My newest column was published at Slaw.ca today, titled: Injection Marketing Undermines Credibility.  Within this piece, I’m trying to deliver two central messages.  The first is pretty straight forward: that embedding  links or messages about your services within web conversations is not only ‘tacky’, but it reflects terribly on you and your business.

For the generations of lawyers who’ve spent the better portion of their lives absorbing marketing and advertising, especially via unidirectional channels such as television, there’s a real need to disconnect from that experience.  Those who grasp the concept of “paying it forward” early (think altruism, educating, and connecting) will most often develop a large and mature network of web-based relationships. Those that don’t…  are destined to invest hours into the tools, and gain little traction.

Point being? If you’re not obtaining new relationships with your web marketing efforts, it may be time to work a little harder on ‘outreach’; and ease off on the frequency (and intensity) of your marketing message.  Relationships are the number one objective for your marketing success online; which brings me to the second central message of the column, SEO without spam.

Great SEO is dependent on these relationships, especially relationships with other online publishers. Let me spell it out in SEO terms:

• a large social network translates into reciprocal linking (linking to and from others in your online social circle) ;
• that network of links will grow in size boosting your link popularity (Google PageRank, and the like);
• link networks are not only valuable when in sizable number, but also in terms of domain diversity (not the same people always linking in – new relationships help shape this diversity);
• websites that link in based on similar topic coverage are better aligned and authentic (also valued by the search engines);
• similar subject websites also generate links within the body of the page’s text (valued more by the search engines, compared to blogroll links or footer links).

Websites that are really great performers in the search engines – call it ‘link juice’, call it what you will,  have this kind of link network behind them. On-page SEO tactics aside, the real “silver bullet” to SEO rankings is relationships.  Kill those, and you kill your SEO potential.

Unsolicited (or unexpected) commercial messages (a.k.a. spam) kills marketing – good SEO & credibility are just the first casualties. Fortunately the answer is very simple: hang out your shingle and do your business on your website. If your web travels take you elsewhere…  be yourself, be professional, and leave the salesman at home.

Following on earlier posts about Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for law firms, this entry will look at the last of the Big Four social media tools, blogs. In all the recent excitement over the three famous brand options, we sometimes forget that blogs started it all; equally, we can confidently predict that if unforeseen disasters were to befall social networking, blogs would be the last ones standing. As before, this post will look at the use of blogs in the enterprise context, for firms in general rather than for individual lawyers. That’s an important distinction for all these tools, but especially for blogs.

I wrote about law firm blogging 2 1/2 years ago, at Law21, and my opinion at that time was that blogs were a mediocre fit for law firms (as opposed to the lawyers inside them):

Blogs are the perfect vehicle of modern lawyer branding. If every lawyer in the country started a blog, each would be as unique as that lawyer’s fingerprint. An individual lawyer can, through her blog, show herself to be, yes, smart, expert and thoughtful, but even more importantly, memorable, personal, unique — all the things to which people are attracted, and precisely those things that a law firm cannot be. Firms are things; lawyers are people — and clients prefer people.

I still think that the benefits of blogging tend to accrue to the blogging lawyer more than to the firm where he or she works, and that a lawyer’s voice and personality are the key elements of a truly successful blog. But I’m no longer prepared to say that a law firm can’t use blogs as effective marketing and communication tools. My opinion has evolved because both blogs and the profession have evolved since then too.

Blogs have evolved mostly by becoming so plentiful, even borderline ubiquitous. The ABA Journal‘s Blawg Directory recently added the 3,000th law blog to its roll, while Kevin O’Keefe reported in March that 96 of the AmLaw 200 had blogs, a 149% increase since August 2007. Over at Stem’s Lawblogs.ca, the number of Canadian legal blogs has surpassed 200. Statistically if by no other measure, blogs have become sufficiently widespread at law firms that a watershed moment is at hand: firms will shortly be asked why they don’t have blogs rather than why they do.

As blogs become more common and accepted, they also become regarded as just another communication and marketing tool, perhaps even a conventional one. I’d argue that this has been a negative development for blogs, in terms of quality: being grouped with routine legal alerts, bland newsletters and self-serving press releases has lowered the bar for what blogs can be, risking a concomitant lowering of our expectations and standards for them. But the fact remains, these blogs do exist and they are being read, and that should be neither denied nor lightly dismissed.

Equally, it has to be acknowledged that law firms have evolved more quickly, in their use and appreciation of blogs, than I would’ve figured in 2008. Granted, many law firm blogs still leave a great deal to be desired. Some bloggers seem to think they’re still in law school, publishing lengthy case summaries of recent decisions that would bore lawyers, let alone clients, who happened upon them. Some are clearly doing nothing more than feeding the SEO monster — you can recognize the “keyword phrases” they’ve been directed to sprinkle liberally throughout the text. And still others evidently feel unsure about just what they’re doing with a blog, or hesitant to move outside a narrow zone of safe and predictable content.

But for all that, the quality of many law blogs, even at well-known regional and national firms, surpasses what I would have expected. That’s a credit to the bloggers, who found their own voices and the confidence to use them, and to their firms, which have relinquished enough control over the process that a lawyer can blog without looking over his or her shoulder. Clients are starting to notice as well, as one survey suggests in-house counsel take blogs into consideration in choosing law firms (though it’s also worth noting that blogs have their limits in this regard).

So I’m now prepared to say that yes, a law firm can use blogs effectively as a modern marketing, communications and branding tool — especially since blogs also function very effectively as “conversation starters” in the other three social media networks. But firms still need to follow some rules if they want to continue to extract value from blogs and increase that value over time. Here are some of my recommendations about how a law firm can blog effectively; I’d invite you to add your own in the comments section.

1. Publish numerous blogs. Unless your firm is exceptionally small and focused, you should publish several blogs simultaneously. The reason should be clear: does your firm only offer one type of legal practice? If not, then why would you offer only one blog to the world? You should run as many blogs as you have (a) practice areas you want to support and (b) lawyers willing and able to offer that support. Larger firms should have a blog for every practice group of any consequence. Reed Smith has 12 blogs, from employment and real estate law to life sciences and media and entertainment in China, all professionally branded. Womble Carlyle, a substantially smaller firm, has no fewer than 18 blogs, including super-niche categories like supply chain and furniture law. If it’s possible for a law firm to have too many blogs, I haven’t seen it yet.

2. Brand the blogs as yours. Some of the best and most widely read lawyer blogs out there are written by lawyers who work for mid-size and larger firms, but you’d never know it to glance at the blogs themselves. They operate on free platforms like Blogspot and WordPress, and you need to look hard to find the name of the author’s firm or its logo anywhere on the site. I can understand how this situation comes about — the lawyer doesn’t want to (or can’t) get the firm’s approval to blog, or the firm wants to maintain its distance from and deniability regarding the blog. So the blog lives in a netherworld, building up the lawyer’s profile and expertise without channeling those benefits to the firm. And what happens if the blogging lawyer leaves the firm, as he or she often does? The blog and its advantages go with the lawyer, and the firm is left with nothing. Take pride of ownership in your lawyers’ blogs, support them, own the domains in which they’re published, and insist they be brought into the firm’s marketing sphere (but see also entry #4, below).

3. Maintain a deep bench. As just noted, law firms whose lawyers blog (even if they blog under the firm banner) run the risk that if the lawyer goes, so does the blog and its branding benefits. Accordingly, every blog should have a multitude of active contributors. The main reason is that if one blogger defects, several remain to fill the gap — the analogy I use is Saturday Night Live, which keeps losing stars to Hollywood (from Chevy Chase through Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell), yet keeps going because the ensemble cast stays behind and supports the brand. But there are other reasons: for one thing, more names and faces in the Author column support the idea that this really is a firm blog, not a one-lawyer project. And blogs are an easy and effective marketing development tool for new lawyers who rarely get other opportunities to establish a public presence and who are usually already comfortable with the medium. Check out Pitblado LLP’s Pitblawg for a good example of an author ensemble.

4. Let your people go. The one thing about law firm blogs in 2010 that has most pleasantly surprised me is the emergence of lawyers’ true voices and personalities in their blogs. I had expected, reasonably enough, that a combination of overt pressure from senior partners and self-censorship by nervous lawyers would render most such blogs a whiter shade of bland. But blogs become popular precisely because their authors are informal and accessible in their tone, when you get the sense that they have freedom to express their opinions (obviously within reason) and demonstrate a wider range of personality and interest than a website biography can reveal. Firms owe it to themselves and their lawyers not to muzzle these blogs or modify these voices — this is how more and more branding and business development will be done in the years to come, lawyer-driven rather than firm-driven. By all means, prepare policies and codes of conduct to guide your lawyers and temper their enthusiasm where appropriate; but otherwise, let your people go.

I was speaking with the 80-year-old (and still active) founder of a mid-size firm the other day, and one of the things he mentioned was that he wants to start up a law blog himself. Not only do I think that’s terrific in and of itself, it’s a great example for every other law firm out there to let down their guard and embrace what blogs offer. Law firm blogs are the natural successors to and improvement upon law firm newsletters, which have long since lost their power. In ten years, if not sooner, they’ll be utterly unremarkable on the law firm landscape. Your firm shouldn’t wait that long.

Here’s a roundup of the latest additions to LawBlogs.ca:

• The Law Blog (Thompson Dorfman Sweatman)
• Aviation Law Blog (Alexander Holburn LLP)
• Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure (Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP)
• Canadian Labour Law & Industrial Relations (Michael Urminsky)
• Altro & Associates
• Legal Eve: IP, Marketing & Entertainment Law Blog (Jeanette Lee)
• Banking & Financial Services Law (Osler)
• Quebec Labour Law Blog (Gabriel Granatstei)
• Entertainment & Media Law Signal (Heenan Blaikie LLP)

As always, if you know of one we’re missing, please drop us a line!

Since our last batch of updates, there have been 11 additions to LawBlogs.ca:

• Law of the Lands – Farm, Energy & Enviro Law (John Goudy)
• Blawg Briefs (Aird & Berlis LLP)
• Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada (Lisa Stam)
• The Ten Second Lawyer (Innovate LLP)
• Legal Frontiers (McGill)
• F/Law: Canadian Women and the Law
• LCO Blog (Law Commission of Ontario)
• Bora Laskin Law Library Reference Services Weblog (U of T)
• Canadim Immigration Blog
• Projects, Infrastructure, and P3 Blog (Davis LLP)
• Immigration Law Blog (Davis LLP)

These latest additions mean that lawblogs.ca now lists more than 200 Canadian blogs from lawyers, profs, students, law librarians, and legal marketers.  Cresting over the 200 mark is a noteworthy achievement in the Canadian market.  In fact, compared to just 11 months ago, we’ve observed 71 new law blogs – almost one-third of the directory!

Also noteworthy, we’re currently in the middle of a “weeding project”: dropping all the dead and abandoned blogs. Once we pull those (the list hits 235 prior to culling), we’re still solidly over the 200 mark for active law bloggers in Canada!

If you know of one we’re missing, please – drop us a line!

When we posted our last round of new additions to LawBlogs.ca, we wondered whether there was a future Clawbies winner among them. Well, as it turns out, there were three of them! Avoid a Claim, The Trial Warrior, and The Stream were all winners or finalists in the 2009 Clawbies, and each was less than six months old. How’s that for an auspicious start?

Here’s the newest batch of Canadian law blogs at LawBlogs.ca:

• Coloured Complexity (Christian Weisenburger)
• Avocat droit criminel (Xavier Cormier)
• Chaudhary Law Office (Max Chaudhary)
• PitbLAWg (Pitblado LLP)
• The KF Modified Blog (Tim Knight)
• Education Law Blog (Noah Sarna)
• Newfoundland Injury Law Blog (Ches Crosbie)
• Clicklaw Blog (Public Legal Education & Information Portal Project)
• Condo Law Blog (Fine & Deo)
• Labour and Employment Law Blog (Greg Gowe)
• Legalease on CKUT 90.3 FM (McGill)
• DL Blog(Michael Carabash)
• Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Law (Adam Baker)
• Employment-Law.ca (Matt Lalande)
• Lex Sustineo (Michael Torrance)
• E-Forensic Services Blog

We wish all of these new bloggers as much success as their blogging forefathers… may there be Clawbies in their futures!

As we wind down our 2009 ClawBies season, I’d like to highlight the blogged responses from this year’s finalists & award winners:

1. Shaunna Mireau
2. Antonin Pribetic (The Trial Warrior)
3. Law is Cool
4. David Fraser (Canadian Privacy Law Blog)
5. Dan Michaluk (All About Information)
6. Erik Magraken (BC Injury Law And ICBC Claims Blog)
7. Slaw
8. Michael Geist
9. Garry Wise (Wise Law Blog)
10. Charon QC
11. Blogosaurus Lex
12. David Doorey (Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog)
13. Karen Sawatzky (Library Technician Dialog)
14. Brian Bowman (On the Cutting Edge)
15. University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog
16. Michael Fitzgibbon (Thoughts from a Management Lawyer)
17. David Bilinsky (Thoughtful Legal Management)
18. Dan Pinnington (Avoid a Claim)

I’ll also reserve the right to add any stragglers to this list, if and as they come in.

The 2009 CLawBies are now online.

Here are this year’s winners & finalists …

• Slaw
  
• Canadian Privacy Law Blog
• Wise Law Blog
• Erik MacGraken’s BC Injury Law and ICBC Claims Blog
• All About Information
• Brian Bowman’s On the Cutting Edge
• The Cross-Border Biotech Blog
• Thoughts from a Management Lawyer
• Law is Cool
• Precedent
• Dynamic Lawyers
• Rob Hyndman
• Connie Crosby
• Dennis Kennedy
• Doug Cornelius
• Charon QC
• Avoid A Claim Blog
• David Bilinsky
• Shaunna Mireau on Canadian Legal Research
• Library Technician Dialogue
• The Stream
• Michael Geist
• The Trial Warrior
• Blogasaurus Lex
• Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog
• University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog
• The Court

For the full details, please drop by for the official word.  Happy New Year! And cheers from all of us here at Stem for a prosperous (fingers crossed) 2010!

As we  just announced on Clawbies.ca, the nomination period is now open for the 2009 Canadian Law Blog Awards, with the awards list set to be released on New Year’s Eve.

This is the fourth year we’ve held the awards, and similar to last year, we’re bringing back the social nomination to let everyone share their favourite Canadian law blogs!  You can read more about he nomination process on Clawbies.ca, but here’s a quick rundown on the 2009 rules:

1. You can tweet your nomination on Twitter, but please include the hashtag text: #clawbies2009. We’ll be monitoring!
2. You can also email in your favourite blog, along with a sample post or two, or any other notable highlights to Steve Matthews at steve@stemlegal.com. It’s not a public nomination, but still perfectly acceptable.
3. And perhaps the most influential method, write a blog post about three other Canadian law blogs you currently read and tell us why those blogs are important to you.
4. If you are nominating via your blog, remember to act like a humble Canadian and tell us NOTHING about your own blog.  In return, we promise the nominator’s blog will receive a thorough review, as will your suggested peers, PLUS you get a chance to plug a fellow Canadian blogger!
5. Don’t include or suggest categories. We’ll figure out that part.
6. You don’t have to be a Canadian to make a nomination.
7. Don’t bother nominating Jordan Furlong.  Feel free to say nice things about him, but he’s kinda conflicted now. :)
8. And finally, we’re on the look out for sleeper picks! That fantastic blog flying under the radar!

Vote early and vote often! (pretend that volume counts, even if it doesn’t…)  And have fun promoting the Canadian legal blogosphere.

Cheers!
Steve

As mentioned in our last update, we’ve been busy working on a re-vamped design for LawBlogs.ca.  The new site will have a bunch of new ways to browse our ever-expanding list of Canadian law blogs, including categorization by province and by practice area. We’re really pleased with how it’s coming along, and hope to do the re-launch before the end of the year.

And speaking of year’s end, it’s time to start thinking about who you’ll nominate for the 2009 Clawbies.  We’re continuing with the “blogged nominations” system again this year, and will be welcoming tweeted nominations, too.  Full details will be posted in the first week of December, with the Awards announced at the end of the month.

Below is the latest batch of additions to LawBlogs.ca, a total of 18 new law blogs since September. Who knows? Maybe there’s a future Clawbies winner among them!

• Cyber Inquirer (Pamela Pengelley & Richard Bortnick)
• First Reference Blog
• The Trial Warrior Blog (Antonin Pribetic)
• Immigration & Visa Law Blog (Niren and Associates)
• Barry Sookman
• The Stream (Courthouse Libraries BC)
• Stringam Blog (Stringam Denecky Law Offices)
• BC Real Estate Law Blog (Peter D. Borszcz)
• Sam Trosow
• E-Discovery Blog Canada (Wortzman Nickle)
• Avoid a Claim (practicePRO)
• Collaborative Practice Canada (Rob Harvie)
• Professional Discipline (Johannes H. Schenk)
• Ontario Insurance Law Blog (John Norton and Tara Pollitt)
• Pensions & Benefits Law (Osler)
• IP & Competition Law Canada (Steve Szentesi)
• Ontario Family Law Blog (Galbraith Family Law)
• Toxics Regulation in Canada (Richard King)

I’m about a week late with this post, but it’s always a good time to plug ABA Techshow! Right?

The paper I wrote with Reid Trautz last year, titled Supercharge Your Referrals With Technology, has been released as part the Best of ABA Techshow series. It’s the full version of the paper that was given out to attendees, in PDF format & around 15 pages.  I just re-read some of it, and was reminded of some of the great ideas we covered.

You can download more presentation papers from ABA Techshow, which runs again March 25-27th, by clicking over to the newly created section on the conference website.

And speaking of Mr. Trautz … Every year Reid publishes his guide on holiday shopping for lawyers. Reiding Reading his blog a few minutes ago, I notice the 2009 Gift Guide went up a couple days ago. It’s great fun, as usual!   Where else would I find an online store for a gas-powered blender! (seriously, near the end…)

Since our last update in June, we’ve added 12 new blogs to LawBlogs.ca:

• Canadian Business Law Blog (Shane McLean)
• Disability Denied (Mark Yazdani)
• Les chroniques de droit criminel (Eric Bernier)
• IP, Innovation and Culture (James Gannon)
• B-Law-G (Auger Hollingsworth)
• Blogosarus Lex (Legal Resource Centre of Alberta)
• Fired Without Cause
• Nova Scotia Car Accident Law Blog (David Brannen)
• Heritage Law Blog
• Morton’s Musings
• Aboriginal Law Blog (Davis LLP)
• Rehan Khalil

LawBlogs.ca now lists approximately 175 blogs from Canadian lawyers, law students, legal researchers, marketers, and practice advisors. Pretty impressive!

We’re planning some big changes on LawBlogs.ca — hopefully this fall — jurisdiction and practice area categorizations are two improvements we’ve got in the works.  Be sure to let us know of any blogs we’re missing.  Your suggestions keep our list current!

Heather Morrison of the CNW Group, formerly Canada News Wire, released a 11-pg report yesterday titled Canadian Law Firms and their Use of Social Media. I am quoted in it, so please excuse the vanity reference.

The report itself offers a nice overview of the benefits of social media investment. That’s important, but the part I appreciated most was the focus on relationship building. Great relationships are a key driver of success for any law firm (or lawyer’s) search strategy. The reason? Relationships not only improve our network of contacts, which alone is a worthy goal, but they form the basis of the link network behind most firm websites.

Links, remember, are ultimately a form of online currency and a driver of what many people refer to as ‘google juice’ – a measure of trust, and better search rankings.

At one point in the paper, I’m also quoted saying that firms ‘not skip steps‘. Let me explain that further. Broken down, I often consider these three components:

• content – eg. blogs, papers, newsletters;
• distribution channels – eg. twitter, email, RSS, JD Supra; and
• relationships - either mirroring & codifying one’s existing relationships with links, or driving new relationships with social media;

Most firms (not all) have content at least partially covered. They may be sending out paper or email newsletters (distribution) and connecting with existing clients. In the past, that’s what firms had to work with. Could they now have more forms of content? or distribute via more channels? Absolutely, but it’s hard to argue that having those basic pieces functioning (think: 80:20 rule, existing clients…) didn’t create some success.

But this 2/3 element scenario, also created a huge gap in search marketing. Without relationships driving links, firms weren’t creating any kind of an ‘after effect‘; where their published content continues to rank well in the search engines, and continues to drive new readers creating exposure. But with Social Media participation (I include blogger-to-blogger relationships here), and creating new relationships with the associated links, firms are often able to make their publishing work harder & longer. In the cases of extremely popular content, years after the date of publication.

As the years pass, and a firm’s volume of substantive publishing increases, so too does this ‘after effect‘.  And the driver in all this is pretty consistent. Having a solid network of ‘web friends’, who are also web publishers, is one tough combination.

There are lots of other benefits to social media usage, which are covered in the report. But that’s my take on the why SM participation reflects positively on search marketing.

If a blog post doesn’t receive any comments, does that mean you struck out?

Actually, it’s quite common for blog posts not to receive comments. In the legal industry, and especially with lawyer blogs, we see it all the time.  The truth is the majority of online readers are lurkers. It’s called the 90-9-1 Rule, where 90% of your readers won’t respond in any way, 9% will contribute and participate once in a while, and 1% will do the vast majority of digital interaction.

This can be a difficult phenomenon to explain, but it hardly means that you haven’t connected with your intended audience.  Remember: the more focused the subject, the smaller the target audience. Apply the  90-9-1 rule to most lawyer blog audiences, and it’s a recipe for a comment-free wasteland.  I also think it’s quite unfair to compare a lawyer’s blog comment numbers to the more news-y blogs out there. You can’t compare a lawyer’s substantive commentary to ATL or ABA Journal.

Two important points:

1. Some blog posts just don’t warrant a comment — case in point, see my last post on the sudden abundance of twitter experts our there. It’s received zero comments, but 41 retweets and 1500+ visitors. The post was a fun lark, but clearly not worth commenting on.  That doesn’t mean it didn’t strike a chord or find an audience.
2. There’s always a chance for commentary to connect with readers in the future — Another example: back in 2006 I wrote the Top 10 Uses of RSS in Law Firms.   Three weeks passed and it might have had 30 readers. It subsequently got picked up by Dave Winer, and took on a life of its own.  To this day, that post drives more visitors to my personal blog than anything I’ve written there since. … Side comment: This story is also one of the reasons I still believe in search marketing and the power of positioning content in front of audiences. Blog commentary & search exposure combined continue to have a long-term impact on my own content marketing.

Bottom line: Are comments nice?  Of course they are, but you have to see the big picture.  As most experienced bloggers will tell you, comments are only one form of feedback. Don’t forget to also watch:  site traffic (both post specific, and general trends),  social media mentions, email feedback, mentions on other blogs, and general increases in your profile (eg. offers for speaking engagements) & your personal network (eg. more industry-based friends & contacts).  You need to consider all the available metrics as a group.  Micro-measuring comment counts (or even counting interactions post-by-post…) isn’t going to cut it in face of the 90-9-1 rule.

Avvo’s Marketing Manager Conrad Saam recently produced a feature comparison table for the various legal blogging platforms. Unfortunately, the list included a number of inaccuracies, prompting responses from Kevin O’Keefe (for Lexblog), Rick Klau (for Blogger), and a number of others. The list was also a pretty short, and seemed to be crafted to showcase Avvo’s new entry into the market.

Ok, fair enough. That’s Avvo’s prerogative on their own blog, and Rick & Kevin did a fine job standing up for their services. But beyond the controversy, the post did raise a couple of very common questions: 1) which blog software & vendors are out there?, and 2) how should lawyers make their decision on a provider?

Let’s start with the second question. Picking a blog software is all about finding a good fit. It’s a balance between your budget, your skills (and the skills of those you employ), the control you require over the software, and the amount of ‘hand holding’ necessary from your provider. Broken down further:

• Budget:  This one should be easy, but is often not. If you’re spending dollars in this space, you quickly find out that your money is not going to software. Blog software is cheap, no matter who provides it. The cost comes from the added extras: a professional design, custom coding, functionality changes, software upgrades, training, backups, security, etc.  Do you want someone to pick up the phone when things go wrong?
• Skills:  The less money you spend, the more you need to be comfortable with the out-of-the-box (OOTB) product. And free, often equals OOTB plus your time (or the time of people you pay).  This is a balance, however, and many people can create & manage a blog themselves, with the time committed varying case-by-case.  The best advice I have to give to lawyers is: a) to value your time invested in extra blog management tasks, and b), to know the limits of your resources. 95% of the time, blogging is a simple painless process. But if you lose  a couple of weeks each year tinkering, you need to consider whether this is a hobby or a business investment.
• Control: Many of the hosted solutions restrict the design options and custom coding, so you need to be content with the product they are delivering.  If you require complete control of the design and functionality of your blog, that can have a big influence on your decision. WordPress, for example, has both a free hosted version, and an open source free download that may be installed on your own servers (the former being a self-managed solution, and the later offering the most control). Feature wise, blog software are often very similar. So how do you differentiate? For me, the big factor is design flexibility. Either pick a provider that delivers that professional looking design, or choose a  software with complete custom coding capability.
• Hand holding: Being a novice at anything is tough, and blogs are no exception. Most lawyers are good writers, but few are coders. Many seasoned bloggers often forget how many hours they’ve invested in learning this stuff. Personally, I think most new blogging lawyers would benefit from focusing on their transition to the first-person opinion-driven blog writing style. If you think you need training & advice, don’t choose software. Choose a service provider.

Now for Part 2. Here’s a list of some of the viable options out there. These are solutions, companies or software, that we have personal experience with. Depending on the circumstances, any of them may be a good fit to build or host a legal blog.

• Hosted WordPress – Located at wordpress.com (not  .org).  While it lacks in full control over the design and ability to modify code, the platform is very solid. You can apply your own domain name (recommended if you want to move your blog later); and if you’re a CSS whiz, you can pay to apply your own custom template. Good choice for: the somewhat tech savvy &  budget conscious. Comparable to Google’s Blogger.
• Self-hosted WordPress – Located at wordpress.org (not .com), where you download the software and install yourself.  This is what we use for our own blogs here at Stem. In my view, it offers the most control, but also requires the biggest investment. If you see WordPress design themes for sale, or freelancers offering WordPress design, it’s more than likely for the self-hosted version.  Good choice for: the most tech savvy, OR, a lawyer outsourcing development and wanting full control over the layout, design & functionality.
• Lexblog – Ignoring the colourful personality of the CEO, Lexblog remains the industry leader. We have a number of co-clients with them, and I do recommend Lexblog as a ‘turn key’ solution. As described in the budget item above, you don’t hire Lexblog for their software. They’re hired to execute my laundry list of added extras, and to answer the phone when you need help. Good choice for: the time conscious, less tech savvy, new bloggers.
• Justia – Probably the second name out of most peoples’ mouths when they think lawyer blogs (and perhaps the first for websites). Tim Stanley & Co. have an excellent industry reputation, and their blogs are prominent in many markets.  Good choice for: same crowd as Lexblog, but for those that like Justia’s blog designs better.
• Google’s Blogger – This was my first blog software, and where I continue to host my personal blog. For me, Blogger remains the simplest solution available, free or paid. I would strongly advise putting a domain name to your blog ($10/yr) before you start, so you have a migration path later. But short of some widget functionality (which can be hand coded into the templates), I have few complaints. Good choice for:  those lacking tech skills, little to no budget, but want get going. Comparable to Hosted WordPress.
• G2 Web Media – Long time legal blogger Grant Griffiths, who also has a bootcamp introduction for new blogging lawyers, is a frequently missed alternative. G2 Web Media has some nice designs, and works as an intermediary using the self-hosted WordPress solution. Good choice for: the lawyer who wants a unique blog design, custom functionality, but needs to outsource design & support.
• Skunkworks – Our local friends up here in Canada, Skunkworks are another reliable developer option. Doug Jasinski and company have a combined background in both traditional media and advertising, along with some solid multi-platform blog designers. Good choice for: the lawyer that wants their blog to match firm branding efforts.
• Drupal - Drupal is one of most flexible CMS products I’ve worked with, but I’m hesitant to recommend it as a blog platform for individual lawyers. Especially for the less tech savvy. Where Drupal does fit in nicely is for community driven websites – a collaborative blog for a legal association perhaps. I put Joomla in this class too. Good CMS, but you’ll be tinkering if you want to use it for blogging.
• Movable Type & Typepad – Comparable to WP self-hosted and WP hosted, respectively.  Movable Type is the core platform Lexblog uses, without LB’s configuration bells & whistles. Typepad tends to be underrepresented in the legal market, and we don’t currently host any clients there; but some colleagues do, and sing their praises.

There are undoubtedly others; especially more companies that build blogs for lawyers. But I can only work from personal experience here (so please don’t email asking to be listed). Also understand that your decision is not carved in stone. As long as you put your blog on a domain that you own … did I say that enough times in this post? ;) …  you can migrate to another platform in the future.

Good luck with your new blog!

I’ve been waiting all week to see the final breakdown of posts from Slaw’s second law firm guest blogger: Clark Wilson LLP.

For those that might not know, Clark Wilson is both my former firm and one of our first clients here at Stem.  But beyond that, the lawyers who participated (many who are long time friends) simply did an outstanding job.  Thanks to some fine internal quarterbacking by Jeffrey Vicq, the firm had an ample number of Partners involved, including a few practice group leaders, and a nice representation of practice areas.

Here’s a quick roundup of what CW lawyers posted over the course of the week:

From Bernard Pinsky, who is chairs the firm’s Corporate Finance/Securities and United States Law groups:

• How About Uniformity in Securities Rules?
• Canada Best Market for Business Access to Capital in 2008

From Nicole Byres, who practices with the firm’s Labour & Employment and Energy & Natural Resources groups.

• Focus on Employees: The Hidden Costs of Restructuring a Business

From Larry Munn, who chairs the firm’s Privacy Law Group and blogs at Canadian Trademark Blog:

• Canada’s Lawful Access Legislation: Civil Rights and Privacy Concerns

From John Fiddick, who’s a member of Clark Wilson’s Business Litigation and Insolvency & Restructuring Law groups:

• Stuck at the Border: New Challenges to the Registration of Judgments

From Warren Brazier, who chairs the firm’s Energy & Natural Resources Group (and also blogs at Megawatt: BC Renewable Energy Law Blog):

• British Columbia – Becoming a Renewable Energy Powerhouse

From Sarah Jones who’s a member of the firm’s Commercial Real Estate, Municipal Law, and Environmental Law groups:

• Suddenly …Nothing Happened! Despite Media Hysteria, Outs for Pre-Sale Condo Purchasers Remain the Same

From Neil Melliship,who chairs Clark Wilson’s Technology & Intellectual Property practice group and contributes to the Canadian Trademark Blog:

• Maybe the Jury Didn’t Like the Songs

From Brent Clark, who practices with the firm’s Commercial Lending and Insolvency & Restructuring groups:

• A Risky Business for BC Lenders

From Michael Jaworski, who’s a member of the firm Construction, P3 law, and Corporate groups, and edits the firm’s construction industry newsletter, Legal Framework:

• The Emerging Climate Consciousness – Public Company Disclosure and Beyond

Congratulations, everyone, on a very successful weeks’ blogging!