1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.
6. You shall not murder someone else's honour, reputation or feelings.
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.
8. You shall not steal another person's content.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

Step Two: Start Blogging and Wait to Be Discovered

After college, Cody left her native Chicago for the romantic Twin Cities -- trading Post-it Notes for pasties while exploring the frosty Minneapolis underworld as a stripper. She described the perils of pole-dancing on the popular Pussy Ranch blog.

Because there are only a few blogs online these days (Technorati currently tracks a mere 112 million), it was a safe bet that a successful Los Angeles literary manager (Mason Novick) would find Cody's work and inquire from 3,000 miles away about her literary ambitions.

"Before Mason found me, all I'd written was the blogs for City Pages in Minneapolis," Cody said. "He asked me if I'd thought about writing something else. I started my book after that."

"What the heck is going on here?" you ask. Well, it's pretty simple. You get yourself a blog, if you don't have one already -- and don't mind me if I'm stupefied at the idea that there's someone left in the English speaking world without their own blog. Then you look at the calendar, and when the whole world goes, "Oh, I can't believe they're already playing Christmas music in the warden's office!" you'll know it's November and that is the month in which you post something to your blog every day, in accordance with the National Blog Posting Month challenge!

Last year everybody just went for it, posting thirty days in a row and maybe hoping to win a prize in the random drawing. This year, for those of you who suspect you might run out of gas, maybe you'd like to try blogging on a theme. Follow a news story for the month; get deeper into an issue that you want to educate yourself about; keep us abreast of how your yoga practice / daily muffin-eating regime / matchstick Eiffel Tower is progressing.

Or simply use NaBloPoMo as a writing exercise, as an easier-to-accomplish alternative to the marathon that inspired it: National Novel Writing Month.

There's been a lot of discussion this weekend about the subscriber counts that have recently appeared in Reader's search results. Leaderboards have been drawn up, numbers are being compared and in some cases there's confusion as to how these numbers compare with other subscriber metrics. Additionally, we've made changes (some as recently as today) as to how counts are being calculated. This is probably going to be pretty boring unless you're a feed publisher, but we thought it would be best to explain things a bit. Here are the various numbers you may come across, and what they all mean:

Google subscriber counts: These numbers include subscribers across all Google services, including Reader, iGoogle, and Orkut. You can see them in Reader's feed search results (pictured below) and the Google Webmaster Tools. Additionally, our crawler reports them to the publisher each time we fetch the feed. Reader's feed search was recently showing stale and incomplete data, but as of today (October 15) the numbers should be the same everywhere.

It turns out that success in the new-media world depends on a lot of the same things as in the old-media universe. Just as in Hollywood, becoming a hit takes talent, effort, timing and some luck. Sex appeal is just as valuable online as off. And getting noticed by the "mainstream" press also helps build buzz. With over 900 reviews on Yelp.com, posting reviews online isn't as much about stardom for Megan Wade, it's about talking up local businesses like Weird Fish.

Most important, though, is the way Internet stars exploit the power of the Web. They employ all the social-networking tools available on new-media sites like Google Inc.'s YouTube, inviting fans to comment on their work, link to it and even copy it. And they draw on email, subscriptions and other tools to alert fans about new offerings.

"The most popular are the ones who have really tapped into the social fabric" of the Internet, says Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing at YouTube.

GET IN EARLY

When "Rocketboom" went online in late 2004, the idea of a video blog -- posting commentary and news in video form instead of regular text -- was still novel. Andrew Baron, the program's producer, says that the program had a small but loyal audience of about 700 daily viewers within a few weeks of launching.

On Fri. May 4th, we updated Technorati.com to include the Technorati Authority for blogs listed on the Blog page and in search results. This update changed the earlier references of "N blogs link here" and "X links from Y blogs" with the single Technorati Authority number. On the blog page, we also show the Technorati Rank.

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

It is important to note that we measure the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if a blog links to your blog many times, it still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean the +1 will last another 180 days.

Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top.

Since at the lower end of the scale many blogs will have the same Technorati Authority, they will share the same Technorati Rank.

links from blogrolls (especially from high-quality blogrolls or blogrolls of "trusted bloggers")

links from other sources (mail, chats)

using tags to categorize a post

PageRank

the number of feed subscriptions (from feed readers)

clicks in search results

The popularity of the blog document may be a positive indication of the quality of that blog document. A number of news aggregator sites (commonly called "news readers" or "feed readers") exist where individuals can subscribe to a blog document (through its feed). Such aggregators store information describing how many individuals have subscribed to given blog documents. A blog document having a high number of subscriptions implies a higher quality for the blog document. Also, subscriptions can be validated against "subscriptions spam" (where spammers subscribe to their own blog documents in an attempt to make them "more popular") by validating unique users who subscribed, or by filtering unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the subscribers.

To rank the search results, Google combines a quality score obtained by mixing those signals with a relevance score (IR score) that depends on the query. "The IR score may be determined based on the number of occurrences of the search terms in the document. The IR score may be determined based on where the search terms occur within the document (e.g., title, content, etc.) or characteristics of the search terms (e.g., font, size, color, etc.). A search term may be weighted differently from another search term when multiple search terms are present. The proximity of the search terms when multiple search terms are present may influence the IR score." (the quote was slightly altered for clarity)

Most self-employed bloggers take in between $2,000 and $10,000 a month from ad sales, says Henry Copeland, founder of BlogAds.com, a Web advertising concern based in Carrboro, N.C. The few that have huge audiences make significantly more, he adds. During election time, for example, a political blogger can bring in $20,000 to $30,000 a month, says Ken Layne, West Coast bureau chief for Wonkette.com, a political gossip blog owned by Gawker Media.

Self-employed bloggers set their own schedules. Writers of breaking-news blogs say 40- to 60-hour workweeks are the norm. To scoop his competitors, Mario Lavandeira, author of the celebrity-gossip blog PerezHilton.com, says he averages 19-hour workdays that start at 5:15 a.m.

CAREER PATH: Most bloggers start out using free Web sites such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com. They say it takes at least six months to build readership and clout in the blogosphere. Mr. Lavandeira advises picking an area you'll enjoy discussing for a long time because "you have to be passionate about what you're writing." A background in journalism or communications helps but usually isn't required. "I don't want to hear where candidates went to college or where else they worked," says Ryan Block, managing editor of Engadget.com, who hires most of the site's employees. "I review writing samples."

Bloggers should always have a clearly outlined posting frequency. It does not matter if you post once a week, three times per week or every day as long as your readers are aware of that (in reality I advocate that if you are serious about blogging you should write at least 5 weekly posts, but that is not the central point of this article).

The problem is that most people have other activities that might disturb the normal posting schedule. Your family might need your attention certain times or you day job might require some extra hours of work on specific periods of the year. The best solution for those emergencies is to have some posts already written, just waiting to be published.

Tags are only part of optimizing YouTube. Keep in mind the influence that your title has in attracting CTR. You need to pull every lever to build an audience. The social nature of YT requires getting on users subscriptions and favorites. Again, it all gets down to quality. This is what inherently what makes YouTube great. You build attention by being incredibly interesting.

There are many culprits. First, we have a lot of third party widgets, ads and analytics apps running on the site. They are often the cause for slow load times. FM Publishing, our advertising network, often slows down the site and then other things pile on to crush it.

Today we had three problems. FM is updating their software and caused massive . We switched to the new version of wordpress which is clearly not bug free. And on top of that we have a number of plugins that are acting weird on the new wordpress software. One of them took us down earlier tonight.

Another culprit is MyBlogLog, which we've had to strip off the site a number of times because of slowdowns.

Once you write enough blog posts, and read far too many blog posts, you acquire an instinctive sense for the principle ingredients of an audience-pleasing offering. However, rather than itemize those ingredients, it's far easier to discuss this magical formula in terms of the instinctive emotional responses you hope to conjure in readers. The broadest of those responses are indignation, titillation, stimulation, and affirmation.

A little more than $1 billion, or one-fourth of all advertising online, went to Google's AdSense program in the third quarter of 2006. Of that, Google shared $780 million with those running AdSense. Approximately 3 million blogs now use AdSense, according to the blog-tracking site Technorati.

What isn't known is how that $780 million was distributed over those roughly 3 million blogs. But anecdotal evidence suggests that there's a majority making nothing, a sizable minority bringing in at least $100 a month, and a few making serious money.

This opportunity comes with a challenge. This year, aside from the usual self-deluded promises to eat better and exercise more, my New Year's resolution includes a pledge to be more in touch, especially with the elusive 18-34 age group.

I have no illusions that members of this coveted demographic will suddenly take to a guy as old as their fathers. But I want to understand them.

So I'm asking for their help in building a blog. The technical staff at The Post will handle the nuts and bolts. What I'm looking for are ways to encourage participation from people who aren't already regular correspondents. I am especially interested in Internet links that will let people go from my blog to other blogs or to websites that may decide to link back.

Now, I need some other ideas. I'm thinking the usual political suspects - ColoradoPols.com, ToTheRight.org, Colorado Confidential, the Drudge Report, that sort of thing. But I'm looking for some range here, say a link to Dan Savage, whose Savage Love sex column entertains my 20-something colleague Chris Frates.

The blog can only be so blue. But I wouldn't mind hearing from folks who are over-pierced and under 30 about what's on their minds. My hope for the blog is to expose myself - in a strictly intellectual sense, of course - to new ideas.

***

More than anything, though, I need participation and ideas outside the collection of usual suspects battling over Iraq, immigration, gun control and abortion. Those things will, of course, be fair game on the blog. But people certainly have lives outside of ideological flashpoints.

I've been scooped before, but not like this. I call Robert Scoble to interview him for a column I'm writing on blogging and I end up being the story - a story that's posted before I'm even back from lunch.

Seriously, Scoble who rose to fame as a Microsoft blogger and now works on video podcasting at PodTech.net, is a nice guy who was gentle in his criticism and constructive in his advice. And he asked if could write about me on his Scobleizer blog.

(Hey, I call to him to say I'm attention starved and he asks if he can write about me. Of course, I said yes.)

The single most helpful tool for me in my efforts to blog about news events first has been an RSS to IM/SMS notification tool. I use Zaptxt to subscribe to very high priority feeds. It sends me an IM and SMS whenever a high-profile company blog is updated and in a number of other circomstances. There are quite a few services that offer this functionality now and it's invaluable. A big part of taking a prominent position in the blogosphere is writing first on a topic. That's a large part of what got me the job at TechCrunch and it's something that an increasing number of people are clearly trying to do.

In sectors where people are already using tools like the above, I expect further developments to emerge that differentiate writers' handling of the huge amount of information available. New tools and new practices. It's a very exciting time to be someone who works with information.

People pay attention to graphics. They respond to graphics. They learn from graphics. If you want your readers/learners/audience to "get" something as quickly and clearly as possible, use visuals. And you don't have to be a graphic artist, designer, or information architect to put pictures in your presentation, post, or book. This post is my first attempt to categorize the kinds of graphics I do here, and offer tips for creating visuals that tell the story better and faster than words.

I find with these that whenever I open Bloglines, there are a couple dozen posts. I don't have the time or inclination to read them all right then, so I leave them. Then, next time, there are more. Eventually Bloglines tops out at 200 unread posts, and I click on the blog title just to get rid of the unread and start over.

It's a little heart-breaking, because all of them have such great content. But that's something to consider when you're running a blog. The automatic train of thought is, "I'll just throw everything out there and people will read what they want." Not true - too many posts can overwhelm people, and they consequently won't read any. The volume of your content can render the quality of your content moot.

The Low Authority Group (3-9 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The average blog age (the number of days that the blog has been in existence) is about 228 days, which shows a real commitment to blogging. However, bloggers of this type average only 12 posts per month, meaning that their posting habits are generally dedicated but infrequent.

The Middle Authority Group (10-99 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

This contrasts somewhat with the second group, which enjoys an average age not much older than the first at 260 days and which posts 50% more frequently than the first. There is a clear correlation between posting volume and Technorati authority ranking.

The High Authority Group (100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.

The Very High Authority Group (500 or more blogs linking in the last 6 months)

In the final group we see what might be considered the blogging elite. This group, which represents more than 4,000 blogs, exhibits a radical shift in post frequency as well as blog age. Bloggers of this type have been at it longer - a year and a half on average - and post nearly twice a day, an increase in posting volume of over 100% from the previous group. Many of the blogs in this category, in fact, are about as old as Technorati and we've grown up together. Some of these are full-fledge professional enterprises that post many, many times per day and behave increasingly like our friends in the mainstream media. As has been widely reported, the impact of these bloggers on our cultures and democracies is increasingly dramatic.

In other words, the numbers in the green box reflect activity in the last 180 days, while the number of links directly below the green box is the total for as long as we have data.

The 180-day window means that ranks and link counts go up and down. Some bloggers see their counts rise steadily when others link to their blog. In the chart below, we see 200 days of linking to www.perezhilton.com. For purposes of ranking and comparison, we count only those links in the last 180 days (those in the red box.) Perez' counts are going up. Yay!

1. Fans: Internet readers are fickle. If they get used to reading you and then all of sudden you disappear, there are plenty of other equally entertaining blogs and columns online that they will migrate to, soon forgetting about the enjoyment you used to give...
2. Income: ...and once the fans are gone, don't expect advertising revenue to get any higher. If you're paying the bills with Google Ads, you'd better keep posting.

Write on a regular basis in a text editor instead. If that doesn't satisfy your urge, and you feel that you must post your blog online, then you might just be craving attention and validation--which you'll never truly find in a blog. If you give up on your Wordpad journal after about three days, you'll do the same with a blog that just takes up server space.

Ask yourself if you really have the time to commit to a blog. What about that treehouse you wanted to build? Or the book you wanted to write? Or the car you wanted to fix up? Or the restaurant you wanted to take your significant other to? Or the new career you wanted to pursue? Instead of writing about pretty much nothing, or whining about all the things you wish you were doing instead, start doing something that'd actually be worth writing about. And if it's really worth writing about, you'll be having too much fun doing it to tear yourself away from it.

Consider that your voice, even if it is truly a good one, is a tiny peep against the massive wave of tripe out there. The odds of anyone you don't already know finding your blog are low.

"You may never know if you enjoy blogging unless you try it."

Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it. One popular technique for building readership is to send e-mail to more well-trafficked blogs offering to exchange links with them. One popular response from those blogs is to laugh derisively and hit the Delete button.

Another approach for advertising your blog is to mention it as much as possible in conversation; you'd be surprised how many people are fascinated to hear you have a blog and want to know more, especially if you were expecting the number to be greater than zero.

However, there are many popular blogs already in existence, and if you want people to think you're cool, you're probably better off claiming you were a "guest blogger" for one of them. Your average blog has so many guest bloggers and such a crappy search feature that nobody will ever be able to prove you wrong.

Boing Boing: Crocheted replica of subway map cracks DRM on collection of old video games.

Gawker: Paris Hilton does pretty much anything.

Engadget: Samsung releases new cell phone/mp3 player/camera/web browser/GPS/game player/wireless hub. Now in gray!

Cute Overload: A kitten licks a puppy while the puppy licks a bunny.

Dave Taylor wonders whether bloggers should keep updating their old posts as stories change. His concern: that Web-searchers will come across old blog posts that proved to be incorrect and take them as gospel. I say that bloggers don't need to do that anymore than newspapers do. The value of an old newspaper story is that it gives us a view of how events were being seen that day.

Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make. A blog on your domain can attract links, attention, publicity, trust and search rankings - by keeping the blog on a separate domain, you shoot yourself in the foot. From worst to best, your options are - Hosted (on a solution like Blogspot or Wordpress), on a unique domain (at least you can 301 it in the future), on a subdomain (these can be treated as unique from the primary domain by the engines) and as a sub-section of the primary domain (in a subfolder or page - this is the best solution).

Don't Jump on the Bandwagon
Some memes are worthy of being talked about by every blogger in the space, but most aren't. Just because there's huge news in your industry or niche DOES NOT mean you need to be covering it, or even mentioning it (though it can be valuable to link to it as an aside, just to integrate a shared experience into your unique content). Many of the best blogs online DO talk about the big trends - this is because they're already popular, established and are counted on to be a source of news for the community. If you're launching a new blog, you need to show people in your space that you can offer something unique, different and valuable - not just the same story from your point of view. This is less important in spaces where there are very few bloggers and little online coverage and much more in spaces that are overwhelmed with blogs (like search, or anything else tech-related).

Even though most enthusiast press regulars read the top videogame blogs, it's a scary thought for many of us that someone who is currently sitting in their living room could challenge us for reader mindshare, credibility and eventually even impact our mighty bottom line.

The entry barriers to the enthusiast press are as low today as they've ever been. Gamers have their pick between a vast array of free blog publishing services. These services give anyone with a passion and a keyboard a crack at self-publishing.

However, as multitudes of would-be media giants have discovered, just being able to publish doesn't mean that anyone will actually read what you've written. In fact, because self-publishing is so easy and so cheap it has become insanely difficult to start from scratch and to grow a blog to the point of being a major player. It's difficult but not impossible.

The best voice for any blog is a voice that actually taps into the writer's core personality. Yes, there can be an exaggeration of certain traits and emphasis on core viewpoints, but readers can spot dramatized viewpoints from a mile away. Judging from the top blogs, readers are drawn to genuine viewpoints, no matter how controversial.

In order to avoid the blandness that anchors many blogs, one must be sure that every single post is purposely written in the style and voice that's carried through the entire blog. Even if the blog has several writers, each one must carry their voice into each post.

Read, read, read, and read some more. The better informed you are, the more information you'll be able to convey to your readers.

Invalid RSS Feeds
I've known quite a few bloggers who's RSS feeds were broken for months on end. Now, don't get me wrong, even my RSS feed is broken from time-to-time. Software has bugs. You can prevent your feeds from breaking by simply subscribing to your feed in various RSS readers (especially the one you use) and double checking from time-to-time that you are getting stuff.

Well, it's true if they actually link back to you, but most a-listers have 100 people linking to them daily and it's highly unlikely your post will catch their eye. Instead, try linking to a broader range of bloggers. When you link to a d-list blogger, you're likely to gain a reader for life and several dozen links in return. I'm the ultimate d-lister and I make certain to return all Google juice in spades.

9. Putting Yourself on a Pedestal
This problem doesn't happen too often, but from time-to-time a-list and b-list bloggers lose control to their egos. They start posting about how great they are and commenting negatively about their own readers. I'm not sure if that works for other people, but I'm pretty quick to unsubscribe when a bloggers puts himself on a pedestal. If you are already heading down this path, then simply posts a few entries that make fun of yourself on a regular basis to keep yourself grounded and off that pedestal

One of the causes of blog out is a constant concern with visitor traffic logs. Checking the number of visitors to the blog ten times per day will not increase the readership levels. It serves only to frustrate the blog owner who believes no one is reading the slaved over postings. Forgetting to check the visitor logs for at least a week is a good place to start. You might be interested to know that I rarely check my visitor logs any longer. I know people read my blog. I understand they don't visit on a daily basis. Obsessing over numbers is not good for the blogging soul.

Another reason that bloggers begin to burn out is concern about what to use for the next posting topic. Many good bloggers keep a list of potential posting ideas handy at all times. When an idea for a column pops into their head, they write it down. Keep a pencil and notepad handy, as topics often appear as if by magic. You want to be prepared for those glorious moments of inspiration.

Some of the best blogs are what Buzz Bruggeman describes as intelligence agents. They post what they believe would be of interest to their target audience. Look at Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion or Dave Winer's Scripting News. Read their blogs. They cover the globe for their readers by sharing via links what they read and hear. Mixed in you'll get their strong commentary.

LexBlog still gets clients saying they want all links on their blogs to open a new window. Why? Because they fear people will leave their blog. Is that nuts or what?

Want to tick people off? Have your links open new windows. Have users click to a number of links on your blog so they now have 8 or 9 windows open. Make it difficult to browse because the back button can't be used to browse because every link is a new window. You'll have people unsubscribing from your blog in a New York minute.

It's been 3 months since this blog launched. And the learning curve - as for any new venture - has been steep as Kilimanjaro...

Which was surprising. For some reason, I was under the ridiculous impression that launching a blog and building its traffic and profile would be little more than plug-and-play. I figured we had all the necessary components already in place: an established brand; a successful newsletter and busy parent Web site to help drive traffic; enthusiastic and talented writers; and the support of management. So let's pull up the shades, unlock and door, and open the bar...and get this party started!

What Marc did is no different to what a lot of bloggers do to gain attention and page views. Digg is in fact an easy target, because if a blogger writes a post about Digg that takes one of either extreme (i.e. praises it, or attacks it in some way) - it's got a very good chance of making the Digg homepage. Slashdot on the other hand is much harder to game, because its editors (i.e. gatekeepers) are very strict on what stories make it onto Slashdot. Blogging about how Slashdot readers suck won't make it onto Slashdot, but blogging about how Digg readers suck almost certainly will make it onto Digg.

A similar formula applies to the blogosphere, no matter what part you come from - tech, politics, etc. You just need to identify the hot topics and then game away. In the tech blogosphere for example, Google is a hot topic and almost guaranteed to bring in the hits. Especially if you are controversial and/or pick an argument with other bloggers. That's why the snarky or cynical bloggers are so popular - because it's easy to gain attention by dissing something. It's also why there are so many extreme, black/white opinions amongst bloggers. It's like politics in a way: pick the right or the left and try to shout down the opposition.

Initially many of the bloggers in this study did not anticipate the time their blog would take. A good blog is one where posts are fresh and new posts are frequent. Researching interesting new things to share with your audience takes time. One blogger noted, "The worst blogs are those that are updated infrequently." He cautions others with, "Be prepared to spend more time than you think."

5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.

31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.

15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.

Okay enough fluff. That's the sales spiel that most of us hear and believe. But as loyal reader Kiltak discovered, it's not always that way. Kiltak is the proud owner of the excellently named Geeks Are Sexy blog. It's well written by guys who know what they're talking about and--most important--often link back to my blogs.

Predictably, they've become steadily more popular. More and more readers until one day, Kiltak tried logging onto his blog, only to discover that Blogspot seemed to have deleted his blog. No warning.

As expected, Kiltak sent a few salty emails and voice calls to the Blogspot folks, basically asking "What the @#$%?!?"

Sadly, it took them some time to figure out what he was talking about, but when they did the explanation went like this: The traffic going to Geeks Are Sexy as well as its content had risen to a level where Blogger decided it might be a possible source of 'spam' blogging. When that happens, it sticks the blog into a quarantine of sorts until they figure out what's what. Meanwhile the blogger no longer sees the site name in his blog management interface.

Moving to our own domain was at least briefly considered. If Blogger had been unable to get the site back, there would've been no question that we would've abandoned this and moved to a different platform.

But moving now wouldn't be a simple business. The blog is back, and shouldn't be eaten by Blogger's spam killer in the future (so they say). This means that there'd be some pretty intense content migration to do (including images uploaded to the Blogger servers). Plus we'd lose our page-ranking, peoples' bookmarks would die, and all sorts of other uncoolness.

Among her blog tips: "The most important thing is to blog often. Posts do not need to be extensive or long. It can be as simple as, 'I found this article on the budget in the Washington Post today very interesting. Click here to read.'"

The likely reason why Pelosi's blog page linked to so many Republican blogs is because few House Democrats were blogging at the time.

The tips, formerly here, have since been removed from the Democratic leader's website.

Blog content

There are several blogs such as Daily Kos or Huffington Post that your member can blog on. All you need to do is set up an account (free) and post content. There are other sites that have guest bloggers and do interviews such as TPM Cafe and Raw Story. Blog content needs to be original and have personal voice...posting a press release will not go over well.

Tough skin

Many members are concerned that when they post on an existing blog they will receive comments that they are not in control of. The long and the short of it is, they're right. It's part of the community and you can't worry about it.

He's a little burned out, he says, a little depressed. He's wondering if this is a natural cycle with blogging -- something that saps so much of your being. He's threatening to launch something completely different. Maybe a blog on the history of travel.

"When you are doing it, it really is quite addictive," he said the other day. "When I'm not doing it, I don't want to go back. I feel like Mr. Mole in The Wind in the Willows. Once he walked out of his hole in the ground and discovered the world, he didn't go back for months."

With the let-up came a frightening realization for one who worked in the moment. While he never received the amount of hits of an Atrios, Daily Kos or Instapundit, his name carried weight in blog and political circles.

"Now I am coming across more and more people who have never heard of me. The Internet moves 10 or 20 times the speed of regular time. Unless you're really on top of things, the world forgets about you really fast. It's hyper-true in the blogosphere."

So news organizations large and small have begun experimenting with tweaking their Web sites for better search engine results. But software bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded. There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.

In newspapers and magazines, for example, section titles and headlines are distilled nuggets of human brainwork, tapping context and culture. "Part of the craft of journalism for more than a century has been to think up clever titles and headlines, and Google comes along and says, 'The heck with that,' " observed Ed Canale, vice president for strategy and new media at The Sacramento Bee.

Moves to accommodate the technology are tricky. How far can a news organization go without undercutting its editorial judgment concerning the presentation, tone and content of news?

So far, the news media are gingerly stepping into the field of "search engine optimization." It is a booming business, estimated at $1.25 billion in revenue worldwide last year, and projected to more than double this year.

While there has always been arguments, fights, flame wars and snarkyness in the wider blogging community I wonder if it's gone to new levels in the last year. Perhaps it is just me or the types of bloggers that I've been reading lately (and it could well be) - but I've noticed a significant increase in the mob mentality among some bloggers of late. Link baiting with 'attack' and/or 'shock' tactics has been used quite successfully by some bloggers to build their own profile with little (if no) regard for the impact that these strategies have upon those around them.

individual's rep - bloggers wanting to build a reputation on the back of attack need to be ready for the consequences of their own actions. For starters - 'what comes around goes around' and an attacking blogger can expect those they target (and their friends) to fight back and for their own blogging to come under intense scrutiny. Secondly blogs tend to attract readers that are like their bloggers and an attack blog can become a pretty negative and cynical place. Lastly - the web has a very long memory. Your written word becomes a permanent part of the web and can (and will) be used against you at a later time if you are not careful.

But blogs... you can easily post 100 times a day. With a team, it might be a thousand.

This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that in many cases, volume leads to traffic. Take a look at the top 10 blogs and you'll notice that many of them post dozens of times a day.

Just like the marketers of Oreo (now in 19 flavors of cookies) we're dealing with clutter by making more clutter.

RSS fatigue is already setting in. While multiple posts get you more traffic, they also make it easy to lose loyal readers.

Blogging commercially is a traffic game whether we like it or not. If you want to earn more money one good way to get it is to increase your readership. Quality content is essential but so is quantity. You can write one fantastic post per week and get a bit of exposure but the chances are that unless it's amazing it will never draw enough traffic to sustain you financially until the next post.

Having a posting schedule or goal is like being a journalist with a deadline. It's not meant to decrease the quality -- but gives an end point when the article needs to be finished so that a new one can be started upon and that a paper/magazine can continue its publishing rhythm.

Huffington showed that it was still possible to quickly move up to the top of the charts. "You think the A-list is the A-list is the A-list," says David Sifry, the CEO of Technorati. "But I'm telling you, boy, does it shift—and does it shift fast." Cultural winds can drive blogs in and out of favor: When Sifry founded Technorati in 2002, many of the bloggers on his top-100-most-linked list were computer geeks, such as journalist Doc Searls and programmer Dave Winer. But as blogging grew to encompass politics and pop culture, Searls dropped to No. 96 and Winer to No. 126.

What's more, a blog is like a shark: If it stops moving, it dies. Without fresh postings every day-hell, every few minutes-even the most well-linked blog will quickly lose its audience. The A-listers cannot rest on their laurels. Federated Media owner John Battelle recently published a book on Google, and while on the book tour, he neglected his own well-trafficked blog (No. 81 on Technorati's rankings) for several days. "And suddenly I was getting all these e-mails going, 'If you don't get your shit together, I'm out of here,'" he recalls. He stayed up late that night frantically adding posts. "If you start sucking," he says, "it's through."

Here, let's play a game. Everyone in the world say "brrreeeport" on your blog and you'll be listed on this Technorati page automatically. Heh. There are also no pages on the Internet linked to for that term on Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

So, now you too can take down the man! Get your due! Get around the gatekeepers. Tell all those A list bloggers to screw off and die! Heheh. Or, you can let me own that term all by myself! Heheh.

Quick: go to Technorati and do the brrreeeport search. Now, which headline and opening text grabs you? Makes you wanna click? Hint: we're all being slammed with hundreds of sites every day. The more interesting you can make your headline, the better. Think about what your headline will look like in the search engines and use every one as an opportunity to grab a little bit of traffic.

Now, look at the 98 brrreeeport results on Technorati. All are on the same topic, right? But some headlines stand out from the noise. Which ones grab your eye? The one that says simply "brrreeeport report?" Or the one that says "brrreeeport beats Mohammad cartoon?" Conflict is a story telling device. Use it in headlines!

While I love comments-and would never consider turning them off on this blog-I don't quite grasp the notion that the conversation is somehow inhibited without comments. Blogging godfather Dave Winer hasn't offered comments on his blog for a long time, and has publicly dismissed the notion that a blog without comments isn't a blog. In a 15-month-old article in the Online Journalism Review that dealt with blog spam, Winer suggested it's painfully easy to comment on blogs that don't support comments: Commenters should simply run their own blog if they want to comment.

To that end, Winer recently introduced a subtle new feature to his blog. The little green Technorati icon appears above the fold in the right-hand column. Click it; it takes you to the Technorati page showing all items that link to Winer's blog. In other words, it's just like reading the comments left on a comment-enabled blog. Today, Winer notes that the tag has been successful (aside from some "snarky" feedback).

The power of the press... press release that is. So last night at 2am central time my press release finally went out. Yesterday I wasn't really sure what would happen. It could have brought me 2 visitors, or it could have brought me a little more. Well, I would say it was $30 well spent.

Within 12 hours of the release going out, I have already been contacted by 3 local news stations. In fact, in just over an hour the first one will be showing up at my house for an interview. Later tonight the other two stations will be doing the same. Let me also share the release stats with you:

Today I launched my blog ... WebProBlog. It's focus is on eBusiness strategies and trends from my perspective as CEO of iEntry, Inc. and as a early internet entrepreneur. Frequent topics will include internet advertising, email marketing, search engines, eBusiness strategies and commentary on news we cover at WebProNews.

We have been involved with blogs for quite a while here at iEntry. I guess it's about time I jumped into the blogger mix myself. What really inspired me were the re-publishing relationships we started approximately 1 year ago. This has been a feature that has been very popular with our WebProNews readers.

1. Fine Print.
Blogging can lead to legal issues. Companies should have real concerns about liability, exclusions and limitations, and indemnity. Although there are laws that protect against libel, misappropriations and other injuries suffered as a result of posts on the Web, companies can still be held "vicariously" responsible for statements made by employees that are harmful to others. Since there are so many legal issues surrounding blogs, it is imperative that the site has some sort of disclaimer and limitation of liability.

2. Know What You're Doing.
Senior management should be educated by the corporate communications and legal department about what blogs are and how they might affect business. That way, they can be contributing members of the blog, further improving employee relations. Their support and participation is often what makes a blog more effective.

3. Create blogging policies.
In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information. Blogging also has a tendency to become personal. A company should have a list of policies regarding blogging to ensure that trade secrets are kept secret and personal lives do not become public. Policies may include keeping financial information from being posted, as well as severe consequences for anyone using the blog for negative publicity.

4. Avoid the Marketing Blog.
Making your blog into a blatant marketing campaign is a bad idea. Customers are looking for real answers and honest opinions. They will pick up on insincerity instantly. Use the blog for what it's for, transparency. This is an opportunity to make a real connection with your customers. Don't ruin it by filling it with empty advertising.

5. Keep It Fresh.
Blogs are usually judged by their amount of new content. Easy to add on to, they are designed to be updated constantly. To keep your readers coming back, make your content relevant and timely. Don't forget, content can include anything from product releases to job openings, recent news to thoughts from the CEO. It's practically impossible to run out of material.

6. Reinforce the Company's Core Values.
Use your blog to reflect your company's inner soul: its mission, goals and direction. A blog is just another medium by which you interact with your customers and employees. It's another part of the brand experience. It should be consistent with the impression the company wants to make.

7. Encourage Employees to Use It.
Create an atmosphere where they are comfortable asserting their opinions and concerns. You'll be surprised how the quietest employees will speak up when given such an opportunity. With all communication, blogging can become negative, so remind employees of the public nature of the blogs and the ramifications for their actions.

At least 132 bloggers linked to that experimental blog entry, and I identified 114 of them -- for a "find" rate of 85%. It's extremely likely, however, that other unfound links exist, and the blog owners simply haven't checked back to tell me. Therefore, my actual success rate is probably closer to 80%.

He doesn't consider this kind of blogging as "writing." The blog posts are quick annotations of 100 to 150 words - or fewer. Only once or twice a week does he take the time to write something longer ("It takes more time and thought").

If you're going to blog, become an expert on something. This is especially important for blogging in the business world. Think content, not rambling comment. Years ago I wrote an article mocking bloggers who post pictures of their dogs and cats. I was inundated with emails from outraged blogging pet owners. I stand on my conviction. Blogs are for sharing information, not pointless doggerel (or catteral).

Don't make your blog look boring. There's nothing more disturbing than a well-written blog that looks like a newsletter template from Microsoft Publisher. You know exactly what I mean—thin and unreadable type, negligible spacing between lines, justified paragraphs and very little graphic relief.

A blog should be welcoming to read. Embrace white space. Be generous with line spacing and use bigger fonts. Well-written subheads almost guarantee readership. Pictures that illustrate your point are also fantastic. Go easy on the clip art and stock photos, though. A blog is about originality and sizzling hot information in written and graphic form.

Some also speculate that more scandalous blog entries -- especially those about partying and dating exploits -- will have ramifications down the road.

"I would bet that in the 2016 election, somebody's Facebook entry will come back to bite them," Steve Jones, head of the communications department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says, referring to thefacebook.com, a networking site for college students and alumni that is something of a cross between a yearbook and a blog.

More traditional blog sites -- which allow easy creation of a Web site with text, photos and often music -- include Xanga, LiveJournal and MySpace. And they've gotten more popular in recent years, especially among the younger set.

Caitlin Hoistion, a 15-year-old in Neptune, N.J., says she knows people who go as far as posting their cell phone numbers on their blogs -- something she doesn't do. She also often shows her postings to her mom, which has helped her mom give her some space and privacy online.

"That's not to say if I thought something dangerous was going on, I wouldn't ever spy on her," says her mother, Melissa Hoistion. "But she has given me no need to do so."

The data became clearer. On that particular day, the top five bloggers created an average of 30 entries, with each entry being under 150 words. This reminds me of something Phillip Greenspun, another A-list blogger, had said about why he liked blogs:

     It allows me to experiments with the three paragraph form

Considering the size of the average entry from this, it seems very clear that an entry should be brief.

However, going beyond that is the number of entries that come in on a day. Looking at this, the average Top 5 A-list blogger wrote an average of almost 30 entries. Think about it for a second or two. 30 entries! It's a huge number for a single day.

In summary: Blogging is about conversation. Comments is a very good tool to strenghten conversation, but the fundamental tool is linking. Defining blogs from a "comments or no comments"-perspective is nothing but a way of making blogs a less profound change of communication than they are.

It takes time to build a profitable blog. You do not just become a Professional Blogger anymore than you just become a Professional Golfer. It is not a decision you make, it is something you work towards over time.