Blog advise from anonymous law blogger

Federalist No. 84, an anonymous law student blogger, guest posted at Notes from the (Legal) Underground a piece entitled Turning a Blog Into Your Blawg: Fourteen Steps to Finding Your Voice in the Blawgosphere.

I find it puzzling that someone afraid to disclose who they are is giving advise on finding your voice in the blogosphere but she or he makes some good points. As an aside, I think it unwise to use the name ‘blawg’ to describe a blog. Lay people and most law firms I speak with, though familiar with blogs, have never heard of a ‘blawg.’

You will need to read the post to get the details but here’s the fourteen steps:

1. Pick a topic, general or specific. I say the more specific the better. A blog on a niche area establishes a lawyer as an authority and generates work.
2. Keep it interesting.Tell me something I can’t find anywhere else.
3. Brand Your Blawg. Ask two questions: Will my readers remember me; and will they be able to find me on Google?
4. Be prepared to learn. From both a writing and tech standpoint.
5. Link early, link often. Makes it easier for readers and will generate returning links from other sites.
6. Build a blogroll (list of blogs on side navigation bar). First, to build incoming links when fellow bloggers look at your blog after you click on the links in the blogroll and second, to find blogs you may be following.
7. Use TypePad. Blogger is free, and free is appealing. But Typepad blawgs look better, are easier to use, have more features and are more reliable than Blogger. I agree TypePad is superior to Blogger but Movable Type, the full featured version of TypePad, has it all over the two. In addition if you are not the most tech savy and looking for good design, training, support and marketing of your blog, a service like we offer at lexBlog is pretty nice.
8. Find out who is linking to you.Watch your site traffic so you can measure the growth in readership.
9. Speak with your own voice. Agreed, blog with an attitude, whether bold or mild.
10. Offer a free (but valuable) service.
11. Remember, it’s only a blawg. Sound advice in “Don’t be depressed if you don’t have 1000 daily readers, or if the more prominent blogs don’t link to you. Don’t ignore your spouse or children to work on the next “Great American Blawg.”
12. But please remember, it’s your blawg. Taking pride in your work is good in itself. It’s also good because it’s necessary for your credibility. Double-check citations and facts before posting. And please use a nice template that is easy on our eyes.
13. Establish your street credibility. “Don’t talk smack unless you?re prepared to risk getting smacked down.”
14. Finally, don’t ask, don’t tell. Four rules he or she says to follow without asking: Install a Sitemeter or Statcounter, Install an RSS feed, Get Google’s spiders crawling today and email fellow bloggers with questions.

Like I said, you’ll need to read the entire post to take in all the info but at least you’re getting advise on lawyer blogs from someone other than myself.