Five keys to law blog success in 2014
Want to achieve success from law blogging, whether just thinking of starting a blog or looking to achieve more from your blogging? I’d focus on five things in the coming year.
1. Identify your passion
You have to blog on an area of the law, an industry, or for a consumer group you are passionate about. When starting a blog it’s the time to get the magic wand out and ask what type of work would I love to do and who would I love to do it for.
Without a passion you’ll find your blog to be a lot of work. Readers will see your lack of passion and find others to follow who love what they’re blogging about.
Let your passion come through in a real, engaging, and down to earth fashion. Sure, be professional, but show you care about something by providing your take on things you care about.
2. Focus on a niche
Blog on a niche and your blog is going to be must have content for people with a relevant interest. You stand a good chance of becoming a ‘go to’ lawyer and an authority in an area of the law or locale.
New York labor and employment law will not cut it. Montana labor and employment law might. New York non-compete agreements will cut it and serve as a feeder of other sorts of work. IP law may not cut it, IP law for the pharmaceutical industry may. Maybe even only that IP law arising out of a particular statutory law.
Become a rockstar in a niche, not a wandering generality.
3. Curate and engage
Read other content – sources and subjects – you follow with a RSS Reeder on an iPad.
You cannot and do not want to be creating content off the top of your head or from case or statutory law. Blogging is easy and fun when sharing and referencing what you are reading.
Your readers will come to recognize you as a trusted and reliable authority. They’ll see you as a intelligence agent who tracks down items of interest in your niche. You’re staying up to speed, something clients want, in a real and transparent way.
The best way to market your blog is to start referencing what thought leaders in your area are writing. By sharing and linking to what they’re writing, giving them all the credit, and providing your take, you’ll be engaged by them. As bloggers and reporters start to cite you, you’ll grow readership and be viewed as an authority.
4. Help others
Blogging is not about helping yourself, it’s about helping others.
Rather than asking what your blog is going to do to help you, ask how your blog is going to help others. It doesn’t matter if your target readers are corporate executives, consumers, or other lawyers.
For readers to stay with you, for you to establish a reputation, and for you to grow business, people need to know you care about them.
With each blog post you write, ask yourself how this post is going to help your audience, or at least a good portion of your audience.
5. Set your bar high
Don’t accept the status quo. Aim higher than you believe possible. Throw your heart over the bar and let your body follow.
If other lawyers are achieving more than they could have ever dreamed of from blogging, why not you? If some lawyers are realizing millions of dollars in fees per year from hourly work for corporations or from contingency fees by representing individuals or small businesses, why not you? If some lawyers are getting all of their work from relationships they’ve built through blogging, why not you?
If other lawyers have established themselves as lawyer’s lawyers locally, statewide or nationally through blogging, why not you? The lawyers achieving these things are no different than you. They’re not tech geeks. They’re not gifted writers. They don’t come from small firms or large firms, they come from all size firms, from all sorts of practices, and from all areas of the country.
This is my best advice to you from watching lawyers blog for 10 years and reading the advice given by authorities far brighten than I. Others may offer additional counsel.
Good luck in 2014.