Whether you’re confounded about how to communicate with them, or you’re dreaming of becoming one of them, you won’t want to miss next week’s focus on professional blogging. Leading the discussion is Steve KIng, a senior advisor at the Institute for the Future (IFTF).

King has been looking into the blogsphere at IFTF and finds that an increasing number of blogs are being authored by professional bloggers. He defines professional bloggers as those who see blogging as their primary business, or as an important marketing channel for their primary businesses.  He says blog oriented micro-publishing firms like Gawker and Weblogs Inc. have emerged, and  many individual bloggers have quit their day jobs to pursue a living through blogging.  These "professional blogs" are attracting relatively large audiences and gaining influence across the blogosphere. 

King will give us an overview of professional blogs, their economics, how micro publishers are changing the communication landscape, and what this will mean for corporate communications and public relations.

It’s a good thing RSS feeds have no weight, or Cliff Allen might have to be a body builder to carry around his complete collection, which he once told me numbers in the hundreds.

In his latest email to me, he admits, “I still seem to collect RSS feeds faster than I collect bookmarks!”

Both his consulting firm and his CRM software firm are focused on sales and marketing, and that’s also the focus for much of his blog reading. Some of his current favorites:

CRM Mastery is a blog by Jim Berkowitz on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). StartWithALead is the apt URL for a “B2B Lead Generation Blog” by Brian Carroll, which focuses on leads and marketing for “the complex sale.”

The next blog is for a book, which should warm the heart of our Book Blog host, Steve O’Keefe. Read this item from the Thursday, May 5th post and your heart may be warmed, too. The blog title, Never Eat Alone, is the same as the book title. I happened to see the book at a local book store on Sunday and almost picked it up. After seeing the blog, I’ll go back and get it this weekend. If you want a good tutorial on the process and rewards of making honest, personal connections with strangers (and sometimes even the people we work and live with are strangers), this will do it. While it seems to be largely a handbook for face-to-face connections, we are seeing that the same dynamics apply to blog connections.

For his final RSS feeds, Cliff likes a blog that aims high: How to Save the World is Dave Pollard's collection of “environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essay.” And if you’ll forgive a bit of self-congratulation, he concludes, “the iaocblog looks great!”