Publishing seems so glamorous ... to non-publishers. As many lawyers turned bloggers have learned, publishing is a grind in which you're only as good as your last article. While blogging software has dramatically reduced the amount of grunt work, it hasn't eliminated it completely. Therefore, I present to you my top five unglamorous legal blogging tips:
1. Write your posts in an HTML or text editor, not in your Web browser. Most of us post to our blogs using a Web browser. But browsers don't enable you to save your work with a quick Control-S, which means most bloggers don't save their work frequently. If you accidentally close your browser window, poof — all gone.
Instead, use an HTML or text editor to create a template for your blog posts. Write your posts there and use your browser only for posting. As an added bonus, you'll automatically have a backup of every post on your hard drive.
2. Consider using recurring features. Or as I call them — the difference between amateur and professional publishing. Recurring features provide personality and structure to your blog, and make it more likely you'll connect with people and build an audience. Give each feature a clever name and provide an explanatory blurb in the footer beneath each post (another good reason to use templates).
TechnoLawyer is, of course, a perfect example — we publish 6 different newsletters, and in our blog we have recurring features such as Ad Watch, Coming Attractions, TechnoEditorials, etc.
Over at the Databazaar Blog, which we ghost-write, we have Printer News, PrinTips, Review Roundup, DoubleSided, etc.
Obviously, you'll want to retain the ability to post outside of this structure. I refer to such posts as "freeform."
3. Grammar and spelling do matter! While you may want to use a casual tone in your blog, that doesn't mean you should ignore grammar and spelling (another good reason to use an HTML or text editor). In fact, consider having someone at your firm serve as your editor and/or proofreader. This person can check your posts not only for technical errors, but for more serious problems as well. Thanks to blog search engines like Technorati, it can be difficult to retract a post once published.
4. If your titles need to cover a lot of ground, help them out by using a subheading. Search engines pay most attention to titles so limit them to the essential keywords. If you need to convey anything else, do so in a subheading. You can also use a subheading to repeat very important keywords. We use this technique in every post on Databazaar Blog. For example, a recent post used the following title and subheading.
Title:
Matthias Wandel Wanted a Dot Matrix Printer So He Built One MacGyver-Style
Subheading:
DoubleSided: A Classic From the 1980s: One-Pin Homemade Dot Matrix Printer
5. Design your blog to accommodate photos and videos. Anytime someone in your firm has a public speaking gig, try to photograph or videotape it so you can post it to your blog. YouTube videos have a width of 425 pixels so give your blog a width of at least 500 pixels just to be safe. This width will also enable you to display photos at a size that won't require squinting.
Happy blogging ... and sorry to be such a bore.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
