Write About What You Know -- It's Good Advice, Especially for Lawyers Writing Blog Posts

Whether or not Mark Twain advised us to "write what you know" is debatable, but it's considered good advice by many and you've probably heard the quote and considered its lesson.  (I first heard it as advice given to me by poet Naomi Shihab Nye in an early writing class.)

Those who disagree argue that it's exactly what writers shouldn't do -- instead, they should use their imaginations and creativity to write about what they don't know.  They've got a point.  Maybe it is a bit confining for the fiction writer: how could we have Star Trek or Narnia if writers were kept to writing about only the things of which they know?  However, it is particularly wise counsel when the writer is an attorney who is publishing content online for his or her peers, clients, and potential clients to read and consider.

"Write what you know" has been attributed to Mark Twain.

The Temptation to Write About The Unknown in Law Blogs

Law firms who have blogs for legal marketing purposes are always concerned with how their blawg is going to help the firm make rain.  Some track their analytics to see how many times a particular post link has been clicked; others monitor how often the blog has spurred someone to call the firm for more information or maybe even to set up an appointment.

ROI (return on investment) is important to judge.  True enough.

Thing is, if your blog is working for you as a marketing tool then there's always the temptation to boost what you are doing to get more traffic or more potential clients.  To expand your firm's practice or practice areas using the blog.

Conversely, if the law firm's marketing efforts aren't working and business is stagnant, then the firm may be considering new practice areas as a way to boost business.  Writing blog posts discussing that new area of the law may be one of the first toes they put in the water as they segue the practice .  

There's also the reality that after awhile, the blogger runs dry on things to discuss and is searching for ideas and themes for new blog posts.  Maybe new practice area issues or blog themes will be easier to write.

My suggestion:  please don't decide to write posts discussing a new and untried practice area.  It's one thing for a savvy personal injury lawyer, for instance, to decide to focus efforts on a new type of PI theme, like delving into the product liability area.   It's another thing for that personal injury lawyer to decide to market in criminal law just because he (or she) thinks that criminal trials would be exciting, different, fun, or profitable.

Here's why.
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Write About What You (or Your Law Firm) Knows

Most blogs aren't taken as seriously as more traditional publications, like your Bar Journal monthly magazine, or even blogs like HuffPo.  Your reader is going to be taking your post seriously, however.  And so will your State Bar should they decide to review your stuff.

It's just smart to write about the practice areas you know and within which you have experience.  If you are an injury lawyer or law firm who would like to venture into criminal law, great!  Go get that CLE and learn your criminal rules of procedure and insure that you are competent to practice criminal law before you start writing posts on your professional law blog about criminal law issues.

Moreover, if you're a personal injury lawyer who writes a blog post (or a series of posts) about criminal law matters, then you are putting yourself out to the public as a criminal attorney just as if you were to buy advertising on a local radio station or an advertisement in the telephone directory.  There are ethical considerations here (and disciplinary rules) that need to be considered when lawyers are blogging.

Bottom line, if you are a lawyer writing about a legal issue on a law firm blog, either have a personal professional depth in that topic via education and/or experience, or may sure to quote your law firm expert who practices in that area as part of your coverage of the topic.  Don't be what my Uncle Billy would call "a man with a hat and no cattle."  It can get you in trouble with readers, potential clients, and the disciplinary authorities.  
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Google Authorship is Over - Now You Need to Know About the Google Knowledge Vault

Big news out of Google today -- they're ending Google Authorship.

Image:  Peggy Webber in The Screaming Skull (1958)

If you want details, go read all about it from Google's John Mueller or  Eric Enge (Search Engine Land) or Marc Traphagen (Google+ post).

Now, don't panic.  This isn't all that big of a deal to you.

What Does the End of Google Authorship Mean to You? Not That Much, Really

It means that your photo isn't going to be appearing in Google Search Results any longer -- but you already knew that, right?  Google nixed the pix a couple of weeks ago.

It doesn't mean that your content doesn't count, or that it's going to have a negative impact on what you have written and published on your blog or web site.  (Google testing per Mueller shows little if any impact on traffic to sites, for instance.)

Google Still Loves Schema 

Schema -- e.g., the "article" coding for In Depth Articles and the "publishing" coding for Publishers -- that's still alive and well.  It's really just your byline that gets hit; that coding for "author" that Google isn't that interested in following right now.   From Mueller today:

Going forward, we're strongly committed to continuing and expanding our support of structured markup (such as schema.org). This markup helps all search engines better understand the content and context of pages on the web, and we'll continue to use it to show rich snippets in search results.

And why is that?  What nixed the "author" markup?  From the stuff that I've read this afternoon on Google, among other things is the fact that not that many people search for what someone has written -- they're looking for content by subject matter most of the time.

Searching for Subject Matter - Not Much Name Dropping

Don't you find that true?

I mean, I search for "Peggy Noonan" because I love how she writes -- but how many writers do you search for in Google, just to read what they've written?  Aren't you searching for subject matter too, anything from "Emmy winners" to "slow cooker chili recipe"?

Bottom Line Regarding Google Search and Google Authorship

Here's what I'm concluding today from Mueller, Enge and Traphagen, which is important: Authorship may be back in the future, but the important thing to recognize is Google is working hard toward "semantic search" overall.

If you want to know the future, learn more about the Google Knowledge Vault.

What is the Knowledge Vault?

Google's building a huge (HUGE) database of information for all of us to use.  And use efficiently.  It's called the "Knowledge Vault."

Google wants to be the best search engine out there -- to serve you; to keep you away from Bing and its other competitors.  To do that, this enormous, mind-blowing amount of information that it is compiling in its Knowledge Vault will have to bring stuff to you that you want most in your search results.

From New Scientist, this explanation of the Knowledge Vault:

It promises to let Google answer questions like an oracle rather than a search engine, and even to turn a new lens on human history.

Knowledge Vault is a type of "knowledge base" – a system that stores information so that machines as well as people can read it. Where a database deals with numbers, a knowledge base deals with facts. When you type "Where was Madonna born" into Google, for example, the place given is pulled from Google's existing knowledge base.

This existing base, called Knowledge Graph, relies on crowdsourcing to expand its information. But the firm noticed that growth was stalling; humans could only take it so far.

So Google decided it needed to automate the process. It started building the Vault by using an algorithm to automatically pull in information from all over the web, using machine learning to turn the raw data into usable pieces of knowledge.

Semantic Search is the Next Step

So, Google is working hard to evolve its service to make things even better for all of us.  This will be "semantic search" and the importance of quality content and good research will be even more important to blogs and web sites.

Beginning this year with Hummingbird, Google is moving past keywords and into "conversations" because Google has the ability now to comprehend and understand content (and searches) better.

Part of Google's success will involve the ability to discern reputable, trustworthy authors and experts so their work can rank higher in search results.  Google will want this as opposed to reliance solely upon "human actions such as markup," as described by Traphagen and Enge:

As Google moves forward in its commitment to semantic search it has to develop ways to identify entities such as authors with a high degree of confidence apart from human actions such as markup. Recent announcements about Google’s Knowledge Vault project would seem to reinforce that Google is moving steadily in that direction. So this may be how it approaches detection.

Bottom Line:  Keep Writing Great Content for Your Intended Reader

So, don't worry about this Author Ranking business, just keep writing great content.  Target your intended reader.  Support your work with links that you know are reputable and will stand the test of time (a NYT link will be there, a local blog is iffy).

And don't worry that your smiling face and your byline aren't being monitored right now.  You're fine.

Web Writing Tip: Never Write Directly in Your Blog Platform Because You May Lose Your Blog Post - and What to Do if This Happens

Sure, it’s faster and pretty darn easy to write your blog post directly into your platform, whether it’s WordPress or Blogger. It’s faster to get the post done and published and out on the web — and it’s so much easier to insert hyperlinks this way.

I get it. I wrote directly into the little box on the screen for Blogger or WordPress for several years.

Until I was happily writing away, inserted a link or two, and hit the publish button only to have the platform crash. Crash, as in lost.

Everything was gone. The content, the links, the image.

Irritating, obviously. So I heaved a heavy sigh, and rewrote the darn thing. (Google History helped here.) It wasn’t as much fun this time, I didn’t write with as much zip, but the re-creation was not that difficult.

I made sure I saved the stuff a couple of times, to be on the safe side. No worries. I hit publish.

Everything disappeared from the screen. I saw the dreaded “404” error message.

So, I made a phone call to the designer ….

And learned this lesson that I would like to share with you.

Never, and I mean NEVER, write directly into the blogging platform.

Write your blog post in Word, Google Docs, or Scrivener; collect your hyperlinks; get your image ready to go, and then open WordPress or Blogger.

Here are some things I do to make this smoother since, yes, it’s not as fast and speedy to create your post in one place and then transfer it into the platform as it is to do everything in one spot.

1. I write everything into a content draft so I can “select all” and easily drop everything into the blogging platform. I use Scrivener for this, although many of my clients use Word to write their stuff. This is an easier thing to accomplish with WordPress than Blogger for Scrivener pastes — in Blogger, I have to take the time to insert paragraph breaks, etc., and I have to make sure that I’m inserting into “html” and not the “compose” block or things are even more hopper-jawed. It’s a pain, but not enough to make me stop using Scrivener.

2. Links are important in blog posts. I insert hyperlinks into my content as I go because I’ve found that it’s easier to remember what phrase you want to use with the link when the hyperlink is closer to the chosen text than if all your links are listed in a group at the end of your document (or bookmarked or tagged in Pocket, etc.). My practice is to insert the hyperlink immediately below the paragraph I’ve written, and if there are two links, then I insert them in the order they’ll appear in the content.

3. It also helps me to write the title and place it into the top of the content. Not as the title of the Word document or the Scrivener file, but as the first sentence of the post’s content.

4. As soon as I cut (or copy) from Scrivener and paste my entire block of content into the platform, I save it. No categories, no tags, I just save the inserted content immediately.

5. AFTER I save the post in the platform, I take the title I’ve written from the top of the content block and insert it into the title bar. Why? WordPress has given me problems a time or two with crashing when things are placed into the title bar. This way, if there’s a crash, hopefully that content is safely saved. I save again now.

6. Then I edit the post title’s file name (for example, see that little spot in WordPress right below where the title appears) because the platform will save something without a good description like “834” - and unless you change it, that’s what will appear in the hyperlink for your blog post.

Hyperlinks Now Required in Briefs Filed Before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

This is cool.   A new procedural rule becomes effective in December 2013, and now attorneys filing briefs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit must include hyperlinks in their citations.

New Fifth Circuit Rule 28.2.2 states:

28.2.2 Record References. Every assertion in briefs regarding matter in the record must be supported by a reference to the page number of the original record, whether in paper or electronic form, where the matter is found, using the record citation form as directed by the Clerk of Court.

CLERK OF COURT DIRECTED RECORD CITATION FORMAT

For multiple record cases, parties will cite “ROA” followed by a period, followed by the Fifth Circuit appellate case number of the record they reference, followed by a period, followed by the page of the record. For example, “ROA.13-12345.123.”

In single record cases, parties cite the short citation form, “ROA,” followed by a period, followed by the page number. For example, “ROA.123.”

How Does Your Blog Look on a Tablet or Smartphone? Look Here (and Here's Why It's Important).

Traditional blog platforms (think WordPress, Blogger) were designed for desktops and laptops -- not for smartphones and tablets.  Which means that your blog may look strange and hard to read on your IPhone or IPad (or other phone or tablet device) unless you've taken steps to accommodate these new smaller-screen devices.

How can you find out how your blog appears to readers using a smartphone or tablet?  

The easiest way to check is to grab a smartphone or tablet and go to your blog's home page.  Is it hard to read -- are you seeing more of the left sidebar than the posts themselves?

Other ways to check:  go to websites like TestiPhone.com or iPhone tester to see how things look on a smartphone's small screen.

If the blog looks wonky, call your webmaster and get this fixed.

For most blogging platforms, it's an easy fix.  Wordpress has a plugin that solves the problem; Blogger does it automatically.  (Blogger also provides its own preview for how Blogger blogs look on these smaller screen devices.)

Why should you care what device is used to read your blog?

Don't get overwhelmed.  The biggest hurdle here is taking the time to check the blog's appearance on various tablets and smartphones; changing things to accommodate the smaller screen is simple to do.  

It's an important task to undertake as soon as you can, though:  it's estimated that more readers are going to be reading blog posts on smartphones and tablets than desktops and laptops very soon (think weeks or months), so getting your blog adapted for those smaller screens is a priority.

BOTTOM LINE?  A hard to read blog post on a smartphone may remain an unread blog post -- and your time and effort in creating those blog posts deserves better, so make it easy for the smartphone reader to pull up and read what you've written.

For more, check out Forbes' article, " Smartphones, Tablets, Tab-Phones Edging PCs Off The Shelf?" and Econsultancy's take on things in "Smartphones and tablets: five key differences."

Even more? Read this piece written back in 2011 on Wikipedia, where Wikipedians are pondering where most of their readers are reading Wikipedia articles then (2011) and where those readers are going to be reading Wikipedia articles in the future.

Google Plus: Tips for Writing Google+ Posts and Why You Should Care About Google Plus

Google is promoting Google+ in a big way. Surf around and you’ll find continuing integration of Google+ into other Google offerings; for example, it’s impossible not to notice the growing Google+ connection in GMail if you use the Google e-mail service.

Blogger pushes a connection with Google+ where Blogger posts automatically appear on Google+ and vice versa, Google+ comments automatically appear on the Blogger blog. There’s also integration between Google+ and YouTube; Google+ and Google Chrome; and the big one for me this week: Google+ and Google Search.

That’s right. Contributing to Google+ is going to help you get top ranking in Google Search Results. Why?  Well, you need to think of your Google+ Page as a kind of blog and the content that you write for Google+ as mini blog posts.

Google+ Posts Are a Big Deal Now Because Google+ Appears in Google Search

There’s a great article at Moz explaining their research into a correlation between Google rankings in Google Search Results and Google+ contributions. (We’re talking stuff you write and put on Google Plus, not the “+1” which is Google+’s hat tip to the Facebook Like feature.)

Go read the Moz article on the "Amazing Correlation" they've discovered for lots of details on this study.  Bottom line, Moz found that sharing stuff on Google+ helps you with Google Search. (Why does this surprise anyone?)

You want to take the time in writing your Google+ contributions because each Google Plus post connects with Google Search (go here to read how spiders work):

1. Google Search will read ("crawl") and index your Google+ contribution. IMMEDIATELY. 
2. Google Search is going to check those links in your Google Plus post, too. IMMEDIATELY. 
3. Google Search includes Google+ in its PageRank categorization — this is good for your Google+ page, but it’s good for your web site or blog, too, if you’ve inserted their links into your Google+ post. 

For an in-depth discussion on writing posts for Google Plus, I recommend Dustin Stout’s article, “The Anatomy of a Perfect Google+ Post.” He’s providing lots of detailed instruction.

However, for many of my clients, what Dustin recommends is too much for them: they want to slap something into Google+ and go — lawyers are an impatient (busy) lot.   For example, Dustin’s suggestion that communication be encouraged by asking for comments simply will not be followed by many attorneys right now because they don’t have the time to commit to these conversations. And don’t even get them started on Twitter: they will not tweet.

Therefore, I’m offering the following information for a fast post on Google+ that I think will help the writer accomplish the goal of being noticed both on Google+ as well as on Google Search.

Remember: you care about how to write a Google+ post because it can help you appear in the top results in Google Search.

Tips for Writing Google+ Posts Without Spending Too Much Time On Them

These are tips for those who are busy but want to be involved with Google+ — there’s more than can be done, but if you want to be lean and mean, here are my tips and suggestions:

1. Consider Your Google+ Post to be a Mini Blog Post - Because It Is

This contribution on Google Plus isn’t a blurb and it isn’t a tweet. It's a short blog post on Google+, a social media site.

Inverted pyramid approach, sure, with maybe 1 or 2 paragraphs. It’s a short and sweet blog post, not a comment to a news article or a Wikipedia entry.

Approach the Google+ contributions as exactly that: contributions you are making to the readers out there, and if they want further information then they need to click over to the link you provide. That can be your website or your blog, of course. It can also be any other site on the web.

Recap: One paragraph is okay, two is better, don’t go over three. Link should be there for more information (Google+ will shorten the link for you). Content should contribute to the reader. Rant if you must, but I don’t read rants and I know lots of folk that are annoyed by ranting. Google+ readers aren’t the same as other sites: I suggest you offer fun, positive, informative content to them.

2. Use Bold and Italicized Fonts to Help the Reader Zip Through Your Post

Bold-face words and italicized words not only stand out from the remaining text, but these highlighted words and phrases help to create headings and sub-headings which readers can scan quickly (especially helpful with a small screen). Use them to follow the old lesson of “tell them what you will be telling them, then tell it, then tell them what you told them.”

Highlighted text accomplishes the first step of that lesson, plus Google Search will like it from an SEO perspective.

Never use ALL CAPS — it’s like you are screaming on the screen. Bad form. Rude.

How to insert bold and italics into a Google+ Post

For bold text, put a * symbol (asterick, there above the number 8 on your QWERTY keyboard) at the starting point where you want the bold to begin; put another * at the end of the phrase or word to appear in bold.  (*bold*)  When you hit "share" and your words are published on the Google+ site, what you typeds as *bold* will appear as bold.

For italics, same thing but use the underscore key _ instead of the * symbol. You can find that next to the + symbol on your QWERTY keyboard; you have to hold down the Shift key here or you’re going to type a minus sign (or a strikeout, depending on how you look at things). No minus sign/strikeout here! You want the underline and you just want one (1) of them. One of them: _. Not a bunch of them: __________.

For underlining text, which I don’t recommend but you’re you so maybe you like it, you do use the minus symbol instead of the * symbol as described above for the bold text.

3. Use Hashtags to Help Searches Find You 

Consider what you’ve written and pick out your main words or phrases — aka your “key words” or “key phrases.” Two or three, four on the outside: don’t go nuts.

These are what you want to identify with a hashtag. The hashtag helps people find your stuff on Google+: hashtags are a way to index your content so it is easier to search and to find.

In Google+, clicking on a hashtag within a post will take you to search results of other Google+ posts containing that same hashtag.

The hashtag symbol (#) is above the number 3 on your QWERTY keyboard. Hold down the Shift key, hit the 3 key, and voila: you’ve typed a hashtag.

Some folk insert their hashtags into their content; it’s a common practice on Twitter, where there is a character count limit of 140 characters. Doing this saves character space.  Google suggests that you do this in Google+ posts.

However, it makes your content harder to read.  I like to see hashtags at the end of the contribution, or post, lined up there in a row. I believe that Google can find them just as easily, and doing this method doesn’t intrude on your writing. #writing #post #hashtag #Google+

4. Images (Photos) Are VERY Important for Google+ 

Just surf through Google+. Look at how visually appealing it is. Notice how your eye slides right on by those posts with no photos or pretty visuals? Sad, boring little posts that might have something important or entertaining for you, if you noticed them.

Google+ is designed for the eye. Your posts need eye candy.

This may take the most time, granted, but it need not cost you anything in terms of money. Free public domain images are all over the place on the web (read my post here on finding free infographics and my post here on finding free photographs) and they are very helpful on Google+.

If you are promoting or discussing your own site or blog, then make sure to place a nice image in that content; when you link to it, the image will appear in your Google+ post. Problem solved.

If you haven’t, then you need to insert an image directly into Google+. This isn’t as time-consuming as it sounds. Just click on the little camera icon on the place where you write your contribution (post) on Google+ — a new window will open for you. You cannot pull a photo from a link to a URL, however — that is a drag, and I’m thinking it will change.

And yes, the image is important enough for you to take the time to download an image and then upload it into Google+ (more encouragement to get those images into your blog posts in the first place).

5.  Reference Names in Google+ Posts with +, @, or E-Mail address

If you name someone in a Google+ post, and they have a Google+ page, then you can include "+" before their name and Google Plus will notify them that you've discussed them in your post.  You can also use the "@" prefix, made popular by Twitter, and it will do the same thing.  (Caveat:  they have to set their account to receive these notifications in order to get them.   That's their call.)

Don't be shocked if a list pops up when you do this: Google may have several names for you to review, so you can pick the right Google+ account from several similar or identical names.

Also, this notification process only works between two Google+ accounts.  If you want to notify someone who isn't on Google Plus that you've named them in your post, then use their email address after the "+" or "@" symbol.

______________

To summarize:

1. Write short posts, 1 to 2 paragraphs, with positive, informative, entertaining content.
2. Include links. 
3. Bold and/or italicize as needed in your Google+ post.
4.  Include hashtags - I recommend placing them at the end of the post.
5.  Add an image if your linked material doesn't already provide it.
6.  Notify those mentioned in your post with + or @ before their name or email address. 

Google In-Depth Articles in Search Results - New Segregation of Results in Google Search

Perhaps you've noticed “news results” appearing near the top of your search results in Google, with two or three stories from mainstream media sources appearing near the top of the results with an invitation to surf over into more search results under Google News Search.

Soon, you’ll be seeing another subset of results on your Google Search Results page: beginning this month, Google began clumping together “in-depth articles” as a subset of finds, similar to News Results, in your Results.

Personally, I've only seen "in-depth articles" pop up once or twice in my searches; each time, they appeared at the bottom of the first page of search results, included three options, and were all provided by mainstream media publications.

What is this content? 

In the words of Google (here and here):

[P]eople continue to invest in thoughtful in-depth content that will remain relevant for months or even years after publication. This is exactly what you'll find in the new feature. … 

Often when you're searching on Google for a person or organization name, or other broad topic, you'll find a block of search results labeled "In-depth articles." These results provide high-quality content to help you learn about or explore a subject.… 

Google In-Depth Articles in Search Results

Expect to find articles published by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other established publications, although Google does suggest that these in-depth articles will include “…great articles from lesser-known publications and blogs.” 

Here’s an example of search results including the new feature as provided by Google:

Google Tips on How to Get Your Content Into In-Depth Articles Section of Search Results 

Google will be making its own top-secret decisions on what content will appear in this subset of Search Results. There’s no magic wand that is going to get your content into that new first page position.

However, Google Webmasters do provide instructions on coding to include in your content that will help you meet this goal. From Google (read all the details here):

1.  Include coding from Schema.org in your content (metadata) 

Google suggests that you use the article markup provided at Schema.org including specifically the following:

• headline 
• Alternative Headline 
• image (note: the image must be crawlable and indexable) 
• description 
• datePublished 
• articleBody 
• Authorship markup 
• Pagination and canonicalization 

2.  Have a Logo (check out the logos appearing in the image for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times)

Google suggests logo placement via:

• Google+ Page linked to your website, where the default image for the Google+ Page is your logo or icon that will be used for the In Depth Article result. 
• Use organization markup (see above metadata).

For those thinking that this is one more reason to get cracking on Google+, you're right.  It's important.

What are Long Tail Keywords? Why Should You Care About Them?

What is a "long tail keyword" - and why should you care? First of all, it's a phrase used in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) circles, and it's something that is used to try and reach higher in Google Search Results (as well as Yahoo, Bing, etc.).

What is A Long Tail Keyword? 

Long Tail Keyword: 3+ Words

Simply put, a "long tail keyword" is a phrase using 3 to 5 words, could be more, that appears in web content more than once, syncing with the future searcher who may well enter that same phrase in the Google Search Box when researching a particular subject matter.  (You may also hear things about "long tail marketing," etc.)

There are lots of "long tail keywords" in legal writing and in legal blogging (blawging). Right now, for example, the Boston Marathon Bombings are very recent and the phrase "search and seizure" is getting lots of Google traffic (33,400,000 just now).

Other phrases that are getting lots of interest today (according to Google Trends):

• 2013 NFL Mock Draft (71,000,000 hits) 
• Katherine Russell Tsarnaev (spouse of the slain Boston Marathon Bomber)(111,000,000 hits)

Why Should You Care?

There will be SEO Experts who throw this phrase at bloggers and lawyers as part of a strategy to get more traffic to the site.  Not to worry: for most legal writing for the web, the "long tail keyword" is a given:  most law firm blog writing includes long tail keywords automatically.

For instance, writers will write about -- and readers will surf for things -- that involve long tail keywords without stopping to consider that SEO is involved.  Long tail keywords often include:

• case names 
• legal phrases
• names of parties
• names of judges
• legal jargon 

When writing for the web, many lawyers will automatically include long tail keywords in their piece without knowing they are doing so, especially when their intended readers are other lawyers or legal professionals with the legal savvy to be surfing for similar vocabulary.  Easy peasy.  

Is Your Marketing Newsletter In Compliance With Federal Law? FTC Regulates Commercial Newsletters: Fines If You Don't Comply with CAN-SPAM Act

Have you heard of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (“CAN-SPAM”) Act?

If you’re sending out newsletters via email for marketing purposes, then you may want to insure that you (or your firm) are in compliance with this federal law designed to curtail unwelcome spam messages. 

Together with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the CAN-SPAM Act works to protect all of us from unwelcome and uninvited messages in our email inboxes or in text messages on our cell phone. 

They’ve been on the books since 2003 and they’re enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These federal laws regulate ALL commercial messages sent via email or text message; therefore, any marketing campaign that includes email newsletters or text campaigns must be in compliance with these federal laws.

1. Is your communication a “commercial electronic mail message” as defined by the Act? 

From the CAN-SPAM Act: 

• The term "commercial electronic mail message" means any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose). 
• The inclusion of a reference to a commercial entity or a link to the website of a commercial entity in an electronic mail message does not, by itself, cause such message to be treated as a commercial electronic mail message for purposes of this chapter if the contents or circumstances of the message indicate a primary purpose other than commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service. 
• Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the term “sender”, when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means a person who initiates such a message and whose product, service, or Internet web site is advertised or promoted by the message. 
• (B) Separate lines of business or divisions: [i]f an entity operates through separate lines of business or divisions and holds itself out to the recipient throughout the message as that particular line of business or division rather than as the entity of which such line of business or division is a part, then the line of business or the division shall be treated as the sender of such message for purposes of this chapter. 

In essence, the federal law requires the reader of your newsletter or series of emails to consent to these messages being sent to their inbox if the messages meet the definition of “commercial electronic mail message.”

2. Need for Consent from the Recipient for Commercial Email Messages 

The FTC has rules in place that require written consent for text messages to a phone; for email inboxes, the consent can be oral or written (say, in an email message subscribing to the messages or newsletter) if the message meets the definition of “commercial electronic mail message.”

 Your Newsletter Needs to Meet Requirements under Federal Law 

 The Small Business Administration (SBA) recognizes the power of email marketing on its website; it quotes Pingdom research for a Return on Investment of $44.25 for every $1.00 spent on email marketing in 2011. 

A ROI of $44 to $1 means that newsletters work: therefore, the goal is not to back away from email marketing but instead to make sure that the newsletter comports with federal guidelines.

To that end, the SBA provides details and suggestions on how to take advantage of the benefits of this marketing tool without falling afoul of the federal laws and regulations.

Read more from the SBA here.

And remember: the FTC does enforce this and does fine companies it determines to be in violation of these laws. Here’s a helpful video from the FTC on this issue:

Commercial Speech vs Political Speech and the Law Firm's Blog - Is Your Blawg Protected Free Speech or Not? What Would Your State Bar Answer Here?

Free speech isn't without its limitations, lawyers know this, and when it comes to "commercial speech" the United States Supreme Court has been happy to allow limitations on the free speech of attorneys and law firms when "commercial speech" is involved.  Lawyers don't like being regulated, however, and there are attorneys blogging today who may think that their blog (blawg) isn't subject to state bar review when in fact, it is.  Those bloggers (blawgers) are at risk of bar discipline.

Free speech protections provided by the federal constitution are not as broad for commercial speech as they are for other forms of free speech.  Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Comm'n of New York, 447 U. S. 557 (1980); Virginia Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U. S. 748 (1976).  Advertisements are subject to governmental regulation.

This distinction between different kinds of speech is very important for lawyers who write blogs to remember.

Consider, for example, the concerns of the High Court in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977) where things like (1) the adverse effect on professionalism; (2) the inherently misleading nature of attorney advertising; (3) the adverse effect on the administration of justice; (4) the undesirable economic effects of advertising; (5) the adverse effect of advertising on the quality of service; and (6) the difficulties of enforcement were determined to be sound bases for regulating attorney advertising even though "advertising by attorneys may not be subjected to blanket suppression."  Bates, 433 U.S. at 368- 379, 383.

Of course, the Bates opinion came down long before blogs popped up everywhere.  Lawyer blogs are tricky things.  There are firm-blogs, and individual lawyer blogs.  Ones written for specific practice areas (e.g., appellate, real estate, or environmental law) are popular these days.  You will find some blogs attached to law firm web sites (where they may be tools to boost the search result rankings of the firm's site) or you may find blogs as stand-alone publications (where they have their own separate domain).

Blogs and Free Speech:  Commercial vs Political Speech

Twisted into all this complexity of law blogs ("blawgs") are the legal protections afforded to the particular blog under constitutional free speech protections.  Not all blogs (blawgs) are the same, and not all blogs will be policed in the same way.

Commercial speech in a blog will allow the Bar to regulate and police that publication, just as the Bar regulates advertisements in the Yellow Pages, on the television screen, or in a standard firm web site.

If the blog basically serves an advertising purpose, then the state bar association that has jurisdiction over the lawyer or law firm responsible for that blog will argue it has a right to regulate that blog.  Period.

When does a blog not have to conform to Bar regulation?  When the blog publishes content that is protected as political free speech.

Political free speech isn't trying to sell the reader on hiring the lawyer or the law firm.  Political speech essentially involves any “... interactive communication concerning political change.” Meyer v. Grant, 486 U.S. 414 (1988).  It's not trying to sell the reader on paying the author of the content for the author's goods or services, in other words.

What happens if there's a mishmash of the two within the blog?

Blogs published by lawyers may offer political speech, but all too often they are intertwined with commercial speech -- especially if the blog is attached to the firm web site.  Whether or not the speech will be given free speech protection isn't as easy of a question to answer.

If one of the motivations for the blog is marketing the lawyer or law firm but it's not the only reason for the blog's publication, then what?

In Bolger v.Youngs Drug Products Corp., 463 U.S. 60 (1983),  the problem of mixed commercial and political speech in advertising was addressed.  Lawyers cannot use political free speech posts to protect themselves from regulation:

Advertisers should not be permitted to immunize false or misleading product information from government regulation simply by including references to public issues.

Bolger, 463 U.S. at 68.

If the blog combines commercial speech with political speech, then it will not automatically achieve the constitutional protections that a blog devoted solely to political speech will have.  Nevertheless, that combination of commercial speech with political speech may still rise to that level of constitutional protection if certain characteristics exist.  See, Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809, 818 (1975); Board of Trustees of the State University of New York v. Fox, 492 U.S. 469, 474 (1989).

According to other precedent, we have a test:

....For commercial speech to come within that provision, it at least must concern lawful activity and not be misleading. Next, we ask whether the asserted governmental interest is substantial. If both inquiries yield positive answers, we must determine whether the regulation directly advances the governmental interest asserted, and whether it is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest. Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Public Serv. Comm'n, 447 U.S. 557, 566 (1980); Adams Outdoor Advertising v. City of Newport News, 236 Va. 370, 383, 373 S.E.2d 917, 923 (1988).

Whether or not the reader may be misled means looking at the unsophisticated reader (Bates) and the assumption is going to fall in favor of the potential that someone out there reading the blog posts may be misled -- think Jethro Bodine as your potential reader when you're evaluating your publications.

The Bar Is Focused on Lawyers Misleading their Readers

The reason for bar regulation of lawyer advertising is to protect the public from being manipulated by lawyers marketing themselves in various formats: newspapers, television commercials, internet marketing, etc.  It's true that there's a profit motive in lots of web sites that enjoy protected free speech: the local newspaper's web site, for example, is published by a company operating for a profit and yet its site content is under the First Amendment free speech umbrella.

State bars, however, are going to come down on the side of regulation of the site or blog.  Consider your blog content and the design carefully.

Ask yourself this:

Would Jethro Bodine think you're selling yourself to him, even if your posts are careful not to market your practice or your firm directly?  Does having your blog attached to your law firm web site suggest that the blog is a commercial tool to get him to call the firm for a free initial consultation?  Does the design itself suggest commercial intent with things like 1-800 numbers in huge fontfaces in headings, footers, or margins?

If so, then you need to make sure that your blog (blawg) conforms to your state's advertising requirements (disclaimers, etc.) even if the majority of your content is political in nature.

5 Tips for Creating Strong Passwords That Are Easy to Use

Today, there is a story that those who are following the tabloid story of Twilight star Kristen Stewart's affair with the director of her new Snow White movie are vulnerable to malware attacks.  Seems that evildoers like to tag their malware (viruses and the like) to popular topics -- and this Twilight saga split of the Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson is right up their alley.

One of my clients is very concerned about this, since her kids love Twitter and Facebook and use her laptop routinely - and in doing so, they've already opened the door to one or more viruses which her tech support believes gained access through those shrunk links that appear on tweets and the like.  It's called "clickjacking."

Which brings us to passwords.  My client's biggest concern was protecting her financial sites as well as her blogging account.  Could the virus circumvent her passwords?  How do you create a strong password?  How can you make passwords that are strong and that are also easy to use (and remember)?

Passwords need to be easy for you to remember and hard for those computer villains to figure out, even with their sneaky password finding software.  Don't share them with anyone.  Don't put them on sticky notes on your monitor.  Remember to change them -- say on the 1st of every month.

Here are five (5) tips for creating strong, easy to use passwords:

1.  Use a quote or a short sentence that is personal to you.

Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department recommends sentences such as "I have two kids: Jack and Jill."  For sites that only allow a certain number of characters, they suggest you memorize a short version of this sentence and use it:  "Ih2K:JaJ"

2.  Use two unrelated words and then add some tweaks

Tweaks?  They can be whatever works for you: like added punctuation and a capital letter or two which will be easy for you to remember.

Carnegie Mellon gives an example here of  "book and goat" which then becomes "bo!ok29goat"

3.  Use different passwords, and change them often.

PCMag recommends that you change your passwords as often as you change your underwear.  PCMag also recommends that you use different passwords for different sites: never use the same password for different things. Don't use the same password for your online banking and your email account.  That's just asking for trouble.

4.  Move your hands on the keyboard.

PCMag has another good idea:  once you have your secret password, move your hands on your keyboard so they are one row up or one column over -- then type.

5.  Make things easier to remember by having your own password themes.

ComputerWorld suggests having a personal theme to your passwords that relate to a personal life event, such as the birth of a child.   OneMorePush and IceChips were given as some of their examples here.

What I'm Doing With My Passwords These Days.

Not too long ago, I was hit by an evildoer that did get one of my email account passwords.  However, the damage wasn't too bad -- it was an account I had set up to receive all those newsletters, daily quotes, etc. and not my personal or professional stuff.   Still, it was scary enough that I spent most of a workday setting up all new passwords and a password-changing schedule (not on the 1st).  I feel safer for it, and I think you will, too.

Another thing I did:  I stopped opening those shrunken links.  If the tweet doesn't give me enough info for me to google the site, and if I'm not interested enough to do a Google search, then so be it.  Turns out to be a nice time saving tool as well as a security strategy.

For more:

Microsoft suggestions on passwords.

Microsoft Password Strength Checker (input your password for evaluation). 

Supreme Court Justices Will Issue ObamaCare Opinion and Exit the Building for Summer Break: My Prediction and Here's Why and What It Means to Your Law Blog

Cocooned in my own little world, with a keyboard, a screen, and a deadline (or three), I haven't been aware until this weekend of all the hoopla surrounding the impending Obamacare opinion coming down from the United States Supreme Court over the past few weeks.

Seems there was a bunch of folk that thought we'd have their decision long before now, and I have to wonder why ... ratings?  over-eager? never met a judge (much less been one)?  Now, things are getting fever-pitched. 


Here's the thing:  this is going to bring a big, huge spotlight shining on those Justices and don't think for a minute that those Legal Brainiacs are not fully aware of this upcoming scrunity.  Which means that they aren't going to issue that ruling until they are ready to zip out for the summer break. 

That's this week.  We should have the Obamacare ruling this week -- unless they decide to hold off until right before the Presidential Election (which they can).  The U.S. Supreme Court will be on vacation for the next few months. 

It's the smart thing to do, issue the opinion right before the break, and not for the cameras.  Though there is that - and it's a valid reason. 

It's also somewhat savvy to hold off on the opinion until after the hiatus, though you can spin that argument either way, politically speaking.  I'm thinking they'll issue their opinion this week, if they're done with it. 

Here's the United States Supreme Court Docket Page on Obamacare -- it's actually a series of cases that are being considered regarding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 

It's the smart thing to do because the opinion (and its inevitable concurrences and dissents in all or in part) should stand on its own.  It is the opinion that should get the spotlight, it is the opinion that should be read and reread and discussed by the Talking Heads.

Why?  Because the opinion is what counts. It is the law and it is written to be analyzed, discussed, and used in the years to come.  The rationale for their decision (the "why") will be addressed in those paragraphs, and this should be the only answer we need.

Also, there's the fact that Justices don't give press conferences.  Not that they aren't smart to get the heck out of Dodge as this thing hits the media.  I'd go escape to some pretty place with a water view, too. 

If you're really interested in all this, SCOTUS blog is live blogging the events this week.  Go here for details. 

What This Means to Your Law Blog

Jumping down from my soapbox, here's my second point which I will be sharing with my consulting clients this week:  reading the comments to various news stories, it's clear that lots of people do not understand the impact of precedent upon their lives.  They get that they vote on people to go to Congress or the state house and vote on laws.  They get that the President can order things to happen.  Many understand the impact of agencies on their lives (particularly workers' compensation).

One thing ObamaCare does is bring an opportunity for lawyers to discuss how the judiciary works - not just in Washington, but in their own neck of the woods.

And not in legalese.  I would suggest NOT writing your posts in a lawyer-to-lawyer manner.  Write about the importance of courts and what power they exert in the vocabulary and sentence structure most clients will appreciate. 

• Court cases, not legal precedent
• Decision, not opinion
• Sent for reconsideration by a higher court, not sent up for review

You get the idea.

On-Page versus Off-Page Search Engine Optimization: What's the Difference?

On Page SEO, short version, involves all the words that you can see on your web site's pages.  How this content is optimized for the search engines is just one component of effective SEO.  Here is where key words and key phrases get put to good use.  Captions, headlines, paragraphs, footers, disclaimers, etc. are all a part of On Page SEO. 


Off Page SEO, succinctly, is everything else.  Some of the off page factors include: linkage on the site, both internal links and external linkage; writing the text of internal links themselves; building site popularity through tweeting, commenting on forums and blogs, press releases, submitting to directories, etc.

There's a lot that goes into search engine optimization - and there's lots of stuff out there on the web for you to read about SEO, if you're interested.  (Read Google's SEO overview here.) There's also lots of people out there claiming to know all about SEO.  Maybe they do, maybe they don't.  Ask for examples of their accomplishments before you pay them anything.

Meanwhile, consider this.  The purpose behind optimizing content is to get your content noticed and highly ranked in search results on its themes or topics by the search engines.  Which for most folk mainly means Google.  You're competing with other content to get into the top spots.

Google is in the business of competing with other search engines to provide the more informative and on-target results to its reader's search requests.  If Yahoo could give you better results (and you should compare them often -- Yahoo gives better locator information IMHO, for example) then you'll switch to Yahoo, right?

It's really not rocket science.  Write the best content possible for your topic.  Think of your reader, and help them here.  Give them your expertise.  Give them links.  Give them information in easy to follow language. 

Help Google beat its competition, in other words.  Do this, and do this well, and you've achieve your SEO goals automatically. 

Cutting and Pasting into Blog Posts: Don't Be Lazy

I have a client that is great about keeping up with her weekly blogging schedule.  She posts twice a week, period.  You can depend on it. 

And that's great.  

What isn't so great, though perfectly understandable, is taking a section of writing from another source (another post, a magazine article, a book) and then cutting and pasting the guts of that writing into a blog post with a brief introduction, "I really liked this [insert name of source material] because it's so on point! It's so true!"

Or something like that.  Why is this bad?  

Well, as my client points out this might (or might not) be within the fair use doctrine and therefore not any kind of copyright infringement and it's clearly not plagiarism because she's giving credit where credit is due (she's not trying to claim the stuff as her own). 

However, substitute the cut and paste for a hyperlink and the post becomes a sentence or two.  Insufficient original word count.

True, it's great to find something that you want to share from a book (or magazine article or blog post) that someone else has written and use it as the basis for a blog post.  There's also the time-saving benefit (as my client pointed out, these types of posts are helpful on days where posts are scheduled and there's a time crunch). 

But what are you really sharing of yourself here?  And, without going into geek-talk (my client hates going down this road), Google will not appreciate these kinds of blog posts.  At all.  

Here's what I think needs to happen.  

I think that when you share something, you need to give your reader more than "lookie."  I think you need to comment and give your opinion on why you are sharing this writing with them.  

If you don't have time for that, then go for a link list ... something like a Top Ten list, ten great sources of inspiration when you're dieting; ten great recipe sites; ten great med mal blogs, whatever.  That's pretty fast blogging and it's giving your reader more of you than one of these "lookie" posts does. 

Yahoo! Alerts: Another Good Source for Blog Post Topics

I've been using Yahoo! Alerts for a couple of months now, and I'm very happy with the service. 

Last November, I wrote about Google Alerts, Social Mention, etc. and they are also nice.  However, I am particularly happy with how Yahoo!Alerts is popping up with information for me.

Now, admittedly I am only using one aspect of Yahoo! Alerts: their News Alerts, where I choose keywords and then receive summaries in email of top news stories that correspond to those keywords.  For example, I have Yahoo! Alerts set up for "copyright infringement" and "blogging."

However, the service offers a lot of options, and you may find other things more to your liking.  Check it out. 

Interestingly, once I have notice of the news story or blog post via Yahoo! Alerts, I still tend to pop over into Google to investigate what's up and find more information for what I'm writing.

Using Media Content on Your Blog or Web Site: First, Just Ask Permission.

You want to use content from a news article or television station's web site in your blog post - this could cover many things.  For lawyers, news coverage about big victories in the courtroom usually means a desire to place that coverage on their bio page at the law firm's web site.  The 21st Century's version of an Ego Wall.

However, as I've discussed here before on more than one occasion, if a lawyer pulls that story or that video and puts it on the firm's website willy-nilly, then copyright infringement may occur.  Those media stories (including photos and videos and audio interviews) are all the copyrighted work of these media outlets and should be respected.

What to do?  First things first, just ask.  Call or email the media source (this is really easy if you have the contact information of the reporter who just did your interview) and ask permission.  Alternatively, surf their site for words like "reprint" or "permission" and you will find things like this:

San Antonio Express News
Dallas Morning News
Houston Chronicle
The Associated Press.

Will you have to pay?  Maybe.  It's called a "licensing fee."  Balance that cost against dealing with a cease and desist letter (if you get one, Righthaven never bothered) or a claim for copyright infringement by the media's IP litigators. 

Books on Your Blog or WebSite: PDF or eBook? Why You Should Choose PDFs.

There's lots of chatter right now about adding books (eBooks, booklets) to blogs - particularly law firm blogs.  Usually, this talk is accompanied with a discussion of coordinating those publications with an offer for the book at no charge in exchange for the reader signing up to a service like Aweber.

More and more law firms are doing this.  A nice book cover image appears in the sidebar; it's a free offer for in-depth information on an important topic like tips on avoiding foreclosure; tips on making end of life decisions; ways to limit risk in alternative investments, etc.  Click on the image and the reader usually has to provide an email address in order to get the freebie, and afterwards that email address may receive a series of follow-ups: more free information, etc.

Choosing to Build a Book for Your Blog or Web Site  

Along with the chatter about books on blogs comes lots of confusion and I've had several calls from clients and colleagues that are overwhelmed about the process (or options) once they start investigating this stuff.  Once they understand their state's bar regulations on the issue, and they've got a game plan on what they want to accomplish, then comes the practical decisions to be made.  How to get this done - it's not as easy as it may first appear. 

Offering a free book on your blog is not a bad idea -- it's a good idea -- but you need to know at the get-go that it isn't all that easy to get from start to finish.

Right now, self-publishing eBooks are trendy.  These are coded documents that can be read on specific devices (e-Readers) like Kindles, Nooks, Sony eReaders, as well as IPads, Kindle Fires, etc.

This is usually the first kind of document that the lawyer envisions.  Maybe the only one, because many aren't considering PDF formatted documents as something that can create snazzy books for their sidebar.   All this talk about self-publishing means many lawyers don't understand the different options open to them. 


PDF Books for Your Sidebar

For lots of lawyers and law firms, the formatted eBook alternative of using a .pdf document, formatted both for security and for a professional appearance, is the preferred option.  Surf around and you will find that PDF documents are appearing quite often in blog and site sidebars as the chosen format for that free book offering.

Why a PDF?  

1.  PDF books are easy to create: you can create your book using Microsoft Word or Open Office.  No need to learn fancy coding like you need for a self-published eBook for Kindles or IPads.  

2.  PDF books can be full-color with sophisticated graphic design.  This format allows a glossy, magazine-like product that self-published eBooks cannot provide now with their coding limitations.  Kindles and other eReaders don't like images very much, and they are hard to insert into the reader-approved format. 

3.  The PDF option gives you lots of number-play.  With a PDF book, you can include all sorts of graphs or tables or pie chart images that the Amazon/Smashwords/etc. coded eBook cannot include now.  Footnotes, no problem.  E books coded for Kindle or the IPad or the Nook are best left to words alone, black on white text, with hyperlinks.  No footnotes, please.  Check out various magazines, blogs, and other graphically-oriented publications on the nearest Kindle or Sony E-Reader and see what you find.  

4.  Most readers are familiar with the PDF format; additionally, these documents can be read on almost every device.  You can even upload a PDF document onto a Kindle, for example.  However, you cannot read a Kindle eBook on any device other than a Kindle eReader or a computer that has downloaded the free Kindle software onto its hard drive.  

  

What I Suggest You Consider Doing For Your First Publication

For law firm clients ready to place books on their blogs or web sites, I proposed that they review their blogs or newsletters to find a series of posts or a single theme that can serve as the springboard for a .pdf document.   

Next, prepare a Word (or Open Office) document with text that flows, pulling together those blog posts or newsletter articles into a cohesive document that will serve the reader well as a PDF book.  Make sure to include a table of contents and an "about the author" section.  

Work with a graphic designer if you choose to do so, or just use a Word template.  Get your Word document looking like a professional product, then convert it to a PDF document.  

Make sure that you have your security features in place (no cutting and pasting, limited sharing or printing, etc.) and you're done.  

Now you have a very nice offering, in a format that most recognize and can read on whatever screen they choose to use, that can be:

             a.  placed on the blog;

             b.  sent by email to whomever you choose; and

             c.  used in an email marketing campaign;

             

Cut and Pasting From the Web: Be Careful.

Last week, another client was happily posting away on their blog and proud of their word count.  Which was good.  However, most of that word count involved cutting and pasting from other web sites.  Not so good.

First of all, it's fine to share news releases.  They are written to be distributed -- the intent of that release is to get that message out.  So, sharing these cuts and paste excerpts in a blog post with an intro "news from Acme site this week" is not a bad, horrible (and by that I mean illegal) thing to do.

Second, it's fine to share information provided on government sites, for example in their "frequently asked questions" section.  Intro the cut and paste excerpt with something like "the [name of agency] recommends the following" and you're fine. 

Third, it's okay to share your own stuff.  Excerpts from your firm website in a firm blog post isn't violating anything.  Example:  the post is discussing a major product recall and you provide an excerpt from the site that discusses your state's products liability law. 

Here's where it's not okay.  It is not okay to take content from other sites - especially news sites - and cut and paste them into your blog post, wham bam.  My client, excited about coverage in the media, plugged media coverage into the blog without getting any okay from the media source.

Not to mention not checking with the news source to determine how much they wanted in payment for the use of their news story.  And its photos. 

Luckily, that post was not published online before someone checked with me and I pointed out that this was copyright infringement of the copyright held by the media source. 

Newspapers and television news departments publish news with photos and videos online because that is how they generate revenue.  They will share that content and those images with you, but they may want payment for the use.  Maybe it's a lot.  Maybe it's a little.

Point is: news stories and television videos - even if you are prominently a part of the story - should not be duplicated on your web site or blog without the permission of the copyright owner. 

Sure, you may think I am nit-picking.  After all, aren't you helping that news source by publicizing its work?  Sorry, but I don't know that the owner of the copyright will agree with that argument.  And, after all, isn't the story all about you and your victorious win, so don't you have some sort of indirect ownership right in the news article anyway?  No.  No you don't.     

Go ahead if you want to risk it.  Lots of sites do this, true.  However, now that NewsRight is out of the box, my nit-picking today may seem prophetical tomorrow.

Better safe than sorry, folks.  Plus, it's the right thing to do.  Don't just plug those news articles into a blog post, even if you or your firm is the star of the story. 

Tips for Regular, Fast Blog Posts – Personalizing the Informational Blog

Blogs are not one size fits all, and while there are blogs that are very personal in nature, there are others (like this one) that are more informative in nature.  Many law blogs wear the informational hat, for example.
Which doesn’t mean that they can’t bring a personal touch to their informational blog, although most of these bloggers don’t want to start writing posts about their football team’s latest victory or where they are taking the kids on vacation this summer. 
Here are some tips on how to infuse an informational blog with some of your individual personality (which readers do like to see):
1.  Books.
Post regularly on books you have read and recommend to others.  Easy to do, the fastest way to do this is just insert the image of the book with a link to Amazon or BN or Powells or whatever and title the post “I Recommend This Book” or “Recommended: [insert title']”. 
2.  Photos.
Post photos regularly, with a short caption beneath them. Choose pix that you have taken, or grab something from the public domain. Images are great for informational blogs, both visually and from an SEO perspective (Google likes this).  Try tying the image to your blog’s theme or to related news. 
A public domain photo of Abe Lincoln on President’s Day, for example.  Another: your photo of the old historic building downtown right before it was torn down.  With that one, your title could simply be:  Acme Building, 1932-2012.  Something like that.
3. Quotes
Post quotes that you like on a routine basis.  There are sites that organize quotes, in case you cannot remember the exact wording.  These can be words of wisdom or they be related to your blog’s theme or set of topics.
The text of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech could be placed on your blog for MLK Day, for example. 
How often?
Not more than once a week, I would suggest.  However, having one of these quick posts on a weekly basis brings a two post a week blog to the three post a week blog, and that can be a big difference to readers and to the search engines. 

Why I Use Google Scholar In My Blog Posts

The more I use Google Scholar, the more I like it.  I think you will, too.  I always use Google Scholar, for example, to hyperlink cases or statutes or law review articles in blog posts because:

1.  it's free;
2.  it's easy for readers to access (no subscription hurdle);
3.  it's reliable;
4.  (best of all) within the document, Google Scholar hyperlinks citations for ready reference; and
5.  there's a Shepardizing of sorts provided, too.

For example, click here to check out New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) on Google Scholar.  Nice, huh?