My fellow blogger Jamie, gives two main ways to accomplish this. And I could not agree more.

1. Content, Content, Content.
2. Link out to other people who are writing on similar topics. Basically, to get them to notice that you exist in the first place, the easiest thing to do is to cut and paste from something they wrote (while, of course, acknowledging them and linking back to them), and then comment on what they wrote.

And as he says, “nothing, and I mean nothing will beat good content.” Something I have been preaching for over two years now. And as Kevin O’Keefe stated, “no reason to expand, its as simple as that.”

I too would be glad to discuss blogging with anyone that wants to visit. Drop me a call at 785-632-6612 or an email at gdgrifflaw@mac.com

If you have a desire or need to promote something on your blog, promote yourself. Promote a service you are providing. Promote a free report you have to offer. But, don’t put Google Ads on your blog.

They are:

1. Email can help you achieve your business goals: A well-planned email marketing campaign can generate high response rates, allow you to get the word out about offers and discounts, and create opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell.

2. Keeping customers in the loop = happier customers: Providing relevant information via email can help you score points with customers, or lessen the impact of problems elsewhere in your business.

3. It’s more cost-effective anyway: Email is much cheaper, more measurable and can be better targeted than traditional direct marketing. Sending out the right messages at the right time can also help you retain customers - retention is much cheaper than acquisition.

4. Customer intelligence: Email marketing is highly measurable and each campaign gives you the chance to analyze customer feedback to see which offers and products individual customers are interested in.

5. Improved overall online marketing: Data gleaned from email campaigns can help you improve the effectiveness of your other online marketing activities. Email marketing is also a good chance to develop and update your in-house customer database.

I still question whether E-Mail marketing truly is as good as a well designed, maintained and updated blog. Of course Jay is not saying that.

Source of post: e-Consultancy.

With the new TypePad Pages, you can use all the power of TypePad’s posting tools to create as many individual web pages as you want. And those pages have all the power of TypePad’s widgets and rich media features, automatically inheriting the look and feel you’ve chosen for your blog.

This feature is available at all account levels, to all TypePad members. To create a Page, go to Compose > Page and add Page content (text, images, video, etc…) just as you would a post. When you want to update a Page, simply open it from the List Pages tab and edit and save it as you would a post.

I will play around with this new feature and see what I can come up with. If any of you try it out, make sure to put a link to your new TypePad Page in the comments to this post. That way we can all see what is being done with the new feature.

If anyone is interested in such an event, drop me an email or give me a call. I would be glad to discuss scheduling a webinar for another group.

Basically they collected all the major factors that might affect the search optimization of your site, attributing a score to them. The score ranges from -3, which is very bad for your site, to +3, which is very good. Below you will find a summary of the most important factors:

Keywords

• Keyword in title tag (+3)
• Keyword in URL (+3)
• Keyword density in document (+3)
• Keyword in H1 and H2 headings (+3)
• Keyword in the beginning of document (+2)
• Keyword in ALT tags (+2)
• Keyword in Meta tags (+1)
• Keyword stuffing (-3)

Links

• Anchor text of inbound links (+3)
• Origin of inbound links (+3)
• Links from similar sites (+3)
• Links from .edu and .gov sites (+3)
• Anchor text of internal links (+2)
• Many outgoing links (-1)
• Outbound links to bad neighbors (-3)
• Cross-linking (-3)

Meta Tags

• Description Meta Tag (+1)
• Keywords Meta Tag (+1)
• Refresh Meta Tag (-1)

Content

• Unique content (+3)
• Frequent updates (+3)
• Age of content (+2)
• Poor coding or design (-2)
• Invisible text (-3)
• Doorway pages (-3)
• Duplicate content (-3)

Other factors

• Site accessibility (+3)
• Sitemap (+2)
• Site size (+2)
• Site age (+2)
• Top-level domain (+1)
• URL length (0)
• Hosting downtime (-1)
• Flash (-2)
• Misused Redirects (-3)

Source for Post: Daily Blog Tips.

1. Decide why you’re starting a legal blog–Is it to generate new business, establish your expertise in a particular area of practice, provide you with a web presence and/or more visibility, or is it simply an outlet that allows you to express yourself?
2. Determine who your target readers are–Are they potential clients, lawyers who practice in the same area of law as you do, lawyers located in the same geographic area as you or some other type of professional? This will help craft your content.
3. Create a blogroll–Your blogroll should serve two purposes: it should assist your readers in locating interesting content and it should alert other bloggers to your newfound blog’s existence.Send an email to the bloggers on your blogroll and let them know that because you enjoy their blog, you’ve added it to your blogroll–and a reciprocal link would be greatly appreciated, but is certainly not necessary.
4. Consider adding a link to Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground–This blog is a high traffic blog and he regularly acknowledges those blogs that have linked to his own.
5. Make sure that Tom Mighell is aware of your blog–Drop him an email so that he knows that your blog exists. His well known blog, Inter Alia, regularly features new legal blogs, and by letting him know about yours, he may mention your new blog more quickly.
6. Add your blog the legal blog directories listed on Nicole’s blog.
7. Submit blog posts to Blawg Review–Each week Blawg Review features blawg content from the past week. Consider signing up to host Blawg Review.
8. Read Kevin O’Keefe’s blog–His business is law blogs, and his blog always provides helpful tips for both new and experienced bloggers.
9. Regularly link to other blogs in your posts–Other bloggers will notice and appreciate it, and may reciprocate in kind.
10. Submit relevant comments to law blogs somewhat similar to your own–Make sure that your name is linked to your blog, so that anyone who clicks on it will be directed to your blog.

One tip that I would provide a bit of caution on however is the blogroll. While I agree, you should have a blogroll on your blog. Be careful to provide relevant links. Especially if your legal blog is a niche blog. Remember your target audience.

I had an email today from a fellow Mac using attorney asking me if my blog has brought in clients. Yes it has. I get contacts weekly. And I get clients weekly. It has been a great marketing tool.

If anyone wants to talk blogging, drop me an email. I would be glad to arrange a phone conference too.

But, the improvements are coming slowly. New templates are also coming about. For too long, Typepad had too few to pick. It will be nice to have more standard templates to use.

However, should a professional service firm use Typepad as its main blogging platform?

Kevin O’Keefe touched on this in his recent post, Typepad improving slowly, but steadily.

TypePad, with a few problems here and there, is a good product. For professionals looking to have a blog and who are willing to forgo custom design and to learn the ins and outs of blogging on their own, it can be a good fit. For others looking to learn what RSS is, how to use it, how to use newsfeeds, and how to enter into the ongoing discussion on the net so as to enhance their reputation, they’re going to need something more than TypePad alone.

ROI is the key to blogging for professionals. Saving money is not the answer. The answer is leveraging your time blogging so you achieve success in enhancing your reputation as a leader in your niche. That’s how you grow your business.

Did you read that? Those two paragraphs answer the very question I get the most. Why did I go with lexBlog for my practice blog, Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer?

While Typepad is a good product, it did not allow me to customize my practice blog the way I wanted to. We did some exciting designing with the blog when we started it in March 2006. I was able to get the column layout I wanted. I was able to get the features I wanted. And, I had a professional firm do the work so I did not have to go about learning coding myself.

Best of all, my ROI is out of this world. I get clients from my blog on a weekly basis. And my SEO is also great. We are fast approaching 100,000 page visitors to the Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer. The ability of lexBlog to generate SEO is great.

I spend a lot of time visiting with other lawyers about blogging. And I love doing that. They almost always ask me is it worth it going with a professional firm like lexBlog. In a word, YES!!!!

But, just because you decide to blog, that is not enough. You have to do it. You have to take the time to learn how. Learn about RSS. Learn about SEO. Learn how to write a good title to a post. Learn what to post about. And know how to write a post to your target. You CANNOT just put up a blog and hope you will get traffic. It does take some work and it is well worth it.

At Sunflower Media Concepts, we can help you with those issues. While we don’t at this time offer professionally designed blogs, we will work with you to make your blog work the best for you. Drop us a line, I am always glad to discuss blogging with anyone.

Click To Play

Source for Post: Lexblog

Kevin O’Keefe has finally seen the light and is a convert himself.

I’m a convert to full-text RSS feeds. Being the small minded lawyer I am, I began blogging with excerpt feeds wanting users to come to blog. My logic was that readers would read more about me and what I did - like they cared.

When I switched to full text RSS feeds more people read my blog posts and more people, other bloggers and the media, cited my blog posts in their writings. My reputation as an authority on lawyer blogs grew and LexBlog’s business increased.

LexBlog’s law firm clients, thinking traffic and stats is the goal, want people coming to their blog to read their posts. However, I’m going to advise full text feeds going forward. Stats is not the goal - enhancing one’s reputation as an authority in a niche practice area and a growth in business are the real goals.

In addition, the Feedburner weblog mentions full-text feeds too.

Dennis Kennedy touches on this subject also. Dennis states:

There’s long been a debate over whether to distribute your RSS feed as an excerpt feed or a full-text feed.

I started out with an excerpt feed because I enjoyed writing a customized “excerpt” as a teaser. I didn’t use the standard automatic “first 20 or 50 words” excerpt that people commonly use today. I switched to a full-text feed because I preferred full-text feeds from other blogs and sites. And because I sometimes spent more time on writing the excerpt than the full post.

There are good reasons that you might choose to distribute a full-text or an excerpt feed. Excerpt feeds require that a reader click-through and visit your blog. Full-text feeds let your readers read the full post without going to your blog.

Over the years, people who use newsreaders to consume RSS feeds often reach a point where they feel that they have subscribed to WAY TOO MANY feeds. They then decide to prune their list of feeds. Historically, one of the easiest ways to cut the feeds you subscribe to is to delete those that offer only excerpts of posts.

The reason should be apparent. You save yourself the time and effort of clicking through to see the rest of the post. If you read feeds offline with a stand-alone reader, as I often do, then you will prefer full-text feeds because you can read everything in the post.

So, if you are blogging and not doing full-text feeds, stop it. Do full-text feeds. I have been doing them since almost the beginning of my blogging. It has not harmed my traffic one little bit.

I received this email of blog success from a non LexBlog client lawyer regarding my post that lawyers earn money from blogs indirectly, as opposed to making money via sponsorships and ads.

I read your recent post on indirect benefits of blogging. I have received 18 new client inquiries over the last 12 work days. (My partners are in disbelief over the number of conflict checks). [A fellow lawyer] is experiencing similar results. It has been absolutely incredible. (Of course I am sure you have numerous examples).

As usual, when I asked to share this story I was told telling of the success was fine but not to share who she or he was. They didn’t want competitor law firms to know how they were getting all their work.

I can tell you the lawyer experiencing this blog success does business and corporate work for good clients. So the argument of the blog naysayers that their law firm’s clients are too sophisticated for blogs to work is out the window on this one.

Folks, blogging for a law firm works. I have had very similar results with my own practice blog, Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer. I get new clients from it each and every week. Paying clients to boot. There is really no reason a law firm should not have a blog.

Source for Post: Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.

With NewsGator Go!, the company is fostering RSS adoption into all aspects of everyday life and is enabling users to consume information anywhere and at anytime. NewsGator Go! delivers information users want, from sports scores, world news and weather updates to relevant busi

Source for Post: Planet BlackBerry Blog.

And on March 27th, 2007, only ten days after going live, this blog shows up in Google Alerts for those terms. SEO at its best. Here is a screen shot of the actually Alert I received in my Gmail.

Blogging works. Blogging will get you exposure on the internet as fast or faster than any other marketing method. If you are not blogging and have questions as to why you should or what to do, drop me an email at gdgrifflaw@mac.com

Not only should you allow them on your own blog. You should do Trackbacks as often as possible and you should Comment on other other post as often as you can.

A Trackback is the method of informing a blogger that you are linking to and using information from his post. Both Trackbacks and Comments are just one tool to also help you with your SEO.

The fellow are additional reasons from Problogger why you should be doing Trackbacks and Comments.

• Leaving a comment or two makes your name familiar and lets the blogger know that you read his or blog. You become a person, a person who is interested and interesting. Leaving a trackback before you ever comment can look like you are standoffish or too busy to comment.
• Leaving a trackback on the same post where you’ve left a comment can work really well, if you are truly interested in the dialogue and the topic. Think of it as a real conversation, that you might have had with a fairly new friend. If you were truly engaged and thought of a new point on your way home, you might shoot him an email or IM to pass it along.
• The track post that you write shows that you took the conversation at the original blog one step further. Almost everyone would think that’s a compliment, sending a trackback is a lot like saying ‘You’ve got me thinking, and I’m telling others good things about you.’ Who wouldn’t like to hear that?

Good advice to follow. So, go forth and Comment and do Trackbacks and increase your own traffic.

The five-minute clip, set to techno music, helps explain Web 2.0. As he points out, Web 2.0 is the so-called second wave of Web-based services that enables people to network and aggregate information online.

The category list is important for two big reasons.

When you have readers come to your blog, it is the category list where they tend to go to find information on your blog. In designing your blog, you should try to limit your categories to no more than 20. And you should place the category list as close to the top of the page as possible. Don’t make your reader hunt for the “index” to your blog. Once you get them there, your goal should be to keep them there as long as possible.

If you take a look at my practice blog, Kansas Family Law Blog you will see this in action on a law related blog.

Here are the items suggested and also, a list of what appears on my own blog.

A functional footer for a blog should have at least two links:

• a link to the homepage
• a link to the RSS feed

You can also consider adding the following:

• an email subscription box
• a link to the Archives
• a link to the ‘About’ page
• a link to the ‘Contact’ page
• the recent posts
• the popular posts

Source for Post: Daily Blog Tips.

‘Unlike most blog search engines, Google Blog Search ranks the results by relevancy,’ per Ionut Alex. Chitu at Google Operating System (Unofficial news and tips about Google). This gives you the most significant blog posts about a topic.

And per Bill Slawski who cites Google’s pending patent application, Google Blog Search ranks blogs based upon a combination of relevance scores and quality scores.

Bill’s post goes into great detail on each scoring item, but here’s a summary grid put together by Ionut Alex. Chitu.

Bill concedes that Google probably looks at other criteria and may not consider all of the above. However, he believes the above criteria provide good insight into how things work at what is becoming the most popular blog search.

Note that we’re talking Google Blog Search, not Google’s general search engine. Google Blog Search is generally used to locate blogs and blog posts and then to set up RSS feeds of the search results to one’s newsreader.

Source on post: Steve Rubel

Source for Post: Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.

The Search Engine Journal defined Linkbaiting this way:

Linkbaiting is one of the most universally effective tactics for promoting a site, both for search engine rankings and short-term traffic boosts.

Blog SEO defined it this way:

Linkbaiting is a habit of writing good content with the sole purpose of getting linked to it.

Good content will get you incoming links. Writing good content will get you incoming links.

I considered my own habit of linking to other blogger’s post. And it is the content of that post that catches my eye. Not who else has linked to it. Not the tags they use. It is the content. For example, take the two links above. I used those links for the content of those post. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Search Engine Journal gave some guidelines on what content to write about to get those link backs.

Understanding what content, features, and subjects are “in” with the technorati (the web-literate individuals, not the blog aggregation site) is a subjective, but important piece of the linkbait creation puzzle.

There’s that word again, CONTENT.

The Blog SEO provided 2 ways to be good linkbaiters.

The first hint is:

Know what’s up
You need to know what’s going on on the Web and know what’s hot. A good way of finding out is checking out the popular searches on Technorati.

Taking the first hint, let me expand. One of the blogs I do is the Kansas Family Law Blog. I am providing a professional service on that blog. It is not my goal on that blog to generate traffic for ads, as you won’t see Chitika ads on that blog. One of the ways I decide what content to provide is to know what is going on. But not by checking out the popular searches on Technorati. What I do check out, are the searches I find my readers are doing by checking the stats of my blog. While checking those stats I can determine what actual searches are being typed into Google or Yahoo. I take those search requests and make them into post. In checking my stats nightly over a short period of time, I can usually see a pattern of what questions are being asked. Taking those questions and doing a post gets me traffic to my blog. It is not linkbaiting, but it does get me traffic, which is our goal. I am also following the first hint mentioned above, I am keeping up on what is hot and writing content to match what is hot.

The second hint is:

Promote your article

If you feel that you’ve created something link-worthy, the next obvious step is promotion. Things become easy when you are a well established blogger with thousands of readers, but what if you’re not. SearchEngine Journal recommends that you contact a few well known bloggers in your niche and ask them to critique your article. Please don’t ask for a link because your request will most likely be ignored. When you get an e-mail back with some criticism, be ready to make changes and e-mail them back thanking them and announcing that you’ve made some adjustments. Most likely they will talk about it to their readers.

The second hint is a good one, but it all goes back to content. If you provide good content, you will get noticed. And those that notice you will link to your blog. Let me take my professional service blog again for an example. When you do a blog that is really a niche marketing blog, you end up developing a so called network of other professional service blogs. We take advantage of RSS and have our news-readers set to catch ever new post our professional service blogging friends do. If there is something there that catches our eye, we post about it and of course give them credit. For me, I know those that I follow provide good content. You can tell by their blog design and of course the posting they do. Many of the blogs I follow myself are Lexblog blogs and their design and content is outstanding. Take a look at some of them:

Alabama Family Law Blog

South Carolina Family Law Blog

In my humble opinion (again), if you are doing a blog that is a niche blog, you will develop a following of others in that niche. And, by default, you will get incoming links from those fellow niche bloggers. Of course, remember them and do some outgoing linking to them.

There has also been a lot of talk lately about asking for links. Let me just state, I get emails each week asking me to link with someone. I read everyone of those emails. And if the blog provides GOOD CONTENT, I link to them.

Remember this, the results you get will be directly reflective of the work you want to put in. This will not be easy and it will take some work. If you are just starting a new blog, the work in the beginning is more than you will do down the road. You will need to post and post and post early in your blogs life. But you will get noticed and it will pay off. CONTENT is the key, not baiting others with slick tricks or spamming.

Related Linking Articles:

• Law Blogs work when you get links to your law blog.

a blog is an incredibly effective yet low-cost way to:

• Influence the public “conversation” about your company: Make it easy for journalists to find the latest, most accurate information about new products or ventures. In the case of a crisis, a blog allows you to shape the conversation about it.
• Enhance brand visibility and credibility: Appear higher in search engine rankings, establish expertise in industry or subject area, and personalize one’s company by giving it a human voice.
• Achieve customer intimacy: Speak directly to consumers and have them come right back with suggestions or complaints—or kudos.

Go to the link above to read the entire article.

RSS is getting much media coverage. But very little is being said about the full circle of RSS marketing power.

The truth is that RSS (which stands for Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) goes far beyond “simple” blogging or news delivery.

Business Case for RSS

RSS can be fully integrated in most marketing activities, having the power to extend them and increase their results. This is best demonstrated by the “Business Case for RSS” model:

(more…)

We were exchanging thoughts on Permalinks and linking between blogs. Lisa pointed out to me that some blogs don’t provide a Permalink. I was actually shocked. I never really noticed this and began to ponder the issue.

As Lisa and I further discussed this, I remembered that some blogging platforms provide the permalink within the title of the post. Problogger and others do that. My blogs all have a permalink “link” at the end of every post. What I came up with is why. Why would you not provide a permalink in your blog.

As I have mentioned a number of times in my tips, linking to other blogs is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your own blog. The more links you have to your blog, the more the search engines love you. Linking is one of the items that make blogs move up so fast in the search engines. It makes it very hard to link to a particular post on a blog if there is no permalink.

In fact, Problogger has a great post on linking at the link I just provided. He states in part:

Blogs and links are the perfect couple. Of course, everyone knows that. You don’t have to be a hopeless romantic or some SEO techie type to figure that one out.

In addition:

Blog links have search engine power for several reasons. One of which is the different types of linking featured on blogs. All blog links are not the same, and that is part of their secret search engine rankings power. Different types of links provide different rankings boosts, in several different ways. In the end, the links add up to your blog being placed highly, for your most important keywords, in Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search.

Take my advice. Provide a permalink to your post. If you do, you will see your search engine ranking increase.

This section is very important. This is the index to your blog. This is where all those post you are doing are index by topic or category so your readers can find them. It is also my understanding the categories section can even be picked up as a tag on that post by Technorati and others.

When you first design your blog, come up with as many of the categories as you can think of. However, try to limit the total to no more than 15 to 20. But, don’t worry. If you create a new category with a post, just go into your blogging platform and add another category or modify the list you have.

General SEO - Keyword Targetted RSS Feed: “

‘RSS is widely used by the weblog community to share the latest entries’ headlines or their full text, and even attached multimedia files’ - Wikipedia. This should look familiar since many of us at some point visited Wikipedia to find out what RSS was. In my experience RSS feeds are great for providing an extra push in Search Engine Optimization for the following reasons:

1. RSS feeds are a constant source of fresh material on your static site - I have made a point out of this earlier and will not hesitate to make it again. Google loves fresh content. Frequently updated information on your site attracts spiders and your page is crawled over and over again. This is crucial to good rankings.

2. RSS content builds readership - I don’t want to repeat myself over and over again, just point to an article I wrote a while ago. Just remember that RSS functions as a form of bookmarking, a friendlier and more obvious form, as far as I can see.

3. Keyword targeted RSS feeds can boost your rankings - SEOs know that selecting RSS feeds from sites with top rankings for a keyword they are trying to optimize for and adding the feed to a site, has a chance of boosting search engine rankings as well.

I hope that this short list made RSS a bit more friendly and purposeful than it was before. With a constant growth of RSS technology, I will be sure to keep an eye out for any new things that pop up relating to Search Engine Optimization and RSS feeds.

Source for Post: blogSEO.

If marketing is a conversation, then design is incredibly important. Here’s why:

In a “real” conversation, there is a huge amount of information being exchanged. The words we speak play only a small percentage in the total exchange.

Think about it. In a face to face conversation, you take in information based on the speaker’s physical appearance.

Think of the difference it would make to the effectiveness of your message if YOU were delivering it to your prospect or client vs some generic spokesperson reading your lines.

Should a company or professional service firm be looking at someone like LexBlog to design and implement a professionally designed marketing blog? I in fact had LexBlog redo my own primary marketing tool, the Kansas Family Law Blog. In the first year of it being live, I received just over 85,000 page views.

1. Create valuable content.

2. Create original content.

3. Create timeless content.

4. Write for human beings first, computers second.

5. Know why you want a high-traffic site.

6. Let your audience see the real you.

7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.

8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.

9. Keep money in its proper place.

10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

Twitter, the service folks love to hate (and secretly use) can actually be utilized pretty efficiently in your work day, according to Web Worker Daily. For instance:

• Make existing professional relationships stronger and more intimate.
• Get questions answered fast.
• Expand your professional network.

Now, obviously Twitter has its detractors, but as a Twitter fangirl myself I’m actually really enjoying getting realtime feedback and interaction with folks on my Friends list. Have you found interesting uses for Twitter? Let us know in the comments. — Wendy Boswell

Source for Post: Lifehacker.

The best Internet marketing posts of 2006 as listed by Techipedia provides you an incredible Internet marketing resource.

Over 100 posts written by the best Internet marketing experts are listed under multiple categories.

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Site Design/Usability
• Social Networking/Social Media Optimization
• Copywriting
• Blogging
• Search-Engine Specific (Google, Yahoo, and MSN too)
• PPC/Adsense/Paid Inclusion

There’s about 30 posts listed under blogging alone covering things from ‘21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch‘ to ‘10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers.

Source for Post: Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.

Kevin links to a post on Scobleizer who mentions 13 tips. However, he points out 5 that fit well with a law firm blog.

1. Pick a Niche and own it. My practice blog Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer is a niche blog. Others include, California Personal Injury and Insurance Blog, New York Bankruptcy Litigation and South Carolina Family Law Blog are two more.

2. Demonstrate Authority Tell your readers who you are and what you do. Don’t make them guess. Put that information in a location that is easy to see.

3. Link to other Bloggers. If you link to others, chances they will know and they will do the same. However, if you have a blog such as one of those mentioned above, a niche blog, make sure you have a list of blogs that are relevant to the area you blog about. Give your readers more locations to go for more business. And the linking you and your fellow bloggers do will create traffic for both of you. I like to compare my list of other family law bloggers as my network. We each are blogging about similar issues, but in different areas of the country.

4. Write better headlines. “Be straight forward so users can tell from your title what you are writing about.” Put key words in your post titles. Put words your clients use when they talk about their problems. Put words in the titles of the post that people use to search with.

5. Get specific with your blog name/title. In my opinion, one of the most important. DO NOT call your blog by your firm’s name. The Google crowd do not care what you firm name is and the search engines will not like it either. Call your blog by your location, your practice are and what you are. Again, my practice blog is called the Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer. All key words are covered.

In the beginning of your blog, you will spend time posting if you want to be successful. But, if you will consider the 5 points above, you will see results.

I have had this very position for sometime and I compare it to a McDonalds. Where is the best place to put a fast food store, right next to a McDonalds. You will feed off each others traffic. The same works with blogging and linking to other blogs in your same practice area or town. You will feed off each other traffic.

Kevin O’Keefe of lexBlog had a post just the other day about Lawyers.com blogs are here. After reading Kevin’s post I decided to check it out more.

I am not impressed. While I was checking it out, I came to this site, General Practice Law Blogs on Lawyers.com. I am not sure what this is. I am assuming it is an index page of some kind that allows you to go to post done by lawyers using the service. But, when you click on one of the links, you get this, Mohave County Arizona Courts and Judges. I am again assuming, but this appears to be a blog post on what appears to be a blog.

And than there is this page called, Law Blogs on Lawyer.com. If you click on some of the links in the sidebar, they are dead. In other words, they don’t work.

I don’t get it. Why would any company that claims to be in the business of helping law firms market, put out something like what you see at the links above.

And I also have to echo what Kevin stated in his post about this, what kind of support will the lawyers get that are going to use this product.

• Who teaches the lawyers how to blog, to produce the type of content likely to get cited and not embarrass the lawyer?

• Who teaches them how to use RSS?

• Who teaches them how to write blog content for effective search engine optimization?

• Who teaches the lawyers how to market their blog?

• Who works with the lawyers on tech support issues, such as improper html formatting, comment & trackback spam, and the like?

• Who teaches the lawyers how to do effective PR with their blog?

You just can’t throw something up on the internet, call it a blog and hope that you will get anything for SEO or ROI. And, if you are going to use a “professional” firm to do the design and hosting for you, you should expect those items listed above, at a minimum.

And what about an RSS feed on the blog? I have searched all the links above and I could not find a RSS button. Not good!!!!

O’Keefe goes on to state,

“It’ll be interesting to see if the Lawyers.com blog project was driven by IT and business development folks or by experienced bloggers at Lawyers.com. I have not seen anyone from LexisNexis or it’s Martindale-Hubbell Lawyers.com publishing a blog.“

And after viewing what they have thrown up so far, I would have to say the project was driven by IT and business development folks. I can’t imagine anyone experienced in blogging would think this is a viable product.

And are they really FREE? One comment on Kevin’s blog indicated that “Law Blogs on Lawyers.com is a free service for all Martindal-hubbell subscribers.” Does not sound like free to me either.

Another comment from a fellow blogger at China Law Blog makes a very important observation about Lawyer.com blogs:

Lawyers.com will get lawyers who will think it is easy because everything will be set up for them, but those people are not likely to know enough about blogging, work hard enough at it, or distinguish their sites from others enough to succeed. SEO pales next to a vibrant and loyal following. SEO gets people dropping by one time. Comments usually come from the regulars.

While blogging is not impossible nor difficult. To have a successful blog, you have to put some work into it. I hope those that use Lawyer.com blogs will not expect it to be like a static website and not do anything as far as posting. But, if Lawyer.com does not provide the support mentioned above, that is exactly what will happen.

And finally, Steve Matthews had this comment to Kevin’s Post:

Don’t throw the seo-baby out with the bath water there China Law Blog. The bigger problem here, is that it’s very likely Lawyers.com can’t deliver the google juice they think they can.

Despite having good PageRank flow through their network of blogs, SE placement today relies on a diversified network of links coming from all over the web - not just the MH website. If new Bloggers think they will be getting a free ride from Google by piggy backing off of Lexis/MH link popularity, they should think again. It will still take significant work, promotion, AND quality content to drive the search engines.

Honestly, the way it’s been set up, I’d expect bloggers will be doing more for MH’s link popularity, than MH will be doing for them.

I could not have said it better. In looking at what the product looks like so far and considering some of the concerns expressed above, I hope those that go with Lawyer.com blogs don’t equate how successful a blog can be based on what they may be getting.

My practice blog, the Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer has been very successful. I am getting outstanding SEO and ROI for two main reasons. I know how to blog and lexBlog provided a blog that does not look or act like a typical website. And my blog looks like my blog. Not a boiler plat that is more of a advertisement for Lawyer.com than a marketing tool for the lawyer.

The five-minute clip, set to techno music, helps explain Web 2.0. As he points out, Web 2.0 is the so-called second wave of Web-based services that enables people to network and aggregate information online.

MarsEdit is a sister product to NetNewsWire, a very popular mac desk top RSS aggregator, owned by NewsGator.

Source for Post: Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.

“A blog in Kansas will do better than a blog in a major market.“ I have a hard time believing my blog in Kansas, with a population of 2.7 million would do better than a blog in a major market. I also have never said you should post as much as I did or do. And I don’t have any more time than any one else. I have been able to find the time to do it. And yes, I don’t like Blogger. I firmly believe there are better alternatives out there for a blogging platform. Oh, “and there are other niche blogs in my market, so why would I do one?“ “And I don’t waste my time doing links.“

I use a MacBook. I take it everywhere. And when I am waiting for court or for other things, I find a wifi and post if I have not done so recently. And I use a Treo. And I have been known to sit in a courtroom waiting on a hearing and posting to my blog. I also post early in the morning or late at night. If you want to find the time, you will find it.

A niche blog is the way to go. Even if you have a practice that does more than one area of law, don’t combine your practice areas into one blog. Do one for each practice area. I do one for family law, criminal law, and one on grandparent visitation and parent’s rights. Your readers will like it better and so will your search results.

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A blog is akin to an educational magazine. If you are updating your blog with new content, as you should be, you are publishing new issues of your “magazine” every time you do. You are providing free information to the public in a form and method people can use and understand. It is not the same type of promotional tool as a website. You are providing updated information on a blog often. You update it daily, weekly or monthly. And a blog is meant to be cited, people don’t cite a website. The big advantage of a blog over a static website is just that, it gets cited. Not just from lawyers, but lot’s of other bloggers. If you put your blog inside the website, those cites to your blog will not happen. You will not get the same SEO either. Cites and links are what drive traffic to your blog and in turn drive you business.

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Two-thirds of blog readers discover blogs by links on other blogs while recommendations account for another 23% of blog finds, per a report by Vizu Answers and Ad Age.

For lawyers, this is why it’s critical to network with other bloggers, whether other lawyers or non-lawyer bloggers. It’s done by writing about these other bloggers and their blog content.

They’ll see you by monitoring RSS feeds of their name, blog name, and blog url. If you’re blogging good stuff on a niche relevant to the audience of these other bloggers, the bloggers will subscribe to your blog and share some of your posts and your name with their readers via a link in their posts.

Source on post: eMarketer.com

Source for Post: Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.

Search Engine Marketing

Blogs give you an increased presence on major search engines, like Yahoo! and Google. A well-written, routinely updated, keyword-oriented blog can enhance your chances of garnering high rankings on search engine return pages.

Direct Communications

Blogs provide a way for you to speak directly, openly and honestly with your customer.

Brand Building

Blogs serve as another channel on which to promote your brand and company.

Competitive Differentiation

Because blogs give you the opportunity to tell your story over and over, they help set you apart from the competition.

Relational Marketing

Blogs allow you to build personal, long-lasting relationships with your customers that foster trust.

Exploit the Niches

Blogs help you fill your particular industry niche.

Media & Public Relations

Blogs are excellent PR tools. The media calls you, not your competition.

Position You as an Expert

Blogs enable you to articulate your viewpoints, knowledge and expertise on matters pertaining to your industry.

Reputation Management

Blogs help you manage your online reputation.

Low Cost

Blogs are inexpensive to set up, operate and maintain.

Source for Post: RIS Media

The number of excellent resources that have come out since the beginning of the year on attracting links and building traffic has really mushroomed. Plus there are some timeless classics that are still very relevant today.

I think it makes sense to compile the very best in one handy location and share it, so here’s my entire collection. If I missed your link and traffic resource let me know and I’ll take a look.

Now, it doesn’t matter if you like the term ‘link baiting’ or not. It’s the process that one goes through to attract links that matters, not whether you prefer to think of your content as bait for links. I like to think that creating content that increases web traffic and builds links simply falls under the general social media optimization marketing buzz phrase that is gaining in popularity.

So, here’s your ultimate ‘how to’ guide to creating content that attracts links and drives traffic in the social media environment:

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 | SEO Book

25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog | Online Marketing Blog

10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic | SEOMoz

8 Reasons Why Lists Are Good for Getting Traffic to Your Blog | Problogger

7 Ways to Get to the Top of the del.ico.us Popular Page | Problogger

5 Rules of Social Media Optimization | Influential Interactive Marketing

3 Ways to Immediately Increase Search Engine Traffic | Performancing

How to Get Traffic For Your Blog | Seth Godin

The Art of Linkbaiting | Performancing

The Art of Blog | SEO Black Hat

What is Linkbaiting? | Modern Life is Rubbish

SEO Advice: Linkbait and Linkbaiting | Matt Cutts of Google

Problogger Link Baiting Series | Problogger

Secrets to Beating the Sandbox 2.0 Revealed | Link Building Blog

What Makes a Site Link-Worthy? | Eric Ward

Using Digg to Attract Hits | Slate

Using Digg and Netscape to Get Traffic | Pronet Advertising

Social Bookmarking for Traffic | SiteProNews

The Sandbox and Delicious | Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Unleashing the IdeaVirus | Seth Godin

Viral Copy | Copyblogger

The New Rules of PR (PDF) | David Meerman Scott

Publicity Stunt Case Studies | About

Publicity Stunts Still Earn Attention | All About Public Relations

The 10 Greatest Publicity Stunts | Guardian Unlimited

The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing | Wilson Web

How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog) | Steve Pavlina

How to Build Traffic to Your Blog | Web Pro News

Building Traffic to Build Your Fan Club | Copyblogger

Trust Rank and Your Domain | Link Building Blog

Generating Buzz With Link Baiting and Viral Campaigns | Search Engine Watch

Linkbaiting for Fun & Profit | Search Engine Journal

Linkbaiting, How Hard is It? | ISEDB

Link Building Guide | Jim Westergren

Real Search Engine Optimization Linkbaiting | Search Engine Guide

Linkbaiting With Attack | Problogger

Link Baiting & Effective Link Building | Search Engine Journal

Link Baiting and Viral Search Success | Search Engine Roundtable

How Much is Link Bait Worth? | Cartoon Barry

Link Baiting (How Nick Wilson Created SEO Even Seth Godin Could Love) | Stuntdubl