Discovering BlawgMine: A Curated Haven for Legal Insights

The Curious AI Origins of a Legal Blogging Site With a Twist

LAKE FOREST, CA, UNITED STATES, February 3, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- LAKE FOREST, CA, UNITED STATES, February 3, 2025-- Leaning back in his chair, as if teasingly allowing the force of gravity to tug at his shoulders, employment attorney Steven Chanley speaks with an obvious excitement in his voice when describing the serendipitous origins of his new creation: the legal blogging site called BlawgMine.

“Lawyers have traditionally relied on their reputations—word-of-mouth—to get new clients. Overtly advertising was considered below the dignity of the profession,” Chanley says.

“But all of that has changed. I felt like a throwback when I read the statistics about how clients now by and large select their attorneys based on their own online vetting of firms that were putting themselves out there—you know, advertising. Clearly, my ideas about law firm marketing were, I guess, ‘overly traditional’—to put the best spin on it.”

Chanley launched his law firm, Employer Advocates Group, as a start-up in 2002. The firm’s practice is limited to representing employers in labor and employment matters. “That’s what I’ve done my whole career,” Chanley states.

After learning his craft in large law firms in San Francsico and the Silicon Valley, he relocated to his native San Luis Obispo County, California, to raise his two young children in a more family-friendly and slower-paced region, and also to be closer to his retirement-aged parents. In the process, he amassed a client base sufficient to launch Employer Advocates Group, which also has an office in Orange County, California.

As for modern digital online marketing, Chanley took it as a challenge to learn the intricacies of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine ranking (SERP).

“I learned right away that Google is the kingmaker in how near the top you are in an internet search, and one of the things they weigh is the number of high-credibility sites link back to your site. The proper way to do it is cultivate your own site’s credibility so that others want to access the information. However, people who cut corners are willing to actually buy backlinks for cash from various backlink farms. The whole thing struck me as a racket.”
After pondering the various ways to get good backlinks to his firm’s website, Chanley though, “Hey, why don’t I create my own source of backlinks by starting a legal blogging site?” That thought turned into what is now Chanley’s pet project, BlawgMine.

“I bought the domain and honestly I was surprised that something so catchy hadn’t already been snapped up,” Chanley says, his eyes slightly squinting as he smiles. “I then bought the cheapest web hosting that I could find and started a site using a template for a blogging site.” So far, so good.
However, something very unexpected happened.

“I wrote something on the first page that was essentially a one-paragraph version of what the site’s mission statement was. I wanted to explain that the site was somehow different from all other legal blogging sites out there, because it would focus on very short pieces, written from a multitude of perspectives, by writers from a broad demographic.”

Before it had even its first real post, the website template Chanley chose automatically generated four AI-created faux blog posts that blew his mind. More than that, it changed the entire focus of the site.

“First of all, how could machine learning create such an expansive vision for my site based on so little information? Obviously, the lofty goals of the site that the AI came up with by far surpassed my modest goals when I just wanted some free backlinks,” Chanley laughs. “However, once I read through the grandiose language churned out by some mindless algorithm, I thought ‘Hey, why not?’”

Chanley then set about redefining and sharpening the blogging site and its vision. The point of differentiation from the many other legal blogging sites is that BlawgMine seeks only very short, punchy pieces that capture a singular point somehow relating to the law. The site is broken down into 19 categories, covering “Law in Society” to “Tales and Anecdotes.” “It’s intended to span the sublime to the ridiculous,” Chanley laughs. “I want very serious, philosophic pieces alongside humorous takes.”

He also created a logo for the site and registered both the name and the logo. “I just did that just to protect the integrity of the name and images,” Chanley says. “I have no plans whatsoever to turn the site into a moneymaking venture.”

The challenge right now, according to Chanley, is getting some content for the site. “The site’s analytics show that there are quite a few visitors. But even though I have personally reached out to many people personally, including law professors and college professors, there is a surprising reluctance to submit something. Obviously, I have nothing to ‘curate’ unless I get a volume of submissions. I call the early contributors ‘the coalition of the willing,’ in a nod to George W. Bush,” Chanley laughs.

Check out BlwgMine at www.BlawgMine.com. One need not even be a lawyer to submit something law related for the site. submissions@BlawgMine.com

Steven M. Chanley
Employer Advocates Group
+1 949-277-0303
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