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Reader Robert Schrage posted a fantastic comment recently on this blog, regarding the upcoming release of Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging.
I love the “show-me” types! Basically, Robert is telling me, “Hey, not so fast. Back up to the beginning and prove it to me that this endeavor is worth my while.”
To which I respond: “With pleasure.”
Now, I was really hoping I could do this in some tricked-out video for you. But alas, such was not to be. Between A. Weber (and my completely idiotic mess-up therewith) and — you know, that whole “practicing law” thing — I just couldn’t get it to go. So, you’re stuck with plain old text.
But that’s probably appropriate for this post, because what I want to demonstrate for you is the power of the written word.
Not just any written word, of course: written words in particular format, published on a particular schedule, with specific kinds of formatting, and all in the larger context of a fairly complex (yet still completely organic, authentic, and effective) marketing program.
Essentially, there are two reasons why blogs are, in my view, the lynchpin of a dynamic and effective marketing program for solos and small firm lawyers. Unfortunately, to understand them adequately enough for a real conversation, we have to take a trip down Technical Lane. (Don’t worry. I’ll make it as simple as I can without crossing over onto Inaccurate Boulevard or So Simplified You Might As Well Be Lying Street.) So this post will cover reason #1 — Because Google Loves Blogs. Reason #2 — that’s for tomorrow’s post.
I hope we can all start from the premise that small firm and solo lawyers today must have some sort of web presence to be viable in all but the most isolated of markets. (If you want to argue with me on that point, all I can do is direct you to any law practice management publication since — oh, say, the late ’90’s. Go ahead, we’ll be here when you get back.)
The simple, cold truth is that your clients are looking for you on the web, in droves. This doesn’t mean you should put all your marketing eggs in the website basket, but it does mean that she who has no web presence is operating at a serious disadvantage, right out of the gate.
But having a website is not enough. You must have a web presence that can be found. And even that’s not enough: it must be capable of being found by the right people at the right time. And that happens via any number of ways, but predominantly for those who are looking for legal assistance, it starts with a search engine.
In short: we live and die by the Google.
Search engines work in one of two ways (actually three, but the third is a hybrid of the first two). Either they’re bot-driven or human-powered (or a combination of the two).
Envision if you will thousands of little tiny mechanical spiders roaming along a Matrix-like connection of wires and nodes. These spiders are looking for information. Specifically, they’re looking for new information — sites that have been updated since the last time they took this stroll along the information superhighway (how long has it been since you’ve heard that term?).
These spiders take a digital snapshot, if you will, of the new stuff and then scurry back home to the Google base camp, where they dump their snapshots into the Google databases (just using Google as an example, if the most obvious one).
There, the info sits until the next time someone enters a keyword or set of keywords that matches, in some way, the info the spider collected. Google pulls that info (along with the info from all the other hundreds of pages that fit the relevant criteria), crunch some numbers according to a complex proprietary algorithm designed to calculate relevance, and then spits it all back in the now-familiar 10-item-per-page list format we all know and love.
By now you can probably get an idea of why those little spiders are the keepers of the keys to your kingdom, at least in one sense. That’s the sense that if you’re not on page one, you can probably hang it up because your clients aren’t likely to click on pages 2 through 8,467 of their Google results, and thus aren’t likely to find you at all.
But that’s not the end of the story. There is, unfortunately for us all, a lot more. Now, it’d be great if it were different. We could all just run some numbers, figure out the ideal percentage and location of the right keywords, and be done with it. Of course, that approach to SEO (Search Engine Optimization — the process of making a site more search-engine-friendly and readable by those spiders) is, frankly, a stale and limited interpretation of SEO’s concepts. (Also, it doesn’t work.)
The truth is no one knows exactly how to get your site to number one with a bullet except for Google’s engineers and with few exceptions, they ain’t talking.
But what we can do is suss out some general principles judging from what works and what doesn’t. And that leaves us with this:
Remind you of anything? Frequently updated … relevant content … many incoming links … from trusted and relevant sites (when even appellate judges are linking to blogs in their opinions, you know blogs have arrived) … keyword-rich (because you’re writing about the same stuff in different ways) … archives and categories make for easy navigation in the preferred 2-click model …
This is a blog, in a nutshell. And they are natural SEO winners.
I don’t want anyone out there like Robert to get the wrong idea. Blogs are not the end of your SEO story. You can’t just put the blawg on the web and say “OK, come and get me!” Not by a long shot.
There’s a lot of work to be done with that blawg — and that, really, is what this book’s all about.
In a bit I’m going to edit this post with an upload of the Table of Contents — just for David G. who asked very nicely, but also for all those who might be interested in taking a look at what’s “under the cover” so you can make an informed choice about whether Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging might be right for you.
Ask me your questions in the comments below, just like Robert did, and just as I did with this post, I’ll do my best to answer them all! (And don’t worry, Robert - this isn’t the end of the answer. Part 2 - and Reason #2 that blogs rule where lawyer marketing is concerned — is coming tomorrow.)
Update: Here it is, the Table of Contents for Cheap & Brilliant Blawgging in PDF format. (Ignore the page numbers — that happened because this draft was taken from the outline version. The actual book is now at 200+ pages.)
Stats — statistics on your blawg’s traffic and readership — are critical to your blawg’s success. While there’s no end of options to tracking blawg stats, especially for the WordPress self-hosted blawgger, not all stats packages are created equal and some are, in fact, more equal than others (apologies to Orwell).
In this post, we’re going to take a look at some of the options, and I’ll wrap up with a recommendation.
If you’re looking for a stats solution, the first decision you’ll likely look at is “plugin or standalone product?” Each, of course, has benefits and disadvantages. Most of the robust standalone products are web-based, and so each will require web access, although you can and should keep offline copies of key stats for your use and review in blawg management tasks.
As a practical matter, while I used to favor plugins, I have done a complete reversal on this issue and now prefer standalone products. The reason why is simple. Although plugins have the benefit of being self-contained in your blog dashboard, thus minimizing the need to navigate to other sites and keeping your information right there where it’s handy, in my experience this benefit is diminished somewhat by the sometimes extensive setup and optimization efforts that might be required. Many require tinkering with code, and for many blawggers that’s an off-putting proposition.
That being said, if the appeal of an in-blawg solution is too great to resist, then here are some of your top options:
Bear in mind this tiny list is but a fraction of what’s available for your experimentation and use; there are over 80 plugins listed at wp-plugins.net.
If you want to try some of the plugins mentioned here, or any others, you’ll need two things: patience, and a critical eye.
Make sure that what you’ve installed and are looking at gives you the information you want to keep track of. At a minimum, you should be able to keep track of referral links — other sites that send you traffic — so that you can review those sites and thank the referring blogger properly, as well as keep track of the conversation on those pages.
Likewise, you’ll want to know what keywords people are using to find your site. If you haven’t maximized the appropriate keywords, you’ll need to do some tweaking. And if they are using the keywords you’ve optimized on your site, you’ll want to know that, too, in order to keep doing what works.
Finally, don’t rush your decision. Give each plugin at least a day or two; I’d recommend more — a week is ideal, as it will allow for a more consistent comparison (due to daily fluctuations in traffic). Make note of how easy the results are to comprehend and navigate; how thorough the results are; and your overall impressions. Then, when you find one that works, stick with it. It’s far more important to have something up than to keep looking for “the perfect plugin.”
The tools provided by Google Analytics are pretty impressive, especially for a free standalone product. (But we expect that from Google now, don’t we? Look at Gmail, or Google Groups, or its suite of applications for office use — all free, all pretty impressive, though far from perfect.)
Is Google Analytics perfect? Far from it. It’s not (no matter what it says about itself) a “high-end enterprise” solution. But it is relatively simple to set up (just insert a bit of code in your HTML) and its point and click approach encourages exploration. This is a good thing.
As I said earlier, I recommend a standalone product. I’ve only been using this particular one for a few days. It was recommended to me by Nathan Parikh, who did some major work for my Inspired Solo blog recently, and its ease of use and thoroughness have completely won me over in just a few days.
The site is Clicky, and the basic user account is free. However, I recommend one of the premium accounts in order to maximize your results.
Yes, the premium accounts are a paid service, while plugins are free (as is Google Analytics). However, the old saying “you get what you pay for” is definitely true here. For a personal blog, or a creative project, I’d say the free plugins and Analytics are plenty. But this is your law practice, and if you’re doing it correctly, the blawg is a major tool in your marketing toolbox. Don’t skimp on the measurement of how well that tool is performing!
Clicky provides a great deal more functionality over other solutions, including Google Analytics. You can see this graphically represented at this comparison chart on the Clicky website. Some of the key functions I find useful are centered around the individual user — tracking links that each user clicks, learning what each reader does and in what order and for how long … these things are useful pieces of information to have for a blogger!
Accounts range from free to $17/month (discount pricing for yearly payment is available); for more information on the various accounts, see this chart.
Don’t just sit there — put something up on your site! While there’s no need to go crazy and obsess over your stats, information in this case truly is power. The more you know, the more you can tweak your blawg to result in a higher rate of conversion and more accurate TR appeal. And that, after all, is the bottom line.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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).
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blawg directories, blawgworld 2007