When planning a new blog or evaluating your current blog, measurable goals help you determine if your site is successful. The LexBlog philosophy of blogging skews away from content marketing and toward connection and reputation building. Who you connect with, be it a colleague or client, should be your desired outcome.
Your goals should be specific, measurable, realistic, and time-based.

• Specific: Avoid fuzzy, unclear words like “Improve my online performance.”
• Measurable: Numbers and data give you a clear metric for your goals.
• Realistic: While your goals should motivate you, an unattainable goal can weigh you down when you don’t reach

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Continue Reading Setting your site goals and measuring your success

When people ask me what they should do to get started on blogging, I rarely talk technology or even blogging. While those are important elements of blogging, they are next steps. Things you do after you decide you want to blog and have found your tribe and your voice.
Ask yourself this when you decide you want to start blogging: Who am I blogging for? If your answer is everyone, you are not going to be happy. Nor is anything you are about to read going to help you.
When you are right, you are looking for an audience. I…
Continue Reading Before you blog, find your tribe

To create a successful blog, you will need to listen to your audience and online influencers. These resources will help you understand why listening is important and to find the tools that can help you.
As LexBlog’s Kevin O’Keefe explains:
“Blogging is much more than ‘message sending.’ You listen to the conversation that’s already taking place among leaders and the media covering your niche area of expertise. Only after listening can you engage in the discussion by referencing the discussion in your blog posts and commenting at other blogs.”

These links explain what listening means and why it’s an important…
Continue Reading Finding listening tools

To create a successful blog, you will need to listen to your audience and online influencers. These resources will help you understand why listening is important and to find the tools that can help you.
As LexBlog’s Kevin O’Keefe explains:
“Blogging is much more than ‘message sending.’ You listen to the conversation that’s already taking place among leaders and the media covering your niche area of expertise. Only after listening can you engage in the discussion by referencing the discussion in your blog posts and commenting at other blogs.”

These links explain what listening means and why it’s an important…
Continue Reading Finding listening tools

Focusing your blog around niche topics will increase your readership and search engine performance. If your blog covers too many topics, it becomes harder for people to find related content on your site and for search engines to understand what your site is about. Here are some ways to narrow the focus of your site.
Most importantly, think about your readers and their needs. Ask questions about who wants to read about the topics you want to cover: What are their professional titles? What do they need to know about these topics? What content are they most likely to share…
Continue Reading Figuring out your blog’s focus

Focusing your blog around niche topics will increase your readership and search engine performance. If your blog covers too many topics, it becomes harder for people to find related content on your site and for search engines to understand what your site is about. Here are some ways to narrow the focus of your site.
Most importantly, think about your readers and their needs. Ask questions about who wants to read about the topics you want to cover: What are their professional titles? What do they need to know about these topics? What content are they most likely to share…
Continue Reading Figuring out your blog’s focus

Both new and experienced bloggers need ideas for fresh content. This article lists ideas for generating new posts: comment on recent news, repurposing your content, conferences and meetups, personal and evergreen content, and other prompts.
Respond to current news through your blog. Don’t include a detailed recap of the news. Instead, link to the original source and provide your own summary. Then, add your commentary. You can share your ideas on: a recent case and its takeaways for your audience, a recent development in your field, an issue highlighted in the news or another blogger’s post.
Repurposing your content. You…
Continue Reading Coming up with post ideas

Both new and experienced bloggers need ideas for fresh content. This article lists ideas for generating new posts: comment on recent news, repurposing your content, conferences and meetups, personal and evergreen content, and other prompts.
Respond to current news through your blog. Don’t include a detailed recap of the news. Instead, link to the original source and provide your own summary. Then, add your commentary. You can share your ideas on: a recent case and its takeaways for your audience, a recent development in your field, an issue highlighted in the news or another blogger’s post.
Repurposing your content. You…
Continue Reading Coming up with post ideas

This is the format of an ideal blog post. The most important part of writing an ideal blog post is to, you know, actually write it. Your thoughts are brilliant, I’m sure, but when you keep them within your head you miss out on the discussions that your ideas could generate, that could subsequently help shape your own thoughts further.
The topic can be anything—if you look at our Top 10 in Law Blogs posts you’ll see the subject matter ranges from cryptocurrency regulation to a monkey selfie lawsuit. Sometimes, if you’re having trouble narrowing down a focus, or want…
Continue Reading The ideal blog post

However long it takes to say what you have to say. No more. No less.
Everywhere I talk these days I am asked what’s the proper length for a law blog post. I give this answer everytime.
I fear the question arises out of a lot misinformation on law blogging flying around.
This afternoon I read Good2bSocial’s Joe Balestrino’s post on how to generate leads (I’d call it business) from your law blog in which he called out the importance of long form blog posts.
Does the number of words matter? Yes, it does, especially if you want to see…
Continue Reading How long should a law blog post be?