Archives for April 2008

Is blogging a “massive mistake”?

April 28, 2008 by
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(Originally sent to my ezine list, The Prosperous Lawyer.)

You haven’t heard from me in a few weeks–because I haven’t written much lately. I’ve posted several articles on the blog , but I haven’t kept pace with my original "posting" schedule.

There’s a simple reason for that: I’ve been busy. Okay, that’s not completely true. I haven’t written much lately mainly because I didn’t feel like it.

Of course professionals have to do things we don’t feel like doing. We have responsibilities. People depend on us. And if we want to keep the income flowing, we have to work. But that’s not my job description anymore.

Nope. I started my other business because I wanted passive income and "time freedom," the ability to do what I want, when I want, and work only if I want to. I’ve accomplished that, and don’t rely on my blog for income (nor do I practice law any more), but I have been recommending to my readers that they set up a blog because of the many advantages they offer.

But my quasi-hiatus did get me thinking about the idea behind blogging, that is, even though there isn’t a lot of work to keeping a blog going, you really can’t stop. Not if you depend on it for your business or practice.

Then I got an email from someone for whom I have a lot of respect, Ken Evoy, a former physician turned online entrepreneur. He is extremely successful and well-regarded. Ken’s company specializes in helping people with little or no experience get a website and, more importantly, get free traffic from search engines, and they do it extraordinarily well. I was one of his original customers when he launched his SBI program years ago, and I have nothing but good things to say about Ken and SBI.

But his email troubled me. Probably because it touched on what I was already thinking.

Ken said that for most people (people like you and me) blogging is not the way to go. He says it’s a mistake, a "time-sapping strategic error." One reason (but not the only one) is that because of the way Google valuates the timeliness of posts, taking a break from blogging will cause your relevancy to drop, and the result is a drop in traffic. And search engine traffic is one of the key advantages of blogging.

Another reason is that because of the way blogs archive information, most visitors never see most of it. They read the most current post or two and never dig deeper.

I didn’t want to hear this. Although I don’t depend on my blog, I’ve posted a lot of content and I’d like to think people are reading it and benefiting from it. Wouldn’t you?

Ken’s going to ruffle a lot of feathers, especially considering the respect he has in the online community. But I read his email and the web page he’s posted explaining it, and I have to admit he does make a compelling case. He shows why a static web site, properly organized and optimized, will bring you more search engine traffic than a blog. What’s more, if you take a break from writing for two months, you won’t be penalized.

Ken says his service, SBI (SiteBuildIt) is a better choice than blogging because it is

  • Easier to set up
  • Easier to maintain
  • Less work (a lot less)
  • Less expensive
  • More effective at getting (and keeping) free
    search engine traffic

I am not an expert on the subject; not even close. No doubt many experts will weigh in. I’ll see what they say, and
suggest you do, too.

There’s no question Ken is biased. After all, he does sell SBI (and I am an enthusiastic affiliate), but based on what I know
about him, I think he believes every word he says. Read Ken’s argument and see what you think.

I’ve used SBI and recommended it for years. There’s no question that it has monumental benefits, especially for busy lawyers who can’t spend a lot of time on their web site. And SBI has blogging capability built it, for those who want the best of both worlds. So take a look and tell me what you think. I’ll post this on my blog and you can post your comments there.

P.S. Quick links:

 

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Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Productivity, Wealth

When you don’t know what to do, do something.

April 22, 2008 by
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There is a true story about a troup of young Hungarian soliders lost in the Alps during training. In abysmal weather, with no food or supplies, they were cut off from their colleagues. After two days of snow and sleet, they were frozen and weak from hunger. They had no idea how to get back to base. They lost the will to live.

Then a miracle happened. Searching for a cigarette in the lining of his tunic, one of the soldiers suddenly found an old map. The soldiers confidently used the map to march through the mountains back to safety.

It was only when they were warm and fed at base camp that they discovered it was a map of the Pyrenees, some 2,000 kilometers away.

This story has two valuable lessons:

  • It is better to act constructively than to have the right answer and not act.
  • Each of us has to find our own answer, or adapt someone else’s answer to our own circumstances. The soliders got home safely because they made sense of the map for themselves and related it to their immediate surroundings.

(From, "Living the 80/20 Way," by Richard Koch.)

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With:

What is personal development and why does it matter?

April 16, 2008 by
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Q: What is personal development?

A: Everything we do to improve ourselves. Personal development affects everything, who we are, what we accomplish, how much we earn, our health, our entire quality of life. It involves these areas:

  • Philosophies/attitudes/beliefs
  • Habits
  • Skills
  • Knowledge
  • Relationships

Q: How do you do it?

A. Five ways:

  1. Learning: (What you read and listen to, trainings/seminars/conference calls)
  2. Activities: (Practicing; trial and error)
  3. Modeling: (Your associations–who you spend time with)
  4. Mentoring: (Advice from others)
  5. Teaching: (Helping others, training/speaking)

Q: How do you start?

A: Do this:

(1) Make a commitment to learning.

Schedule thirty minutes a day for reading, listening to training. Think about what you are learning. Take notes. Write down questions.

Your learned knowledge will affect your activities. You’ll see improvement in your performance and results. Similarly, your activities will affect your learned knowledge by providing feedback and context.

And so it goes–learned knowledge, followed by activity knowledge, followed by more learned knowledge. One builds upon the other; neither is as valuable by itself.

(2) Examine your Associations.

We tend to be the average of the five people we associate with the most: income, attitudes, life style, habits, everything. You are influenced by the people you spend time with. Who are they? What kind of people are they? What are their philosophies? Habits? Do they have the life you want?

As you become aware of your associations, you might see some people you want to spend less time with, or even disassociate from completely. There might be others you want to spend more time. As your associations change, your environment will change, and, over time, so will you.

The “Law of Attraction” says that “like attracts like.” You don’t attract what you want in life, you attract what you are. And so if you want to change your life, you must first change yourself, and you do that through personal development.

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Filed Under: Personal development

Should your law firm have a marketing committee?

April 15, 2008 by
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Marketing professional services cannot be done by committee. It’s something professionals should do. That means you should market "you". Assistants can help with administrative tasks, scheduling, and so forth, but building a law practice means building relationships and that’s something you cannot delegate.

Besides, it’s not the firm that should be marketed. It’s you. Clients don’t typically say, "call my law firm" when they refer you; it’s "call my lawyer" every time. Okay, larger firms can engage in activities that brand the firm’s name and establish good will in their target markets, and a committee would be appropriate for that purpose, but it’s still the individual attorneys that bring in the clients.

On the other hand. . . there are ways a marketing committee can play a role, even in a small or mid-sized firm. A committee can help coordinate the marketing efforts of the individual attorneys, for example. Newsletters, seminars, speaking engagements, mailings, public relations and advertising could well be done more effectively, and at lower cost, when attorneys aren’t duplicating each other’s efforts.

Here are a few other ways a committee could serve and assist the individual attorneys:

  • Bringing in trainers and consultants to help the attorneys improve marketing skills
  • Providing technical assistance with graphics, printing, web sites, event booking
  • Clearance of ethical questions
  • Coordination of cross-selling efforts
  • Decisions about the firm’s design issues (letterhead, decorating)
  • Recognition of attorneys for meeting goals

A committee can’t do the marketing for you. But, like a good secretary, it can certainly make you look good.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Referrals mean better clients, bigger income for lawyers

April 2, 2008 by
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Where did your clients first find out about you? Chances are it was one of the following:

  • They were referred to you
  • They saw an article you wrote or heard you speak
  • They met you at a networking event
  • They saw your ad
  • They saw an article about you or saw you on the news
  • They found your web site via a search engine

Whatever brought you clients in the past is probably something you should continue to do in the future.

Do it in more places, do it more often, do it better, and you should bring in more clients.

But no matter what other marketing strategies you use, the cornerstone of your marketing efforts should be based on getting more referrals.

Referred clients are the best clients. As a general rule, they come to you pre-sold. You don’t have to convince them to hire you, to pay what you ask, or to follow your advice.

Referred clients tend to be better clients, too. They are less likely to complain and more likely to come back to you again and again. And, because they were themselves referred, they are far more likely to refer other clients to you.

Lawyers who get a lot of referrals tend to have the most profitable (and enjoyable) practices.

Use other marketing methods to bring clients to your attention if they suit your style and budget. But build your practice on a foundation of referrals.

Referrals from clients are the easiest to generate. But while clients may be the most willing to refer, there are usually limits as to how much–or how often–they CAN refer.

Non-client referral sources may have the ability to refer you a lot of business, but they may not (yet) be willing to do so.

You need strategies to deal with both situations.

For clients, the simplest strategy is simply to stay in touch. Clients who don’t have anyone to refer to you today may have referrals tomorrow. Your objective is to be "in their minds and their mailboxes" when that occurs.

For non-client referral sources–attorneys, other professionals, business owners, and so on–don’t count on merely letting them know what you do. You may get some referrals that way, but your best sources are likely to come only after you have built relationships with key centers of influence.

Building those relationships doesn’t necessarily depend on your ability to refer them business. Do it if you can, but if you can’t, you can either

  • Build a personal relationship, based on friendship and common interests, and/or
  • Help them professionally in other ways. For example, while you might not be able to refer them much business yourself, you can introduce them to some of your colleagues who might be able to refer them business.

Relationship marketing means helping others first, without demanding or expecting anything in return. It means finding out what prospective referral sources want and looking for ways to help them get it. Put aside what you want for now, and help others, FIRST. Try it and watch what happens.

Zig Ziglar said, "You can get anything you want in the world by helping enough people get what they want."

Shameless plug: The number one resource for lawyers who want to build a referral-based practice is my own, "Referral Magic" marketing course. More than 5,000 attorneys worldwide are using Referral Magic to get more clients and build a successful law practice. You can learn about The Referral Magic Marketing Program on this page.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,