Set in Style

Ask Google to search for these two terms: China and Law

Do that, and the first item returned is a link to China Law Blog, owned and operated by the Seattle firm of Harris & Moure. With an Alexa rank of 200,000 and a Technorati rank under 20,000, this award-winning blog is among the most popular of all attorney-authored blogs, or blawgs.

Why is CLB so popular?

It’s partly due to observing the basics — a clear focus, well-written and very readable posts published on a regular basis, etc. And it’s partly due, I believe, to how CLB differs from most blawgs, which reveal so little of their authors.

Dan Harris — CLB’s main author — says what he thinks, and he encourages his readers to do the same. And that results in some lively discussions about a wide range of topics — from the vagaries of doing business in China to naming Miss China Miss World.

I asked Dan to share his thoughts on blawgs and blawgging, whether the world really needs another blawg, and — if so — what that might be.

Your posts generate lots of comments – far more than posts at other blawgs. Why is that?

1. We ask for comments. For example, I might say we just encountered this labor law issue in Shandong Province — is anyone experiencing this same thing elsewhere in China?
2. We respect nearly all viewpoints. We explain how the law impacts businesses in China and by doing so, we draw a wide range of readers. I estimate about 35% are from the US, 35% are in China, and the rest from all over. I estimate only about 25% of our readers are lawyers. This diversity of readership contributes to the excellent discussions and the excellent discussions, in turn, contribute to people wanting to comment. 

CLB is far more flavorful than most. At times, you stray off topic, and you inject opinion, including political opinion. Why? Aren’t you afraid you might offend?

Because black letter law is boring. Because I believe most people read a blog to know how the blogger feels about a particular issue.  

No. I am not afraid. I am far more worried that I might bore. If I offend someone one time and they choose not to return, I see that as their loss.

If I offend and they choose to respond, that’s everyone’s gain. I must say I have learned a hell of a lot from our readers. When I was in college, I would read just about every political magazine, from The Progressive on the left, to National Review on the right, even though I was neither a leftist nor a rightist and even though both often offended me. I would read them to understand all positions and to learn.

I know we have readers who disagree with us but keep reading for the same reasons. We have 100% loyal readers who start off a comment by saying something like “this is the first time I have agreed with you in months.” 

We are a small firm.  We are better off with a small portion of people who love us and a small portion who hate us than having everyone be neutral about us. Neutrality has never sold tickets.

What are the rewards to, and the dangers of, starting and maintaining a blawg? How much time/energy is required?

Rewards:

1. Getting well known. Co-blogger Steve Dickinson and I have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, New York Times, China Economic Review, Christian Science Monitor, International Herald Tribune, and countless other publications. This is in and of itself rewarding, but it also lends credibility to us being the China law experts.
2. Learning. We learn a tremendous amount as to what is going on all over China through our blog.
3. Contacts. In addition to clients that come to us directly from the blog, it also has allowed us to establish relationships with other bloggers who are experts in their own China fields: PR people, HR people, sourcing people, logistics people, tech people, to name a few. Now that we know all of these people, we often tap them for assistance in those areas. 

Effort:

It takes a tremendous amount of time during the first year or so and if someone is not prepared to put in the time, they probably should not bother starting up a blog. During the first year, one should post as often as possible, because every post has the potential for bringing in a new reader. One should also comment on and link back to as many other related blogs as possible, so those blogs will know you exist and add you to their blogrolls and link to you. After the first year, and you have been established, the time commitment can decrease substantially.

How did you start CLB? Did you do it all (visual design, database, server setup, etc.) on your own, or did you have help? How much of an effort is it to start a blawg?

CLB began at the suggestion of a friend of mine — a PR person who thought it would be a good way to get my firm’s name out there for doing China legal work. I then paid this friend to learn about blogging by research and attending seminars. He then gave us the basics necessary to start the blog. After a month or so, when it became clear we would continue, we hired a blog designer to spiff it up a bit. 

Has CLB met, or exceeded, the expectations you had for it? In what way?

It has exceeded our expectations. We are widely viewed as the China legal blog and we get new and good work from it every single month. 

You started blawgging three years ago. If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently?

When we first started, we allowed every comment, so long as it was not what we would call hate speech against a race, religion, etc. From inception, we would get a lot of critical comments of me and my firm that were filled with falsehoods. We would run those comments and write our own comments setting forth the truth. 

One day, I received an email from someone listing various IP addresses used by a particular person. I then went back and searched our comments and realized that around 99% of these critical comments were coming from the same person. I then deleted all of them and have blocked them ever since.

If I had it to do over again, I would never have allowed such comments in the first place. I let my First Amendment beliefs (which are not really at issue here) cloud my better judgment. 

Three years from now, will blawgs be more, or less, important? How will they be different?

I think they will be the same. I know many think Twitter will supplant blogs, but it won’t. I am a huge fan of Twitter (@danharris), but its uses are very different and it has real limitations. There will always be a call for good blogs.

Do you think any attorney looking for more/better work and higher rates should start a blawg? Should every attorney Twitter?

Absolutely not. I would guess that only around 20% of the law blogs are good and only around 20% really get read. There are some horrible law blogs out there and I just do not see how those blogs help their writers at all.

I doubt anyone looks at a law blog and says, gee, “this person is really boring and their grammar is terrible too, but I think I am going to hire them ….” 

If a lawyer is going to start a blog, they need to first think how they will be contributing to readers, not how it will get them business. From day one, we have always been of the view that the only goal of our blog should be to serve our readers. We virtually never tout our firm on our blog and not once have we ever suggested anyone hire us. Our view is that if people find us interesting and return to our blog, they will come to see that we know what we are doing and if they think we are a good fit for them, they will hire us. They will not hire us by our telling them to do so. Far too many law blogs are written with the plan to convince people to hire the writers and that is a huge mistake. 

I love Twitter, and I can give ten reasons why lawyers should be on there, but I can also think of many lawyers who should not be on there.

What does the future look like, as advancements in technology impact how attorneys attract and manage work?

I am probably not the right person to ask about this. I am always preaching to the lawyers in my firm that the key to marketing is to “Just Do It.” I cannot say what will work for other lawyers, I only know what works for me.

Some lawyers should be giving speeches. Some should be writing articles. Some should be in Rotary. Some should be twittering. Some should be blogging. It all depends on the individual.

Far too often lawyers assert that a particular way of marketing will not work or that a particular way of marketing is beneath them simply as an excuse for doing nothing. My firm gets a lot of work off the Internet, but there are plenty of very successful firms that get none. And certainly, the overwhelming bulk of our work still comes from our clients touting us to their friends.

A friend, an attorney, tells you he’s thinking of starting a blawg to help promote his practice. What’s your advice to him? Does your advice vary according to the age of the attorney, type of practice, or size of firm?

My advice would be to do the following:

1. Spend a month reading all the blogs in the practice area or areas in which you are thinking of starting your blog. Ask yourself what your blog will contribute that nobody else is contributing. Ask yourself who your readers will be and how you will get them to come to your blog and then return to it. 
2. Ask yourself if you are really willing to contribute the time necessary to make your blog a success. Quitting a blog six months in means you wasted six months of good time.
3. If you do the blog, stick with it for at least a year. It takes that long to build up a really good readership.
4. Ask yourself whether you have the personality to blog. Are you willing to accept criticism? Are you willing to express your own opinions? Are you willing to put out a post nearly every day, even though on some days you know what you are putting out is not your best work?
   When I am busy, I spend 15 minutes putting out a decent post. My co-blogger, Steve Dickinson, takes days to write his posts. His posts have much greater depth than mine (his usually involve him reading China laws in Chinese and then explaining them), but he can only post every few weeks. We are a perfect combo, but I think that he would have a much tougher time blogging alone than I would. 
5. Are you comfortable with cooperating with those who many might view as your competition? One of the things I love about blogging is how most bloggers are outgoing and cooperative. They spread “link love.” In other words, when I have a good post, they write about it and give me credit. I do the same thing and oftentimes this means I talk about what a great job such and such China lawyer did on such and such a thing. This goes back to serving the reader, not your own business. You have to be willing to link to other blogs all the time.

This entry was posted 8 January 2009 at 5:09 and is filed under Blogging, Twittering, Etc., What They Say. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.