As you know, I'm constantly on the lookout for ways to market my law firm. If you've never started a law firm before, you probably don't think about it that much, but getting people to pick up the phone and call you when they need you is the most important thing there is. Great attorneys aren't great unless they have someone to help, right?
So, I got a call the other day from a representative at nolo.com. They acted as if I should know who they are and that they are all over the place. Honestly, I didn't really know much about them. But, to me, it didn't make much of a difference. I still took the time to listen to what they had to say to see if they could help me at all. I think most people hang up. I listen. Most of the time I say no. Sometimes I say yes (and then I let you know about it!).
What they offer is a kind of personal profile on their site. And, though I signed up a couple of weeks ago, I remember that an attractive aspect of the site was that there were a limited number of attorneys in the space, and that you had the ability to build out your own profile, which was quite extensive. In addition to that within your profile you get to create 25 links and point them wherever you want. As you know, I love links, so this is what put it over the edge.
The pricing is honestly a little steep. Essentially you are paying for an online yellow pages ad, which gets crawled who knows how much (I'll periodically update this so you know), for about $160/month. If you pay up front and enter into a longer contract, it's cheaper. But I only went for a year. If it works out, I'll keep it up.
Remember, if you have decided to start a law firm, the number one question you are going to have to answer, and answer fast, is how you are going to get clients into the door. If you don't have an answer, then you are going to have a tough go of it.
I talk to people a lot about starting a law firm. I encourage it. I tell them what I've done right and wrong, and I try to help them through the process. But time and time again I ask them what they are doing and it's reading the law. Read the law when you have a client to work for. You have been taught how to learn the law. Now is the time to get clients. Put your energy toward that, and when you get someone that needs help, learn everything you need to help them.
I can guarantee you nolo.com will be contacting me to talk about this review. They always do. I'll let you know if I left anything out of the post.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Starting a Law Firm | Planning for Disaster
It's the kind of thing we never like to think about when starting a law firm, much less plan for. Disaster. It could be a disaster caused caused by health, by natural disaster, or by any other number of problems. But when it strikes, it is important to be prepared.
And the preparation can be intense. There are a lot of things to think about. What if you get hurt? Do you have a plan in place to make sure your clients are adequately represented? Do you have a way to keep the firm up and running in your absence? Starting a law firm is about more than making money and helping people. It is about building a sustainable business, a legacy, something that can carry on when you are gone. And you have to plan for your absence early.
Another thing that you need to think about is building up enough of a cushion in case you fall victim to some unforeseen economic crisis. You have to keep paying your bills, your loans, and your employees whether or not you have money coming in. Right now, I have about 3 months of operating costs available should the worst happen. When I started my law firm the plan was to have it at 6 months. It's important to have a way to keep going in times of crisis (and not panic and throw good money after bad).
Last, but not least, is a natural, or unnatural, natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina showed us the devastation that can befall us at any time, and we have to have a plan to keep the shop up and running, which includes your files and important documents. Here in Seattle we are susceptible to earthquakes. A devastating earthquake could shut down everything here for a great deal of time.
When I opened my law firm I already had a plan in place in many ways. I didn't want to be tied to my office anyway, so I thought early about how to provide access to myself, and my eventual staff, to everything we needed no matter where we were in the world. I did this with DropBox, a "cloud" program that allows you to safely store your documents away from your office. And the best part? It's really cheap.
So, as you begin setting up to open a law firm, think about what you are going to do if things don't go right, if there is a disaster. That way if something does come up, you can handle it quickly and with a plan.
And the preparation can be intense. There are a lot of things to think about. What if you get hurt? Do you have a plan in place to make sure your clients are adequately represented? Do you have a way to keep the firm up and running in your absence? Starting a law firm is about more than making money and helping people. It is about building a sustainable business, a legacy, something that can carry on when you are gone. And you have to plan for your absence early.
Another thing that you need to think about is building up enough of a cushion in case you fall victim to some unforeseen economic crisis. You have to keep paying your bills, your loans, and your employees whether or not you have money coming in. Right now, I have about 3 months of operating costs available should the worst happen. When I started my law firm the plan was to have it at 6 months. It's important to have a way to keep going in times of crisis (and not panic and throw good money after bad).
Last, but not least, is a natural, or unnatural, natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina showed us the devastation that can befall us at any time, and we have to have a plan to keep the shop up and running, which includes your files and important documents. Here in Seattle we are susceptible to earthquakes. A devastating earthquake could shut down everything here for a great deal of time.
When I opened my law firm I already had a plan in place in many ways. I didn't want to be tied to my office anyway, so I thought early about how to provide access to myself, and my eventual staff, to everything we needed no matter where we were in the world. I did this with DropBox, a "cloud" program that allows you to safely store your documents away from your office. And the best part? It's really cheap.
So, as you begin setting up to open a law firm, think about what you are going to do if things don't go right, if there is a disaster. That way if something does come up, you can handle it quickly and with a plan.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Starting a Law Firm | Creating Backlinks
I'm glad someone asked me a question today, since I wasn't sure what I was going to talk about. The question, if you look at the last post (I think) is about how to create a link to another's site and how to include the keyword that you want to create. It's really easy, and with practice you get really good at it. It's also something you're going to want to know how to do if you are starting a law firm. So, here we go.
So, you've done it, you've asked around and found a friend who wants to exchange links with you. But how do you do it? It's easy with a little thing I like to call html. And, hopefully this is easy to understand for you attorneys out there. Don't try to understand why this works, just know that this is the way to do it. Kind of like legal fictions. If you waste a bunch of time thinking about how it works, you're going to miss the point - it works.
If you use something like blogger or wordpress to make your site or your blog, creating a link is easy. You can simply highlight the words that you want to link to, such as "Seattle DUI attorney" and then click on the link icon above (it looks a little bit like a paperclip). It will ask you to put the address in, and voila, you have created a link to your buddy's site with their keyword.
If you work in html (the language of webpages) then it's only slightly more difficult. Then you will actually have to write some html. But, like I said, it's easy. Here we go. All you have to do is choose the keyword that you want to be a link and put this language around it: <a href="http://yourbuddyssite">keyword</a>. It's that simple. When you publish your post, your link will look like this - Seattle DUI attorney.
One of the cool things you can do when you are making links, since we are talking about html, is create nofollow links. Nofollow links allow you to link to something without giving the google juice. This is done by simply adding a little code to the html. All you do is this: <a href="http://linkingsite/" rel="nofollow">keyword</a>. That extra language will make google pass over the link like it doesn't exist, but if people click on it it will take people to the link.
Okay, that's probably enough for now. If you have questions, let me know. And check out my site on law firm website SEO. I'm putting up a new post about on-site optimization that I think is really important.
So, you've done it, you've asked around and found a friend who wants to exchange links with you. But how do you do it? It's easy with a little thing I like to call html. And, hopefully this is easy to understand for you attorneys out there. Don't try to understand why this works, just know that this is the way to do it. Kind of like legal fictions. If you waste a bunch of time thinking about how it works, you're going to miss the point - it works.
If you use something like blogger or wordpress to make your site or your blog, creating a link is easy. You can simply highlight the words that you want to link to, such as "Seattle DUI attorney" and then click on the link icon above (it looks a little bit like a paperclip). It will ask you to put the address in, and voila, you have created a link to your buddy's site with their keyword.
If you work in html (the language of webpages) then it's only slightly more difficult. Then you will actually have to write some html. But, like I said, it's easy. Here we go. All you have to do is choose the keyword that you want to be a link and put this language around it: <a href="http://yourbuddyssite">keyword</a>. It's that simple. When you publish your post, your link will look like this - Seattle DUI attorney.
One of the cool things you can do when you are making links, since we are talking about html, is create nofollow links. Nofollow links allow you to link to something without giving the google juice. This is done by simply adding a little code to the html. All you do is this: <a href="http://linkingsite/" rel="nofollow">keyword</a>. That extra language will make google pass over the link like it doesn't exist, but if people click on it it will take people to the link.
Okay, that's probably enough for now. If you have questions, let me know. And check out my site on law firm website SEO. I'm putting up a new post about on-site optimization that I think is really important.
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