Southern California Arbitration Mediation and Conflict Resolution : Settle it Now Dispute Resolution Services : Serving Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Century City : Settle It Now Negotiation Blog

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (6)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Dear New Blogger,

I'm happy whenever new legal bloggers contact me to ask whether I'll add them to my blog roll because it gives me an opportunity to be of service to the Blawgosphere that has done so much for me.  Because I keep writing this same responsive e-mail from scratch however, I'm going to finally post my most recent free advice so that I can simply link to it next time.

Here’s how linking works.

You add blogs in which you’re interested to a news reader like google reader.  You read them and find items that stir your own thoughts – that make you want to engage in a public conversation about the topic at hand. 

You cite to that blog in your blog and link to it.  Generally, you excerpt a bit of someone else’s post and extend the breadth or depth or reach of it.   

Soon, people with a natural affinity to what you’re talking about will be citing to you and excerpting your material.  If you say interesting things about settlement, negotiation, or conflict resolution in general, I’ll find you (I’ll add you to my news reader today to watch your blog grow).  If I'm following you and you're practicing law and writing about it, eventually I'll see something interesting you've mentioned that I'll want to write about too.  I'll excerpt a bit of your post, give you credit and link to you.

I get somewhere between 30 and 40,000 visitors a month. People who are vitally interested in your area of practice will find you because I’ve mentioned you; because I add my audience and my "authority" to your own. (See Psychology of Persuasion at the Flying Solo Blog).   This will not happen as a result of your being on my "blog roll" (to which I won't add you because it's a waste of your and my time).

Before you know it, bloggers will begin arriving at your blog-door bearing gifts.  It's the Blog Welcome Wagon!  You'll get free advice, some of which will be good (like this) and some of which may not.  I must tell you, however, that I've never received any bad advice from an active blogger.

What gifts will the Welcome Wagon bring?  Lists mostly.  Bloggers will tell you the location of the best schools for your children; the name of their gardener; warnings about neighborhood bullies and stores that rip you off.  If your grass needs mowing or you've allowed weeds to pop up in the cracks of your sidewalk, they'll mention that too.  If your Blog House gets a new paint job or adds a wing, they'll let others know it and drop by to tell you how nice it looks.  Your kids will baby sit theirs.  You'll be invited to neighborhood Bar-b-Q's and asked to serve on the Neighborhood Watch.  If you're interested, you might eventually be elected Mayor of Your Blog Town.

Someday soon, something you write will appear in Blawg Review (for which I’m a “sherpa”).   Maybe you’ll even (gasp) begin to twitter.  Anonymous Ed. of Blawg Review will be in your twitter network, as will Kevin O’Keefe at Lex Blog who aggregates legal twitterers at LexTweet.  Follow everyone Kevin follows.  He has a HUGE twitter network of law bloggers.  The Wall Street Journal’s “onespot” might follow you too and if you write something topical (the current economy is always a good bet) you’ll find your blog cited there.  Then you can tell the people who poo-poo'ed your blogging effort that you were cited in the Wall Street Journal.  "So there!"

Eventually, reporters  will begin to call you and ask for your opinion.  Lawyers who aren’t in your business will refer clients to you (without asking for that pesky referral fee because reciprocity is the grease that runs the gears and levers of Web 2.0 - not money).   Hat tip to Blog of Mr. Tweet.

Read the newspapers and magazines and watch the movies and television that your market reads and watches.  Participate in their events.  Speak to them in their local habitats.  Share your knowledge.  Link, link, link, link, link.  The blogosphere is a virtuous circle of good intentions and enlightened self-interest. 

In EVERYTHING you do, refer to your blog.  Put it on your business cards.  Mention it when you speak to other lawyers or to local business groups.  Walk your talk.  Have integrity.  Be consistent.  Be interesting, novel, innovative, passionate, wise and generous.  Be of service.  Always say "yes" to a Blawgosphere request, even if the "yes" is wrapped in a "no" (this, for instance, which says "no" to the blog roll request but yes to your participation in my network as a P.I. blogger).

Welcome.  The water’s warm and the natives friendly.  Feel free to call or write for blog advice anytime.  And thanks for letting me be of service.

Best,

Vickie

p.s. here, by the way, is Michael Lawson Neff's new Atlanta Personal Injury Blog.