Niche Building and Expert Status with Tax Blogs

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It is apparent that the popularity of tax, accountant and CPA blogs has increased.  Not only are there more and more individual and firm blogs appearing on an almost daily basis, but sites such as AccountingWEB.com have created specific areas of their website to feature guest or contributing blog authors which feature accounting/tax articles.  AccountingWeb.com’s “Blogger Crew” features accountant blogs such as Dave Burt’s “The Shirtsleeve Accountant’s Blog“, Jerry Davis’ “Construction Practice Insider“, and Michelle Golden’s “Golden Practices“.

This is a great example of how existing blog writers and their own content contribute to the fortune of another website while also reaping benefits of their own, including elevating themselves to the level of “expert”.

Take Jerry Davis’ “Construction Practice Insider“.  This is a GREAT example of how and where a niche tax practice area can benefit from blogging.  Not only does Jerry provide great content for AccountingWeb, but he also gathers exposure and expert status at the same time.  Jerry also is able to have that same content appear on his own site Kirschner & Associates, P.C at the same time, getting more bang for the buck.  His article “Quick Facts About the Construction Industry” is an example.

In fact, I love Jerry’s firm blog which beautifully states what I think should be the mission statement for every accounting/tax blog:

My name is Jerry Davis (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) and I am a partner in Kirschner & Associates, P.C. (PUT YOUR FIRM NAME HERE).  We are a CPA firm in the Atlanta (PUT YOUR LOCATION HERE) area that specializes in the construction (PUT YOUR INDUSTRY HERE) industry.  I have started this blog for the following reasons:

• share answers to frequently asked questions from our clients
• post things that I read and want to communicate to others
• link to information on the internet that will interest participants in the construction (PUT YOUR INDUSTRY HERE) industry

Another example of this appears on CPA-Resource.com.  Under the site’s Community section is a Blog Sub-Section, that features various accountant and tax pros (10 at this time).  Each author provides well-written articles that, again, provide great content for CPA-Resource and give the blog author’s audience the sense that they know what they are talking about.  Entries range from 1031 Exchange discussions to Depreciation Reductions.  In some of the cases, the blog author cross-populates the content onto their own website.

Going back to Jerry:  By providing fresh and relevant information, and without him saying so himself, Jerry has created the real perception that he is in fact an expert in construction tax accounting.  If you notice, his blog entries are not necessarily long dissertations on obscure tax laws.  Often they are short, perhaps two or three paragraphs.  But he writes them, and he writes them consistently.  By being consistent, the perception is also that he is vested in what he does; that he cares about the construction tax industry.

These are important lessons to be learned.