Blog Post Title Generators: Get Ideas, Titles for Your Blog, Newsletter, or Article

March 31, 2014 by
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Ideas are a dime a dozen, they say but we all have days when we’re bankrupt.

When you have to write a blog post or other content and you’re fresh out of ideas, one easy solution is to head on over to a blog post title generator, plug in some key words, and let the Internet find ideas for you.

Here are three you can try (ht to Search Engine People):

I used the Title Tool and put in the words “personal injury”. Here are the first ten results:

  • Personal Injury Protection Plans Also Are Called ‘No Fault’ Insurance
  • Few Types Of Personal Injury Claims
  • What Is Personal Injury Law?
  • Finding a Personal Injury Solicitor
  • Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer To Get The Compensation You Deserve
  • How Much Money Can A Personal Injury Lawyer Charge Me for My Case?
  • A Definitive List Of Expert Personal Injury Law Secrets
  • Litigation Costs in Personal Injury Cases
  • Personal Injury and Attorneys Who Can Help You
  • Why Is A Personal Injury Attorney Worth It?

I tried it again with the words “auto accident” and got these results:

  • How to Protect Yourself During an Auto Accident
  • 4 Types of Auto Accident Insurance Claims
  • Knowing What To Do After An Auto Accident
  • Methods To Maximize Your Recovery After An Auto Accident
  • Auto Accident Compensation Claims – How to Go Through the Process
  • Steps You Cannot Avoid Taking While Choosing an Auto Accident Attorney
  • How A Good Lawyer Can Help When You Get Into An Auto Accident
  • Important Tips To Remember To Protect Yourself During Auto Accidents
  • The Auto Accident Attorney – A Look at the Job

Supposedly, these are “existing high ranking titles using that keyword”. You can click a button and get more results. But not all keywords I inputted came back with results. For example, I tried “California personal injury” and got nothing.

Nevertheless, I’m sure you can see these tools can help you generate plenty of ideas. Give them a try and see.

For more content ideas, check out my online marketing course for attorneys

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Attorney newsletters: what do you write about?

March 24, 2014 by
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You see the value of staying in touch with clients and former clients. You want to start a newsletter or email list. But you hesitate, because you don’t know what to write about.

Your divorce clients don’t want to hear about all things divorce. They want to forget about it and move on. Your personal injury clients don’t plan to be in another accident. Why would they want to constantly hear about injuries and claims and trials? Estate planning clients might need to stay up to date with changes in the law or with the latest strategies, but every week?

If you have a consumer oriented practice, how do you write an attorney newsletter anybody would want to read?

That is the essence of an email inquiry I received last week.

The answer is to realize that your clients have different roles and interests and you can provide them with information related to those roles and interests.

Start with general consumer information and advice. Write about insurance, mortgages, debt, identity theft, taxes, saving money when buying a house, avoiding scams, building credit, repairing credit, leasing vs. purchasing, home appliance warranties, and a host of other topics.

But you’re a lawyer, not a consumer expert. Where do you get this information? How are you qualified to give advice?

You have several choices.

You can read and learn this information. I didn’t say you need to become an expert. You can learn just enough to share these ideas with your subscribers. You only need a few paragraphs per topic.

You can do a roundup of articles and resources you find online, and link to them. “If you’re looking for a way to. . . here are three articles you might like. . .” Add a few comments: “When I refinanced, I did exactly what this expert suggested, and here’s what happened. . .”.

You can reach out to subject matter experts in these areas and have them supply the information. They can write a “guest post” or article. You can interview them. Or you can ask them to supply something they’ve already written and allow you to quote from it (and link to it).

You can write articles describing your life as a consumer. Describe how you handled the purchase of a new car, researched contractors for some repair work to your home, or shopped around for a new insurance policy.

In addition to general consumer information, how about writing about legal issues outside of your field? Research and write it yourself or have another attorney write it. You can write articles for his or her newsletter in exchange.

What else. . . ?

How about. . . ANYthing?

Write about your personal life. What did you do on your last vacation? What’s going on with your search for the right college for your son or daughter? Have you seen any good movies lately? Read a great book?

Have you had an interesting case or client lately? Do have any clients who own a business?

And hey, the practice of law is local. What’s going on in your community? New stores opening? New restaurants you tried? A controversial rezoning effort? A scandal in the city counsel? Any interesting speakers at your rotary meeting?

Each time you add content to your website, you can mention this in your newsletter. Tell  what it’s about, provide a link, and describe who might benefit from that content. It might be your subscriber, it might be someone they know, so encourage them to forward your email.

In answer to the email inquiry I received about what to write about, I asked the attorney, “What would you talk about at a party?” You wouldn’t talk about the law (unless someone asked), you’d talk about the things people talk about at parties: life, kids, travel, food, art, community. Why can’t you “talk” about these things in your newsletter?

Your newsletter doesn’t have to be about your practice area. You can write about anything. Your newsletter is a mechanism for staying in touch with the people in your life. Each time they receive it, they are reminded of your name and how to contact you. They open and read your newsletter because you are a friend who shares interesting information. A friend who happens to be a divorce lawyer.

For much more on what to write about on your blog and newsletter, get this. Really. You’ll thank me.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Writing

How to become a better writer

March 18, 2014 by
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I used to write like a lawyer. Dry, stilted, cautious, boring. I’m stifling a yawn right now remembering how I used to sound.

Then I started reading books about copy writing and saw what I was missing. I saw what it meant to write to communicate and persuade, not just inform. I tried it, first in my demand letters. It was liberating and I’m pretty sure it earned me a few extra shekels.

I used some of those ideas in my briefs and declarations. Not to the same extent, of course, but a sprinkle here and a dash there. Judges and opposing counsel noticed.

Eventually, my efforts to become a better writer made me a better lawyer.

Lawyers earn our keep with words. It behooves us to improve our writing skills. If you want to know how to become a better writer, here are five ways to do that.

  1. Write every day. Take 15 to 20 minutes a day and write. Every day. Write a journal, free write (look it up), or write a page for your office operations manual, but write something. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but the more you write, the better you get.
  2. Write faster. Fast writing is usually better writing. When we let go and let the words flow, our writing is more natural and has more power. Of course it goes without saying that you shouldn’t edit while you write.
  3. Write letters to specific people. You’ve heard the oft-repeated advice to “write like you talk,” right? The next time you write something, write the first draft as a letter to a real person. You might actually speak, record, and transcribe your thoughts.
  4. Read every day. Read, in different disciplines, including fiction. Read slowly and pay attention to how good writers present their ideas, how they describe people and places and action.
  5. Study. Read books on grammar, copy writing, and creative writing. Learn the rules of effective writing and develop a sense of when it’s okay to break them.

None of this should be a revelation. It’s common sense advice you’ve heard before. I’d heard it, too. But I wasn’t doing it. I was busy. But then I realized that this is the kind of continuing education that could really pay off over the rest of my career. And it has.

As Jim Rohn put it, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

If you want to know how to write better reports, better headlines and titles, get this

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Filed Under: Continuing Legal Education, Personal development, Writing

Draft: a simpler way to write, edit, collaborate, and share documents

March 5, 2014 by
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After yesterday’s post about a new cloud-based document sharing service, SavvyDox, I remembered that I was a subscriber to an even easier to use service: Draft.

No downloads, a very simple interface, and the ability to see your editor’s draft or comments side-by-side with your original. And, it’s accessible from any browser, so no problems for tablet users. And, you can export documents in a variety of formats, including Word, PDF, and ePub.

One limitation, at present, is that you can only import documents in text or Markdown. So you probably wouldn’t use this to show clients a work in progress. But this a natural for sharing drafts with editors, partners, and administrative staff, who can edit or add comments without modifying your original.

I like being able to see my editor’s changes, in a different color, side-by-side with my original. I can respond with my comments about their suggested edits. In fact, we can go back and forth with multiple versions of the document, until it’s right. This makes Draft a great tool for collaborators.

Draft also has many additional features for writers, including Hemingway mode, which prevents you from deleting anything, forcing you to bang out a first draft without stopping to edit. And, if you want to hire a professional editor, you can do that through the Draft interface at very reasonable cost.

Draft is “donate-ware” (I think that’s the term). You can use it without cost, but you are asked to support the service by paying $4 a month.

I can see a place for both SavvyDox and Draft in a lawyer’s writing arsenal. SavvyDox is probably more appropriate for business clients with whom you can share formatted documents. Draft is useful for writing and editing the document, which you can then export and email to the client.

Check them out and let me know what you think.

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Filed Under: Technology, Writing Tagged With: ,

How to write a blog without writing a blog

February 26, 2014 by
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I get it. You don’t have a lot of time to write a blog. Even once a week seems daunting. But you know that having content online is a great way to highlight your capabilities and draw traffic, and you’d like to find a way to make it work.

One way to do this is to let others do the writing for you.

You could have your partners, associates, and staff do some or all of it. You could hire a ghost writer. (They’re not expensive.) Or, you could let other professionals write guest posts. Let’s talk about this one, shall we?

One way to do this is have five or ten other lawyers, consultants, experts, accountants, and so on, who each contribute a post every other month. They get exposure for their practice or business, you get content.

Some of those other professionals will undoubtedly notify their clients, subscribers, and readers about their new post on your site, and provide a link to it, which gives you exposure to their contacts. Of course you can offer to provide guest posts on their blogs, too, if and when you have the time.

If you don’t have enough other professionals who want in on this deal, no problem. You can easily find professionals online who would love to get exposure to your readers. Reaching out this way is a great way of networking with potential referral sources.

One thing you might want to do is add your comments before, during (by interlineation), or after the guest post. In other words, you introduce the guest blogger and his or her post and add your thoughts about how the post applies to your practice area or clients. This should take you very little time and will add value and context to a post that might otherwise seem a bit off topic.

First, make sure you flesh out your blog with ten or twenty substantive posts, written by you, about your practice area. Why? Because it’s your blog and you want to show visitors what you know and do. Also, you’ll be able to link to this content in your comments to guest posts. For example, if you handle employment law and have a guest post by a psychologist writing about how to handle a difficult employee, in your addendum to that post, you can link to your article about the legal implications of what employers might say or do.

Okay, one more idea. Ask one of your guest-post team if you can interview them. Have them give you five or ten questions to ask them, in advance. Record and transcribe the interview and post it on your blog. Easy content.

Of course it’s just as easy to have them interview you for their blog.

For more ideas on how to write a blog, get this.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Networking, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Web traffic, Writing

When prospective clients interview you for the job

February 24, 2014 by
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I once had a client interview me before hiring me. It only happened once in my career, probably because 99% of my clients came from referrals. (She didn’t hire me. I never found out why. It was thirty years ago. I’m over it, now.)

Today, many clients find lawyers through the Internet and other means, and because there are so many articles and blog posts educating them about what to ask a lawyer before they hire them, if you haven’t been interviewed for the job, there’s a good chance you will.

Will you be ready?

One way to get ready is to post content on your website that addresses the questions prospective clients typically ask. The process of writing that content will also prepare you to answer those questions in the event someone bypasses your website. It also helps you codify your philosophies, policies, and procedures, forcing you to examine what you do so you can make improvements.

I read an article recently, for employers interviewing job candidates, that presented “killer questions” to ask to eliminate the duds. I thought the first question was applicable to clients hiring lawyers:

‘Tell me about a work achievement you are most proud of?’

Clients may not ask this per se, but isn’t this something lawyers should be prepared to answer?

Take 30 minutes this week and write three paragraphs about something in your career that you are especially proud of. What was your most gratifying or challenging case? If you were writing your obituary or eulogy, what would you like to be said about your work.

Post this on your website. When prospective clients interview you for the job, or a reporter or blogger interviews you for an article, you’ll be ready.

Did you know, Make The Phone Ring shows you how to create great content for your website? Check it out on this page.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client relations, Closing the sale, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Writing

Attorney marketing plan: time vs. money

February 20, 2014 by
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I talked to an attorney yesterday who wanted to drive more traffic to his website. A plan to get more traffic to your website, like any attorney marketing plan, comes down to a choice between time and money.

Here is a list of the more common (and acceptable) marketing options for attorneys who want to get more traffic:

MONEY

  • Advertising (PPC, display, offline, direct mail, radio, etc.)
  • Hire a PR firm to get you coverage, interviews
  • Self-hosted seminars
  • Hire people to ghost write content or assist you in writing content

TIME

  • Writing a blog
  • Guest posts and comments on other people’s blogs
  • Writing articles for article directories, offline publications
  • Webinars/teleconferences
  • Public speaking, seminars
  • Write reports, ebooks, articles, audios, courses
  • Build an email list
  • Staying in touch with former clients
  • Social media networking
  • Youtube videos
  • Networking
  • Marketing joint ventures
  • Podcasts/webcasts/hangouts/interviewing experts
  • Interviews, panel discussions

Most attorneys can’t or don’t want to advertise. Or, they don’t have a big enough budget to compete with some of the bigger advertisers.

The problem is, most attorneys have even less time than money. At least that’s what they tell themselves. They could invest more time in marketing. They often don’t because (a) they don’t know how and/or (b) they don’t think they’ll see a return on their investment.

What if I could prove that one hour invested in marketing (the right way) would bring a three-fold return? In other words, if you’re time is worth $300 an hour, and I proved to you that investing one hour in writing a blog post would bring you $900 in revenue, would you invest that hour?

Of course you would. Yo mama didn’t raise no fool.

But here’s the thing. That blog post might bring you a three-fold return this month, and then again next month. And every month. There will always be new people searching for your content and your solutions.

No guarantees, of course. Your results may vary.

My point is that many time-oriented marketing activities have a long tail, whereas advertising generally doesn’t.

Your website content can bring you traffic and new clients for months or years to come. Networking and building relationships with new referral sources and joint venture partners can do the same. Building lists and staying in touch with people can provide you with a long term source of new business.

When you look at it this way, instead of worrying about how much time marketing is “costing” you, you’ll realize that every hour you AREN’T marketing is costing you.

As Wayne Dyer puts it, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

If you want more traffic to your website, get my Internet marketing course for attorneys

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Filed Under: Advertising, Blogging, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Online Marketing, Time Management, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

Quick and painless blogging for lawyers

February 4, 2014 by
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One of the reasons lawyers often cite for not writing a blog is that it takes too much time. But it doesn’t have to.

This morning, I was reading, 12 Most Tedious Blogging Tasks You Can Outsource, and thought, “great topic for lawyers.” But as I went through the list of tasks, I thought, “I don’t do that”. In fact, I don’t do many of the things on the list, and the ones I do take me very little time.

Here’s the list of tasks, and what I do:

  1. Editing. I do my own. If I’m unsure about something, I run it by my wife.
  2. Finding photos. I used to add photos but I rarely do now, primarily because it takes too much time to find the right one and make sure I have the right to use it.
  3. Resizing and retitling photos. See above.
  4. Formatting. This takes seconds. I paste my text into the WordPress composition window, add bold or bullets or numbering, and done.
  5. Writing social media updates to promote the post. I paste the url of the post into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. If my title is well written, that’s usually enough. I could do more here, I admit, but social media isn’t a major focus for me, so I don’t.
  6. Posting multiple updates once the post is live. I don’t do this either, but if I did, I’d automate it, as the author suggests.
  7. Social media mentions for anyone referenced in the post. If I want to reach out to someone I’ve written about, I’ll send them an email, and this doesn’t happen too often.
  8. Monitoring blog comments. I don’t get a lot of comments (lawyers are busy, yo), so not a problem. If I did, and it took too much time, I would consider outsourcing this. Or, just turn off comments.
  9. Monitoring social media activity. Again, I don’t do much with social media, so I don’t have much to monitor.
  10. Handling guest contributions. To date, I have one guest post on my blog. If I was doing this regularly, I would turn this over to an assistant.
  11. Managing audio and video files and slideshows. Nope.
  12. Writing. I like to write and make time for it. If I was still practicing, I would probably post once or twice a week, instead of daily as I do now. If I still didn’t have enough time, I’d have an assistant help with ideas, research, rough drafts, editing, polishing, and so on.

Blogging for lawyers doesn’t have to be tedious, time consuming, or painful. For one thing, as I wrote in a previous post, having a blog doesn’t make you a blogger.

I see writing a blog as, (a) a strategy for generating traffic, mostly from search engines, and build my list, and (b) a way to show website visitors what I know and what I can do to help them. This doesn’t (have to) take a lot of time. You could write a weekly blog post in an hour or less.

I don’t do much with social media. Many experts say that blogging and social media are inexorably intertwined. That may be true for (some? most?) bloggers but not for me. If you’re not writing a blog because you don’t have time for social media, or don’t like social media, you could do what I do. Or you could get some help.

I wrote a course on getting traffic (and clients) online. Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Writing

What’s all the fuss about “Typography for Lawyers?

January 22, 2014 by
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So a lot of lawyers are interested in typography. Who knew?

Typography for Lawyers, a book by Matthew Butterick, appears to be selling well, in part no doubt to a big endorsement by legal writing maven Bryan Garner.

I haven’t read the book, but I don’t get it. Why all the fuss?

Don’t we have enough to do to get the words right? Do we now need to be concerned with font choice? Does anyone really care about making their appellate brief visually appealing (pun intended)?

Not I.

The author makes his case against the use of Times New Roman in legal documents:

“When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, ‘I submitted to the font of least resistance.’ Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the blackness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void.

If you have a choice about using Times New Roman, please stop. Use something else. . . . Times New Roman connotes apathy. You are not apathetic.”

Frankly, unless you’re using something weird, I don’t think font choice matters to most people. If the Court doesn’t specify what you can or can’t use, use what you want.

If you’re going to make a conscious decision about font choice, however, and your primary objective is to communicate your ideas and persuade the reader to your way of thinking, I suggest you choose Times New Roman (or some other common font) precisely because it is so common.

Choosing Times New Roman connotes apathy? Good. You should be apathetic about fonts. You’re not writing to show the court your artistic taste, you’re writing to be heard. You don’t want to call attention to your typography, anymore than an artist wants to call attention to the painting’s frame.

We all wear the same dark suits to court, don’t we? I don’t see anyone suggesting we start dressing more stylishly. We want the judge listening to our arguments, not admiring (or being distracted by) our clothing. The same goes for how we dress our writing.

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Filed Under: Communication, Law office management, Writing Tagged With: ,

How to start your writing project (finally)

January 15, 2014 by
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I want to help you start your writing project. You know, the one you’ve thinking about for months but haven’t been able to start.

A report, a book, a seminar, some blog posts. Something you can use in your marketing.

Whatever it is, if you’ve been procrastinating on getting started, today is the day you start.

And guess what? Starting is the most important part.

The first thing you need to do is to think about why you’re doing this. What do you hope to accomplish?

Whatever your objective, imagine it already being done.

If you want to write a few blog posts so you can attract new clients online, imagine getting an email or phone call from a prospective client who finds you through your posts. Imagine him telling you they like your site and were impressed by your post. Imagine him asking for an appointment.

Nice.

As you imagine this happy outcome, you may feel an emotional tug and the urge to start writing. Often, this is all you need to get your pen moving. If not, go for a walk or for a drive and think about this some more. Bring a recorder, in case you get inspired.

Now what?

Now you need a working title. It doesn’t have to be brilliant. You’ll make it better later. Write something simple to describe what your article, post, or paper is about.

“My [article/post/book] is about __________________.”

What if you don’t know what to write about? Try this: think about the questions prospective clients typically ask you about their case or matter. The ones you get over and over again. Choose one of those questions. That question, and your answer, is what your article is about.

Got it? Good.

Now I want you to write down three ideas or points you think you might include in your article or post. This can be a short sentence, a phrase, or a single word.

Do this quickly. Write down the first three things that come to mind.

Why just three things? Because three is easy. If you want to write down more than three, that’s fine.

You’re making progress. You have a working title and three points you want to write about. You’ve started. You may feel like continuing and getting the thing written. If you do, just start typing or dictating or scribbling. Before you know it, you’ll have your first draft.

If you’re still having trouble getting started, choose a date when you’ll have this done and mark it on your calendar. Don’t give yourself too much time. In fact, choose a date that gives you less time than you think you’ll need. Like tomorrow. Or the the first of next week.

Seriously. You can write an article in 30 minutes, a short report or ebook in a weekend.

Finally, if you’re still having trouble getting started, or you’ve started but can’t seem to finish, here’s what I suggest.

Call up a lawyer friend and tell him what you’re writing. Tell him when it will be finished, the actual date, and that you’ll send him a copy. And then ask him to hold you accountable. Tell him you’ve been procrastinating on this and that if you don’t get it done on the specified date, you want him to call you on it.

Accountability is very powerful. It will help you get your writing project started. And finished.

The 30-Day Referral Blitz has lots of ideas for topics and titles. Check it out here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Personal development, Writing Tagged With: ,
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