Blawg In A Box

Or maybe it helps your readers find your serial postings… whatever, it’s a good plugin to take a look at, especially for law bloggers.

From the plugin’s home page:

In Series is a plugin that lets you write series of posts in WordPress, without having to deal with the hassle of manually writing up tables of contents or “next” and “previous” links in each post. It adds a new set of controls to the post editing screen, allowing you to add the post to a series (new or existing), re-order the post within a series it’s already in, or remove the post from a series entirely… The plugin also adds a new “Series” configuration sub-tab (under the “Options” tab in the admin pages), providing a highly-flexible mechanism for controlling how In Series renders content within your posts. … Best of all, you don’t have to edit any theme files or PHP to get In Series configured and working!

For lawyer/bloggers who aren’t also coders, the ability to use a plugin like this without tinkering about in the PHP or theme files is a huge benefit. I’ve downloaded the plugin myself for both TIS and for this blog, and will be putting it to use in the next few weeks. Let’s give it a try and see how it works.

Thanks to Lorelle on WordPress for the “head’s up”!

Technorati Tags:
WordPress plugins, serial posts, blog tools

Bill Gratsch, the blogger behind Blawg’s Blog, wrote an article about the current “State of Legal Blogs: A Report From the Frontlines” for Findlaw recently. The article provides an interesting snapshot of the legal blog world. Some interesting takes:

• Over 2000 Legal Blogs And Counting: By piecing together the offerings from various legal blog directories, Gratsch concluded there are over 2,100 legal blogs in existence. That number grows every day, of course, making good directories essential.
• Lawyers Aren’t The Only Ones Blogging About the Law: We’re not alone! Librarians, legal media, consultants, business coaches, professors, paralegals, and virtual assistants have joined our ranks as blawggers.
• Growth in News-Oriented Legal Blogs: There’s been a surge in legal news-oriented weblogs in recent years. Couple that with the fact that many other types of blogs (including subject-matter specific blogs) also feature news from time to time, and clearly we’re still a news-addicted profession. The immediacy of blogging both supports and detracts from fulfilling that need: we can get news out more quickly, but will it be accurate?
• Academia Has Embraced the Blog … Sort Of:Stories like this one about professors being looked down-upon in the job and tenure processes haven’t entirely gone away, but law school profs have embraced the blogosphere. As Gratsch points out, a professorial post can often find its way into mainstream media accounts (case law, too? Yep, case law too!…)

Gratsch left off what I feel is the most impressive blawg-directory effort: the “3L Epiphany” Taxonomy created by Ian Best. It was an academic exercise for Best, who created the taxonomy for an independent study project in law school, but it was quickly embraced by many as a terrific addition to the blawgosphere. I don’t know if it’s still being maintained or whether it’s just a static page now but regardless, it’s the product of a terrific piece of analytical and categorical thinking.

Technorati Tags:
blawg directories, legal blog statistics

I’ve just published a new page for all you blawggers - current and future - on this blog. It’s titled “Recommended Resources for Blawggers” and you can find it here. The first entry in our Recommended Resources list is HostGator, the hosting company of choice for The Inspired Solo and Blawg In A Box, and for our clients for whom we build blogs “from scratch.”

From time to time, we’ll add more resources on this page to help blawggers achieve their goals - from books to services to other websites. If you have such a product or service that you think would make a good addition to our list, get in touch with us through our contact form here - whether it’s your business or something you use in your own blogging, I’m interested in hearing from you.

The ABA Blogging CLE: No Known Bloggers?

I read with some skepticism the invite in my email inbox some time ago, trumpeting the ABA’s entry into the “phenomenon” of blogging with an hour-or-so long teleseminar. The faculty selected for the panel omitted solos completely, and - frankly - didn’t include a single blogger I’d ever read. Not that I know them all, but it’s my business to know blawgs, and I have to stop and ask some hard questions if an ABA-sponsored event isn’t being headed by well-known bloggers.

The seminar triggered this article, the link to which was just emailed to me in the weekly “YourABA” email alert. Tim Stanley from Justia is quoted in this article as advocating “personal” blogs - from the article:

Stanley shared a tip on creating a successful blog. Those that are more personal in nature - where a sense of the blogger’s personality comes through - tend to do well, advised Stanley.

I really doubt that’s what Stanley meant, but I’m afraid the wording of this cite is going to confuse some folks, so let me share my thoughts on this subject.

Personality? An unqualified YES.

Personal? An equally unqualified NO.

Here’s the difference, and why I feel so strongly about this.

The Difference Between Personal and Personality

Personality: writing authentically; not putting on “airs;” being comfortable in your skin; writing from the “center” of yourself; referring to your own experiences; self-referential; writing like you talk; writing informally (but well - good grammar, proper spellings, etc.).

Personally: writing about your family, your dog, your weekend, your vacation, your political beliefs, your candidates of choice, your bank account, the guy who cut you off in traffic this morning, the woman applying mascara in the drop-off lane at your kid’s school, the funny commercial you saw this morning, the awesome episode of Heroes last night, the supremacy of Batman to Superman, your colon “issues,” the last time you saw your doctor, the idiot who made the waitress cry at the restaurant you went to last night - anything, in short, other than your blogging topic.

Caveat: you can, of course, write about some of these things in connection to your blogging topic. But never about your colon “issues.” Some things - just - no. Never.

Why is it so important? Read on.

Read More…

OK, so we’ve explored the design floor phenomenon - the debate between “you must have a pretty site and good design (and the exorbitant fees? Suck it up)” and “good enough is good enough - put your money and your effort where it really matters, and it isn’t your site’s looks.” We all know where I stand, and I think, judging from Kevin O’Keefe’s last comment on the subject, we can figure out where he stands as well.

And most of you already know I also write at another pretty popular virtual hang-out space for solos called The Inspired Solo. That, by the way, is a site that’s truly changed my life (by way of forcing me to think about my approach to practice, and creating opportunities for me to learn from some really amazing “teachers” in the process).

Since I regularly get mail from other solos who claim it’s improved theirs, too, I have to conclude that the message is hitting home with at least somebody out there. The message is simple, but not easy: I want solos to reclaim their power to create their practices and their lives in whatever way makes sense for each individual lawyer, completely untethered to someone else’s perception of what the solo practice of law “ought” to look like.

This is why I feel pretty safe saying what I’m about to say: Inspired solos can do better than simply “living large.” In fact, such meager aspirations are sort of the whole point of escaping Big(F)Law in the first place, at least for many of us.

Why “Living Large” Is Aiming Too Low

I think the whole desire for “more, better, faster, prettier” (not to mention “more expensive”) is reaching epidemic proportions in this country. I also think it’s a sickness. At the same time, I can state with equal certainty that there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting something that happens to be expensive. How can I say both things congruently? It’s all about the “why” - and the “how much” - as it is with most things in life.

Why do you want that $2500 blog or website? Is it because it’s prettier, cooler, snappier? Or is it because that’s what you’re conditioned to want? We’ve all been schooled in the “you get what you pay for” approach to shopping for anything, be it services or goods. Problem is, those considerations don’t really apply to the new marketing, and they certainly don’t apply to the Inspired Solo approach to marketing.

And how much are you aiming for? Is it just the site? Or do you also have to have the best office location, the most expensive furniture, the priciest suits? If so, let’s come back to “why” for a moment: why is it necessary to have the most expensive version of everything? Is it because that version has essential features that are required for your particular, individualized marketing plan to work? Or is it because that’s what you’ve been conditioned to think?

Way too many of us have fallen happily in line with the “more is more” army, marching along, gobbling up every pricey resource in site - and getting absolutely no value out of it. I have no argument - no quibble at all - with someone who’s thought about it, done the research, made his or her plan, and reached the decision through logic and intuition that this widget is the one for him or her (despite the fact that it happens to cost more). But that’s not usually what happens. Far too often, it’s a decision making process that looks something like this:

• Identify the need
• Start researching
• Quickly become overwhelmed
• Give up and pick the costliest option, hoping against hope that it will be the best

In blogging, that’s not just wrong - it’s potentially fatal.

Why The Most Expensive Blog Isn’t the Best Blog

It’s really simple. Blogging - good blogging, especially blogging aimed at converting potential targets into qualified leads into paying clients - has precious little to do with the blog itself!

That’s probably a radical thought but it’s absolutely true. What makes a blog valuable? It’s the readers - more specifically, the amount of attention your blog draws from readers. Attention is the new currency, and you must make a lot of it to succeed in these competitive times, smack dab in the middle of the Information Age.

And while pretty pictures draw readers in for a bit, web users today are not going to stick around for those pretty pictures. They are coming to your site for one of two reasons - to find a lawyer, or to get legal information. And that pretty picture has nothing to do with either goal.

So bigger doesn’t equal better. Pretty doesn’t equal more successful. What draws the kind and quality of attention you want to attract? One thing, and one thing only: content. And why not go for the more expensive blog anyway? Just to - I don’t know - stack the deck in your favor? Well, if you’ve got money to burn and you’re dead set on burning it, go ahead - be my guest and burn away. But here’s my point - it’s not necessary. And it’s often dangerous.

Why do I say dangerous? Simple: we lawyers are practical folks, by and large. We like to solve the problem, then move on. And spending a lot of money on an expensive site looks a lot like a solution. Problem is: it isn’t a solution to anything.

You’re not blogging in order to put an artistic site on the web-waves. You’re blogging for clients. You’re looking to up your profits with your blawg - to bring in the cases you want to handle. Solve that problem by focusing on content, and on marketing, and on tailoring your content to meet the marketing purpose. That doesn’t require fancy coding or pull-down menus. It requires your creativity and your words - no one else’s.

And the stuff that you do need? Contact forms, for instance, and static pages where you can explain in more depth what your practice area is like for each client through FAQs, articles, or documents you want them to be able to access? All available through plugins or widgets in WordPress which are (say it with me!) FREE.

Some Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Blog

Let’s try an experiment. Close your eyes (well, first read through the instructions, then close ‘em). Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is looking for legal information related to your practice. Perhaps a loved one just got arrested for DUI. You’ve been served with a complaint for divorce. Or maybe your company just found out a competitor stole a trade secret. Whatever you’ve got, put yourself there in the middle of that space.

Now, open your eyes and click on over to your blog. Still in the mind-space of that person looking for information, ask your blog these questions (silently, of course, unless you want your paralegal to think you’re chock full o’ nuttiness):

• Yo, blawg. Do you let me know what you’re about in the first 60-90 seconds?
• What do you tell me about the subject I’m looking for information on?
• Do I first have to wade through a bunch of annoying and off-topic information to get to the good stuff?
• What voice are you using to speak to me? Is it respectful but conversational? Is it stuffy and pompous?
• What sort of “feel” am I getting from you? Do you belong to someone with whom I’d like to work? Or do you make me want to roll my eyes and give you a big fat “Whatever” as I move on down the Google list?

Now, I ask you. Would any of the “ideal” answers to those questions be impacted in the least by a “prettier” design? (Answer: not one. You can achieve the ideal using the very “WordPress Default Theme 1.0″ you see before you - well, you see it if you’re reading it on the blawginabox.com site itself, and not in an RSS reader).

The Bottom Line Tip: Aim Higher

So here’s the bottom line on this cautionary tale: don’t just aim to “live large.” It’s so unworthy of you. Aim higher. Aim for ideal - YOUR ideal. It’s something no one else on earth can possibly hope to replicate because - like you - it’s one of a kind. Just because you can spend more, doesn’t mean that you should. You don’t have to spend a fortune, small or otherwise, in order to create a great blawg that works for you and your practice. You just need to know how to do it.

Stay tuned - tomorrow, I’m going to show you how you can learn everything you need to know to do it yourself. For free. That’s right - I’m making my own services obsolete by offering what I know, and what I do for paying clients, for free.

Why would I do such a foolhardy thing? Simple - because this is what the Inspired Solo approach is all about. This is how you do it - you offer outstanding value to potential clients, for free.

I know many folks don’t have the technical expertise and time to do it themselves, so I know I’ll still have paying clients - I’m not worried about that. But those of you who want to take it on yourself - with more time than money, as we all say at the beginning?

You’re going to get a very special prize. Starting tomorrow.

In the last post on this subject I wrote about RSS and how it will reduce the importance of the “looks” of a blog, as it begins to gain greater acceptance. I also wrote that the day of RSS saturation or prevalence hasn’t arrived yet, but that even so, the value of your blog rests, not in the blog’s appearance, but in how well you meet the needs of the people you’re targeting, and how strongly those targeted readers (TRs) “fit the bill” as your prospective ideal client (IC - and that’s the last 2-letter acronym I’ll throw at you this post, I promise).

And it looks like I already got my first naysayer!  Kevin puts out very nice-looking blogs through his company LexBlog and I believe he’s invested in the idea of aesthetics though clearly he recognizes that good content is prime. (That’s pretty much beyond argument at this point in the evolution of blogging.)  But I quibble - strongly - with this assertion: “I don’t think you are going to get top quality design for 500 to 1,500 and get that design developed with the other necessary services you’ll need to be an effective blogger.”

How do I disagree with these statements? Let me count the ways.

1. “…top quality design…” part 1 - Well, obviously, in my view top-quality design isn’t necessary to achieve the goals of inspired blawgging (namely, to create an aura of expertise around the blawgger while targeted carefully selected and identified readers and converting them into qualified leads through offering high quality content of interest to the reader - phew. Or we can just say “getting good clients”).  Else, I wouldn’t be encouraging my potential clients to embrace the less-is-more philosophy!
2. “…top quality design…” part 2 - Who defines “top quality” in terms of design? What is found to be excellent or visually appealing is clearly going to differ between different lawyers. The same goes for functionality - what’s of use to you in your site might be (almost certainly will be) very different from what functions I’d like in my ideal site.
3. “… 500 to 1500…” - seriously, yikes! You’d be far better off putting that cash into quality business cards and upgrading to a Mac. (Sorry - couldn’t resist.) You can have a completely functional website for the cost of hosting, period. And …
4. ” … the other necessary services you’ll need to be an effective blogger.” - This is my biggest quibble - not to mention point of confusion. What necessary services Kevin’s referring to, I can hardly begin to speculate. But in my view, here’s what you need to be an effective blogger:

• A platform - WordPress is free.
• Hosting - you can get it pretty darned cheap these days. I pay $7.99 a month.
• A template - again, WP themes are available in massive quantities for free (or very low prices - $50 or so being the usual price I see).
• Knowledge - again, free (though perhaps a little time-intensive if you have to go track it down on the Internet or worse,  get it through hard experience as I did)
• Basic writing skills - you already have them if you graduated from law school (though you’ll need a very different approach).
• A plan - not just for the blog itself but how to integrate it into your marketing plan for your practice.

These - along with a source for information (which you have at your fingertips if you’re reading this on the web) - are all the “necessary services” you need.  Everything else (including RSS widgets, Amazon book affiliate widgets, related posts code, and much more) is available through plugins - also available for free.

In short - I guess I do agree with Kevin on one thing. You can’t get everything you need to blog for $1500. You can get it for free.

Well, OK. $8 a month.

Technorati Tags: blawg, blog design for lawyers

This will be an ongoing feature here at Blawg In A Box - a list of articles from other people’s blogs that I think might be of interest to you.

• “29 reasons you need to stop blogging right now” - this is more for general-purpose bloggers but it makes some really good points about blogging generally, that lawyer/bloggers should be aware of (CornwallSEO.com)
• “Which WordPress Plugins Do You Use?” - WordPress is the only platform for serious law bloggers to use, in my view, and this is a roundup of Problogger readers who submitted the plugins they use to add functionality to their blogs (Problogger.net)
• “How to Get Repeat Visitors for Your Website” - what it’s all about, Alfies! Maki writes for DoshDosh and has some of the best and most plain-spoken advice on good blogging for money I’ve ever seen. (DoshDosh.com)
• “Writing for the Social Media Everyman” - it’s no joke: social sites have changed things, and if you’re not aware of this, start with Brian’s post here. (Copyblogger.com)

‘Til next time, blawggers!

I wrote briefly yesterday about how this blog is now my laboratory to test out my hypothesis that blog design isn’t that important in the success of a blog. I thought I might explain that hypothesis a bit further, and why arguing the point might be difficult at best, futile at worst - at least to lawyers.

For all the talk about lawyers being early adopters, many of us are slow to embrace new technologies that require a learning curve. RSS is one of those technologies that, for whatever reason (and I admit, I don’t entirely understand why myself), has been slow to catch on with the general population, and even more so with lawyers. This in and of itself is a strange fact. Why? Because lawyers also love to save time, don’t we? Anything that can help us take care of nonbillable tasks more quickly and get to the good stuff - the stuff we can bill our clients for - is a good thing. (Although if you’re still billing by the hour, you might want to consider a radical reinvention.)

RSS is just such a technology - the rare bird - a true time-saver. It aggregates all of the blogs and news sources we like to read that publish regularly and frequently (say, daily or more often) and puts the feed in one spot. Instead of navigating to different websites, looking for the new items, reading, then clicking to the next site and “lather, rinse, repeat,” all we have to do is log onto our reader application or site and, well - read.

But - here’s the hypothesis’s weak point - RSS isn’t widely embraced by either the general public or lawyers, and so the lawyers who blog are reluctant to let go of what is perceived to be the drawing point for any web page: how it looks.

Think about it - how many law firms do you know that get seduced by the siren call of the luxurious office? Why do lawyers do that? Why do we spend so much money on stuff that doesn’t matter? Especially when we know that clients who come in to those offices often feel irked that they’re paying for those luxurious appointments - why? We do it because we think otherwise - we do it because we think that’s what lures clients in. The trappings of success. The look of success - be it a Chippendale couch, a barrister bookcase - or a specially-created one-of-a-kind blog design.

But here’s where my hypothesis might win the day: tides shift. People evolve, and learn new things. RSS will lose its ’scariness’ at some point and maybe we see signs that’s already happening. Certainly with the explosion of feed-based sites and blogs, and the growing attention to lawyer satisfaction issues, we will be looking in the future for anything and everything that will help us streamline our days so as to maximize the time available for what works, and what feeds us.

So this is a grand experiment in every way - like any scientist, I’ve considered my hypothesis but I’m not married to it. If it works, terrific - I’ve liberated thousands of lawyer/bloggers from the tyranny of paying anywhere from $500-1500 (seriously!) for so-called unique designs (that are often nothing more than canned templates with altered color schemes and headers that take 20 minutes to create), and most importantly from the illusion that a good design will save the blogger from having to spend the time to create good content. If it doesn’t, then I’ll use my CSS skills to make a new design, or outsource it to him or her  (both of whom do great design).

Don’t misunderstand: a great design is worth its weight in gold. But beneath that eschelon of greatness is a whole realm of “good enough” that’s free and publicly available; with a little CSS knowledge, you can even tweak the colors, fonts, and aspects of the layout. Here’s the real bottom line on design: if it’s stopping you from blogging; or if it’s preventing you from doing the real work required because you’re too busy fussing around with the design “just a little bit more” - then please, take my advice: pick a theme. Install it. (Or hire someone to do it for you.) And start blogging.

Blawg In A Box has gone bloggy, and we’re never going back. It finally occurred to me: if you’re going to preach the value of the blog in solo and small firm law practices, then shouldn’t you do so from a blog? Actually, I always meant to make the conversion at some point - it’s just that when Blawg In A Box, the service package line, was first conceived, I had a huge fast deadline to meet, and several smaller ones right after that. I knew I couldn’t devote the time necessary to making a new blog successful, so I opted for the canned website templates that wouldn’t need updating.

But now, it’s a whole different story. With the news announced in this TIS post, I’m now all about the mission. And the mission? To preach the gospel of blawgs-as-marketing to solo and small firm lawyers. And what better place to do that than here, on a brand spanking new blog?

If it looks a little - well, plain, around here - especially considering the sweet custom design job over at my other pad, The Inspired Solo, there’s a good reason for that: I’m conducting an experiment. I’ve posted before at TIS about my belief that the looks of a blog are completely secondary to what really counts - the content, the structure, and your participation in the conversation at the heart of good blogging. This is my chance to prove it for real, with a brand new “from scratch” site, and that’s what I’m doing.

This is the default WordPress theme (though I did change the header colors from blue to red, just ’cause), and while I make no promises that I’ll never change the looks (I’m too much of a girl for that - I love me a makeover), I will promise that I’m not seeking any pro designs for at least the remainder of this year. I want to see if I’m right about the secondary importance of design. And if I’m wrong, I’ll tell you. (If I’m right, you can bet I’ll tell you that, too. I am, after all, a lawyer at heart. And a blogger. Double dose.)

So, welcome to the new, improved conversation! If you want to learn how to blog for your law practice, or how to do it better, you’re in the right spot. I aim for nothing less than to make this blog the one and only stop for blawggers to learn the craft and art of blogging for clients.