So I’m a tech blogger of the new media persuasion. And there’s a conference that many new media bloggers are going to — perhaps you’ve heard of the one Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis is putting together, TechCrunch 40.

Now, I’m *not* going to TechCrunch 40. Its not because I don’t want to (because I’d love to see what Hammer has to say about new media). Its because of a lot of things really. I can’t get time off my day job as a medical resident. My parents and my wife’s parents are out of town, so no babysitting help for my wife. Flights to SF aren’t cheap. And so on.

Translation? I don’t really do *this* (points to blog) as a living — as a sole thing that I do.

So, does not flying across the country to go to a tech conference where “major” tech bloggers are going … does that not make me a “real” blogger? I mean, if we use Jason Calacanis’s recipe for being an A-list blogger, going to a couple conferences a month (actually the original post says “per week”)Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and not me is part of the prescription, right?

Clearly then (at the risk of dredging up that horrible blog convo that won’t go away) I’m not an A-list blogger, but does not going to major conferences not make me a “real” blogger?

I don’t really know the answer to this, except that I used to think that whatever notion of the “kind” of blogger I am rests in the perceptions of you — my readers. And while its true, we are judged by the content of our posts, its *also* true that the promotion of your blog is an equally important activity.

And the promotion and marketing of one’s blog is often determined by how many people you know, and how well they know you; and its only made a whole lot easier and more powerful when those connections are made in person.

I’ve been blessed with being able to meet some pretty interesting and relatively important blogging folks in my time blogging. And I don’t know where this blog would have been without those relationships.

But if you never met any people “live” though, and made all of your relationships virtually — well, *could* you, and still be regarded a “real” blogger? I suspect the answer is a hearty “yes”, albeit that its probably harder.

Harder to make connections, harder to really report on what’s actually happening, harder to convince people about who you are, and harder to make who you are memorable. Because all you’ll really have is your writing, and your ability to connect online.

Which, I suppose, is what we all started with, and are eventually, judged upon.