ANOTHER SNEAK PREVIEW

We're working on the Sept. issue of Law Technology News, and I'm really excited about our cover story, so I thought I'd give you a sneak preview.

I'm not the only one who has become an instant evangelist for  The Long Tail, Chris Anderson's wildly important new book exploring how niche knowledge, sales and marketing are going to reshape the social fabric in coming years.

In fact, think it's so significant that I invited industry experts to share their views in the next issue of the magazine, and the response has been so diverse (of course) and thought-provoking that it will be the cover story.

Among the contributors are several members of our LTN editorial advisory board, including Craig Ball, Jo Haraf, and Larry Bodine, as well as LaVerne Pritchard, John Tredennick, and a host of others.

Here are a few quick teasers
(the issue will be up on line Sept. 1.):

* John Tredennick: "The Long Tail isn't just about iTunes being able to offer a braod catalog of music and make money on it. It is equally about people being able to specialize in micro-niches (really narrow specialties such as equine law or even dog law) and being able to reach out to people with specialized needs across the country or even the world."

* Ernest Svenson: "Clients will find it easier to locate attorneys they feel comfortable with, using the web and various filtering tools (combined with common sense) to make hiring decisions."

* Larry Bodine:  "Identity your firm's high-margin, most-profitable practices and start blogs about them. ...Law firms that make themselves findable by pinpoint web searchers will thrive."

* Kevin Heller: "Watch for technologies that will expand beyond blogs to develop legal niches."

* LaVerne Pritchard: "In an era of information abudance, much of it highly pertinent to law practice, does one risk liability by not taking full advantage of it?"