These stretches of time find me allergic to the keyboard. I suddenly don’t have much to say, and that my (temporary) preference for real-life interaction outweighs the desire to write.

If might be my post-Super Bowl hangover, but I think these periods are happening with greater frequency, and I’m not sure what to make of it. I can only compare it to an old high school girlfriend. It starts out hot and heavy. You guys spend every waking moment together. Next thing you know, you take a “weekend for yourself.” That’s usually followed by ONLY seeing each other on the weekends. Then every other weekend. And then, of course, the imminent breakup looms over your head for several weeks…at least until someone has the courage to step up and call it off.

In most cases, the boyfriend or girlfriend will move on to another person to date. But if I am getting tired of ‘dating’ blogging, who should I move on to? Does blogging have a sexier cousin I should know about?

The thing I find ironic is that these blogging blackouts always come at a time when I NEED the extra income. At a time when I am relying on blogging to open up new doors. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself. Blogging wants a ring and I’m not ready to take the plunge.

So how’s your blog dating going? Please tell me I’m not the only one with trouble in paradise.

Create Personas. Latin for “mask,” a persona can give the flexibility and creative license you need to take a stance that you might normally avoid. Like an actor on stage you get to ‘ham’ it up, and at the end of the day, return to your normal self. There’s no guilt about what you did or said on stage, because you know what your true morals and beliefs are.

Write as an Inanimate Object. One of my more popular posts had me pretending I was a keyboard.

Writing from a different perspective can open your mind to thoughts you would not otherwise have. It’s an interesting way to tackle a topic you’d like to cover – and you might be surprised by the results.

If you do decide to blog as a character, I would recommend considering a second or third pen name. There are often things we’d like to write about, but understand that everything we publish can come back to bite us. This is where using a different blogging name can come in handy. You still get the authentic, real-life experiences that make blogs great – but without endorsing any ideas with your “real” name.

Do you ever blog as someone else? Is it something you would consider doing?

Aditya Mahesh recently blogged about How To Overcome The Disconnection of Working Alone.

And it is going to be the tipping point for me when it comes to blog conferences. I have never attended a blog expo. In fact, I’ve railed against them, chalking it all up as a business card strokefest; a way to bilk your employer out of money and time. Guest speakers talk about things you can read online. Companies pitch their products…and you have to pay to listen?!

But I could be wrong. And I won’t know for sure until I attend one myself. That’s right. THIS guy is looking to schmooze and mingle with like-minded professionals, and there’s probably no better place than at a conference.

I’d love to hear from you! What blog expos have you attended? Was it worth the time and money? And most importantly, what was the biggest lesson you walked away with? I’m searching for one in the New York area during 2010, so if you know of a good one, speak up!

In the meantime, I’ll read up on how to maximize my time at a blogging expo.

Blogging saw a busy week to round out the first month of the new decade. Between the announcement of Apple’s “truly magical and revolutionary product,” the first State of the Union address by President Barack Obama, and Pope Benedict XVI’s plea for priests to embrace the Internet to communicate with followers, I think it might be time to ask the question…

Has blogging peaked?

Think about it for a second, a hobby that was once reserved for an 18-year-old tech geek toiling away in his parent’s basement has become a medium – actually, a media – all to itself.

As the number of blogs on the Web grows, and the number of posts they produce multiply, it would appear there is nowhere to go but up. However, doesn’t everything have a saturation point?

Newspapers are crumbling, terrestrial radio has taken a massive ratings tumble, and even television is no longer the entertainment king it once was.

To say that blogging has jumped the shark, is nutty. My gut tells me there’s still plenty of growth left. But when my inbox is filled with e-mails from the White House and His Papelness is making social networking pleas, I think it’s fair to debate the topic.

Citing a drain on their “engineering resources,” the Google-owned platform has made the decision in order to concentrate on new features and improvements in 2010.

According to Blogger Buzz, the official Blogger blog (say that fast three times!), FTP users will not be left flailing in the dark. A migration tool that allows users to shift to a Blogger-managed URL (can be a custom domain or Blogspot URL) will be made available on February 22.

While some users might not be happy about the change, Blogger has been soliciting opinions and advice from their base for quite some time via Twitter.

Are you a Blogger FTP user? If so, please voice your opinion in the comments section below.

The WordPress Foundation has established as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the goal of democratizing publishing through Open Source, GPL software.

Current projects being supported include WordPress, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Themes, bbPress and BuddyPress.

Over the next few days donations will be accepted online.

Check out the official WordPress Foundation Website and read a bit more about their thinking:

Philosophy

In order to serve the public good, all of the software and projects we promote should support the following goals:

1. The software should be licensed under the GNU Public License.
2. The software should be freely available to anyone to use for any purpose, and without permission.
3. The software should be open to modifications.
4. Any modifications should be freely distributable at no cost and without permission from its creators.
5. The software should provide a framework for translation to make it globally accessible to speakers of all languages.
6. The software should provide a framework for extensions so modifications and enhancements can be made without modifying core code.

According to founder Matt Mullenweg, the Foundation hopes to gather broad community support. Are you in?

It’s actually not a total waste of time…

Writing an acceptance speech will help you take the time to reflect on who you should really thank.

The folks who have influenced your blog and kept you motivated might not be top of mind. Sure there’s God and mom and dad, but beyond that, there are countless other people who teach, cheer and inspire. Some you might know well; others might be virtual ‘friends.’ These are people who have helped shape your blog and YOU.

Robert Downey Jr. recently snagged a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Rather than the usual acceptance speech junk, he boldly told the world that he had no one to thank. It was of course a joke, but it got me thinking how unprepared I am. I realize I won’t be wining an OSCAR or a Razzie any time soon, but still, I’m the kind of guy who likes to be prepared.

Let’s pretend I just awarded you with the first ever Blog-Heraldy Award (yes, before we hand anything out, we’ll need a better name!). You’re dressed to impress. With the red carpet walk out of the way, the lights dim, and your name is called. You saunter up the stage in a fog. Thankfully, you wrote your acceptance speech in advance. Save us the bologna about not expecting to win. Use the time to pay homage to those who matter most.

What does your acceptance speech sound like?

Type quickly, we’re about to roll the music and cut to commercial.

My boss at the time would plead with us to read Reader’s Digest, claiming they had mastered the art of “catchy” headlines.

The way we digest our media has changed, but the tried and true methods of creating a powerful headline have not. Effective elements include…

1) Scare tactics – Warning: Blogging Could Be Killing You

2) Secrets Revealed - How Blogging Makes Me $5k a Month

3) Numbers - 27 Ways to Grow Your Blog

We can go back to the August 1949 issue of Reader’s Digest (see below) and find page-turners such as “High Blood Pressure? Don’t Be Alarmed” and “The World’s Strangest Factory.” Who wouldn’t want to read those!

But in the 1940s there were only a few magazines to choose from. These days, there are thousands of printed publications and hundreds of millions of Web pages. Can all of this fear-mongering, number-dropping and secret-revealing keep grabbing readers’ attention?

Saturation is defined as “the supplying of a market with as much of a product as it will absorb.”

Do you think the way headlines are written will change over the next decade? Or will the same methods continue to yield good results?

Personally, I already find myself tuning out these tactics. However, if I look back at the 2009 stats for my primary blog, over 75% of the stories in my top 20, contained some sort of number within the headline.

What are your thoughts on the future of blog headlines?

- Mobilize Your Readers. There are dozens of ways people can contribute money.

Musician Wyclef Jean, who’s from Haiti, says you can donate $5 by texting YELE to 501501 and by visiting www.yele.org

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts. Read more from the Red Cross.

CBS News has a comprehensive list of charities that are offering Haiti aid.

- Keep the Story Alive. After rescue and recover efforts, and the initial Twitter flood, the Haiti story will lose steam. That’s the harsh reality, despite the fact that it will take years for the presidential republic to recover. Do what you can to remind readers that they can help after the initial blow.

- Steer Clear of Politics. We are talking about human lives here, and we should not split hairs over what country is doing what and what different political parties are up to. Let’s just aim to help!

We wish our brothers and sisters in Haiti the very best.

If you know of any additional ways to help, please include them in the comments below.

During discussions with bloggers, I have found that the average blogger (not a superstar, but not a slouch) earns around $10 per 250-word post. Of course, most people exceed the word count to please their employer. (Heck, this post is contracted for 250 words and it’s closer to 500!).

So we’re looking at $.04 cents a word. But there are other factors that bring down that fee considerably. Here are a few things to consider when trying to determine if a blogging job is worth taking/keeping.

- Do they supply topics?

When I speak with fellow bloggers, I often find that they share a consistant thought: finding topics to blog about is the most time consuming part of the process. If your blog employer expects you to come up with your own topics, keep a watchful eye on the amount of time it takes you to determine what to write about. Also, if you need to get topics approved before writing them, factor in the time you spend going back and forth with an editor.

- Do they want you to supply images?

Another silent time-eater is searching for royalty-free images that have a public-use license. After you find a photo that matches your topic, it is often necessary to crop, correct, or create a new image.

- What blog platform are they using?

News flash: not everyone is using Wordpress! Your blog employer might be using a different platform, and that means you’ll have to spend some time learning how to post. I understand that most systems have a quick learning curve, but as soon as you are asked to login to a system – any system – you are using up your time.

- Assigning categories, tags and SEO.

It takes mere seconds per posts, but if you are writing a lot, that time can quickly add up. A strong blogger will devote time to these areas, and therefore should build it into their required compensation.

Each of the aforementioned tasks will take different people different amounts of time to accomplish. In the case of THIS blog post, here’s my time breakdown.

TOPIC: 10 minutes
IMAGE: 5 minutes
WORDPRESS LOGIN: 1 minute
TAGS, etc.: 1 minute
WRITING/EDITING: 20 minutes
PROOFING: 8 minutes

That’s a total of 45 minutes. Now if I was making the average $10 per 250-word post, I’d be at around $7.50 an hour. Is that worth my time? Only I can answer that question.

There’s an abundance of writers waiting in line to take your blogging gig. And the fact that they’ll take half the money you earn and write twice as well, doesn’t help. Before you go demanding more money, be sure to approach cautiously and be ready to back up your worth with real data (traffic increase, comment generation, industry standards, etc.).

Are there any methods you use to determine if freelance blogging is worth your time? Or are you simply happy to have the opportunity to make a few extra bucks doing something you love?

P.S. – I forgot that I’d also need to minus out the 4% that Paypal keeps! So in total, if we pretend I’m earning the ‘going’ rate, I’ve earned $7.20 for around 45 minutes of my time writing a 500-word blog post.