What is a blog? A blog, also known as a weblog, is a vehicle for publishing information in an online format. Blog programs offer easy word processing to allow even novice computer users a way to create, edit and submit content for their blog. Posts are presented in a chronological order and can be tagged by topic for future reference. Blog posts are also archived and can be searched by users.

A blog can be used by a law firm in a way similar to a newsletter. If a firm wants to alert its clients to an area of expertise, a change in a law that affects clients or maybe the addition of a new practice area, the blog is an immediate way to pass along that information. Since blogs are meant to have current and dynamic content people considering starting a blog will want to think about how much time they will have to devote to it. Setting up a regular schedule for posting, such as weekly, will help keep the content fresh and interesting. Offering an RSS feed for the blog allows readers to have new headlines pushed to them instead of having to check for new posts.

• Blawg: Marketing Your Practice with a Weblog - Law Practice Today
• Ethics and Lawyer Blogs - Law Practice
• Marketing Blogs - Law Practice Today
• Resources - Blogs - GP Solo
• The Blogger Diaries: Stepping onto the Cutting Edge - Law Practice
• When a Business Begins a Blog - Business Law Today

• 10 Ways to Become A Better Blogger - Tech Republic (need to register with site to read)
• Do You Blog? - DC Bar
• Electronic Frontier Foundation - Legal Guide for Bloggers
• Firm's Blogs Look at Trends, Tips, Legal Tidbits - Law.com
• Ten Ways Blogs Boost a Law Firm's Image - Law.com
• They Blog the Law, and the Law Wins - The Denver Post

From the ABA:

• The Ins and Outs of Blogs - Chapter 48 from Flying Solo
• Blogs: What Lawyers and Businesses Need to Know - Audio CD
• New Frontiers in the Electronic Age: Blogging, the Internet, E-mail, and Electronic Remedies (Audio CD Package)
• Weblogs as a Marketing Vehicle

If your law firm currently has a website you may want to check with your web host about adding a blog to your current site. If you would like to keep your blog separate from your current site you can use the following programs. Blog programs are designed to be easy to use and make publishing content to the web a fast process.

Many of the blog services are free and offer pre-set formats and backgrounds for the blog. The free blogging programs are web based and hosted by the blog provider. This allows a contributor to add content from any web enabled computer by logging into their account.

• Blogger
• ExpressionEngine
• Movable Type - offers a business version for multiple users
• Opera
• Typepad
• Vox - new blogging program that provides privacy control
• WordPress

• Blog Software Smackdown: The Big 3 Reviewed

There are a number of legal blogs on the internet. Sometimes legal weblogs are referred to as "blawgs". Legal blogs may feature an attorney's opinion on a variety of topics or the entire blog might cover one aspect of law.

• Blawg - Source for Law & Legal Related Weblogs - search here for legal blogs
• BlawgSearch from Justia.com
• Inter Alia - Legal research blog which features a legal blawg of the day
• Jurist - Legal News & Research
• SCOTUS Blog
• Inside Opinions: Legal Blogs - Law.com