On Tuesday we had a speaker in our Independent media class. Every student enjoys a class period dedicated to a speaker because it means we can put off our assigned reading for another few days, not have the anxiety of being called on to comment on the class readings, and ultimately the speaker usually has a cool story to tell.
William Jacobson was no exception. Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell, shared with us his tale of how he started a legal and political blog called, Legal Insurrection.
His story started with a political argument he was having with a friend, that led the friend telling him he should write a blog. "What's a blog?" Jacobson asked his friend. Today, his blog has about 30,000 visits a day… LOL to that rags to riches story.
Jacobson brought in some baby pictures of his blog, pictures that resemble mine and my classmates blog today. We all recognized Google's Blogger template he was using, although thankfully those templates have now been updated (so hopefully our's look a little cooler). But it was amusing and inspiring to know that he started in the same place as we are.
In my opinion, the best advice Jacobson told us was how to connect with other blogs and bloggers. Whether that means sending your own writing to other similar blogs who might appreciate extra content (always put a link back to your blog at the end), or linking to other blogs in your pieces - and hoping that they too will link back to you. In both instances, you are being exposed to a new readership, and the other blog is also being exposed to a new readership, we call this a win-win scenario!
Jacobson also touched on how he keeps his blog updated, even though blogging isn't his primary job. Updating posts on a blog almost every hour is vital, otherwise readers won't keep coming back to check for new content. Legal Insurrection has a staff of 12 contributors, and Jacobson admits to never meeting any of them in person. They are all paid contributors; their paycheck depends on their role.
Legal Insurrection's viewership will depend on events occurring in society. Jacobson said their true climb to fame happened during the George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin case. Because of Legal Insurrection's in depth description of legal elements, and investigations on statements made by main stream media- the blog was trusted and visited by readers often.
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