At the ASJA conference, I spoke on a panel about blogging. In the picture, from left to right, you can see me, Debbie Feit (www.ourspecialkids.blogspot.com), Lisa Iannucci (www.YoungWidowsAndWidowers.com), and Jen Singer (www.MommaSaid.net).

I talked about why I love blogs but don't have one. My presentation is after the jump:

I have the same relationship to blogs that Hugh Hefner has with women. I love blogs, I read them, I sometimes write for them, but I have no interest in making a commitment.

I first started blogging about five years ago, when a friend had a URL and hosting space that he wasn't using. He had about 8 people contribute different observations on literature and pop culture. I'm not sure anyone read it, but it was lots of fun to do. But then the URL and hosting space was up for renewal, and he didn't want to pay for it, and the rest of us weren't really interested in paying for it either.

I blog on occasion for Media Bistro's Freelancer's Tool Box, when Claire Zulkey is on vacation, and live from this conference. Media Bistro pays me and Claire, although not very much. I won't turn it down, but it's not a primary business for me.

I like to write essays, but the market for them is terrible. I'll try to sell them, and then, after six or seven or more editors have turned them down, I'll sometimes give them to a friend for his or her blog. After all, bloggers want fresh content, but they get tired of coming up with it. And sometimes these pieces get notice. A piece I wrote on my grand jury service for Leonard Pierce's www.ludickid.com proved to be surprisingly popular, maybe because I made an offhand reference to the secrets of the Knights of Columbus. Another piece I did for zulkey.com on Chicago baseball rivalry ended up setting off a furor among White Sox fans - which is easy to do - and at one point, that was the number one result if you Googled my name.

I read blogs regularly. There are a few that I read regularly: Shrubville, which skewers the unfunny comic strip "Prickly City"; Lifehacker, which is going to make my life easier; Stephen Elliott, which features the writer's political and literary musings; and Gawker, which is always entertaining.

But I have never done my own blog. To begin with, I have trouble keeping my own Web site updated, and half the chores in my life remain undone. As soon as this presentation is over, I have to go do two more postings for mbtoolbox. The best sites are updated regularly. Gawker is updated almost hourly, so I want to keep checking back. Meanwhile, I've come across too many blogs that were started, have three postings, and then went dead.

I'm also concerned about giving too much away. Why by the loaf if you can get free slices, you know? If I were to do a finance blog with all of my musings on the importance of the SAS-70 to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, why would an editor hire me to do the same? Likewise, I am a person with strong opinions about the world. I'm afraid that if I had a blog, I might scare off corporate customers who would see my views of the world first and never look into my analytical and reporting skills.

I think blogs are great fun to read, and great fun to do if you have a structure for the time. And most people don't have the time. If you still want to go ahead, I suggest finding some likeminded colleagues and sharing the burden of updating the content. After all, there are three people who take on the task of dissecting one daily comic strip.