Conversational Media Marketing: Is blogging hazardous to your health?

One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, blog,
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, blog,
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, blog,
We're gonna blog around the clock tonight.

An article published in the NY Times Sunday suggests that blogging may be bad for your health. In fact, it cites the deaths of two well-known technology bloggers, Mark Orchant, who passed away at age 50, and Russell Shaw, who died just a few weeks ago at age 60. The inference is blogging contributed to their deaths.

The article goes on to quote TechCrunch chief Mike Arrington who testifies that blogging has had a deleterious effect on his health.

Arrington has "gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees," states the article. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen...this is not sustainable,” Arrington said.

There's major blog brands like TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, Gawker Media, b5media, Marketing Pilgrim and, then, there's the rest of us.

(By the way, before I go on, consider this post an addendum to Friday's having nothing to say post.)

Each of the aforementioned blogs (or blog networks as the case may be) pay bloggers to write incessantly about trends in technology, politics, entertainment, marketing or any number of popular topics.

Most of the bloggers work long hours for not a lot of money. I know, I've been there. I used to blog for one of the first blog networks, Weblogs Inc, and wrote up to 10 posts per day across three blogs. I was one of their highest-paid bloggers (so I was told; I'm sure that didn't count the flagship blog Engadget) and made no more than $1,000 in any given month.

I'm not complaining mind you. Though it required long hours, I enjoyed the work most of the time. I'm just saying there were more profitable ways to make a living.

What you have to understand is there are two camps. There's the "blogging for profit" camp inspired by the likes of Darren Rowse, the first blogger to make a six-figure annual income (and who, along with Andy Wibbels, teaches others to do the same).

For these folks, covering a topic completely top-to-bottom, several times per day is an imperative. Bloggers the likes of those who blog for TechCrunch live and die by the scoop... and the link...because those two combined lead to traffic and traffic leads to advertising dollars. (Traffic, we got traffic...with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for Profit! )

"[W]riting good content is only half the battle. You have to figure out the complex, dynamic web of politics between bloggers and mainstream media before you post to know where to get support," said TechCrunch's Arrington in a recent rant talking about the stakes involved in big business blogging. "And you’ll need support in the form of links from other prominent bloggers. An early push can take a post and make it a headline on TechMeme, which leads to page views and notice by sponsors."

(There is one exception to that school of thought. Marketing Pilgrim founder Andy Beal stated via a that, "I nor my bloggers, stress out over blogging. I don't blog 12+ hours a day, although I do blog at night, if needed.")

Then, there's the other camp. Folks like you and me who use blogs as a marketing tactic along with other marketing tactics in support of our business. For some, blogging is our single largest form of marketing promotion. So, yes, it's important. But, we're not going to kill ourselves staying up half the night doing it.

You may be reading this screed and have aspirations of being the next Peter Rojas, Robert Scoble or even Mike Arrington himself. To you I say, I hope you're young, single, don't require much sleep and plan to live on beans and weenies for a while.

No way am I suggesting you can't make it, but at what price? Your health? If anything, the Times article points us back to what I was talking about the other day -- the need for common sense and "balance, Daniel-san, balance."

While there is nothing I can think of that I'd rather do than cover a particular beat as a blogger/journalist, I know I'm too old and have too much else to do. So, I satiate my desire with the every other day or so post.

One more song lyric, just for grins...

I'm blogging my life away, looking for a better way, for me,
I'm blogging my life away, looking for a sunny day...

What do you think? Is blogging bad for your health?