Yesterday I went to the Association of Legal Administrators monthly luncheon. The speaker was Burkey Belser from Greenfield Belser, and it was by far the best presentation I’ve ever seen at an event like this.

Mr. Belser is “The Father of Legal Advertising”, and is recipient of the Presidential Design Award. You’ve seen his work every day, as he is the designer of the Nutrition Facts label on foods.

And he knows a LOT about law firm branding.

During the presentation, he made some very interesting and valid points that have relevance to legal blogging:

1. Promoting your firm doesn’t take a lot of money: It takes a lot of committment.
This is why blawgging has really taken off in my opinion. It doesn’t cost much, but it takes a level of committment from the blawgger. And as I’ve said before, once a lawyer has started maintaining their own site, it’s much easier to get that committment. Blogs give individual attorneys a sense of ownership and responsibility not seen in a firm’s main site.

2. Consumers of Legal Services Have Implied Trust
It’s something I really never thought of that way. When you’re looking for an attorney to represent you, wondering if an attorney is competent is already implied. So instead of trying to promote your firm as competent and trustworthy, it’s a better idea to actually set yourself apart from your competition.

There are so many lawyers out there, and it’s nearly impossible to tell two firms or attorneys apart by just looking at a web site. And once a visitor gets to your site, they already believe you can do the job. But they also believe your competitors can do the job.

What you really need to do is set your firm’s site apart from the crowd. Your firm has to be a brand, not just another “mid size full service general practice firm.”

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I just read a very good article on the Online Marketing Blog entitled: “Lowdown on Press Release Optimization“. In the article, author Lee Odden looks at both the positives and negatives of using PR firms to write press releases.

I wanted to create a nice little resource page with a list of all free press release submission sites, but it looks like Lee has already done all the work. If you’re looking for links to free press release sites, just read his article, they’re all there.

As I noted before, using a press release to announce this site brought in a very small spike in traffic. But that’s not to say it wouldn’t work for other blawggers.

In completely unrelated news, I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they had a piece about small businesses blogging in the UK. The example given was Englishcut.com, a blog written and maintained by thomas mahon, a tailor in London.

The story went on to say that the blog does not explicitly advertise Mahon’s services whatsoever. Instead, he actually suggests other, cheaper shops to his readers who ask his advice. This would sound counterintuitive to some. But he’s established a remarkable amount of goodwill and buzz, and people actually note that they’re saving their money to purchase one of his tailored suits.

It’s all about relationship.

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Geeklawyer pointed to a post on the IP Counsel Blog, which reports that the Florida Bar Association may start monitoring the content of law blogs used to lure potential clients.

From the Florida Bar’s Newsletter:

Just as The Florida Bar grapples with how best to deal with lawyer Web sites as a form of lawyer advertising (an Internet phenomenon that first surfaced about a dozen years ago and is now embraced by 100 percent of firms in Florida with more than 20 attorneys, according to the 2004 Economics & Law Office Management Survey) fresh questions arise about whether the Bar should regulate blawgs, the relatively new kid on the cyberspace block, too. Some exist to troll for business, while others exude almost a public-service tone.

“The Standing Committee on Advertising has not addressed this issue, because it is a relatively new phenomenon,� said Bar Ethics Counsel Elizabeth Tarbert.

“My position is that whether the Bar would regulate depends on the content of the blog. If the blog is purely political, the Bar would not. If the blog is purely information and not being used as an opportunity for the lawyer to obtain clients or provide info on the lawyer’s legal services, the Bar would not regulate unless there was something generally false, deceptive, or misleading in the blog.

“If, on the other hand, the blog is used as an opportunity for the lawyer to obtain clients or provide info on the lawyer’s legal services, the blog would have to comply with the lawyer advertising rules,� Tarbert said.

So this seems to be a matter of intent. But how does one judge the intent of a lawyer or law firm producing a blawg? How could one have a blawg that is not “used as an opportunity for the lawyer to obtain clients”? Does simply having an email address to contact the attorney constitute such an opportunity?

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The SEO community is abuzz with news of Google’s current (it’s still happening) update.

Dan Thies reports:

Yes, Google is updating, changing, shifting, call it anything you like but don’t call it dancing. So what’s happening? Search results are shifting around like mad, that’s what’s happening. What does it mean? I can’t tell you until it stops moving, which may take another couple weeks.

We’ve been watching this since about last Friday, and my phone has been ringing off the hook. Everyone who thinks I called the November 2003 update correctly is waiting for me to pull another rabbit out of my hat… I can’t promise a rabbit, but I will have an opinion once this thing settles down and we can look at what’s changed.

Matt Cutts has posted updates on the updates on his blog.

Personally, I’ve noticed that Google has updated simply by the fact that this site now has a page rank. Since the beginning, it’s been 0/10, but now it’s up to 4. Excellent!

Has anyone else noticed a change in your page rank or search engine standings?

Also, please drop me a comment if you experience a significant lag time in this site loading. It was slow for me this morning, as the ads were loading slowly. If this happens to you, let me know. It might be time to get rid of some ads!

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On Robert J. Ambrogi’s blog, the author posts about an attorney in Kentucky who was named to head a new government office, but whose blog may have made Governor Ernie Fletcher nix the idea.

Fletcher had named lawyer C. Dodd Harris IV to direct a new Office of Merit System Referrals, which would look for political bias in merit job recommendations.
-Robert J. Ambrogi

After a newspaper report that named Harris as a Republican partisan who blasted Democrats on his blog (now defunct), the Governor dropped plans for the new office.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

While Harris is free to express his opinions, he’s obviously not the right man to root out political bias, said Jerry Lundergan, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party.

“Do they even do background checks on these people?” Lundergan asked. “So Fletcher hires a Republican who says he hates Democrats to run an office that’s literally going to screen recommendations for non-political jobs. Does he think we’re stupid?”

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On LexBlog, Kevin O’Keefe notes a post by Wayne Hurlbert, which talks about the value of blogs for businesses. In it, he points out that the biggest advantage of having a blog for a business is to establish expertise. Because of this, he feels that legal blogs should not have ads:

This indirect revenue is one of the most powerful uses of a business blog, and doesn’t even require high traffic numbers. Creating a positive and interactive relationship with readers is a key strength of blogging. Discussing topics of interest to your readership, and establishing yourself as an expert in your field, can turn a blog into a powerful buzz marketing builder.

Kevin then adds:

if you’re a lawyer or other professional and want to wear patches for Toyota and Nike on your suit sleeves or briefcase go ahead. See what what you can get paid from the advertisers.

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