We made it. Post # 500!!!!
It’s one thing to prepare posts of few words. But we’ve been pretty consistent here at the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog. Each post has on average 1,000 words.
So 500,000 words later, do we have any greater insight than when we first began? Do we have any new words of wisdom for those trying to prepare a successful legal blog?
YES WE DO!
For starters, consistency is key. We’ve managed to blog once per week, on average around 1,000 words per week; if not more. In that time, our readership has grown consistently. We’ve managed to engage an audience from within our immediate circle of friends, family and work colleagues; and beyond. We’ve had engagement from across Ontario, across Canada and beyond which is very nice. Blogging once in a while isn’t going to cut it. Develop a schedule and carve out some time to write. Otherwise it won’t get done. Procrastination is a content killer. Not developing new content will make your brand and message go stale. The nice thing about blogging is that it’s fluid. Content changes and evolves with the law. What’s sound one day may not be sound tomorrow and guess what; you can write all about it. And if you have an audience, that audience will listen and appreciate your insight. You will be the person they go to when things change. And being that go to resource is a good feeling which will pay off in the long run for your legal practice.
Personality helps! Especially when you’re dealing with a dry and sometimes complicated area like personal injury law. Who outside of the legal field wants to read about personal injury law? Accident victims and their loved ones do. People looking for a personal injury lawyer do as well. People who want to read what Brian Goldfinger thinks do too. But apart from that, personal injury law isn’t exactly a hot topic at your local Chapters or Indigo Bookstore (pre-pandemic of course). Adding our personal experiences has always helped our stories jump off the page, and has resonated with our readership. Keeping things light certainly helps as well. Which leads us to our next pro tip:
K.I.S.S: Keep It Simple Stupid! The best lawyers along with the best story tellers are able to take complex ideas which may take an average person hours to explain and condense it down in to straight forward, easily digestible information which doesn’t take forever to consume. Granted, there may be some complicated legal matters to discuss which may take time. But, for the most part, we do our best to keep things simple so that you don’t need a law degree or a PHD to keep up and understand the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog. If lawyers want a legal journal or a scholarly article to read, there are plenty great legal journals out there. Law Libraries are filled with dense scholarly articles which make for great resources, but not great light internet reading. Which dovetails nicely to yet another pro tip:
Know your audience. If you are catering to scientists and PHD students, you gotta keep things very technical. Those personal anecdotes don’t have a place in your content. Our audience is certainly different and very diverse. You have to know who’s reading your articles and know who’s consuming your content. The rest will take care of itself.
Knowing your audience is one thing, but don’t hold back at the expense of not being yourself. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through in your content (so long as it isn’t over the top offensive or libellous). Offending people happens. It’s normal for people to have differences of opinion and debate those differences in an intelligent, respectful and coherent way. It’s another thing all together to make content which is borderline insane and goes against all notions of basic human rights or can be construed as hate speech. If you are concerned about putting your content out there because you think it will offend too many people or will get you in trouble, ask someone outside of your social, academic or work bubble for their opinion what they thing….or consult a lawyer before you put your thoughts out there in to the universe. Free speech yes. Hate speech no. I think those are pretty fair principals to go by. The nice thing about the internet is that it’s given everyone with access to a computer and internet a platform. The bad thing about the internet is that it’s given everyone in the world with access to a computer and internet a platform. The barriers to entry are LOW. Before the internet, you needed to work in the media, be an academic or a public figure to get your message broadcasted. Now all it takes is a computer and internet access. And that’s a beautiful, and a scary thing all bundled into one.
Positivity goes a long way. You can write all you want about negative themes and put bad vibes out in to the universe. There are plenty of large broadcasters out there who predicate their networks on fear, negativity and hate. You saw a President of the United States focus more on divisions and building walls to separate as oppose to fostering unity and building bridges to unite. There’s plenty of garbage on the internet for people to consume. Want to have a soul and some decency? Put out truth and positive messages as oppose to things you know people will hate. The universe needs more smiles and less frowns; especially now when everyone has to remain hidden behind masks when we are battling a global pandemic on all fronts. Scientists did not develop a COVID vaccine saying that it couldn’t be done. Instead they dropped everything and put all of their efforts behind developing a vaccine despite the fact it had never been done before. You don’t get there with a negative and defeatist attitude. You get to that point staying positive and fighting through adversity. If your content reflects that sort of “can do” attitude and positivity, it will resonate and stick with more people rather than negative posts which are a dime a dozen and don’t have the same sticking power as do positive posts.