Finding The Right Platform For Your Legal Blog

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Blogging is the simplest way to gain a toehold in online legal marketing. But there are a ton of platforms to choose from – WordPress (self-hosted or on WordPress.com), Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal, Vox, Posterous … the list goes on and on.

So what platform should you choose for your legal blog?

First off, you want to make sure you own your content. There’s nothing worse than waking up one morning to find that your provider has shut down your legal blog and pulled your stuff offline for some real or perceived transgression (yes, it’s happened to me).

Unfortunately, all of the free, hosted blogging solutions (WordPress.com, Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal, Vox, Posterous and the rest) all suffer from that major drawback. Even if you’re using your own domain name, the content resides on THEIR servers. And guess what? You can put in a ton of effort on your legal blog and one day … poof … all gone.

That’s why I use WordPress. It’s free to download, most major web hosting companies will actually download and install it onto your site with the click of a button (which is awesome for those of us who don’t have the time or knowledge needed to fiddle around with that sort of thing), and is well-supported and regularly updated.

Heck, the New York Times runs its entire site on WordPress. And if it’s good enough for the New York Times, it’s probably good enough for your legal blog.

There are tons of plugins available to expand the functionality of WordPress, and if something’s not available you can hire a programmer for a few bucks to get it done for you. I’ve had to do that once, and only because an incredible plugin wasn’t being updated anymore.

Entering information is just as easy as using your word processor, with a WYSIWYG interface that looks remarkably like Microsoft Word.

As far as look-and-feel, there are tons of free WordPress templates out there for you to pick and choose from. Once you get comfortable with blogging you can bring in the professionals and get a snazzy looking design for less than the cost of a “standard” website. I regularly call Cynthia at Rowboat Media to get professional blog designs done for me. She’s awesome and very cool to work with, not to mention the fact that she gets my sense of humor (she put up a YouTube video for the Ratt song, “Round and Round,” for me during one of our early projects, which endeared her to me personally and professionally).

Do-it-yourselfer? No problem, we’ve got you covered. This blog, as well as Untethered Lawyer, use the Headway theme. It costs under $100 and lets you customize every single aspect of the look and feel of your blog through the easiest user interface I’ve ever seen. In fact, I did Untethered Lawyer in a few hours on my own (except for the header graphic, which was done by the fabulous Carolyn Sheltraw).

When you’re using WordPress most of the search engine optimization is done for you right out of the box so you don’t have to worry about it. You can amp it up a little using a free plugin called All-In-One SEO Pack or just cruise with what comes in WordPress.

The upshot of all this is that when you host your own legal blog you get full control over your content without all the scary “oh my gosh I don’t know a thing about programming and techies stuff.”

Do you have a legal blog, or are you about the launch one? If so, which platform do you use – and why? Sound off in the comments – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Related posts:

1. Why A Blog Is Crucial To Your Marketing
2. Finding Your Voice For Your Legal Blogging Efforts
3. 3 Ways To Generate Clients From Your Legal Blog
4. Tips To Building a Successful Legal Blog
5. How To Generate A Color Scheme For Your Legal Blog