I was reading Bruce Carton’s post at Legalblogwatch called “Early Settlers in the Blawgosphere Begin to Turn 10 YearsOld” and he was talking about legal blogs that have been around for a while, some for more than 10 years. My first reaction was wondering how they wrote so consistently for so long. Then his post made me think about how people can decide to do something innovative and new, but end up being ridiculed for being different. Back when those attorneys started those blogs, I wonder how many people thought they were crazy or wasting their time. I’m sure a lot of people didn’t even know what a blog was, but it’s great that those bloggers stuck with what they knew and kept writing and building an audience, no matter what others said.
I’m not saying that those bloggers are like Galileo who got into serious trouble for claiming that the earth revolved around the sun, but they still took a chance, and it looks like it really paid off. I’m sure they’ve become a lot more successful because their blogs have become a part of their marketing plan, whether or not they planned it that way.
Here’s something that we can learn from them: if you want to become a successful blogger and enhance your marketing and public relations plan, you should choose a specific niche that has a market need. For example, if you do commercial real estate and know there’s already a blog about that topic out there, get more specific by writing about your own area of expertise. You might just work on cases that have to do with shopping complexes in the Midwest, so blog about that. If you’re finding that it’s difficult to do a blog on your own, then do it with a group. It seems to work; some of the most popular and long-lasting blogs on Carton’s list are group blogs.
