Raf Chmielewski

I believe in the World of free and creative people. I want to inspire Lawyers to develop their practicies by really efective Law Blogs.
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Great content generates traffic

Raf Chmielewski26 October 2017Comments (2)

Great content in a law blogI am on the train right now, going to one of the greatest cities in Central Europe. The train is in a hurry. The landscape is beautiful but, unfortunately, disappearing very quickly. It is autumn and you can see it and smell it in the air.

Today promises to be a very interesting day. One of my (our) dear clients, a strong woman and an energetic lawyer, is taking part in a transplantology conference. She has just published her first book where she writes about the numerous interviews she has conducted with doctors, nurses, patients, etc. who are part of the Transplantology field in Poland.

As you can imagine, lawyers are not loved by most doctors. A lawyer usually represents trouble for a doctor or a hospital. But this is not the case with my spirited client, who now is also a writer. Unlike most lawyers, she is celebrated by many transplantologists, and rather than being shunned, her presence is welcomed and she is treated with a great deal of respect by that community.

She is not only an exception as a lawyer, but also an unusual presence amongst doctors.

Why is this the case? The main reason behind her success in building a bridge between these two opposing fields, law vs medicine, is the effectiveness of her Law Blog. She has adapted the right formula for her blog and sticks to a set of rules which help her blog stand out amongst others. As a result of this approach, her blog is followed by thousands of people, many of them doctors. Her posts are engaging and her opinions are well respected in the community.

Great content generates traffic

In my previous post [Content vs Traffic in a Law Blog], I mentioned that two factors – great content and traffic – are critical to have an effective Law Blog. You can have engaging content, but if you have no readers, you are lost. Therefore content alone is not enough, you also need traffic to exhort influence. Just like an actor or an actress seek an audience, so does a law blog needs traffic.

The good news is that great content has the potential to generate traffic. Perhaps a couple of years ago, you had to devote great effort not only to writing posts on your Law Blog, but also to promote it. Having a Law Blog was a time-consuming endeavor. Nowadays, the need for heavy marketing is slowly dissipating. More and more, excellent content can be enough to do the marketing for your blog and generate traffic.

Why does great and engaging content generate traffic?

It’s because of search engines, which really do work. They look at what your readers do with your Law Blog. They follow their clicks online. They – yes! – investigate them (and you as well). They check, if your readers are truly engaged by your content (and literally by you).

If the search engines detect that you’re doing an effective job on your blog, they place your blog on a high position in their search results. And therefore also promote it. It sounds simple, but it’s much more difficult to execute.

What does the engaging content mean?

Let’s suppose that you have a reader who sees your content, reads it, and then goes away. He or she doesn’t leave any comment, doesn’t read the next article, doesn’t come back to your Law Blog, doesn’t share it with his or her friends nor do they even remember your blog. Is he or she engaged by you? Certainly not.

This is exactly how it works in the real world: imagine your work commute, walking on a busy city street. As you’re walking amongst hundreds of other people with a similar need to get to their offices quick, wearing their navy suit or a gray jacket, you’ll likely blend in and most people will pass you by without noticing you. But if you are interesting in some way, if you smile, look great or even say something useful for them (not to everyone!), some of them might even pause, curious, looking at you and waiting to see what will happen next. It means that you are engaging.

In the world of law blogging, being engaging means that your readers are interested in reading what you write. And they want to read more of your articles. They spend time on your blog, they are eager to come back to you, they remember you and your words, they anticipate your next post. They even want to leave a comment and share your content with their friends, both on digital platforms as well as in the real world.

This is a sign that you and your content are engaging

When search engines detect this level of engagement, they will value of your content jumps up, and your blog will be evaluated as something important and worthy of being shown to a bigger audience. Essentially putting the words in your posts higher in their search results.

This is why your content alone is often enough to promote your Law Blog. Conclusion: you need to invest in generating great content, if you want to have more readers visit your blog.

*****

Now, the question is: How to be an engaging blog writer? Or: what to say so that others will listen?

I will answer that question in the next article…

[If you want to be in touch with me, subscribe the “Amazing Law Blog” blog on the left side, please.]

Content vs traffic in a Law Blog

Raf Chmielewski14 September 2017Comments (2)

Law blog

Lawyers usually ask me the question:

– Raf, tell me what is more important – content or traffic?

Well… the answer is not simple. Despite the fact that most of the marketers say that Content is King, they are finally of the opinion that the traffic is even more important than the content.

Frankly speaking… they are right! Why? Because there are blogs that directly generate business and money for their authors. There are blogs that are their authors’ main source of income. In such blogs the traffic, not the content, is the king. Traffic is everything.

But … it is definitely not true for Law Blogs.

Why?

Law Blogs alone are not the source of income. They are only the marketing tool for a lawyer. The tool that is not the main source of business. Law Blogs are the only one part of the law firm’s marketing strategy. They need traffic of course but the traffic is not the primary goal of an existence of any Law Blog.

Any Law Blog does not bring money directly – it brings clients… who then bring money! That is the difference. This is why the content – engaging content – is most needed in any Law Blog. You do not get clients from a blog unless you have an engaging content in your Law Blog.

If you have millions of readers every month, but the content is poor – they go away and never come back. But if you have ten readers in the same period of time but the content is great – you can have ten clients. I am sure that this rule is quite simple and obvious for you.

But … the great and beautiful World is not so easy 😉 Despite the fact that the content is king you cannot forget… the traffic, right? If you have a very engaging content in your Law Blog but have ZERO readers, you have lost. This is similar to the situation of the best actor on an empty island. That poor man needs an audience to be the best actor on this island. Similarly, you need readers who can stand up and clap their hands.

At this moment, you can be a little bit cofused:

– Raf, I do not understand…, so what is more important in a Law Blog?

The answer is: Definitely the engaging content is the most important thing in a Law Blog, but you should as well think of the traffic. Fortunately, we live in a world, that the great content alone generates traffic.

How it does so? I will tell you in the next post… [which you can read here …]

If I say or write: I am the best, you will certainly not believe me, right? Or you will say: HAHA 🙂 Raf, are you kidding me? SHOW ME that you are really the best! 

… This is why words alone are not enough.

In order to prove that I am the best I have to show you my results. The results are the proof. If you do it, you don’t even have to say anything more. You don’t have to say: I’m the best – buy from me.

People believe in actions – not in words.

Actions stand for proofs… Facts stand for proofs.

I am sure you understand me. It’s enough to show facts.

*****

This is also the golden rule in any Law Blog post.

You simply cannot say that you are the best lawyer in your specialization or in your area. People, your readers, potential clients, will not believe in your words. Worse: they will think that you are one the worst lawyers because if you were the best you woudn’t say that.

This is why you have to show the proof.

How to do so?

There are several ways, but one of the most important is telling “law stories”.

If you tell your “law stories” in a good style something remarkable happens. Your readers start to think of you as the only one who has enough experience to help them.

This is why I always say that telling good “law stories” changes everything in every Law Blog [needless to say that stories changes the whole culture – even the culture of the whole country]. You can write about the law and have a simple Law Blog but you can also tell stories and have an amazing Law Blog. This is your choice.

I would definitely choose stories. Law Stories.

Law Blog

Read more about having a communicative Law Blog >>

How to write a Law Blog post

Raf Chmielewski31 August 2017Comments (5)

Legal writing is not as difficult as it appears to be. The biggest misunderstanding lays in the style of the legal writing. In order to create a good legal article you must understand what the Law Blog really is. So below you will not find some sentences of how to write a legal blog post but what is the appropriate style of a Law Blog.

Most of the Law Blog authors write their articles as if they were speaking at a conference. Or as if they were writing a newspaper’s article. The style is raw, formal, professional, and somewhat dry. They try to be serious, and want to express themself wisely.

Ok! When you are giving a keynote, or are creating a legal piece of content to an ordinary newspaper, such style is exactly what you need. What is more – you cannot write in a different way! You are doing really good job.

But … a Law Blog is a quite different tool of law office promotions. And as a different tool it needs a different strategy, planning, occupation, thinking and style of writing. It is not the same as a formal speech or formal presentation.

The two general rules of writing a Law Blog post are:

  • write as if you were telling directly to your reader,
  • tell a story – I mean use a storytelling concept.

You must know that what differs a successful Law Blog from a not successful one is its communication. I mean that you should be communicative if your readers are to respond to you. By mailing, by commenting, by phone etc. They should have an impression that you are talking just to them. It is a very simple rule but unfortunately is seen rarely. Why? Because we, as lawyers, are accustomed to formal writing and that style of communication seems natural for us.

Being not communicative is desirable in newspapers. But a blog, especially a Law Blog, is a completely different story. Remember that, ok?

As storytelling is taken into account there are many reasons explaining why it is very wise to tell stories. Telling a story is the best way to explain a difficult subject matter, the best way to be remembered by a reader, the best way to have a high position in search engine results and most of all it is the best way to say, that you have knowledge and experience.

I usually like to say:

Law Blog

*****

Read more about: Telling a story in a Law Blog >>

[If you want to be in touch with me, subscribe the “Amazing Law Blog” blog on the left side, please.]

A couple months ago, when I and web.lex started to cooperate with the Ukrainian law firm PLP, they asked me a simple question:

– Raf, tell us WHY should we run our own Law Blog?

– It is simple my friends. This is why: a Law Blog sells. Period!

*****

You must know that not every Law Blog sells law services. It is not as simple as crossing the street. But if you know how to run the blog, it can leverage your law practise.

Period.