This Fast Company article — titled Celebrities Boost Their Brands With Personal Blogs — got my attention.

Typically, celebrities start something first and then everyone else gets on the bandwagon, right?

The article is loaded with good information, but these quotes stuck out to me:

Blogs lend themselves to creating a casual environment with fans and also offers a celebrity the chance to tie people into their daily lives. Blogging can also be another way for them to build their personal and professional brands.

Blogging is a clear extension of a marketing campaign for any celebrity, but celebrity blogs themselves are also a logical extension for major media Web sites.

There’s no true science for judging the best celebrity blogs, but we’ll look at the three most important factors: authenticity, frequency, and interaction with fans.

Read the full article here.

“Fake Steve” is a blog written by a Forbes magazine Senior Editor Daniel Lyons … only he assumes the identity of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

It’s now garnered national attention in the New York Times.

A couple of things stick out to me:

• Write well and humorously … and people will read you. To the tune of 700,000 visitors last month, according to Fake Steve aka Daniel Lyons
• Write well and humoruously … as if you were a high-profile CEO known for being a “difficult and egotistical leader” and the NY Times just might write a story about it.
• Write well and humorously … and anonymously … and people will die to find out who you are.
• Write well and humorously … and more people will know your name and in the process you’ll raise your public profile through blogging.

I’ve been doing some reading on landing pages … and the thought occurred to me: My whole blog should be a landing page.

Here’s what I mean by that statement: Simply, your blog should convert your site guests to accomplish your goals, whatever those are.

As a blog designer, one of the first questions I ask clients is “What do you want your blog to do for you/your business?”

It’s not about fancy design, or advanced plugins … it’s about forcing your blog (and your blog design) to work for you and your goals.

For instance, if you want to get a job, your blog should be your resume. If you want to demonstrate your expertise in your field or industry, your blog should give you that exposure. If you want to get a book deal, start an email newsletter, build a platform to show an agent or publisher, and blog your content chapter by chapter.

So whatever your goal is … it should make conversions … or help give you the results you require.

Here are three articles on landing pages I’ve been studying … maybe there’s some tips or strategies you can draw from them to help you get those results:

• 11 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages
• Creating Landing Pages that Convert
• 10 Factors to Test Your Landing Pages

By the way, I think it’s fascinating to take successful concepts or principles from other items … and use them in other fields or ways.

For some time now, I’ve been clicking over to check out the delicious “In Pictures” galleries that Forbes Magazine puts up on a continual basis.

These content snippets in particular are great examples of compelling content that creates clicks …

Here’s two examples in particular that I ate up:

• 10 Elements of a Business Plan
• Five Do-It-Yourself PR Tactics

Here are 5 keys why I think this content model is compelling enough to replicate on your blog:

1. It’s a fast read — You just need less than a minute to scan it all and digest it. Then you can always read the full story if you want more.

2. It’s extremely practical content — a business owner/entrepreneur could put most of these tips to use right away.

3. It’s linkbait ready – Read: Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, etc.

4. It increases pageviews and ad exposure – I actually don’t like having the slides spread out on different pages, but know it’s good for ads and revenue. As a reader, I’m willing to tolerate it.

5. It’s a great draw to get new readers — This is actually the only thing I read at Forbes right now, but I’ll keep coming back and eventually read more.

This post started out as The Best Sites on Blogging, but turned into listing all my favorite blog reads. They aren’t listed in order or anything.

So here goes:

• Problogger – Darren sets the bar for class — and content — in the blogosophere
• Copyblogger – How to write great content
• Daily Blog Tips – I almost can’t wait until Daniel posts new stuff, it’s always relevant to me
• Dosh Dosh – This is a new feed read to me, but I’m just loving it, sets a great example for awesome content
• Chris Garrett – A blogging pioneer, he’s going through a branding series right now
• Duct Tape Marketing – Great small business marketing advice
• Freelance Switch – How to be a better freelancer
• CSS Remix – Design candy, I mean, inspiration
• Design Melt Down – More candy
• Pearsonfied – WordPress design guru
• Brian Gardner – Yet another WordPress design guru, he’s starting to add more and more blogging-related tips, which I’m loving
• Performancing – Particularly Nathan Rice’s posts, where he is teaching some excellent WordPress design tips, like how to make your page tabs “active”
• Pronet Advertising – A thought leader on social networking
• Seth Godin – I’m a headline reader of his, but love his books
• Guy Kawasaki – Tips for the entrepreneur
• Penelope Trunk – The best darn career advice on the planet
• Startup Review – How to write an awesome case study 101
• Weblog Tools Collection – Announcing WordPress free themes and plugins
• Theme Playground – Reviews and tips on all things WordPress
• Smashing Magazine – Great web lists, plus learn how to write blog posts that get bookmarked, dugg, and buzzed about like crazy
• Lorelle on WordPress – Lorelle is a WordPress purists and WP royalty … she gives some excellent resources for WP
• Michel Fortin – Copywriter extraordinaire
• eMoms at Home – Mom-entrepreneurs
• A List Apart – All things web …
• Swerve – How the evangelical church is using technology

I’ve been reading Chris Anderson’s excellent book The Long Tail. (Yes, I know, I’m arriving late to this party!)

There are so many implications to what I’m doing online with The Long Tail.

But the immediate one that occurred to me was the Long Tail of Blogging.

Here’s my personal experience with this …

On my main blog, I have written more than 600 posts to date. Only half of those posts were written with search engine traffic in mind. (I learned from trial and error.)

After one year of blogging, those 600 posts, along with WordPress and some of these essential blog tweaks, I now get 60% of my traffic from Google alone.

The bulk of that 60% traffic is going to older posts, single posts — those on the Long Tail of my blogging trail.

Although some of those posts account for maybe one unique visitor a day at best … but group them together and it eventually will add up to some really great traffic and momentum.

And here’s the kicker … I wrote those posts once … and I’m still reaping the Long Tail benefits of them months later.

Moral of the story: Post good, broad content in your topic niche consistently, with search engine traffic in mind (i.e. writing titles with phrases that people are searching for) … and ride your own little wave.

I sure do love the Long Tail …