Earlier this year Wired magazine created a stir when it declared that starting a blog today for thought leadership or money is fruitless. "The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter," Paul Boutin wrote.

There's validity to the argument. For example, there's no way I would start a gadget blog given the competition. Not only do you have Engadget, Gizmodo and Crunchgear, but now the media's getting into the game as well. The New York Times recently launched Gadgetwise.

Wired's thesis is certainly the conventional wisdom today. Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook all posted massive growth this year. Blogging, meanwhile, declined by some measures. Daily postings receded from 1.5 million per day last year to 900,000 in 2008, according to Technorati.

Conventional wisdom, however, is where you find contrarians thriving. And in 2008 two stood out - Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Brogan. As you can see from the Google Trends traffic chart (also below), which includes Micro Persuasion (my blog), they're eating my lunch!

Today both Brogan and Owyang are considered thought leaders in social media. But anyone can learn in their footsteps.

Their secret is very simple. It's all about producing high quality content on a regular basis that stimulates conversation and fills a niche. As you can see from the charts below, both gentleman post daily or even more frequently. They are also even more active on Twitter. Oh and they hold down busy day jobs too - Brogan as a consultant, Owyang as a Forrester analyst.

Oywang and Brogan both had an incredible 2008 - one that makes this old timer, well, just a little jealous. They demonstrate that anyone can build a powerful personal brand online with content. Next year you should join them.

The web needs more business voices. The rewards go to those who synchronize their personal brands with their corporate brands and inspire people to a higher calling. Do that well and the tide lifts all boats.

Blogs remain a key way to make this happen. And this year, at least, these two showed blogging is far from dead.