Two law blog items:
First, if you didn’t get enough Christmas yesterday, you can go back for more with the Christmas Eve themed Blawg Review #140 presented by Jonathan Frieden at E-Commerce Law. Frieden mixes commerce and Christmas with law blogs in his 12 Days of Christmas (plus stocking-stuffers).
Next up, Dennis Kennedy gives out his 2007 “Blawggies” for the best law oriented law blogs, and gives one to “niche blogs” as the most important trend. What is a niche blog? According to Kennedy, they “have titles like [State Name] [Practice Area] Law Blog.”
While it’s an interesting concept, it seems that the vast majority of law blogs actually fall into the category of “niche” once you get past the name, including his own on law technology and the one for best blawg about blawging (to Kevin O’Keefe, of course), among others he has chosen. As a percentage of the legal blogosphere there are really very few law blogs that focus outside of a niche.
While it’s true that some blogs have descriptive names, such as this one, this is often done to give new readers a quick overview of where they landed. But it isn’t the name that creates the niche but the content. If I used my name for a title instead of my practice area, would I no longer be a niche?