While countries around the world worry about swine flu (sorry, H1N1), I’m here to tell you there is another insidious virus sweeping at least the blogging world. Yes, some online Dr. Evil is secretly going around stealing our mojo.

You know you’ve noticed it. Some bloggers you follow simply don’t post as often. Others have replaced blog content with their running Twitter commentary, or they select links found on, again, Twitter for a “best of” round-up. (Not a bad idea, and one I may shamelessly steal borrow.) A Google search on “lost my blogging mojo” pulled up 714,000 results.

Yes, I’ve lost my own blogging mojo. It appears to have started slipping away during a frantically busy week leading up to a week off in San Francisco. Once back in town, the pace continued, and between my freelance writing business and networking/volunteer activities and personal life, I would find myself shutting down the computer at 11:30 p.m. and thinking, “I’ll blog tomorrow.” Or before writing a post, I would just “dip into Twitter,” which quickly ate up my allotted non-work time. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil cranked the Mojo Vac on high and “tomorrow” kept getting farther away.

When I launched this blog in January 2007, I worried about getting into a regular rhythm of posting, having found it difficult to keep up a hand-written journal. But for the most part, I managed to maintain a regular two- or three-times-a-week schedule. So I know if I can only get my mojo back, I’ll be good to go.

If you’ve got any advice for getting blogging mojo back, I’d love to hear it. And if you’ve seen my mojo, let me know. If I see your mojo, I’ll be glad to do the same.

Have you noticed lately that the bloggers you follow are posting a little less frequently?

For me, there’s a direct correlation between deadlines looming and a slowdown in both reading and posting to blogs. I’m disciplined about working when I have to be, and time online is the first to go when I have a lot on my plate. So at times like the busy weeks leading up to a week away on my mini-vacation in San Francisco and then attending the IABC conference, I did not have much to say online.

But something else is getting in the way these days:  Twitter.

Kelly Thul at CommunNtelligence recently voiced that same thought, in a post called “Cheating on my blogging with Twitter”:

“I have resolved to get back to posting to a couple of blogs that I have neglected lately. Trying to understand how I got there. Was I lazy? Sure, always a bit, but that is not it. Did I run out of things to say? Unlikely. I blame Twitter.”

Me, too. First, you spend time scrolling through tweets from everyone you follow to see what they’re up to, and maybe answer or retweet a couple. Then, you have to look at all the interesting URLs they’ve suggested. Next, you might share a few URLs of your own, or come up with something about what you’re doing. And maybe you have some new people following you, so you look at their profiles to see if you want to follow back (or maybe block them, if they appear spammy or in other ways suspicious).  And then, oops, look at the time, better get to work! And so you leave blogging to another day.

Don’t get me wrong, Twitter has its appeal. As Kelly notes, it’s easy and quick, and it’s short. And I think those very attributes encourage a quick comment, which helps to build a connection. People seem to be a little less likely to comment on a blog post, especially if the comment is a one-liner (within Twitter’s 140-characters).

But it’s still an enormous expense of time. So here’s my new plan. If it’s been a few days between posts, I’ll blog first, and not even launch Twitter or (the much nicer tool) TweetDeck until that’s done. Or tweet one day and post to my blog the next. And if I’m super busy, I might not get to either.

How are you achieving blog/Twitter balance?

Everyone is trying to be like the shiny new toy, Twitter.

My Internet service provider, Bell Mail, has launched their new “enhanced” mail service, and it wants me to invite people to join my network and update them on what I’m doing. LinkedIn and Facebook want me to invite people to join my network and update them on what I’m doing. The Air Miles loyalty program just announced a new “community” and invited me to pick my user name and join in, sharing travel and Air Miles reward stories. No doubt, they also want me to invite people to join my network and update them on what I’m doing.

But Twitter is the place everyone seems to want to be.

The thing I’ve noticed lately is that people who are busy Twittering are slowly neglecting other parts of their online life. They aren’t updating their blogs as often, or they’re letting a Twitter feed take the place of posts. Twitter comments (yes, I know they are called tweets) are replacing Facebook status updates.

An article by Michael Learmonth in Advertising Age asks, “Why did Facebook suddenly get so much more Twitter-like?” He notes that Facebook “started emulating key functions of Twitter earlier in March after a redesign made status updates central and immediate,” but that “The tweet is replacing the status update among the digerati.”

Not everyone thinks this is good. I ran across Carpe Media and Emily Sussman’s musings on the back-and-forth Facebook encourages by letting people comment on friends’ status updates. She says:

“Unlike Facebook, micro-blogging on Twitter strikes me as the equivalent of shouting into a vacuum…Essentially, Twitter posts are graffiti while Facebook’s status updates function as a dynamic community bulletin board — the latter succeeds because of its context’s fully interactive interface.”

Twitterer kevinrose asks, “is personal blogging dead? w/my facebook page/twitter, I’m not sure I need a blog anymore.”

Do you agree?

Akismet has stopped more than 36,000 spam comments from being posted on my site over the two years I’ve been blogging, a milestone reached yesterday. (Happy anniversary to me!)

I scan through the “holding pen” every once in a while, and usually the spam is obvious. But recently one of the stopped messages took a different approach, boldly promising to “post your promotional message on millions of forums worldwide.” It actually said, “No, this isn’t spam email. It’s penetrating online established communities…” Right, you can generate 400,000 “unique” forum posts, complete with a link to your web site, but it’s not spam. Good luck with that one.

I also ran across something else recently that seemed to be a new form of spam. I was contacted on Facebook by two people I’ve never heard of, wanting to be friends. Here’s a tip. If you want to befriend me and I don’t know you, or it’s been a long time since we’ve encountered each other, write a line explaining where you got my name or where we met and why we should connect. Otherwise, I’m assuming you’re a spammer. Am I wrong?

Digital natives won’t be impressed, but it was big news for me when I launched my web site, started a blog, got settled on Facebook and LinkedIn and even downloaded a ringtone (I’m not a big cellphone user). So believe me when I say there is LOTS for me to learn.

I had wondered before how to link my blog posts with my Facebook profile, and today Dan York pointed the way. As he notes, it’s quite simple once you can find the Import tab. Turns out it is cleverly concealed under the little triangle beside Write Note. Of course, he’s got so many possible places to link that he’s sorry it only lets you link one.

Joan Donogh of In Formation Design, who designed my web site, also  revealed that you don’t need to see an RSS button on someone’s blog to subscribe. Just look up, way up, at the line that shows the URL of the page you’re on. If there’s a feed, you’ll see a little blue RSS feed icon. Click on that, and you’ll be able to subscribe.

Of course, YOU knew that, but I did not.

What things have you discovered lately that you’d be somewhat embarrassed to say you did not know before? Chances are, I don’t know them either!

Hello, all you lurkers! Over the past couple of weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to find out about several people who are following my blog. Even if you aren’t necessarily saying anything, it’s nice to know you’re out there.

When my friend Gloria launched her Escarpment Views blog, she said, “Publishing a magazine is a bit like putting a message in a bottle. It’s surprising where it ends up.”

Blogging is a bit like a message in a bottle, too. You have no idea what shores it’s going to land on and who is going to pick it up.

Hey, if you pick up the bottle, drop a message in it yourself and send it back!

Mitch Joel says there’s never been a better time to start your own blog.  Technorati says in its State of the Blogosphere/2008 report that “blogging is not dead” and “blogs are here to stay.” The report also notes that bloggers have been at it a average of three years and are collectively creating close to a stunning one million posts every day.

I feel like saying, “So there.”  When I started blogging in January 2007, some indicators made me feel I was late to the game. Well, I was, compared to the early adopters (who are now spending more time on Twitter), but few of my friends beyond my communications colleagues have joined the bandwagon.

In 2007, the Gartner Group said they expected the total number of blogs to peak that year around 100 million. Here it is 2008 and Technorati’s report cites a study estimating that 184 million people have started a blog. It says “Blogs are pervasive and part of our daily lives.” Can’t you almost hear the buzz, like the background noise at a party?

So if you haven’t launched your blog yet, it’s not too late. Join the party. As Mitch says, “Don’t be fooled by the few that are looking at the next shiny object.”

A colleague in one of my networking groups, Rob Clark of The Elusive Fish, once likened social media to being at a party. He suggested that just as we would at a party, we need to get out and talk to people.

Jean Gogolin (in her WordTales blog, found through links from other bloggers), suggests basically the same thing when she encourages those of us who lurk on blogs to comment. As she says, comment to learn, to become part of a community, to meet compelling people, to add your point of view and more.

I can’t tell you how many times another blogger has (virtually) introduced me to someone else I have found to be funny, smart, interesting, entertaining and with plenty of wisdom to share. Why wouldn’t we let those people know how much we enjoy their words? Why not let them know their words aren’t wafting silently through cyberspace, unseen and unheard?

I was already following Copyblogger and Seth Godin, two of the blogs Jean cites. But she introduced me to the hilarious Naomi Dunford and her Ittybiz (”Work from home tips to help you stay sane”), where I found and ordered Naomi’s cleverly named How to Become an SEO Ninja. I can’t remember where I heard of Danny Evans’ Dad Gone Mad (”this is your brain on fatherhood”) or Quinn Cummings’ QC Report, or Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist (”advice at the intersection of work and life”), but I thoroughly enjoy all of them.

I’ve probably doubled the number of blogs I follow based on mentions from other bloggers or people commenting on them. That’s both a good thing and sometimes not so good, as in when I get distracted from my appointed tasks by reading, following links and, usually, having a good laugh. However, you could say that’s good, too. What day isn’t enriched by a good laugh? And I’m pretty focused when I have a deadline to meet.

My friend and colleague Donna Papacosta at Trafalgar Communications is always very good at commenting, even when I happen to know she’s crazy busy. So I promise to work on my tendency to lurk and do likewise; comment where I have something to say.

What a great exercise in telling a story and setting a mood, in a tight framework too! I’m talking about the Copyblogger’s Twitter Writing Contest. The goal: Write a story in exactly 140 characters (the length of a post on Twitter, aka a tweet). Not more, not less; exactly.

The contest is over now, after collecting 300 entries. The winner: Ron Gould, with:

“Time travel works!” the note read. “However you can only travel to the past and one-way.” I recognized my own handwriting and felt a chill.

I also liked the sample Copyblogger’s Brian Clark posted:

Three flies are bugging me on the deck. I kill two, and spare the third. “Go tell the others this is what happens,” I warn as he buzzes off.

Speechwriter Jean Gogolin is continuing the fun, asking for suggestions in her June e-newsletter. Her own sample:

On Friday, she put the children to bed and poisoned their father; then dragged him to a new grave in the woods. On Sunday, she took the children to Mass, smiling serenely.

My own attempt:

She seldom hitchhiked, but on this day she did. The car stopped and the driver said get in; she did. Later, she would wonder if it was fate.

Why not give it a try? And do share your 140-character story with me or with Jean!

If you are a blogger, consider yourself patted on the back by Anne Holland, Content Director of MarketingSherpa. She encourages bloggers in the May 12 newsletter (see #9) thusly:

“Starting a blog is easy. Keeping the blog going for more than a few months is hard. If you are one of the relatively few, the proud, the multi-year bloggers, you should give yourself a gold medal for sustained effort above most people’s capacities.”

She goes on to give tips for improving blog results, and I found #4 interesting: “Use keyword analysis to inspire more posts.” So of course I checked my own stats, and found that some people had found their way to my site by searching “writing samples” or “how to write writing samples.” It’s true I have a category called “writing samples,” intended to show different things I have written. But I haven’t given advice on advice on choosing a sample - until now. Here goes.

1. Consider what you want the sample to show and be sure the sample does so. For instance, you might want to pick a complicated topic and show how you turned it into an easy read with logical flow. Or you might want it to show how you organize and express your thoughts. Make sure it gives people a feel for how you can convey ideas or details.
2. Pick things you’ve done for different clients and different purposes. In my case, I included an employee newsletter article, a profile of a person and a case study, all pieces I enjoy writing.
3. Don’t fall in love with your own writing, but don’t be shy to include a sample that you particularly like. I’m fond of my profile of judge Stanley Grizzle because he was such an interesting man. And lest you mispronounce his name, as I did, you should know that it makes him sizzle if you rhyme it “Grizzle.” It’s “GrizZELL.”
4. If a client is particularly happy with a piece of writing, think about choosing it.
5. Ask permission.
6. Make sure there are no typos or grammatical errors. If one slips through and someone tells you about it, fix it!

Any other ideas?