Here is a question for you.

What is the most important quality a blog can have? read more

I believe that a blogger who is on top of their game is just as valuable as a staff writer. Yet, you will often find that the compensation doesn’t match.

This is the very issue I wrestled with when considering an offer to write a weekly blog post for US News & World Report - for zero compensation. Despite a strong reaction from my peers and readers of this blog, I decided to do it. So far, it has translated into what I think is a nice resume-booster and about 60 click-throughs a month.

I’ll leave it for you to decide if the time I put into writing each post is worth it. For now, I think it is. But it’s a fine line between a blogger guest posting just for the exposure and mainstream media looking for free content. Which leads me to the “Write My Blog” contest I came across on CNBC.

According to Sports Biz blogger Darren Rovell…

It’s always hard taking a vacation these days as a reporter. Being on the beat all the time is just part of the job…Since I want to take a real vacation and get away, I don’t want to be blogging. At the same time, I do want my blog to continue to be the destination it has become for all things sports business…So if you’re a sports biz junkie, you frequent this site and you think you know your stuff, here is your chance to guest host my blog on CNBC.com.

Read more about the contest and enter.

What are your thoughts? Good exposure for a blogger; or mainstream media freeloading? Perhaps both. Speak your mind!

Gawker Media trims several jobs. Ebay lowers the guillotine. And Yahoo might be on the brink.

Short of ending the war in Iraq next week (not going to happen), we are probably looking at lousy financial times in the foreseeable future.

The question is: What does a poor economy mean for bloggers?

My initial thought was that companies will likely trim “entertainment” content sources like blogs. But then I started to wonder if it will be high-paid writers who take the hit - and bloggers lining up to take their gigs (perhaps wishful thinking).

With the cost of an Internet connection so inexpensive, and the ability to use even the oldest computer to exercise the craft, bloggers have minimal overhead. That’s something we should all be grateful for.

Perhaps during this ‘difficult time,’ more people will head online to forget about the $2,100 they have tucked away in a savings account.

What do you think an economic downturn means for the majority of paid bloggers?

All I know is that right now I need my blogging gigs more than ever before. I guess this would be a bad time to ask for a few more bucks a post, eh?

Break glass in case of emergency.

Blogging might be relatively safe when compared to an underwater electrician, but every job comes with its own set of hazards. Here are some measures to take to protect yourself while blogging.

EYES: Follow the 20/20/20 rule. This is something I do for a week and then forget about - but it’s key. For every 20 minutes you’re staring at the computer or a document - look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. More.

HANDS: If you are suffering from mild to moderate carpal tunnel symptoms, it is more important than ever to stretch your wrists. Simple things like flexing your hand in different directions and making a fist can help tremendously. Blogging is just like running, you should always do your warm-up exercises before getting started. Exercises.

BACK: I’m not sure how fast you write your blogs, but if you’re a slow typer, you could be sedentary for quite some time. A simple seated twist yoga exercise, conducted with your legs, can help alleviate pressure on your spine. Watch it here.

STRESS: The real silent killer. Perhaps your blogging about an annoying topic. Or simply frustrated that you can’t think of a good topic or get that Web traffic where you want it. There are 50 things you can do right now to chill out.

What’s in your blogging first aid kit? Band-Aids, anyone?

The top reasons people want to blog are all self-centered:

• I want to write a diary
• I want to make money from ads
• I want to sell products and services
• I want people to listen to me
• … and so on

That’s all fine, and I encourage anyone to persue their goals. Fact is though, if you do want to achieve goals, you need to think differently … read more

Finally, after years of blogging in the corner of a one bedroom apartment, I will be moving into an office. It will be a pleasure not to no longer be distracted by my wife’s phone conversations or reality TV obsession.

While I still need to figure out where to put my desk, how to set up the computer and how to optimize Feng Shui, first I need to decide what color to paint it.

RED is out because it can raise blood pressure, create heat and stimulate anger and rage.

ORANGE is optimistic, but too much can cause frustration and irritability. And I’ve got enough of that to go around.

YELLOW is said to stimulate the brain and increase one’s thirst for knowledge. I like the way that sounds, but I simply don’t love yellow.

GREEN is both refreshing and cleansing, bringing about calmness. Sounds good. But this sustainability-mania is forcing the color down all of our throats.

BLUE can be peaceful or depressing, depending on the shade. It can help anxiety and reduce the volume of phlegm. Bonus!

PURPLE can have a spiritual effect. But God probably doesn’t care what color I paint the office.

What color is your blogging location and what color do you think I should go with?

After researching all of these colors, I’m back to white!

Side effects may include runny nose, itchy scalp, bloody stool…

Over the past few weeks the majority of my time has been consumed with the purchase of a new house. Both stressful and exhilarating, the process has left me with precious few minutes to attend to my blogging duties - both paid and unpaid. Each night, despite my home-buying excitement, there was a dull nagging. A sort of gnawing at my soul. The culprit? My lack of blog production.

Like a rapidly-growing tumor, blogging has become part of who I am; like it or not.

Don’t get me wrong, I can still delineate between an Internet-free life event (Wedding, funeral, family birthday, etc.), but withdrawing from the activity that has become such an integral part of my life, has become a bit of a challenge.

My guess is that us bloggers share many of the same characteristics and personality traits. Aside from the obvious love of the written (typed) word, we tend to be fastidious by nature, a little obsessive and a tad introverted. So I need to know…

HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ARE UNABLE TO BLOG?

Hopefully you don’t need methadone to alleviate your shakes. Or has it gotten that bad?

Innovations in blog design are now pretty few and far between. Blog design has pretty much settled into conventions that work. It’s one of the reasons I can be so happy with settling on just the Thesis WordPress theme and why I love it so much.

Every now and then though someone still manages to come out with a tweak or idea that makes me smile. read more

Future of Blogging

Have you ever wanted to know the future of the blogosphere - say, what blogs will be like 10 years from now?

Thanks to The Blog Herald’s brand new Advanced Blogospheric Chrononavigational Discombobulus (ABCD) - basically a time machine fortuitously dropped at our doorstep last night by an unknown person - now you can.

Immediately after checking the outcomes of the next 5 U.S. presidential elections (Nader ‘24! Who’da thunk?) and finding out exactly when World War III will start (thank heavens we can still prevent it), The Blog Herald excitedly sat down with a Ms. X, a professional blogger in the year 2018.

Here’s what X had to say about the future of blogs. read more

Jason Calacanis quitting blogging was big news in the navel gazing inner blogosphere, I doubt it made such an impact outside that, but still, it is news. I have a lot of respect for Jason, and I do subscribe to his mailing list, but now I’m confused. First he switched to WordPress, and then said he wasn’t getting back to blogging:

Now hosted on WordPress for posterity, but no I’m not coming back to blogging. I’m enjoying the mailing list waaaaay to much!

Right. This is where the confusion starts. read more