In class, we had a visitor; William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell University, also runs an extremely successful conservative blog, Legal Insurrection. Jacobson shared that he began the blog knowing little about the world of weblogs, but now blogs daily.
One of the most interesting points of discussion that Jacobson touched upon during his visit to our class was the experimentation with revenue models; while he has found his blog to be economically successful through advertising sales, he stressed that we must account for the fact that content online has been generally free for the past two decades, which presents problems when trying to create content behind "locked gardens." The survival of the journalism industry and its future should be found elsewhere.
His advice for blogging included establishing relationships with other blogs, which can be helpful in increasing viewership and linking. Jacobson also noted that even though the blog is independent news, having mainstream media site link to you can not only boost readership, but can also reinforce credibility. He also suggested daily postings for new content, to keep readers tuning in for more.