There are many ways to skin a cat (whatever that means), and there are many ways to market your practice. Here’s one idea that I guarantee will work for you. How can I guarantee it? I know it works because it’s working right here, right now. This site, Divorce Discourse, generates a gazillion referrals to our North Carolina family law practice from people like you. We get calls and e-mails every day from attorneys across the United States and in many foreign countries.

How can you replicate my success? It’s really simple.

Start a blog on a topic of use to your peers in other parts of the country. They’ll start reading and, when they have a case in your area, they’ll refer it to you because they already know you. It’s like magic. You do something for them, and they’ll do something for you. Over time, they’ll come to know you, like you, and trust you.

How do you do it?

1. Pick a topic. I suggest something that’s important to us and hard for us to keep up with. Ideally, the topic won’t be state specific. Think about divorce taxation, ERISA issues in divorce, or business valuation issues. Other topics you might consider include custody evaluations, cross-examination of psychological experts, closing arguments in family law, or international child abduction.

Do a quick search on Google for the terms you think matter to the area you’re considering and see whether anything ranks at the top of the first page. By and large, you’re going to come up with little if anything useful on these topics. There isn’t much competition.

Do you need to be an expert on the topic to write about it? No, you don’t. We’ve all had the experience of teaching something. You know how quickly you learn when you’re put in a teaching role. If you’re not an expert now, you will be in the blink of an eye. You’ll certainly know more about these topics than the average family lawyer after you’ve read a book and a handful of articles on the topic. Remember, an expert is someone who knows more than the reader. You’ll be an expert in about 20 minutes. Seriously.

2. Start writing. Don’t publish anything yet. Just start writing and see how it goes. Find the format that works for you. I publish every day, and my pieces are short. You might go long and publish once a week, maybe twice. Maybe you’ll go short like me and publish daily. Either way, write enough so that you can start out with six weeks of material in the bank.

I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half. It gets easier and easier. Ideas come to me all the time. The writing flows. Admittedly, it wasn’t that way for the first six months. I ran out of ideas; I struggled to get the words out. The more you write, the easier it gets. I’m actually enjoying it now (especially if I’m on caffeine).

3. Publish. Set up a blog site. You can try WordPress (what I’m using here, but it requires some tech savvy) or SquareSpace (that’s what I’d do if I were you). If you want a full-service provider, you might check out LexBlog (it’s the gold standard for legal blogs). Pick a domain name and register it. Don’t use the free URL from blogger or WordPress: buy a custom domain name. Don’t get bogged down in the appearance of the site. Most subscribers are going to read your posts via RSS feed or e-mail. They aren’t going to come back to the site often.

Trust me, if you explain the tax issues in language we can understand or if you offer helpful advice for cross-examining an expert, we aren’t going to criticize you for your design. We are, however, going to send you business when we have a case in your area.

4. Keep publishing. Don’t let the site die. That’s almost worse than not doing it at all. Commit and keep it going. Don’t start if you aren’t willing to stick to it. This is your career, your future, and your retirement plan, so don’t dabble. Get in the game and stay there. Don’t become discouraged when your readership consists of five people for a while. More readers will come if you keep going. It might take a year, but we want help, and you’re providing it.

5. Market your site. Write guest posts for other blogs, submit your articles to legal publications, and offer to speak at CLEs. Promote, promote, promote. Everything you write for the blog should be repurposed for other sites, publications, and speeches.

6. Manage your cases. When the referrals come–and they will–you’ve got to get the work done while continuing to feed material to your site. Use my advice here to build systems that allow you to get the work done while juggling everything else. You don’t want to fail your newfound referral sources by dropping the ball with their clients. Stay on top of everything by employing excellent technology and systems.

That’s it. This approach will work. If it doesn’t, just submit your request for a refund of what you’ve paid for the use of this site. All kidding aside, this approach is a winner. We love people who help us out. We’re grateful, and we feel an obligation to pay you back. Give us what we need, and we’ll give you what you need. We understand where you’re coming from, and we want to help those who help us.