Entries categorized "Blogs"

Big Firms Catch Up with Small Firms, Law Students, Law Professors, And Just About Everyone Else

This is a relatively interesting law.com article about big firms and their blogs.  (Via HA.) On the one hand, it's obnoxious that something is considered "cool" only when big firms do it.  On the other hand, as more people learn about legal web logs, C&F's readership will grow.  I don't expect to quit blogging for a long time, and I don't think Norm is going anywhere.  So it's good for C&F to have others learn about blogs.


What Happens to Blogs that Don't "Join the Conversation"

Today I randomly learned about two good blogs - one on Section 1983 law, and the other on federal criminal law.  I'd never heard of them because they don't have meaningful blogrolls, and they don't link to other blogs in their posts.  I did a brief Google and Technorati search of these two blogs, and guess what - almost no one else has heard of them!  In short, they haven't "joined the conversation," and it has cost them readers

A common failing of new bloggers is thinking they can just write stuff, pretending that other similary situated bloggers aren't out there.  Sadly, those blogs aren't widely read.  A while back I wrote a post about blogging.  Two things I said then remain more true now that there are more blogs (and thus, it's easier to get lost in the shuffle):

5. Link Early, Link Often.
In this post I link to nearly 30 other blawgs. Do you think I do this because I want to run the risk that you will click on the link, find a better post, and forget all about me? Of course not! Every blawgger can find out who is linking to him (See, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, below). Since blawgging is such a lonely enterprise, we are flattered when other people link to us. We read the post to read about ourselves, much the same way that you always look for your own face in a group picture. Thus, I’ve enticed a couple of dozen people to read this post on Notes From the (Legal) Underground, all by doing the right thing, namely, linking to other people.

6. Build a Blogroll.
On the side of Evan’s blawg, you’ll see a lot of blawgs. They’re all part of his blogroll. You should have one too, for at least two reasons. First of all, I click through other blawgs from my site’s blawgroll. Thus, these other blogs can see that I’m linking to them, and wonder why. (See, Link Early, Link Often, above). Second, your favorite blawg might not follow this advice and cause you to forget about them. You want to be able to find your favorite blawgs? How better to do so than to put them on the one blawg you’ll always remeber?

You can read the rest of the post here.


Ten Tips to a Better Blog

Via Matt Homan comes Jakob Nielsen's "Top Ten Weblog Design Mistakes."  C&F does more right than wrong, but we have been making changes with Mr. Nielsen's suggestions in mind.  I've changed C&F's design, and increased the posts' font size.  I updated Norm's bio.  (I updated mine, too, but it's pretentious so I'm not going to point it out; though it's easy enough to find.)  I'm still trying to figure how to find cool images for all of my posts, like they do at Concurring Opinions.

On an unrelated note (and I'm probably breaking some rule of good blogging in changing topics so abrubtly): Ken Lammers has lots of fun people blogging at CrimLaw, including a prosecutor and law student.  Also, he has some robo-cop-looking template going on so be sure to visit - and bookmark - CrimLaw.


DUI Blog

Almost all of us know someone convicted of a DUI (or we know someone pled to "reckless driving").  Unfortunately, it's becoming as common an offense as speeding, largely because of unreliable methods to detect whether someone is driving drunk.  If you think that only "drunks" are convicted of drunk driving, then you have much to learn.  The courts have so far allowed unreliable scientific evidence.  Lawrence Taylor is fighting the trend, has he has started a blog. 

Please say hello to DUIBlog.