When Michelle asked to swap posts with me today, I immediately panicked. With every post, WordCount hits its readers with something useful, pragmatic, informative, or controversial. Me? I like pictures of apes:

Ron, locked on his condo patio by his three-year-old daughter

So, instead of me rambling at all of you about the essentials of interaction design or creating a literary arc with your social media marketing strategy, and instead of making a mess of Michelle’s blog and redesigning it while you watch, I decided WordCount readers deserved something more. Something that, when they read it, would make them really, really happy.

Gretchen Rubin

And when I think happy, I think Gretchen Rubin.

Okay, really, I think about my wife and daughters and monkeys throwing Frisbees and low-sugar cereals.

But when I think about writers who are experts on the topic of happiness, Rubin definitely tops the list. She’s the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project, a book that chronicles her year-long journey through hundreds of happiness experiments based on centuries of philosophy and science on the subject.

Whoa. Back up. I’m being a little dishonest here and got sidetracked for the sake of good connecting sentences between paragraphs.

Here’s the real reason why I interviewed Gretchen Rubin: she’s a naughty, naughty blogger.

No, not that kind of naughty. Stop Googling “Gretchen Rubin naked.” Come back here and pay attention.

Rubin is “naughty” because she’s a world-class blogger on the very successful Happiness-Project.com and countless other major sites — and doesn’t worry [gasp!] about search engine optimization.

During an online forum discussion about SEO and duplicate content, a fellow writer once noted that Rubin posts identical content on her personal blog and her Psychology Today blog. According to SEO mavens (despite the fact that Google openly denies this) duplicating content on multiple sites is a big no-no because search engines penalize sites that do.

In my interview with her on Monday, Rubin told me she cross-posts content on Psychology Today, her top-rated Huffington Post blog, Yahoo! Shine, and Divine Caroline, among several others. Her penalty? According to Compete.com, Rubin’s personal blog receives an average of over 65,000 unique visitors per month. Say it with me: 65,000 uniques.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s on a blog that has a hyphen in the domain name — because even way back in 2006, http://happinessproject.com and http://thehappinessproject.com were already taken. In some circles of SEO “mavenry,” saying you have a hyphen in your domain name is like saying you have herpes on your, ahem, you know what.

Here’s a little from my interview with Gretchen:

Ron Doyle: So you were doing this big happiness project, mostly just for you, but then you started a blog. When and why did you start blogging?

Gretchen Rubin: In March 2006, I was working on the part of my happiness project dedicated to the theme of work and I wanted to test the theory that happiness comes from doing novel and challenging things, so I started a blog. But they wouldn’t sell me the domain name, so yeah, I have a hyphen. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I asked a friend for help. They told me to use Typepad, so I did. They said post every day. That was more than I had planned, but I did it anyway. I didn’t have images on the blog for months. But that’s what great about blogging — you can start simple, add bells and whistles later, and step up your game as you gain confidence. Some people, who knew more about SEO than me, asked, ‘Are you worried about this?’ I decided early on that I’m not going to worry about it. There were so many things that I could have worried about. Instead, I focused on one of my mantras, ‘Ubiquity is the new exclusivity.’ If I had an opportunity to put myself on a quality site, I did it.”

Doyle: So there was never a point in your evolution as a blogger where you were worried about SEO?

Rubin: Oh, sure, I was interested, I still am a little. I always wonder in the back of my mind if I’m doing the right thing. But I attended a presentation on the topic and the SEO expert there said that search engines like Google are constantly changing their algorithms to stop people from manipulating it, so it’s hard to know what hurts or helps. Instead, I do what makes sense from an audience perspective.

Doyle: That’s a really refreshing way of looking at the world of blogging. So many new bloggers want a magic formula to success — and that’s often SEO. But you’re saying that writing content people want to read is all that really matters. What tips then, if any, do you have for other aspiring bloggers?

Rubin: I don’t really worry about search. But I do worry about internal links, ways to get readers to dig deeper. I don’t really worry about keywords, but I stay focused on my key topics — friends and happiness, for example. If you get 100,000 new [readers] coming in from search and only 1 percent stay, that’s still great. But I think you should pay more attention to shout-outs from similar blogs, because people coming from those places will become loyal readers. And I think paying attention to your returning readers is most important if you want your blog to grow and be energetic.

Ron S. Doyle is a Denver-based freelance web designer and magazine writer. You can see more of his work at his new blog, Psychology Today’s You 2.0, an exploration of technology’s effect on identity and personality. He also writes a humor blog about design at BlogSaladBlog.com.

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.

UPDATED ON SUNDAY, MAY 3: I added a number of additional participants and put my own name on the list, for those of you who’re copying this to your own blogs. – MVR

And they’re off.

For the next 31 days, a merry band of freelance writer are teaming up to take part in the second annual WordCount blogathon. We’ll be testing the limits of our blogging endurance to find out if we can successfully post every day in May.

How hard can it be, right? Well, pretty darn hard. Those of us who make our living writing have those pesky paid assignments to attend to in addition to hanging out on our much more fun blogs. And while some days ideas for blog posts are as bountiful as cherry blossoms in spring, other days the idea well is as barren as those same cherry boughs in winter. Then there are the weekends, when nobody in their right mind wants to be at a keyboard.

But we’re determined to persevere. As professional blogger have noted, the more you post, the better you get at it – and if you’re doing it right – the more traffic you’ll attract to your blog.

So here’s to blogging, here’s to May and here’s to us.

Speaking of us, here’s a list of writer-bloggers in this year’s blogathon, with links to their respective online homes:

• Vera Marie Badertscher – A Travelers Library – Books and movies that influence travel.
• Tim Beyers – The Social Writer – Motley Fool tech contributor and co-host of Twitter’s #editorchat.
• Heather Boerner – Serenity for the Self Employed – Advice for the self-employed among us.
• Jane Boursaw – Film Gecko – May Movie Madness and other film-related stuff.
• Melanie Bonsall – Expert Editing – The online home of this editor, proofreader and writer.
• Danielle Buffardi – Horrible Sanity – Random thoughts of a mother and freelance writer.
• Sona Charaipotra – Sona Charaipotra – for entertainmnet topics, and Ishq in a Backpack on travel and food.
• Rosie Colombraro – Trust the Universe – There is always a Plan B.
• Sue Dickman – A Life Divided – Food, gardening, travel, books and more.
• Jackie Dishner – BIKE with Jackie – Improving your life with the B.I.K.E. spiritual navigation tool.
• Ron S. Doyle – Ron S. Doyle – The literary equivalent of fruit salad and Cyclorati – Exercising my cyclophilia.
• Kelly Estes – Big Government in Your Wallet – A political blog.
• Jennifer L.W. Fink – Blogging ‘Bout Boys – With 4 boys between 11 & 3, this writer knows her subject.
• Sydne George - I’ll Have What She’s Cooking – Good eats.
• Debra Gordon – Wine on Tuesdays
• Nancy Hall – Floating Ink – How to fit making art into your every day life.
• KT Hinderer – Write Beyond the Cubicle – Musings of a full-time freelance writer and editor.
• Heather Holliday – Zazou Marketing – Putting your best words forward.
• Elizabeth Humphrey – TheWriteElizabeth – Introducing creativity into daily life.
• Leah Ingram – Suddenly Frugal – Tips for frugal living.
• JoAnn Jagroop – This Dame Cooks – Recipes from Alaska to the South Pacific.
• Sara Lancaster – No. 2 Pen Blog – Blog of this Denver, freelance Web & marketing writer.
• Doug Lance – Freelance Fiction – “I get paid to tell sweet, sweet lies.”
• Jared Lopatin – Sign in Ink – Everyday life as motivated by astrological happenings.
• Jenn Maciejewski – Cities on the Cheap – Freebies and deals in multiple cities across the U.S.
• Eric Mack – Wrecking Ball Report, MountainDaddy and SaveThatReceipt.
• Lisa Mann – Sonoma on the Cheap – One of the Cities on the Cheap blogs, this one for Sonoma, Calif.
• Joy Manning – What I Weigh Today – A food writer reflects on weight and body image issues.
• Teresa Mears – Miami on the Cheap – A Cities on the Cheap blog for Miami.
• Amy Rauch Neilson – It’s in the Genes – Thoughts of a breast cancer survivor.
• Jennifer Netherby – Jennifer Netherby – Musings of a freelance writer.
• Sarah E. Ludwig – Parenting by Trial and Error – Learning, growing, staying flexible.
• Michelle V. Rafter – WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age – Plugging into the online news biz.
• Kate Reilly – Polka Dot Suitcase – Finding fun in everyday life.
• Meredith Resnick – Inner Writing Journey – Authors & professional creatives in quirky dialogue on how they write and why it works.
• Melissa Sais – Digital Mom – Raising kids in a digital world.
• Brette Sember – Martha and Me – One Martha Stewart makeover a day.
• Kathy Summers – EcoPregnancy & Baby and Health Writing Hints.
• Jodi Torpey – Western Gardeners – Your online guide to gardening in the West.
• Sarah Webb – Webb of Science – Where science meets life.
• Jennifer Willis – The Green Soul Guide – Where sustainability and spirituality meet.

UPDATE: As of May 4, I’m no longer adding bloggers to the blogathon. But feel free to blog along side us on an unofficial basis, the more the merrier.

It’s not too late to join the fun. If you’d like to add yourself, leave a comment on this post or email me at michellerafter (at) comcast.net.

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