This is the closest to sending a chain letter I’ll ever get.

Last week, freelance writer Kerry Dexter included WordCount in a list of 15 blogs to explore. She was continuing an experiment started by another writer/blogger friend who included Dexter’s blog in her own list of 15 ‘Lovely Blogs, after that blog had been included in someone else’s list.

Now it’s my turn.

When it comes to blogs, I regularly read a mashup of subjects I write about like technology, HR, Internet security and business, and blogs about what’s happening in the media industry – as you can imagine there are more and more of those these days. I also read a handful of blogs on writing, blogging, marketing and social media that influence my own writing and blogging.

Since I started using Twitter, I probably read more posts on random blogs than posts on blogs I subscribe to – but that’s a subject for another day.

Without further ado, here are the 15 blogs I read almost every day:

Media industry

• Romenesko – Hands down the most informative blog for what’s happening in the newspaper and magazine business.
• NewspaperDeathWatch – Another strong chronicler of what’s happening in the newspaper business, written by newspaper industry and social media expert Paul Gillin.
• PBSMediaShift – With the tagline, “Your guide to the digital media revolution,” host Mark Glaser is turning this into a multi-sourced must-read for what’s happening in digital media.

Writing and freelancing

• The Urban Muse – Susan Johnston, aka The Urban Muse, is the freelance writer I wish I was when I was starting out – smart and accessible, not above sharing her frustrations, foibles and successes.
• The Social Writer - Motley Fool writer Tim Beyers uses his blog to explore how writers can use the latest social media tools in pursuit of freelance happiness.
• Seth’s Blog – An old-school online marketer, if it’s possible to call anyone associated with interactive marketing old school, Seth Godin’s been around since Web 1.0 and it shows. With the tip of his bald head peaking out at readers, Godin’s like a Buddha, spouting short daily aphorisms on sales and marketing. Freelancers are in the business of selling, whether we like to think of ourselves that way or not, so why not draw inspiration from a master.

Social media

• ProBlogger – Instructive but not preachy advice on blogging. Whatever blogging difficulty you’re encountering – building traffic, looking for topics, getting readers to comment, etc. – chances are Darren Rowse and crew have covered it, from multiple angles.
• Mashable – Do I read this to stay current on what’s happening in social networks for the paid writing I do, or do I read it for the tips to get more out my own social media use? Probably a little bit of both.
• TwiTips – Not an everyday read, but definitely the first place I turn when figuring out something new on Twitter. (Note: I’ve written a guest column here.)

Business and technology

• Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist – If you read me you know I have a train wreck kind of fascination with Trunk. Yes she’s wildly inappropriate at times, but also an incredibly compelling blogger who tackles issues other people wouldn’t dream of, like her post connecting abortion and careers, which to date has received 370 comments.
• YourHRGuy – What’s not to like about Lance Haun – he knows HR, he brings a Gen Y perspective to workplace matters, he writes well, he’s in Portland, and he’s into sports and making sports analogies about HR issues.
• TechCrunch – Love him or hate him, Michael Arrington’s group-edited blog is the CNN Headlines News for Silicon Valley.
• ReadWriteWeb – Another group-edited blog covering the tech biz. While it might not have TechCrunch’s sizzle, or bite, it’s become another go-to source for breaking industry news – and anything with so many writers based in Portland is OK in my book.

Just for kicks

• The Cohens in DK – If I’m being totally honest here, some blogs I read just for fun. One is my sister’s about life as an expat wife living in Copenhagen, which will end soon because her husband’s been recalled to the States for a new position. This is as good an example as any I’ve come across of excellent writing from an amateur writer/blogger, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my sister.
• My daughter’s blog from college, which she started so she wouldn’t have to email or even call home about her adventures or, God forbid, friend me on Facebook. Sorry, this one’s not meant for public consumption so I’m not including the link.

I’m no fan of chain letters, so I won’t ask anyone to pick up the mantle and blog about the 15 blogs they read most often. But if you’ve got a couple favorites, feel free to share them here.

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.

Here’s what I’m reading this week. First, from my fellow bloggers participating in the 2nd Annual WordCount Blogathon:

• 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.

Today you’ll find me over on the national blog of the American Society of Business Publication Editors. The ASBPE’s national blog is re-running my blog post Top 10 strategies to drive traffic to your blog.

ASBPE is a 45-year-old professional association for full-time and freelance editors and writers working in the business, trade and specialty press. The group holds an annual meeting – the 2009 conference is July 15-17 in Washington D.C. – and this year is also sponsoring a one-day digital workshop, which takes place Nov. 5 in San Francisco. The ASBPE also runs 14 local chapters, a job bank, members-only online forums and Webinars. Membership is $75 for staff editors and $50 for freelancers.

You can find out more on the ASBPE Website or on the ASBPE Group page on LinkedIn, which currently has about 322 members. For updates on Twitter, follow @ASBPE.

Last year in an effort to learn more about Web 2.0 and drive up traffic to this blog, I challenged myself to write a post every day during the month of May. Because misery loves company, I invited writers I hang out with on the FreelanceSuccess.com writers’ newsletter and message board to join me.

In the end, more than two dozen writers who blog about everything from dogs to food to pets participated in our own version of NaNoWriMo, which I guess you could call NaNoBloMo – although I think another blogger uses that already. And it doesn’t roll off the tongue very well. But I digress.

Being a glutton for punishment - and piling on work – I’m announcing the 2nd annual WordCount May blogathon. Ta da. The best part is, it’s open to any writer with a blog who wants to participate. All you have to do is write. About whatever you want. For 31 days. That’s it.

If you want the world to know that you’re in on the experiment, I’ll be posting a list of blogathon writers tomorrow and will probably update it one more time after that. If you’re in, leave a comment here or on the Freelance Success message board. Include your name, your blog’s name, a brief description of what it’s about (really brief, like less than 6 words) and the URL.

After last year’s blogathon my blog traffic jumped, I was more confident about my ability to write posts on a regular basis, and I made a lot of new friends. If you need more convincing why taking part in a blogathon is a good idea, here are a few other lessons I learned last year.

Whether you’re in or not, tune in tomorrow for a list of writers who’ll be participating. And stay tuned next week, when I’ll provide suggestions for easy blog posts for those days you just don’t have time for a long post or can’t think of something on your own.

Twitter users fall into one of three categories: people who use it only to promote their blogs, people who sometimes use it to promote their blogs, and people who never had a blog or dumped theirs because all they want to do is hang out on Twitter.

Which camp are you in?

Plenty of Twitter etiquette experts will say flogging your blog on Twitter is a no no. But really, if you use it to talk about your work or life and said work or life includes the blog you do for fun or profit, then it follows that the twain should meet, at least every once in a while.

But what constitutes every once in a while? Ah, there’s the rub.

My philosophy is simple. Ask yourself:

1. How often do I tweet?
2. What do I tweet about?
3. Does tweeting a link to my latest blog post fit into my overall tweeting strategy?
4. Does tweeting a link to my blog post constitute a (fill in the blank with an acceptable amount) percent of my total tweets?

Answer all those questions and you’ll have your answer.

I tweet about a variety of topics, including the subjects I report on, freelance writing and stuff happening in the city, state and region of the country where I live. I tweet somewhere between once and 10 times a day, some days more. I put up new blog posts three times a week, and tweet about each once, maybe twice when I first put them up.  During any given week I may refer to an old blog post a couple times to answer a question. And when I follow someone new I usually include a link, either to the main page of this blog or to a blog post I’ve written that’s relevant to that person. I also blog about stories I’ve written when they first come out.

That means in any given week, I’m tweeting 70 to 80 times and 10 or 12 of those are about my blog or something else I’ve written. That’s within my personally acceptable blog flogging limit.

Social media guru Chris Brogan claims to maintain a slightly higher 75/25 ratio of helpful v. promotional tweets. If it that works for Brogan – who has 55,000+ Twitter followers – it should work for you.

Hello 2009! New Year’s Day marked WordCount’s first anniversary.  Last year was good for both of us and I’m can’t wait to see what happens in 2009.

Before then, here’s a look back at the top WordCount posts of 2008, based on the total number of page views.

Some interesting things about the most popular posts: a few of them got lots of traffic because Google searches caught the images I’d included, such as the post on Tina Brown launching The Daily Beast and a post on my trip to New York City to visit editors that I paired with an image of the Manhattan skyline.

Other popular blog posts covered areas near and dear to freelancers figuring out how they need to change their businesses or skills to keep up with the times. Here’s a baker’s dozen of the best:

Best blogs for writers – Far and away my most popular blog post ever. Stay tuned for an update in February.

Tina Brown to head ONA September conference – When it comes to page views, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

I’m in a New York State of mind – Another popular picture.

Asking the hard question – top 10 interview tips – A version of this post appeared in The New Writer’s Handbook 2008, published by Scarletta Press in August.

What freelancers should know about SEO – A lot, as it turns out.

10 ways to promote your freelance writing – List posts are always popular, and this one was no exception.

Promote yourself through your email signature – Some writers have turned the humble email sig into an art form.

Freelancers’ strategies for prospering in bad times – Good advise from writers of all backgrounds.

Paging Dr. Sawaya, Milton is hip again – I’d like to think this paean to a favorite college professor was popular because it was so well written but I think the traffic had more to do with the picture of an old copy of “Paradise Lost” I included.

Guest post: Going freelance in a down economy – The Urban Muse blogger Susan Johnston weighs in on what led to her decision to leave a full-time job and why she’s never been happier.

10 top Web tools for freelancers – Google News Alerts, Delicious and a whole lot more.

Avoiding data disasters – Links to a story I wrote with a great photo of a really old mainframe computer.

How writers can use LinkedIn, Part 1 – LinkedIn transformed my business and this helps explain why.

Your blog has picked up a decent amount of traffic, enough to make you wonder whether you could actually make money from it. And what’s one of the best ways to make money from a blog? Advertise.

That’s the conventional thinking. But when I posed the question to a bunch of freelance writers and bloggers over on LinkedIn, I didn’t get the answers I expected.

Some bloggers happily put ads on their blogs and earn some level of revenue from it. But many said it wasn’t worth the time or trouble. They believe there are better ways to make money from a blog – read on to find out what they’re talking about:

Advertising Has Been Good to Me

The consensus of bloggers who like advertising is this: if you’re going to put ads on your blog, Google AdSense is the way to go. According to Google, when you sign up for AdSense, the service matches ads to your site’s content, and you earn money when visitors click on them.

AdSense “is the simplest and quickest way to start selling advertising on your blog, says JaWar, an Atlanta entrepreneur, author and keeper of multiple blogs on music and making money online. Just how much ad revenue you generate depends on how much traffic your blog gets, and that depends on how well you’ve used search engine optimization so search engines find your posts, he says. If your blog becomes very popular you may even consider selling advertising spots on it directly, he says.

Robin Capper attracts enough advertising on his computer-aided design and personal blogs to cover his blog hosting costs, and the remainder he donates to Kiva, a person-to-person microloan service, saying “It maybe enough to change someone else’s life.”

Melanie Stone Perry has never put ads on Mistress of the Dorkness, the blog devoted to CAD technology she’s written since 2005. But Perry’s starting a new blog (it’s not up and running yet so I won’t share the URL) she hopes will reach a wider audience. On that, she’s taking the advertising plunge. She’d like to duplicate “non-annoying” ads she sees on other blogs.

James Burchill, a Web marketing and social media expert and blogger with a print publishing background, favors advertising. But he eschews AdSense in favor of acting as his own advertising sales rep, offering select advertising opportunities at varying rates. “A small site with a loyal following can generate the publisher hundreds of dollars a month in simple ads,” Burchill says. The money may not be enough to quit your day job, “but if you had a network of these?” Another advantage of advertising: well-done ads show your bog isn’t just a hobby, he says.

If you choose to advertise, stick with it. Lubna Kably, a tax consultant and newspaper columnist in Mysore, India, put AdSense on her blog but forgot the password and then didn’t bother to take the old stuff off the site. Oops.

Sell Something Else

Writers are better off using their blog to promote something they’ve written such as a book or e-book, says Owen Linderholm, editorial director for a San Francisco online media company. “Better still is to use the site to promote yourself, your writing and your editing. That could result in lots of business that is worth far more than the advertising ever could be,” Linderholm says.

Frank Derfler, author of 22 technical books, used AdSense on his blogs Mostly Flying and Great Guy Books and signed up for Amazon.com’s Affiliate Program. Bottom line: “Revenue started out very low and is presently sitting at darn near nothing,” he says. “If (people) want to buy from Amazon, they will go to Amazon to buy.” Bloggers are better off developing their own thing to sell, whether it’s a craft item, information or something in multi-level-marketing. “It will have better return on your investment,” he says.

One blogger who followed that path is Andrew Ian Dodge, a freelance writer and game designer whose Dodgeblogium blog mixes heavy metal music with heavy metal politics. Dodge used to put ads on the site “and they were bloody useless,” he says. Now the only ads he runs are of his own book and music CDs.

UPDATE: I should have made this point before. If you use WordPress.com, you cannot put advertising on your blog unless you pay for the VIP service, which costs $500/mo. and is mainly used by national media companies and big-name bloggers. However, you could include advertising if you had a blog on a Web host of your own choosing and downloaded the free software from WordPress.org. You can use AdSense on blogs hosted by Blogger.com. You can ads from several ad networks on blogs hosted by TypePad.

Last week I wrote a post lamenting how difficult it is to get people to leave comments on blog posts. The post generated a lot of comments – ironic yes, but a good thing too – because it proved food for additional thought on the subject.

The general consensus of the dozen or so people who weighed in on the subject is getting readers to leave comments is hard for everyone, with the possible exception of super bloggers. Then I ran across this post from Robert Scoble, the well-known tech blogger, in which he too was lamenting the fact that his blog posts don’t get as many comments (except that his post about not getting comments anymore got tons). If you read through the comments you’ll see the suggestion that it’s because comments from the blog-reading public are more scattered now that their favorite bloggers started dividing their time between Twitter, Friend Feed and other blog-social network mash ups.

One freelance friend of mine suggests that the blog posts that generate the most comments are often on controversial subjects, such the 2008 presidential election or global warming. In those cases, comments range from rah rah to vitriolic. She asks, is that really the kind of comments you want on your blog? Good point.

Another acquaintance says she’s a regular reader of my blog but doesn’t comment because she finds the posts cover what she wants to know about a topic. She also says she follows the links included in the blog, both to previous posts or to related material elsewhere online, to find out more. That’s something fellow bloggers should note. If you’re blogging and not including links to your back posts, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to introduce readers to other things you’ve written – and the more they read, the greater the chances they’ll some day leave a comment.

I took to blogging fairly quickly and I finally figured out why.

I wrote a weekly newspaper column for more than five years. After that, I wrote a weekly column for Reuters, the financial wire service, for seven years. After a dozen years, writing something once a week – or more – was so second nature that when I stopped working to take care of my kids, I kept writing weekly columns. It’s just that for a time, my “weekly column” was the weekly email update for my oldest kids’ summer swim team. Then it was the weekly report for my son’s middle-school football team. Then it was a weekly newsletter for a charity group my daughter and I belonged to. It didn’t really matter what I was writing about, I was writing.

When I went back to work, I had to get acquainted with the technical aspects of blogging. But on the writing end of things I was good. Because really, I’d never stopped.

All of this is a round about way of saying, if you’re a writer, you need to write, and one of the best ways to practice is a blog. If you blog, it gets you into the habit of writing often. It’s like playing the piano. The more you practice, the faster you get better. The more you write, the faster you get better.

That’s reason No. 1 freelance writers should have a blog. Having a blog can also help you:

Create a Website – Sign up with a free blog hosting site like WordPress (what I use), TypePad or Blogger, and for nothing more than your email address, you get an online home for your resume, bio and clips as well as a blog.

Establish a beat - Whether it’s the 2008 presidential campaign, animal rescue or vegan cooking, blogging about a particular subject can help you stay on top of interesting trends and developments in a specific field, information that you can use for queries and assignments.

Practice different writing styles – If you normally writing in one style, you can use your blog to practice different styles or voices. If you normally write straight news stories for business or trade magazines, use your blog to practice writing opinion pieces, personal essays or comedy bits. If you’re comfortable writing in different styles and genres for yourself, it’s not much of a stretch to pitch those types of stories to potential clients.

Become an expert – If you blog on a specific topic long enough, you can develop an expertise that’s so attractive editors will come looking for you – or at least that’s the hope. You might also draw conference organizers looking for speakers and like-minded writers who want to network. Which leads to….

Make connections – Your blog can be a calling card to introduce yourself to writers, editors and other people in your field. Since I wrote about blogs for writers, a bunch of writers whose blogs I mentioned have asked to put me in their blogrolls and I’m doing likewise. Bingo, instant community.

Interact with readers – When you write for magazines or newspapers, you don’t always get the chance to interact directly with readers. Some publications still don’t run writers’ email addresses with stories and others run a generic address for all letters to the editors. On a blog there’s no barrier between you and your readers, so you can respond to whatever they have to say, which could lead to more things to write about.

Improve your skills – As publications move from paper to the Web, writers have to follow. You don’t need to know everything there is to know about coding HTML, but you should know a little. That goes for podcasts, social networks and other Web-based software too.

Get instant gratification - Send a story idea to a magazine editor and it might take weeks or months to hear back. Seeing a story in print can take even longer. On a blog, you get an idea, do some research, write it, hit the “Publish” button, and there it is, your thoughts for the world to see.

Make money – Although many writers use blogs purely for marketing and networking purposes, some have turned them into money-making ventures. They sell ad space through Google AdSense or sign up for the Amazon Associates program, or use the space to sell self-published books, e-books, webinars, podcasts and related services. You may find that you like blogging so much you want to look for freelance blogging gigs, which you can find on sites like ProBlogger and BloggerJobs.

Other writer/bloggers have weighed in on this subject. You can read their reasons why writers should have blogs here, here and here.