Blawg In A Box

I am informed by the two folks I retained to proof the e-book that there are technical issues they’re trying to research and resolve. I believe this relates to live hyperlinks, if I understand the issue correctly, and to security (i.e., making sure the download is secure for both you and me). I am told it will take 5-7 days to resolve, given their other projects and the length of the book.

I’m going back over the text myself to see if we can simply omit the links, and if that would be an acceptable change. I don’t know what I can do about the security issue beyond look into it myself, which I will do.

Further updates will be made when I have more information. I really appreciate your patience!

Update: Apparently there were some issues with MarsEdit, the blogging software I and many other Mac bloggers use to compose blog posts offline, and its compatibility with WordPress 2.5. According to this post at The Blog Herald, that’s been fixed. I can happily report I haven’t had any issues with WordPress and Mars Edit after the update of each — they seem to get along quite well.

I’ve been working with WordPress 2.5 for a few days now, and am ready to report back on what the new release is really like.

Dashboard Improvements

First, the dashboard. Don’t let the underplayed descriptions on the WordPress blog fool you. This is a greatly redesigned dashboard, both in look and function. And while it took some time to get used to it, I admit, it’s an improvement.

I also love the new feature that allows you to change your permalink without radically altering your normal architecture across the board.

Overall, it’s a much cleaner appearance, which makes it easier to compose, I think

Images

Working with images is greatly improved as well, although it requires some getting used to. Formerly, the upload box was on the same page as the post editor. Now, it’s a pop-up box that allows you to work with each file individually. There are many more options for working with your images, too — from changing the URL, adding a new size (medium) to the old options of thumbnail and full sized, to (best of all) automatic positioning. Check it out:

Posting

The post editor is pretty nifty. The same old code buttons (or, if you use the visual editor, the formatting buttons) are there, but there’s that “add media” function now, which makes adding podcast files or images a snap. Then on the right, the “Related” list shows the most commonly used tasks (managing comments, managing all posts, managing categories, etc.).

Below the post editor box, there are tools for working with tags, categories, and all the other tools you’re used to — except now they’re below the post, out of the way, leaving a more uncluttered working space.

Bottom Line: Thumbs UP

Way, way up. Kudos to the WordPress team for a wonderful release.

WordPress 2.5 was released last week, and the question arises: Should I upgrade my blawg?

Short answer: Yes. Here’s a longer answer.

New Features in 2.5

You can read all about the new release and its features and improvements over prior versions here at teh WordPress Blog. What follows is a brief summary.

The first thing to realize is that this is not a baby-step release. These are some serious improvements! Many new features have been introduced, and lots of improvements from small to huge will make for a more pleasant blogging experience all the way around.

Some of those features are:

• Support for salted passwords
• Cookie encryption
• Full screen editing
• Vastly improved visual post editor
• Built-in galleries
• Dashboard widgets and a cleaner “less cluttered” appearance for the dashboard

And much more — you can see a 4 minute screencast of the various new features here.

If you’re wondering what a salted password is, by the way, this Wikipedia article offers a pretty good, if somewhat technical, explanation.

Should I Care?

While much of these improvements are going to be beyond the ken (or caring) of many bloggers, including blawggers who don’t care how the engine works — they just want to get where they want to go! — some of the new benefits are pretty valuable. Consider “plugin upgrades” about which Matt writes:

[I]f the plugins you use are part of the plugin directory since 2.3 we’ve told you when they have an update available. Now we take that to the next logical step — downloading and installing the upgrade for you. This is dependent a little bit on your host setup, and it may ask you for your FTP password much like OS X or Windows will ask you for a password, but it works well on majority of hosts we were able to test, your mileage may very, plugins in mirror may be larger than they appear.

Also, consider the joys of a “friendlier visual post editor” about which Matt writes that he isn’t sure how to phrase this exactly except to say “it doesn’t mess as much with your code anymore.” Descriptive enough for me! Most bloggers have had this experience with a WYSIWYG editor (which is what the WordPress visual editor is): you blockquote a paragraph, but then can’t get beyond the blockquote to write your own thoughts without going into the Code itself and physically placing the cursor after the closing tag. Or you try to insert a hard return between bulleted items, as good formatting dictates, but when you post it all ends up crammed together. This release should alleviate much of that tedium.

There’s a new built-in gallery option for images — I’m not sure this will be highly useful for most blawggers, but I do think blawggers can as a group utilize images much more than they currently do. For some of you, this might be just the ticket to distinguish your blog from your competitor’s site!

Upgrade Information

The Codex (which was also improved with this release) has everything you need to know to get started with your upgrade process. Just remember to backup your blog before you start. And for super-easy upgrading, might I suggest a plugin called WordPress Automatic Upgrade? Makes the whole process much simpler, including the essential backup of your blog pre-upgrade.

As I wrote to my list earlier today, “it never rains but it pours.” And I’m in a downpour!

For those of you who didn’t read about my infamous run-in with a sync and file-sharing program called FolderShare, here’s what happened in a nutshell: this free service went wonky in December and messed with a lot of users’ files and folder architecture — mine included.

Flash forward a few months: I thought I’d rectified most of the damage, and so I’m busily working on this release of the ebook, when it dawns on me: “Hmm. Maybe I better double-check those old files I’d been saving the drafts in pre-December…” The file names are still there but … who knows, right?

(You can see this one coming, can’t you?) They’re gone.

Now, this is not fatal. I have other copies (although in varying degrees of readiness) and copious notes. What was lost can be reconstructed, but it will take another week, at least.

So - the bad news is this: we’re being forced to push back the release of Cheap & Inspired Blawgging to April 8th. I hope that will be the last delay necessary.

The good news is this: I feel guilty. Not so good for me — great for you. So, I’m doing two things to make it up to everyone:

(1) I’m adding a fourth, undisclosed (until launch) bonus. This will be worth at least an additional $50. I’m working on finalizing that but it will take a few more days, at a minimum. So, I can’t tell you what it is now but it will be useful.

(2) I’m going to open up the $49 price to everyone through the weekend. It seemed only fair to those who were waiting for the release on April 1 to purchase, who didn’t want to take the survey, for whatever reason, to at least give them the option of getting the ebook at a lower rate.

And even though this means that I’ll be giving away a lot of bonuses (including thirty minutes of my time for each purchaser, either for a brainstorming session for a new blawg, or a review & case study of an existing blawg) at a much lower price — well, I think it’s the right thing to do. However, I am taking this offer down at 12:01 AM EST on Monday, March 31, 2008, without exception.

Therefore, if you want Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging at a 45% discount off its regular rate (that will be $89 on April 8th), you can pre-purchase it at that $49 price by going to PayPay via this secure link. You can pay with any major credit card or your account, if you already have one set up at PayPal. On April 8th, before I open it up to everyone, you’ll get the instructions to download your copy, and claim your bonuses.

Speaking of: I haven’t told you what the bonuses are yet. Without further adieu, here’s what you get with each purchase:

• Of course, you get a copy of the first ebook ever for lawyer/bloggers, Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging
• A special workbook designed to help you plan and execute your own “cheap and brilliant blawg” — over 40 pages of exercises and worksheets so you can get it right the first time
• A $50 coupon off any $200 Blawg Coach service, including one-on-one coaching
• Your choice of either (A) a 30-minute brainstorming session with me, the Blawg Coach, OR (B) a written review and critique of your own blawg or website, including my suggestions for how to ramp up your own results
• A fourth as-yet-undisclosed bonus worth at least $50

This offer is open to the world. So, if there’s anyone you know of that might enjoy this book or needs some info on blogging, or just wants more clients, please feel free to pass along to them the links I’ve shared with you already, as well as the Table of Contents (Note: PDF file).

I hope that helps, at least. I do apologize for this; and if I can serve as an object lesson to any others out there, then by all means let this motivate you to back up your own work frequently and with redundant systems. (My backup failed, and I had no redundancy at the time, so I’m out of luck with this one, but you can bet I’ll get another backup tool soon.)

Now, onward to the good (or better) stuff!

Jason McCready Asks: Too Basic?

Jason McCready is my kind of guy. He’s already got the WordPress thing down, in a side business he has going, and he knows how to use link-building to get a blog to the coveted #1 slot in Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Result Placement). So he wrote to me and asked:

I have a question about whether your book is targeted to beginners … I’m wondering whether your book will have substantial new information that will help bloggers such as myself who have already created semi-successful blogs.

I already answered Jason directly, but I also asked him if it was OK if I shared his question, and my response, with you all through the blog. He kindly agreed, so here’s my answer.

Who Will Benefit from Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging?

As I told Jason, I estimate that roughly 30-40% of the content in Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging is what I’d call “beginner level.” I address all of the following topics, all of which I consider basic or beginner level:

• How to register a URL and sign up for hosting
• What to look for in a hosting plan
• How to install WordPress and set up your blawg
• How to choose, download, and install a theme
• What plugins are, which ones I recommend, and how to install and activate them
• How to interact with the WordPress user interface (the “dashboard”)

These topics are old hat to Jason, and many others, but they’re pretty mysterious to 80-90% of the lawyers out there judging from the emails and comments I routinely get from other lawyers at CLEs and seminars and otherwise. A lot of you have been sold on this idea that you have to pay $2500 for a basic blog that you could create yourself for the cost of a basic hosting plan (I currently pay about $8/month per blog). And, so, a good bit of the first three chapters of the book, and some of the beginning of the other chapters, do fit into this “beginner” category.

However, the rest of the book covers a slightly different approach to blogging that, I think, is uniquely beneficial to lawyers. While I imagine any service-oriented profession or business could use these concepts and apply them to their own marketing plan, I’m writing this for the legal profession. And while some of it’s basic-level setup “here’s how you monitor comments” stuff, much of it is aimed at explaining how you fit the blawg into your overall marketing plan to make it more holistic (my new favorite word).

I mentioned above in the prior section the Table of Contents; if you haven’t read it already, then I hope this will help you decide, although I realize it doesn’t provide a whole lot of detail. For instance, you can see that I write about “Commenting on Other Blogs” in Chapter 10, but you can’t tell that I actually lay out a specific plan and timeline aimed at using commenting on other blogs to help build your referral-based marketing program. Likewise, it’s apparent that I cover productivity issues in Chapter 11, but perhaps not so readily apparent that I actually give you several specific tools and new approaches that can shave off hours from your blogging time each week.

Do I think advanced users could benefit from it? Yes. Will some of it be, at most, a review for those advanced users? Undoubtedly. However, I do think it can get you thinking about using this medium that’s familiar to you in a brand new way that, eventually, becomes much more intuitive and “user friendly” (not to mention “life friendly“) in the long run. (Advanced bloggers already know how effective blogs are for driving both traffic AND sales — and that’s the business we’re all in: the sale of legal services.)

The old saw goes that, in the beginning of your entrepreneurial launch days, you have “more time than money.” Oh, how true. But my unique (I hope) experiences, even though they were very difficult to go through at the time, came with a invaluable gift attached: the gift of intense need, which necessitated that I focus my efforts with precision.

In other words: I had no money, and very little time.

I wanted to share that story here, in hopes that it might illuminate a bit about the program I describe in Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging, so you can decide if it’s for you or not.

This particular journey started about four years back, with the growing realization that my then-current job, as a staff attorney for a local government, was neither rewarding nor fulfilling. I had a great salary, mind you — wonderful benefits, too. But there’s a saying that “local politics is a blood sport,” and that was certainly true here. I even developed hypertension from the incredible stress. If it had been just a little bit fun or rewarding on top of that stress, I think I’d still be there, to be honest. But it wasn’t.

Finally, something happened that, in a millisecond, crystallized every doubt and every yearning for something better in my mind. I won’t go into all the details (’cause it would make this post go on for days) but let’s just say that I suddenly realized this was a dead-end place, a dead-end job, and if I stayed, I’d have nothing but more of the same to look forward to. A friend then commented to me, “Seems to me you can either put yourself at the mercy of a group of elected officials, or you can put yourself at the mercy of your own efforts.” That comment, along with the earlier realization, gave me just what I needed to gather my courage and say, at least to myself, “I’m not happy, and I need something better.”

But, as it often does, life had other plans. Two years ago exactly today, my mother fell and broke her hip. While she was recovering, the doctors learned that her breast cancer had returned with a vengeance. These two conditions together meant that Mom could never again live by herself. She’d need round the clock care. And since ours was never a very wealthy family, we all knew what that meant: someone would have to move in with her.

That meant that, a few months later, just before she was finally released from the hospital and extended care clinic, my husband, daughter and I sold our house and moved in with Mom (her house was slightly bigger than ours and had one more room than ours did).

But that wasn’t enough. I needed to figure out how to work from home. I admit, it would have been nice not to have had to worry about money at a time like that, knowing my mother had a terminal illness, wanting to spend as much time with her as possible. But it just wasn’t possible. Our family had been wiped out financially after my brother’s battle with terminal cancer just two years before, and so I had to come up with some sort of solution that would allow me to earn some income but stay home, at least most of the time.

It was then that my former dreams of glory as a solo practitioner came back to me in vivid, glorious color. Why not? I thought.

The answer came back from the super-critical part of myself I call “The Editor” (because this wench is always sniffing at my writing, usually, though she doesn’t restrict her critiques to my literary efforts by a long shot): “Because you have NO MONEY, that’s why. All the books say ‘one full year’s worth of expenses must be saved before launching a solo practice.’”

Well — to be accurate, one book says that, I demurred.

“Hmph,” she sniffed. “Even so, you have no experience, no skill in marketing.”

Yes, but … I know how to blog ….

So, I quit my cushy but terribly unfulfilling $70,000 a year job as a government staff lawyer, and quickly launched my practice on a shoestring budget, working first out of a corner of my mother’s house and then, after her death, moving into the room she’d occupied — a sunny room of many windows, looking out over the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Editor was right: my asset list was tiny, compared to the list of liabilities I carried into that new practice. No money to speak of (not even enough for a Yellow Pages ad); no portable business or clients I could take with me (not after 10 years as a government lawyer, and literally no private practice experience); having to learn brand new practice areas (not much call in the private practice arena for “municipal airport lawyers”) … on top of that, add in the intense personal pressures of a marriage on its last legs and taking care of a parent with a terminal illness, and honestly, sometimes I wonder how I got up in the morning.

What I did have:

• A fairly sharp mind and a proven method for learning new stuff fast
• Loads of motivation
• A critical need (due to my mother’s illness)
• A talent for writing
• A facility with computers and the internet
• And a couple of years’ experience with blogs

In fact, I had a love of blogs. I’d been writing them for personal use, and as something of a journal to chart my progress in first deciding whether to leave my old job, and then in setting up my solo practice. Of course, I’d also maintained a subject-matter blawg, “The Airport Lawyer” (no longer mine).

And while the blog format was perfectly adequate to all of those tasks, it was the potential of blogs as a means of education and communication in the business context that really piqued my curiosity. It struck me that the blawg, properly set up and used as only part of one’s marketing plan, could be the single pivotal key to this whole “new way” of doing legal business that I had in mind.

Now — a moment’s clarity. Was it really “new” in the sense of unique to me, or some brainstorm only I had? I doubt it seriously. But it was new to me, and to my area, and to most of the other lawyers to whom I ventured cautiously with highly-hedged openers at bar functions like “What do you think about this….?” and “I heard about this one lawyer who’s doing something weird ….”

Yeah. Brave, right?

But the responses I got — while admittedly mixed — just intrigued me further. There were enough emphatic nods and interested looks that I felt comfortable going with this approach with my own practice.

So I launched a practice area blawg and a static website. I created both myself, using free tools that were available from the hosting company I’d selected. The static site was built with 1and1.com’s Website Builder application, which is accessed solely through the site’s version of a control panel (not cpanel, if you’re familiar with that interface, which is now my preferred method of working on a site). I wrote all the copy.

SCBankruptcyBlog.com was originally created using 1and1.com’s “WordPress Lite” package, but I quickly contracted with the talented Lisa Sabin Wilson of E Webscapes for a different look (the design you see now on the Bankruptcy & Consumer Law Blog as of the date of this writing is Lisa’s). Lisa, it should be noted, literally wrote the book on WordPress. It was Lisa’s enthusiastic suggestions about my blog that got me thinking about WordPress, as a platform and website solution, in a much broader context than “just blogs.”

I’ll get more into the details about how this happened in tomorrow’s post (which I hope will have an added fun feature that most BIAB and Inspired Solo readers will find unusual for me, but which I hope will become more and more common). But for now, let me just sum up this post with this conclusion:

I took my sites from nothing (two brand new sites, in other words) to the first page of Google results for my selected keywords in six months.

There is no technical trick to this. I did not hire any SEO expert or consultant. I didn’t engage in a single “black hat” SEO technique - no link farms, no keyword stuffing. These are organic, holistic results.

By the way, that’s all I’m offering with this e-book. I make no promises as to how high up the list you’ll get. I don’t concentrate on teaching SEO the way most people think of that topic. Instead, I approached — and I write about approaching — SEO in a completely different way: by focusing on the purpose of search engines — their driving mission, in other words — and on the real goal.

See, this is where most folks get it dead wrong: the real goal isn’t “#1 on Google.” You might think it is, but let me ask you this:

• What if you’re #1 on Google for a particular keyword phrase, but your ideal clients aren’t using that phrase to search for you?
• Or what if you’re #5 — but numbers 1 through 4 are so off-putting and deliver so little value that your searchers get fed up before they even get to you?

No, the real goal isn’t any particular spot in your SERPs (Search Engine Result Placements). It’s grabbing the right targeted readers for your blog and then converting them into potential clients. And while #1 on Google might help you by sheer force of statistics (the more eyes on your page, the likelier it is that at least some of those eyes will want to stay there), it isn’t the whole picture, not by a long shot.

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It’s huge — over 200 pages and counting (more being added every day).

It’s helpful — solving a real problem faced by every solo and small firm lawyer out there.

It’s proven — real world, demonstrable results.

And it’s blessedly free of hype.

Unfortunately, you can’t get it — not just yet. But you can do something now to help me make it even better — as well as be the first to get it, together with some equally powerful bonuses worth over $350, at almost half the cost that everyone else will pay when it goes live.

What is it? (It’s it. What is it? — sorry. Had to get my Faith No More on for a minute. I’m done now.)

It’s no secret I have been endeavoring to create a subniche for my coaching business as “the blawg coach.” But, I admit, my attention’s been scattered away from that for awhile — between the law practice (the post-Christmas period for consumer bankruptcy lawyers is like tax season is for accountants), plus my new About.com gig, and then the Macs Practice Law event (which was terrific, and I am SO glad I did it, for so many reasons, but — it did take some time).

And I didn’t even mention my very first priorities, which are always my well-being and my daughter’s well-being. (’Fess up - how many of you are shocked I didn’t list my daughter first? This is a lesson I learned from my amazing mom, and reinforced by dozens of flight attendants thereafter: always put your own oxygen mask on first, then you can assist others.)

But something happened lately that woke me up in a big way to this one, single, inescapable fact:

My colleagues — by whom I mean all solo and small firm lawyers, everywhere — have a desperate need to know how to build their businesses in an organic, inexpensive, effective way that maximizes their return on as little effort as possible.

What happened? I’ll tell you about that later. Right now, what I want to do is get your help.

By the way, this post is being cross-posted on both The Inspired Solo and Blawg In A Box, but both link to the same ultimate destination: this survey.

Here’s the deal: I’ve completely reevaluated how we launched “Blawg In A Box” (the product and services) last year — not just the launch but the way it was packaged. Now, the response to this launch was, frankly, amazing and immediate. It exceeded every expectation I had allowed myself. That proved to me that there was a real need for some direct assistance with marketing the solo and small firm practice online.

But the delivery method we chose, frankly — well, it sucked. It just wasn’t feasible to farm this stuff out to others in the time frame we needed. And the clients deserved better. Would that I could clone myself! (Then again, that never really works out too well in the movies …)

So, I took a deep breath, and dove in to a brand new concept for the delivery of this valuable information: an e-book. It’s called Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging: How to Stop Wishing For Clients & Start Getting Them — The Inspired Way.

It’s almost finished. But I need some help to put the finishing touches on and make sure I’m delivering what you really want to know — and this is where you come in:

I need to know what you need to know!

The book’s mostly written, and I can guarantee that it will have everything you need to know to set up, launch, and drive massive amounts of the right kind of traffic to your very own website or blog. But I don’t want to stop there — I want to make sure I really answer your questions.

I figured — why not go to the source?

So I’ve set up a VERY short 3 question survey here, and I’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete it. Come April 1st (yep, you read that right!) Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging will be available for download, and it’ll be a better resource for your input.

Now, this survey is completely anonymous — you’re not required to give me your email address. I just want your input. However, you do have the option (completely within your discretion of course!) to request to receive more information about a very special pre-release offer of this ebook at almost half the cost the book will sell for come April 1.

That release price, by the way, is $89. The pre-release price will be $49. Only the people who ask to get that information will be eligible for the special pricing; the reason why is, frankly, that one of the bonuses requires a significant investment of time on my part, and I just cannot afford to give that away to lots of folks without at least recouping the full cost of the book. I’d love to, mind you — but I just can’t, between a full-time law practice and being a single parent! But for a few list members, it shouldn’t be a problem.

So, what do you say? Help me out?

There are in fact big doings afoot from inspired solo consulting, at both of our blogs — The Inspired Solo and Blawg In A Box.

For one thing, you might have noticed that things look a bit different around here. This design is also one of WordPress’s countless gorgeous, functional, and completely free themes. (Sorry, big blawg companies.)

And at The Inspired Solo, we got rid of all the ads — even the affiliate links! (We also removed the monthly archives, but that was pure aesthetics. I just didn’t like the way they looked.)

Yep — big doings. Huge news.

All I can say is this:

• There is a method to my madness.
• And there will be a MAJOR announcement here tomorrow.

Don’t miss it — watch this space!

This is the fourth and last (planned) entry in the Blawg Focus Makeover series. Earlier posts examined the importance of focus, and how to tell when your blawg needs a focus makeover. This post tells you how to execute the planned makeover, and offers up some tips to make it easier on you.

Re-examine the Plan

You’ve decided your blawg needs to have its focus tweaked — or radically redone. Either way, you’ve taken a hard look at your practice, your ideal clients, and you know how you’re going to approach this blawgging business: demographically or by practice area.

Take a last critical look at the plan. Make sure you’ve covered contingencies such as:

• Likelihood of renewable resources – is this topic or demographic likely to have developing news, litigation, or legislation sufficient to “feed” your blawg topic needs?
• Self-interest — writing a blog of any kind takes some level of commitment. It’s not a project that lends itself to scattershot, hit-or-miss approaches. Is this topic likely to sustain your interest over the long haul? Sure you can “make” yourself keep at it, day after day, but why add yet another obstacle to an already complex undertaking?
• Appropriateness to business plan — you’re not blawgging in a vacuum, of course. Remember your business goals and your business plan. Keep these guiding principles in mind. Your blawg should serve your business plan — not the other way around.

Prepping the Blawg

Should you announce the coming shift in focus to current readers? Yes, I think you should — with one caveat: if it’s a minor tweak, then don’t talk about it — just do it.

Don’t tackle the work on your blawg directly. Instead, do your planning and pre-execution in a text editor or program such as MarsEdit (for Mac users), then upload all at once to minimize the interruption to the site.

When’s the best time to make over your blawg? Depends on your readers. Take a look at your analytics or stats package, and see when the most activity on your blawg takes place. Avoid that time frame, and go for the least active time slots. Generally speaking for my blogs, that’s the 4 AM — 6 AM EST time slot.

Consider tackling the makeover in stages — perhaps working on your blogroll first, and then the categories later. This might make the work a bit more tolerable, and the makeover itself less noticeable.

But if you’re going for a major overhaul, then don’t back down from it. Announce it; publicize your schedule for making the changes; tell your readers what those changes will be. Go even further and sponsor a contest for your readers to coincide with the makeover!

Debriefing Your Makeover

You’ll want to keep an eye on your blawg after the makeover. Ensure that your links are all working properly, and that each page displays correctly. Enlist a friend or two to test out the site on different browsers.

Finally, don’t look at a makeover as a one-shot deal. Keep alert for ways to refine your focus and your blog’s expression of that focus in small ways as you build out your site.

Blogged.com has launched a new blog directory which features not only referral links but ratings and reviews of the blog entries. Over 200,000 blogs are indexed so far — most not currently rated yet — and the number promises to increase.

Andy Merrett, writing for The Blog Herald, mentioned Blogged.com earlier this week, and some of the comments are pretty interesting. One user wrote:

I think Blogged.com is a great place to start when I’m going to look for blogs about a certain topic. I find myself wanting to delve into a new subject and blogs are a great way to do it, but trying to find good ones (or even a decent list) via other methods or searching Google is a chore. Blogged improves on this area and makes it much easier to find new sites in certain areas. So far, I like it!

However, as Andy pointed out, there are some issues. Blogged.com entries feature a “related” resource that purports to list blogs that are — well, related to the entry blog in question. Andy quibbles with the relation of one of his blogs, about families and relationships, to gambling sites and something called “Webster’s Is My Bitch.” Yes, I can see where that might be problematic.

Another issue is the search function. A search for “the inspired solo” (in quotes) resulted in over 400 entries, most with neither “inspired” nor “solo” in the title — although The Inspired Solo is, in fact, in the directory (though not as yet rated).

Certainly, I think Blogged.com has some value, and it’s definitely a tool to keep an eye on in the coming weeks and months. If, as Andy points out, it gets sufficient ad revenue to keep itself healthy and robust, it very well could be a valuable resource both for blawggers and those who read their sites.

Today’s post presents the first in a series title “Blawg Focus.” The first entry looks at why focus is so important to the success of a blawg that’s published for marketing purposes. You’ll be able to read all the posts in this series, eventually, on this page.

Why Focus Is So Important

My blog coach, Yaro Starak, frequently preaches the importance of communicating what your blog’s all about to your visitor within the first few seconds of the visitor first accessing the home page. That’s seconds, not minutes. The death knell for a blog in this day and age “millions of blogs served, and thousands more cropping up daily” is a failure to communicate to your targeted reader that “this is the blog you’re looking for!”

Your readers and potential readers are looking for answers to specific problems, and those problems are probably fairly significant in their lives. Unlike other bloggers, you don’t have the luxury of readers who browse laconically, giving each blog half an hour to convince them that they should stick around. Lawyer blogs are different; it’s a refrain you’ve read here before, and will undoubtedly see again, because it’s true. Blawgs designed for marketing purposes must communicate, in a matter of seconds:

• The subject matter of the blawg
• The blawgger’s qualifications to discuss the subject matter authoritatively
• The blawgger’s rapport with the targeted reader

That’s a lot of talking for a web page to manage in such a short amount of time.

Competition Is Your Frenemy

As part of each blog setup process, I coach my clients to perform an analysis of what I call “the community” — the larger subsection of the blogosphere that deals with subject matter that’s related to the blawg we’re working on.

This community includes non-law-related blogs that are targeted to the same kinds of readers the blawgger seeks to reach; the blogs of journalists that write in the geographic area of the blawgger or about issues pertinent to the blawg’s focus; and — this might surprise you a bit — the competition. Yes, your competitors are part of your community, like it or not. While it’s tempting to ignore those pesky critters, it’s not a very smart thing to do.

Your competition can (and ideally should) be both friend and enemy: friend, because it prompts you on to achieve even greater clarity and value to your reader, and enemy, because you’re both competing for a finite resource — the attention of your targeted readers.

In order to come out on top of that struggle, you have two choices, essentially:

1. Target different readers
2. Target the same readers more effectively than your competition

Take a look at your competition, once you’ve identified them. What is the extent of their online presence, and what does it say about them? Do they have a blog, or just a static website, or nothing? (The latter is obviously better for you!) What does that presence, if it exists at all, say about their services, and their ideal clients? Who are they trying to reach? Are they doing a good job?

Most importantly, realize this: to achieve market dominance, you must show your targeted clients that you are the only one who can help them. How are you going to do that? By relying on your blawg’s focus to convey your brand identity and your “story” to your prospects. If that story is compelling enough, and the focus carefully drawn to say to those prospects “I’m the expert you’re looking for on this issue,” then you will achieve the top spot in time.

Critiquing Your Own Blawg

Now that you’ve analyzed the competition, take a look at your own site with a critical, objective eye. Is your site communicating your brand adequately? Is it saying what you need it to say? Is it telling the right story to the right people? Both of these elements are crucial to success: it must tell the right story, and it must tell it to the right people. Remember: 1,000 visitors a day will mean nothing to you if they’re the wrong visitors!

So look at your home page with a fresh eye. What is your eye drawn to immediately? Look at your layout — does it lend itself to communicating the site’s purpose, and is it easy to navigate? Are tags and button text large enough to catch the attention of your reader? What about your RSS button? Is it prominent enough? Above the fold? Properly labeled? Does the list of category names elucidate your blawg’s purpose or does it just serve to confuse a new reader?

Sharpening Your Focus to Convey Your Brand

Once you’ve established how well your current focus (if you have one already established) is conveying your brand and your story, you can start to explore ways to sharpen that focus and make it even more effective — the subject of future posts in this series.