Ever tried blogging? To paraphrase Will Forte’s George Bush character in the SNL presidential debate skit, blogging is hard work. It requires workin’ evenings, comin’ in on Saturdays, maybe even a Sunday once in a while.

Oh, we know, what’s hard about blogging? Just pick a topic that you know a lot about, sit down at the computer, add a few links, and you have a post. Lather, rinse and repeat a few times, and you have a blog. How hard can it be?

But then you start thinking that someone might actually read it. So you go back and edit your post a little. Then a little more. Then you try to keep your blog fresh by writing a lot of posts. But you start running out of topics. And time. And energy. And you realize good blogging is hard.

We know. Our background is in writing. We did it in high school. And college. As an advertising professional. Even free-lanced for a now-defunct local newspaper. So we like to write. But to do it often, and hold the reader’s interest, is not easy. That’s why we have a lot of respect for folks who do it well. Consistently. With passion.

We thought we’d recognize a few local Kansas City blogs that we think do a good job of giving their readers a reason to come back for more.

• When it comes to writing, Joe Posnanski is some kind of freak. No other way to describe it. The former Kansas City Star sports columnist and current senior writer for Sports Illustrated calls his blog, “Curiously Long Posts” because, well, he writes really, really long posts. And apparently just for the fun of it. As we mentioned, he writes (very well, we might add) for a living at SI, and even still contributes to the Star now and then. But then he writes some more on his blog, which has no ads, so he’s not making money on his posts. The man just appears to love to write, and his blog lets him go in-depth, and off topic, and in all different directions. But he always gets there (wherever there is) and he’s a pleasure to follow. Oh yeah, and when he’s not writing for the magazine or the newspaper or his blog, he’s Tweeting. Great stuff.
• Sam Meers is in our industry, so we suppose he’s a competitor or something, and we shouldn’t plug his blog, Smoke & Meers. But it’s good. And we think you will like it if you’re involved in the advertising world. Sam’s premise is often to take an everyday experience – good or bad – ponder it, ask a question about it. He then relates the answer to that question, or the outcome of the experience, or the extension of the metaphor, to how you or he or – most often – an advertiser client could use that experience to get better results. Sam’s consistent, he’s conversational and he’s creative. A nice combination.
• Hearne Christopher’s blog is the future of journalism. Not in and of itself. But his concept is where journalism is headed. The Internet changed things for newspapers. Google exacerbated it. And we’re not going back, no matter how hard Rupert Murdoch tries. The future of journalism is hyperlocal. Talented people getting together in their neighborhoods, their towns, their cities and writing about local events like nobody but ingrained locals can. Like KC Confidential does. Hearne and his band of bloggers, former KC Star staffers, and other talented writers follow the local news with the bite and the sarcasm and the salty language and the passion that no conglomerate can. He’s on to something here, and word has it that he’s hiring and growing and getting bigger and better. It’ll be fun to watch.

So we hope these Kansas City bloggers give you some inspiration. To start a blog. To resurrect an old one. To write more on your current one. But remember … as Will Forte/George Bush would say, “It’s hard… it’s hard work. Frankly, we don’t know why- why anyone even wants this job, you know… cause it’s hard. You know, a lot of people… working at meetings and… you know, it’s hard work and…”

Know other Kansas City bloggers who we should know about? Drop a link so others can check ‘em out.