Archive for the ‘Blogging Tips & Advice’ Category

Launching A New Legal Blog in 2014

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

Prior to launching a business blog, there are several factors to consider. Some of these are about style and function; others are about content and readership. Ultimately, all of these details, whether big or small, are crucial when developing a successful blogging platform. The following are several tips to explore before you launch your new business blog:

  • Differentiate your blog from others. There are thousands of blogs out there in the business blogosphere. It’s important you are able to differentiate yourself from others, and how your business stands out in your niche market. One way to accomplish this is by providing diverse content via commentary, featuring other articles, and linking other sites and content.
  • Communication is key. The language you use to communicate with your audience is incredibly important. Try and avoid too much legal jargon, or language and wording that may come across too complex and/or challenging for the average reader.
  • Headline your content. By providing headlines and sub-headlines with your articles and blog posts, your readers will have a much easier time navigating and exploring the content of your blog.
  • Layout. The layout of your blog is extremely important from a visual point of view for readers. Make sure that it isn’t too cluttered or to confusing to navigate.
  • Keep it Simple. Try not to use too many different fonts, colors, sizes, etc. Keeping everything consistent and cohesive is key.
  • Include a banner. Including a banner on the home page of your blog establishes to readers the content and objective of your blog. It also gives them an overall sense of the nature or your business and the types of issues and subject matter your blog addresses. The best place for a banner is at the top of the page.
  • Be concise with content. Most readers like to search and sift through as much content as possible when reviewing online material. That’s why it’s important to try and utilize as many ways to be concise and to the point as possible with articles and posts. A few things to consider implementing: headlines, subheadings, bullet points, italics, charts and graphics.
  • Blog Maintenance. Regardless of the phase of development of your blog—whether launching or revamping, it’s imperative you test, oversee, and fine tune your blog on a regular basis to make sure there are no technical issues that could impede its functioning.
  • Blog statistics. It’s a good habit to check on your blog’s search results weekly, or per campaign, etc. Keeping an eye on your blog’s visibility and exposure will allow you to measure your blog’s performance.
  • Promote your blog. When promoting your blog consider a few of these resources: paid traffic with search engines, PPC and banner ads, and/or utilizing social media links such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.
  • Guest articles. Another great way to promote your blog and generate interest and traffic to your site is by writing articles for other blogs in your area of practice and/or other relevant subject matter.
  • Blog directories. Blog directories are a great way for people to find out about your blog, being directed to your site by credible and reliable sources. It is also a cost efficient way to market your blog without having to spend very little or no money at all.
  • Other social media. Stay connected consistently through your other social media accounts—Twitter, Facebook, Google +, and LinkedIn. If you don’t have these set up, its quick and easy, and a great way to create a consistent marketing campaign.
  • Create promotional opportunities. Connecting yourself with other blogs, personalities, and leaders in your field through guest articles, interviews, etc, will bring exposure and traffic to your site. Another easy and effective way to promote your blog. 

 Call us toll free (800) 877-2776 to speak with an expert for more information regarding all of your law firm blogging needs. Get started today with your new law firm business blog!

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Tips for Creating a Successful Law Blog

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014

Creating a new blog can seem challenging. There are many aspects to consider and develop besides the content itself. There are also many key practices outside of blogging that will help generate traffic as well as create an audience for your site. Consider the following tips to help you get started:

1. Inbound links. Developing inbound links are a great way to generate traffic to your blog. There are several online directories where you can submit your blog for free. Simply give them your company’s name and a basic overview of your services, and you’ve automatically given your blog more exposure without much effort.

2. Share your content. Make it a point to be able to share your content easily on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. You should also consider doing such with other social bookmarking sites.

3. Repurpose your content. Kick-up your site traffic through email newsletter s and subscriptions sent weekly or monthly. Not everyone will read new posts immediately, so it’s important to keep yourself out there, in front of your audience.

4. Twitter. Twitter can be a very useful marketing tool if utilized correctly. Focusing on your target audience in a relevant, purposeful way will signal visitors to your site. Twitter is an excellent social media tool that can become your blog’s number one way to generate targeted traffic.

5. Guest bloggers. Another way to create interest and bring viewers to your site is to invite others to guest blog. Be careful though, you want to be selective about who you invite and what they will post.

6. Forums. Allowing readers to comment and create dialogue on your blog is another way to generate traffic to your blog. Consider being proactive about this approach by facilitating such opportunities via forums created by you on particular topics that allow visitor to speak freely on.

7. RSS Subscription. Creating an RSS Subscription or your blog is essential. Place the feed button at the top of your blog’s homepage so it’s visible to site visitors.

8. Email Subscription. Inviting visitors to subscribe to your blog via email is a must. This allows you to have access to your readers, and be in touch with them on a regular basis. The best place to have a subscription link for your email newsletter is within your blog’s sidebar.

9. Blog analytics. Every so often it’s a good idea to take an accounting of your blog’s analytics to get and idea of what posts and content are generating the most traffic. You can also take inventory of what search terms are used most frequently, where your traffic is coming from, page views, the links readers have clicked on, etc.

10. Call to action. Creating a call to action gives your readers a clear idea of your blog’s objectives and purpose. It also allows your site visitors to know how to engage with your company’s services. Whatever you choose to say about your business, make sure it’s something effective and to the point, and that it doesn’t require much consideration. A call-to-action will be beneficial in separating real potential client’s from visitors that just want to read your blog’s content, and has no true interest in hiring you for your services.

In addition to the above, there are many things to consider when creating a blog. Hopefully, some these tips will help put you in the right direction and get you on your way to establishing a successful business blog.

For more information about starting a new law firm blog, call us toll free at (800) 877-2776 to speak with an actual blogging expert and not a sale representative. We are here and ready to assist you and help you get started!

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Creating A Successful New Business Blog: Part III

Friday, December 6th, 2013

The following essential considerations will help you create a successful new business blog:

Know your audience. Having a sense of your audience and understanding who they are is crucial to creating content that satisfies their needs and interests. Generally, it takes a fair amount of research to gain this type of knowledge. It also takes time, but the more time you take to understand this, the more efficient you will be with publishing articles and developing a growing audience. One way to accomplish this, is simply to engage your readers by initially posting a variety of content when first getting started with your blog, and see how they respond. Slowly but surely, you will be able to get focused on the type of articles your visitors gravitate towards.

Create a catchy call-to-action. A good call-to-action signals site visors about the purpose and intent of your blog. It can be a short phrase or statement that you constantly reiterate on your site and include at the end of your published articles. Keep your message concise, simple and to the point. Although you can utilize other social media to get this message across (i.e. Twitter), your best bet is the site itself. Placement of your call-to-action on your blog is also a very important in terms of getting it out there to your audience. The top banner on your blog home page, or at the end of each post, are two key places to consider, rather than the sidebars on your site.

Stay true to yourself. Creating an audience for your blog develops over time, and a big part of this is your readers knowing what to expect and taking a genuine interest in the content you publish. This is all about maintaining integrity and consistency with your blog, and essentially staying true to yourself, the values and content you’re promoting, and most importantly your voice. A writer’s voice is one of the most overlooked aspects of blogging, when it should be the first and foremost consideration. Writing isn’t necessarily about choosing a topic and what you have to say, it’s about finding the right voice, and how you say it. Blogs create a following because their readers care about the voice of the writer and/or publisher.

Create catchy headlines. The most effective way to grab a readers’ attention when they visit your site, is to create catchy headlines and sub-headlines throughout your blog. Before a reader begins to read a post or chooses an article to read, they have to want to and notice it exists. Often times this has no bearing on the quality of the content itself. Instead, it’s more about commanding the attention of your readers and engaging their curiosities with effective headlines so they take the next step of actually reading posts. People have only give themselves moments of time to decide if they want to read a given post, and your headline plays a large role in enticing them to do so.  An effective headline is also makes it easy and desirable for readers to share your post with others. Make sure to keep your headlines brief, simple, and bold.

Give your email list priority. Developing an email list or a database of email subscriptions is imperative if you are creating a blog to promote and market your business. This is not an option. For most business blogs, the blog itself isn’t even considered their “community,” their email lists are. They should be the priority, before self-promotion and deliberate marketing, when it comes to your blog and its content.  Paying attention and giving value to your readers, by selecting and writing content focused on their concerns and curiosities, should be your top priority. Statistically, a simple home page design with relevant information about what readers can expect received higher ratings and a greater response over a more complicated home page version with less information about the actual newsletter and how to subscribe.

To speak with an expert law firm content writer about all of your blogging needs, call toll free (800) 877-2776. We are ready and available to help answer any additional questions you may have with getting started on your new law firm business blog!

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Creating A Successful New Law Firm Blog: Part II

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

The following are several key considerations for developing a successful new business blog:

Gather content from your audience. Pay attention to what your audience is saying and the questions they are asking you. Create posts that focus on answering interesting, relevant questions from readers you engage with on your own blog site. This is an excellent way to gather ideas and subject matter on topics your visitors would most like to read about. Make sure to look through the commentary after each article and see what your readers are saying. A lot of times readers will even request articles or seek information specifically. This is the easiest way to start looking for potential topics to address.

Create a database of email subscriptions. Consider offering an email subscription to your readers as soon as you launch you blog. Developing a database takes time, so get started as soon as possible, and over time you will see your list grow. The list allows you to promote new blog content, advertise promotions, etc to your readership directly without having to worry about search rankings or any other online obstacles in communications. Think of an interesting way to incentivize visitors to subscribe to your email list by getting creative with language, words, and/or phrasing you use.

Value your visitors. While it’s good and necessary to focus about new readers and expanding your audience, you shouldn’t ignore the ones you already have! It’s difficult to create an audience in the first place, so it’s important to value the readers that are already make up your audience. Take some time out every so often to show your current readers that you care about them too.  Not only is a blog an online technological platform, but it is also commitment between you and your audience, in that they expect to you to present and share with them actual, relevant content of value. Readers look at content from the point of view of valuable, reliable, and credible information about what’s happening in their lives.

Share your knowledge. The point of a blog is to disseminate information. The last thing you want to do is have any fears about showcasing what you know. A lot of bloggers withhold good, relevant content, fearing they will give away their “secret recipe” to blogging. Unfortunately, there are no “secrets” in the blogosphere, where nowadays everyone has access to the Internet and all of its content quickly and easily. The better approach, no matter what line of business you’re in, would be to give away your information, and sell your knowledge.

Create citable content. Something to consider before publishing an article on your blog is whether anyone would want to cite any of its content for any reason. Interesting and relevant subject matter can generate many findings, or simply an idea that ties into the next, which is what many readers are often looking for. Publishing articles that include such content, often makes them citable on the web by visitors for a variety of reasons. When readers engage this way by creating links to your blog, or giving mention to a specific post of your, it gives exposure and credibility to your blog and its content.

Having this mentality about the content of your blog also gives you a threshold to consider before posting an article.

Call us toll free (800) 877-2776 to speak with an law firm blog writing expert, and not a sales representative, regarding all of your blogging needs. We are here to help answer any additional questions you may have with getting started on your new law firm business blog!

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Creating A Successful New Law Firm Blog: Part 1

Sunday, December 1st, 2013

The following are some useful tips and strategies for creating a new business blog:

Write for yourself first. Writing takes a lot of time, effort and commitment, which is why it’s important that you are writing for yourself first & foremost. Focus on what you want to say, and how you want to say it. Expressing your thoughts and ideas is what will make your blog unique and interesting to visitors. You will also notice that you write more and publish more content when you yourself first before your readers. Allow your readers to react and comment, and create a dialogue.

Consistency is key. Publishing content consistently is probably one of the most important aspects of creating a successful blog. Many bloggers tend to overlook this. It’s essential to maintain your readership, because it’s far easier to lose visitors than to generate traffic. It is statistically proven that blogging consistently leads to a greater amount of site subscribers, so make sure to make an effort on a regular basis to update your blog posts.

Success takes time. When starting a blog, or any new venture for that matter, investing time and effort are necessary before reaching any level of success. The blogosphere is a competitive place, with many blogs and bloggers out there looking to capitalize on their efforts, whatever their objectives may be. It’s crucial you keep in mind that creating a successful blog requires an investment in effort over a period of time. Not only will you learn more about your audience, but you will also improve you own blogging skills and the site itself.

Keep it concise. One of the most important things to keep in mind about the content of each blog post is to keep it short and sweet. Try keeping it somewhere between one and two minutes in reading length. The attention span of most site visitors doesn’t stretch too far. Most visitors are looking for relatively short articles by which they can gain information quickly and move on, readers are also likely to share shorter posts than longer ones. Naturally, some articles will be longer than others, which is completely understandable and fine. It is up to you to determine the kind of attention certain content may require. Generally, for search engines to index content, there is usually a 300 word minimum, so keep this in mind. Statistically, most visitors to any blog don’t even bother scrolling to see the entire content of your site, and most read less than half of what is written and/or posted. Remember, blog posts should be short enough to engage the reader, but long enough to cover the subject matter.

Be Yourself. Establishing an identity for your blog begins with you. Whether it’s regarding style, function, or content, the most important thing is that you stay true to yourself. Simply being yourself over time will allow you to create a cohesive, well thought out blogging platform that your visitors can identify with and know what to expect. This is especially crucial in developing and maintaining an audience.
There is also a greater likelihood you will enjoy the entire process and writing articles even more when operating within your own comfort level. There isn’t a single formula for success. You should execute your blog and blogging strategy in a way that you are most comfortable with. This includes all aspects of communicating with your readership, no matter how simple or complex the content or subject matter.

To speak with an expert regarding all of your blogging needs and any additional questions you may have, call us toll free (800) 877-2776 to get started today with your new law firm business blog!

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