Functions Every Tax Blog Should Have

Our tax blog is built upon the powerful Wordpress blogging platform. One of the beauties of Wordpress blogs is that there are a great number of “plugins” (devices and functions that drive a Wordpress blog). In fact, there are currently over 2,500 at this time, creating a huge haystack to Read more

I Don’t Get It ….

Just wanted to take a last look for 2008 and get a sense of how far blogging has come in the accounting profession.   I have to say … I was unpleasantly surprised. 

I ran a quick check on “tax blogs” on Google …. (I was #6 as of today …, and took a quick look at some of the tax blogs out there.  Here are just some quick observations that I made …

The Wall Street Journal Tax Blog, which is at #3 on Google for tax blogs” hasn’t been updated since April 19, 2007, 12:12 am.  What I found interesting is that The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog is continously updated and even had a December 31st Year-End posting.  I also noted that the Tax Blog page has some advertisement errors, no “About This Blog” and is just generally out of date. 

I also noted that the WSJ tax blog entries, for the most part, relate to technical and mechanical aspects of taxes, while the WSJ law blog entries have more “personalities” involved.  For example, take a look at some of these headlines, and see if you can guess which ones are on the tax blog and which is on the law blog:

1. The Risks of Being Audited
2. Burris Could Be Illinois’s Senator, But Was He a Good AG?
3. Vicki Iseman: Is She a Public or Private Figure?
4. The ABCs of Dealing With the AMT
5. Reprieves for Filers
6. Trees and the Law: Judge Kaye’s Last Legal Issue

Is this just the nature/differences between the two professions that is simply exhibited in the blogosphere.  After all, there are very few TV shows or movies that feature accounting, but a slew of shows that feature lawyers and legal issues (LA Law, Boston Legal, The Firm, etc.).   There are many more fiction books relating to law than accounting/tax (see John Grisham, “To Kill a Mockingbird”). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Marketing’s Accounting Blog List, as of December 16, 2008, lists 64 accounting firm practice blogs … on the entire internet.  Compare this to Lexblog’s list of over 500 law fim blogs that just they have created.  Kevin O’Keefe of Lexblog estimated back in February of 2008, that the number of law blogs listed on the ABA Journal’s law blog directory of 1,600 would double in the coming year.   I couldn’t find a definitive directory of accounting blogs to make such a comparison, but that fact alone tells me something.

I would welcome any and all comments on why anyone thinks accounting blogs are so far behind law blogs in both the breadth and growth on the web.

Where Are The Accounting Blogs? Pt. 1

It has been 3 years since (June of 2005) Eva M. Lang, wrote, what I consider the seminal article on Accountant Blogging.   She asked the question, “Would You, Could You, Should You Blog?“  The article is in my mind the first real attempt to see how the whole blogging phenomenon fits into Read more

Niche Building and Expert Status with Tax Blogs

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 Read more