Last year close to 50 writers participated in the blogathon. In addition to putting up a list of all participating writers on our respective blogs, we had an official guest post exchange day and a real-time wrap party on Twitter to discuss what we loved, hated and learned.

Here at WordCount world headquarters, I’m already hatching plans to make this year’s blogathon the best ever. Already in the works: an official button participants can prominently display on their blogs to show the world what they’re doing. And once again we’ll have an official guest post exchange and a real-time wrap party.

I’d like to take it to the next level – but what is that exactly? Contests? Prizes? Guest posts from editors? Pre-blogathon posts to help you plan how to blog every day in the month of May without going crazy or stopping everything else you do?

Since this is a participatory event, I’d like to hear from you. Whether you took part last year, think you might this year, or just want to have a say in things, I’d love your input. Please take the following poll to let me know what new things you’d like to see this year.

And don’t forget to check back here regularly for more WordCount Blogathon 2010 updates.

31 posts later, I’m at the finish line and here’s what I discovered:

It’s not that hard to blog every day, you have to “just do it.”

Not all blog posts are created equal. Some can be short. Some can simply point to other interesting stuff you’ve found online. Lists are crowd pleasers. Here’s some other great suggestions for types of posts from Problogger, a great source for anything related to blogging.

Regular blogging leads to more readers. Since the blogathon started, traffic to WordCount jumped close to 150 percent. If you blog, they will come. Here’s another great post from Problogger listing 23 ideas for finding new readers for your blog, including persistence.

It’s critical to tag your blogs so they show up when people do keyword searches on Google and other search engines. For a while I did what some search engine optimization experts suggested and only used a few tags per post. But I’m back to putting in about a half dozen or so, and I think it’s working.

Freelancers blog about all kinds of things. Some blog on the same subjects they write about. Jane Boursaw writes about the movies and her Reel Like with Jane Website and blog are full of entertainment industry news. Some, like me, blog about writing. Susan Johnston, The Urban Muse, is in a different place in her career and her take on freelancing is a refreshing change from mine. Other writers’ blogs are very personal, like Claudine Jalajas’ The @$#!% Extension, which chronicles her home addition, or Dawn Weingarten’s blog, where she writes about life after her husband’s organ transplant.

Blogging has been good for my writing. Compared to my other work, my blog posts are pretty chatty. That’s helped the stories I write for a consumer electronics Web site, where adopting a conversational, between-friends tone is a good way to explain tech topics that can sometimes be intimidating for the uninitiated. Here’s one example, this story on encryption I wrote recently for YourSecurityResource.com.

Some fellow blogathoners have been inspired to go after paid blogging gigs. I haven’t got there yet, but I’d consider the right offer.

So thanks to the other freelancers who braved it out. I hope you learned as much from the experience as I did.

Mediabistro.com is offering three new, short classes on starting a writing-related blog as part of its Crash Course series of mini-seminars. Classes are online and on demand, so you sign up and watch when you can. “How to Start a Blog” features blogger and Mediabistro writer David White, who covers getting started, creating content, domain names and tools for bloggers. The class is 14 minutes long and costs $15, or $12 if you’re a Mediabistro AvantGuild preferred member.

A two-part series, “How to be a Blog Star” Part I and Part II, feature prominent writers including Brian Williams, with NBC Nightly News, and Brian Stelter, who writes the The New York Times TV Decoder blog, discussing topics such as why they started blogging, how they established their niches and how blogging can lead to other work.

Once you sign up for an on-demand class you have access to it for 30 days. Each comes with an area for taking notes, plus a class outline and links to resources. Free previews are available too. If you’re interested in learning more about blogging, online video and other Web tools, Mediabistro has a variety of other on-demand classes you can check out here.

If you’d rather not shell out $15 to watch a video, there are plenty of free resources online. Here’s a collection of posts I’ve written about blogging for freelance writers:

10 reasons freelance writers should have a blog
Best blogs for writers
How to write great blog posts
Writing blog posts: plotted out or on the fly?
What freelance writers should know about SEO
Tips for improving traffic to your blog
10 basic Web tools for writers