December 3rd, 2007
Blawg Review #137 is up, and by up I mean it has ascended from Purgatory to Paradise. Colin Samuels @ Infamy and Praise has based Blawg Review — a review of the legal blogosphere hosted at a different site each week — on the third part of Dante’s Divine Comedy. This Review follows in the award–winning footsteps he took with Dante in #35 (Inferno) and #86 (Purgatory). This is not one to be missed.
Samuels proves once again that literacy and the law may be happily married.
November 28th, 2007
I’d like to tell you to vote for me in the latest law blog popularity contest. After all, it’s being run by the ABA Journal so it has to be prestigious, right?
But I can’t tell you that. Because I wasn’t nominated. Nor, for that matter, was any other law blog devoted to personal injury law.
Maybe personal injury blogs all stink? Maybe we don’t discuss enough law, or have enough visitors? Perhaps all the blogs are poorly written? I mean every last one. Perhaps the bloggers really aren’t worthy of mention? How else can an entire field of law be ignored?
So let’s take a short look:
You would think that, with so much noise being made about the need for tort “reform” because personal injury suits are so problematic, there would be at least a few blogs devoted to that subject as part of the top 100.
But if you thought that, you would be wrong. It’s not a question of one blog being picked over another since this is, after all, just another vanity contest that small niche blogs don’t have a shot of winning. No, the significant thing is that the vaunted American Bar Association simply doesn’t think that this field of law is relevant. The decision to ignore a vast segment of the law speaks volumes about the organization.
[Addendum: The “ABA Mission” is at odds with their exclusionary choices:
The Mission of the American Bar Association is to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law.]
OK, short rant over. Cue Rodney…
Links to this post:
Why Big Firms Don’t Blog Well: Not Too Much Risk, But Too Little …
Chalk one up for the solos and small firms. For what it’s worth, we dominate the ranks of the Third Annual ABA Blawg 100. By contrast, only two large firm blogs made the cut, Mark Herrmann observes at Drug and Device Law, …posted by [email protected] (Carolyn Elefant) @ December 03, 2009 10:11 PM
law bloggers respond to aba blawg 100 post
our post last month commenting on the aba journal’s blawg 100 has generated some serious discussion around the blogosphere. legal bloggers from across the spectrum have offered their two cents on the issue, each offering a very …posted by [email protected] (Rob La Gatta) @ December 17, 2007 1:30 PM
aba journal “blawg 100” controversy
the selection of sites, as well as the whole traffic-building beauty-contest genre that it may be seen as typifying, has stirred up a considerable volume of discussion: see giacalone, elefant, the unaccountably omitted turkewitz, …posted by Walter Olson @ December 04, 2007 12:38 PM
“best of” lists: the unbearable truth bared
in the wake of the controversy (see, eg., kevin o’keefe, eric turkewitz, and carolyn elefant) created by the recently-announced “the aba journal blawg 100” list of the “best web sites by lawyers, for lawyers” (featured in our prior …posted by David Giacalone @ November 30, 2007 2:03 PM
We Agree With A Plaintiff’s Lawyer!
We’re not quite as outraged as you are, Eric Turkewitz, but we agree with you. And, if we agree with a plaintiff’s lawyer, that’s news that’s fit to print. (The issue has to do with a list of top legal blogs. Click through here only if …posted by Beck/Herrmann @ November 29, 2007 10:21 AM
UN-AMERICAN
I just found out that this blog was left out of the ABA Journal’s Blaw 100. It has become clear to me that the ABA has been taken over by communists, hell bent on destroying our American way of life. As you all know, it never starts as …posted by . @ November 28, 2007 10:06 PM
November 18th, 2007
Having now read and linked to hundreds of blogs as part of my postings and round-ups during my first year, and having exceeded my expectations for a niche blog (The End of My Rookie Year: Thoughts, Metrics and Changes), I wanted to list a dozen tips on better blogging to kick off my second year. Perhaps one or two of the points will help someone somewhere, particularly those in my field, but these can be adopted elsewhere:
1. Blog optimization is different than search engine optimization: SEO experts tell you to use the same buzz words as often as possible so that it increases presence with Google. Except that doing so means your writing will probably suck. Does a reader really want to see the phrase “personal injury attorney” in every other sentence? And if the writing sucks, no one will want to read it, link to you, or come back. Incoming links, of course, are important both to bringing in new readers and improving Google PageRank. Otherwise you have to hope that new readers will blindly stumble upon your poorly ranked blog. So forget SEO and work on being a better writer and providing real content.
2. Don’t engage in blatant self-promotion: Blog posts that look like advertisements (“If you or a close friend was injured, call me at …blah, blah, blah”) are posts that no one wants to read, and fewer want to link to. Perhaps a potential client will find you, but without the incoming links that come from better writing, it isn’t very likely.
3. Don’t use crappy back links to yourself in the post: If you continually link back to your own blog or website in the text of a post every time you use a favorite buzz phrase, you have added nothing. In fact, you’ve made it worse. Perhaps you think all those internal links make Google happy, but don’t count on readers who chased bum links coming back again. While I’m not privy to Google’s algorithms, you can bet your last pixel that external links are vastly more important than internal links. Google didn’t get to be king of the hill by being stupid. I use one identifying link at the bottom of the post, and have an “about” section in the sidebar. That’s more than enough if someone wants to find me, and doesn’t destroy the text.
4. Breaking the news beats the hell out of commentary on the news: The posts that most readers found to be of interest were those that had originally sourced material. Why? Because other bloggers (and news media) saw them and linked to them, thereby bringing in more readers. Commentary is nice, and allows you to give your views, but it’s still just commentary.
5. Link to others often: While this is part of every “how to” on blogging, many people still don’t get it. Links are how others find out about you, and they bring in other bloggers who might, if you write well, link back to you bringing in more readers.
6. Your competition is your friend: While you may compete in the same niche for clients with other firms, they are also your readers and sources for stories. A successful blog doesn’t ignore that.
7. Quirky is good: If a blog isn’t enjoyable to read, then people won’t read it. Simple. A little personality is fine. Don’t make reading your blog look like work.
8. Stay focused: If you are off-topic more than 20% of the time, people won’t really know what you are about, and therefore may not come back. And 20% is probably too high.
9. Add value: A blog that is merely parasitic of news stories or other blogs isn’t worth much, unless you intend to be a news aggregator like How Appealing or Kevin M.D. If you’re writing about a news story or decision reported by others, add your own thoughts on its significance.
10. Don’t try to monetize the blog with ads: Very few blogs have the traffic that will attract meaningful advertising dollars. So if the money is minimal, don’t uglify the blog with ads.
11. A blog is indirect promotion: When people write articles for publication, they don’t scream “hire me!” Writers for traditional journals simply hope that their reputation will be enhanced by demonstrating knowledge in a field and that this may indirectly help them professionally. It’s a form of networking. Treat your blog the same way.
12. Enjoy yourself: If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. If it is done as a hope for obtaining business it will be quite clear in your writing, and more importantly, it won’t be fun. Let’s face it, no one will ever hire me because of my marathon Blawg Review, but I had a blast doing it. And that’s the important part.
This past week has been devoted to blogging due to Blawg Review and my one year anniversary. The navel gazing will now stop and I’ll return to the theme of the blog. Unless the mood or a good story messes with my plans.
(Eric Turkewitz is a personal injury attorney in New York)
November 16th, 2007
Tomorrow is this blog’s first anniversary. So I wanted to share some visitor metrics, upcoming changes, and general thoughts:
1. Metrics:
This tiny corner of cyberspace attracted significantly more visitors than I had imagined a year ago. Weekday readership the last six months has been about 700 unique visitors per day. Roughly 20,000 per month. Here is the data for the year, starting from scratch, as of yesterday:
2. Changes:
OK, the blog was a success. So let’s change it…
Will the blog improve or will I get hit with the sophomore jinx? Beats me.
3. Blogging Tips:
Since the blog is a success (at least to me), my next entry will be my tips on blogging, for whatever it may be worth to others (perhaps not much).
4. Thoughts on Blogging:
This has been a real hoot, but it has also taken a great deal of time. The one oddity that stood out was that I was placed on the blogroll of Overlaywered while at the same time being a guest contributor to its arch nemesis, Tort Deform. I’m not 100% certain what it means, but I think that has to be good, especially for a beginner.
I’ve listed some of the most popular posts are here, but my personal favorite was the marathon Blawg Review #134 that I put up earlier this week, essentially the culmination of my rookie year. It was long, not just because marathons are long but, because I had so much fun conceptualizing, researching and writing it. I started making notes in a separate file six months ago on ideas and situations, much the way I make notes on trial themes and tactics from the day a case comes in.
The streets and crowds of New York provided unlimited opportunities to raise different subjects and allowed me to weave a fabric using both fact and fiction that included bloggers, the race and the city. The post got goofier and goofier as the race wore on because that is one thing that happens with exhaustion. A tip of the hat to the people that made it to the finish line.
And a big thank you to all who have visited and commented over the past year. Except, of course, to the two lawyers that threatened me.
Links to this post:
blawg review marathon
blawg review #134 is being run this week by eric turkewitz at the new york personal injury law blog. you won’t want to miss this one — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. eric turkewitz tells me that the inspiration for his new york …posted by Editor @ November 12, 2007 1:56 AM
November 14th, 2007
If Blawg Review #134 was a bit daunting due to its marathon length and you were waiting to see what others wrote before lacing up your sneakers for the event, then here are some of the first reviews to check out:
Other links:
If additional reviews come in, I will supplement this list with more links. But, of course, only if they’re good.
Links to this post:
blawg review marathon
blawg review #134 is being run this week by eric turkewitz at the new york personal injury law blog. you won’t want to miss this one — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. eric turkewitz tells me that the inspiration for his new york …posted by Editor @ November 12, 2007 1:56 AM