Strategic Consulting for Legal Bloggers

It was sixteen years ago when when was introduced in San Francisco to the Legal Marketing Association as the “national leader on blogs for lawyers” that I realized there could be an opportunity to start a “law blog company.”

Law firm leaders came up and asked, “Can you help me and my firm.” I was thinking, “Help you do what? Set up a blog on Typepad by paying a $4.95 a month subscription as I was?”

But I bit my tongue, realizing practicing lawyers were not going to do anything, especially something as high profile as blogging without knowing what they were doing and without acting in a professional fashion.

Most importantly was the ROI. How much time should and would blogging take? Would I realize a good ROI for my time? What was the ROI? How could I assure I would realize this ROI?

Lawyers needed strategic consulting, more than anything else for their blog to succeed.

So “Strategic Consulting,” became the first of seven pieces in LexBlog’s “Professional Turnkey Blog Solution.”

Reworking LexBlog’s delivery of strategic consulting I have been asked by me team to identify one, what our strategic consulting covers and two, what information we should request of our lawyers before our consultation.

I’m being asked as I am going to do these consultations. I enjoy them – and I can help lawyers achieve their goals.

What are the goals for the blog?

Grow revenue?
Update existing clients?
New method of publishing intellectual capital that is already being published?
Looking to grow into new area of the law for the lawyer/firm?
Who is our audience?

Agree on goals?

Building a name?
Building a reputation?
Local, state, national or international?
How will we measure these goals?

The blog’s focus.

Too general?
Good niche?
Focus represent a strong opportunity?
An area not otherwise covered?
Have advantages of a further niche been explored?
Will the blog’s focus help the law/firm realizes its goals?

Passion for blogging in this area.

Is their passion for this area?
Principal blogger(s) who have this passion?
Can we live without this passion?

Blogging experience

Blogged before?
Who?
Focus?
Success in growing in business?

Branding

Title (not nearly as important as the above items)
Url
Publisher
Design (notice design, though needing to be professional and to complement style guides and color palettes is not at the top of the last)

This represents my first crack at what needs to covered in a strategic blogging consultation. There will additions and medications.

I also need to identify the questions we need to ask lawyers and firms before hand to make such a strategic consultation a productive one.

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