When it comes to posting to your blog how much is too much and how much is not enough?

Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc. suggests 50 posts a month is necessary.

While I concur that frequency is important when it comes to blogging, I don't think 50 per month should be a golden rule. I would suggest minimally that you post 2 or 3 times per week if at all possible.

Keep in mind, these do not have to be full-length articles. If you have a long post in you, then by all means, let 'er rip. But, blog posts can be as little as a paragraph, even one sentence.

Don't feel pressure to make every post a Gettysburg Address either. Blogging, by its very nature, should be fun. Write what's on your mind and in your heart. Write about what you know and love. Doing so should provide you with enough fodder for several posts per month, maybe even 50!

A couple of buddies and I dialogued via email about blogging, and what they had to say spoke to the essence of what this medium is all about.

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TypePad has some new editing features now, making it feel more like MS Word. I'm not sure I like the new "dashboard" altogether. Just takes getting used to I guess. I'm a little concerned that the WYSIWYG format will actually be more akin to WYSIWYHTG (What you see is what you HOPE to get!)

I do like the "edit HTML" function though as it gives me access to the source code itself.

Oh, yea. . .it now has spellcheck too!

It seems everywhere I look these days, I see another article on blogging written by Steve Rubel. If you don't know Steve, you should. He is a PR guy in NYC and an avid blogger. In fact, a couple of his latest posts spur me toward recommending him as "Blogging's Goodwill Ambassador."

Here they are. See you if you agree.

The Long Tail of the Blogosphere - Blogging has changed the face of the media. This article sends a wake-up call to marketers to take notice.

The Bloggers Should be TIME's People of the Year - I said back in August that 2004 is the Year of the Blog. Steve has upped the anty by proclaiming that not a single person or persons have had a greater influence on society than bloggers this year. Steve, I wholeheartedly agree!

So, who wants to join me in a vote by acclamation that Steve Rubel should be Bloggings Goodwill Ambassador!

Someone said "It's not how many seeds are in an apple that counts, but how many apples are in a seed."

Many bloggers look to their hit count as a gauge of success. Many hits, much success. Few hits. . .well, you get the picture.

I check my traffic stats everyday, but don't tie my self-worth to it. Sure, blogging may be somewhat ego-centric, but there's no need to make it a popularity contest.

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I know this blog is gaining in popularity. No, not because I have a growing readership, although I'm extremely pleased with the number of regular readers. Not because I get loads of relevant comments and trackbacks, though I get my fair share, to be sure. I know my blog is growing in popularity because I'm getting more and more comment spam!

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I'm looking for a few good bloggers to submit reviews of the various RSS readers/aggregators, and/or the various blogging platforms. I can't pay you anything per se, but will credit you, link to your blog or website, and say some very nice things about you.

If you've already written something, please let me know. I'll link to it. I want to make this a regular feature and don't have time to do it myself at present. If you're interested, email me.

Want to read what some Microsoft researchers have to say about email vs. blogs? Me neither, but in case you do, here's the thread.

I just had a conversation with Susannah Gardner, the author of an upcoming Dummies book entitled Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies. The book is due to hit the shelves the first week of March 2005.

Susannah, or Susie as her friends call her, is writing the book from a business and marketing perspective rather than as a basic book on blogging. When asked why Wiley, the publishing company behind the Dummies series, wanted to take that tact as opposed to a more basic book, she referred me to Acquisition Editor Melody Layne. As it turns out, it is a market-driven decision that makes perfect sense. Here is what Melody had to say:

The Dummies series looked at the topic of blogging for well over a year. We also looked at how other basic books on blogging were doing in the marketplace-- not very well. The conclusion that we came to was that we needed to do a book that addressed how people were using blogs, not just how they were setting them up.

Setting up a blog is easy enough if you're going with a free hosting service. It gets more complex when you decide to host your own or roll in RSS feeds. There's plenty of technical stuff you can cover, but the blogs that have captured the public's attention over the last year or so have either been ones that give people insight into the workings of a company or a political campaign or blogs that act as independent news outlets-- getting current events info and insight out into the world that isn't as easy to obtain from the professional press.

A plain blogging book just wouldn't have cut it, and it probably would have been misshelved. We want this book in the business section of the bookstore, where the people who need it are more likely to find it, not the tech section where mostly techies, who are already blog-savvy, are shopping.

Never fear, among other content the book will include sections dealing with things like HTML, different blogging platforms, writing for blogs, etc. (The stuff a basic book on blogging might consist of.)

As with all Dummies books, it will have a practical, how-to point of view that includes best practices, case studies, and issues surrounding legal ramifications. Susie hopes to make a case for business blogging by talking about it helps to build better customer-relationships and create an open, more transparent look inside the company or corporation. The goal, of course, is to build customer loyalty and create customer evangelists who will spread the company's message on their own.

Susannah admits that she is not an avid blogger herself, but that she knows many bloggers. She is a self-confessed "lurker" in the blogosphere. I asked her point-blank if she felt she understood blogging from the inside out. She indicated that she did. With her extensive internet and journalism background (She co-authored another Dummies book, Dreamweaver MX 2004 for Dummies), I have no doubt this will be a well-written, comprehensive book that will scratch an itch among business bloggers.

Want to drive traffic to your small business blog? Who doesn't. Here's a great article from Blogger.com's Biz Stone on exactly how to do that. Some of the tips relate to Blogger sites only, but many apply across the board. I am trying to follow his guidelines and would encourage you to do the same.