... and to a degree, I imagine they can make things worse if they create the impression that this is a Serious Thing That Requires Careful Preparation.
One of the biggest personal-project (hate the name "side project" for some reason) killers I've encountered is simple fear: of failure, of not being good enough, etc.
I try (but don't always succeed) to keep the thought that it's OK if my projects end up sucking, if they don't take the world by storm, if my interfaces aren't general enough and my algorithms inefficient. I still try to do the best job I can, simply for reasons of personal pride, but there's tons of stuff that doesn't actually matter all that much, and a lot more that can be fixed up after the fact. Just getting something is hugely important when you're operating without the sort of support network you have in a job.
The point is that your side project needs to be more interesting than whatever the browser can offer, so you don't even think about opening the browser in the first place.
"How to" articles are an easy way to procrastinate, unless you're legitimately stuck on something.