Skip to main content

Are Law Blogs Other Than Independent Publications Holding Lawyers Back?

Law blog publications not websites

I’ve been on the road interviewing successful law bloggers the last couple weeks and I’ll continue with more at the end of this week.

I’ll start to post the interviews on a LexBlog YouTube Channel and here on my blog within the next week.

By successful law blogger, I’m referring to lawyers who have built a tremendous reputation as a trusted advisor and thought leader, while at the same time establishing relationships with clients, prospective clients and influencers.

In many cases, blogging has literally been a life changing event for the lawyer.

I walk away from the interviews inspired by what the lawyers have done – all by virtue of the Internet democratizing publishing and business development for the little guy – whether a solo lawyer or a lawyer in a major law firm.

Never until the Internet could a lawyer launch a publication on a niche for which they have a passion. And for the publication to attract an audience of highly interested readers.

I am struck that the lawyers I have talked with and will continue to talk with have a blog publication. Publication in the sense of a digital magazine with a name on a separate domain away from the law firm website.

I have yet to interview lawyers who publish blog content in a website.

Admittedly, many of the lawyers I am going to be talking to are LexBlog platform customers and have followed our counsel on publishing, but I am not familiar with life changing blogs published as content in a website.

I understand for many lawyers content is a traffic generation tool to get people to look at information about the lawyer or the firm – the replacement of advertising or brochures of years past. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just different than publishing a niche publication to achieve the status of a lawyer’s lawyer.

LexBlog does aggregate and curate blog posts published on a website – at no cost to the lawyer or the firm. Such work represents excellent insight and commentary. We want to shine a light a light on such lawyers and their work.

I wonder though if the lawyers publishing these posts would achieve much more if they were publishing an independent publication.

Think about it. Lawyers billing hundreds of dollars an hour getting a thirty or forty percent return as compared to publishing an independent publication represents a tremendous loss – in time and money.

Unfortunately, discussing blogs inside websites and outside websites is like talking religion. I am ready to hear I am nuts, often from folks with a vested interest in growing web traffic, versus a name.

I share my comments now as I seek to help more lawyers understand the power of legal blogging. To inspire lawyers to learn from the path other lawyers have taken on legal blogging and the success those lawyers have experienced.

I share my comments and do these interviews because I care deeply about lawyers. It has never been easier to establish a reputation as a leading lawyer and to generate a book of business than it is today.

I want lawyers to take advantage of this opportunity by doing things the right way.

That’s why I ask are law blogs inside a website failing lawyers? Are such blogs holding lawyers back?

Are there Hilary Bricken’s, Staci Riordan’s, Tonya Forsheit’s, Allison Rowe’s, Michelle Mae O’Neil’s, Daniel Schwartz’ and Jeff Nowak’s who blog not to create a publication and trusted advisor status but to publish content in a website for traffic who have achieved the heights these lawyers have from blogging? Who have had a life changing event from blogging?

Is changing your life through legal blogging too lofty a goal? I didn’t see why.

None of the lawyers I mention above are a superwoman or a superman.

They are lawyers just like you who made a decision to take things to a new level and to chase a dream for themselves and, in many cases, for their families.

It can be be done.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LexBlog Con Can Provide Legal Companies and Law Firms an Opportunity to Connect With Influencers

Imagine a “LexBlog Con” where leading legal brands from startups to traditional larger players to law firms are offered the opportunity to connect with legal bloggers. After all, legal bloggers are quickly supplanting reporters and traditional media as the influencers of our legal community. From a blogger attendee, today, at BlogHer19 in Brooklyn. Day 1 of @BlogHer was wonderful. So many amazing brands to connect with #blogher19 #blogherpro #blogherlife #blogherstyle #blogherhealth19 #womenslifestyle #lifestyleblogger #lifestyleblog pic.twitter.com/IIcVrg9apz — Mademoiselle Skinner (@guestlistblog) September 18, 2019 There may not be a better way for legal industry companies to connect with the biggest influencers in legal than a conference of legal bloggers, ala LexBlog Con. LexBlog Con could start as simple as BlogHer did years ago and, as we had discussed for this last year, as a larger meetup of legal bloggers for a day of blogger education and networking. But ...

Election Coverage Now Comes From Blogs

Election coverage now comes from blogs. Whether they be blogs run by the mainstream media, blogs that have the status of mainsteam media, such as FiveThirtyEight , blogs published by legal commenators, or citizen bloggers, blogs dominate election coverage. In addition, what Americans read on social media is often a report originally published on a blog. This was not the case not that long ago. Sixteen years ago, the Boston Globe’s Teresa Hanafin , reporting from. the Democratic National Convention shared the following: They don’t have space in the media pavilion, and are forced to pay exorbitant prices for lunch at the press café – unless they are willing to wait in long lines at McDonald’s in the FleetCenter or bring their own food. The crowded workspace they do have is in the rafters of the convention hall, which they would be sharing with pigeons if this were the old Boston Garden. Who are they? They are bloggers: Those who write weblogs, online journals of sorts with regu...

Baker McKenzie : Content is Our Conversation With Clients and Audience

Content for lawyers is the currency of engagement. Content is not the end goal. Leah Schloss , Baker McKenzie’s associate director for North American communications, as part of Baker’s being recognized as the leading law firm in Good2bSocial’s The Social Law Firm Index shared: We want our content to resonate with people. We don’t want to put out content that people aren’t engaging with. The content we put out there is for our clients and what they say they need from us. We think of our content as part of a conversation with our clients and audience . (Emphasis added) The end game in legal blogging is not to publish a blog post. That’s just a start. The conversation – the dialogue which ensues from “content” is what leading bloggers are after. It’s from this engagement that reputations and relationships are born. Attending a social event for networking, lawyers keen to business development are not focused on the words they speak – the content – they’re focused on the conversa...