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:

1. Carolyn Elefant a Mac using Attorney (Guest Post)
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.

The lawyer who is new to blogging is told that a professionally-designed law firm blog is critical to ensuring long-term success in marketing a law firm online.  That’s true, but it’s only part of the story.

Starting a law firm blog is a daunting task, isn’t it?  You’ve got to think about platforms, how to write content, search engine optimization, and finding the time to get it all done without sacrificing your practice.

Not only that, but statistically there’s a good chance that your first blogging effort won’t be the successful one.  I’m not the only lawyer who started a few blogs before finding my groove.

In spite of the uphill battle you’re facing, there are a bunch of well-meaning designers and blogging companies who are going to tell you that you must – MUST, I tell you – have a professionally designed blog for your law firm.

They’ve got a point.  A professionally-designed law firm blog will be a source of pride that may spur you to create content more often.  People coming to your site will instantly ascribe a level of gravitas to your pearls of wisdom than might otherwise be the case.  The angels will sing.

Good luck with that.

There’s nothing sadder than the image of a kid dressed up for a party and nobody attends.  Streamers and bowls of food everywhere, a huge Pin The Tail On The Donkey tacked to the wall and dance music through the entire living room.  Yet nobody’s there, and Junior just wants to go upstairs and cry.

Same with your law firm blog.  You can put on a terrific design but if there’s nobody coming to read it – and at the beginning, there won’t be – then it’s a waste.  And if this is the blog that you end up scrapping then you’ve wasted valuable money.

I’m not saying you should go forego the services of a kick-ass designer for your blog.  I am, however, saying that you may want to wait until you’ve got a few posts under your belt.

Get a hosting account, install WordPress (or have me do it for you) and start learning how to create content.  Get comfortable with the medium, make sure it’s a good fit for you.  Then, once you’re pretty sure this is going to stick around for awhile, hire a kick-ass designer.  Not just some company that does law firm blogs and websites, but a truly world-class operation that can handle design as well as user experience issues to make your content sing.

Know what?  If you know that creating content on a law firm blog is something you’re interested in doing then spending the money will be pretty easy.  You will already know the value of a stellar design, and you’ll also know more about what you want.

Image credit:   Some rights reserved by eszter

Related posts:

1. A Law Firm Blog With Paid Ads? Really?
2. 6 Non-Sleazy Ways To Promote Your Law Firm Blog
3. The Fastest Way To Grow Traffic To Your Law Firm Website Or Blog

When lawyers think about content marketing the default ideal is a blog.  And when most lawyers think about blogging, they begin to get heart palpitations and sweat profusely.  Blogging, after all, conjures up that overwhelming fear of technology we just talked about.  But if you’re not interested in blogging that doesn’t mean you’re shut out of the content marketing game.

Web hosts, domain names, WordPress installations and graphic designers cause confusion and difficulty for lots of lawyers.  But when it comes to content marketing options, the blog is a good but not necessarily critical piece of the puzzle.

Content Marketing Takes Many Forms

Your online legal marketing must involve the creation and promotion of content.  It’s what leads people to your doorstep, enables you to expand your influence, and showcases your expertise.  But it need not occur on your own domain.

Sure, having your own domain and blog is preferred.  You own your content, control the way it’s handled, and can maintain the visitor experience to accomplish all of your law firm marketing goals.  If you can do it, you should.  But if the technology is getting in your way, you should know there are other options.

I’m a huge fan of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as a way of connecting with others, promoting my content and getting the conversation going.  That’s a part of content marketing, but not all of it.  You’ve still got to create content as part of your online legal marketing efforts.

The good news is that you’ve got options.  Plenty of them.  Here are some of my favorites.

Article Directories.  A blog is nothing more than an article posted to a website.  Having a blog gives you a platform to publish your own content; from there, you’re going to promote it using whatever techniques suit you best.  But if you don’t have your own blog or domain you may want to look at sites such as Ezinearticles.com.  It’s one of the top 100 websites in the United States in terms of traffic, which means there are a lot of people going there for information.

Open up a free account, post your article, and remember to use the tools provided to link back to your own site (if you’ve got one) so people can learn more.  Newbies can see their content live within a few days, and established writers get their stuff cleared for publication in about 48 hours.

As of right now I’ve got 88 articles up there and they’ve been read over 12,000 times.  Not too shabby considering I’ve never done much promotion of that content.

Other places you can publish articles are out there – I’ve used HubPages, Squidoo, Google Knol, Gather, GoArticles and a few others.  Some give you the ability to make money off the ads shown on your article pages, others don’t.  You’ll pick the one that suits you best, but suffice to say there are lots of options.

There is some indication that Google doesn’t consider links from article directories to your site quite as highly as was previously the case, but there’s no proof that there has been any reduction in pure traffic to these sites.  So for the lawyer looking for traffic, these are still extremely solid choices.

Hit The Forum Sites. Forum sites are old school, but are hugely popular.  Find a topic with a question and answer it intelligently.  That’s a piece of content that’s helpful to the forum community, and you’ll be pleased to see the results of your efforts.

Avvo. Much-maligned (by some) Avvo is rapidly becoming a powerhouse in the field of online legal marketing.  Say what you will, Avvo gives you a really good opportunity to buttress your online legal marketing efforts.  You can answer user questions, create a guide (which is really just a 4-5 part “how to” piece of content) and build up your profile.

JDSupra. I love JDSupra, and I think the team is top-notch.  In case you don’t know what it is, JDSupra is a document sharing site that allows you to post articles, legal pleadings, and the like for distribution to various social networks.  If you post an article to JDSupra it’s going to be placed all over the web.

Free Blogging Platforms. If you’re into the blogging game but don’t want to tinker with the whole “get a domain and keep it going” thing, there’s always WordPress.com, TypePad and Blogger.  I’ve used all of these platforms as trial runs for my blogs and, though I don’t recommend them long-term they are solid ways to start out.

Quick Blogging. You want to create content, you don’t want any hassles, and you want it quickly.  Head on over to Tumblr or Posterous, two services that have sprung up to fill the void between a full-fledged blog and the micro-blogs such as Twitter.  Either of these services allow you to create a place for your content and post by email.  You can supplement the content creation by adding photos and links using a variety of browser plugins and apps for your iPhone and Android devices.

So there you have it – proof that your online legal marketing efforts can begin without anything more than a free account on a system and the contents of your mind.

Questions?

Related posts:

1. 6 Non-Sleazy Ways To Promote Your Law Firm Blog
2. Five Ways a Blog Helps You To Market Your Business
3. How Can Someone Else’s Video Help You Market Your Law Firm Online?

You can create a law firm blog with real value, but if you don’t let people know it exists then it’s all wasted.  How can you promote you blog posts without being sleazy?

We’re uncomfortable with sales and promotion; that goes for the attorney marketing a law firm just as much as any other profession, but I think lawyers are hit particularly hard in this respect.  We’ve been trained to behave conservatively, and in our minds the notion of promotion (hey look, I made a rhyme!) is distinctly NOT conservative.  Add in years of being compared to hucksters and you’ve got most lawyers believing that promotion of any sort is unseemly.

Done the wrong way, promotion can make you feel dirty.  If you look at most of the marketing online you’ll see scads of yellow highlighter and exclamation points that tell you to BUY! BUY! BUY!!!  Is it any wonder why some fairly prominent legal bloggers think that marketing is a word to be expunged from the next edition of Black’s Law Dictionary?

But there’s another side to this coin, and that’s the realization that marketing need not make you want to take a bath in lye and burn your clothing.  If you’re marketing a law firm you want to be not only ethical, but mindful of your professional standing in the community.

Your law firm blog is a marketing tool, no matter how you slice it.  A law firm blog showcases your capabilities, exposes people to your message, and enhances your standing.  It informs, inspires to act, and serves as your online face.  You need to promote the content in order to gain an audience, and you want to do so without being sleazy.

Send Links to Select People Who May be Interested. If you read an article about the foreclosure crisis and are doing a post about TILA, RESPA or any of the real estate-related “alphabet soup” of statutes, send an email to the author of the other article to let him or her know what you’ve done.  Be polite and offer up an invitation to visit the link.  Three lines should do the trick, and it will help to gain one more viewer.  That viewer may send the link along to others if it’s a good enough post.  One thing you need to know, though – do not spam your email address book.  I’m talking about sending the article out to 1-3 people who you know will be interested in it.  If you spam, you suck.

Post the Article to Facebook. 500 million people are registered on Facebook as of this writing; when you post a link it shows up on the stream of all of your friends.  If something interests you enough to write about then it’s probably interesting to the people you know and connect with on Facebook.

Tweet a Link. Twitter is a hive of activity, with people sharing links to content that interests them.  Though you may choose to post your links automatically (I do this), the secret sauce is to create a compelling question rather than sending out the title of the post (which should be compelling anyway, but I know sometimes you just can’t make it sexy enough.  For example, I recently sent out a tweet to someone else’s blog post.  Her title was, “Is Bankruptcy Right for Me?”  My tweet was, “Is bankruptcy a good idea or best left to others? Ask yourself these 22 questions.”  Which one looks more interesting?

Hit The LinkedIn Group. If you’re a member of a LinkedIn group associated with your field of law then you’re already associated with a bunch of people who are interested in the topics you’re blogging about.  When you’ve got a particularly interesting post (not one of those, “who is the Chapter 7 trustee in my area,” ones) head over to the LinkedIn group and post a link with a description.  Your colleagues may find the content interesting enough to pass along to others.

Comment On Related Blogs. Blog commenting is an excellent traffic generating tactic for your law firm blog because it gives you exposure to the other blog’s audience.  But let’s say you’ve got a meaty post on your site that you’re itching to share.  Chances are pretty good that there is another blog out there talking about the same issue.  In fact, I’m going to go so far as to say that your article may be yin to another blog’s yang.  Go to the other blog and comment appropriately (again, no spamming please); in the area where you enter your URL, paste the URL of your article rather than the main law firm blog URL; in this way, when people click to learn more about you they will be taken directly to your related post.

Ask Your Readers To Share Your Law Firm Blog Content. Using blog plugins such as Sociable, Tweetmeme and the FBLike you’ll make it easier for readers to share and pass along your law firm blog posts to other people.  Good content has a way of traveling fast, so if you’re providing real value to readers you should expect the traffic bump.

Your law firm blog isn’t going to take off into the stratosphere overnight.  It’s a slow build, but when you consistently use these promotional techniques you’ll have a greater chance of reaching more of the people who may find your content interesting.

Image credit:  victoriafee (Flickr)

Related posts:

1. 6 Ways To Market Your Law Firm Online Without A Blog
2. A Law Firm Blog With Paid Ads? Really?
3. Knowledge, Information And Why Your Law Firm Blog Won’t Create A Pro Se Army

You want to blog, but it’s such a pain in the ass to go to WordPress, enter the post, and click “publish.” And though there are some excellent programs to enable you to blog from your desktop (MarsEdit for the Mac, or the ScribeFire extension for Firefox), what if you’re sitting at a public computer and just want to get out some thoughts?

I’ll sidestep the issues of using Posterous or Tumblr to do your mobile blogging, as well as using the WordPress applications for your mobile phone, in favor of something more straight-forward.

That is, just sitting down at a computer, firing up an email client, and typing out an email. Coincidentally, that’s exactly how this blog post is being done – by sending an email. And it’s easier than you think.

You’re going to want to use a WordPress plugin called Postie. I tried to use the plugin some time ago but it didn’t work out for me; maybe I was rushed, wasn’t paying attention, whatever – but I recently gave it another whirl and things worked out well.

Why You May Want To Use Postie

You know that blogging is an important component to your online legal marketing efforts, but the prospect of opening a new browser tab isn’t appealing. Once you get past that, the whole WordPress administrative area is overwhelming. You feel as if you’ve got to learn something new, and you just don’t have time for that.

More likely, you come across an idea from time to time and you think it would make an interesting blog post. Then the phone rings, a client shows up, a staff member pops in … whatever. You end up getting pulled into a million different directions at once, and the potential blog idea gets lost in the shuffle.

And when you lost the inspiration for a blog post, it’s gone forever. That means a loss of traffic, SEO and, ultimately, new clients.

How To Add Postie To Your WordPress (Self-Hosted) Blog

1. Go to your WordPress administrative panel, which is the same URL you use when you’re going to put up a new post (typically www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin)
2. Go to Plugins on the left side of the screen
3. Click “Add New”
4. Search for Postie
5. Install the plugin
6. Activate the plugin

How To Configure Postie

1. Set up a special email account for use with Postie. I believe it works with a Gmail or Yahoo account, but for the love of all that is holy I could not figure out how to make it do what it’s supposed to do. So I spent hours silently cursing the computer, the Interwebs and anything else I could think of (including my cup of coffee, which was getting colder by the minute). Then I realized that even if I could eventually figure it out, this just wasn’t worth the effort. After all, we’re looking for fast solutions, right?
2. Set up a special email account for use with Postie. Yes, I said that twice. Because the first time just resulted in abject frustration. So I went over to GoDaddy, which is where I keep my domain registrations and set up one of those freebie email addresses that come with the registration. Took about 5 minutes to do. One thing you should remember, though – you want to make up a really absurd email address with garbage characters because Postie will grab any messages sent to that address and post it to your blog. If you’re using an address that sounds vaguely real then someone could theoretically get the address and start posting to your blog without your knowledge.
3. Enter your email server settings into Postie. You’ll get your email server settings and enter them into the plugin (which you can get to by going to Settings -> Postie on your WordPress administrative panel). Part of that will include your email address and password.

You could stop there, but there are more options you can configure. You can set up Postie to accept emails only from certain addresses, tell the plugin what to do when it gets the email (publish the post, keep it as draft, etc.) and play around with it quite a bit more. Or, as I said already, you could stop there.

Why Not Use The Built-In Post-By-Email Feature Of WordPress?

WordPress gives you a way to post by email, but it’s bare-bones. Not many features, and I’ve never been happy with how it works. With Postie I can add photos, audio or video to a post. I can limit the email senders so that spammers can’t take over my blog. I pre-set how the email will be handled so that things don’t get published immediately. In other words, I get control and convenience.

Image credit: koka_sexton (Flickr).

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I registered the domain name www.BKPracticePro.com for the occasion, figuring it had a nice hook to it.  The thinking was to do a teleseminar and see what happened.

What happened was a lot of fun.  Then we both went back to work.  That is, until I got bored on August 19, 2006 and published my first blog post dealing with Windows XP shortcuts.  It was all uphill from there, as the site morphed into what you see before you – a full-fledged business built around a blog dealing with online legal marketing, technology and managing a law firm.

Each one of those first posts were mere baby steps towards the current incarnation of this blog, done with tremendous hesitation and no small amount of trepidation.  What if I got it wrong?  What if I failed?

There were, however, a few things that gave me no small amount of freedom.  A freedom, I realize now, that is bestowed upon all of us who begin a law firm blog.

Most businesses start with an idea and a way to profit from that idea by selling stuff to people.  Not so with Legal Practice Pro.  Though I ultimately began a coaching program and sold information to lawyers about marketing a law firm online, that didn’t happen for 2 1/2 years.  That’s right – for 2 1/2 years I basically screwed around and created a blog about cool stuff that made me happy.  Holy crap – talk about an abject waste of time!

Starting A Law Firm Without A Plan Is Just Plain Crazy

I mean, what would your friends and family members say if you told them that you were going to start practicing law for free?  Handle any client that came into the office, work up a full file and represent that person until the end of the matter?  Your spouse would divorce you, your parents would have you committed, and your friends would whisper behind your back.  Well, maybe not quite so dramatic as all that – but damned close.

And they’d be right.  Starting a law firm is time-intensive, money-intensive, and … well, when something sucks too much of your time and money it’s kind of hard to put food on the table.  Or, for that matter, afford a table in the first place.

So you start a law firm by figuring out a niche, finding clients, and working your ass off until you can pay the bills.  Maybe you pick up a side hustle, maybe you sponge off a relative for awhile.  Whatever you need to do, you do it.

Starting A Law Firm Blog Is A Lot Easier Than That

Seriously, I can’t even tell you how many blogs I started and then killed.  I was on Blogger, then a few of my own domains, then I consolidated them, took them down, moved them around … well, you get the point.  And because the tools are so free and easy, none of it mattered.  Every blog was a training ground, a way for me to pick up a few tips and get my footing in new technology.  I knew I wasn’t going to break the Internet – and if I did, the Internet had more problems than just my existence.

Because starting a law firm blog costs little or no money, there’s not much to lose except your time and a bruised ego.

Not many people are going to notice when you screw up royally.  Much as we might like to think otherwise, nobody’s paying attention to your law firm blogging efforts except your parents until things really take off.  Your traffic will stink, your comment level will be non-existent, and pretty much you’ll be taking up dead space online.

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but your blog isn’t going to get much action coming out of the gate unless you’re a big name – a really, really big name.  Everyone else just toils in anonymity for a good, long time.

And that’s the best news you’re going to get because your blog is going to start out as a different thing than what it will ultimately be.  Your design will be off, the picture won’t be right (in fact, it probably won’t be there at all), and you’ll wobble like an infant taking first steps.

Don’t believe me?  Some really big blogs out there were significantly different when they began.  For example:

SOLD (Copyblogger – January 8, 2006)

Version 3.0 (Chris Brogan – March 22, 2004) *Note: This is clearly not the first post that Chris ever did, though it is the first one archived on this domain.

Get To The Point (Problogger – September 23, 2004)

Welcome To The Bankruptcy Law Network (Bankruptcy Law Network – January 24, 2007)

Your Fear Is An Excuse – Get Over Yourself

We’ve established that you’re just starting out, and your blog is probably going to differ significantly from what it will ultimately be.  Your content may be muddy, your writing less crisp than you would like.  But given the fact that not many people are out there reading it at first, you’ve got some freedom.  Freedom to flex your muscles and to find your voice.  After all, if it sucks then you can trash it and move on.  Or you can just keep going, refining your message and honing things until they sound right and produce results for you.

What are you afraid of?  And what will it take you get you off the dime?

Image credit:  johnwilliamsphd (Flickr)

Related posts:

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Even if you’re at the top of the search engines, you’re vulnerable to new competition.  Go to sleep at #1, wake up at #4.  Is this a risk you’re willing to take when marketing your law firm online?

A few days ago, I was semi–involved in a debate that was raging on an e-mail discussion list in which I am a member. One person asked a question about marketing your law firm online with a blog, and a lawyer started touting the fact that his website ranked at the top of the organic search engine results for his chosen search term. The lawyer in question does no blogging whatsoever, and essentially stated that blogging was worthless to his efforts at marketing his law firm online.

Of course, this being a marketing discussion group, chaos ensued fairly rapidly. The resident legal marketing professionals jumped all over this poor guy, and basically proclaimed him to be full of shit.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Not only does the lawyer in question do no blogging, he produces no content on any of its websites. They’re all extremely thin, and none of them stand out whatsoever. They’re all filled with the same trite, empty language that is so pervasive on law firm websites.  To him, marketing his law firm online didn’t require any content production strategy.  And his results were, to his mind, proof that his theories worked.

If I were to hazard a guess I would say that the attorney has ensured his high rankings based on off–page search engine optimization. By that I’m talking about massive numbers of back links to his site from other sites, with appropriate anchor text tied to his chosen search term.

Assuming this to be the case, and further assuming that there is no funny business or “black hat” tactics being employed, then I applaud this attorney for his efforts. Undoubtedly, he gets a tremendous amount of traffic and, I would assume, quite a bit of business as a result of his efforts to market his law firm online.

So, you see, this stands as proof of the fact that you need not blog in order to attain a high search engine ranking for a single term. I would go so far as to say that you don’t need to blog in order to do well for any term whatsoever.

The fact, however, doesn’t mean a thing. We all know that Google and the other search engines reward websites with more content over those that are thin. We also know that people who visit your website are more inclined to hire you after seeing the depth of your expertise reflected in your blog posts.

So even if this attorney ranks very well for a narrowly-defined search term (which may or may not get enough traffic to sustain him), it’s unlikely that he’s able to capture a tremendous percentage of those site visitors and convert them into paying clients. People are searching for information, and won’t stop looking for answers until they find them. If they happen to find them on the top–ranked site that matches their query, then they will go no further. However, if their first click does not result in an informative answer to their question then they are likely to move to the next site presented by the search engines.

I’m sure that my colleague does very well now, but his attitude with respect to his efforts to market his law firm online makes him an easy target. If one of his local competitors establishes a new website and continually adds content that is relevant, in formative, and optimize for the search engines as well as for human visitors then the likelihood is that this new site will quickly rise to the top of search engine rankings with very little effort.

How about you?  Are you willing to take on this sort of risk when marketing your law firm online?

Image credit: mlhradio (Flickr)

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