The answer is a lot of things, and one of them is noticed.

When I started blogging on a regular basis, including through several annual blogathons, a former colleague from my newspaper days noticed, signed up for the WordCount RSS feed and started tracking what I was doing. When she landed a job as managing editor at SecondAct.com, an online magazine for people over 40, she approached me about becoming one of the site’s regular bloggers.

Then this year’s blogathon rolled around. After the first few weeks I realized that among the 200 or so freelance writers and bloggers participating were people over 40 blogging as part of a self transformation. I mentioned it to my SecondAct editor and she thought it’d make a great blog post.

Liz Sheffield

That post went live today. Here’s what I wrote:

Liz Sheffield turns 40 on May 25 and she’s blogging about it to celebrate.

This month, Sheffield, a full-time corporate employee and part-time writer based in Seattle, is putting into words her dreams and anxieties about her milestone birthday and what she wants to do with the next half of her life.

“Frankly, I had no idea that this would be the perfect way to celebrate beginning the next phase of my life,” she says about her blog, called Motherlogue. “Thanks to guest posts and plenty of reader comments I feel like I have a mini manual, preparing me for the journey.”

You can read the rest of the post here: Blogging Their Way to a Mid-Life Makeover.

Are you blogging as part of your own reinvention? If so, please share your story.

Based on sign ups – and as of early today there are close to 165 – many of you are blogging for the first time, restarting an blog that had fallen by the wayside, or looking to turn a hobby blog into a business venture.

Whether you’re an absolute beginner or brushing up on your blogging skills, here are tips taken from previous WordCount posts that you can use to make your blog look professional from the get go.

Now, go work on your blog.

Basics

• How to pick a topic for a blog
• Simple steps to starting a blog
• The well-dressed blog post
• 6 surefire strategies to get more comments on your blog
• Driving traffic to your blog
• Sex sells and other blogging lessons learned

Blog posts

• 25 ways to blog every day
• 25 more ways to blog every day
• 10 sure cures for blogging burnout
• Give under-appreciated blog posts a second chance
• Cheat your way to blogging every day
• The long tail of blogging

Blog tech

• 5 reasons why you should obsess over blog stats
• WordPress users can add ratings to posts, comments
• The use and abuse of Twitter to flog your blog
• Best WordPress plug ins for writers and bloggers

Make money blogging

• 6 ways to find paid blogging gigs
• WordCount joins the BlogHer ad network

Bring them to the WordCount blogging chat on Twitter today at 10 a.m. PST.

To follow the conversation, use the hashtag #blog2011.

Never participated in a Twitter chat before? Here’s what to do:

1. Log onto Twitter. If you don’t have an account, all you need to sign up is email address, name and password.
2. Find the Search window at the top of Twitter’s main page and enter #blog2011.
3. The search results will include tweets with the #blog2011 hashtag in reverse chronological order, with the newest showing first. Scroll down to see what people are saying.
4. Join the conversation by typing in your own 140-character tweet in the What’s Happening box on your Twitter home page. Include the hashtag #blog2011 at the end so your tweet shows up in other people’s #blog211 searches.
5. To make following the conversation easier, use a Twitter add-on such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which automatically adds the appropriate hashtag to your tweets and shows only tweets related to that chat.

What the #blog2011 chat will cover

During the 60-minute chat, we’ll talk about blogging basics, writing posts, blogging software and more.

Here’s a timeline:

At 10 a.m. we’ll log on and introduce ourselves.

At 10:10 a.m., I’ll start posting the first of a pre-set list of questions. To make it easy for people to keep track of conversations, your answers should include a reference to the question (e.g., “Q1: I think blogging’s great….”).

The pre-set questions are:

Q1 – What do you want to know about the blogathon?

Q2 – What do you want to know about blogging?

Q3 – What are your favorite tips for writing posts?

Q4 – What blogging software or apps do you want to know more about?

At approximately 10:40 a.m. we’ll open it up to a general Q&A where you can ask anything.

At 10:55 a.m. we’ll start to wrap things up so we can sign off by 11 a.m.

See you at the chat.

Online resources for writers – Help navigating the world of Web-based resources for writers, including top Web 2.0 tools, what writers should know about SEO and how to use LinkedIn.

Blogging basics for writers – Everything you need to know to start a writing blog, including what software to use, what to write, how often to post and how to build a following.

Tips for improving your writing – How to write short articles, conduct interviews, finish stories faster and lots more.

Best blogs for writers – Some of WordCount’s most popular posts include information about blogs for writers and writers who blog.

Career development for freelancers – Information on grants, scholarships, fellowships, plus real-life tips and suggestions from freelancers on how to successfully weather the bad economy.

Today: Blogging Basics for Writers

6 simple steps for starting your freelance writing blog – Includes information on picking a topic, choosing software, committing to regular postings and more.

How to write great freelance blog posts – Not all great blog posts are alike. Some are lists, some Q&As, some really long, some really short. The secret is to mix it up.

The art of the link – The one thing all good blog posts have in common: links to other material on the same subject.

Tips for improving traffic to your freelance blog – SEO isn’t the only trick to getting more traffic to your blog.

Should you put ads on your freelance blog? – Some writers do, some don’t, all have an opinion.

How to write blog posts that get comments – Being controversial helps. But be careful what you wish for.

Later this week:

Tomorrow: Tips for improving your writing

Thursday: Best blogs for writers

Friday: Career development for freelancers