Sunday I’ll be taking off to San Jose for a week at Search Engine Strategies. Earlier this year I spoke at SES New York, but in San Jose I’ll be going as press. Which means I get a free pass and I’m expected to write about my experience. That’s a decent trade-off!

In a session called “The Cult of Blogging,” the sect turned out to be a little smaller than expected; out of three scheduled speakers, only one managed to show up. 

Om Malik gets a pass – the poor fellow apparently threw his back out – but Michael Arrington simply forgot to come, leaving us with Leo Laporte and surprise guest Justine Ezarik.

A lot of the blogs you’ll see are all text; there are also plenty featuring only video.  But according to Leo Laporte, a sweet spot exists around the concept of podcasting.

Bloggers can now extend their reach and engage their audiences by teaming up with other blogs they like.

Amy Gahran ran her panel at the Blog World Expo on Ethics – with a cool group of people, including friends Lynne Johnson of Fast Company and Toby Bloomberg.

By writing a blog, you get to air your thoughts and feelings, converse with intelligent people in the comments section, and do all other sorts of nice things.  Yet what’s really nice is making money, and blog syndication can give you the best of both worlds.

Blogging can be all fun and games, and a great thing about it is that no one’s likely to get hurt.  Unfortunately, people are likely to be sued, and at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, attorney Brett Trout discussed that subject.

The evening keynote panel from BlogWorld talked about the challenges their firms face, and how this might reflect on the general blogging world.

Credibility separates the wanna-bes from the somebodies in the blogging world, which makes building your online reputation a critical part of blogging success.

Matt Mullenweg is the man behind WordPress, Automattic, and the popular blog “Photo Matt.”  So as the keynote speaker at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, he discussed blogging, Automattic, and WordPress.

It’s just a puppy, Maggie Fox said of social media with regards to adding it to one’s marketing mix, meaning it’s going to grow up to be a big doggie.