As somewhat of a joke (although I do get serious at the very end) I've put together this PR Blogger Lifecycle, or the steps that new PR bloggers go thru. This isn't an original idea by any stretch of the imagination. If you haven't read Min Jung Kim's Lifecycle of Bloggers you might want to start there.

I look over some of them and say, "yep, in May of 2005, I was at step 4." Where are you on the scale? The true PR blog masters just start at Step 7.

1. What's a Blog? You don't know what a blog is, but everybody you know has one. Your initiative is part peer pressure, part curiosity. But you're cheap and even though everybody says don't go with Blogger you can't see yourself paying a few bucks a month for TypePad. After all you sent your resume out on loose-leaf paper and that got you a job in PR.

2. First Post: The first foray is awkward at first, but you soon get the hang of it. You realize that this blog thing can be a great self-promotional tool and hey you're in PR so you can do this. However your blog content is more meta than meat since you think that there is no way you can truly add to the deep discussions going on (joking here). Your style is point-to and agree with.

3. You Love Steve: Steve Rubel get's knocked a bit, but he is one of the most recognized bloggers in the PR/Marketing space. As such he's one of the first people you add to your RSS reader. The RSS reader, as you've just learned, is the must-have piece of software. In order to get recognized by Steve you comment and link away. Steve's a genius, he can do no wrong....oh look, he just linked to me, I've made it!

4. Stats Watching: How many people are reading my blog?...Look at all the traffic from Steve's link. You make your blog stats your default homepage. You worry about post-volume. Look, if I mention other bloggers they'll link to me! It goes on and on. You create blog posts that specifically appeal to the ego of other bloggers.

5. Rank Matters: Stats obsession turns to rank obsession. Dammit Technorati hasn't updated my link count in a week! You check the PubSub PR list ever day to monitor your progress, but you just can't get past that MicroPersuasion blog. Hey look, posting photos of my cute kids got me to the top of the list!!!! Your blog becomes more about building links and rank than it does providing content to your readers.

6. You Hate Steve: You say to yourself, I know more about X than this Rubel guy, how come he gets all the links/interviews/traffic/etc...So instead of commenting and praising Steve you snark and challenge. Soon you find that criticism also builds traffic.

7. Finding the Zone: An inner peace soon settles upon your blog. You say to hell with everybody else and write what you want to write. You don't follow memes and you don't post to get traffic. You post what you want to post. Readers appreciate this, in many cases it's why they started to read you in the first place. You were a fresh voice, but the previous steps marginalized this.

8. You Accept Steve (and everybody else): Sometime you agree with Mr. Rubel, other times you disagree, but that's what's great about the blogosphere, you can have a debate and sometimes we all learn something in the process.

9. Relationships: You continue to build relationships with other bloggers and they become some of your best friends and colleagues. If you have a question or a client issue they can help solve it. When you attend conferences and finally meet them in person it's like you've known each other for years, because you have.

10. Starting Over (Goodbye Blogger/TypePad): In the ultimate act of penance for your earlier Rank-Chasing misdeeds you start all over again. Many times it's because you've outgrown Blogger or TypePad, or you've changed jobs, or you just want a fresh start.

With a new blog you start from scratch. No links, no rank, but it doesn't matter because all your friends help you move. In the end you'd much rather have those relationships with friends than links or visitors or PageRank.