Lawyers and Law Firms Not Well Served Setting Up Own Blog Sites

Of course I have a dog in this hunt, and maybe I am being less than creative with a post on this topic, but hear me out on something that seams to be common sense.

Lawyers and law firms are not well served in setting up their own blog sites.

On Reddit someone asked this week about setting up their own blog.

One person responded that they were a software engineer and that they were interested in learning how to set up a WordPress blog site – and theme – from scratch.

He shared it took him a lot of time that could have been better spent blogging. If blogging is ultimate your goal, he said, rather than feeling compelled to know how to set up a blog from scratch, setting up a blog is a major distraction.

Along the same vein, Kevin Vermeulen of Good2bSocial wrote yesterday about the tools lawyers and law firms can use to get started with podcasts. Fifteen tools for various aspects of podcasting.

Vermeulen’s post is a good one, but does a lawyer – or most law firms – want to wade through and test fifteen tools for podcasting.

For the same reason that consumers and businesses choose lawyers, rather than do the legal work themselves when they don’t know how to do it – and never have, why not choose a professional for podcasts.

Back at Reddit, another person mentioned it’s a lot like a car. You get a car to enjoy driving it, not to build it.

Reddit users, though more likely to tinker setting up a blog than most, talked about various things a do-it-your-selfer was apt not to do, – create fast loading pages (negatively impacting user experience and search),  set up the tech aspects for optimum SEO, set up features, perform social media optimization etc.

There are probably fifteen other things, including RSS, social sharing set up and email subscriptions that a do it you yourself lawyer or firm is going to miss – and sadly not know it.

Truth be told, LexBlog was started when I couldn’t find someone to help me set up a good blog. And even then there were good tools like TypePad.

Lawyers should look no further than WordPress for their blog. I’d guess every company providing professionals a publishing platform uses WordPress.

You’ll probably find the cost for the business plan at WordPress.com, adding the features you’ll want/need, to be about $40 to $50 a month.

Why not pay $30 to $50 a month more to get something tailored for lawyers set up for you – with training, marketing, syndication, free ongoing support and other things you’ll miss set up properly, all included. If you’re not able to make that sum back – in spades – in work developed through blogging, the focus of your blog and your blogging is misguided.

If it’s not LexBlog, choose someone else to avoid the do it yourself blog set up. Seems like common sense.