LexBlog teaches lawyers the basics of blogging

What: Bainbridge Island-based LexBlog.com, which provides blogging tools and support for lawyers and other professionals.

Who: Kevin O'Keefe founded the company in 2004 after a 17-year career as a trial lawyer, a successful online marketing effort in the Internet's early days and the creation and sale of legal resources site prarielaw.com to Lexis-Nexis subsidiary Martindale-Hubbell.

Why should lawyers blog: "It's a way to enhance one's reputation and to network with both your prospective clients and those that would influence your prospective clients," O'Keefe said. "People hire you because you're good and have a good reputation, and because they see you referenced in other places. ... A blog is closer to a Rotary meeting than a Web site."

A tip or two: What makes a good professional blog? Focus on a niche topic where you are expert, such as a particular area of patent law or a specific jurisdiction, O'Keefe said. Design and appearance are also important.

What not to do: Blogs used as blatant public relations or marketing tools tend to backfire. Talk about issues rather than yourself or your successes.

Services: LexBlog offers blog design, hosting, training, consulting and search-engine optimization, and marketing so that the blog is discovered. Clients buy a subscription for an initial payment of $1,500 and monthly payments of $200. Additional blogs and annual payments get a discount.

Funding: The company is self-funded and has been profitable, though expenses occasionally exceed revenues as more people are hired.

Next: O'Keefe is looking to add to his staff of seven as LexBlog branches out to serve other professions, including real estate and venture capital.

He also aims to aggregate the content created on legal blogs into a legal review.

— Benjamin J. Romano