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Should a lawyer find time to blog every day?

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When I discuss blogging with lawyers time is one of their biggest concerns.

Seth Godin, an incredibly busy marketer, author, entrepreneur and speaker blogs every day per Dave Gerhardt (@davegerhardt) in a piece over on HubSpot.

Why does Seth do it?

Blogging every day clarifies my thoughts — it helps me notice things. It’s one of the most important practices of my profession.

I am not saying you ought to blog daily, though many lawyers do so. I suggest though that you look at blogging differently.

Take to heart a couple things Seth shared with HubSpot on blogging.

1. Write like you talk.

Come to me after you stop watching TV or the Internet. If you’re not doing these things, I’m willing to listen to the fact that you don’t have time. Everybody has time to speak. Everybody has time to talk about how their day went — so if you write like you talk, all you have to do is write down that thing you said. It literally can take 90 seconds if you want it to.

2) Make the decision once and then commit.

If you can make a decision once, then the question isn’t should I do it? It’s what will I do? If you make the decision once to be a vegan, then you don’t need to have a discussion with yourself every single night about whether or not to have a hamburger. If you make the decision to blog every single day, then the only discussion I have to have with myself is what’s the best blog post I can write — not should I write a post. As (Saturday Night Live Producer) Lorne Michaels has said, ‘Saturday Night Live’ doesn’t go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30.

Blogging didn’t start as article writing, content marketing, or website traffic magnet. Blogging started as a way for people to log their activity on the Web with an accompanying comment. Thus the name ‘Weblog,’ later abreviated to ‘Blog.’

Unlike an article, a blog was a way to intentionally notice things you read online and to clarify your ideas on what you read through posting brief thoughts with a link to what you read.

Not only did you learn, but you engaged and connected with the author or reporter of what you read.

Blogging like that has obvious benefits for you as a lawyer. You develop professionally through learning. You grow a network of people who you learn from and who inspire you. You demonstrate to the outside world (clients and prospective clients) that you stay abreast of developments, are developing ongoing expertise, and have passion for an area of the law.

Crazy how over the last decade plus, the legal profession has turned something so simple and rewarding into something so complicated. In the process the gift of blogging has been stolen from so many lawyers.

Should you blog everday as a lawyer? Not necessarily, but there are worse things you could be doing with your time.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Guigui-Lille

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