Prof. Walter Effross (American University) has an interesting list of suggested law blog topics (plus an item on Disclosures, Disclaimers, and Designs of Ethical and Effective Law Blogs and Law Firm Web Sites). Naturally, you shouldn’t start a blog on a topic unless you’re really interested in the topic, but looking through a list like this might remind you of one of your areas of interest and expertise. And these days likely the best way to start a successful new law blog is:
- Find a niche topic in which you’re interested and expert, and blog about legal developments and news stories in the field, with the kind of analysis that ordinary journalists don’t provide.
- Pitch posts to other bloggers who you know write about the general subject, pitching each post and not the blog generally. (“Please read my blog” is almost never effective.)
- When pitching the post, include both (a) the text of the post and (b) the URL of that particular post as part of the text of the e-mail. When bloggers are working remotely, often on slowish connections, this makes it much easier for them to read the post — and thus much more likely that they will read it and consider linking to it.
- When pitching the post to a group blog, target the right blogger on that blog.