Yes, there will be a WordCount Blogathon in 2012. As in other years, it will take place in May.

If you’re not familiar with the blogathon, it’s a challenge to blog every day in May. In that respect, it’s similar to other community blogging challenges, such as NaBloPoMo (here’s a list of daily blogging challenges I compiled during the 2011 blogathon).

Bloggers – amateur, professional, whoever – who commit to blogging every day of the month are listed on the blogathon blog roll. If they make it the entire month, their names are entered in a drawing for writing and blogging-related prizes, which in years past have included books, tutoring, web design and other writing and blogging-related services.

The 2012 blogathon will include other features that have made past events so successful, including:

• A guest post exchange, a designated day for bloggers to swap posts with another blogger, preferably but not necessarily, another blogathon participant.
• Theme days, which aren’t mandatory but are helpful if you’re stuck for what to write about that day. Last year’s theme days included posts on favorite books and favorite places to write.
• Haiku days, also not mandatory, though the vast majority of bloggers who took part in previous blogathons did them because they’re short, easy to come up with and a week or two or daily blogging offer a much needed break!
• A members-only Google Group where bloggers can share links to their posts, get technical and other blogging questions answered.
• Live Twitter chats to kick off the blogathon, and to celebrate when it’s over.
• A weekly e-newsletter with blogathon updates.
• A blogathon badge to display on your blog.

Watch this space for registration, which will open some time in March.

Got a suggestion for how to make the 2012 blogathon even more wonderful? Leave it in a comment, or let me know at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

Time passed. And while I’m no less enthusiastic about blogging, this blog and the annual blogathon, I’ve had to do a reality check.

I adore the blogathon and have met an incredible group of people through it, people who have become some of my biggest fans, and even friends. Some of these people are still faithfully sharing links to their daily blog posts and asking each other questions about blogging on the WordCount blogathon Google Group that was set up for last year’s event.

But the hard, cold truth is that I lose money every time I host a blogathon. Last May, I probably lost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in time I would have otherwise used to take on paid writing or editing work. Not to mention the hours of sleep I lost doing blogathon-related administrative work into the wee hours of the night.

So I had to come to the conclusion that while a mini-blogathon was a great idea, I couldn’t pull it off twice in a calendar year. Not if I wasn’t going to charge people to participate – more on that in a minute.

If you were looking forward to a mini-blogging challenge this month, I hope you understand. And I hope you’ll still pick 10 days this month and blog every one of those days like you would have if the mini-blogathon had happened. Or maybe you’ll really go for it and join NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, which starts tomorrow and is being sponsored by BlogHer.

And don’t worry – there will be a 2012 WordCount Blogathon. As to the matter of losing money, I’ve already got some changes in the works to fix that. For one, I’m getting some help. I’m also contemplating offering two tiers of registration. One would be the usual free entry level with everything that’s been part of the blogathon in the past – the Google Group, weekly newsletter, etc. I may also offer a second, paid registration level that would come with an ebook on blogging and some other extras.

Thanks for your continued support of WordCount, the blogathon and me.

Happy blogging!

That’s just some of the advice on how to get more comments on your blog posts that was shared during last week’s WordCount Last Wednesday monthly Twitter chat for writers.

Writers and  bloggers also talked about dealing with fans who think nothing of responding to blog posts on a related Facebook page, but wouldn’t be caught dead leaving a comment on the actual post, and about how they deal with readers who leave mean comments.

Read on:

How to get more comments on blog posts

@MathforGrownups, Laura Laing, a Baltimore journalist and author of the new book, Math for Grownups – Personal posts, especially when I ask folks to tell me their stories. There’s not a whole lot that’s personal about math, but people are always eager to share their math stories, teacher was mean, etc. Also, controversial posts. Oh, and when I make a math mistake, someone always chimes in to tell me.

@sarahmorgan, Sarah Morgan, a New Jersey writer covering personal and social media – Blog posts (that get) the most comments are intensely personal or teach people how to do something. My post with the most comments was after one of my best friends died. Depressing but true.

@MichelleRafter, that’s me!- Agree about controversial posts. I got most comments ever on pieces debating writing for content mills. I also started adding a line to bottom of post asking: “What do you think?” or “What’s your experience?” to solicit feedback. It works. I’ve also had good success running polls. People love taking polls and Polldaddy makes it simple if you have a WordPress or WordPress.com blog.

@jenwillis, a Portland, Oregon, freelancer covering living, religion, history and health current in Dublin, Ireland, on a fellowship – For me, it’s usually when I share writing advice. Or when people start wars with each other in the comments on my posts.

@UrbanMuseWriter, Susan Johnston, a Boston freelancer who covers small biz and personal finance – When I post unconventional advice or find a topic that hits a nerve with people it tends to generate comments. Topics that are relatable, for instance, challenges that many freelancers face but few discuss. Also, I get more comments when I’m hosting a giveaway and people need to leave a comment to enter.

@JanUdlock, Jan Udlock, a Portland, Oregon writer for regional parenting mags, and blogger at IMP3RfecCt Mom – Giveaways get the highest number of comments. I’ve given away books and ebooks. I find it important to comment on people’s comments. They feel more engaged.

@riverand, Nicole Rivera, blogger, techie, foodie and a ton more – I find I get more comments when working within a blogging community, i.e., SitsGirls, BlogFrog or WriteOnEdge.

I get more comments on Facebook than on my blog, is that a problem?

@ThoughtsHappen, Louise Julig, a San Diego marketing writer – Getting comments is hard for me. I get more comments on the Facebook page for my blog than on blog itself. I think non-writer people feel ‘safer’ on Facebook than posting right on the blog. I have the Facebook ‘Like’ box, but don’t know how to get the feed yet.

@jenwillis I’ve had a similar experience with comments on Facebook v. comments on the actual blog post.

@wordwhacker, Linda Bernstein, New York City writer and blogger at GenerationBSquared – I get more comments through Facebook, Google+, email or Twitter than in the comment box on my blogs.

@AmyVernon, ex-newspaper reporter turned social media superstar  - That’s not really a problem, as long as they’re actually reading and sharing, that’s the important part. NPR, for example, found they were getting more comments on Facebook than on their site. But visits and shares exploded. I believe that’s completely scalable no matter the size of your audience, too.

@MichelleRafter Getting comments on Facebook shows how important it is to be on social networks, and channel that back to your blog. I’ve kept Facebook for non-work stuff, so I don’t put links to my posts there either. But I put the FB ‘Like’ box on my blog’s social sharing toolbar.

@JanUdlock I find there are moms that don’t want to leave comments on my blog for personal space issues, but will on Facebook. If social media is not their thing, they won’t comment.

@sarahmorgan I also find that I get comments on Facebook rather than on the actual post. Frustrating, isn’t it?

@riverand Also, replying on someone’s blog, rather than on your own can often be even more valuable! I get non-bloggy/writers on Facebook. Each audience has their space.

@MichelleRafter I added StumbleUpon, Reddit boxes to my social media toolbar this year, that generates some additional comments but Reddit readers comment on posts on Reddit & StumbleUpon generates mostly drive-by page views and no comments.

@ThoughtsHappen I have also gotten comments on LinkedIn groups that I put a blog post in discussion, but the post has to be very relevant to the group.

@AmyVernon You need to communicate where the people are, and they’re fragmented. Plus, Facebook comments tend to be more civil because they’re not anonymous.

Dealing with trolls, bullies and nasties

@jenwillis I moderate all comments. They don’t post online unless I approve them. If someone offers an alternative view and is making a good point, I let it through. If it’s nastiness for the sake of being nasty, I trash it. Maybe that’s censorship, but it’s my blog space.

@MathforGrownups I put on my big-girl panties and respond respectfully and with logic. That is, only if the comments are not abusive. My blog is my house, and I control who can speak there.

@wordwhacker I just don’t approve nastiness. But I almost never get it, probably because of my subject.

@MathforGrownups What’s even more interesting is to get nastiness on another blog or elsewhere on the internet. Then responding or not is critical.

@ThoughtsHappen I rarely if ever get nastiness, but I think that’s because I don’t get many comments overall. That is one benefit of Facebook though.

@wordwhacker I see on Google+ all these mommy bloggers talking about mommy bullying through blogs. I find that weird.

@ThoughtsHappen Good grief. People don’t have enough to do w/out bullying each other on the net? Dumb.

@wordwhacker Yes, agree, especially for these mommy bloggers.

@MichelleRafter If a reader presents an alternative point of view in a comment, do you debate it, thank them for sharing, let others respond or let it go?

@riverand On Reddit there can be lots of nastiness for nastiness sake, so I take it from the source and decide when to engage in a debate.

@MathforGrownups Depends. Sometimes I debate it. But there is almost always a time to let it go.

@MichelleRafter Laura, can you share what happened to you?

@MathforGrownups USA Weekend wrote a story about my book with incorrect info. Commenters on that site pointed out the error. I responded to say that the book is right, story wrong. It got picked up by HuffPost, CJR and others. People were furious! USA Weekend didn’t correct the mistake soon enough. There was a huge online uproar, and I had to decide where and when to respond. Today there are two bad reviews on Amazon for my book, both referencing the USA Weekend story and I decided not to respond. But I did blog about it and got some negative comments. We had a little back and forth on my own blog. Pretty harmless and easy.

To moderate or not to moderate comments, that’s the question

@MathforGrownups Yes, I moderate comments, just through WordPress.

@MichelleRafter I moderate comments, but don’t use CAPTCHA or something like it. I want to make it as easy as possible for people to give feedback.

@jenwillis I do moderate comments, using my blog’s WordPress backbone.

@riverand I use DISQUS and recently found out this confuses my non-blogger followers. I’ve loved it until I had two different Facebook followers say, “I’m writing this here because I can’t figure that thing out!” I’m planning on a how-to post now.

@sarahmorgan I don’t moderate but I do review after they go up.

@wordwhacker I do moderate comments. I have a spam filter and then a plugin to my email and I moderate by hand. The filter gets all the spam. Amazing.

@ThoughtsHappen Is the spam filter part of WordPress? My blog is not on WordPress but I’m thinking of migrating.

@MichelleRafter Use a plug in called Akismet.

Join us today for the next WordCount Last Wednesday live chat, where we’re discussing blog comments – how to get more of them and how to tackle bad ones.

As a special treat, we’ll be joined by writer Laura Laing, who learned a thing or two about comment backlash after a USA Today Weekend review of her new book, Math for Grownups, included some factual errors that caused an online dustup.

The chat takes place today at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the Twitter hashtag #wclw to participate.

After introductions, we’ll answer the following questions:

1. What post or posts on your blog receive the most comments, and why?
2. What’s your best tip for getting more comments?
3. Do you make commenters verify their ID beforehand, and if so, what do you use?
4. How do you handle mean, nasty comments, or personal attacks?

After that we’ll open it up to a general discussion.

Use TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite to follow along. You might want to alert followers that you’ll be tweeting more than usual during the chat, and suggest they use Muuter.com to temporarily mute you if they don’t want to tune into the conversation.

If you can’t make it, I’ll post highlights on Thursday, Sept. 29.

See you online.

That’s what it can feel like if you blog religiously without getting much – or any – feedback from readers. Because face it, we all love comments. Part of the satisfaction of blogging is knowing people appreciate what we do.

But getting readers to leave comments can be tough. And you have to be careful what you wish for: the comments you get might not be the ones you want.

The next WordCount Last Wednesday live chat will look at blog comments – creating posts that cry out for interaction, making it easy for readers to leave theirthoughts and tackling the equivalent of blog hate mail.

The chat takes place this Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the Twitter hashtag #wclw to participate.

Here’s the agenda for the chat:

10 a.m. – Sign on and introduce yourself.

10:05 a.m. – I’ll ask the following questions to get things started:

1. What post or posts on your blog receive the most comments, and why?
2. What’s your best tip for getting more comments?
3. Do you make commenters verify their ID beforehand, and if so, what do you use?
4. How do you handle mean, nasty comments, or personal attacks?

10:40 a.m. – We’ll open it up to a general discussion.

11 a.m. – The chat ends.

It’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for the chat, but you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which you can log into using your Twitter account. You might want to alert followers that you’ll be tweeting more than usual during the chat, and suggest they use Muuter.com to temporarily mute you if they don’t want to tune into the conversation.

If you’re unable to join us, I’ll post highlights from the chat on Thursday, Sept. 29.

Got an idea for a future #wclw chat, or would like to participate as a guest speaker? Send your topic idea or bio to me at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

Sometime last week I published the 500th post of this blog.

It might not be apparent to you, but those 500 blog posts changed my life.

Three years ago I was a stay at home mom.

I’d put a career as a staff reporter then freelance journalist on hold seven years before to have a baby. That made three kids, a husband, dog, assorted lizards and goldfish, a big house and an even bigger yard. It was too much to handle all that and work without constantly being stressed out.

Over the years that followed, I dabbled with part-time work: a semester teaching at journalism school here, writing a couple stories for a daily newspaper there, filing a couple features for a friend who’d taken over as the editor of a trade magazine in between.

I finally came back to writing full time in fall 2007 when our oldest went to college and our youngest went to first grade.

Writing was the easiest part of my freelance business to slip back into.

It was everything else that had changed since I’d been away that was hard to figure out. I’d quit during the dot-com bust and had no clue what Web 2.0 was about. One day a friend casually mentioned LinkedIn and I needed her to explain it to me – me, who’d spent years as a tech industry writer and columnist.

To get myself up to speed, I started a blog. I signed up with Blogger first but quickly switched to WordPress because, honestly, the free version of WordPress had prettier themes, and more of them.

At first I had no specific subject in mind, and barely managed to figure out the software. Most of my initial posts were marginal, though a few have held up surprisingly well.

I got the hang of it soon enough. Over the two and a half years that followed, blogging literally transformed my writing business. How?

• By teaching myself about the mechanics of blogging, I was able to nab assignments to write about blogging and social media for publications likeInc.com.
• By teaching myself to blog, I made myself more marketable by showing perspective clients that in addition to writing straight news, features and columns, I was proficient in another writing format, no small thing as more publications maintain contributor-written blogs.
• By using the blog to showcase my resume, bio and clips, I landed the biggest freelance gig of my career to date, a long-term contract fromFederated Media to edit GetTheInsideEdge.com, a custom publication on corporate finance for mid-size companies that American Expresslaunched in April. Afterward, I learned that even before they called me, the people who hired me had thoroughly vetted my blog and LinkedIn profile.
• By showing I understood the medium and could post week in and week out, I was invited to be a paid contributing blogger at SecondAct.com, an online magazine for people over 40 published from Entrepreneur Media, publisher of Entrepreneur. In addition to blogging here, you can read my posts on workplace issues, careers and retirement on SecondAct’s Prime Time blog twice a week.
• By using my blog to track what’s happening in the digital media industry I’ve been invited to speak at journalism conferences and industry groups.
• By inviting other writers with blogs to join me in a personal challenge to blog every day for a month, I started the WordCount Blogathon, an annual event that’s created a writers’ community and become one ofhighlights of my year.
• By holding myself to a twice-weekly or more blogging schedule and strict editorial standards, I qualified to join a blog advertising network,BlogHer, and this year for the first time am earning advertising income solely from this blog.

I don’t point this out to brag, though I am proud of what I’ve accomplished, especially at a time in our industry when many freelancers question their ability to continue doing business in the manner to which they’re accustomed.

The main reason I’m sharing is this – if I can do it, you can too.

All it takes is commitment, confidence – and a blog.

BlogHer isn’t the only blog ad network out there, but it’s a popular one, especially among women who blog.

To date, being part of BlogHer hasn’t been been particularly lucrative for me. Last year, I made a whopping $100, barely enough to cover my website’s annual domain name and hosting fees. But ad revenue has picked up dramatically over the past two months and I’m on track to make more than double or even triple that in 2011 – though even that’s not as much as I could make writing a single 500-word magazine article. Some bloggers make more, some make less. It all boils down to how much traffic is coming into your site, and what the revenue sharing arrangement is with the ad network you sign up with.

If you’ve been thinking about joining an ad network and are considering applying to join BlogHer, here’s what to know:

1. Just because you want to join doesn’t mean you can. BlogHer’s publishing network – which is what they call the 2,500 or so blogs that carry their ads – is different from BlogHer.com, the company’s website, which the company says reaches 25 million women each month. BlogHer periodically accepts applications from bloggers interested in joining the ad network. Fill out BlogHer’s online application to put yourself in the running.

2. BlogHer ads get prime real estate on your blog. If and when BlogHer accepts you into their ad network, you can run their ads on your blog. However, you can’t just stick them any old place you’d like. When you join, you agree to adhere to a number of BlogHer policies and rules, one of them being that whatever BlogHer ad unit you choose to place on your blog will be located “above the fold,” in other words, high enough up on your blog’s front page that readers don’t have to scroll down to see it. There are other stipulations as well: that ads from other blog ad networks you belong to don’t get higher placement, that your blog hosting service allows advertising, that you’ll stick to their editorial guidelines regarding sponsored posts, etc.

3. You can opt out of ads that aren’t a good fit. One thing I like about BlogHer is the ability they give bloggers to opt out of running certain types of ads that might not be a good fit for their blog or that they find personally objectionable. For example, since I don’t run a parenting blog, I opt out of all ads for baby products. Vegetarian bloggers can opt out of ads showing meat or dairy products. Bloggers can also opt out of ads for political parties or religious groups.

4. Ad rates vary, therefore so will revenue from BlogHer ads on your blog. Like many other ad networks, BlogHer charges advertisers on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis. Those rates range anywhere from nothing for public service announcements to upwards of $9 or $10. BlogHer takes a cut of all ads and the balance goes to the blogger as a commission. How much money you make depends on how many of your readers look at a page on your blog featuring a specific ad and how many of them click on the ad. One ad on my blog had 14,000 impressions, i.e., 14,000 separate views, but received zero revenue because it was a public service announcement. On the other hand, another ad only had 1,200 page views but I made $5.30 because the CPM was $7.50.

5. You only get a check after reaching a certain level of ad income. BlogHer pays bloggers 45 days after the close of the month, but only if their share of ad revenue for that period is $25 or more. If it’s not, the company hold funds until the accrued value reaches that amount. Bloggers get paid by check or in their PayPal account. Bloggers can use an online revenue report tools to see the ad activity on their blog and what their commission they’ve earned to date for any specified time period.

6. Ads aren’t the only way you can make money. Once you become part of BlogHer’s ad network, you’re offered other money-making opportunities. The company periodically offers bloggers the chance to earn $20, $50 or $100 by reviewing a book or other product, or to enter sweepstakes drawings to win similar amounts or more. If the company’s editorial staff makes you a featured blogger for the week or decides to run one of your posts on their front page – which you give them permission to do when you join the network – it could increase traffic to your site, which in turn can increase your ad revenue. If they choose to syndicate one of your posts, which means it runs in full on BlogHer, it’s an extra $50 in your pocket.

7. It’s easy to keep track of what’s going on. The BlogHer team produces a weekly e-newsletter with updates on the network, ad campaigns and more.

8. BlogHer gives bloggers in and out of its ad network opportunities to get together in person. BlogHer’s annual conference got so popular, the company’s created a series of spin offs on specialty topics such as food, crafts and business and technology. Speaking of the annual conference, the 2011 powwow takes place Aug. 5-6 in San Diego; see details on the BlogHer ’11 conference page.

Read more on BlogHer and blog ad networks:

Lisa Stone on BlogHer: The women’s blog network comes into its own (WordCount) – My recap of Stone’s talk at the 2009 Online News Association conference.

AdNetwork’s List of Networks (AdNetwork.net) – This list of 458 online advertising networks includes networks that run ads on major websites, social networks, mobile phones and podcasts, as well as blogs. You’ll have to search the list to find the blog networks, but they’re there. Many of them only rep big-name websites or blogs, or work only in Africa, Asia, Europe or other parts of the world. A number cater to specific blog niches, such as men 18 to 35, sports, entertainment/gaming, etc.  Plan on spending a good chunk of time combing through the list for matches.

List of online ad networks (eprofits) – A short list of ad networks, including CPM-based and affiliate programs.

If you’re on BlogHer or another blog ad network, what’s your experience been?

We addressed all those issues and more in last week’s WordCount Last Wednesday writer chat with guest Ron Doyle, a Denver freelance writer, web developer and WordPress expert.

For those of you who missed it, or tuned in but didn’t bother to take notes at the time, here’s a cleaned up version of the conversation. Tweets have been edited for length and clarity. Because of some mysterious wonkiness on Twitter during the chat, some tweets didn’t make it into #wclw saved searches on Twitter, TweetChat or TwapperKeeper, which means a few juicy tidbits may have slipped through undetected. If you’ve got additional recommendations for hosts, themes or plugins, please leave them in a comment.

1. Advantages of a free self-hosted WordPress blog 

@rondoylewrites – Free is great, but control is better. With a self-hosted WordPress website or blog, you have total control. With self-hosted WP.org sites, you can control the design, monetization, and analytics. By contrast, WordPress.com doesn’t allow ads, Blogger.com has limited design options, etc. Most importantly, with a self-hosted site you never have to worry that the parent company will go out of business. But, to be clear, something free is better than nothing at all!

2. WordPress themes

@rondoylewrites – Themes are like outfits, everyone has their own style preferences. When choosing a theme, try to pick one with a child/parent theme framework.  WordPress parent/child theme frameworks let you make customizations that can’t be undone by updates. Basically, you install two themes, the parent and the child. Then, you make design tweaks to the child. When the developer updates the parent theme you don’t have to worry about losing your customizations. Most themes do not have a parent/child option. Hybrid, Thesis and Genesis are very popular examples of themes that do have the parent/child framework theme. My favorite WordPress parent/child framework is Hybrid by @JustinTadlock. His code has superpowers. Thesis and Genesis are other very popular examples of the parent/child framework theme. Genesis is a solid framework, but it’s $79. Theme Hybrid is free.

@jenwillis - I’m using the Atahualpa WordPress theme. I don’t know if it’s a parent/child theme.

@rondoylewrites - Unfortunately, Atahualpa does not have a parent/child framework, but newer versions do (sometimes) save your tweaks.

3. What to look for in a hosting service

@rondoylewrites – For a WordPress site, your host must have MySQL and PHP5 capabilities. WordPress is content management system (CMS) and all your content and settings are stored in a database (MySQL), so find a host that uses MySQL. PHP is the programming language that pulls information from MySQL. Beyond MySQL and PHP5, I highly recommend going with a host that uses a Linux server instead of a Microsoft server. My favorite web hosts:

• Bluehost
• Dreamhost
• Hostgator 

I recommend all of those web hosts because of their price, features, and compatibility with WordPress. My new top favorite for environmental reasons is Green Geeks. They’re affordable and (use) zero CO2. One last thing about hosts — be sure to pick one with a great control panel. That’s why GoDaddy isn’t on the list.

@jenwillis – FatCow is supposedly very green and offers good customer support. Plus, it’s inexpensive.

@teachwhatisgood - I’m hosting with iPage and so far things seem to be going well.

4. Recommended WordPress plugins

Plugins are one of the big perks of self-hosted WordPress: little packs of code that add special functions. There are literally tens of thousands of plugins! Almost all of plugins are free. Typically only custom plugins cost money. Some of my favorite plugins:

• AntiCaptcha (security)
• All-in-One SEO Pack
• Blubrry PowerPress (podcasting)
• Contact Form 7
• Hetjens Feed Redirect , redirect requests to the main or comment feed of the blog to Feedburner or a similar service
• Google XML Sitemaps (SEO)
• Qoate Content Expiration, replaces anything you want with a custom message after an expiration date
• What Would Seth Godin Do (WWSGD), shows different custom messages to a blog’s first-time and returning visitors
•  Image Widget — everyone should install this one — I think it should become standard feature for WordPress. It lets you add images to your sidebar without knowing HTML, which is very handy
• For stats tracking, I used to love WP.com Stats, but its replacement, Jetpack is super buggy. Now I strongly recommend Google Analyticator or Web Ninja Google Analytics.

@teachwhatisgood - I like Broken Link Checker. It helps me keep on track of any links that are not working.

@pjnoonan - What about apps to add Facebook and Twitter live feeds to your blog?

@rondoylewrites – I don’t recommend the Facebook and Twitter widgets that display live tweets, updates, etc. Not a fan because they use scripts that slow down your site. Better to maintain separate conversations, in my opinion. But connecting to Facebook and Twitter with Like and Tweet buttons is awesome.

@michellerafter - For polls, I like PollDaddy, which you can manage from WordPress or from PollDaddy.com. My new favorite is Editorial Calendar, which adds an editorial calendar to the WordPress dashboard you can use to easily schedule posts. Love, love, love it.

You can read more on WordPress here:

• Get Set Up: Advantages of Self-Hosted WordPress Blogs, from WordPress
• Best WordPress plug ins for writers and bloggers
• Link your WordPress, Six Apart blogs to your LinkedIn profile
• WordPress users can add ratings to posts, comments

Save the Date: Next #wclw Chat is July 27

Just getting started freelancing, or wondering how to take your writing business to the next level? Join me next month when the subject will be the basics of running a freelance writing business. Tune in July 27 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the #wclw hashtag to join the conversation.

Got a writing or blogging-related subject that would make a great Twitter chat? Let me know. I’m scheduling WordCount Last Wednesday writer chats through 2011 and would love your ideas.

Bloggers who use WordPress have so many plug ins and widgets at their disposal it’s impossible to keep track of them all, let choose the good from the bad.

Chat to feature WordPress expert Ron Doyle

That’s why I’ve invited WordPress expert and website designer Ron Doyle to be my guest for the next WordCount Last Wednesday chat for writers and bloggers. The chat takes place on Wednesday, June 29, at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the hashtag #wclw to join the conversation.

Doyle shared his expertise on WordPress plug ins in the first ever #wclw chat last June and it was so popular I asked him for an encore. In addition to talking about add ons he recommends to clients, Doyle will discuss WordPress themes, picking a hosting service and more.

Here’s the agenda for the June 29 #wclw chat:

10 a.m. – Sign on and introduce yourself.

10:10 a.m. – I’ll Ron the following questions:

1. What’s the advantage of a WordPress.org blog v. WordPress.com, Blogger or Tumblr?
2. If someone’s starting a self-hosted WordPress blog, what should they look for in a theme?
3. If someone’s starting a blog, what should they look for in a hosting service?
4. What WordPress plugins do you recommend?
5. Do you recommend moderating comments & if so, what’s the best way?

10:40 a.m. – We’ll open it up to questions from the audience.

11 a.m. – The chat ends.

Although it’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for the chat, you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which you can log into using your Twitter account.

If you’re unable to join us, I’ll post highlights from the chat on Thursday, June 30.

If you have a subject you’d like to see discussed in a WordCount chat for writers and bloggers this year, let me know.

Dear WordCount:

I watched a skin cancer video that is amazing and I want to put on my blog. I tried to embed it but can’t. Can you please help me? I don’t want a link. I want the screen.

Thanks,

J.

Dear J.:

Sorry you’re having technical difficulties. Adding a YouTube video to blog post seems tricky, but isn’t difficult at all. In fact, YouTube has made it easier than ever.

Here are step-by-step instructions.

Since I use WordPress, these instructions are for embedding a video to a WordPress blog:

1. Create the post you’ll be adding the video to. Leave a blank line or space where you want the video to go.

2. Open a new window on your browser and use it to go to YouTube. Select the video you want to add to your blog post.

3. Look for the “Share” button under the video. If you hover you cursor over it, a little pop up will say “Share or embed this video.” Click on the button.

4. The Share button gives you two choices. The first is linking to the video. If you just want to grab the URL, hover your cursor over the highlighted HTML code and right mouse click on it to copy it and paste it into the appropriate spot in the text of your blog post.

5. Choice No. 2 is embedding the video into your post. To do this, click on the “Embed” button. That opens up a larger window with options for using a secure version of HTTP, privacy enhanced mode or an older version of the embed code – none of which you need to use unless you want to. To find out more about any of these, read this YouTube info page on how to embed a video.

6. The same embed window also offers you 4 options for the size of the video as it will appear on your page, or gives you the choice to create a custom size. Click on the size you want and the appropriate HTML code will appear in the embed code window. Copy the code.

7. Go back to your blog post and paste the code into the spot you’ve chosen for it. Hit “Publish” to publish the post. Note: as I found out when I went through these steps myself, you have to publish the post immediately after adding the video or it might not show up correctly. So make sure all the other elements of the post – headline, tags, links, etc. – are ready to go before adding the video.

YouTube Video Embedding Example: The Bee Tree

I followed my own instructions to copy and paste this video a beekeeper took of removing honey bees from a dead maple tree in the backyard of my sister’s house:

If you learn better seeing something than reading directions, here’s a slideshow from About.com that explains how to embed a video on a WordPress blog post. And here’s a video on embedding videos in WordPress blogs.

If you have a blog on Blogger, here’s a short video on how to add a video to a blog on Blogger. And here’s another.