Hosting provider? Check. Website? Check. Advertising plan? Check. Now it is time to talk more advanced online marketing: blogs and social networking.

Starting a blog or participating in an online social network is more advanced in the sense that both require more time and a bit more comfort with online interaction. But blogging and social networking also offer new, more direct ways to reach potential clients.

A static website is just a fancy billboard or calling card. But a blog or a social network profile allow you to meet your clients before they pick up the phone to call or walk into your office. You can establish your ethos with people you have not yet met, so that when they have a legal problem, they are not calling a stranger, but someone they already know.

Many lawyers, however, seem afraid to say anything online (or in public) for fear that it will come back to haunt them. To this I have two pieces of advice: (1) stop saying things that might come back to haunt you; and (2) get over it. If you cannot get over it, then blogs and social networking are not for you.

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Lifehacker just posted a great pro-and-con review of online RSS feed reader Google Reader versus desktop feed readers like NewsGator’s FeedDemon (PC) and NetNewsWire (Mac).

I have been using Google Reader for about a year now, and I love it. The convenient keyboard shortcuts (j, k, and s) make flying through a backlog of posts a breeze. Plus, I just like Google apps for anything that is not overly sensitive. I do not use Google apps for business, for example.

Still, the desktop readers from NewsGator sound like great options. And, of course, you can read feeds within Outlook and Thunderbird, already, if you just want to stay within software you are already using. Check out the review and decide if you should be using something different.