You’d like to create a blog and post to it regularly. Maybe you already have a blog and you’re not posting to it very often. Lots of lawyers get stuck for ideas about content.

Here’s the deal: you’ve got to think about your audience. Most of you are blogging for prospective clients, so think about what prospective clients want to know.

What they most want to know is how you address a problem like their problem. They want to hear stories about recent situations that sound exactly like their situation. They want to know how you solved the problem, what the solution looked like, what it felt like, how long it took to achieve, and what it cost. They want to know how it felt to have the problem, what it felt like as it was being solved, and how it felt after it was resolved.

Fortunately, you’re in the business of solving problems just like their problems. You’re uniquely situated to tell the story of the problem, the solution, and the happiness your client experienced by virtue of the solution. You are the source of the great story your prospective client is seeking to hear.

Your writing should focus on (1) identifying the problems you solve, (2) explaining how you solve them, and (3) the happy clients you’ve had as a result. That’s it.

You’ve got a million of these stories. You can tell the story of the man denied access to his children. You can relate his sadness, anxiety, and anger. You can share the things he said and regretted. You can convey the steps he took that helped and hurt. You can detail the process he followed to achieve resolution of the conflict, and you can explain how long it took and how much it cost. You can describe how he felt while he waited for a decision, and you can provide the status of his relationship with his children now. You can be the hero of the story. You’ll be right there in the middle of things making sure it all goes well.

You can do the same for the woman who had the affair with her subordinate and describe how that affected her situation. You can explain how her actions affected her finances and relationships. You can tell us whether she continued with her subordinate or whether it came to an end, resulting in sexual harassment litigation. You’ve got the best stories around. Tell them (without, of course, violating your rules of professional conduct). These are the things prospective clients want you to write about.

You can write about other topics as well. Feel free to give us the 5 Tips of Better Visitation or 12 Ways to Avoid Alienating Your Children. It’s all good, but it’s the stories they can relate to that prospects most want to hear.

Spend your time on stories, and you’ll turn those prospective clients into clients.

One last thing: we lawyers love to write about recent developments in the law. I’m not sure why, but clearly we love it. That’s a lawyer-focused thing, not a client-focused thing, at least in family law. Most prospective clients don’t want to know about recent updates. Generally, recent developments are refinements of earlier law. They are clarifications of the details. Most prospective clients want to better understand what’s going to happen in their situations. They’re looking for a broad understanding rather than the nitty-gritty details addressed in recent cases and statutory amendments.

Tell them stories. They’re dying for stories. They want to know that others have been where they’ve been and they want to know what to expect. Go tell a story, and soon you’ll have a new client.