Like hundreds of thousands of Americans, Reuben Saltzman has taken up blogging in an attempt to drive more people to his business. He spends a few hours a week honing the perfect post, using the medium of blogging to establish himself as an expert in his field.

You're probably thinking he's a web developer, right? Maybe a marketing consultant? Perhaps he's a real estate agent — they love to blog!

Not even close.

The St. Paul father of one does not spend the day sitting at a computer, schmoozing with clients or reviewing contracts. He's too busy air-testing water pipes on winterized properties and analyzing the effectiveness of insulation jackets on old water heaters. 

He is a home inspector, and his well-produced Structure Tech Home Inspection Blog is one very few "blue collar" blogs in Minnesota.

(I am using the term "blue collar" loosely here — let's consider it covering anyone who works in a skilled trade for hourly wages. Despite years of negative stereotypes, experts concede that "blue collar" is still the most common way to refer to this group of workers.)

By combining the precision of his trade with some clever blogging practices, Saltzman is generating new customers in a bad economy. He reports that several homeowners and real estate agents have hired him because they found his blog. The high number of posts he's written has drastically improved his visibility in search engines.

"I've actually tried to stop saying [to clients] 'For more information, you can read my blog,'" he said. "I feel like a TV commercial."
 
Why is Reuben so rare?
As someone with a 60-year-old house who makes his living sitting at a keyboard, I found the home maintenance advice on Reuben's blog incredibly helpful. But, once I began to look beyond Reuben's blog for more advice from bloggers who work with their hands, I came up short.

While there is no lack of bloggers eager to bloviate on every professional topic from finance to politics, there is a stunning shortage of folks blogging about how to install a new exhaust manifold or the difference between silicone and latex caulk.

My discovery didn't surprise Sherry Linkon, co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University and author of the Working Class Perspectives blog.

"It's not uncommon for working-class people to see people who work in front of computers as incompetent, lazy time-wasters who produce nothing valuable," she explained. "They might see writing about your work as self-absorbed and self-important, but they also probably value doing the work over writing about the work. In general, working-class culture places a high value on action, rather than words."

Linkon added that just because blogs about "blue collar" work are scarce, it doesn't mean these workers aren't online and writing.

"My guess is that working-class bloggers are writing about things like cooking, gardening, NASCAR, baseball, model railroading and parenting," Linkon said.
 
'Blue Collar' sense of community is not online
The federal government no longer lumps employees in "blue collar" or "working class" trades together. So, depending on how you interpret the 2007 breakdown, these workers appear to be just under half of the country's 134 million-person workforce.

While the numbers have decreased since the economy began shrinking, younger, more computer-savvy workers are still entering skilled trades, said Robert Bruno, associate professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois. But, he doesn't think that will automatically result in more blogs about the work.

"Their community is not online, like it may be for professional workers," Bruno explained. "Their community is on the worksite or at the training program or at the union hall. The spaces in which they operate are very three-dimensional ... They have the means, but no real incentive to head online."

Reuben Saltzman, however, thinks his competition online will pick up once his fellow tradesmen realize the business potential of a good blog.

For now at least, his blogging skills have impressed his boss.

"I only have one boss ... my dad," Saltzman said. "He's biased, so I actually don't think his opinion counts."