I regularly get 2-3 comments per month from first-time visitors calling me “Harold,” my blogging pseudonym. I expected this when launching the site in 2005. Before I explain why, let me remind you how I came up with the name:

I was good friends with a guy named Michael Komenda years ago while living in Brazil. He is like a skinning version of Chris Farley—very animated guy. Anyway, he had a band called Smooth Harold in high school. I asked him where he got the name, and he said he once saw a kid wearing a green shirt that read “Smooth Harold” on the back. By the time I started my blog, Komenda had stopped using the name for his band, so I took it for myself.

In many ways, the life of Blake Snow is a rather boring one. He works from home. He’s married with kids. No alarms and no surprises really. It’s the life I want to lead, and one that makes me happy. But I realize it’s not a remarkable life. So I wanted my blog to be larger than Blake Snow. That’s why I blog under an admitted pseudonym.

Plus, Smooth Harold just sounds cooler.

If millions of lifeless blogs and apologetic “sorry for not updating” posts were any indication, blogging isn’t for everyone. And if you’re hoping to make a national name for yourself as an amateur wordsmith, you’re about 3-4 years late to the party.

For everyone else (people with opinions, writers, pundits, and social networkers) regular blogging is still a worthwhile pursuit, provided you have something original to say. It can be used as a platform to start a career in writing, it can influence others, and for some, even subsidize a mortgage or provide a modest living.

I find it comical (not to mention anti-competitive) then when a blogger from the popular Silicon Vally gossip rag encourages lone stars to throw in the towel on blogging. Dumb. That’s like a used car salesman saying there’s no money in automobiles. While I admit blogging is over-saturated, it’s in no way a dead end. And it’s certainly more pervasive than Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

I nuke hard sell comments as soon as they are published to Smooth Harold (read: “Nice blog! Check out this really cool snake oil!”). I also reserve the right to delete profane or otherwise mindless provocative comments while Akismet takes care of the spam.

But what do I do with soft sell comments? The comments that are relevant and might add value to some readers even if a salesman is behind them.

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Says the New York Times:

“Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are digitally effusive teenage girls (not boys).”

I believe it.

The AP reports: “Zach Brooks pocketed $1,000 this month blogging about the cheap lunches he discovers around midtown Manhattan. The site, Midtownlunch.com, is just a year and a half old and gets only about 2,000 readers daily…”

Without soliciting ad space, I averaged $575/month ($19/day) in 2007 across my two blogs (the other being Infendo). They garner a combined 3,000 daily readers. (Casual time spent keeps me operating at a loss, however.) Note: I don’t use Google AdSense because Tribal Fusion and Value Click pay better in my experience.

By my calculations, then, I make lunch money fit for two. Not rich, but then again, I didn’t start blogging to make money (believe it or not) — I started blogging because I’m opinionated and like writing.

When you consider the incidental networking opportunities created by daily blogging, however (read: people who find or read your blog and offer high-paying gigs), I am a rich man. Not TechCrunch rich. But new rich at the least.

I shutter to think were I’d be today without blogging — personally, professionally, and financially.

Headline and image courtesy the Associated Press

As a professional blogger for nearly two years now, I’ve seen tens of thousands of comments aimed at me. Most of them are favorable, a lot of them are entertaining, some of them are negative, and a handful of them are just nasty. It comes with the territory when you publish your opinions, passions, and stories freely to the web.

But nasty commenters have a bright side. They help motivate me to work harder and make it so my output has to do the convincing. They give me thick skin and chutzpah to take risks as both a writer and businessman.

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I went to brunch with Om Malik on Saturday while on assignment in San Francisco over the weekend. I’m really glad it worked out as Om is one of the kindest individuals I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

First thing that struck me about Om was the genuine interest he showed in meeting me. Malik is an accomplished professional. Blake Snow is not. Nevertheless, Om didn’t play the “I’m in a hurry, Blake, so what can I do to help” card. Rather he was very giving of his time. What was originally suppose to be a short meeting turned into an hour long discussion between colleagues on a nice, sunny day in the Bay Area.

I then learned that while writing for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Business 2.0 by day, Om also worked as a club promoter by night. He charged high-rollers a “finder’s fee” to ensure their admittance into New York’s hottest clubs on any given night. In return, club owners received high-spending customers on a VIP list without charging a cover or paying for marketing. Clever idea! At one point, Om’s promotion business was netting him $40,000 per month on top of his salary before ultimately selling the company to solely focus on reporting.

Lastly, after discussing our careers, Om and I started talking baseball which we both share an affinity for. I asked him for his thoughts on the controversial Barry Bonds whom I called “a cheat,” to which Om replied in gentle fashion, “Everyone has made mistakes in life. No one is perfect.” This from an Oakland A’s fan even. At first I wanted to defend my original claim given its widely accepted credibility and Bonds’s reputation for being a jerk, but conclusively realized I couldn’t do so without being a hypocrite. How many times have I been “a cheat” in life only to want the quick forgiveness of those whom I had wronged. Thanks, Om!

See also: Now blogging for Om Malik

Search Rank has a nice little piece outlining 10 signs that you may be a blog addict. Here’s my take on each point:

1. You always have your RSS reader open. While I am usually guilty of this, I’ve been cutting back to get more work done. Productivity for the win!
2. You tell customers that you missed a project deadline because “some things” came up but in reality, you were blogging. Guilty.
3. You periodically dream that you are blogging. I don’t know if I dream about the very act of blogging, but I definitely dream about post ideas…
4. You get inspiration for new blog posts at the strangest times. Yes. Why else would I carry my Blackberry for notes at all hours of the day?
5. You await blog comments like emails in your inbox. I actually have gotten better at this, but still do it religiously on Smooth Harold.
6. In order for your family to keep up with what’s going on in your life, they have to read your blog. Guilty. I posted my second child’s conception announcement here before anywhere else. You heard it here first, folks!
7. You have actually considered setting up a blog for your pet. No way I’ve done this. Lame.
8. You can’t remember dates for your wedding anniversary, kids birthdays, etc., but you know what your Technorati rank is. First, Gcal remembers my dates for me, and honestly have never looked at my blog ranking. I’m sure it’s in the millions and I don’t write (at least not here) for popularity.
9. You blog about anything and everything. Yup. Smooth Harold is more “general” than most, though I do like to stay true to the biz/tech angle.
10. Keeping a blog is no longer enough but you now have to record your every move on Twitter. Not here. Twitter is a fleeting fad. I’m sure it will live on for those who don’t already have enough things to waste their time on, but this here blogger could care less.

Only 6.5 out of 10! Where are you?

AOL launched a new tech blog on March 20 called Switched. In case you didn’t know, AOL also owns Engadget, the world’s largest tech blog that just so happens to be the world’s “most popular blog” according to Technorati in terms of linkage. Sources close to Smooth Harold report that Switched is even being funded better than Engadget in terms of salaried individuals despite having zero traffic (read: no ad sales). Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Venture with me — if you will — into the mind of one of the slowest internet dinosaurs in existence. “CEO: Okay, Switched spearhead. You think we should start a new tech blog even though we already own the number one tech blog that’s also the most visited weblog in the world? Okay. But won’t that cannibalize our traffic, at least with the non-tech savvy crowd (because you and I both know Engadget will continue to be the best tech blog unless we suffocate it)? And where Switched isn’t cannibalizing our efforts, won’t we just be wasting money rather than reinvesting into Engadget to further secure its dominance? No? Okay, I’m sold. I don’t know why we didn’t think about this before. Matter of fact, didn’t CNN.com just launch a new world news website to compete with itself? No? Well, they should have.”

Way to support your $25 million purchase of Weblogs Inc, AOL. Your CEO should be fired for letting this thing even see the light of day. I’m amazed by the stupidity and behind the scene agendas that are going on here. Peter Rojas and Ryan Block must be reeling from this mediocre move.

When I’m not helping companies flex their web muscle, I enjoy writing. I got my start as a independent blogger here on Smooth Harold. From there I started a few other blogs which later secured professional gigs on larger blogs and traditional websites/magazines. But I’ve been spoiled as a blogger as I’ve never had to deal with editorial overrides until recently. In case you didn’t know, bloggers ARE the editors for virtually every online publication. We decide the headline, angle, tone, image, and word use. It’s rather liberating. :)

I wrote my first “non-blog” article late last year. The editor kept my headline and whatnot, only changing a few words here and there. The changes were very minor and even added some clarity, so I didn’t mind. A few articles later, a different editor at another publication restructured a few sentences of mine after I sent in my final draft. Though I disagreed on a few of his changes, for the most part, I was fine with them. Especially his copy edits to the headline which were better than my original. So it was all good.

Today, however, I sent in an article that was getting published in a few hours. I really liked my tone, word selection, and to an extent, my okay-headline. Shortly after, my editor (read: boss) sent back a radically and controversially angled version. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, and to make matters worse, I disagreed with the new-found premise. His headline was sure to foster more link-bait, but at the expense of what I thought was “a stretch” of a story. I sent back my differing thoughts to which a compromise was made. I then updated my story under his direction adding additional clarification to his edit, and the article went live.

After reading the my piece in published form, I went back and decided that I liked my original piece better with its accompanying angle and tone. In hindsight, I think it would have been better received. The take-away of all this? It’s nice to have your cake and eat it too as an experienced craftsman. Any Smooth Harold readers out there ever experienced the same? I suppose I should have seen this coming, as paying clients always have the last word, despite your creative opinion.