After announcing the release of Blawg for Profit, I received several questions from lawyers about why I thought blogging should be a part of a lawyer’s marketing program.

In my opinion, there are a number of reasons to have a blog for your law practice. Here are nine of them:

1. It’s cheap. You can start your own blog for less than $10 per month. Compare that to yellow page advertising.
2. It’s fast. You can start a blog and have it live on the internet in literally a matter of minutes.
3. It’s easy. Once you understand how blog publishing software works, if you can write an e-mail then you can publish an article to your blog.
4. Blogs are search engine friendly. Do you google? An increasing number of people have google as their home page. Google and other search engines rank quality blogs higher than static webpages. That means when a prospective client types in your target keywords (e.g. mobile divorce lawyer) you come up on the first page of the search results (no, really go do it - type in my number one target search phrase for my practice blog, mobile divorce lawyer, in google and see what comes up). Same thing for alabama divorce lawyer and alabama divorce law, etc - you get the idea. It works.
5. Blogs establish your authority. Publishing a blog is much like publishing a book. You become viewed as the authority for your subject matter.
6. The media look to blogs for sources for their stories. Not only do prospective clients find bloggers on the internet, so do the mainstream media. Do not be surprised if you are contacted to be a source for a story in your practice area. Last year a Time magazine reporter contacted me about a family law story she was working on. It turned out I was not able to help with exactly what she was looking for, but still.
7. It’s a way to grow a nationwide network of other lawyers. Bloggers support one another. They link to each other’s sites (which helps the search engine ranks of both sites). They refer business to one another. They share resources and tips.
8. Blog articles can be easily “repurposed” for other publishing efforts. A series of blog posts can be easily turned into an article or report you can offer to prospective clients or that can be published in a bar journal. Writing articles has been a staple in lawyer marketing for years. Blogging gets you in the habit of writing content that can be re-used for that purpose in other media.
9. It’s a public service. Many of us became lawyers in order to make a positive contribution to society. If you publish good, helpful content on your blog, your site becomes a valuable resource to those in your target market.

There’s more. But, do you really need any?