Tools for Promoting Your Practice

For building a website and blogging on your own, WordPress.com offers a free introductory version that it hosts; more tech-savvy users who need customization can use the nonhosted version. Those who prefer to write less can try blogging at Tumblr, where it's easier to weave photographs into each post. LinkedIn's new blog platform, which launched in February, lets members incorporate posts into their profiles and automatically share posts with their networks.

For lawyers especially, LawLytics.com offers specialized website design with marketing services and coaching; LexBlog.com offers Web design, coaching, and blogging services; and the legal blogging platform JDSupra.com can link to social networks.

For managing and coordinating your online presence and use of social media, Hootsuite provides a single integrated platform. And Google offers several free marketing tools, including Blogger, Analytics, and FeedBurner.

To make short videos, an iPhone, computer, or handheld video camera works well. For editing, there's Camtasia from TechSmith (though some attorneys advise hiring an expert).

To encourage Google to index a specific page almost instantaneously, visit www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ and submit the URL directly.

To use email in your digital marketing, try a relationship management tool like Constant Contact.

For Web tracking and alerts geared to lawyers, Manzama.com sends users information based on profiles they create. A free alternative is Google Alerts.

For more information on how search engines work and ways to freshen and highlight your Web presence, visit searchengineland.com.

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