FindLaw Blog: Topical Post

Tone/Voice:

• 3rd person – “he, she, it, or they”
• Use active voice instead of passive voice

Keywords:

• These are listed in the “Request Information” tab in the portal. These can be used for topic ideas, but they do not need to be used in the blog itself.

Links:

• No more than 3 links in the post
  • 2 Links to external sources (required) Laws and statistics update frequently, so the article or study must be no more than five years old!
    • Government site, news story, academic study, etc.
    • Be sure to mention the source first, before providing the link. For example, “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one million drivers were taken into custody for driving under the influence over the course of 2014.”
  • 3rd link to an internal source (optional)
    • A previous blog on the attorney’s site if it connects
    • A webpage from the attorney’s site if it’s relevant to the post
• How to select the anchor text that becomes the link
  • Anchor text should be related to the source it’s linking to (see example tabs). Try to keep anchor text around three words, but you could use as many as seven words.

Format:

• Has to be at least 250 words
• Title can be no longer than 65 characters and should describe what the blog post is about – Also don’t capitalize more than the first word in a title.
• Should mention the attorney’s GEO within the first paragraph (preferably the first sentence). GEO should be state name only.
• Avoid general statements
  • Example: “Divorce is a difficult time for people as they must make several decisions.” (everyone knows this already)
• Must include 2 links to outside sources
• If you use sub-headers, there must be at least 2 paragraphs before the first sub-header.
  • Sub-headers must be bolded rather than using H1 or H2 header formatting.
• May use up to 2 bullet lists
  • No less than 3 items
  • No more than 6 items
• Conclusion
  • Use a strong final statement that provides information directly from the second source
    • For example, “Not only do employees generally find mediation a positive experience, this type of alternative dispute resolution has the benefit of saving an employer the expense and negative publicity of litigation.”
  • Do not summarize the blog or instruct the reader to consider the information, contact an attorney or take any other action
• No Contractions – i.e. “can’t” should be “cannot”
• No Oxford comma
• UPDATE: Do NOT write about/recommend products (such as software, apps, etc.) for the reader/clients to use for their cases. Blogs should be informational and professional.

Doing the research:

• Look at the attorney’s website to understand the types of cases they do.
• Check the attorney’s blog to avoid using recent topics. It is, however, fine to take an older topic and come at it from a new angle.

When to use a topical blog:

• Topical blogs are great for practice areas with few news developments or niche areas of law
  • SSD, Tax, Family Law, Business Law, Animal Bites, Regulatory Compliance, Adoption etc.
• Use as a follow-up to a large news story
  • Example – Tracy Morgan truck accident
    • write a topical post on brain injury complications
    • write a topical post on drowsy truck drivers in general

Citing sources:

• Please provide the source name when talking about a news story, study or using statistical information.
  • Example – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over a million brain injuries are treated in the U.S. each year.
  • Example – According to Medical News Today, the study involved over 5,000 participants.

State and federal ratings of nursing homes

Many elderly Florida residents require levels of care that necessitates they be placed into nursing homes. In these cases, family members are left with the challenge of locating facilities that meet their budgetary, location and care needs but that also provide quality care and treatment of their loved ones. How can they feel confident in making this type of decision?

Both the federal and state governments offer consumers assistance when shopping for a nursing home. Every quarter, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration publishes updates to its Nursing Home Guide. This guide compares care facilities to each other and identifies them by county based upon the results of inspections.

The guide specifically calls out deficiencies in each facility and includes a special watchlist for those nursing homes that have been placed on conditional status in the prior two-and-a-half years as well as those in bankruptcy proceedings. This is important because consumers deserve to know that not only is quality care provided but that a nursing home is financially sound.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also acknowledge the need to help people evaluate the quality of care for elders. It provides each nursing home with a one- to five-star rating with one star being the worst rating and five stars being the best. The number of hours that each facility provides staffed nursing per resident is also specifically identified by the CMS. Those facilities who care for people with the most extreme needs are expected to have the highest number of staffed nursing hours per patient.

The fine line between mistakes and fraud on tax returns

Most Minnesota residents have probably heard about people being charged with tax fraud. If convicted, defendants may experience serious penalties for these offenses. But, just what constitutes fraud when it comes to income taxes? Does the Internal Revenue Service take into account that tax code and procedures are very complicated and can be easily mistaken by taxpayers?

The short answer to that last question is yes however it is important to know that there may be very fine lines between what is considered fraud and what is considered an innocent mistake in the eyes of the IRS. According to Forbes, one of the ways that the IRS differentiates these two is the intent of the taxpayer. If a person is believed to have willfully and consciously omitted or altered information on a tax return, for example, that is more likely to lead to a charge of fraud than if a person clearly made a mathematical error in calculation.

That said, even adding or subtracting incorrectly may not always be seen as an error by the IRS. GoBanking Rates suggests that if the Internal Revenue Service sees a pattern of such calculation errors by the same taxpayer, the concern about potential fraud becomes much greater than a one-time error.

Patterns become important with other types of mistakes as well. These include putting data in the wrong place on a tax return, using the wrong type of tax return form or failing to list and report income even if no taxes are ultimately required to be paid on the money.

Niche markets versus mass markets

The first step that many Georgian business owners take is deciding what market they want to appeal to. While there are many different markets out there, they can generally be divided into two categories: niche markets and mass markets.

First, the Business Dictionary states that a niche market is a small but well-defined chunk of people, usually with specific desires or needs that can be met but have not been fulfilled yet. Examples of catering to niche markets include items designed for the elderly or disabled, or merchandise directed at fans of very specific things such as television shows or lesser known sports. The positive here is that a person can essentially dominate a small market if they are able to successfully fill a niche. The negative is that there is a smaller base of people that the product may appeal to in general.

Merriam-Webster defines a mass market as being comprised of the general public. Usually, the items sold to a mass market are things that many people can get use out of, such as cosmetics, clothing, food and other common, everyday items. On the plus side, people who cater to the mass market have a larger pool of people to pull from. On the other hand, there will be a lot more competition, generally speaking, and this can make survival difficult.

Each of these markets benefit business owners in different ways. It’s up to each individual to determine what their product or ideas may fit better, which can be decided after looking around at the local markets and consumer bases.