Sign ups are officially available for the 5th annual WordCount Blogathon, which takes place May 1-31, 2012. You’ll find a registration form at the bottom of this post.

The WordCount Blogathon is an annual event that brings together bloggers of all stripes – professionals and amateurs – to improve their blogs and blogging skills by every day in May.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive a welcome message with instructions for adding the 2012 WordCount Blogathon participant badge to display on your site – it’s that easy!

If you make it all 31 days, your name will be entered into a drawing for writing-related prizes held on the last day of the blogathon.

Add yourself to the 2012 WordCount Blogathon newsletter mailing list to receive announcements related to the event. You’ll also be automatically added to the WordCount Blogathon Google Group, to exchange questions and answers and other information related to the event.

Don’t forget to sign up for my RSS feed to receive WordCount posts about blogathon activities in your email inbox or blog reader.

If you have questions, email me at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com, or catch me on Twitter, @michellerafter.

You can also follow the 2011 WordCount Blogathon on Twitter using the hashtag #blog2012.

Registration will stay open through 11 p.m. Easter/8 p.m. Pacific time on May 1 – leaving stragglers just enough time to sign up and write their first post. Latecomers can participate unofficially but aren’t eligible for raffle prizes.

Thanks again for visiting, hope to see you in the Blogathon.

[Updated 5/1 @ 8:01 p.m. Pacific time] Registration for the 2012 Blogathon is now closed.

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.

Are you ready?

You may have ideas for blog posts lined up. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

If you’re going to devote extra time to blogging that means you’re taking time away from other things, either from other work or your non-work life.

To minimize the extra pain that comes with blogging every day – and a lot of people entering this year’s blogathon have indicated they want to blog more than they are now  – here are some suggestions for doing it all, at least for the next 31 days.

At work:

1. Schedule blogging time – I could spend hours on a blog post if I let myself – and sometimes I do. But since I’m running this thing, blogging too and have work commitments I can’t ignore, I need to make every writing moment count. I’m devoting the first hour of my work day to the blogathon – what can I say, I’m a morning person –  and when time’s up, I’ll move on to other things.

2. Schedule blog posts – I’m actually writing this post on April 24 to get a jump on things. Before the weekend’s over, I expect to have a plan mapped out for what I’m going to post every day of the blogathon. That way I won’t be faced with sitting down at the computer one morning with no idea what I’m going to write about.

3. Write fast – There are times to linger over a post. This is not one of them. Sometimes good enough is good enough, and this is one of those times. I’m not going to skip adding links or images. I’m just minimizing the time I spend finding just the right word or phrase. Part of writing fast is jotting ideas down when you get them – especially if “jotting ideas down” means going to the computer, laptop, iPhone or whatever you use and roughly out an outline, getting the lede or cutting and pasting some links so you can come back later and finish.

4. Keep it short – Blog posts don’t have to be long to be good. Sometimes a bite-size nugget of truth is all you need. A blog post doesn’t have to be one set thing. It could be a couple thoughts on something in the news, a list of links, a recipe, photograph, poem, snippet of overheard conversation, or a quick review of a clip you saw on YouTube (with the link or video included of course). Here are some more tips for writing short.

5. Pre-publish – The blogathon might be about blogging every day during the month of May, but that doesn’t mean you actually have to write every day. I’ll be using the pre-publish feature on WordPress to pre-write posts for weekends – because really, who wants to work on weekends?

At home:

6. Clear the decks - Right now my non-work to-do list includes a couple things I want to accomplish before the blogathon takes over my life. That includes registering my youngest for summer camps and finalizing details of our family’s summer vacation – activities I’d know would get pushed to the back burner if I tried to do them in May because of the extra blogging I’ll be doing.

7. Makes plans - This is sort of related to clearning the decks. Plan dinners, plan errands (all the better to do a bunch during the same trip), plan outings, plan free time (you’ll need it).

8. Ask for help – In my house I’m in charge of breakfast, lunch and dinner, but this month, I’m alerting the troops they’ll be doing some of the heavy lifting when it comes to meal times. Ditto for laundry and other household chores.

9. Let things go – Some tasks I’m attacking ahead of the blogathon (see above). Others I’m letting go until after May. I really want to get flowers planted in pots I put on the back deck during summer. But if it doesn’t happen until June, oh well; it probably won’t be sunny here until then anyway. And no one will notice but me.

10. Stick to healthy routines – When the stress is on, it’s easy to drink too much coffee, work too late, drop going to the gym and go out to eat or pick up fast food. I know – I’ve done all of that. Not this time. The more stress you’re under, the more important it is to stick to healthy habits – it’ll show in your energy level and your work. I learned that last year when I interviewed a management consultant who’s trained world-class athletes, CEOs and other top performers for this CBSMarketWatch.com story. OK, I may still drink too much coffee. But there’s no way I’m missing workouts or yoga – they’re my treats to myself for a job well done.

Once a week? A day? An hour?

I’ve been known to obsess over blog traffic, especially if I’ve written something I think is especially profound and want to make sure the whole world shares my opinion.

Checking your blog’s traffic stats is actually quite useful, and not just for massaging your ego. By carefully studying what people are reading, where they’re coming from and where they’re clicking through to you can learn a lot. Including:

1. What topics are popular, so you can write more of the same. Based on a careful reading of my stats, I know that the most popular posts on WordCount have been on writing basics, blogs for writers, market intelligence and the fates of specific freelancers, good or bad.

2. What post formats work best, so you can write more of them. Based on stats, WordCount readers like posts that are lists, best ofs and how tos, plus posts on controversial subjects such as whether or not to write for content aggregators. Armed with that information, I now look for opportunities to do more of those types of posts. I’m also thinking of ways to aggregate those types of blog posts into an ebook or something else I could self publish.

3. What days of the week get the most eyeballs, so you can be sure to post on them. I get more traffic on weekdays than weekends, so unless it’s the May blogathon I sponsor every year and I’m blogging everyday, I blog M-F and take weekends off.

4. What reader-commenters are also fellow bloggers, so you can befriend them by leaving comments on their blogs or adding them to your blog roll, helping boost traffic for both of you.

5. What keywords are bringing readers from Google or other search engines.  If you know what people search on to find you, you can be sure to tag future posts on similar subjects with those same keywords. Top keywords and phrases that bring people here: word count, michelle rafter, qualities of a good editor, freelance story ideas and hyperlocal news.

How often do you check your blog stats? How has checking your blog stats changed how you blog?

What do established writers need? – On her There Are No Rules blog, Writer’s Digest Publisher Jane Friedman asks veteran writers to tell her what’s missing from the pages of WD as she contemplates developing a new periodical specifically for long-time professional writers and authors.

Five ways to find revenue sharing opportunities – Revenue sharing isn’t limited to ad networks and affiliate marketing programs, as this post from the Freelance Folder blog explains.

It’s now or never for citizen journalists and federal shield law – PBS MediaShift weighs in in support of a federal shield law protecting bloggers, even the unpaid ones.

Gresham’s Law of the Internet: Crap Content Quashes Quality – From the always smart Erik Sherman, yet another look inside Demand Studios’ content factory.

Should you incorporate? – While it’s not new, this short piece from publishing lawyer Daniel Steven on the pros and cons of incorporation for non-fiction writers and other freelancers is definitely worth checking out if this question has ever crossed your mind.

The basics of freelancing on the go – Another good one from Freelance Folder, on the essentials you need to work from anywhere.

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend everyone, I’ll see you back here on Monday.

No more.

As of today, the Best of WordCount is home to 30+ of this blog’s most well-read posts conveniently sharing the same page. Call it the WordCount Collector’s Edition. Or my WordCount greatest hits -get it, hits?

Whatever you call it, take a look.

You’ll see posts on writing, running a freelance business, why writers should blog, social network tools for writers and how the Internet is changing the media industry and what that means for freelancers journalist entrepeneurs.

If there’s a subject you’ve been dying to see me cover here, please feel free to let me know.

It’s been almost two years since I launched WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age as a way to get back into the writing business after an extended break, get myself up to speed on changes in the media industry, and continue a passion for writing on a weekly or biweekly basis I’ve held since the time I worked as a newspaper tech columnist.

A lot’s happened in the past 20 months. The start of this blog coincided with the biggest upheaval the media businesses has seen in my lifetime (and I’m no spring chicken), thanks to the twin whammies of the Internet and the recession. Those changes have wreaked havoc on newspaper and magazine advertising and employment. More to the point of this blog, it’s pulled the rug out from under independent writers who aspire to work for them. Old markets are drying up, and new ones emerging.

As my favorite TV character says, change isn’t good or bad. It just is (thanks Don).

So just as freelancers have to change to keep up with the times, WordCount does too. In short order, expect to see a new look here as well as some revamped content and other additions.

What I won’t be changing is my exploration of what it means to be a journalist and independent writer today.

When I started out, I thought of blogging as a solitary experience. It isn’t. Good blogs are like good conversations – stimulating, provocative – and two-sided. That lesson hit home recently in the very lively debates that have happened here over content sites and the rates they pay.

Since I value the WordCount community – including everyone who visits here and leaves comments, as well as my freelance tribes and my blogathon buddies – I’d love to hear what topics you’d like to see covered in coming months. Let me know by taking a minute to fill out this quick poll. Your reward – a preview of the new WordCount logo.

Take Our Poll

• Organization. It’s an art, really. – Tips for work and life from freelance writer Danielle Buffardi’s blog, Horrible Sanity.
• Partner with others – Nobody said writing had to be a solitary pursuit. Sometimes it helps to have partners on the journey. From Jackie Dishner’s blog, Bike with Jackie.
• Deciding whether to capitalize ‘how’ in a title – Grammar debates while co-authoring a grant introduced Zazou Marketing‘s Heather Holliday to the APA Style Book.
• The ebook writing process – From Sara Lancaster’s No. 2 Pen blog.
• How to pick a gravatar – In case you don’t know what that is, it’s an image – photo, drawing, icon, etc. – that serves as your online persona and follows you from place to place or blog to blog online. Read Kate Reilly’s explanation of how to get one on her Polka Dot Suitcase blog.

Here’s what else I’m reading this week:

• How Kindle lets you steal this blog – TechCrunch explains an apparent flaw in a new blog publishing program for Amazon’s popular e-book reader.
• Red Room is soliciting writers – To join its online community, which includes free accounts and member pages, a newsletter, blogs and other goodies.
• 10 Twitter mythconceptions – From Technologizer’s Harry McCracken, starting with No. 1, Twitter is something utterly new (it’s not).
• Top 10 obscure Google search tricks – Cool things you never knew Google could do, care of LifeHacker’s Gina Trapani.

Dan Baum

Dear Dan,

Thank you. But please reconsider your decision to take down your blog. I looked and it’s obvious you’re good. You’ve written for The New Yorker for Pete’s sake, my favorite magazine of all time. You’ve gotta be doing something right for them to run your stuff and whatever it is, I’d love to find out, so there’s reason No. 1 right there.

There are a lot of other reasons why freelance writers – or other freelancers for that matter – should blog, if only as a writing prompt to get the juices flowing for paid writing gigs.

A few:

* To build expertise in an area you want to pitch – Not that long ago I was re-establishing my freelance writing business after extended hiatus to raise three kids. I needed to get back up to speed on the tech beat I’d previously covered and the best way to do that was to plunge into the wonderful world of Web 2.0. I started the blog, signed up for LinkedIn, then Twitter and started pitching as I learned.

* To build a community – No man is an island, and that includes freelancers. We don’t get the perqs of working in an office surrounded by peers, so a blog can function as a virtual coffee break room, where we exchange suggestions and gossip with far-flung friends.

* To put your resume and clips online – If for no other reason, writers should have a blog to get their vital stats online. Plus, it’s easier than creating a Website and cheaper too.

* To keep colleagues, friends or family up to speed on what you’re doing – Easier and less spammy than sending out group emails.

* To practice a genre other than the one that pays the bills – A blog might be just the thing for writing the poetry, essays or short stories you’ve always wanted to try. If you don’t want anybody to see it, you can change the settings on the blog software you’re using to block it from public display.

* To start a book or promote one – Which is something you’re already doing for your book Death and Life in New Orleans, so I’m preaching to the choir on that one.

* To be ready for the digital revolution – As corny as that sounds, the media business as we know it is changing, and not just because of the recession, and it ain’t ever going back to the way it was. If writers don’t want to be left behind, we’ve got to put new techniques alongside the old ones in our storytelling repertoire.

That’s what I came up with in about 10 minutes. There are plenty of other equally good reasons why writers should blog. Please don’t give up on it just yet.

Michelle

Freelance writer and blogger Michelle Goodman tackles this question in a recent entry to her blog, The Anti 9-to-5 Guide. Goodman wisely suggests saving your most brilliant ideas for pitches that can actually earn you cash money. Amen to that. On the other hand, Goodman says, if the idea fits into a single paragraph and despite your best efforts you can’t figure out any way to stretch it into a longer, more marketable, piece, then you might be better off keeping it as a blog post.

I’ll add a couple thoughts to Goodman’s advice. Sometimes the process works in reverse: you can start off writing blog posts about a subject and after tackling it a number of times accumulate enough information or research that it makes sense to turn it into something larger, like a magazine article.

And if you blog about an entirely different subject than the topic or topics you normally write about, you can avoid this situation in the first place. But the longer you blog on a topic, the more ideas you generate that could be spun off into paid work, whether that’s magazine articles, books, newsletters or something else entirely.

If you freelance and have a blog, I’d love to know how you handled this.