Blogging Inspiration

One of the most difficult things about blogging is finding good inspiration for blog content. (We’re not all Shakespeare… wait, did he blog?) The ultimate goal is to write legal blog posts that will attract potential clients, establish your authority or solicit comment by other lawyers. With this in mind, how do you create blog posts that speak about legal topics in a way that’s accessible to the public and enticing to read? There are a few tried and true methods I use to find blogging inspiration, so I thought I’d share those with the audience.

Daily Events

This is the greatest source of inspiration for most blog articles: things that happen to you during the day… something you heard on the radio… a question someone asked you. All of these everyday events are a good source for a blog post. Here are a few examples:

• Summarize and comment on a local news event (DUI accident, an injury at the mall, etc.)
• Help define legal terms that non-lawyers commonly misunderstand (Defining Harassment or Explaining Eviction in New York come to mind)
• The sidewalk you came in on this morning was dangerous… or your house has manufacturing defects… or your kids mentioned another with a peanut allergy: all of these are good sources for articles that discuss legal topics in an informal setting.

Put Words to a Calendar

Sit down with a calendar of your firm’s upcoming outreach events or event sponsorships and blog about your involvement in the community. Alternately, blog about public safety events on your community’s calendar.

Talk About Another’s Article

If you’re a lawyer who likes to blog, it’s likely you read many others’ articles about legal and local topics. Take something that someone has said on a national or regional level and use it as a springboard for a post of your own. I’d go as far as quoting that source and citing the URL where that quote originally appeared. Examples: a right wing blogger promotes expulsion of illegals. A left wing blogger wants in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Either of these should be fertile ground for blogging for an immigration attorney.

Use Keyword Research

Go to the Google Keyword Tool and put in a keyword about your area of practice… “personal injury”, “divorce”, “work injury” and “discrimination” are good examples. The results will be composed of many phrases you expected but will also include many you didn’t. Those unexpected results are usually great inspiration for articles. Another good source of similar article-inspiring keywords is the SEOBook keyword tool (a free utility based on WordTracker).

Work Backwards

What are your goals for blogging? To generate more personal injury clients? To establish B2B relationships with corporations? To promote your expertise as a lawyer? Use your goals to inspire your posts.

• if your goal is to bring in more _______ clients, the strategies above will be very helpful to generate content ideas that will draw in relevant consumer traffic.
• if you’d like to develop B2B relationships, focus on blogging about industry players, blogging about the things that matter to those industries and commenting on their blog posts
• if you’d like to (generally) promote your firm’s expertise, talk about awards or judgments your firm has received

There are certainly more sources for blogging inspiration than what I’ve outlined above, but these five things should get most law firms well on their way to creating interesting, purposeful content. Readers, what sources of inspiration have you found?

Related posts:

1. Blogging Basics – Letting People Know About Your Legal Blog