During the recent terrorist attacks in London, they were.

I recently contracted with two lawyer bloggers who want to spruce up their existing blogs, integrate them into their law firm web sites, and develop marketing strategies to promote themselves as experts in their respective niches.

This is what I love to do. I’ve held a variety of jobs in my life, and I’ve finally found something that works. Both projects will be engaging and challenging for me and beneficial and potentially lucrative for the clients. Once these new blogs are up and running, I’ll do a “before and after” post and highlight some of the changes. My client list is available via e-mail to prospective clients, but in the near future, I may create a public client page.

I’ve been in business officially for a few months, but having a high-ranked political blog helped me land my first clients (one before I was officially in business). Being busy is an entrepreneur’s dream, and for the past couple of months I’ve even had to turn down several invitations (including one yesterday) to appear on MSNBC to talk about the latest political story.

The cable network used to prominently feature “blog reporters” for 90-second blogosphere news round-ups, and I was one of those reporters. These days, one of the producers (and the occasional blogger) does the segment, and bloggers are featured as guests in longer segments. Preparing for the show usually takes half a day, sometimes the whole day. Since going full time with The Language Artist, I’ve literally had no time to spare. I will try to make time, but only if I get to plug my business on the air.

Right now, it’s time to work. Until then, I recommend a post about good web site design by Jacob over at Blogging Pro.

Update!

Whenever I mention blog conferences around non-bloggers, I usually get strange looks. They know what a blog is. What they find unusual is that bloggers travel to meet other bloggers to talk about blogging.

I’ve been to one blog conference so far, and I talked about what it’s like to blog about faith. I’m scheduled to speak on the topic of blogs at two upcoming conferences. As you can tell, I like to discuss various aspects of blogging, and I look forward to the day I’m invited to speak at my first business blog conference.

I won’t be able to attend the Blog Business Summit next month, but God willing, I’ll be there next year.

Technorati tags: blogbusinesssummit and BBS05.

Fellow blog consultant, Kevin O’Keefe, is the founder of a company specializing in blogs for lawyers, also known as “blawgs.” Very clean, standards-based design.

Notice that his blog is on an internal page instead of the front page. I’m sure this model works for him, but I think the best place for a blog is the front page of a company’s web site. If you decide to add a blog, it should be the first page visitors see. Why? The value of a blog is the frequently updated content you post. Static web pages have a place, but that place is not front and center. You can include as much helpful information on your blog page as you want: e-mail addresses, street and mailing addresses, telephone numbers, etc. Nothing is sacrificed.

Static pages are useful for providing details about your employees, services, fees, and background information on your company, for example, but blogs are dynamic. Harness the power of a blog by making it your home page, the first thing clients and potential clients see.

When I market my services, I often quote this line: “For every imaginable topic, hobby, or profession, there are blogs.”

But the statement is incomplete. The line should read: “For every imaginable topic, hobby, profession, or peversion, there are blogs.

Blogs can be used for hobbies or business, or to share your faith or opinions on hot issues of the day. Blogs can also be used for perverted reasons. Joseph Duncan, the child molester and murderer who killed 8-year-old Shasta Groene’s mother and brothers and abducted her, blogs about his “demons.” By the grace of God, Shasta still lives, but Duncan is still at large:

Despite law enforcement’s hopes, the 42-year-old computer programmer’s sporadic postings did not give away his location. Instead, the last entries took a disturbed and ominous tone. In a May 11 posting titled “The Demons Have Taken Over,” Duncan hinted of violence in his past and future. “I am scared, alone and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society,” Duncan wrote. “My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die.” (Source)

If he’s not caught soon, he’ll probably strike again, killing and hurting innocent children. I hope he resumes blogging, and I pray his blog will lead the police directly to his hideout.

Update: I was way off about Duncan. He was captured last Saturday! Excellent. The article I cited said as much, but I missed it. A commenter corrected my error, an example of the immediacy of blogs.

“Blogging is good for business as a means of leveraging two-way communication between you and your customer. You can build community awareness, listen and respond to your customers wants, needs and request. Find out what your customers are saying and respond back in an open and engaging converstion with them.

Some Of the benefits of a business blog…

1. Build Community.
2. Gain Higher Rankings In The Search Engines.
3. Improve PR Communication.
4. Channelize Your Message…”

Read the rest.

Read the results of Backbone Media’s corporate blogging survey.