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Build your practice with a blog: writing a blog can help you share information, interact with potential clients, and establish yourself as an expert. It can also be a lot of fun. Here's how to set up a good one - no tech degree required.

Article Excerpt
When developing a marketing plan for a law firm, you have an almost endless selection of media options. But with more and more consumers turning to the Internet for help with their buying decisions, that's the medium you have to use to stay competitive.

How? A blog is one good way. Starting and maintaining a blog is not complicated: All you need is the ability to write--and something to write about. It is relatively inexpensive, costing less than many traditional forms of advertising.

Blogging can be time-consuming, but the payoff is high visibility on a search engine's results page, the most valuable real estate on the Internet. (1) Like the back cover of the Yellow Pages or a television ad during prime time, a listing on the first page of a search engine's results is highly sought-after territory, and competition for it is fierce.

Keep in mind that Internet users tend to be smart consumers, and most have figured out that the "sponsored" listings that usually appear at the top and on the right-hand side of a results page are paid advertisements. And they're understandably skeptical that they can find what they're looking for in a sponsored ad. (2) They're likely to click on the nonsponsored listings, assuming the links will take them to Web pages (like blogs) that the search engines have determined are relevant to the search terms. Consumers feel that a sponsored ad will be less likely to be relevant than a Web site vetted by the search engines. That's why creating and maintaining a blog should be a part of your Internet marketing plan.

A blog is simply a Web site designed so that the average person (even the average attorney) can update it easily and frequently. Originally set up as online journals where the tech-savvy posted their daily ruminations, blogs now cover everything from politics to fashion. Popular bloggers have become "personalities" with credibility as experts in their fields.

Blogs are also interactive. Most allow readers to post comments, and usually the blog author approves posts before publishing them. This ensures that only quality content appears on the blog, and it allows the blog owner to filter out useless or inflammatory posts.

The primary difference between a traditional Web site and a blog is that a blog is typically updated much more...

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