Blog – Page 347

Even more free software for marketing online (thru Xmas only)

December 12, 2007 by David M. Ward

Does AdWords make AdSense for lawyers?

If you take some time to learn what you’re doing with Adwords, you can economically drive targeted traffic to your web site. The campaigns I’ve run have only been on Google searches, however, mainly because I didn’t want to take the time to find appropriate web sites for my (Adsense) ads to appear.

I just downloaded a new piece of software that makes that easy, and it’s free until Christmas Day. I’ve just started playing with it and like what I see. If you use Adwords, or think you might any time soon, check it out. Here’s the page with a demo video and download link: http://portalfeeder.com/adsensefinder.php

Filed Under: Advertising, Online Marketing, Technology, Web traffic

How to think and grow rich

December 11, 2007 by David M. Ward

Napoleon Hill’s classic, “Think and Grow Rich,” was based on a twenty-year study of the world’s richest people. Hill concluded that one thing successful people consistently do is set goals.

A long-term study at Yale University also found a correlation between success and goal setting. Researchers surveyed one years’ graduating class and found that only three percent had written goals. Twenty years later, it was learned that the students who had specific, written goals were earning more than the remaining ninety-seven percent of graduates, combined!

3% beat 97%!

Goal setting works, and it’s easy to do. Here are Hill’s six steps for setting goals:

Step 1: Goals must be SPECIFIC. What exactly do you want to achieve? It’s not enough to say you want to make a lot of money, for example. How much do you want to earn per year or per month?

Step 2: You need a specific time WHEN you will achieve your goal. By what month or year or day? What’s the deadline?

Step 3: Your goal must be WRITTEN. Carrying it your head is not good enough.

Step 4: You must develop a PLAN to achieve your goal. A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Step 5: You must decide the PRICE you are willing to pay. What are you willing to do? What will you give up? How much time and other resources will you invest to achieve your goal?

Step 6: READ your goals, out loud, every day. And think about them throughout the day.

Easy to do. Yet most people (97%) don’t.

Many people who “try” setting goals give up in frustration when they don’t achieve them. Often, that’s because they are too focused on results, something they cannot control. If you set a goal to get one new referral source this month and it doesn’t happen, you feel defeated. But you can’t force people to do what you want them to do. You cannot control results. What you can control, and should focus on, are activities. You have complete control over what you do.

Start by figuring out your averages. If you find that one out of every ten professionals you have lunch with actually sends you referrals, and you know you need to make two phone calls to get one solid lunch date, then your activity goal for the month would be to call and invite twenty professionals to lunch. Of course the ultimate objective is the referrals, and they will come. You just don’t know when or from whom, but with enough activity, you will eventually get the results you seek.

“Result” goals are important. They inspire you to achieve great things and provide landmarks for your journey. But also set “activity” goals. By consistently hitting your activity goals, every day of your journey is a success.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Productivity, Referrals Tagged With: attorney-card-clipart, clients, clip-art-referral, clipart-referral-at-school, i-have-been-approahed-by-a-personal-injury-attorney, i-work-by-referal-clip-art, picturesreferrals, referral-card-clipart, referral-center-clipart, referral-clip-art, referral-clipart, referral-program-cliparts, Referrals, referrals-clip-art, referrals-clipart, referralsimages

I dare you. . .

December 10, 2007 by David M. Ward

I just told my business partners (my other business) that my goal for 2008 is to triple my 2007 income.

This is BIG GOAL! (Let’s just say I already do okay).

I told them I was sharing my goal with them for two reasons. First, so they would hold me accountable to it. Few things motivate more than accountability. Remember something we used to call “peer pressure”? That’s accountability. If you go to the gym and have a work out partner or coach, that’s accountability. When you promise your spouse you will do something and it’s important, that’s accountability. Accountability to others is powerful because we will often do for others (or what we have promised to others) what we won’t do for ourselves. I also asked my parnters to tell me their goals, so I could hold them accountable.

The second reason I shared my goal with my partners was to inspire them to think bigger. After all, if it’s good enough for me to think in those terms, it gives them “permission” to think bigger, probably bigger than they would do on their own.

So, as you contemplate 2007 and plan for 2008, I am issuing you a challenge to not only think bigger than you have ever thought before, but to find someone who will hold you accountable.

Helen Keller once said, “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.”

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Increase your income

Hot practice areas for lawyers? Here’s what I think. . .

December 6, 2007 by David M. Ward

Tom Kane mentioned a four page report, the 19th annual (wow) “What’s hot, what’s not in the legal profession” by Bob Denny, and suggests that this is the time of year to reflect on your practice areas and focus for the new year.

Hot practice areas include intellectual property, immigration, and elder law, which make sense. Animal law (think Michael Vick) is very niche, but has great marketing possibilities. “Global warming” just makes me shiver. But I digress.

One hot practice area is “Corporate Investigations”. Denny says it’s the fastest growing area of White Collar Crime, but does not elaborate. If you’ve read my posts over the last week or so, you’ve seen me talk about identity theft, including corporate liability for for failure to safeguard employee, vendor, and customer data (whether compromised or not). Exposure includes criminal liability, and while prosecution is likely (in my opinion) in only the most egregious cases, it lends credence to another hot (or soon-to-be-hot) practice area I’ve mentioned: advising businesses on compliance with this quickly evolving area of law.

Denny says libel is becoming hotter, in part because of an increasing number of suits against bloggers and message boards. Yikes!

One “emerging trend” I applaud is “leadership training”. Denny says, “Faced with continued high attrition as well as a generation gap, more firms are recognizing theyneed to not only retain their associates and younger partners, but also develop them into well-rounded, business-savvy lawyers.” We’ll see.

Lastly, Denny talks about a host of marketing and business devolpment trends. I’d like to comment on these, but I don’t want to insinuate myself into the hot practice area I mentioned two paragraphs ago. . .

Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: hot-areas-for-lawyers, hot-legal-practice-areas-2007, hot-new-legal-practice-areas, hot-practic, hot-practice-areas-for-lawyers, practice-area-trends-for-lawyers

How to overcome procrastination: find your sense of purpose

December 5, 2007 by David M. Ward

STEP BACK AND SEE THE BIG PICTURE

Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, once said, “If you stacked [the mediocre] teams up against one of the perennial contenders, the talent gap might not be as great as you’d expect. It’s the philosophy gap that separates them. The losers lack something vital: a sense of purpose.” Often people fail to start or complete a task because they don’t see any connection between what they’re doing and what they really want to accomplish. If you sense that what you’re doing is not blazing a trail towards a desired result, it’s probably time to rethink your pursuits. If you know that your work will move you closer to your goals, you will be more inclined to see the task through.

Used by permission from Dr. John C., Maxwell’s free monthly en-newsletter, Leadership Wired, available at www.injoy.com

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: finding-ones-sense-of-purpose, finding-your-sense-of-purpose, how-to-find-your-sense-of-purpose

More free software–promote your law firm web site through blog comments

December 4, 2007 by David M. Ward

One way to promote your web site or blog is by posting comments on other blogs, but finding the right ones is time consuming. To some extent, you can automate that process with "Comment Kahuna," free software from Jason Katzenback, Marc Quarles & Jason Potash at DealDotCom.com

This link takes you to a short video that explains how it works, and then you can download the software.

I used Comment Kahuna to find attorney marketing blogs I’ve never seen, and I then posted pithy comments thereon, linking back to my web site. Because your searching and posting activities are saved for you, it’s easier to go back to web sites where you have posted and see if your moderated comment got posted and if any follow-up by you is called for.

In the process, I found some good material I can use, here. For example, one site I found had an article listing web sites/directories where lawyers can list their web site. Here’s that article, and my comment.

Speaking of software, Susan Cartier Liebel mentioned she’s using PC Pitstop Erase to erase personal data from her lap top. Since data that has been deleted from your hard drive can be recovered by identity thieves, and stolen lap tops are a major source of identity theft, software like this is something every attorney should have. As I mentioned a few days ago, new laws impose liability on businesses (and that includes law firms) for failing to safeguard certain non-public information, so losing your lap top (or a breach of your desktop) could spell real trouble. If you’ve used PC Pitstop Erase, or something else you can recommend, please add your comments.

Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Technology Tagged With: attorney-blog-commenting-sites, attorney-blogcomment-sites, software-blog-comment-sites, software-site-blog-comment

Don’t let this happen to your clients (or you)

December 3, 2007 by David M. Ward

Many (most?) people think identity theft is about credit and credit cards, but that’s only about a fourth of the problem. These two videos are frightening examples of other kinds of identity theft and, unfortunately, they are more common than you think.

Once you have watched these, spend a little time educating yourself about identity theft, and then tell your clients. Warn them and inform them. Tell them what to watch out for and tell them how to protect themselves. Especially now, during the holiday season, when identity thieves run like pack wolves. As the first video suggests, it could save their life.

And if you don’t have identity theft protection, think about getting some. I have what I believe is the best service available and I also sell it. (No commercials, though; if you want some information about the service for yourself and/or to offer it to your clients, contact me.)

Filed Under: Client relations, Increase your income Tagged With: evernote-attorney, Writing

Marketing opportunity for lawyers: FTC releases survey of identity theft

November 28, 2007 by David M. Ward

FTC Releases Survey of Identity Theft in the U.S. Study Shows 8.3 Million Victims in 2005

Now that you know, do you know what to do about it?

Here’s the lead to their press release:

The Federal Trade Commission today released a survey showing that 8.3 million American adults, or 3.7 percent of all American adults, were victims of identity theft in 2005. Of the victims, 3.2 million, or 1.4 percent of all adults, experienced misuse of their existing credit card accounts; 3.3 million, or 1.5 percent, experienced misuse of non-credit card accounts; and 1.8 million victims, or 0.8 percent, found that new accounts were opened or other frauds were committed using their personal identifying information.

"Whether you’re from Malibu or Manhattan, Tacoma or Tallahassee, no one is immune to identity theft," said Lydia B. Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. "The important thing is that people learn how to deter identity thieves, detect suspicious activity on their financial records, and defend against the crime, should it happen."

The full story: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/11/idtheft.shtm

The FTC Identity Theft site: http://www.ftc.gov/idtheft

Another FTC Identity Theft resource: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

Identity theft is a growing problem and some experts predict it will soon become an epidemic. As more people become aware of the issue, they will be seeking answers. Who better to provide those answers than an attorney?

There is no shortage of information available. In addition to the FTC, which, I believe grossly understates the scope of the problem, millions of web pages provide an abundance of data and real life stories of identity theft victims. A few hours of weekend research would provide enough background to make you conversant with the issues and various strategies for combatting the growing problem.

Armed with this knowledge, you could inform your clients, prospects, and referral sources, via your newsletter, ezine, reports, articles, web sites, seminars, and so on, and thus, position yourself as a valuable resource on the subject. That opens up all kinds of marketing opportunities for you. And, as identity theft becomes more prevalent, the value of your "expertise" on the subject could skyrocket.

There are five common types of identity theft, and anyone with a social security number is at risk. Personal information stolen from the victim themself is not the biggest risk. It is the vulnerability of the thousands of databases where that information resides. Every day we see evidence of this in the news–stolen laptops, hacking, insufficient wireless encryption. And no, we cannot stop identity theft, as some advertising would have you believe. All anyone can do is prepare themselves for the consequences in the event they become a victim. By the way, the odds of that happening, according to some estimates, will soon be in the neighborhood of one in four.

Your business clients are at risk as well, and so are you. New federal laws impose administrative and civil penalties, and even criminal liability, for failiure to safeguard certain non-public data, even if that data is not stolen. These laws apply to nearly any business that is in possession of that data, and that includes lawyers. Many states are considering (and some have already passed) even more stringent legislation. And, we’re starting to see the plaintiff class action bar sharpening their chisels. (Why is that not surprising?)

So, this is not something that’s going to go away. A lawyer friend of mine who has become a national expert in this field tells me identity theft will increase twenty-fold in the next two years. Bad news for consumers and businesses, but a marketing bonanza for astute attorneys who position themselves in front of the coming wave.

One more thing: some lawyers have developed a new practice area, consulting business clients on (a) how to comply with the new laws and (b) how to mitigate their exposure in the event of a breach. And many lawyers are starting to offer their (business and consumer) clients third-party identity theft protection services, both as a service to those clients and as a source of revenue. If you are interested in either one (consulting and/or offering third-party services), I’ll be happy to show you what I, and many other still-practicing attorneys are doing.

Filed Under: Client relations, Increase your income, Marketing legal services

Free software let’s you add videos to your web site

November 27, 2007 by David M. Ward

Would like to add video to your web site or blog? Techsmith, makers of Camtasia, wants to give you a free copy of their powerful screen capture software. You can use it to post audios, videos, software demos, narrated Powerpoint presentations, or anything else you can think of. And did I mention, it’s free?

The catch? It’s not the latest version. Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 has all the core functions of the latest release, minus the newest bells and whistles.

Posting (original) videos to our web sites is something we all need to do, and this is a good place to start. I haven’t used the software yet, but I’m told it’s easy to use. My first project will be a video tour of another website I own, showing what’s what and where to find it, how to subscribe to the newsletter and the feed, and so on.

To get your free copy of Camtasia Studio 3.1.3, here’s all you need to do:

Step 1
Download the software from here – (save the file to your desktop).
http://download.techsmith.com/camtasiastudio/enu/312/camtasiaf.exe

Step 2
Go to this page, complete your name, country and e-mail address and Techsmith will send you a software key to unlock the program.
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/pcpls.asp

Step 3
Install the software and then input the key to unlock it and you will have the full working version of Camtasia Studio 3.

Note: Unfortunately, this is available for PCs only (sorry Mac users!)

Thanks to Yaro Starak for alerting me to this offer.

Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Technology

The 100% referral based law practice

November 26, 2007 by David M. Ward

Submitted for your approval is this video on the referral based business by John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing. John says every business can be 100% referrals and while we can debate that conclusion, we can all agree that this is a worthy goal.

The big take away from this short video is that we all need to be thinking more about referrals. You may not be ready to do everything John recommends (or everything I recommend), but if referrals are on your mind more often, you will be more likely to do something, and something beats nothing every day of the week.

By the way, don’t watch this video unless you are able to substitute the word "clients" whenever he says "customers".

Filed Under: Referrals