It’s taken me this long to catch my breath and put things into perspective.

Here are 31 lessons from blogging 31 days in a row:

1. Blogging every day is hard, otherwise more people would do it.

2. If it’s not a paid gig or a blog you run as a money-making venture, you really don’t need to blog every day – but a periodic challenge like a blogathon is a good way to focus on where your blog is today and how you want to make it better.

3. When it comes to ideas for posts, have a plan.

4. That plan could be as simple as a calendar for plotting out a month’s worth of posts at a time.

5. Any plan should have room for inspiration – you never know when you’ll read or see something and a fully formed post will pop into your head.

6. When inspiration strikes, write it down, preferably in drafts mode in your blog editor.

7. Pre-writing posts makes all the difference.

8.  If you post on weekends, pre-write Saturday and Sunday posts during the week – just because you’re posting every day doesn’t mean you have to write every day.

9. Theme days, where you write the same type of post on a certain day of the week, are an easy way to come up with material. On WordCount, I reserve Fridays for Recommended Reading posts, lists of interesting articles I’ve come upon that week.

10. Running more than one type of theme day per week is OK too. During the Blogathon, in addition to Friday’s Recommended Reading posts, I did Around the Blogathon posts on Saturdays to showcase interesting things other blogathoners had written that week, and Best of WordCount posts on Sundays, lists of older posts on a common subject.

11. If you’ve ever worked in the news business, you’ve had experience with daily deadlines and that gives you a leg up on the whole daily posting game – but it’s still hard.

12. Blogging every day is a great way to show a publication you’re applying to for a paid blogging gig you can handle deadlines.

13. All blog posts are not created equal.

14. It’s enough to do one or two long posts per week on an original concept or something you put a lot of reporting, thought or time into.

15. On the other days, shorter, less substantial posts are good enough.

16. Don’t discount the value of non-written blog posts. Pictures, video and graphics get an idea across as well or better than words.

17. Not every post has to be serious, but it’s harder than it looks to be funny (at least for me).

18. If you want comments ask for them – add a question to the end of a post asking readers to share their thoughts or experiences.

19. Run polls, people love to vote on things.

20. Hold special events. One of the highlights of this year’s blogathon was the day everybody wrote haiku.

21. Be part of a community. If you blog on a particular subject, find other bloggers who write about the same thing and introduce yourself.

22. If you want people to comment on your blog, comment on theirs.

23. Include links in your posts.

24. Make sure some of those links are to your older posts.

25. Use Twitter and Facebook to promote your blog posts.

26. But don’t use Twitter and Facebook only to promote your blog, too spam-y.

27. Keep blog post titles straightforward – get too cutesy and search engines won’t be able to figure out what your post is about.

28. But don’t worry about SEO too much – good quality writing trumps SEO-enabled copy any day of the week.

29. If you’re starting a blog, think long and hard about your blog’s name. Pick something memorable – not too long, not too short, and not something that’s already taken, so your blog doesn’t get mixed up with someone else’s. A tag line is good – it’s another clue to what the blog’s about.

30. It OK to write about your personal life – if you have something universal to share or your execution is dramatic, off beat or otherwise attention getting. Give people a reason to visit.

31. Check your blog stats to see the types of posts readers gravitate to so you can do more of them.

In case you missed it the first time, here are more reflections from writers and bloggers on what they learned from this year’s WordCount Blogathon.

They’re off – the 2010 WordCount Blogathon is here.

This year, more than 110 writers and bloggers from around the world – yes, around the world – have banded together to meet the challenge of posting every day in the month of May.

The diversity of the writers and bloggers represented here blows me away.

We have high school students and grandparents, writers in Japan, Malaysia, India, Canada and the United States, dudes and dudettes, newcomers and bloggers who’re returning for the second and third time – I’m talking about you Jane Boursaw, Jackie Dishner, Sarah Ludwig and Jennifer Willis.

In this group are writers I’ve known for 20 years or more, Portland journalists I’ve gotten to know and bond with over the past year, freelancers I’ve known for several years through the forums on Freelance Success, my Twitter crew, and writers and bloggers I’m meeting for the first time.

There are bloggers who write about politics, regional news, gardening, food, parenting, relationships, education, religion, entrepreneurship, green business, travel, health, and of course, writing.

I’m publishing the complete list for a few reasons, first and foremost to show the world what an awesome bunch you are. Blogathoners can copy and paste the list onto your own blogs. It also comes in handy for finding a partner for the May 18 official guest post exchange day, or if you’re considering writing posts about other writers and bloggers during the Blogathon.

One caution: Play nice. Some of you here have blogs for business. The Blogathon is about having fun, so refrain from using this list to promote products or service.

Without further ado, here are the bloggers of the 2010 WordCount Blogathon:

• Rebecca I. Allen – 356 No More, A journey from couch to fit
• Christa Avampato – Christa in New York, Curating a Creative Life
• Anjuli – bhulbhulaiyan, a complicated entanglement of zigzag pathways
• Joan Lambert Bailey – PopcornHomestead, Gardening, place and my life in Tokyo
• Karen Bannan – Natural as Possible Mom, Because natural isn’t always possible — or easy
• t.a. barnhart – Left Coast Foodie, Damn, that’s good: a foodie blog by someone who knows what he’s doing
• June Bell – Enough is enough! Advice and support
• Teresa Bitler – Forty Firsts, A Midlife Crisis in the Making
• Athena l. Borozon – Altar Valley Daily Orb, The Desert Rat Dialogues
• Jane Boursaw* – Film Gecko, Cool movie news and reviews
• Alisa Bowman – Project Happily Ever After, Marriage advice from a recovering divorce daydreamer
• Carson Brackney – Carson Brackney, Consultant, Copywriter, Content Provider, Factotum
• Ben Bradley, Ben’s (Not Quite) First Ever Presence on the Interweb, Blog of an aspiring human being
• Sheena Brockington – Greenhouse Advertising, Cultivating ideas for small businesses
• Danielle Buffardi* – Horrible Sanity, Going into the mind of a mother and freelancer
• Beverly Burmeier – Going on Adventures, Travel stories from near and far
• Diane Calhoun – Violet is My Color, Life just happens, deal with it
• Danielle Carter – Live and Love Life VA, Helping you do more of what you love, and less of what you don’t!
• Fiona Chan – Candy Prison, A typical teenager
• Joy Choquette – One Year. 156 Fears. Life Changing. One woman tackles her fears
• Bernard Chung – Green Tea World, It’s more than just a cup of green tea here
• Caroline Clemmons – A Writer’s Life, Writing tips, interviews and miscellaneous ramblings
• Shelley Clunie – ShelCluzo’s Blog, Healthy, wealthy and wise at 62
• Cocotte – Leaping into Life, Uncommon stories to nurture body, mind & soul
• Christianne Cook – A Day in My Mind, The world through my eyes
• Sue Dickman – Life Divided, Food, garden, books . . . and India
• Jackie Dishner – Bike with Jackie, Using my special brand of BIKE to teach you how to turn obstacles into opportunities
• Tracy Doerr – Tracy Doerr, A chronicle of ideas and things that inspire me
• Ron S. Doyle* – Blog Salad, All the blog that’s fit to eat
• Dana DuGan – Chick with a View, It’s good to live on the edge. The view is better.
• Dan Eldridge – Labor Party, A Young Pioneers Media blog for Creative and Alternative Entrepreneurs
• Cindy Elsberry – Doodle9, Paddling down the stream…of consciousness
• Heather Faesy – Blame it on the Full Moon, My kids, writing and reading
• R. Jill Fink – My Opera, Musings about writing, food, weight loss and other hilarious things
• Jennifer Fink – Blogging Bout Boys, All about boys — raising them, educating them, learning with them
• Damaris Fish – Damaris Fish on Genealogy, Researching my family history and helping others with theirs
• Dylan Fogle – Discordianzen, The map is not the territory
• Katie Foote – Littlefoote’s Lab, A chronicle of what the unemployed girl in NoPo is up to.
• Barb Freda - Babette Feasts, Feast with Me (Food, Wine, Travel and Photos)
• Heather Frendo – Thrifty Knee Socks
• AndreaGenevieve – Andrea Genevieve, Where social medium, technology and higher education meet
• Alexandra Grabbe – Chezsven’s Blog, Life as a green innkeeper on Outer Cape Cod
• Elyse Grau – My Garden to Table, Growing what you eat, eating what you grow
• Wendy Korn Heppt – Budget Style on a Shoestring, Budget savvy fashion, beauty and related news and ideas
• Katie Hinderer – Write Beyond the Cubicle, A freelance writer’s thoughts on the industry
• Amanda Hirsch – Tastee Pudding, In the search for creative life, the proof is in the Pudding
• Lisa Jaffe Hubbell – Eat, Read and Be Harried, Making it through life one book at a time
• Nancy Mann Jackson – Growing Food and Kids, Gardening, harvesting, cooking and preserving with kids in tow
• Robert Janelle – Without an Apostrophe, Ottawa freelance tech journalist
• Elizabeth King Humphrey – The Write Elizabeth, Writing. Creativity. Play. Life.
• Walter L. Johnson II – Georgia News Beat, An inside look at what’s happening in the state of Georgia
• B.J. Keeton – Professor Beej, Pop culture commentary with an academic slant
• Amy Kocur – AmyLizK, Maryland/ DC Metro area arts and analysis
• Courtney Koschel – Finding My Muse: A New Writer’s Journey,
• Sara Lancaster – No.2PenBlog, Resource for my clients and others interested in marketing communications
• Bill Lascher – Lascher at Large, A contemplative, pondered and unrushed thought banquet.
• Mary Dixon Lebeau – In the Boom Boom Room, Remember staying out until the street lights came on?
• Pooja Lohana – Brown-eyed Mystic, On writing and more!
• Sarah E. Ludwig – Parenting by Trial and Error, The learning curve in raising kids
• Jenny Lynes – Welcome to the Good Life, A student environmentalist exploring responsible, cheap, and fun living
• Su-sieee! Mac – This and That. Here and There. Now, Sometimes Then., Rambling about anything and everything that interests me
• Harry Marks – Curious Rat, Chewing at the tech industry’s wires…nom nom nom…
• Joanne Mason – English Idioms, What they mean, how we use them, where they came from
• Kim McNeill – Kim’s Play Place, An active parent trying to make sure my kids are educated
• Teresa Mears – MiamiOntheCheap, Discounts, deals and free events in Miami
• Rose Medlock – RFM, Rose Flores Medlock
• Heather Minton – Stumbling into Grace, The adventure of following God and figuring it out in Portland
• Kathy Murray – Out and Employed, News, career advice and job resources for ex-offenders
• Alexis Neely – Life, Business and the Pursuit of Truth, A blog about the intersection
• Charles Newbery – Pine Tree Paradise, The life of a work-at-home writer and father of three
• Eric Novinson – Costing a Green Future, A green business blog
• Tracy O’Connor – I Hate My Message Board, Humor, crankiness, a museum of snack foods and the odd motivational piece
• Andrea Parker – Autism Fundraising Guide, For parents of children with autism
• Lilac Penafiel – What Have You Learned Today, Life lessons learned everyday…
• Tara Phillips – Two Hands and a Road Map
• Jennie Phipps – WalletPop, AOL’s personal finance blog
• Ed Pilolla – Ed Pilolla, What the f*** is love?
• Sue Poremba – I Breathe, Therefore I Write
• Michelle Rafter, WordCount, Freelancing in the digital age
• Kate Reilly – Polka Dot Suitcase, Family fun through creative living
• Meredith Resnick – The Writer’s [Inner] Journey, Bestselling authors, professional creatives and emerging voices in quirky dialogue about how they write and why it works
• Vanessa Richardson – Way Out West Texas, City girl from California moves to Way Out West Texas, what will happen?
• Rebecca Robinson – Rebecca Robinson, Updates on freelance projects, reflections on journalism innovation in Portland and beyond, and brainstorms from the wee hours
• Carey Rossi – Thank You Everything, Appreciate the little things
• Natasha Rogue – The Writing Blues, Little tips on how I find motivation to get past the difficulties of writing life and the road to publication
• Andrea M. Rotondo – Luxury Cruise Bible, Your source for unbiased luxury cruise reviews
• Melissa Sais – Digital Mom, Raising kids in a digital world
• Lisa Samalonis – Single Parent Savings
• Sami – Stonerpreneur, Stoner antics as they relate to my business and personal growth
• Ovetta Sampson – Musings of a Writing Princess, A Look Inside the Mind of a Professional Griot
• Dina Santorelli – Making Baby Grand, And I thought giving birth to real babies was hard…
• Lacey Savage – Tips and WIPS, Talking about writing fiction
• Lilian Schaer – Food and Farming Canada, A blog about the farming side of food
• Kristie Sloan – mkBeautyZone, Skin care and makeup information training and products
• Matthew Smith – Smidgen PC, Big news about tiny PCs
• Michelle Smith – Law Office of Michelle R. Smith, Because it’s your life, your family and your choice
• Stephanie Suesan Smith – Stephanie Suesan Smith PhD, Information Central
• Claire Splan – Alameda Garden, Gardening issues in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond
• Margarita Tartakovsky – Self-ish, {Sorta} Sage Advice on Being a Better You
• Thinkingtoohard – Thinking too hard, This is where I empty my head
• Blake Thompson – Black Thompson daht Net, “I’m just saying…”
• Jodi Torpey – Western Gardeners, Your online guide to gardening in the West
• Paul Tullis – Grim Tidings- True/Slant, My rants about politics & policy
• Jan Udlock – Imperfect Mom
• Brandi-Ann Uyemura – Brandi-Ann Uyemura, Rather be freelancing: tips for the beginning writer
• Beth VanHoose – Writing in Sand, My adventures in freelance writing, and other stuff
• Rachel Vidoni – East Coast Musings, A humorous look at kids, family and life
• Jen Walker – My Morning Chocolate, Writing, experiments, culture and adventure in food
• Katie Jett Walls – One per Week, 52 posts on things that matter to me
• Sarah Webb – Webb of Science, Connecting science and life
• Rebecca Weber – Newstilt SAfrica, Dispatches from South Africa
• Susan Weiner – Investment Writing, For investment and wealth managers who want to communicate more effectively with clients and prospects
• Rashida Williams – Really Rashida, Urban lit author blogging about my life and times
• Jennifer Willis – Jennifer Willis, Thoughts on religion, sustainability, media and culture

* These awesome participants are also WordCount Blogathon 2010 sponsors.

Some posts deserve lots of attention, but don’t get it. The writing, subject matter or angle might be cutting edge or unique. But you may have published too late in the day, on a day of that week that’s typically slow for your blog, or over a holiday weekend.

Or some posts are just so good – relevant to your readers, cutting edge, big traffic generators, you name it – you want to remind people about them again.

Here’s a way to give those underappreciated posts moldering in your blog archives a second chance.

The solution: put them in a “best of” post, basically a re-run of a post you think didn’t get the eyeballs it deserved the first time around.

There are a couple ways to approach best-of posts:

The Stand-Alone – Even major news sites like ReadWriteWeb re-run individual posts they’re especially proud of. But don’t just copy and paste. Write an introduction that explains why you’re giving it more air time. Give it a catchy name: I’ve called mine “WordCount Repeats” or “WordCount Best of….”

The Compilation – Pick a theme, then find three, four or more posts that relate to it. Include links to each with a brief explanation of how they fit.

There’s a reason I’m writing about best-of posts now. If you’re taking part in the 2010 WordCount Blogathon, best-of posts are an excellent way to cover a weekend day. Just pre-write the post on Friday, or another day of the week when you have a spare 30 minutes.

You don’t have to be in a blogathon to use them. Best-of posts are the perfect filler for a day when you’re otherwise occupied and can’t come with something something fresh, or if you’re going on vacation.

I’ve run Best of WordCount posts before to cover for myself during vacations. The Best of WordCount: Beat the Recession is one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written.

If you’ve ever contemplated writing an e-book, grouping together posts on similar topics is the first step in organizing material that could end up being book chapters.

I’ve even created a special page for a Best of WordCount Collector’s Edition for the 30 posts that have drawn the most traffic on my site since I started blogging in January 2008. It’s a nice way to showcase what I think is my best work – and continue to draw traffic to those posts.

You’ll see best of posts from me during the WordCount Blogathon on Sundays. After all, Sunday is a day of rest, even for bloggers.

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.

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.

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?

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.

• 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.

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.

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.