Right now, “microblogging” is the technological term du jour. Twitter this; Twitter that.

For some reason, once somebody created a Web site that told us we couldn’t type more than 140 characters, we couldn’t resist the challenge. It’s as though we were dared to share our most inane thoughts.

The birth of the pointless Tweet was born, also known as “I’m eating string cheese and watching reruns of ALF!”

But remember a few years ago, when “blog” was the word you couldn’t escape? Magazine covers were devoted to blogs. What does “blog” mean? Is it going to kill traditional media? Who should be blogging? Why do we care what you’re blogging?

Now, blogs are something more akin to traditional (but still new) media. They’re not on par with The New York Times or CNN in terms of reputation, but each of those news agencies has its own blogs. And over the last few years, especially during the election, blogs played a major role in breaking news stories and motivating groups. Corporations now have them to connect with customers. Blogs are here to stay.

So the question is: Do you have one? If not, you might be missing out on a valuable boost to your career.

Generally speaking, Facebook isn’t the first place I turn to sharpen my prose.

Although social media such as Facebook, Twitter and the blog have revolutionized the nature of communication and reporting, they have also promoted incorrect punctuation, convoluted syntax and sloppy writing. One might guess they are well on their way to destroying any sort of intelligent social discourse.

Yet Anne Trubek, associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Oberlin College, argues precisely the opposite in a recent online essay for More Intelligent Life, a quarterly magazine from The Economist.

Despite the informality of new media, she claims, the frequency with which people use these forms of communication will necessarily increase their comfort, and eventually their facility with writing.

Chesapeake, VA (PRWEB) June 30, 2009 — More than 30 professional U.S.-based writers have joined forces to create MyBlogWriter.com, a blog writing company that provides customized posts for clients in areas ranging from insurance to consumer goods. The goal: to help clients leverage the power of the blog in building their brands online.

The services provided by My Blog Writer take the burden off businesses that know they need a blog. Many have already started one, but find that the demands of running their business make posting blog entries sporadic at best.

My Blog Writer is an online service that allows clients to sign up for the level of posting that is right for their business. Current monthly blogging packages range from 10 posts to 30 posts per month, with package prices beginning at $149. Custom blog packages are also available.

It’s an appealing fantasy: Start a blog. Watch it take off. Then, quit the office life, sit at home, and live off the advertising revenue.

But successful, moneymaking blogs elude most people who try to start them. The vast majority of blogs, written primarily for family and friends, attract fewer than 50 page views a day and earn pennies per month, if anything. According to a Problogger survey, most bloggers earn less than $100 per month, and 3 in 10 earn less than$10 per month. Only 16 percent of the 4,000 respondents say they make more than $2,500 a month.

Brett Bumeter used to work in an Atlanta-area high rise, now his office is a wooden fishing dock on Lake Wylie.

At a small dinette table surrounded by hanging ferns, Bumeter works on a laptop. But the most exotic aspect of his job is the job itself – Bumeter makes money blogging.

However, Bumeter doesn’t make all of his money blogging. He also does advertising and consulting work. And he doesn’t actually own the fishing dock. He and his wife Rebecca Perkins have been living with her parents since moving from Atlanta to Belmont in 2007. The old Atlanta house is still on the market. The mortgage is underwater. And Perkins, a fourth grade teacher at Sadler Elementary School, could be out of a job pretty soon thanks to state budget cuts.