I read a post from @problogger titled Should Legal Blogs Be Monetized – If so…How?  The question Darren was asking was whether someone who is blogging in a legal niche should use advertising on their site such as Google Adsense to make money.

Presumably the person who is blogging in a legal niche is an attorney.  At least in my marketing plan as an attorney, my blogs are there to educate the public and to hopefully increase my exposure in the community and on the internet as an expert in my area of practice.  My goal for monetizing my blogs is this: convert visitors into readers; readers into prospective clients who will call my office and make an appointment; then turn prospects into paying clients. 

The benefits of a blog for this are several.  The first, and most important for many lawyer-bloggers is that blogging is pretty cheap.  In fact, when you compare it to traditional advertising methods like the telephone book it is almost free.  You can gain almost immediate traction with search engines which leads to more visitors and readers thus increasing your chance to get people in your office.  Finally, it lets you hone your skills.  It is really easy to explain some areas of law to another attorney.  You start talking in legal geek-speak and everyone knows what you’re talking about.  It is much more difficult to translate that so the everyday person can understand.  When writing on your blog – unless you are writing for an academic or legal audience – you will be forced to write on a level where people can understand you or people will simply not read your work.  This helps you sell to your client when they are in your office because they will be more confident in your services because you can explain even the most complex legal theory in a way they can at least get some grasp of. 

So, in saying all of that, my opinion of advertisements on a legal blog is that it is a very short-sighted way of making money from your blog.  Sure, who wouldn’t want to be a "pro-blogger" and make lots of money from the traffic you already have from your blog?  But I think you have to make sure it fits your niche – and I do not believe it fits the legal niche at all.  So you make a few bucks here and there by having people click on your ads, but you are not gaining the full value of that blog visitor because they are immediately clicking on an ad and being whisked away to another lawyer’s website who they will likely hire and pay thousands of dollars to.  So, congratulations on that quarter you just earned from the pay-per-click ad.  If that isn’t bad enough, why are you doing all of that work writing those blog posts if you are just going to let someone come to your site and then click on an ad and disappear?

Summary – have a full view of the reason for your legal blog.  This is a crock-pot, not a microwave.  It may take you some time, but don’t cheapen your legal blog by adding advertising.  Don’t pimp out your legal blog for the sake of earning a few quick bucks. Focus on your prospective clients and adding value to them – then they will add value to you in a way that advertising cannot.