Legal Blogging Book, Forty-Five Chapters (or so) Long

I’m sharing below the table of contents, if you will, of a guide to legal blogging. I welcome your input on what I’m missing.

Why a guide to legal blogging?

Over the years, I have been asked more than once to write a book on the basics of legal blogging.

A lawyer in a larger firm asked during a recent program of blogging I was teaching if there was a book covering the strategy and how-to’s of legal blogging. She was interested in publishing a legal blog, but confessed she had a lot to learn.

I empathized with her on two fronts.

One, blogging strategically – and effectively – so as to develop a strong word of mouth reputation and relationships so as grow your business is an art.

Two, the available resources are limited.

I haven’t seen a book covering the below information. And, unfortunately, many of the programs on blogging conducted for lawyers and legal marketing professionals contain a lot of misinformation.

I am not sure I’ll write a book on legal blogging in the true sense. I barely have enough patience to sit in a chair for an hour, let alone write a book.

But I do have the desire to share with legal professionals what I have seen work so well for lawyers and other legal professionals. And to get this information and what I know out of solely a blog format.

There’s about 7,000 blog posts in here, and though they may cover what you need to know, you’d be hard pressed to find it in a meaningful way.

My gut tells me I’ll sit down and start cranking out some video explanations, whether by myself or in an interview/discussion format. Doing Facebook Live’s for interviews I’ve grown comfortable with video on my iPhone.

I’ll share the videos as recorded, get them transcribed for publication here and as part of LexBlog’s success and support materials – and as some sort of field guide to effective blogging for legal professionals.

I expect to get underway very soon.

Here’s a whole lot of topics I pulled together off the top of my head, along with what I’ve heard from successful legal bloggers.

1. Role of passion
2. Identifying a niche
3. Looking for opportunities
4. Establishing goals
5. Group versus individual blog
6. Relationship to practice areas and practice groups
7. Independent publication on a domain apart from a law firm website
8. Titling the blog
9. Selecting a domain (url)
10. Branding, identification of the publisher
11. Branding by design
12. Substantive categories, ie table of contents
13. Tags
14. Relationship of blog publication to law firm website
15. Navigation – about the publisher, publisher’s services, publisher’s contact information
16. Alternative technology platforms, what’s needed
17. WordPress
18. Managed platform
19. Turnkey solution
20. Posting – what, when and how
21. Images in posts
22. Default image for social media
23. SEO (search engine optimization) – what is it and how does a publisher optimize their posts and blog
24. Local search
25. Yoast’s SEO plugin
26. Conversation versus broadcasting
27. Perfection is not needed
28. Write in a conversational style, as you’d talk to a friend
29. Listening tools – news aggregator, Twitter, newsletters, and social media
30. Influencers in your niche
31. Engagement
32. Engage other legal bloggers in your niche, you’re not the only one
33. Localize
34. Reporting style of blogging, if own niche
35. Personal voice
36. Length of post
37. Frequency
38. When to blog
39. Marketing your blog
40. Use of LinkedIn
41. Use of Twitter
42. Use of Facebook
43. Legal blogging, as distinguished from marketing
44. Legal blogs as secondary law
45. Ethics and liability