Hyperlinks are the oxygen of blogging

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Successful blogging depends mostly on two basic skills: strong writing, and strategic use of hyperlinks. Before you learn strategy you need to understand some basic concepts about linking. As you may know (consciously or unconsciously), there are two kinds of hyperlinks:

The “unmasked hyperlink” shows the complete URL of the link location, while the “masked hyperlink” has verbiage that hides the link. Unmasked links can be ugly and unwieldy (see e.g. http://paperlesschase.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=161586bdca519674251c7a4c6&id=e90b1d482b). Who wants to look at a link like that? No one.

Unmasked hyperlinks are like cockroaches: impervious to extermination. Some people claim unmasked hyperlinks are more secure because one can can easily see what the link destination is. That’s usually, but not always, true. Usually, unmasked links point to the destination described in the long, ugly text. But scammers and hackers can easily create a masked link that looks like an unmasked one. So, unmasked links are ugly and sometimes even deceptive.

Hopefully you now have a firm grasp on the two types of hyperlinks. By the way, not everyone calls them “masked links” but the US Courts do and if you’re a lawyer that might matter to you. Point is: obsessing over the “official name” isn’t important; what matters is that you now know what to call the kind of links you’re never going to use in your blog posts.

I’ll have more to say about the strategy of linking in future posts.

Excellent thoughts on Blogging by lawyer Sam Glover

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Sam Glover of Lawyerist.com knows a lot about blogging, and what it takes to for lawyers to be successful at it. Here's his take...​

Writing great content is job number one for a would-be law blogger, but a great blog with no visitors is sort of like a tree falling in a forest. A blogger recently told me she had been writing her blog for 3 or 4 years, and had little traffic to show for it. She wanted to know what she could do to get her blog noticed.

3 or 4 years is a long time to go without visitors. She obviously has the necessary commitment to write a blog. Assuming she is doing a good job of blogging, there are a few things she should be doing besides just writing blog posts that will help bring readers to her blog.


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How to get reporters to call you

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Having a law blog that establishes a niche area that you are expert in, and can explain in clear prose, will help reporters find you. This is obviously a good thing.

Still, when you are first starting your blog there won't be much content to lure in reporters doing Google searches. You can attract them in another way (and having a blog will help).

Join HARO, which stands for "help a reporter out." It's a free online resources: you'll be emailed daily leads on stories that reporters are working on, looking for sources for those stories. If you take 5 minutes a day to scan for stories where you might be able to contribute your expertise, it's possible you'll get quoted as a source, which is a great way to get additional exposure, and build credibility. And maybe another client.

Unknown Lawyer - Why is your phone not ringing?

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​Have you heard of The Unknown Lawyer. No, of course not. He doesn't have a website, or a blog. He hasn't claimed his online profiles at major law sites like Avvo.com or Justia.com. I understand that some lawyers are busy and don't feel like starting a blog; but who doesn't want potential clients to be able to find them on the Internet?

Yes, in a world filled with people who slurp attention like wild dogs, it's refreshing to see someone shun it. So, we raise our crystal in toast; Unknown lawyer who doesn't care about the Internet, we salute you!

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5 Questions for an online marketing guru: Avvo's Mark Britton

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Mark Britton is the Founder and CEO of Avvo.com, and knows a boatload about how internet search traffic works, in particular how websites can be optimized to rank higher in Google searches. I began by asking him to define the phrase “a core web presence,” and explain its role in online legal marketing.

Answer: "I coined the term “Core Web Presence” to reinforce a “hub and spoke” strategy for online legal business development and marketing.  In its simplest form it is a website, blog or directory profile where the lawyer exhibits his or her wares – the lawyer’s digital storefront, if you will.  The modern Web offers many distractions, so it is important that a lawyer focus the majority of his or her time and money on a single CWP that shouts, “Hey, this is where to learn more about the real me!”...

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Lawyers to follow on Twitter

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In Lesson 7 of my book, Blogging in One Hour for Lawyers, I recommend that law bloggers set up a Twitter account and use it to help build their audience.

Twitter is a great resource even if you're not a blogger; there is no better way to keep up with breaking news. The trick is to follow folks who tweet about things you care about. In the beginning, if you're like most new Twitter users, you'll prefer following lawyers who tweet almost exclusively about law topics (e.g. keeping the perrsonal stuff to a minimum). Later you'll find you prefer more variety, but I understand the typical new Twitter user's mindset.

So, here are some of the lawyers on Twitter that do a good job putting out useful information, and who stay focused on the law (again, not saying there is anything wrong with those who are more varied!):

Web host moved to Squarespace: good news

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I moved the hosting for this blog to Squarespace (away from Typepad) this weekend. I will have more to say about why I did this, but the short answer is it's a lot easier to update a Squarespace blog, and you have more options for how you manage content. In the book, I recommended that attorneys who can get help setting up a blog opt for a Wordpress site; that's still my recommendation.

I still like and recommend Typepad, but I'd say that Squarespace is a little easier to set up and configure. A basic Squarespace site costs the same as a basic Typepad site, but Squarespace includes a free domain name, which they configure for you. For what it's worth, I've moved all my blogs over to Squarespace, except for my company blog: PaperlessChase.com and my law firm site.

5 Questions for a law blogger: SCOTUSblog

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Tom Goldstein started SCOTUS Blog, which provides timely and incisive coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court. He and Amy Howe, are both lawyers in a firm that focuses its practice almost exclusively on the Supreme Court. Amy, who is now the editor of the blog, offers these thoughts. 

1): Did you have any unexpected benefits from blogging (if so, what were they)?  

Not sure that these qualify as “benefits” as such, but we were certainly surprised by the extent to which we have become a resource for non-lawyers as well as lawyers. 

2): Were there any unexpected challenges to blogging?  

One big challenge that we continue to face is putting content on the blog during the lengthy stretches in which the Court is in recess:  there’s a long stretch in the middle of winter, and then again from the end of June until the end of September, when the Court isn’t hearing oral arguments, issuing opinions, or considering new cert. petitions.  Trying to generate content during these stretches usually requires a lot of advance planning.

3): Looking back to when you started your blog, what did you envision would happen?  

We originally envisioned the blog as a business development tool – it would demonstrate that we knew a lot about the Court and would lead to a lot of additional business.  In reality, it hasn’t worked out that way at all, but on the other hand it has developed into an institution of sorts, with its own standing, that provides the public with information about the Court.

4): Given what you know now, what advice would you give a lawyer who’s just beginning to blog?  

Do it because you enjoy it and want to delve into a particular area, rather than as a business development tool.  It could well turn out to be a business development tool, but that’s an added bonus if it happens. 

5): If you were going to start over, what three things might you do differently?  

I can think of at least one thing (this is not to say that I think we did everything right, but just that the origins of the blog have now becomes sufficiently fuzzy that I’m having a hard time remembering), which is that I would have done more in terms of quality control in our early years; we didn’t have any central vetting process for our posts, and I cringe to think of the errors that we probably had when we were starting out.

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5 Questions for a Law Blogger: Sharon Nelson

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Sharon Nelson is the author of Ride the Lightning, a weblog about electronic evidence and information security. Sharon is a lawyer, and speaker, and the founder of Sensei Enterprises, which helps lawyers and law firms with electronic evidence and forensic issues. She and her co-host, Jim Calloway, interviewed me for their podcast, and asked me some questions about the benefits of blogging, but here I take the chance to ask her about her blogging experiences:

 

1): Have you had any unexpected benefits from blogging (if so, what are they)?

 

Regular blogging keeps me incredibly current in e-discovery and information security. And I’ve unexpectedly made friends with people that I don’t know in person – and some of those friendships have crossed over into real life, which has been wonderful.

 

 2): Were there any unexpected challenges to blogging?

 

It is difficult to be a commentator on important issues and still inject your posts with bursts of humor and personality.  I still struggle with the “right voice.”

 

3): Looking back to when you started, what did you envision would happen?

 

I expected that I would ultimately attract reporters, but there has been a flood of them – more than I ever thought possible. I thought that blogging would result in more client leads and speaking engagements and that proved to be true.

 

4): Given what you know now, what advice would you give a lawyer who’s just beginning to blog?

 

Blog at least three times a week. Sift materials as you read to post the hottest, most current topics. Find the voice that is unique to you. If you aren’t naturally funny, your attempts to be humorous may fall flat. But sterile writing doesn’t attract readers so find a personality that works for you. And stay at it. Nothing is as off-putting as a stale blog.

 

5): If you were going to start over, what three things would you do differently?

 

I learned that posting 4 times a week was important in the fast-moving world of digital forensics and information security. So, I would have posted more.

 

I’d have a call to action that’s clear on the blog – this helps convert blogging into marketing without having the marketing in the blog posts. That has been corrected.

 

In the beginning, I wasn’t thinking about how users search for topics. So now I use keywords more carefully. Also, I wasn’t thinking  that I shouldn’t use the exact title of an article I was quoting from and linking to – doing that meant my posts were lost in the search results. Now I mix up the title a little and I find that Google’s search engine loves me. 

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Harnessing the power of Twitter with the Buffer service

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If you have a blog then you should have a Twitter account to go with it. When I was searching for a domain name for this blog I also searched to see if the same name was available on Twitter. I only committed to buy the domain name once I knew I could get the same Twitter handle.

Having a twitter feed to accompany your blog is important for a couple of reasons. First, a lot of people rely on Twitter for their news. Not that they believe that they can learn all the important news by reading 140 character blurbs, but rather they do it to get a sense of what are the breaking news stories. Breaking news on Twitter will usually have a link to a website or blog post containing details about that story.

And that’s one big reason you should have a Twitter feed: so you can announce your new blog posts there (and on LinkedIn, Facebook and other sites). You don’t even have to take time to do this. You can set up your blog to automatically tweet when you release a new blog post. But using Twitter for this purpose alone is a waste of the true power of Twitter.

Unless you’re one of the exceptionally rare bloggers, you won’t be posting more than a few times a week at best. That means your Twitter stream will be pretty paltry. And, therefore, it probably won’t be attractive to new followers.

That brings me to the real reason you want to have a Twitter feed: you want to attract a loyal following of people who are likely to read, and perhaps link to, the blog posts you publish. Growing that loyal following takes a steady stream of tweets.

Fortunately, a tweet only contains 140 characters so it’s not like it takes a long time to create a tweet. And with the right tools, and the right strategy, creating a stream of interesting tweets that will last for a week can take less than 5 minutes. But there is a small catch.

You need to be consuming much of your news online, either on your computer or on your mobile device or smartphone. Gathering news from blogs is best done with an RSS reader, and the best place to start with this is with the free Google Reader. Use this tool to subscribe to blogs with interesting content that’s relevant to your blog.

You also want to follow the Twitter feeds of those bloggers, and to other relevant or interesting twitter feeds. Now you’ve got two super-efficient ways to keep up with stuff that you can use to tweet out: RSS feeds for blog posts, and Twitter users you follow to keep up with breaking news.

What you need now is some receptacle into which you can dump tweets as you find them, but which will release them according to a strategic schedule. Why do you need this? Because people on Twitter are finicky about their streams, and you need to cater to their whims.

For example, if you’re gathering news from blogs and Twitter at 10 pm you don’t want to have all the tweets you’ve collected go out all at once at 10 pm. Few people want to see all of your tweets in their stream at once, and fewer people are checking Twitter at night. Those that are checking at 10 pm don’t want to get 12 tweets bundled together from one person. When that happens they’ll immediately unsubscribe (called “unfollow” in Twitter lingo) your feed.

The solution is a service called Buffer, which is free for a small number of tweets. Try it to see how it works before you pay for it. Odds are you’ll find it indispensable and keep using it, perhaps opting to pay for the premium features.

Most RSS readers and Twitter clients hook into Buffer. And so that means as you’re reading blogs or tweets you can simply dump them into your Buffer stream. You will have set up your Buffer account so that your tweets only go out on certain days and at certain times. For instance, you could have tweets go out on Tuesday through Friday at 9:30 am, 1:30 pm and 4:45 pm. If you fill up your Buffer stream with 12 tweets on Monday night you’ll have tweets going out all week at those set times.

Once you get the hang of this you’ll see that creating a steady stream of interesting tweets that are relevant to your blog topic is ridiculously easy. The hard part is set up your RSS feeds and build up a good group of Twitter folks to follow. It’s not so much that it’s hard, but it takes commitment (which happens in small chunks over time).

Here is a link to the section of a video I did for a law school class on Google’s RSS reader; that short section should help you figure out the RSS thing. I also cover setting up an RSS reader in my book: Blogging in One Hour for Lawyers. Trust me, if you have a blog you need to set up a Twitter feed for it, and then keep that feed filled with interesting stuff. Using Buffer will help you do that, but you have to get your news gathering tools together first.

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5 Questions for a blogger: Tom Mighell

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Attorney Tom Mighell works for Contoural, Inc. helping lawyers to develop records management programs, but back when he started his law blog (Inter-alia.net) he was a litigator with a prestigious Dallas law firm. Tom's keen interest in technology has made him a leading light in the ABA, and he's written several books on legal technology, including two on using iPads. He's also a past Chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section. If anyone can offer useful perspective on law-related blogging, it's Tom. So, I asked him the usual 5 questions, and here are his answers.

 

1. Have there been any unexpected benefits to blogging, and if so, what are they?

 

For me, the most surprising benefit of blogging has been the "presence" that it created for me on the Internet.  Because of the blog, I suddenly found myself being asked to speak around the country and write articles and books for legal outlets.  And all because I had a presence on the Internet, where I could provide useful information to lawyers on Internet legal research and technology.  In retrospect, this benefit really shouldn't have been unexpected, but back in 2002 when blogs were just getting started, we didn't know quite what to expect when we launched our blogs.

 

2. What unexpected challenges did you find in blogging?

 

Not having the time to blog was not an unexpected challenge - but I was naive to think I could always keep up the volume of posts I published in the early days of blogging.  I was posting 2-3 items every day, and for a couple of years I kept up this punishing routine - when work and other commitments started to take up more of my time, I actually felt guilty that I wasn't posting as often as before.  So I guess the unexpected challenge was trying to find the right balance in my blogging routine - that maybe one or two posts a week, or even one post every two weeks, would be enough, and still keep readers interested.

 

3. What did you envision would happen when you first started blogging?

 

Is it unfair to say I don't remember?  It has been 10 years!  I started the blog for two reasons:  1) I wanted my own website, and a blog was a quick, easy way to set one up; and 2) I wanted to expand the channels through which I could deliver information on Internet legal research to lawyers and other legal professionals.  I had no idea that 10 years later, I would have written several books, appeared just about all over the country speaking to lawyers on technology issues, and become involved with a great group of law practice management experts.  I just thought I would get more readers for my newsletter.

 

4. Given what you know now about blogging, what advice would you give to lawyers contemplating taking the plunge?

 

Don't go into it without a game plan.  If you just start without thinking it through, you may get frustrated and quit if something doesn't go the way you expect.  By conducting some due diligence - figuring out the best blogging platform, determining your target audience, committing to a posting schedule, etc. - you  stand a better chance of keeping the blog going.

 

5. If you were going to start this over again, what things might you do differently?

 

I probably would have moved to new blogging technologies faster, as they developed.  I stuck with my old, ancient blogging platform for years, even after the developer had stopped supporting it.  By the time I upgraded to what I think is the best blogging platform (WordPress, by the way), I was playing catchup to most of the bloggers I know.  If you plan to blog over the long haul, it pays to keep up with the latest blogging tools - developers are always finding new ways to make blogs more interesting, offer greater features, and make them much easier for technology newbies to use. A little homework goes a long way. 

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Wordpress is the best option if you want to blog

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Recently Bob Ambrogi, a good friend and eminent legal blogger (Lawsites.com), penned a favorable review of my book, Blogging in One Hour for Lawyers. The only quibble he had is that I emphasized TypePad over Wordpress as a blogging platform. His criticism is legitimate, and I agree that Wordpress is the best platform, and that attorneys should opt for it if possible.

So why didn't I emphasize Wordpress as much as TypePad?

Here's the backstory: when I was writing the book I decided to describe the process of setting up a blog by actually doing it myself. Despite the fact that I have set up several blogs, I found the process of setting up a Wordpress blog very difficult to do, and impossible (for me, at least) to explain. I decided that a book with the title "Blogging in One Hour" should be something that any lawyer could pick up and use to set up a blog. Not necessarily in one hour, because there is a lot that goes into setting up a blog, especially if you've never fooled with websites.

So, I opted for TypePad as the platform I'd use to describe the blow-by-blow setup process. I'm confident that any lawyer, regardless of tech-proficiency, can follow my description and set up their own blog. I tried to balance the emphasis on Typepad with periodic encouragement for folks who weren't tech-savvy to either hire someone or find a tech-savvy relative and opt for Wordpress. Hopefully, that message gets picked up by readers who are serious about blogging. I firmly believe, as Bob and most others do, that Wordpress is the best blogging platform.

Since I wrote the book I've discovered some online resources that can help folks set up a Wordpress blog. The best one, I believe, is an online course from Udemy.com called Wordpress 3 for Beginners. It costs $69 to subscribe to the course, but you can always go back and watch it again later if you want to follow up on any of the lectures. The course has over 3 hours of content, and 39 lectures, most of which are less than 5 minutes long. 

Here are some of the things that the course covers:

  • Picking a Web Host
  • One Click Installations
  • Setting Up the Foundation
  • What is a Theme?
  • Theme Settings
  • Widgets
  • Customizing Appearance
  • Finding and Installing Plugings
  • Navigating Wordpress
  • Creating & Organizing Posts
  • Adding Pages
  • Moderating Comments
  • Inserting & formatting text
  • Inserting Images, Audio, and Video
  • Security and Updates
  • Backups

The course isn't geared towards lawyers, obviously. But it will teach you the rudiments of setting up and maintaining a Wordpress blog. My book does more than teach you how to set up a blog, and so for lawyers I think that most of the content is useful regardless of which platform you choose. I agree Wordpress is the way to go, and if you're fairly certain that you will not abandon blogging quickly then you should opt for it over Typepad, or any other choices out there. 

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5 Questions for a Law Blogger: Townsend Myers

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Townsend Myers is a criminal lawyer in New Orleans, focusing on state court actions. His weblog is called NOLA Criminal Law. He also makes effective use of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google Plus. Here are his answers to my stock 5 questions:

 

1. Have there been any unexpected benefits to blogging, and if so, what are they?

 

Pure enjoyment of writing about things that interest me. I thought this was just going to be about generating buzz and SEO juice. It's been a real surprise how much I enjoy doing it.

 

2. What unexpected challenges did you find in blogging?

 

Time, time, time. Plain and simple. Having a full time job, then trying to find time to blog about your full time job is tough.

 

3. What did you envision would happen when you first started blogging?

 

I thought I would just churn out some ok content about things I was marginally interested in to try to generate some buzz.

 

4. Given what you know now about blogging, what advice would you give to lawyers contemplating taking the plunge?

 

Write about things that are interesting to you. Think about hiring someone to help with writing copy and editing.

 

5. If you were going to start this over again, what things might you do differently?

 

a. Establish a schedule for writing and posting.

b. Work with someone to help with copy and editing (and occasionally ideas as well)

c. Integrate my blog with my main site instead of establishing two separate sites.

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5 Questions for a Law Blogger: Molly DiBianca

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Here are 5 questions for long time law blogger Molly DiBianca, who practices law with Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP in Delaware. She publishes the Delaware Employment Law Blog, a continual honoree by the ABA in its Blawg 100 list of top legal blogs. Molly also posts on Twitter at @MollyDiBi.

 

1. Have there been any unexpected benefits to blogging, and if so, what are they?

 

There are more benefits to blogging than I could name. I have met so many wonderful people, both other bloggers and readers, and have developed great friendships and referral sources. The blog also serves as a great research tool that I use frequently. 

 

One of the more surprising benefits is the impact on my Google rank, which has value that money can’t buy.  And, because of the blog’s good search-engine optimization (SEO), I get calls from national publications about the hot topic of the moment. As a result of that publicity, I am able to secure more national speaking engagements, which I enjoy immensely. All of these components have helped me secure new clients and cases and to develop loyalty among my current clients. 

 

Being named to the ABA Journal’s list of the Top 100 Blogs in the country was an absolute shock, as I never petitioned readers to nominate my blog.  It’s an incredible honor that I certainly did not expect but that I am incredibly thankful for.

 

2. What unexpected challenges did you find in blogging?

 

At the risk of exposing my true level of dorkiness, the biggest challenge of blogging is trying not to blog. Blogging is one of the most enjoyable parts of my work and it can be difficult to pull myself away when client-related work needs to take priority. 

 

I suppose the other challenge is keeping up with all of the excellent blogs in my practice area.  When I started my blog, there were about 50 high-quality blogs written by employment lawyers. Today, there are three times that, with more cropping up ever day. Having more resources and more great people to meet is a problem I think I can live with. 

 

3. What did you envision would happen when you first started blogging?

 

My motives were fairly academic. When I started to blog, I hoped that it would give me a reason to stay up to date in my practice area and share that knowledge with my colleagues and clients.  

 

4. Given what you know now about blogging, what advice would you give to lawyers contemplating taking the plunge?

 

Understand the medium before you try to lay claim to it.  By this, I mean that no one should write a blog unless he is a loyal blog reader.  It’s always easy to spot a blogger who doesn’t read blogs because they make the mistakes and missteps of a amateur. That image will not help you develop a readership and certainly won’t help you get new clients.

 

The other tip I would offer is to ask questions, particularly of the bloggers you admire.  We tend to be a pretty friendly group of people and are happy to offer suggestions. Particularly once you get your blog up and running, you should consider soliciting some honest feedback from other bloggers.

 

5. If you were going to start this over again, what things might you do differently?

 

Nothing. 

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5 Questions for a Law Blogger: Jeff Richardson

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Jeff Richardson’s iPhoneJD weblog has been going strong for 4 years, and this year his blog was chosen for the 4th time as an ABA Top 100 Blawg. Jeff is a partner in a large New Orleans based law firm, specializing in appellate litigation and representing defendants in class actions and complex litigation. His blog output is abundant and always incisive. If you have an iPhone or iPad then you should be reading Jeff’s blog every day, because that’s about how often he posts new stuff.

 

In writing my book about blogging for lawyers I asked Jeff if he’d answer 5 questions about his blogging experiences. If anyone can give sound advice on how to create and maintain a successful blog, it’s Jeff. So, here's the Q&A:

 

1. Have there been any unexpected benefits to blogging, and if so, what are they?

 

I'm surprised how often I will meet someone for the first time and they already know who I am because of iPhone J.D.  It's a nice icebreaker.  I had hoped to experience some of that when I first started the blog, but it still seems like a nice surprise every time it happens.

 

2. What unexpected challenges did you find in blogging?

 

I write blog posts more quickly than I write legal briefs, but unfortunately that sometimes results in typos and awkward sentences.  I am constantly reminded how nice it would be to have a copyeditor and in my day job, I appreciate even more the value of getting comments on my writing from partners, co-counsel and even clients.

 

3. What did you envision would happen when you first started blogging?

 

I had two goals.  First, I thought it would be fun to gain a greater understanding of everything that I could do with an iPhone (and later the iPad too) by having a reason to review a broad range of software and hardware products.  Second, I had hoped that the blog would be a way to make contacts with other people around the country.  Both goals have been achieved, although frankly I never would have predicted how large my readership would have grown.

 

4. Given what you know now about blogging, what advice would you give to lawyers contemplating taking the plunge?

 

Don't do it unless you have a narrow focus that you are interested in.  Adding posts on a regular schedule is difficult and will never be worth it if you don't have a passion for what you are doing.  Don't just start a blog for the sake of starting a blog.  When you have a narrow focus you can dive deep into that area and over time you will become an expert in that area, which will result in more traffic from others who have the same interest and who value your insight.  Also, I think that some of the best bloggers let their personality shine through.  Don't just report the news; provide your own commentary and, when appropriate, share nuggets from your own experiences.

 

5. If you were going to start this over again, what things might you do differently?

 

I disagree with the premise of this question.  One of the nice things about blogging is that it is dynamic.  If you try something for a few months and it doesn't seem to be working, you can just change your focus, change your software, or even start a new blog to get a fresh start while building upon what you learned before.  Eventually you will settle into a groove that works for you, and you cannot get there without making some mistakes along the way.  Having said that, before I first started iPhone J.D., it was incredibly valuable to talk to a few other people who had been blogging for a while -- they happened to have been attorneys, but that isn't a requirement -- to get technical advice on getting started and ideas for a workflow.  Before getting started, I recommend reaching out to other bloggers whose work you admire.

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Which lawyers should read my book on blogging?

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The book is helpful for lawyers who: (1) are contemplating whether to have a website or blog; or (2) are committed to having a web-presence and want to know how to proceed; or (3) have a website or blog and want to know how to get more out of it. If you fit in more than one of those categories the book is even more useful. Here's how to quickly get the most out of the book, depending on where you are with blogging:

 

1. Are you contemplating whether to start a weblog, and wondering what the benefits are, and what’s entailed with setting up a weblog? Here are the key chapters you should focus on

  • Lesson 1: Basic Questions Explains where blogs came from, why you should establish one, and what you should consider before you do, including ethics issues related to blogging.
  • Lesson 2: Examining the Blog Anatomy Talks about the components of a blog and the elements of a typical blog post.
  • Lesson 7: Getting Attention and Monitoring It Teaches how to build an audience and keep it growing, as well as how to measure your blog’s traffic and how to craft posts that raise your blog’s profile with search engines.
  • Lesson 8: Gathering Information Explains how to come up with good material to write about, and how to gather that information efficiently.
  • Appendix:
    • Recommended Legal Blogs - Will identify good blogs, of different types, to read and study
    • Checklist for New Bloggers - Will give you a quick sense of all the things that go into setting up a blog.

2. Are you committed to starting a blog, and want to have a sense of how you’d hire someone to set it up, what to talk to them about, or how you’d set one up yourself?

  • Lesson 2: Examining the Blog Anatomy Talks about the components of a blog and the elements of a typical blog post.
  • Lesson 3: Selecting Your Blog Tools Covers the prospect of hiring a company to help you set up your blog, or how to choose a good platform that you can use to set it up yourself.
  • Lesson 4: Setting Up Your Blog A step-by-step explanation of how to set up a blog, and which options to choose to make your blog work best. The lesson focuses on TypePad hosting and software, but the information and options apply to whatever blog software you choose.
  • Lesson 5: Designing Your Blog How to tweak the design of your blog, and select the right layout and colors. 
  • Appendix:
    • Checklist for New Bloggers - Will give you a quick sense of all the things that go into setting up a blog. 

3. Do you already have a blog and want to get more traffic, and build a stronger engagement with potential clients, journalists and others who might want to talk to someone with your expertise?

  • Lesson 6: Posting to Your Blog Covers how to create, edit, and format a blog post, and how to create proper hyperlinks. Also included are the use of multimedia content, such as images and movies, and social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter.
  • Lesson 7: Getting Attention and Monitoring It How to build an audience and keep it growing, as well as how to measure your blog’s traffic and how to craft posts that raise your blog’s profile with search engines.
  • Lesson 8: Gathering Information Explains how to come up with good material to write about, and how to gather that information efficiently.
  • Appendix:
    • Recommended Reading - lots of good resources for learning craft better posts, and engage more people
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Law bloggers should learn to use Twitter

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Lawyers who want to blog need to make effective use of Twitter. It's a terrific way of gathering information, and it's also incredibly useful for broadcasting information. Because Twitter limits you to 140 characters it's called a "micro-blogging" platform. However you choose to classify Twitter, it's clear that you need to understand how to use it. Lawyers and non-lawyers can learn a lot about Twitter by reading The Twitter Book, by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein. But lawyers should also get Jared Corriea's book Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers, an ABA publication in the same series as my book on Blogging.

The most challenging aspect of Twitter for new users is discovering who to follow. Obviously, this is a personal decision and you'll get the most benefit if you take time to cultivate a highly tailored stream of Twitter users to follow. But, here (from page 93 of my book) are a few suggestions that most lawyers will find useful. I've selected feeds that tend to talk only about the law and closely related topics:

  • SCOTUSBLOG - (twitter handle: @scotusblog) - covers news and decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court. 
  • Wall St. Journal Blog - (twitter handle: @wsjlawblog) - from the same folks who publish the Wall St. Journal Blog. Cutting edge stories well worth following.
  • Ed Adams - (twitter handle: @edadams) - former Editor of the ABA Journal, now an editor for Bloomberg Law. Excellent coverage of interesting topics and trends.
  • ABA Journal - (twitter handle: @abajournal) - Twitter feed from the ABA's flagship publication. 

I find it helpful to follow a large number of people, and it doesn't disturb me if they occassionally (or even often) tweet about personal things. But the above-mentioned twitter feeds are devoid of any personal tweets, which makes them good recommendations for almost any lawyer who is trying out Twitter for the first time. The twitter feed for this website is @onehrblog, and it will mention blogging tips of use to lawyers.

If you want to see an example of a twitter feed from a lawyer that does not focus strictly on law check out my @ernieattorney stream. I do often retweet (e.g. forward tweets) other lawyers' law-related tweets; and those retweets might be a good way to find other law-related twitter users. In fact, retweets are probably the way that I've found most of the folks I follow on Twitter. 

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