WP Greetbox is a plugin for Wordpress blogs that can help build readership to your law firm’s Wordpress blog. The creators of the plugin describe it as such:

This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url. For example, when a Digg user clicks through from Digg, they will see a message reminding them to digg your post if they like it. Another example, when a visitor clicks through from Twitter, they will see a message suggesting them to twit the post and follow you on Twitter.

The photo above is a snapshot of what WP Greetbox does when a visitor arrives on our blog from a Google search. A dropdown box appears below the title of the article inviting the user to take an action such as subscribing to your blog, retweeting the post, etc. It’s a great way to automate a call to action that appeals to the visitor. Since the call to action is customized based on how they arrived, it comes across as more personal than just a simple “subscribe to my blog” you place on the sidebar.

We have seen our subscriptions and readership increase since using this plugin. I highly recommend it.

Don’t take our word for it, see what Matt Cutts from Google had to say about WordPress at WordCamp 2009:

We are excited to release the newest guide for our library: AttorneySync’s Guide To Wordpress Blogs For Lawyers.

Wordpress is one of the most widely used platforms for blogging and websites.  We have put together this guide to help you learn about blogging for your firm with Wordpress including:

• What Is A Blog & Why You Should Have One
• Getting Started With Wordpress
• Wordpress.org vs Wordpress.com
• Wordpress Essentials
• Your Wordpress Blog & Social Media
• Wordpress Plugins & Resources

You can download the Guide To Wordpress Blogs For Lawyers here.

AttorneySync is excited to be releasing a new guide today, AttorneySync’s Guide To Guest Blogging For Lawyers.

Just like newspapers and magazines have “guest-authors” or “guest-contributors”, blawgs have guest-blawggers. But finding good guest-blawggers and becoming a good guest-blawgger yourself, can be a little challenging.

The following guide outlines some simple things to keep in mind when you’re considering being a guest-blawgger or posting guest-blawgger posts on your own blawg. We also layout benefits including:

• Exposure To New Readership
• Building Authority For Your Own Blawg
• Forming Relationships With Other Lawyers and Blawggers
• Assistance With New Content
• Fresh Perspectives and New Ideas For Your Readers

We will break down these benefits and show you how to successfully go about guest blawgging.

Download the Guide To Guest Blogging For Lawyers Here!

I heard a story recently about an unfortunate situation between a legal blog designer and one of their clients.  The lawyer had a falling out with the developer and was told that if  she chose to no longer host the blog with them, she would not be able to take the design or the content.  The blog was created on Wordpress, a popular platform that is free for anyone to use.  There was no agreement in place ahead of time, so she was at the mercy of the developer in this situation.  I am not so much commenting on who is right or wrong in this situation, only that it is important to have the answers to a few questions before you have your blog or website developed.  If you have the proper expectations and are on the same page with your blog designer and host, your experience will be that much better.

Here are 5 questions to ask before making your purchase:

1. Do I get to keep the blog design if I choose not to host with you? The answer to this depends on a number of things.  Some companies have proprietary software that the blog is created on.  The software was created by the blog design company and comes packaged with hosting.  If you choose to leave their company, you can not take their software with you.  Typically you still own the content you created, but will have to move it to another platform if you want to leave.  However, some legal blogs are designed on platforms that are free for anyone to use, such as Wordpress.  A company that creates a Wordpress legal blog might offer to host the blog as well for a monthly fee.  Make sure you understand ahead of time what happens if  you don’t want them to host your blog any longer.

2. Do I get to keep the content I produce? You put the blood, sweat, and tears into writing your legal blog.  Just make sure you get to keep whatever content you spent the time to produce.

3. What kind of changes can I make to the layout myself, such as adding elements to the blogroll, etc? Your blog is a dynamic, evolving thing.  You might want to add different elements to your blog as time passes.  Most blogs give you the ability to add links to a blogroll, but maybe you want your Twitter feed on the sidebar of your blog too.  In any case, make sure you understand the extent to which you can add something to your blog yourself or what you need to make requests for.

4. Do I own the domain name? If you go with a personalized domain name, make sure you own the domain name for your blog even if your blog company takes care of registering it for you.  I’ve heard of situations where firms put in the effort to build the authority and get their domain name ranked only to find out later on their designer owned the domain.

5. Can I get this in writing? It’s funny I am even mentioning this to lawyers, but unfortunately I have seen too many verbal agreements between developers and firms.  Better that everyone is on the same page before a problem arises, not afterwards.

Photo by Leo Reynolds

Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers Want to learn how guest blogging can help build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers.

So you finally took the plunge and started a legal blog for your firm or you’ve been happily blogging for awhile. Either way, your legal blog is an important part of developing your law firm’s brand. It’s crucial that you come across professional and actually convey a sense of understanding how to put together a cohesive blog. Here is a list of 5 mistakes that legal bloggers should avoid:

1. Erratic posting. This is an easy mistake to slip into, especially for busy lawyers. Post one day, then nothing for a month. Then write three posts in two days and nothing for another five weeks. It’s important to be consistent with your blogging. Whether it’s a post or week or better yet, two to three posts a week. Take some time to plan out a few ideas for posts. Write several when you get the time and then publish them in steady intervals. The key here is being consistent so your readers stay engaged.

2. Creating a category for every post. Categories are meant to represent broader themes that your blog is about. The categories for your blog should be thought about ahead of time, they are the basis for the material you publish in your blog. It is a mistake to create a new category for each post.

3. Using post titles that don’t let readers know what the post is about. I’ve blogged in the past about writing good titles for your legal blog. Your title should convey to the reader the material they will read about in the post. Take a look at the story titles on CNN or in a newspaper. They are usually intriguing, sometimes creative, but they always let you know what the lead is. This is important for your blog as well. You want to entice readers to check out your article, but at least give them a taste of what the material is about.

4. Spreading yourself thin with your blog material. It’s important to have a focus with your blog. The best legal blogs represent a writer’s expertise in a niche of the legal world. This is what helps brand you as a thought leader in that niche. Trying to cover absolutely every practice area you have ever dealt with, every legal news topic, etc. makes your blog appear unfocused and disorganized. It’s better to appeal to your small segment of devoted readers than to a large swath of people across many topics.

5. Have your blog residing on a generic blogging domain name. You are putting in the time (which you have very little of) to write and maintain a legal blog. You want the blog to come across as professional and put together. Spend the extra couple of dollars and get an original domain name for your firm’s blog. Having your legal blog reside on yourfirm.typepad.com or yourfirm.wordpress.com isn’t nearly as professional as www.yourfirm.com.

Photo by Lady Madonna

Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers Want to learn how guest blogging can help build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers.

Are You Feeling Stuck?

A blog should be one of the cornerstones of you lawyer marketing efforts.   A well written blog takes a lot of time and energy.  One of the most difficult things is constantly coming up with interesting ideas for your legal blog posts.  I have made a list of 10 ideas to get the ball rolling when you’re feeling short on ideas.

1.  Make A List – People on the web love to read lists. The short concise bullets are easy to digest and fit perfectly with the way content on the web is consumed. Build a list around your expertise and don’t forget to let people know you created a list in your title (you’ll get more click through’s this way).

2.  Share Good Links – Finding good content on the web isn’t as easy as it may seem. Just because a search engine algorithm returns it doesn’t mean it’s great content. Your readers will appreciate a list of links to articles, resources, stories, etc. that you found compelling, interesting, or useful. They are reading your blog because they like your ideas, it would only make sense they will have interest in other resources you found useful.

3. Tell A Story - There is nothing more compelling than a great story. Writing about an experience you had with an anonymous client, a personal life event, or otherwise is great blog material. It gives your blog a voice and shows your human side. People identify with that and are more likely to engage (which is the whole point of the blog in the first place!)

4. Share Your Legal Expertise - You have put in the blood, sweat, and tears to gain the legal expertise you have today. Leverage that into informational posts. People have questions about your legal services, your firm, etc. Try answering these questions in a public forum. Obviously you want to be careful with regards to giving any legal advice, but there are plenty of general questions and knowledge you can safely and effectively put out there.

5.  Read Other Legal Blogs – Subscribe to other industry blogs and stay current on the posts. It’s a great way to get a feel for the popular legal industry topics as well as injecting new ideas for your own posts.

6.  Have A Guest Blogger – Are you as busy as the rest of us? Can’t find the time to blog this week? Try utilizing a guest blogger. It’s a great way to build relationships with other bloggers. Offer them a link back to their own blog or website for the effort. This can be a great way to change up the voice of your blog for a day and inject some fresh ideas and content.

7.  Write A Follow Up To Your Most Popular Posts – Take a look back at your traffic statistics and write a follow up to your most popular posts. The great thing about the internet is how trackable everything is. You can find out what your audience liked most and then give them more of it. Expand on the ideas or topics you previously laid out.

8.  Attend A Webinar - There are plenty of excellent, legal webinars you can attend for free. Explore topics you are interested in and leverage what you learn to write new posts. I found this to be extremely helpful for my own blog.

9.  Give Your Take On Hot Legal Stories – I don’t mean that you should be writing only about the latest celebrity criminal case. There are plenty of legal stories that are much closer to home or of interest to your particular niche of the legal world. Analyze the story and give your unique voice, opinion, and spin to it. Think as if you are writing an op-ed on a particular event. Your readers care what you have to say….take the time to throw your opinion out there on a big issue.

10.  Read A Book Or Article That Is Completely Unrelated – I find that sometimes it’s nice just to step away from your area of expertise and immerse yourself in a different world. Often this gives me some of my best blog post ideas. It helps to take a break once in awhile and often when you aren’t desparately trying to be creative and write…..the perfect post idea will strike you.

Photo by Mike D’Angelo

Free Guide: Writing Content For Your Law Firm’s Website Want to learn how writing content for your firm’s site can help bring in business? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Writing Web Content For Lawyers.

We have all heard the proverb “don’t judge a book by its cover”.  Unfortunately, we are victims of our human nature and every day we filter out the “noise” by quickly judging things to determine if they are worth our time.  We must learn the art of creating captivating blog post titles so that when people are checking out the proverbial “book covers” on the web, they stop to see what we have to say.

Your best content will remain undiscovered if you don’t make the effort to write effective titles.

Here are five ideas to improve the effectiveness of your legal blog titles:

1. Ask a Question – A provocative question creates curiosity.  People want to find out the answer and feel inclined to click through to read more.  This is especially true when the question addresses a specific need or concern and promises to answer a problem the reader identifies with.  For instance I wrote a popular post a little while back titled: “Lawyer Marketing Definitions: What are RSS Feeds and Why Should I Care?“.  People who didn’t know what RSS feeds were clicked through to find out and have the question addressed.

2. Check Out Magazine Covers for Ideas – Magazine copywriters are some of the best around.  A magazine is located on a rack with hundreds of other choices surrounding it.  They have just a few seconds to grab your attention with an attractive cover and create the desire to read more with headlines about the articles.  Pay attention to the words they use and how they structure the headline.  You can learn a lot from professionals that have been doing this for a long time.

3. Use Numbers in Your Title and Lists for Your Posts – I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating:  People on the web love lists.  It creates concise, bulleted information that can be digested quickly and easily.  If you are reading this post right now, you are seeing an example of using a number in the headline to capture a reader’s attention.  There is a funny, comedy site called Cracked that does a nice job of using this technique with many of their posts.

4. Solve a problem – People who are reading your legal post don’t care about you.  They care about their own wants, needs, and problems.  If you offer a solution to a problem they identify with, you will have yourself a reader.  A good example of this is a post I wrote titled: “5 Ways to Attract More Readers to Your Legal Blog“.  The headline was effective because it solved a problem others identified with: the need to get more readers.

5. State a Benefit or Explain How to do Something -  Giving practical advice is always eye-catching.  Even though things may seem routine or simple to an expert, there are plenty of people out there that don’t have the knowledge you do.  This is especially applicable to lawyers.  Legal issues are complex and intimidating.  Offering simple how to’s (perhaps how to hire a legal professional or how to handle the aftermath of a legal incident) will make for great legal blog post titles.

Remember to keep your titles short when possible.  A good rule of thumb is 9 words or less.  Also, be sure to capitalize the first letter of each important word in your headline.

Photo by reinvented

Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers Want to learn how guest blogging can help build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers.

So, you’re convinced of the numerous benefits of participating in the blawgosphere (world of law blogs).  But with so many blawgs out there, and so little time, how do you choose where to start?  Here a couple solid blawg rankings that will help you get started:

ABA top 100 Blogs

Avvo blawg rankings

2008 Best Law Blogs

Take a minute to quickly flip through some of the top blawgs.  Then, go back and pick 10 blawgs that peak your interest.  Add them to your favorite blog reader, and make a commitment to check those 10 blawgs on a daily basis.