What is a blog, you ask? Short for “Web Log,” it’s an increasingly popular way to self-publish online. You can actually syndicate your articles, making this a great way for experts to showcase their specialized knowledge. Think of a blog as a form of an online journal, with frequent postings and observations on items of interest. Most blogs focus on a narrow subject area, which is ideal for experts. Hyperlinks to articles, websites and other blogs make this a very interactive medium that encourages audience participation. The Pew Internet Study estimates that about 11% of Internet users – translating to 50 million people – are regular blog readers. Technorati, which claims to be the authority on what’s going on in the world of weblogs, tracks almost 42 million blogs. Lawyers are active bloggers. According to an online survey conducted by Blogads.com late last year, 6.1% of bloggers work in the legal profession. The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association discovered that the majority of section members surveyed read at least one blog regularly and almost 20% publish their own blog. The best way to understand a blog is to look at a few. The Google Blog has a very simple appearance. By contrast, some blogs in the legal market can be very sophisticated, like E-Discovery Law offered by Preston Gates & Ellis LLP or the ERISA Blog maintained by The Law Office of B. Janell Grenier. Law Professor Blogs offers a rich network of links to law blogs maintained by legal academics. Three reasons to start a blog 1. Blog software is frequently free or nominally priced 2. Blogs increase your search engine rankings 3. Postings get widespread distribution through syndication If you like to write and have information to share about your area of expertise, a blog can be a great marketing tool. Three cautions before you start blogging Look before you leap into a blog. Launching a professional looking blog requires careful advance planning. Here are some pointers to keep in mind: 1. Create a strategic framework for the type of information you intend to publish 2. Post new content frequently to keep your blog fresh 3. Take advantage of syndication features to maximize the reach of your blog Basically, make sure you have the time to maintain your blog with high quality and timely information. Just because you get named as an expert on a big case is no excuse to neglect or abandon your blog. If you want to know how to blog all you have to do is learn the basics. There are a lot of resources online that you can make use of. There are many articles that give tips on how to make money blogging or even how to start a blog.

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