Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Why Aren’t You Blogging?

Blogs aren’t just for personal journals anymore. A blog is a useful way to present thoughts and ideas to a wide audience, exercise a passion for writing, market a law firm or practice, network, gain press, provide a great public service, boost your presence on the Web and/or communicate your expertise and services.

Law-related blogs emerged around 2002 and now more than 1,500 have been created since. At least 80 percent of those sites are still publishing daily, weekly and monthly commentary. Law firms of all shapes and sizes, law professors, law students, librarians, legal technologists, and paralegals all take part in blogging.

Blogging can be an inexpensive and effective way to target your desired audience. Therefore, it is important to first establish who you intend to reach. Most lawyer blogs either attempt to update present clients, establish a relationship with prospective clients, share timely information with other lawyers in the same practice area or expose themselves to the general lawyer population as a whole.

It’s important to realize that blogging is indeed a time commitment. Devoted bloggers should be prepared to post as often as possible. Thus, if writing is not an enjoyable task for you, blogging can be trying. Realize that infrequent or poorly written posts can reflect badly on you and your establishment.

Before you embark on your blogging journey, ask yourself a few crucial questions:
- Are you willing to take your writing and marketing efforts to a new level?
- Do you have the time and commitment to keep up with blog entries?
- Are you interesting in providing valuable, meaningful content for Web users?
- Would you like to boost revenue while increasing your search engine visibility?

Useful Blogging Software:
- TypePad (http://www.typepad.com/)
- Movable Type (http://www.movabletype.com/)
- LexBlog (http://www.lexblog.com/)
- BlogJet (http://www.blogjet.com/)
- FeedBlitz (http://www.feedblitz.com/)
- Feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com/)

No comments: