Guess Who Else Is Reading Your Legal Blog? Moochers And Competitors.

How do you convert moochers into paying clients through your blog?

I keep hearing that writing a blog will do wonders for my practice. Apparently, the trick is to write regularly about my practice, what I do for my clients, and occasionally write an off-topic personal piece to show that I am a human and not some anonymous, pretty face. Through the magic of Google and SEO mumbo-jumbo, potential clients will eventually find me, call me and pay me lots of money. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? That’s what the salesman keeps telling me.

But in reality, it’s not just potential clients who are reading your blog. There are other readers who have no plans to hire you despite your awesome writing skills. Here are two of them.

Moochers. Who needs to pay a lawyer when The Law Office of Google, Esq. is available for free 24 hours per day? Nowadays, moochers can type in a simple legal question on an internet search engine and get directed to multiple blogs. Whether those blogs have the correct answer is a different question altogether.

These people will soak up as much free information as possible before moving forward on their own. Some of them may try to solicit more free advice by leaving questions on your blog or even emailing or telephoning you. Now I don’t really blame them for doing this. But if you are going to give free answers to clients, then what’s the point of having a law practice?

So how do you convert moochers into paying clients through your blog? For simple issues, it is best to provide general guidelines as opposed to specific answers. On the other hand, if you answer simple questions effectively, then moochers may come back to you with more difficult cases.

For more complex issues, it is better to be more specific because chances are the reader will be unable to handle it on his own. He is reading the blog to find someone knowledgeable. It may even be helpful to post up samples. For example, for those interested in learning about filing a pro se summary judgment motion, I would post a sample of a 50-page motion with footnotes, exhibits, and multiple case citations. Once he sees the complexity of the motion, he is likely to forget about doing it himself.

Competitors. The other issue with blogs is that your competitors can also read it. They may use the information from your blog to help their clients and to take the credit (and their money) for themselves. You don’t even get a single thank-you email.

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This is not necessarily a bad thing in the long run as you can be known as an expert and a thought leader among your colleagues. But on the other hand, some feel uncomfortable knowing that their blog is being used to help their competition.

While there is not much you can do about competitors reading your blog for their own self-interest, it may be useful to see how they react to it. If your blog sucks, then your competitors will ignore it. If your blog is shady, unethical, or plagiarizing, then eventually someone will call you out on it. But you know your blog is good when your competitors are subscribing to it.

I would like to hear from former solo practitioners and small-firm lawyers who left their practice, for better or for worse. If you are one of them, please share your story so that we (and 0Ls contemplating going to law school) can learn from your experience. If you want, I will keep it anonymous and close comments. Please click here, here and here to get an idea as to what I am looking for. Then email me at sachimalbe@excite.com.


Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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