Blawg In A Box

Recently, I was forwarded a link to a post in a rather popular blog aimed at a segment of small firm lawyers, that shall remain nameless, in which the blogger passed along a link to another blog. This second blog, which we’ll call the B Blog, had recently been created, according to blogger #1, and promised to be the next great thing - or, at least, worthy of a mention in this very popular “A Blog.” (I’m going to get all kinds of flak for that, I’m sure…)And so, I clicked.What I found confused and confounded me.

So Much Promise …

First, the good. This was obviously a well-structured blog. Fairly simple, just a few pages in organization, but with a laser sharp focus on its theme, B Blog was built around a sorely under-served subject, specific to attorneys. It promised a fascinating spin on its subject, and, heck, even I got excited for a minute.

… But So Little “There” There!

Then, I took a second look. There were errant HTML tags here and there, but that wasn’t the main problem. No, the real issue with B Blog: only two posts, each of them a month apart, and the last one over 2 weeks old.Immediately, I cringed for the B blogger. It’s a serious misstep, and it’s so easily avoided!

Why I Say “Ten Posts Minimum”

To each of my clients, the phrase “ten post minimum!” is probably eye-rollingly familiar. But that’s what I advocate for a pre-launch post count, and I say it for a very good reason.To illustrate, let’s take a closer look at B Blog, and what the casual reader’s experience with this blog probably is. Reader probably comes to the blog much as I did, through the very generous link provided by A Blog. But what the reader finds is confusing. Two posts, and while each of them are basically pretty good posts, they aren’t meaty enough to warrant a snap decision of “Brilliant! I’ll add it to my list of feeds!”That’s just one problem — capturing the highly elusive and much-competed-for attention of your TR (targeted readership) and visitors requires something much more than a couple of “OK” posts. Had B blogger made those two posts into flagship content of the highest order — offering, for instance, a 10-step “how-to” guide for lawyers in the subject of choice, or offering a new philosophy of said subject — the sparse content might be forgiven. Otherwise, it looks as if the blogger isn’t serious.Then there’s the matter of the timing of the posts. Two posts, a month apart, tells your readers that, whatever you are, you’re definitely not a regular blogger and they can’t expect any sort of commitment from you on this venture. And, they think, if you’re not willing to put the energy into it up front, why should they?Ten posts, in my experience, is a good safe number of posts to aim for with a new blog’s launch. It provides an average of two weeks’ worth of posts, and that’s enough for most readers to decide “Yep, worthwhile.”Because here’s what happens:You’ve done your homework, and you’ve laid a great foundation of ten really solid posts. You publicize your link via email to other bloggers, and in (relevant, substantive, non-self-aggrandizing) comments on other blogs. Your traffic starts to come in — slowly, to be sure, at first. The visitors start arriving. They read the top post, of course. But they like what they read. So they look around and see more content. Strong content, and enough of it to form a value judgment: Subscribe? Yes, definitely. This blogger is committed.You’ve provided your readers with a pleasurable experience, and given them what they’re hungry for. That provokes good will, which will often manifest itself in higher subscribe rates and return traffic.

Keeping It Going

Of course, you can’t put up the ten posts then forget your blog for a few months. You have to keep posting. So I also advocate holding five draft posts in the hopper at all times. The reasons are purely practical; you’re a lawyer, and there are going to be times when you simply cannot produce a post. You’re in trial. You come down with chickenpox (ahem). You’ve got a new client that needs some handholding. Whatever the reason, there will come a day when you can’t get new content up. For those days, have a selection of evergreen posts, not time-sensitive, that you can publish to keep the blog wheels rolling.Apart from crunch times, however, how often should you blog? Ideally, you want to blog often enough to keep your readers interested, and to show your commitment. The general wisdom of “post daily” is absolutely correct in this regard.A lot of lawyers blanch at that. But understand this: what we’re saying is “be prepared to publish a post a day.” That doesn’t have to mean “you must write every single day.” Thanks to the timestamp feature (and most blog platforms other than WordPress have some similar functionality), you can write a week’s worth of posts on Sunday and set them up to drip a day at a time. You don’t even have to be there to click “publish.”The ideal is to keep it going with a daily schedule for at least the first two months — more if you can stand it. Of course, that’s not always possible — or even necessary. Some niche blogs won’t require such devoted attention. But if your blawg is a primary marketing vehicle for your practice, then definitely aim for “ten post minimum” with a daily schedule to follow.

It might seem a bit strange to be reviewing an ebook about blawgs that was published several months ago at this late date, but there are a couple of reasons for this. First, I wanted to give the rest of the blawgosphere a chance to weigh in on the content, structure, and layout. Secondly, I wanted to wait for this blog to get its “web legs,” before diving in to this sticky subject.

Why is BlawgWorld Such a Sticky Subject?

Let’s first start with a bit of history. This is the third edition of the ebook, and it’s about 50% bigger than the 2006 issue, says Technolawyer, which publishes the freebie every year. And every year, it seems, we see/hear criticism of the issue that mainly falls into one of two categories: (1) you can’t boil down a blog to one post, and so any publication invoking the “most influential” blogs on the basis of a single post is faulty from the start; and (2) the content itself is questionable in some way.

I don’t think anyone will claim that any one of the posts included in the ‘07 issue is bad, or poorly written, or that a single blogger published in the issue is insignificant or not worthy of note in some way. (At least, I hope not. Surely we’re nicer than that, as a profession.) Among the published: Jim Calloway, Ben Stevens, Dennis Kennedy, Evan Schaeffer and more - 73 more, to be precise.

But if we’re really looking to add something of value to the blog directory world, then we need to be looking for superior postings, as opposed to simply the best known bloggers. So, some of the criticism deserves a second look.

Self-Selected Blog Posts and the Dining Experience

You might be able to tell that a restaurant is superb with one meal, but you really can’t say the same of a blog and one post. With a restaurant, you’re getting a direct experience - you are in the restaurant, served by and interacting with its staff, and surrounded by its “environment.” You’re also likely getting more than one dish - not only your entree, but salads, appetizers, drinks, and more. And you also witness at least second-hand the reactions of other diners at the same time.

That’s a very different experience than the sampling of a single post which was self-selected by a blogger who was (undoubtedly thrilled to have been) asked to participate in BlawgWorld 2007. The real comparison would be more like sampling a single dish blindfolded at some “Taste of the Town” contest. All you can really say is that this particular blog post - or dish - is __________ (fill in the blank with your conclusions).

In my book, to call a blog, or blawg, “most influential” or “best of” whatever subgroup we’re talking about (be it blawgs, subject matter law blogs, marketing blogs or policy blogs or just law-related blogs in general), you really need to focus on the blog, not the blogger, and not a single post. Not to put too fine a point on it, but as my Hemingway-esque father used to say, “Even a stopped clock’s right twice a day.”

The Structure of BlawgWorld

If BlawgWorld’s stated goal is to introduce lawyers to new blogs in a more efficient way, I have to say I’m not convinced it’s a success. But if the goal was to produce an amazing ebook - well, here, TechnoLawyer succeeded wildly. This is one of the most attractive, most efficiently-laid-out ebooks I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen too many to count as I continue working feverishly on my upcoming publication on blogging’s “Best Practices for Lawyers.”

It begins with a master list of the blawgs contained (by blog name, not blogger, except when the blogger’s name is included in the title of course). Navigation is easy through a simple tabbed and arrow-driven structure at the top of the page. If I have any complaint, it would be to make the master list clickable to the blog itself on the web; that shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. But this falls in line with my main complaint about the publication itself - that, in order to introduce lawyers to blogs, you need to focus their attention on, and take them to, the blog itself.

There’s an additional index feature by way of a master topic list, which breaks down the blog posts by topic. Very handy! All in all, a very attractive and well-structured book, with great presentation.

The Product Pitches

Here’s something else that (I think) is new from last year: over 200 pages of product shilling by various companies and consultants. These pages are relegated to the back 40, so to speak, and are denoted by a blue heading as opposed to the green heading on blog post pages. So, they’re easily avoidable if this sort of thing offends you.

Frankly, I’m not sure where I stand on this. Given that the issue itself obviously took some time to compile, and is absolutely free (no registration required), I’m not sure a little product pitching to (perhaps) recoup the costs wasn’t entirely out of line. But as a lawyer, I have to say I put very little stock in technology articles written by the PR department of the company producing the technology. I’d rather read unbiased member reviews, such as those that appear in the TechnoLawyer postings that are sent via email newsletter to subscribers. But since reading them is entirely optional, it feels strange to get too crabby about this subject.

Bottom Line: Interesting, But …

Here’s my bottom line on BlawgWorld 2007: it’s interesting, but adds little of value that can’t be replicated by visiting the blogroll of just about any random sampling of blawgs. As an introduction to blogs, it may well serve a purpose for techno-phobes and true blog novices - those who wouldn’t even know where to begin to look for blogs - but since that’s an ever-decreasing segment of the lawyer population, I’m not sure what the real value is.

I’d rather see an unbiased panel selected from a cross-section of the legal blogging community with concrete criteria picking a real “best of the web” that comes, not from the bloggers themselves, but from the blawgosphere as a whole - and not just the same names that keep popping up every year (regardless of whether they’ve truly contributed “best of the web”-worthy posts).

Technorati Tags:
blawg directories, blawgworld 2007

If you’re sitting there thinking “What the heck is NaBloPoMo? Sounds like a dread disease . . . ” let me assure you first that you’re in no danger of needing a trip to the E.R. NaBloPoMo is short for National Blog Posting Month, and it’s an interesting way to harness the power of peer pressure to light a fire under your blogging.

NaBloPoMo was inspired by a much more intimidating group project (well, more intimidating to me, at any rate) - NaNoWriMo. Can you guess what that stands for, now that I’ve deciphered NaBloPoMo? It’s National Novel Writing Month, and it always happens in November, as does NaBloPoMo. (OK, this is getting old, really quickly.)

The idea basically is to sign up for the project (or not - you don’t have to publicly declare your intention to play along at home or the office), and then to start a blog and post daily. Every single day, for an entire month. (Of course, you should be doing that anyway, if you’re just starting off - so they say. You’ll note I don’t follow that advice consistently myself. Erp.)

Unlike NaNoWriMo, the proof that you’ve complied with NaBloPoMo is in the blog - folks can tell right away if you’ve done as you said you would. We’re not as likely to be able to see that you finished your novel, right? But whether you sign up for public admiration (or flogging, as the case may be) or not, you can still use the impetus provided by the project to stoke your own motivation.

And remember why daily (or at the very least frequent) posting is important: each post is another drop of Google juice for your blog. Also: the more frequently you update your blog (with substantive posts, mind you - not 30 days of two-line “quotes and links” to other blogs or even worse yet, apologies for not having more to say), the greater your standing in the blog-world grows. Blog readers reward consistent and prolific bloggers.

BloPo away!

Technorati Tags:
NaBloPoMo, Writing prompts