A lot of that has to do with the Blogathon Google Group Rebecca Allen helped get started earlier this week. As of May 6, about 75 blogathoners had signed up and conversations about guest posts and blog topics are in full swing. If for some reason you didn’t get the invitation, or had trouble signing up, let me know.

Between the conversations going on in Google Group and on Twitter – at #Blog2010 – I’m getting to know more about this year’s blogathoners and reading lots of posts. There’s so much good stuff out there, I’ve decided to devote the remaining Saturdays in May to a list of especially engaging entries I happened upon this week.

Here’s this week’s edition of Around the Blogathon:

Build-a-blog workshop – Writer and website designer Ron Doyle is using the blogathon to crowdsource a redesign of his blog, BlogSaladBlog.com. Each day Ron picks a different element of his redesign and asks readers to vote on the direction he should take. So far so good, with the possible exception of the color scheme readers chose for him – not sure how well rust, tan and green are going to look together.

Scofflaws, reveal yourselves – In a completely different type of interactive experiment, Kathy Murray is asking readers to fess up if they’ve ever broken the law. A long-time journalist (and former newspaper colleague of mine), Murray runs Out and Employed, a blog offering job advice to ex-offenders that grew out of a class she teaches at an adult detention center.

Trust your gut – Tastee Pudding blogger Amanda Hirsch writes about how scary but important it is to trust what your instincts tell you about what you do for work, where you live and how you live. Good advice, especially for self-employeds like freelance writers who too often say “Yes” to projects for the money despite the alarm bells going off in their heads over circumstances of a project.

Idioms R Us – Speaking of trusting your gut, that expression is called an idiom and idioms are the subject of the blog, About English Idioms, Joanne Mason started recently and is using the Blogathon to get up and running. Mason is a freelance writer, long-time ESL teacher and tutor, so who better to unravel the mysteries of why we say face the music when we mean accept the consequences of what we’ve done than someone who’s made language her career.

All-in-one blog reader – Keeping up with 110+ blogs participating in this year’s Blogathon is daunting. Dylan, who blogs at DiscordianZen put together an RSS feed that groups all the blogs in the Blogathon onto one page, making it a real time saver.

A lot of freelancers I know have both. A Website can be a great showcase for a freelancer’s resume, writing samples and clips, photographs (if they take them), references, recommendations and other marketing materials an editor or book publisher might want to see. But Websites can be time-consuming, intimidating and expensive to create.

A blog is a great medium for a writer to practice their craft. Thanks to blogging sites such as WordPress, TypePad and Blogger.com, getting a blog started can be easy and cheap. But most blogs are set up so new material goes on the front page in reverse chronological order. So if a writer is using a blog as her Website for marketing purposes, editors have to wade through all those blog posts to get to what they really want.

That works for some people, including me. However, I just stumbled upon a post that explains how to put a static front page on a WordPress blog, which means if you want, you can make your blog look like a traditional Website. Thanks to fellow freelancer Carolyn Erickson for bringing it to my attention, and especially to the owner of the Blogging Experiment site for sharing the information, which includes step-by-step instructions.

You can read the instructions here.

5/02 UPDATE: I’VE ADDED A COUPLE MORE LATECOMERS TO THE END OF THE LIST. MVR

NOTE: I’VE ADDED TWO LATECOMERS TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST. MVR

I’m ushering in May by kicking off a blogathon, where I promise to post something every day this month. I’m calling it A Post a Day in the Month of May.

I’m doing it to celebrate a milestone birthday coming up in a week or so, and the start of spring.

I’ve persuaded 19 other freelance writers to join me. During the course of the month I may write more about each one. For now, here’s a list of who’s joining me in my great birthday blogging adventure:

Janine Adams – Organizing tips galore.

Jane Boursaw - Covers everything about movies including reviews, trailers and industry news.

Diana Burrell – Diana is one half of the team behind the popular The Renegade Writer books and blog, which are both crammed with good stuff for writers.

Jackie Dishner – Writes about biking, but so much more. Her post today on biking and body image is amazing.

Marijke Durning – Writes about the newest in health and safety news, and a bit about life as a freelance writer.

Carolyn Erickson – Carolyn is using the blogathon to recharge her blogging batteries – good girl!

Amy Grisak – A good-looking blog about “seizing the moment,” with lots of posts about gardening, food, family life and more.

Roxanne Hawn - Covers the “true tales, brags and whines about my life with a rescued border collie named Lilly.”

Sandra Hume – A blog about Laura Ingalls Wilder! My 7-year-old son and I just read “Little House in the Big Woods” and I fell in love with it all over again.

Elizabeth Kricfalusi - “Miss Adventure” writes about adventure “in many different shapes and flavors.”

Trish Lawrence - According to Trish, “It’s mostly blather about my writing, gossip, and my opinions on things as opposite as Gossip Girl and James Frey.”

Sue Poremba – Writes for and about writers. Today’s post is about coming up with queries.

Sarah Ludwig Rausch – A mom of four and freelance writer: it’s worth visiting Sarah’s blog just to see the picture of her cute kids.

Meredith Resnick – Actually, Meredith has four blogs but I only picked one to link to for now, on “real world news and real world views” of adoption. Meredith, how can you keep 4 blogs going?

Dawn Weinberger – A fellow Oregonian, writes about life after her husband Carl’s successful liver transplant last year, chronicling “our journey of faith, hope and healing.”

Susan Weiner – “Coverage of investment-related topics by a financial writer-editor who’s also a CFA charterholder.”

Late entries:

Charmian Christie – Christie’s Corner takes a light look at food. Her motto: “Real food. Real life. It ain’t always pretty.”

Jen Miller – Writes about the New Jersey shore in support of her new book, “The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City to Cape May: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide.”

Claudine Jalajas – Writes about the joys and pain of remodeling her house.

Barb Adamski – A Canadian writer who blogs about lacrosse, “its past, its present, and its future.”

Leah Ingram – The Lean Green Family (formerly Suddenly Frugal), all about living frugally and green.

Dara Chadwick – Fit in Real Life.

Jennifer Willis – Thoughts from the spiral.