I really have to hold back here. This website is meant to be my professional website. As such, it must reflect my professional identity, not my personal one. To think about how I ought to view my blog in the context of an academic, read Networking on the Network: A Guide to Professional Skills for PhD Students.
In short, I should only start publishing essays once I get more papers and expertise. Once my research area is established, only then will essays become a useful means of cultivating a community around my research area.
Although there are low-cost versions of developing a public voice (such as explaining your work to friends and family in social situations, or in brief media appearances), developing a public voice is a lot of work.
However, the skill-ceiling of being a public voice is extremely high (writing popular books, media appearances, legislative hearings, being an internet figure, etc.). In fact, unless you are a prodigy at it, you generally want to avoid this line of work since it's a specialization in and of itself (completely different set of skills, and more detrimentally in terms of your time, networks).
Only start thinking about seriously developing a public voice once your position is stable. Although difficult, being a public voice can be lucrative, fulfilling and a public good. All that being said, I fit half of the personality that makes a good popularizer (reading widely, examining the deeper meaning of the field, etc.), although the other half of weak methodology, sophistry, sound bites may prevent me from ever dipping myself in it.