Read the report here: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/186/report_display.asp

With something like 49 million blogs, you can find a blog on every topic you can imagine and many topics that you never even would have thought of before. I checked out technorati to see what the most popular blogs are and was surprised at some of the topics.

The 6th most popular is http://postsecret.blogspot.com. It is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard – fascinating. Maybe I missed it but I don’t think Ira Glass from This American Life (http://www.thislife.org) has interviewed the guy who thought that one up yet.

The 90th most popular blog is the kind of thing that my dad usually sends me links to. It’s Stuff On My Cat (http://www.stuffonmycat.com) Hmm maybe I’ll get out my digital camera and put some stuff on my cat. Maybe that would help improve my blog ranking!

Next week I’ll be at the Public Radio Marketing and Development conference in New Orleans. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll blog a few thoughts from some of the sessions. One of the sessions that I’m helping to organize is called “Community Engagement – Exploring What we Really Want.” The session will explore the upside as well as the struggles involved in community engagement such as:

• If you have a bulletin board should it be moderated or not?
• How does community journalism with participation by a variety of listeners impact a public radio station’s reputation as a trusted source?
• Where might lines be crossed in both online and offline community engagement?

These are all issues that all companies and organizations struggle with to some extent. In preparing for this session, Don Derheim from KQED shared a very interesting link to a blog post from one of their station’s hosts who was an identity theft victim on “My Space” – scary! Read about it here: http://blogs.kqed.org/joshkornbluth/?p=112#comments

So if you’re a blogger why do you blog? What do you think about the blogs in the top 100? Any experiences in the area of community engagement that we might want to be sure to share in our conference session?

Ok readers (if there are any) be honest, is this blog a big snooze? My sister told me my blog was boring. Then I went to a seminar about blogging and was told that blogs need to have a really distinct voice and be bold and a little out there. I started thinking that my friendly, straight forward tips for online fundraising and markeing just might not be cutting it. Then, I read this article by Seth Godin that encourages bloggers to use salacious photos and “be snarky – write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers.” I also broke Seth’s blog rule number 11 – Don’t write about your cat. I wrote about my cat in my post about the power of personalized fundraising pages because I created a page to benefit the Anti Cruelty Society and it had my cat’s photo on it.

Should I begin to include some info about the parties I go to? Here’s a tidbit. I was the grand prize winner at a party Saturday night which was an innovative twist on wine tasting. All the labels were covered up and each guest had to guess what type of wine was in each bottle. I’m afraid there aren’t any salacious photos from the party, which by the way was a fundraiser for the Leukemia Society.

Give me your suggestions for how I can spice up my blog and attract more readers.

In her most recent newsletter, she’s got a great column called “Advice to the Bloglorn” Check it out here:

What are your favorite e-newsletters for e-marketing advice?

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, authors of “Creating Customer Evangelists” have a great e-newsletter that always has a lot of useful information. Their most recent edition included an article entitled “6 Reasons to Start Blogging Tomorrow.”

I found it fascinating that they said blog awareness in the U.S. is only at about 2% but gaining exponentially. Start blogging now before your competition does.

Here is a quick recap of the reasons to start blogging:

1. Blogs help you humanize your organization

2. Blogs provide an instant feedback mechanism (if you are reading this please post your comments and give me some feedback)

3. Blogs let you quickly and easily share your knowledge and ideas

4. Blogs facilitate the spread of buzz

5. Blogs let you have simultaneous conversations

6. It is really easy to blog – Blog services have nice looking templates and you don’t need to know HTML – In fact you could even do your whole website as a blog.

You can sign up to receive Ben and Jackie’s e-newsletter or download their latest e-book here

http://www.creatingcustomerevangelists.com/

I, on the other hand, want people to read my blog and I’ve almost jumped up and down when a couple people have written to thank me for writing it and to tell me that they are regular readers. Mary wrote to let me know she enjoys my blog and to let me know about another blog that is a favorite of hers. I thought I’d share her favorite with my other readers because I’m sure that Evelyn, the blog author, wants other readers too and she’s got some interesting content. Check it out here. Thanks for Sharing Mary.

A favorite of mine is Church of the Customer - Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s blog. I also really like Brand Autopsy which I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog entry.

Marketingsherpa.com recently asked readers to name their favorite blogs for marketing and PR. Here is a link to more info about their reader’s picks.

What are your favorite blogs? What do you think about the explosion of Xangans? How will that change the way we do business or marketing to teens? I’d love to hear your thoughts.