I started blogging February of 2005. The first blog I published was Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer and then in March of 2005 I published Home Office Lawyer. However before I even started blogging I spent at least 4 months researching and looking at what blogging was all about. I spent a lot of time reading other blogs in the legal industry. And let me tell you back then, there weren’t that many. There were two blogs I read daily and I absorbed every word they wrote. The first one was Real Lawyers Have Blogs and the second one was ProBlogger.

Reading other blogs in your niche is the first thing you can do to be a better blogger. See how they write and what they write about. Take a look at what you think they are doing right and even what you think you could do better. Watch how they link to other articles or blog post in their writings. What are they linking to and look at their design. And while you are there, don’t forget to engage in the conversation. Even if you don’t have you blog up and going yet. This is a great way to get noticed even before you have your blog going.

Next, if there were only two blogs on how to blog out there, I would recommend you read these two, ProBlogger and Copyblogger. These two blogs are the blogs I go back to daily. There is a reason why they each have thousands of subscribers and once you visit them, you will see why.

One other thing you can do is to reach out to other bloggers. We are an interesting lot. Most of us are more than happy to talk about blogging. Drop them emails and ask questions on their blogs. You might be amazed at how willing most are to reach out to you and answer your questions. I did and I am still thankful to this day for the time one particular blogger was willing to spend with me answering my questions. Some of them were a bit silly, but I never received a stupid answer.