Most legal publishers have never have never heard of a link blog, something keenly popular in the early days of blogging.
Ironically, a link blog may be a simple and effective way to showcase the insight and capabilities of a lawyer—or a group of lawyers.
What makes a link blog?
- Link First – Each post starts with a title or phrase that links directly to another source.
- Short Commentary – Instead of a long post, you offer a sentence or two—maybe a paragraph—of insight, reaction, or even just a quote.
- High-Frequency, Low-Effort – Since the focus is curation, not creation, it’s easier to publish consistently without needing to write at length every time.
- Chronological and Searchable – Link blogs often resemble a personal timeline of discovery, some with tags or categories to make content easy to find.
A real-world example
While not specific to legal publishing, there’s a great example of a modern link blog in Tomorrow’s Publisher, reported on by Andrew Deck, a staff writer covering AI for Nieman Journalism Lab.
The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI is going to trial, the BBC is accusing Apple News of improper citations, and the Daily Mail just passed 250,000 digital subscribers.
No, these are not stories on Nieman Lab, but rather some of the most recent headlines on Tomorrow’s Publisher.
The digital news site is home to a host of AI-assisted, and human-edited, news stories about the latest in news innovation. A handful of human-bylined opinion pieces about the media industry and the rise of AI are interspersed throughout
Tomorrow’s Publisher uses the AI driven news source Noah Wire Services which generates a feed of potential trending news stories relating to journalism and publishing—particularly innovative in nature, by pulling from a mix of press releases, blog posts, public records, and other news sites.
The Noah feeds fuel a title and link and a story which Tomorrow’s Publisher generates.
What makes it powerful is the simplicity:
- A title
- A link
- Short commentary
- And consistent publishing
Even better, Tomorrow’s Publisher is marketing its own ability to spin up these kinds of niche publishing sites for others. It’s working—they’re generating strong leads.
Applying this to the legal field
It got me thinking: why not a link blog focused on legal publishing from LexBlog?
There’s a clear audience—legal professionals who are publishing legal insight on blogs and other mediums. A link blog could highlight what’s happening in legal publishing and publishing in general, further building trust in LexBlog as a leading legal publisher and nurturing relationships with our target audience so as to grow business—-marketing LexBlog if you will.
Pick a legal niche. Set up feeds—via Google News, Feedly, or even Noah. Curate what matters most. Then, post a short weekly roundup with links and a brief summary of the news or commentary found at the linked source.
You could run your link blog on WordPress, Substack, or—of course—LexBlog’s managed WordPress solution built for legal publishers.