These are the dreaded “SEO Chasers.”

Maybe they’re writing this content on their own, or perhaps they’ve hired a ghostblogger.  If it’s the former then I can see the issue.  If it’s the latter, they need to demand a refund.

The reality is that good content written with an SEO slant is difficult to produce, but well worth the investment of time and energy.  It reads well, entertains, and informs.  It’s not awkward, and only a trained eye could tell it was written with any knowledge of search engine optimization.

There’s a reason for that.

Let’s say your blog sits at the top of the search engines results page for a critical term.  Your law firm gets hit with thousands of visitors, and the blog catches fire.  But you get no clients, and nobody calls.  Looking at your blog analytics you find that the bounce rate is through the roof.

People are clicking onto your blog, but then they flee because the content is awkward and robotic.

You forgot that the point of a blog is to get people to realize that your law firm is awesome.  And in so doing, you got hung up on the technical aspects of search engine optimization rather than in the content itself.

Why not just write what your prospective client wants to read about?  If you’re a bankruptcy lawyer, consider discussing not only relevant aspects of the Bankruptcy Code but also some personal finance tips.  Maybe a thing or two about how to survive and thrive on a limited income?

Get people to visit your law firm blog, website or other online property by with the promise of great information.  Keep them from leaving by delivering on that promise.  The SEO stuff will work itself out.

Deal?

Image credit:  peyri

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1. WordPress SEO — Do I need it?
2. Duplicate Content Hurts Your SEO Efforts
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Part of what I do each morning is flip open my Google Reader and check out the other legal blogs to which I subscribe. Not only do I read what the members of the Legal Practice Pro listserv are writing, but also bankruptcy and consumer protection blogs in general.

Lately I’ve seen a number of blogs experience an explosive growth in their content. One, run by one of the largest consumer bankruptcy law firms in the United States, will often pump out 3-4 new pieces in a single day. This isn’t low-quality crap, either – it’s pretty good.

In spite of the fact that this blog is nominally penned by the attorney whose name appears on the door, there’s no doubt that this lawyer has outsourced his blog duties. The pieces are well-written, contain captivating (if not stock) photos, and read like they were written by a seasoned personal finance writer.

This isn’t the only lawyer who’s jumped on the ghostblogging bandwagon. In fact, I have two friends who are using the same ghostblogger for their bankruptcy blogs. They didn’t tell me, but I confronted each of them and they copped to it.

I’ve tried hiring ghostbloggers in the early days of my blogging career, but it never worked out. I end up spending double the amount of time editing the pieces and giving them my voice. By the time I published the pieces they were completely re-written and there was no trace of the hired gun to be found.

Finding a freelancer isn’t too difficult, and I’m not opposed to hiring outsiders to add valuable content to your blog. It’s not up my alley but I get that some people aren’t interested in pouring their thoughts onto the screen day in and day out. Still, isn’t there something disingenuous about claiming ownership of a piece that isn’t yours?

If I worked with my law school professor as a research assistant on a law review article and wasn’t given at least a footnote of credit, I would have been offended. When I was interviewed by a major national magazine in connection with a story some years ago about the debt buying industry, I was enraged that my name wasn’t in the article.

Sure, a ghostblogger willingly surrenders ownership when he or she takes the job, but does that make it right?

In the world of unbundled legal services, lawyers in some states who assist in the drafting of court documents need to disclose their involvement. It’s designed to put the court on alert about the quality and nature of the pleading, and that makes sense.

Some other noted bloggers have put ghostblogging to task.  Give them a read:

• Ghostblogging will be the death of social media in the law by Kevin O’Keefe
• Are Ghostwritten Legal Blogs Unethical? in the ABA Journal
• Why It’s Ridiculous To Argue About Ghost Blogging by Mark Schaefer
• The Death of Social Media by Mitch Joel

By putting your name on a piece of content over which you did not have sole control, are you lying to your readers and prospective clients?  Are you using ghostbloggers on your blog?  Share your thoughts – I’m curious to hear what you think.

Image credit: NRK P3

Related posts:

1. Resources For Blogging Bankruptcy Lawyers
2. Lawyers and blogging go together
3. Lawyers and Blogging?

Seen On A Bankruptcy Lawyer's Blog

I am interrupting your day for an important announcement.  Please listen carefully, then print this blog post and tack it to the wall above your computer monitor.

When I started my law firm blog I looked into ways of making money from it. My reasoning was that there would likely be people who would visit the blog and who I would be unable to help for one reason or another. If such a person were to click on an ad that would pay me money, it would be cool.  Even if the law firm didn’t get the client, I’d get some cash out of the deal.

But than I realized just how absolutely stupid it would be for my law firm to do something like that to my blog.

If you need to ask why, let’s take a minute and think about it with some level of clarity.

You put up a law firm blog because you want to establish yourself as an authority. You want people to hire you to be their lawyer.

You want members of the public to pay you or your law firm money.

So I come to your blog, looking for some information about (let’s say) bankruptcy. I read a few blog posts, dig in and decide that this is totally for me. I’m hooked baby – sign me up.  Your law firm wins me as a client.

Until I see the ad on your blog. The one that says, “Alternative To Bankruptcy. Owe $15,000 or more in debt? You Could Reduce Your Debt & Save.”

That’s when I think to myself, “Why yes, I do owe more than $15,000. I would love to reduce my debt. And lookie lookie, it’s an ALTERNATIVE to bankruptcy. Well, let’s see what THAT is all about.”

So I click, and off I go. To another site, where I will either decide that this bankruptcy thing isn’t for me or find myself wondering which of those lovely and informative bankruptcy sites it was that led me to you in the first place. I’ve likely gone to a number of them, so I’ll pick one at random and hire THAT law firm.

You, my friend, will make about $0.40 from the Google AdWords campaign as your revenue split for that click on your blog.

Don’t spend it all in one place, m’kay?

Congratulations.  You just made the dumbest move of your legal marketing career.

Let’s put aside the argument that having paid ads on your law firm blog looks tacky as all get-out.

You spent time and perhaps money to construct a welcoming and informative blog for potential clients to visit.  You fought like Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport to get some visibility on the search engines.  Each visitor who becomes a client will pay your law firm thousands of dollars and, if you’re not a bonehead about things, send their friends and relatives to you for their legal problems.

And you’re willing to give it up for $0.40.

Look, I like you.  You’re a good lawyer.  I want you to make money.

So for the love of bacon covered chocolate and all the other finer things in life, stop being an idiot.

That is all.  You may now resume your normal activities.

Related posts:

1. Marketing Your Law Firm With Paid Ads Misses 84% Of The Web
2. Why Your Law Firm Blog Doesn’t Need A Professional Design (Until It Does)
3. Ads on a practice blog

There’s an old (in Internet terms) saying that “markets are conversations.”  That means when you come to my stall to buy something at the market, we talk.  In doing so, we form a relationship that makes you like and trust me enough to make a purchase.

Blogging is supposed to be a way for people to take that conversation and move it into the virtual world.  I talk, you talk back through the comments.  In a perfect world, the blog post would be the germ of an idea and the comments would flesh it out.  It’s like electronic Mad Libs – there’s a framework of a sentence, but the players get to fill it in.

The Wall Of Silence

Look around and you’ll find that most articles on Legal Practice Pro get a handful of comments.  I love to hear what’s on your mind, and every single comment makes me happy (even the comments that disagree with me).

But most readers are passive, consuming the information and moving on.  In fact, most bloggers say that 99% of the people who read your blog will never leave a comment.

Those numbers make sense if you look at your own law firm blog.  You sweat bullets over a post, craft it lovingly, fret before publishing it, and then – nothing.  Some traffic, but no comments.  You have no idea if it’s resonating or if you’re wasting your time.

Interactions Are Elsewhere

Maybe you’re getting a bunch of tweets, Facebook Likes, Stumbles and what-not on your posts.  I get that – our social media-fueled world is taking those conversations to other places.  That’s cool, but it doesn’t let everyone else see into your head.  And you, in turn, can’t see into theirs.

You come to my blog and read something that strikes a chord.  You click “Like” and walk away.  The next person who happens by won’t have the benefit of why you liked the post, or what in particular spoke to you.  You, in turn, won’t know if someone else agrees with you or not.  It’s all a vaccuum.

That’s been fed in large measure by the blogging platforms.  When you leave a comment on a blog fueled by WordPress, Typepad and Blogger your name is a link to your own website; unfortunately, those links don’t give you any benefit in terms of search engine optimization.

It’s a one-sided game – the site owner gets comments but those who contribute to the conversation get nothing except the thrill of seeing their name in (the electronic equivalent of) lights.

Two Reasons For You To Get Involved

I want your thoughts on what you find here.  So over the last few days I installed a few plugins that will not only give you some SEO love for you comment but will also help you promote your own work here.

Do Follow is a simple and free plugin that takes your comment and removes the “nofollow” attribute, thereby giving some SEO link love to the URL you put into the author area.

The second plugin I installed for you is CommentLuv. CommentLuv is another free WordPress plugin that does something very cool.  If you put your blog URL into the author URL area when you comment (not into the body of the comment itself) then CommentLuv will automatically add your most recent blog post (or one of the last 10 posts, it’s up to you).  Someone comes here and sees your comment, they also get to see what you’ve been writing.

Together, these plugins give you a reason to get involved and share your thoughts here.  A little SEO love, a little promotion of your own content.

On the flip side, I’m expecting more spammers to find this site.  That means all comments will be moderated so I can make sure none of the icky stuff gets through.  I’m willing to do that work for the greater good.

For 1% of you, this isn’t going to make a difference.  You comment, reach out to me and share your ideas.  For that I am grateful.

But for the other 99%, this gives you something in return for your participation.  I think it’s only right, don’t you?

The Floor Is Yours

Dig into the archives here and let’s hear what you think.  Or simply hang around, reading the new content and letting it sink it.  Whatever you choose, I’m looking forward to hearing your side of things.

Related posts:

1. How To Increase Interactivity In Your Blogs
2. Good Content AND Get People to Talk About You
3. Tips To Building a Successful Legal Blog

What I’ve seen so far is pretty impressive, and I wanted to share a few nuggets with you.

Washington bankruptcy lawyer Duane Dawson checks in with a handy resource guide for Washington consumers who have been sued by creditors.  If I lived in Washington and had this sort of problem, this would be just the thing I’d print out and use.

Northern Ohio bankruptcy lawyer Bill Balena checks in with a list of five reasons to run screaming from a lawyer’s office.  Some good common sense there, and lessons to those of us who can brush up on our first impressions.

Lewis Roberts, a bankruptcy lawyer in Ormond Beach, talks about how to deal with private student loans in bankruptcy.  As any recent graduate can tell you, those student loans can really wear you down.

David Giller, a bankruptcy lawyer in Bergen County, NJ, creates timeless “cornerstone content” in his recent post about which debts you can’t wipe out in bankruptcy.  There’s no chance that a new client of his doesn’t have this burning question walking in the door, and David’s gone ahead and answered it in advance.

St. Charles (MO) bankruptcy lawyer Guss Markwell writes on the dangers of borrowing money from relatives.  The content is a fun read, the title is compelling, and the picture is hysterical.

If you’re looking for some great ideas and information on marketing your law firm with compelling content, check out the Content Matters newsletter.  At $9 a month I think it’s a steal, but why not decide for yourself?

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Your blogging is going to need to boil down the decision into terms your readers will understand, and has to relate to the work your law firm does. But once you cut through that challenge, the stories behind the decisions are some of the most compelling blogging topics out there.

It’s not so much a question of how things turned out, but the background of the underlying legal action that hits the blogging sweet spot. Who were the people involved and how did they get into a pickle that required judicial intervention?

Federal court decisions are available online, but going to each court’s website is a big time-waster.

Watch this video to learn:

• how to use Google Scholar to find court opinions in the field in which your law firm practices
• how to make sure you’re finding cases relevant only to your geographic area
• getting new judicial opinions sent to you by email free of charge

This is a fabulous shortcut to not only your law firm blogging efforts but also the day-to-day legal research needs we all have.  Even if you’ve got access to a legal research service, sometimes you just want to do something quick and easy.

If you’re reading this by email or in an RSS feed reader, click here to come right to the site and watch the video.

As always, Google makes it easy to get what you need.  Blogging and research for your law firm all rolled up into one tidy little package.

Have you used Google Scholar to find inspiration for your law firm blogging efforts?  For your research needs?  Share your experiences below.

Related posts:

1. Blogging For Your Law Firm? There Is No Middle Ground.
2. Law.com article on Blogging
3. Law Firm Blogging Doesn’t Need To Stop With The Lawyer

A little while ago Carolyn railed against Huffington Post for taking AOL‘s money without letting their writers share in the spoils.  Her article Just Say No To Free Use of Your User-Generated Content bemoans the plight of the guest blogger who is uncompensated for his or her efforts.

She just doesn’t get it.

Creating content on someone else’s platform is richly compensated if done correctly.  Just because money doesn’t change hands doesn’t mean compensation doesn’t flow freely.

In fact, I’m a huge fan of guest blogging as a way of promoting your online legal marketing efforts.  In fact, I’m willing to provide content to just about any legal blog that will give me the opportunity to do so.  I ask for no money – now or in the future.  In fact, the ability to create content on another platform is, in many ways, compensation enough for me.

Why?  Because it’s not the money that provides the compensation.

Content For Exposure. If I had the chance to create content for a highly-regarded online publication, I’d be doing so for the exposure I would receive to that publication’s readership.  My words would reach eyes that would otherwise never hear of me, and my thoughts would be exposed to a new audience.  If my writing was good, some of those people would check out my blog and stick around.  That audience growth is a tremendous boon to anyone engaging in a content-marketing strategy.

Content For SEO. When I post on someone else’s blog I get a byline.  That byline typically includes a link back to my site.  Those inbound links are the most honored cornerstones to search engine optimization, that race to the top of the search engines we all crave.  In our link economy we need to recognize the value of those links and how they play a part in our own online success.

The Platform Is The Value. Huffington Post built itself on quality writing, most of which was uncompensated.  But as a news site, most of the content disappears from the public’s eye fairly quickly.  In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most of the content older than 48 hours gets pretty much no traffic – once it’s gone from the front page, it’s history.

The value of HuffPo isn’t an individual article, it’s the sum of all of the content plus the platform itself.  Surely the’re value provided to the writer who is presented with the opportunity to work in a maintenance-free environment, gain access to millions of readers, and in turn grow his or her own fan base off the back of an established platform.

Carolyn says that one of the reasons she doesn’t take guest bloggers that often is because she doesn’t pay them to contribute.  Speaking as someone who did a guest post on MyShingle a bit of time ago, I can tell you it was an honor and a privilege to do so.  Carolyn’s got an audience who had never heard of me, a well-established site with terrific credibility, and I got a link out of the deal.

Sounds like I got paid more than the value of my 500 words of content.  My hope is that Carolyn will realize the true value provided by and to guest bloggers.

Oh, and by the way – if anyone feels like writing something awesome for this site then by all means, let me know.

Related posts:

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2. Faculty Announcement – Carolyn Elefant
3. Should Lawyers Blog? 3 Reasons To Start Blogging.

We assume that when presented with enough information on a topic, you become an expert.  Read enough of this blog, for example, and you can become an ace at content creation, search engine optimization, and connecting with clients.

That’s true to some extent, but completely false overall.  In fact, it’s the big secret that most of the big bloggers use every single day.

When you publish something on your law firm blog you’re putting information online – not knowledge.  And that’s the difference that keeps your readers from forming an army of pro se litigants.

Information Is Easy – Knowledge Is Difficult

Let’s say you’re a consumer protection lawyer concentrating in the defense of civil lawsuits brought by debt buyers against consumers.  You decide to start a law firm blog on this topic, and publish a post on the issue of standing.  In the post you discuss how a debt buyer needs to establish a proper chain of ownership of the debt in order to have standing to bring an action.

That’s information.  Standing equals right of action.  But it is not knowledge.

Knowledge is practical understanding of a subject that enables you to use that understanding.  In other words, you can read about driving all day long but you’ll never be able to drive unless you sit your ass behind the wheel.

Knowledge isn’t something you can read in a law firm blog, it’s something that needs to be synthesized over time.  It’s the same reason why I can talk all day about content creation but you’re never going to truly grok it unless you practice on your own for awhile.

You Can’t Teach Knowledge

You can talk about standing all day and night, but if the reader doesn’t have context and experience into which he or she can fit those discussions then it’s all academic.  There are all of these little pieces of the puzzle that you, as a practicing lawyer, don’t even think about when you go about your routine.  Little things such as form of pleadings, time and methods of service, where to file documents, and the insider’s lingo that helps get your point across.

In order to move the prospect from information to knowledge, you’ve got a lot of work to do.  Your law firm blog needs to have not only information on standing, but sample pleadings, tutorials and video segments showing exactly how and where pleadings get filed.

That’s going to take a lot of time, and months – if not years – of work on your part.

Nobody Wants Knowledge

This is all pretty intimidating to your readers, people who have likely never been in this situation before.  They don’t know how the legal system works on a day-to-day basis, and they don’t have the time to research this thing to within an inch of sanity.  Even if you’ve got years worth of information your law firm blog, nobody’s got that kind of time on their hands.  This is to say nothing of the fact that your readers and prospective clients aren’t visiting for knowledge.

For the most part, people just want to get a little bit of information so they have a better sense of what they’re dealing with.  And they want to know that you’re in a position to help with a solution.

Take A Lesson From Home Depot And Bob Villa

Go into your local Home Depot or Lowe’s.  Take a look at those do-it-yourself books and ask yourself why contractors, plumbers and electricians still have professions.    Those books fly off the shelves, but the only ones who actually use the information are those who are prone to the DIY lifestyle as is.

These are people who never would have hired an electrician in the first place.  They are DIY people anyway, and the book just gave them the information they needed to fill in their own knowledge gaps.

As a member of the bar, would you rather have a courthouse filled with pro se litigants who have a fighting chance or an army of bumblers?

Image credit:  Wikipedia

Related posts:

1. A Law Firm Blog With Paid Ads? Really?
2. Why Your Law Firm Blog Doesn’t Need A Professional Design (Until It Does)
3. Blogging For Your Law Firm? There Is No Middle Ground.