The following article is for solo law firms or small law firms. Large law firms have enough people on staff where staff members can write articles while lawyers work on cases.
Writing blogs can seem like the biggest waste of time for any lawyer. And I agree with you 50%. Any lawyer who writes the entire blog from beginning to end definitely wasted 50% of their time.
Writing is a long tedious process the requires a lot of thought and attention to detail. Also it is a process that does not pay you a single dime after you do it.
But why did I say you were only wasting 50% of your time?
Because a lawyer should only spend about 10 minutes writing an article. Or if they prefer not to write it then they should spend 10 minutes reviewing an article that somebody else on their staff wrote.
Let somebody with a lower pay grade take care of the minoot details that are black holes of time wasting. It is the lawyers perogative whether they choose to draft the article and review it for 1 minute at the end or they can choose to outline an article for 1 minute and review it 10 minutes after the draft is complete.
A staff member or hired blogger should take care of all of the other details. Also you should be getting a discounted rate from that blogger if you are doing half the work because that means that there is less work for them to do on this article.
So now you have two choices: do you drop the article or review it?
That’s up to you.
If you draft the article then please for the sake of your own sanity be easy on yourself and trust your intelligence. Pick a topic and roll with it. When you “roll with it” this means that you stick to finishing it and you sick to finishing it within your 10 minute time span. There is really only two elements of your writing that are necessary in order to make it a good article. First it should have some basic structure or some basic goal. Second if you can include a personal story while maintaining client confidentiality and that is a major bonus. Personal stories help all of us relate better to your article.
What’s my personal story? I love writing articles while taking a pleasant walk outside. I’m writing this article phone in hand walking on the sidewalk enjoying the sunshine and the trees. It’s great. If you love taking walks outside then you could love taking a walk outside while writing an article on your phone.
But what if you are the lawyer who decided to instead have a staff member draft an article and then you would review it? Well you’re review should only have two goals:
- Is the call to action clear?
- Is the article coherent?
Remember that all of your articles are business assets and this means that they should have a call to action to help more people take on your services. Second, your article needs to be clear and coherent so that people believe in the quality of your work. If the article is totaled confusing garbage then everybody who reads it will assume that your Law Firm is a confusing place. When people think your Law Firm is a confusing or stressful place they were want to avoid it at all costs.
However nobody is ever going to win a Pulitzer Prize for their blog. For that reason don’t try to win any awards for your writing. Instead, decide what objective you are trying to deceive and then edit the article so that it clearly achieves that objective.
Happy writing or happy editing!
