Several readers have asked why I am not participating in a “best of blogging” competition for law student blogs. The answer is simple: the competition is a scam.
It works as follows:
NoName Legal Website (NLW) needs visitors. NLW has no credibility because it is a content aggregator and offers little (or no) original content. Snooze.
But NLW has a plan! Lawyers and Law students love competition and arbitrary rankings. Heck, all the law schools in the country tout their US News Ranking while simultaneously bitching about how ridiculous the rankings are.
So NLW creates its own rankings of the top law school bloggers. NLW informs the bloggers of their nominations through pingbacks and emails. The student bloggers mention the competition and link back to NLW. The new traffic helps NLW build a reputation and to compensate for its lack of original content.
NLW now has visitors without paying for advertising space.
Isn’t that brilliant?
Well, I’m not taking part in NoName Legal Website’s marketing ploy. If NLW wants to advertise on my blog, then they can pay me.
This blog only has room for links to advertisements and recommendations. And since I want my recommendations to mean something, I refuse to recommend a website that is a second-rate version of Princeton Review or TLS.
The idea of ranking law student blogs is rather stupid anyway because this is such a small niche. There are very few active student blogs, and the “top” blogs can be found at the weekly roundups on Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and But No Thanks.
If you REALLY need a listing of the “best law school bloggers” then there is one over at Bitter Lawyer. The difference between Bitter Lawyer and NoName Legal Website is that Bitter Lawyer actually produces original (and hilarious) content, and doesn’t mention student blogs solely for the free advertising.
To all the other students nominated for NoName Legal Website’s top law student list: Congratulations, you’re fabulous, but you didn’t need a NoName website to tell you that.
17 Comments
Dez
April 24, 2010 at 10:29 amI think the fact that they ask for people to sign-up for the contest in the first place is rather ridiculous… why not do what Bitter Lawyer and Princeton Review already do and feature the content they find interesting. That kind of attention is always better than a stupid “Best Of ” bloggers contests.
Jansen
April 24, 2010 at 11:27 amI think it’s because we may not link to it if it’s not a “competition.”
Ricky Nelson
April 24, 2010 at 11:15 amA similar thought went through my head. Rankings for blogs are really a joke. A good student blog is really about how well you are able to put your personality or persona down on paper. It’s sorta hard and more importantly pointless to rank that.
However, can I be persuaded to partake anyways for the chance to win a $300 Amazon Gift Card? Absolutely.
Personally, I don’t think this is all about SEO. As you said yourself, the law student blogosphere is quite small making SEO through ‘google-bombing’ difficult. But perhaps they think that every little bit counts.
For what its worth, I put your blog up for multiple categories. Don’t comment as much as I should, but you have an entertaining blog.
Jansen
April 24, 2010 at 11:28 amThanks! That comment means more than winning a NLW category. 😉
Shelley
April 24, 2010 at 11:39 amGood post. I received a comment/message last week (early this week? I’ve lost track) about a new website and they wanted to be linked from mine – Confessions of a Law Student – don’t know if any of you also got the same message – but I thought that was a better way to get more visitors – just ask for a link. In any case, Confessions is original content.
Jansen
April 24, 2010 at 12:43 pmThat doesn’t sound a scamy. I guess it’s about a personal gut-check (as is much of our blog-decisions.)
Huma
April 24, 2010 at 11:48 amThere was a legal resource website a while ago that sent buttons to all sorts of legal blogs saying that they named them one of their Top 100 Legal Resources, and here’s a button with a code to put on your site. Surprise, surprise, if you looked at the code, it linked right back to theirs. That was cheap and gimmicky and it would have been better to just ask for a link (not that they would have gotten one, their website had no real content on it aside from pretty lawyer-y pictures and color blocks). The difference with the ClearAdmit one was that, at least for me, those guys send me a ton of traffic practically every week. 😛 They’ll always link to one of my posts and talk a little about it, and I get a lot of pingbacks and stuff from them. So when I got the notice of the nomination (which I didn’t sign up for; I was just notified that I was a nominee), I didn’t think much of it. They’ve done that sort of stuff before, too, I think, and the voting is only for bloggers, I guess, not a widespread robo-voting call like the ABA. So at least, for me, that was why I didn’t mind. Unlike the first incident with that legal resource crap site that had everyone screaming SCAM SCAM RUN FOR THE HILLZ. 😛
Jansen
April 24, 2010 at 12:45 pmClearAdmit isn’t the sketchiest thing I’ve seen, but it still smells of marketing ploy to me. I do appreciate the shout-out on your blog though 😉 Thanks m’love!
Brandon
April 24, 2010 at 4:23 pmI concur with Ricky’s post, and I also put you down as my favorite blogger. You’re my L.S. blogging hero.
Jansen
April 25, 2010 at 7:48 amBuhaha, thank you. Although you’re very dedicated in your writing as well. I guess the sun and the alligators inspires ya 😉
NB
April 24, 2010 at 4:45 pmI totally got this email, too. Though I ignored it more out of laziness than any kind of blogger morals, amen to you.
Truly, it’s been such a pleasure to see your blog grow over the last few years–I think you add wonderful wonderful content and perspective to our corner of the internet. I am consistently impressed with your ability to bring interesting, funny, and heartfelt vignettes and advice to the law-blogging world. I have to admit, when I see you putting out so much of value, it makes me feel a little guilty for neglecting my own blog.
What I’m trying to say is: you’re totally T14, man. hth.
Jansen
April 25, 2010 at 7:47 amThank you! And you’re not neglecting your own blog…by god, if I had journal-craziness to deal with I don’t think I’d write. Ever. I’m amazed that you can justify using the internet for non-school-related stuff at all. I’d go crazy. You’re value x 10.
idwsj
April 24, 2010 at 8:17 pmYou definitely are more thoughtful about things than I am.
Even if you don’t care about the rankings, I still voted for your blawg haha.
Jansen
April 25, 2010 at 7:45 amAwe, thank you 😀 And it’s not a matter of being more thoughtful – you obviously put a lot of time into your posts…you’re just funnier.
Soleil
April 26, 2010 at 10:11 pmLooks like you’re going to murder the blog rankings contest whether you like it or not if my ballot and the ballots of other commenters in this thread have anything to say about it.
Soleil’s Law Student Blog Rankings:
1. Jansen
2. Jansen
3. Jansen
😉
Jansen
April 27, 2010 at 11:55 amMuhaha, thank you. The comments mean more than any ranking.
And one more thing: BOB Awards and a Legal Underground Thank You « HATE is easy…love takes COURAGE
May 6, 2010 at 7:51 pm[…] I was excited to be nominated, and so was Huma, even though Jansen went and rained on our parade a little bit. […]