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Commentary: The Internet Lawyer- Law Firm Blogs - Hip or Hype?

Posted on: Friday, 21 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

By Dale Tincher

Blogs, or blawgs, are being hailed by some as the key to web success in 2005 and beyond. According to two surveys conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November 2004, 8 million Americans reported that they had created blogs, and blog readership had increased by 58 percent.

Despite these impressive statistics, an estimated 62 percent of Internet users did not know what a blog was. While there is no question that blogs lend themselves well to topics such as news, hobbies, products and many services, are they effective tools for marketing legal services?

Blog is an abbreviation of weblog, a public website that is frequently updated with entries arranged in reverse-chronological order. Blogs take the form of personal journals or non-commercial weblogs and may be written by a single author or a group of contributors.

While varied in topic, a blog's subject matter has a defined scope and incorporates commentary, links and images, and may have a search engine. While defined in the same way as a blog, a blawg addresses issues in the legal profession.

Properly developed blogs can be very effective. Unfortunately, the majority of law firm blogs are not properly planned and the result is often a significant waste of time, money and credibility. How can you determine whether you should develop a blog for your firm? You should take these three important steps:

* Define your goals;

* Assess your ability to invest the necessary time; and

* Consider other options.

Your Goals

While blogs are a marvelous way to get information out quickly and to keep an audience informed, they are not revolutionary. Blogs are simply another way to market.

If your vision is to develop a blog and quickly attract a significant number of cases, you will be disappointed. I have noticed that many bloggers (the term for one who blogs) talk about the number of hits they receive.

Since blog hits and legal researchers do not bring in revenue, you still need clients to pay the bills. The Pew Report stated that blog readers are likely to be young, male, well-educated Internet veterans. This is not, for example, a description of a personal injury firm's clients. There is, however, some growth in the other population segments. You should analyze your target market to determine if a blog is or will be a cost-effective way to reach it.

While a blog can work as a marketing tool, it should be coordinated with a website, articles written for periodicals and other proactive promotional approaches in order to succeed.

If you enjoy writing, are a good writer, and your goal is to support other marketing efforts, you are more likely to achieve success with a blog. For example, Bob Kraft of Kraftlaw.com has well established websites and uses his blog as part of a coordinated marketing campaign. Bob's Pissd.com (Personal Injury, Social Security Disability) is an entertaining, informative and effective blog.

Your Time

Do you have the time to develop a blog? If you're already sacrificing valuable family or personal time, a blog will only consume more of it. Blogs require commitment, attention and enthusiasm. Have there been other projects that you started with good intentions only to have them run out of steam? Have you had ambitious goals for your website or planned to join networking organizations - only to fall back into your regular, hectic routine?

Measure the cost of a blog against the benefits. A high-quality blog will require an investment of time for research, thought and content writing. You are competing against the 40,000 new blogs being launched each day. Blogs will soon cease to be the novelty they currently are.

If your content is not high quality, people will not make the time to read it. When was the last time you thought, I have a few minutes, I think I will find some blogs to read? Most bloggers, however, count on the idea that when someone is looking for information on their topic, they will find their blog, or remember it and revisit.

A wonderful capability that prevents readers from having to remember to visit blogs is RSS feeds readers. RSS feed readers such as FeedDemon allow the reader to subscribe to blogs that will automatically push the blog to their PC. Not many readers have RSS feed readers at this point, but that may change - unless blogs begin to overwhelm busy readers.

It is easy to get excited about the blog marathon, only to run out of energy after the first mile. The majority of blogs are abandoned within a year. Many blogs have started strong and then just stopped, or the content quantity and quality have diminished. Many blogs show a flurry of initial posts followed by sporadic posts. What is the financial return if a blogger fails to find the time to consistently develop quality content? Who wants to link to a site that will probably be deserted within a year?

At a minimum, plan to spend an hour per day on your blog to ensure that it is building the type of relationship you want with your market. Just an hour per day adds up to many thousands of dollars of lost billable time every month. If you are unsure as to whether you can maintain a blog, test yourself by writing content for your current website. Since an update page is virtually the same as a blog, if you are able to successfully maintain it, you can gradually transfer the information to a blog.

If your blog is separate from your website, you should maximize your investment by posting applicable information to both the blog and your website.

Your Options

Assuming your blog is business-oriented, an updates page on your website can accomplish the same or more than a blog can. Many people have the misconception that updating websites is difficult.

Law firms can use Microsoft FrontPage, Dreamweaver or other HTML editors to make changes. These web editors are remarkably similar to Microsoft Word. Another consideration is that these HTML editors keep you from becoming locked into a proprietary, and potentially expensive content management system or blog program and consulting.

A blog can be added to most websites. However, many bloggers start a blog under a new domain name. If your website is already established in the search engines, consider whether you want to start over with a separate domain name for your new blog and are willing to put in the effort and wait a few months to hopefully develop a strong presence.

Also consider whether you want to continually maintain additional websites and their search engine rankings. There are some good reasons why you may want to have a separate domain for your blog.

For example, if your firm has a website and you want to develop a separate presence for yourself, or the firm wishes to further develop or establish a practice area, a new domain may work well. A blog is an excellent way to show personality, demonstrate expertise and brand an attorney, especially one who is highly skilled and knowledgeable but does not have the time, interest or expertise to market using traditional methods.

Another less time-intensive communications option is a discussion board. A discussion board is easier to maintain since it is more acceptable to simply post a few sentences and link to a source.

Pricing will vary among vendors. Microsoft FrontPage editing capabilities are included in our hosting packages for editing of HTML pages (but not blogs). The retail price for the FrontPage software is $195. Movable Type blog software is $199 for a commercial license.

Personal versions are available for $69 to $99. To configure blogs, such as Movable Type, on existing domains http:// blog.yourdomainname.com or new domains is typically is $75 to $250, depending upon whether you want the look and feel of your existing website. Blog consulting typically ranges from a few hundred to one or two thousand dollars, depending upon the blogger's expertise and time availability.

Blogging Tips

Many professional journalists criticize blogs because they feel they are typically self-serving, poorly researched and have little accountability. Be cognizant of these criticisms when developing your blog.

Many consultants have tried to dumb down the web for years, initially using bandwidth as a primary justification. While lawyers work frequently with black and white printed pages, the public is accustomed to being reached by colorful, exciting media that aggressively competes for their attention.

Some consultants would kill glossy brochures and have the firm hand out black and white pages of information to potential clients. A law firm would never consider distributing amateurish brochures, yet many bloggers and website owners publish amateurish, bland pages without a second thought.

To identify what the public finds appealing, just analyze the products that are selling. Flat screen TVs and wireless notebook computers, audio and music are prevalent. Television commercials and magazine ads are high-tech and exciting.

A website that delivers information in an innovative and interesting fashion will achieve the most success. Blogs are typically limited technically. However, a combination of a website and blog can combine to deliver your message in numerous ways.

Some consultants state that journalists read blogs, and therefore blogs are a great way to reach them. However, journalists typically start with a search engine query when researching a topic. Ideally, your website and your blog will appear in their results and hopefully, they will quote you if they obtain ideas from your work.

Some bloggers say that blogs outrank websites in the search engines, but that may not be the case. Search engines want to deliver high quality content that is well structured. Search engines are attracted to sites that contain a large number of pages of high- quality content. It is difficult to achieve this with blogs.

Caution

Be careful about buying a blog that extends the limits of blogs and becomes disjointed mass of data difficult to manage.

You should also consider the ethics and libel implications and be sure that you do not appear to be giving legal advice. This can be difficult, since legal expertise and advice are what many potential clients are after.

Blogs are similar to the early Internet in that they consist of a relatively small community of enthusiastic bloggers. Consider that Google indexes 8 billion web pages, as compared to estimates that 10 to 50 million blogs exist. Like websites, as blogs grow and become a large community, only the well-developed and best-marketed blogs will be successful. Corporations and periodicals will join the blog community and many of them have considerable time, experience and capital.

Law firm blogs can be very effective if developed as part of a cohesive overall marketing campaign. They can allow the blogger to distribute information quickly and in a more personal fashion. However, if developed without proper planning and promotion, the blog will become little more than a time-consuming, expensive hobby.

Dale Tincher is president of Consultwebs.com, a North Carolina- based web consulting and design firm that develops supports law firm websites. Consultwebs.com's website is http://www.consultwebs.com. Dale may be reached at (919) 272-8052 or dtincher@consultwebs.com.

Source: The Daily Record (Baltimore)

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