Tips for coming up with compelling and unique blog topics

Don’t wait until you’re staring at a blank page

If you wait until it’s your designated time to blog and find yourself staring at a blinking cursor, it’ll be much more difficult to blog than if you come prepared with a list of topics you’ve come up with in the previous weeks. Instead, make sure you’re writing down anything that could be a topic, which will allow you to come back to the subject later.

If a subject seems to come up time after time, whether it’s with clients or just between yourself and the other members of the firm, it’s probably a good one to blog about! If you even find yourself beginning a sentence with “you know, I was just talking to someone about that…”, write it down and turn it into a blog post later.

Lists: you secret weapon for coming up with topics

If you’re not finding any potential subjects from your life or your work, you can still generate lists of subjects that might make good topics and choose the ones you like the best. To do this, use writing prompts or other questions.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself (and then answer):

• Which question do clients always seem to have?
• Which questions do people I meet socially always ask about my practice?
• Which areas of my practice have I been meaning to read up on? What questions do I have that I might answer by researching a blog post?
• What are some areas of my practice that tend to confuse people? How can I make them make sense?
• Which pieces of lingo or legal language seem to trip up clients? Can I define them one clearly in a blog post?
• Who might need to know more about my practice? What questions would they have?

The answers to these questions probably make great subjects — and if you come up with a lot of them at once, you’ll be ready to write when you sit down.

Set up RSS feeds to stay in touch with news events

Not all blog posts need to be evergreen, though; reacting to news events which pertain to your practice can be a great way to create a blog that’s relevant and enjoyable to read.

Set up Google Alerts for keywords or practice areas that your firm specializes in, or create an RSS feed of similar law blogs. Take note of which current events might pertain to your practice, and which topics other legal professionals are writing about.

Remember that reading other blogs and news outlets counts as blogging work, too. Reading is a crucial component to writing, and the more content you consume, the more subjects you’ll be able to drum up.

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