Blogs, or blawgs, are being hailed by some as the key to Web success in 2005. 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%. Despite these impressive statistics, an estimated 62% 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. To simplify reading, I will refer to “blog” in the remainder of this article.
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? We recommend taking these three important steps:
* Define your goals;
* Assess your ability to invest the necessary time;
* 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. For profit-minded firms, 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 (linked above) 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.
As evidenced by the testimonials on our Website, our clients bring in cases with their Websites. Our most successful clients complement their Websites with other marketing tools. I have heard of a few blogs that bring in cases; however, most of these bloggers seem to supplement this activity with other marketing methods that promote or complement the blog. My point is, while a blog can work as a marketing tool, a blog 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. Some of our clients have very successful Websites that rank at the top of the search engines. 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. In many cases, you are competing for the reader’s time against professional periodicals such as Lawyers Weekly, Law Office Computing, ALM™, etc. You are also 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”? While there are excellent legal blogs available by people whom I admire, I have not found the time to visit them in months. 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, if you put the same effort into it, 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. After a 15-minute telephone class by one of our consultants, approximately 40% of our law firm clients make the decision to perform some of their own updates, including adding pages, etc. They log into their Website and use Microsoft FrontPage, Dreamweaver or other HTML editors to make changes. These Web editors are remarkably similar to Microsoft Word. Several of our clients have 600 to 1,000-page Websites and easily maintain them using FrontPage. 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 you 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. Our firm charges a $95 set-up fee to configure a discussion board on existing sites. We do not charge additional for hosting. Hosting for stand-alone discussion boards is $5 per month. 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. We do not charge extra for hosting blogs on existing domains. Our price for new blog domain hosting is $10 per month. 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 and Considerations
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.
I cringe when I hear some consultants say that law firms should develop blogs instead of Websites. They say they are less expensive and easier with which to work. 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. I agree. 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. A large percentage of our Consultwebs business involves search engine optimization; therefore, we watch search engines closely. I have not found evidence that blogs outrank Websites. 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. The majority of our client Websites have more than 50 pages and, as previously mentioned, many have hundreds of pages. These Websites are structured to appeal to search engines. While the same can be done for blogs, it is more difficult. Potential clients do not type blog phrases into the search engines, they type the topic that has piqued their interest, e.g., (city or statename) personal injury lawyers, (city or statename) estate planning lawyers, business lawyers, car accident lawyers, etc. If you try some of these searches in Google, you will see that these queries rarely bring up blogs. Bear in mind that if the public can’t find you, they can’t read your blog and consider you.
Do not run after the first blogging pied piper who tells a great story. Many consultants glean their information from second-hand materials they have read, or surmised, or they are selling blog services. Be careful about buying a blog that extends the limits of blogs and becomes a disjointed, difficult to manage mass of data. If your Web consultants are not developing your blog, run your ideas by them. You can save a great deal of time, money and frustration by obtaining an expert’s advice and coordinating your efforts.
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 Internet 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.
In summary, I believe that 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. If developed loosely, without proper planning and promotion, the blog will become little more than a time-consuming, expensive hobby.
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