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Quick tips re guest authors on law blogs

September 29, 2009

I exchanged emails this morning with Nashville IP Attorney Amy Eveehart who is writing an article for the ABA Women’s Advocacy Committee Newsletter on the effectiveness of guest-blogging in rainmaking. She asked me if I had any suggestions or thoughts I’d be willing to share with her readers. Here were my quick thoughts.

The key is to be strategic whether a blogger seeking guest authors or serving as a guest author on another’s blog.

  • When serving as a guest author.
  • Think of the audience the blog has. Huge numbers are not the key, a small niche audience of readers in the industry group you are looking to serve is killer. By having you as a guest author the blog publisher is tacitly endorsing you as a reliable and trusted authority in the field in front of your target audience.
  • Realize it’s a blog post, not an article. Blogging with its brevity, only covering one point, and referencing other blog posts or content on news sites is different than article writing. Authoring a long article that gets ‘stuck’ in the blog can turn blog readers off, leaving them thinking less of you. You don’t want your target audience thinking you don’t get it when it comes to social media and blogging.
  • Read the blog. Get a feel for the type of content shared. Nothing turns a blog publisher like me off like an offer to guest post from someone who clearly does not know what my audience is interested in. I get offers like that four or five times a week.
  • Make sure you are authoring something of real value to the blog’s readers. Sounds obvious, but I often read blog posts that leave me feeling the author just wanted to get something with their name on it out on broad circulation.
  • Help spread word of your blog post whether via Twitter, your website, your own blog, or in emails to select clients. By giving kudos to the blog, the blogger will invite you back and and other bloggers considering guest authors will be enticed by what you’ve done.
  • When hosting a guest author.
    • Select as an author a client, prospective client, referral source, or influencers of those three (bloggers, reporters, conference coordinators, association leaders) as those authors may brag to co-employees, peers, and others that they have guest posted on your blog. It’s also a compliment to someone to have them guest post. Compliments lead to friendships and relationships – exactly the stuff client development is based upon.
    • Realize publishing a blog post can feel intimidating to someone who does not blog.
    • Possibly offer to do an interview of the guest via four questions submitted by email. Responding with two or three sentence answers to a few questions can be much easier than starting with a blank slate.
    • Offer to edit a guest post. Not the content itself, but as to formatting, spelling, and grammar so as to save the author time.
  • Highlight guest authors’ backgrounds with links to their website profiles, blogs, and LinkedIn profiles. Everyone likes kudos.
  • Amy also asked for examples of lawyers who have met with particular success rainmaking via being a guest blogger or hosting guest authors. Know of any?

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