This is a question I get asked quite often. Here is the answer I provided in a comment recently on Solo Practice University.
I would be curious to know what [some] see as the use of a “website”. [Yes,] a blog is a Web site. However, a blog is so much more. Some might call a blog a content management system (CMS) But, we can take it further and call it a Conversation, Relationship and Meeting place (CRM).
The biggest difference between a blog and a Web site is how they work. I equate a Web site to a pay and pray web yellow page ad. Where you throw something up on the Internet which resembles a yellow page ad and you pray someone might stop by to see your information and maybe, just maybe call you.
A blog is an interactive, proactive, and effective marketing tool. A blog allows you the opportunity as a solo lawyer to provide constant, up-to-date and relevant information to your target audience. A blog gives you the opportunity to turn visitors into readers who in turn become return readers and who you will actually develop a relationship with. A blog allows a solo lawyer to create a place for a conversation to happen.
You the lawyer post content on a regular basis. The content is relevant to your audience in that you are providing information to answer questions or provide solutions to issues they may have. You allow a way for your readers to comment or ask additional questions on that “post” which you then can also comment on. You Empower your readers to participate in an online, up-to-date, relevant conversation.
A blog is so much more than a “static” Web site. If you will take advantage of the FREE blog offered by SPU and set up a blog. Launch the blog. Maintain the blog and update it with relevant content on a regular basis, you position yourself as the go to place for information in your particular niche or practice area. You can not do that with a static Web site anymore than you can with a yellow page ad.
Currently it is projected that 75% of those consumers looking for a professional service provider are going to the Internet first to find information on those providers. A blog will put you at the top of that list of providers because a blog if updated on a regular basis, will be found before a static Web site.
A blog provides information to those consumers in a form and fashion they not only will understand, but can use. And they will continue to come back because they will realize your blog is the place to go. Return visitors happen on a blog. They seldom happen to a static Web site.
Every one can do a yellow page ad or a Web site. But everyone can not afford to do the same size of yellow page ad or the same fancy, flash driven web site. A blog actually will put and does put a solo lawyer on the same footing as a “big law” firm by providing a solo a wonderful web presence.
A blog can benefit your solo practice in so many ways:
- are not expensive
- launch quickly
- search engines love blogs
- publishing a blog shows your readers who you are
- they offer you a completely new way to communicate with your clients, prospects and fellow lawyers
- your target market is using the web
- they position you as the go to place to find information
- they position you as a thought leader in your niche
- you will be in a position to succeed
- puts you in control of your own web based magazine and talk show
- your blog will never disappear from the reach of your target market
- if you don’t blog, you will be left behind by those who do and will.
