Dooce and Jason Kottke on blogging

AUSTIN, Texas--If you were a blogger at the South by Southwest conference here Sunday, then you were almost certainly in the afternoon keynote.

That's because two of the blogosphere's biggest stars--Jason Kottke and Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce, who was probably the first person to be fired for blogging--were onstage philosophizing about the daily lives of people who are known to millions, if only through the words they craft on a daily basis.

And let's be clear: Kottke and Armstrong engender adoration from the blog rank and file that borders on the religious: the two are among a small number of true blogger celebrities, even if what they're posting daily wouldn't seem all that extraordinary to someone who happened accidentally on either of their sites.

And that's kind of the nature of blogging, isn't it: It takes commitment, both on the part of the blogger and the reader. You can't post infrequently and get a readership, and you can't read infrequently and understand much of what the writers are talking about.

For Armstrong, that's particularly true. She is not a political blogger. She doesn't write about technology. No, she writes about herself. Yet because she's articulate, has interesting observations on her life, herself and her family, she has garnered the kind of regular audience that would make most writers bright green with envy.

So, too, has Kottke. He even got his readers to pay him to blog for a year, though he eventually abandoned his attempt at being a full-time blogger and went back to work.

Armstrong has gone even further, and is managing to support her family by blogging. And to many in attendance here, this is an admirable goal.

In any case, the two sat onstage in very comfortable-looking armchairs and they talked blogging. It was a simple conversation. They traded questions about their daily routines, about their blogging strategies and about the differences in their styles. And mutual admiration, as each are naked in their own appreciation for popular bloggers.

Mundane stuff, in one sense. Yet, the audience of maybe 1,000 was hanging on every word. And that's testament to the awe in which these two icons in this community are held: Their words are gold, their ideas are golden and they are role-models for anyone who looks to AdSense as a revenue generator.