South Carolina Trial Law Blog

So you’re ready to start a blog, but you want to do it right. You want a professional blog and not just a personal one and you want it to represent your firm or company. Here’s my advice on that.

• If you’re a lawyer, use LexBlog to set up your blog. They know what they’re doing and will take a host of technical considerations off your hands. If you don’t want to go with LexBlog, and you are not a techie, use another company that sets up blogs professionally so you don’t have to worry about it. I previously wrote why I went with LexBlog.  If you want to go it on your own, read on.
• Pick a blog name and use a top level domain name. For example, www.MyCoolLegalBlog.com. This not only gives you an identity, but also gives you a home base. That way you are not wedded to Blogger, Typepad or Word Press... If you have a top level domain, you will be able to switch your blogging software without losing readership. It might not make a difference now, but it might make a big difference down the road.
• After you get a domain name, use Typepad or Word Press. It's easy to set things up, and they have a lot more power than Blogger.
• Categorize by Categories instead of dates. People care what is written. They don’t care when it was written. As time progresses, you want your blog to become a resource, not a running commentary.
• Set up your blog to 'ping' the various tracking sites. By ‘pinging’ the sites, you let them know of new posts. You want your posts to come up in the search engines, so you have to let them know you are out there. Sites you will want to ping include Technorati, PubSub, FeedGator, IceRocket, Google.... To be honest, I don’t keep track of all of the sites that should be pinged. That’s why I use LexBlog, so I can lawyer and they can ping.
• Use Blogjet for blogging software. You will be able to create posts by right clicking on other blog posts and turning them into a new post. Or right clicking on a web page and automatically turning it into a post. Blogjet works as a word processor, where you can highlight, bold, italicize, indent or automatically number among other things. It’s main drawback is that it’s British and the spell checker is not quite ready for American prime time, but I think it’s the best out there. Ecto is also good software that runs on both Windows and the Mac.
• If you don't know how to do any of the things I talked about, get a good computer guy to help you out. Get someone good to help you. If you’re a tech hobbyist do it on your own. If you want to spend your time lawyering and spend time with your family, get someone good to help you out. I used to be a programmer and as techie as they come, but now I’d rather work on my trial skills.

Those are my initial thoughts, for a new blog user on starting a professional blog. Did I miss anything? If you would add anything, leave a comment to let others know what is important.

Great post Dave. Look forward to the next one in the series.

Thanks for the guidance.

I want to reiterate the importance of "pinging" the tracking sites like Technorati to make them aware that you have added content to your blog. In order to "ping" numerous such sites with just one click of the mouse, I suggest that one use Pingoat, at: http://pingoat.com

Tom Lamb

David,

If their blog is limited in its focus, then they may want to consider signing up for google alerts. I receive three e-mails a day from Google (one for divorce, one for child custody and one for family law). Each e-mail contains a link to every news story posted on Google news that day with my key words. Helps me keep up to date on my subject area and provides good content for blogging. But, yes, I do have to wade through the celebrity divorce list about every week.

David:
Good points in your post. I decided to go with WordPress (the full version that I installed on my server). Once it is set up, it is fairly maintenance free and my only cost is the hosting. I like the control and the ability to add features and functions via plug ins.

Currently I maintain 5 different blogs for my firm and I have noticed a definite increase in potential client leads.

I would also point out that a good reason to blog is to improve your skills at lawyering. I have to think through my answers when I get an email or a blog question and I also have to write clearly when I comment about a new case or legislative development.
Regards,
Jonathan Ginsberg
Atlanta, GA

Thanks for this helpful and insightful post. I am a law student, but I have created my own blog and I am new to this whole area of blogging.

Thanks again-
Scott
http://thelegalscoop.com