When it comes to Twitter, does it feel like the parade’s passing you by?

Don’t let the fact that 50 million people discovered it before you stop you from giving it a whirl. If you have a blog, Twitter is not only a good way to promote your blog, it’s also an idea factory you scan for things to write about, and a virtual hangout you can visit to discuss the latest blogging issues and trends.

Here to make a convincing argument for integrating Twitter into your blogging life is Jane Boursaw, an entertainment industry writer and blogger at TV Squad, Film Gecko and more. If you like what you see, consider taking Jane’s upcoming blogging class, which she mention’s at the end of the post. Hit it Jane:

Blogging and Twitter: The Perfect Match

For better or worse, Twitter seems to be here to stay, and that’s a good thing for bloggers. I manage five Twitter accounts for my various blogs, and get tons of traffic coming from Twitter for each one. Here are five tips and tricks to help you blend Twitter into your blogging life:

1. Feed those blog posts. No, I don’t mean give them grains and veggies. I’m talking about feeding your blog posts automatically into Twitter. There are several programs to do this, including TwitterFeed.com, but my current favorite is RSS2Twitter. The site is clean and simple, it supports multiple Twitter accounts, and once you sign up and set up your Twitter accounts, it starts immediately feeding your posts into Twitter automatically. No muss, no fuss.

2. Access Twitter easily. There are a number of programs to help you keep track of your Twitter followers and traffic, including TweetDeck, TweetGrid, and Tweetie. My favorite is Seesmic.com. Basically, what these do is provide a place to easily update Twitter, manage conversations with @replies and direct messages, stay organized with groups, see what’s trending, and manage multiple Twitter accounts easily.

3. Check out Twitter’s Help section. It’s a little bewildering getting up to speed on all the Twitter-speak like hash-tags, RTs, @names, trending topics, and everything else. Twitter actually has a great Help section that helps to sort it all out. So if you’re ever stumped on anything, that’s a great resource.

4. Build your followers. If your Twitter goal is to help build your brand and niche -– and not just to tell people what you’re having for lunch – the more followers you have, the more you’ll spread the word about your blog. To get followers, follow others, but focus on people and groups within your niche. For example, to build my niche of entertainment and get people clicking through to my blogs, I follow lots of people and groups in the movie, TV and celebrity niche.

5. Include updates that aren’t blog posts. It’s considered bad form (by whomever created the social media rules) to have ONLY blog posts going into your Twitter account. So in addition to your blog posts (which should be automatically feeding into your Twitter account – see Item #1), be sure to include Twitter updates about other fun things in your niche.

For more on Twitter, social media, and all things blogging related, sign up for my online class, Blogging for Passion and Profit. The next six-week session starts Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, but feel free to sign up after Monday, as well, and I’ll get the lessons headed your way. Email me if you have any questions or need more info, jboursaw@charter.net.

Jane Boursaw blogs at TV Squad, Film Gecko, CliqueClack, Ruby Shoes, and ifollo.com. Home base is Reel Life With Jane.

(Updated with additional info @ 2:11 p.m. 9/23/09)

To say Matt Mullenweg loves WordPress is to state the obvious.

Mullenweg created the widely used blogging software and runs Automattic, the San Francisco company that offers it as a free platform or a software app you can use to run a self-hosted blog. (Disclaimer: I use WordPress.com for this blog.)

Mullenweg was in Portland last weekend to spread some of that WordPress love around at WordCampPortland, one of many conferences for WordPress disciples that’s cropped around the country in the past few years.

Work obligations kept me from going in person. But I listened to Mullenweg over a live stream that WordCampPortland organizers set up so anybody could feel like they were part of the party no matter where they were – except for the beer. Unfortunately nobody’s managed to live stream a keg, but given enough time I’m sure Portland’s developer community will figure it out one day. But I digress. As of Sept. 22, WordCampPortland organizer Aaron Hockley was still working on getting a recording of Mullenweg’s talk and the rest of the live stream online. Check here for more info.

Mullenweg, 25, has obviously talked about WordPress a million times because he’s one smooth presenter. In fact, if you followed my tweets at #wcpdx, you probably read me say Matt Mullenweg is the Justin Timberlake of blogging: funny, smart, cute and a natural in front of a crowd. Again, I digress.

In an extended Q&A session with the WordPress faithful at the two-day meeting, Mullenweg touched on a number of issues of interest to writers who blog and bloggers who write. Here’s a quick summary:

Blogs as websites – More people are using blogging software such as WordPress as a content management system. That’s a fancy way of saying they’re using a blog as a Website. When Mullenweg asked for a show of hands, about 90 percent of the people at WordCampPortland indicated that’s how they use WordPress. The number of freelance writers using blogs as websites might not be as high, but my guess is it’s large and growing. Here’s an example of what a blog doubling as a Website could look like, this brochure site for pianist Jane Coop.

Word and Wordpress – I write posts in the editor built into WordPress.com. It works for me. But I know other writer-bloggers who prefer Microsoft Live Writer or another editor. I didn’t realize until Mullenweg mentioned it that it’s also possible to write posts in Word. Possible, but messy – unless you use a tool on the WordPress editor to delete a lot of extraneous code Word adds when you copy and paste text into the WordPress.com editor. You’ll find instructions explaining how to fix that in a post on the WordPress.com Support forum called Microsoft Word. Thanks to fellow freelance writer @JaneLangille for finding that and sharing it with me.

One-button upgrades – With a little coding, it’s possible to upgrade your self-hosted WordPress blog to the newest version of the software with a touch of a button. True confessions: I didn’t take notes fast enough on this topic. If there’s anyone out there reading this who caught this part of Mullenweg’s presentation or knows more about this, please leave a comment and I’ll update this portion of the post with the info. Update: The latest version of the WordPress.org software allows for one-click upgrades. See explanation from @verso below.

You can hear from Mullenweg on WordPress and related subjects in an interview he did on the local Strange Love Live podcast radio show between WordCampPortland sessions.

Never been to a WordCamp? You can read first-hand accounts of two people’s experiences here and here (caution, technical language ahead), then check out WordCamp Central’s upcoming events to check if there’s one scheduled for your area soon, or here to organize your own.

You’ll probably see more from me about WordPress in coming weeks as I move this site from the free Wordpress.com service to the hosted WordPress.org service. Actually, I’ve hired someone else to do the heavy lifting – thanks Ron! – but I’ll be doing a fair amount of work as well. Cleaner design, same content.

Got your own WordPress love story? Do share.

Want to keep blogger readers coming back for more?

Write on a regular basis, pick topics people care about and be upfront about relationships you have with sponsors.

That’s some of the advice I shared in a 3 Questions column I wrote in yesterday’s Orange County Register. The column is regular Sunday feature compiled by the paper’s real estate columnist and my former colleague Jonathan Lanser.

Read the whole thing here.

When you first  start blogging, it’s easy to come up with things to write about. Especially if you’ve been contemplating starting a blog for awhile, you probably have a stockpile of ideas you can’t wait to get online.

But after a few weeks or months, you may wake up one morning, turn on the computer and realize, I got nothing.

Some bloggers never get past that point, which explains why so many blogs are abandoned each year.

But it’s not hard to come up with blog post subjects, even when the idea well appears to have run dry.

In fact, after blogging for a while, you may see inspiration for blog posts in almost anything you do, see or say.

When it comes to coming up with ideas for blog posts, here are some common tricks of the trade:

Read through comments your readers are leaving – Are they asking questions? Are there certain things they comment on more than others? If so, those questions or comments could be the kernels of other posts.

Read other blogs – Look for blogs on topics you write about to see if there are common themes or timely topics you could pick up on your own blog, and refer back to the original of course.

Read, watch or listen to the news – Use a news event, commentary or trend as a starting point.

Give advice – Blog readers love how-tos and lists, especially if it’s not something they’re already read 100 times before.

Read posts by popular bloggers – Old pros like Chris Brogan or ProBlogger have written extensively on how to consistently come up with ideas for blog posts. Here’s Christ Brogan’s Best of list of his most popular blog posts ever, and a good one from ProBlogger called A freelance writer is always full of ideas.

Re-read your older posts. Is there a thread or idea you could expand on? Is there something you overlooked the first time you that’s screaming to be said? Does something warrant an update?

Review comments you leave on other people’s blogs. Could your reply serve as the basis for your own post. I tend to do this a lot – hey, as long as I’m writing something, I might as well use it on my own blog, right? In fact, this post started out as reply to a message I read on a writer’s forum from a freelancer who was worried she’d run out of things to say on her almost month-old blog (maybe she should check out that ProBlogger post).

Ask for suggestions. It’s not admitting defeat to ask for help, especially from the people who already read you – they’re there because they’re interested in what you have to say, so ask them what they’d like to hear more of.

I never know when I’ll get an idea for a blog post, and if I don’t act quickly, it could fly away forever. So when inspiration strikes and I’m at my keyboard, I scroll over to my blog and write up a few quick notes. Then when I have time to sit down and compose a post I don’t have to start from scratch. If I pound out a rough draft in the heat of the moment I can capture the emotion of what inspired me to write in the first place. I can always go back later – the next day or even a week or month later – with my editor hat on, rework what I’ve written so it reads better and add links, images, etc.

When I started blogging I had a dozen or so blog posts started in my drafts queue. Nineteen months into it, I’ve got the beginnings of 60+ posts hanging out in my drafts queue – some are a few sentences, others just titles and still others I should probably delete because they’re outdated or I can’t remember what they were supposed to be about.

But I can’t imagine running out of things to say.

When was the last time you looked over your old blog posts?

You should, because your readers are.

If you’re like me, you probably spend more time thinking about whatever it is you’re working on today or have to start next week. But there’s value in looking in the opposite direction.

This hit home this week when someone who jumped into the ongoing debate over writing for content aggregators like Helium and Examiner.com that’s going on here mentioned The Long Tail.

I listened to the audiobook version of Chris Andersons’ groundbreaking work on the economic theory of the Internet last year. What struck me most was how much it applied to blogging.

I definitely see a Long Tail phenomenon on this blog. The stats charts for most of my posts have that distinctive Long Tail look: the bulk of the page views come right when it first comes out, followed by a long line of increasing smaller page views stretching out over subsequent weeks and months.

But I didn’t realize how significant it was until I crunched a few numbers. Get this: in the past week, visitors here have read 181 posts, not including my resume, clips or About WordCount page. What’s that mean? In a seven-day span, people read more than half of what I’ve written since starting this blog in December 2007. Definitely a Long Tail phenomenon.

What’s the take away? It pays to look back. If you do, you might discover:

• Which older posts get the most page views. It could be a sign to write about that topic more often.
• Which posts get a consistent amount of traffic. You might consider packaging a few into an e-book to offer as a free bonus for people who sign up for your RSS feed.
• That you’ve written about something often enough, you have enough material to turn into a book, online course, or at lease material for a speaking engagements on the topic.
• That you’ve got enough material on a topic to turn into pitches for assignments for a magazine or website.
• That you’ve got enough material on a topic to spin off a second blog.

Have you noticed the Long Tail effect on your own blog?

The house is a mess. The bills are overdue. I missed a deadline. I haven’t signed my son up for a single summer camp or planned the family’s summer vacation.

I’ve been too busy blogging. For the past month I’ve posted here every day. 31 days, 31 blog posts – a couple more actually because some days I wrote more than once.

Why spend so much time writing for free, something that I counsel other writers against?

Because for the second year in a row, I hosted a month-long blogathon for freelance writers. This year close to 45 showed up. Together we blogged through weekdays, weekends and a holiday. We held a guest post exchange and wrote on another writer’s blog for a day. We encouraged each other on Twitter. Tomorrow we’ll be back on Twitter for a blogathon wrap party. You can tune in too, just follow the hashtag #MayBlog2.

When I thought up doing a blogathon last year, I only had a few month of blogging under my belt. My posts were sporadic and I didn’t know much about traffic or SEO. The blogathon was a way to stick to a schedule, teach myself about blog promotion, and bring a few friends along for the ride.

This year my blogathon goals were different. Over the past 12 month, I’ve settled into a regular posting groove, learned about promoting my work, and seen traffic grow 10 fold. For me, this month was about tackling subjects I’d wanted to cover but hadn’t made time for, like putting together this list of top 25 digital media trendsetters. I also used it to build my “brand” to get recognized in the industry I blog about, and getting to know other writers and bloggers better, especially those that cover what I do.

By those measures, the month was a success. At the same time, and just like last year, the best part was having friends along for the ride.

For most, if not all the writers in this year’s blogathon, blogging is still a side project, an early morning or after hours gig we do in addition to our “real” writing, the magazine or Website assignments that pay the bills. But I predict that for more and more of us, blogging will be the assignment, whether it’s for a publisher we already write for, at HuffPost to drive traffic to our other work, ourselves to promote a book or project, a hyperlocal news site, or ghostblogging for a corporate client.

So there’s a solid business case to be made for a freelance writer spending time becoming a better blogger. In 2009, blogging is a skill every writer has to know.

What have you learned from the blogathon, or from your own blogging practice? Feel free to leave a comment. I’ll include some of the best along with other lessons learned from Monday’s blogathon wrap party in an upcoming post.

Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

• The Editor Unleashed The Editor Unleashed Guide to Good Blogging - Good advice from the former editor of Writer’s Digest.
• The Huffington Post 13 tips for actually getting some writing done
• The Urban Muse I Said, He Said, We Said – Picking a point of view for your website.
• Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist Conflict of interest doesn’t apply to blogs (another reason newspapers are dead)
• Erik Sherman’s WriterBiz 6 lessons from using Twitter
• Blog Salad How to throw a Twitter party – Exceedingly detailed (and simple) instructions for using Twitter hashtags for “a conference, or a live guest lecture series, or just an exclusive conversation with a certain group or certain topic in mind.”
• Seth’s Blog Saying ‘no’ – To remind ourselves that sometimes turning down an assignment is the right thing to do.
• Bike with Jackie Embrace your supporters – Using social networks to give as much as you get.

Here’s what I’ve been reading about freelancing, writing and the online news business I’ve been reading this week:

On writing:

• How do you learn to write – From a literary agent, writer and book editor.
• 5 tips for citizen journalism from ProPublica’s new ‘crowdsorcerer’
• 16 things you learn in j-school – Journalism basics
• You don’t have to be a journalist to be a journalist – Advice from a young journalist.
• The end of newspapers, in chart form – Newspaper classified ads fall off the deep end.

On blogging and online media:

• WordPress tutorials on YouTube – How to move a blog from one domain name to another and more.
• Why ebooks look so ugly
• 55 extremely useful online generators for designers

On Twitter:

• 10 must-have productivity tools for Twitter – The usual suspects (TweetDeck, TwitPics) and more.
• A directory of book trade people on Twitter – Publishers, agents, publicists, booksellers, etc.
• Twitter in the newsroom – Podcast of print and broadcast journalists talking about using Twitter.

I’m using the blogathon and the holiday weekend as motivation to do some blog housekeeping – all the better to avoid the real housekeeping I should be doing. I’ve been working on my blogroll, which has been neglected for too long.

The great thing about a blogroll is you can make it anything you want it to be: a resource guide, directory of your favorite websites or blogs, or list of blogs on the same topic as yours. Your blogroll can be tiny or extensive, although these days professional bloggers and blog designers appear to favor short over long. ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse even killed his after getting too many requests to be on it.

An interesting blogroll is an invitation to readers to link to material that’s related to what you do. It can also be an enticement for readers who normally check out your blog on an RSS feed to actually click over and visit the site.

Which is what I hope WordCount subscribers will do today, after they hear I’ve revamped my blogroll. It has a couple new categories, including one for online writers groups – based on guest blog post on The Social Writer I did recently on my favorite online writers’ hangouts – and one for professional writers’ associations. I also split the resources section into resources for writers and resources for my tech and business reporting.

I’d love people to suggest more online writers’ groups, professional organizations and writers’ resources to add to the lists.

I’d also like to hear from writers who blog – how do you prefer being listed in other writers’ blogrolls, by your name or your blog’s name? I prefer being listed by my blog’s name – gotta build the brand – but what about other people?

If you’re new to blogging here’s some basic advice on how to start a blogroll from Blogging Basics 101.

We’re a dozen days into the communal blogging experiment known as the 2nd Annual WordCount Blogathon and so far the reactions of the participating writers are all over the place.

Some are enjoying it, and others finding it harder than they thought it would be. Some are getting creative – Sue Dickman devoted last Saturday’s blog post to making Wordle images from keywords on her blog, A Life Divided. Others have come up with clever ideas for standing features, like the Molecule of the Week feature Sarah Webb started for her blog, Webb of Science.

Since this is a self-directed experiment, all experiences are OK since they lead to better blogging skills and insights, which is the point of blogging on a regular basis anyway.

To keep things interesting, I’m declaring May 21 to be the official Blogathon Guest Post Day. Blogathon writers are invited to ask another freelancer to write that day’s blog post. Likewise, blogathoners should write a guest post on someone else’s blog. Depending on how you want to work it, you could swap posts with the same person, or trade posts within a larger group. I’ll also leave it up to you whether you trade guest posts with blogathon writers. Just have fun.

If you’re up for the challenge, make sure to extend an invitation to a prospective guest blogger early enough to give yourselves time to discuss what they’re going to write.

A few guest post housekeeping things to think about:

• If your guest blogger has a head shot or other picture of themselves in digital form, ask for a copy so you can run it with their guest post.
• Ask your guest blogger to write a short bio, or write one for them, to run with the post. Include links they might want  to their own website, blog or Twitter ID.
• If you’re writing a guest post somewhere else, write a short post on your own blog so your regular readers know where to find you. Blogs like WordPress let you create a sticky post to put at the top of your regular blog posts. Or you can create a small text box and run the information at the top of your blog’s left- or right-hand sidebar.
• As an example of what a guest post looks like, here’s a post I did earlier this week on the American Society of Business Publication Editors national blog.

Mark your calendars for May 21, and happy blogging.