Solos Who Blog

Each month, more Canadian lawyers dive into the legal blogosphere (www.lawblogs.ca). But while many law bloggers work in law firms or out of consultancies, a small but growing number are sole practitioners. On top of everything else demanded of solos, these intrepid lawyers also find the time and inclination to blog.

Michael Webster is the sole practitioner behind The Bizop News (http://www.bizop.ca/blog2/). He began blogging in 2005 to help warn readers about business opportunity fraud and franchise fraud. Today, with more than 20,000 visits and 30,000 page views in November 2008 alone, The Bizop News’ statistics are impressive for a sole practitioner’s side project. But Webster says it could be more encouraging: “People defrauded by dubious opportunities find my site after,” he says wryly.

For Webster, blogging doesn’t require setting aside dedicated time. He says it’s simply a matter of “switching from keeping memos to yourself on your hard drive to thinking a bit more broadly about a topic and writing it on a blog. You don’t need to write a whole article — you just get it down. We all do legal research, so just plunk it on a blog.”

Michelle Ballagh, who practises intellectual property law in Hamilton, Ontario, created Innovate! Hamilton (http://ballagh.typepad.com/) in June 2008. She views her blog less as a way to build her business and more as a service to existing clients. She says blogging, like publishing articles and presenting seminars, is simply another method of communicating with her target audience.

Ballagh agrees that maintaining an active blog, with a goal of one post a week, doesn’t require much of a time commitment. In fact, she jokes, blogging is an excellent way to “procrastinate doing real work.” It also allows her to comment on interesting items that flow across her desk when there may not be enough material for a full article.

According to Ballagh and Webster, the expense of a blog can easily be shouldered by a sole practitioner, since it ranges from a few dollars per month at the minimal end to a few hundred per year for more bells and whistles. In Ballagh’s opinion, blogging might even be easier for a sole practitioner than for a lawyer in a large firm, since solos don’t need to answer to managing partners for what they post.

As to the benefits of blogging, Webster acknowledges that there are projects he wouldn’t be doing if it weren’t for The Bizop News. What’s more, he says, it’s much easier to get feedback on proposals, from all over North America, through his blog than via listserv. He recommends that sole practitioners manage their expectations, however, when starting a blog.

“It can turn into a marketing tool, but it’s primarily a way of organizing your thoughts,” he says, adding that it’s easier to write when you have a well thought-out system of cataloguing.

Ballagh recommends managing the readers’ expectations as well. She says she wrote for six to eight weeks before making her site public, in order to develop a voice.

“Experiment with it,” she suggests, “and see if it’s too much work before you commit to making it available to the public.”

—By Cynthia Kirkby