Look, if anyone thinks that most legal blogs are advertisements they have not bothered to read many. Yes, I know that some are meant to work that way but I suspect that few of them are worth the effort put into them in order to get any business out of them.
For the record, CrimLaw is not meant to solicit any business. I get about one email a week soliciting free legal advice; I tell them they need to go sit down with a local attorney who actually knows the law in Guam. Thinking hard about it, I've had two people contact me about retaining me because of the blawg. One never came in for his interview and I referred the other to local attorneys. It's a wonder that I've gotten that many since I am probably too honest here about about clients to draw people to me. I've had emails fussing at me both for being too defendant sympathetic and not defendant sympathetic enough.
I know I've said this before, but I say again: This started as a hobby. H - O - B - B - Y. It's grown into a way to exchange ideas with fellow professionals and interested lay persons. It's about ideas, not money.
2 comments:
I like your approach, and it shows in your good work.
I feel the similarly about the German American Law Journal: (1) Hobby. (2) Keeping track of things that I read anyway and may need later. (3) Opportunity for my interns to practice reading and writing.
If I wanted marketing, I -- like I guess most lawyers -- would use a marketing service. All this talk about blawgs as a marketing tool is nonsense. It makes legislators think about regulating it as commercial speech which happens in various countries, but is not warranted. - ck
I started both of the blogs that I write to lure clients and referrals. It wound up helping with google searches, and establishes my credentials for the general and not only the legal public. It has worked that way. However in no way has it produced the numbers that would justify the time I spend on it if wasn't a fun way to communicate and write about the things that mean something to me.
Moreover the information and commentary on both blogs educates the readership and makes for a better understanding of the law. Blogging is not advertising if it is done correctly no matter what the intent or the result. It is no different than writing a letter to the editor, authoring a bar association column, testifing before a legislative committee or running for political office or any myriad of other things that lawyers do as part of their profession that may result in clients and professional enhancment.
Blogging is about exchanging or at least publicizing ideas the rest is the gravy. If other benifits are derived so be it. If blogging is advertising then so are the other things that I mentioned. This rule is ridiculous.
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