’s Prohibitionists speech; rather, witnesses were found (early 1900′s of a speech in 1880s) that heard the president say it during the speech.

3. Gives the reader food for thought.

Read Also: Clever & Funny Puns Art By Nabhan Abdullatif [PICS]

The "Times Three" Rule of Research

Another glaring example of why in-depth research is so vital to content writing is that people can verify, and many will verify, what you say in an article or post. For this reason, many seasoned writers use the "Times Three" rule of research.

Simply put, find 3 trusted sources that verify the same content as fact, fiction, or fancy. If you still have the information wrong, you have those sources to point to as your well. Most people will not dig that deep to prove you wrong, especially when you present a link to your strongest source.

Never use Wikipedia as a source of verified information.

Read Also: How To Build A Following Of Customers From Complete Strangers

The Secret to Wikipedia use for Content Writing

Wikipedia is a true American source as it is "of the people, by the people, and for the people." This means that anyone can write a Wikipedia article. The information is not that deeply researched in many of them and the standards for writing one (or rewriting) is not hard to reach.

There is a secret, however, that many writers know to be very useful. At the bottom of most Wiki articles are links to resources that are extremely useful as a starting point in research.

Read Also: Wikipedia: Redefining Research [Infographic]

The Bottom Line in Research

The old writing rule that applies to research is still viable. Always look for and present the who, what, where, when, why, and how, and you will always find interesting and informative things to say about any given topic.

When you combine this with old and new information comparison, true direct quotes, popular topics with content not yet touched on in social media, and provide your sources, you have a winning post or article that is well-researched and provides value for the reader.

Read Also: How To Get News And Ideas For Blogging