I think I may be having a sea change. I enjoy being a blogger, I enjoy writing, I mostly enjoy being an attorney. What I don’t enjoy is being a slave to search-engine-optimization (SEO). SEO is crap. You want to know a secret, SEO sort of works but it makes you evil. There are no easy answers or simple solutions to starting an maintaining a law practice – other than to network and do good work. We are in a people profession. Think about it.
My new thing is blogging on what I want to write about and, yes, mostly on starting a law firm because that is what I am doing right now. If you like my thoughts/advice, great – I hope it helps you. But, no more of this SEO crap. Sorry for any prior posts on the issue. I still believe in marketing and won’t apologize trying to market my law firm but certain kinds of marketing attracts the wrong kind of clients and people.
As an aside – blogging on a topic you enjoy and putting up a lot of quality content is certainly not going to hurt if you are trying to start a firm. I’m not saying blogging is a bad idea – if you like it. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t listen to all of the SEO B.S. that is out there. Avoid the SEO gurus. Seriously.
Blogging for legal business is fine. It helps. But, doing it just to make Google or some other search engine like your blog is silly. Write good content – you would be surprised on how many hits you get on your blog when you do that. Be an authority. When you write well about something you are passionate about, people notice. They come to your blog because it is witty, funny, informative – whatever. So make it your own. Blog about your practice area in a new and different way. Don’t just throw mud at the wall to see if it sticks. You will wear yourself out doing that and you will quit.
I believe Google has a moto of “don’t be evil.” I feel like I’ve been a little evil. Sorry. But, mark my words, I don’t apologize for giving advice on starting a law firm. Some of it is good, some of it is bad, you decide that for yourself.