It reignited with Venkat Balasubramani’s post at  Spamnotes about the topic that never dies, why blawg?  The amorphous claims of “client development” remain undeveloped, with unproven and unprovable anecdotes by a handful of self-promoters being the totality of the evidence.

When people talk about the efficacy of law blogs, people typically cite to the experiences of other lawyers – e.g., “what law blogs do my lawyer friends read?”  No one ever thinks to survey the clients.  Also, the blogging lawyers never seem to track the relationship between client development and blogging.  (It’s no surprise, for the reasons noted in the  post  linked  above.)  The only (meager) efforts in this regard have been by the marketers and practice consultants.

I’ll also add two more reasons to why people blog.  First, because it’s fun.  Bloggers are an opinionated crowd, and we like to get our opinions out there.  Second, lawyers are creatures of affirmation.  We live and die by the proverbial pats on the head, or by knowing we’ve gotten the better of someone’s argument.  For better or worse, these are rewards in themselves.  A third reason may be to contribute to the “collective consciousness,” but I don’t have any delusions that I have the necessary altruistic instincts for this to be a legitimate reason.

From here, Antonin Pribetic, the Trial Warrior, went straight to the heart of the issue:  Why bother?

So why bother blawging? Well, if you’re a real lawyer who wants to master your craft, then blawging is an end to itself.

If you don’t enjoy writing, don’t bother blawging.

If you don’t have any opinions, blawging is a waste of not only your time, but your readers’ time, as well.

If you don’t care about issues affecting your practice and the profession, you’re not cut out for blawging.

If you think that blawging will get you more clients, you don’t know the first thing about the business of law.

If you believe that paying a lawyer marketing firm which promises to get you top “SEO ranking” on Google searches or thousands of followers on Twitter, then I don’t care what you have to say, write, or think.

If, however, you are busy representing clients ethically, dispensing competent legal advice, and always striving to improve your skill set, then blawging may be just the ticket to becoming a better lawyer.

The noise to the contrary, there is a harsh truth that you won’t hear repeated by many.  Blawging will not bring you riches and success.  There is no return on investment because it isn’t an investment at all.  There are a few who claim that they’re getting clients out of it, and some likely are because of peculiar niche practices that are otherwise hard to find, but the vast majority won’t make a dime off of it.  Want proof?  From social media advocate  Jay Fleischman:

One of my folders is dedicated entirely to bankruptcy blogs.  As a consumer bankruptcy lawyer, this is one of the well-worn spots in Reader.  What I found was astounding.

The majority of the bankruptcy blogs in my feed reader had been dormant for six months or more.  Many of them have been dead silent for over a year.  Virtual roadkill lines the Internet.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, my friends.  In looking at those law firm blogs that have been active over the past six months, I saw that many of them were talking about exactly the same thing – the basics.  Boring, mind-numbing experiences devoid of humor, opinions, or even a hint of graphics.  In sum, they all read like law school treatises.

Virtual roadkill is a great description of the blawgs started by lawyers, filled with heady notions of becoming a “thought leader” and the “game changer” to whom all clients will flock.  Granted, bankruptcy isn’t the sweetest subject to riff on, but then the same is true of criminal law, where blawgs have come, gone and changed.  If the motivation isn’t internal, the lack of external reward spells death.

For those who write because it’s the way they choose to spend their time, however, the journey isn’t over as they become the source of those who want the riches or prominence of the internet without any of the effort.  This happened to the Trial Warrior, when he learned that a man named  Mark Robbins with a business in Canada called Lawyer Locate created one of those fad daily lawyer “news” aggregators, a new social media fad, that scrapes content of others for lack of any content of his own.

Antonin Pribetic was unimpressed with Robbins’ use of his content.  Robbins, in response :

sir with all due you have a rss feeder and no disclaimer we have done nothing wrong than to give you benefit of our reach

In other words, he takes because he can, and is doing Nino a favor by using his content and spreading the word.  There have long been vultures on the internet, contending, perhaps even believing, that by taking content without permission, they are “promoting” others.  One might surmise that they realize that they’re stealing, which is why they don’t ask for permission or alert their victim to their theft, but like Judith Griggs, they maintain the bizarrely self-serving assumption that if it’s on the internet, it’s public domain.

Then again, to those whose purpose in blawging is to achieve the important one lacks in the real world, they take no exception to others spreading their content, as long as their name is attached.  As law grad  Omar Ha-Redeye explained :

my take? More readers, the better. Welcome to the new media.

What makes this all the more ironic, aside from its combining the element of a recent law grad believing his view of Robbins’ taking the content of an experienced trial lawyer is sufficiently important to express in such a way as to undermine Pribetic, is that while those who put in the effort to create content (as well as nurture law students, grads and young lawyers, as Nino does) are repaid by being assaulted from all sides.  It’s not easy blawging.  It’s not easy befriending young lawyers.  It’s not easy having one’s content available on the internet, where anyone can steal it with the click of a mouse.

After the run-in with Pribetic, Robbins, to his credit, took down his “daily blawg.” Whether it will stay down is unknown. For those whose grasp of the blawgosphere is self-promotion, this will prove a loss.  Sadly, there are far more who blawg in a desperate search for business or self-aggrandizement than those like Nino who create content because they like to write and believe in things. 

There is more content on the internet than anyone could possibly care to read.  Most of it is crap, and much of it iworthless self-promotion.  For those who, like Nino, write something meaningful and worth reading, it’s ripe for the taking. 

You have to be nuts to spend time writing stuff in the blawgosphere, unless you just like to write or don’t mind ending up as virtual roadkill.