Blogging Tip: Who R U Writing 4? Build a Profile of Your Readers and Write for Them, Not You

I consult with attorneys on how to write blog posts. Their blogs may be firm blogs or they may be personal blogs covering any number of personal interests.  One thing ribbons through lots of these chats, though:  lawyers tend to focus on the issue and not on the reader.

Which is fine, it’s what good lawyers do.  Take issues and break them apart.  Dogs getting every bit of meat off the bone. 

Problem is: readers may not care.  Or maybe they care about the issue, but they don’t want to read in depth about it.  They may surf right on by your great blog post. 

Here’s the thing.  You want to connect with your readers.  To do that, you need to know who they are. 
Thing about who you want to read your blog on a regular basis.  What other sites would they be visiting during their day?  Go read their content.
 
If you’re really dedicated here, then build a profile – one or more.  Ponder demographics (I’m thinking here of law firms who are blogging as a marketing strategy) if you want to get serious.  If not, just make a short list of characteristics that your readers will share.  Moms.  Divorcees.  Bankers.  Investors.  Brokers.  Foodies. Whatever. 

Google Scholar Keeps Getting Better as a Free Legal Research Tool

Google Scholar has been around for several years now, and I've been monitoring it as a free, online legal research tool.  As you'd expect from Google, they keep building upon this product and their latest tweak involves allowing you to perform searches within specific jurisdictional databases.  Search their entire federal database, or search within one appellate circuit.  Limit your search to a particular state.  You get the idea.

How good is Google Scholar -- and how up to date? 

Well, today I was working on a blog post with Terry Lenamon on the Texas case where a state district judge wanted to hold an evidentiary pretrial hearing on the constitutionality of Texas' system of capital punishment, and how the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals slapped him down (at least for now).

I found the opinion (actually there are two) on the court's official web site.  However, on a whim, I just checked the Google Scholar Advanced Search and yep.  There they were.  Both opinions.   

So, Google Scholar is good, and getting better, but not great.  Yet.  But if I were Lexis or Westlaw, I'd be worried. 

What are Hyperlinks?

If you want to be technical, there are different types of hyperlinks: absolute, relative, internal, external, etc. 

Let's not get technical.

Let's just go over the absolute basic information that you need to know if you are writing a blog - or adding content to your web site.  Hyperlinks help you provide better content and you should use them. 

What is a hyperlink?

A hyperlink is a bit of text that appears in a different font color, letting the reader know that clicking on that text will allow them to go to another website that provides information about the text itself.

Insert them into your post by blocking the targeted text and then finding the word "link" or an infinity sign (or sideways 8) in your blogging platform's palette; click on this hyperlink icon and a window will appear, allowing you to insert the url for the hyperlink. 

Why hyperlinks are helpful:

1. Hyperlinks can provide support for your post (e.g., you reference source material, and hyperlink to its website).
2. Hyperlinks can save time (instead of providing the recipe, just link to where it can be found on the web).
3. Hyperlinks can build traffic for you (assuming that you are linking to sites or blogs that have traffic which may find you via the hyperlink).
4. Search engine optimization benefits from hyperlinks; for how that happens, go read the posts here that discuss how Google, etc. search and rank.