Bellingham Law Office and Riley the dog.
Hi Friends,
Cicely traveled up to Bellingham, Washington to meet with a new client Anderson, Connell & Carey to check out what the Bellingham work environment of ocean views and clean air is really like.
Debra Sheldon stands outside the office :)
Riley hangs out on the deck (more photos below).
Clean air, just like the Silicon Valley :)
A few more photos below in the extended entry... to get to Bellingham... just visit LexBlog and drive north 80 miles or and drive south 40 miles :).
Peace,
Tim
:: Instant Karma!, Lennon Legend by John Lennon
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Polishing Your Online Portrait
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported on the use of digital photos by realtors on real estate websites:
When selling properties online, agents and Web designers say that the pictures buyers see of houses and apartments for sale are often the first — and sometimes the only — chance for a seller to make a good impression. Less-than-flattering pictures can turn buyers off and lead to lonely open houses.
The same may hold true for lawyers seeking to market their legal services online as well, as we had discussed in an earlier post. (See Say Cheese.) Make sure the photos you use on your website convey the professionalism and attention to detail that you demonstrate in your daily practice.
Clean the Clutter. To convey the spaciousness of a room for photos or open houses, realtors often tell their clients to clean up the clutter. The same holds true for photos of lawyers and law offices. If you choose not to hire a professional photographer to keep an eye on such details for you, then you will have to do it yourself. Keep a clean desk and do not include in the photo all the files, folders and boxes you keep within arm's reach.
Timing is Everything. If you are fortunate enough to have an office with windows, you are probably aware that the quality of light changes throughout the day. At sunrise and sunset, natural light exudes a warmer tone. During the middle of the day, the sunlight is stronger and harsher. Take photos at various points of the day and see if you notice any difference.
Portrait or Landscape. If you are not sure how the photos will be placed on your website, take both portraits (vertical) and landscapes (horizontal). This will give your web design team the most options when deciding which photos to use and where to place them on your law firm web site..
The Right Perspective. Experiment with different camera placements and poses. Just because the police take a headshot at eye level against a white wall, it doesn't mean you have to.
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Say Cheese
Photos can make your website or blog stand out. You may wish to display photos of the attorneys in your firm, photos to simplify legal concepts, or photos to highlight certain points. However, you should be mindful of legal, aesthetic and technical issues before spicing up your website or blog.
Legal. While Google Images is a great tool to see what images other people have used to illustrate certain concepts, you cannot reuse those images on your website or blog. In all likelihood, someone, such as the photographer, holds the copyright to that image. For low cost stock photos, you may consider using iStockphoto, which only costs $1 for a web-ready image.
Aesthetic. Digital cameras have vastly simplified the task of taking photos and placing them online. But, there's no guarantee that those photos will be any good. So, if you're thinking of taking snapshots around the office instead of hiring a professional photographer to take portraits of all the attorneys, keep the following in mind:
- Focus. Make sure that the attorney is in focus. For whatever reason, sometimes a camera will lock in on the wrong object and take an off-focus image. Sure, programs such as Photoshop can sharpen an image, but if the focus is too off, nothing can save it.
- Lighting. Professional photographers have all sorts of lights to illuminate the foreground and background of a scene. They also have ways to direct or soften the light so that there's no red eye or hot spot. Make sure you have sufficient lighting, so that your photos are not underdeveloped. Also, be conscious if your camera's built-in flash bounces off someone's face, glasses, or a window, and leaves a white spot.
- Background. When you visit a professional photographer, you usually can pick from a selection of backgrounds for your photo. If you're going to take the photo yourself in your office, be conscious of what is displayed in the background. Especially within an office environment, you might find a stack of case files or other books on a desk or credenza. Other times, a bookshelf or other object in the background might create distracting background lines, such as when a vertical line rises out of someone's head.
Technical. While a photo may enhance a web site or blog, too many photos can distract the viewer or lengthen web page loading times. When possible, resize and crop your photos to tighten the shot and reduce file sizes.
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Westwood to Santa Monica in 11 Hours
Westwood, CA. If you ask some Angelenos about Westwood, they may gush about that hip college town that is home to UCLA, a school that is renowned for both its academic and athletic programs. But, what may surprise many is Westwood's small-town charm and affordable housing. Boasting a population of under 2,000, Westwood is attractively priced with a median house value of $76,000 (2000). Before you pack your bags and call up your realtor, you may want to first check out a map because Westwood may not be where you think it is.
Yes, this is a map of Westwood, CA. And, by the way, Santa Monica is only an 11 hour drive away. Be sure to gripe about LA's infamous traffic during your entire 625 mile one-way road trip.
So, what does this have to do with legal marketing? Well, some businesses list addresses on their website that cannot be used to retrieve a correct online map. For example, if a Los Angeles business lists Westwood in its street address, a potential client retyping this address into an online map service would be led to Westwood, CA in Lassen County. If you insist on including Westwood in your street address, at least hyperlink to an online map with the correct street address.
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Top 10 Ways to Revolutionize Your Web Site
- Build a Web Site. You cannot revolutionize your web site until you have one. If you are still wavering on this, consider the many consumer opinion websites that have sprouted up as of late that rate local businesses. I can develop a first impression about your business either from your website or from the comments and ratings of your past customers on a third-party website. The choice is yours.
- Street Address. A few weeks ago, I was searching for a part. I found a website that was selling the part. I also could see from the area code of the phone number on the website that the company was nearby. But, it had no street address listed on the website. Why is this? My first thought was that this was a home-based business that was selling parts out of the garage. But, as it turned out, that was not the case. This was a retail store. I was shocked!
Let me know where your business is located. If you meet with customers or clients, include your street address so that they will know that (1) you are located near them and (2) you are not a home-based business. When I need to purchase some merchandise, I prefer to visit the shop that is closer to me. Also, I want to buy from a store and not out of someone's garage, so list your street address. - Online Map. Some businesses list their street address, but do not link to an online map. Let me tell you what happens then. Usually, I type the street address into Google using my handy toolbar. Google will then show me three links to maps for that address. Google will also show me search results for that address, which may or may not distract me from the maps. If I'm searching for a map to your business, then I'm a highly motivated buyer at this point. Don't lose me at this stage in the process.
Make it easier for me to find your business. Link your street address to an online map, whether that's on Google, Yahoo or Mapquest. Or, even MSN. A lot of people link to Mapquest, but I like Google Maps more because I can drag the map around to look for familiar nearby streets instead of having to keep loading a new page each time I want the map to scroll over. - Store Hours. Tell me what times and what days you are open. I don't have to call your phone number and either have to be put on hold or have to decipher your voice mail system. You can focus on the customers in your store instead of answering my call. Really, this is a win-win situation.
- Holidays. Happy Independence Day! So, are you open? Holiday schedules for stores are wildly inconsistent. Some stores have Independence Day sales. Some close. Same for other holidays. Let me know whether you are open or not. The worst case is when you force me to call in, but all I get is an answering machine with your regular store hours. Is Independence Day a regular day?
- SEO Store/Office Locations. When I search for Santa Clara Costco on Google, the web page for Costco Santa Clara comes up as the first result. This page includes that location's address, store hours and phone numbers. Nice.
Now, let's take a look at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a store in Mountain View, CA. When I search for Wal-Mart Mountain View, I don't see a page for Wal-Mart's Mountain View store. Instead, what I see is a Wal-Mart - Mountain View - Yelp page as the second search result. (The first search result was not relevant). And, the Yelp page includes 10 customer reviews giving that store 1 1/2 stars (out of five). I'm pretty sure this isn't the impression that Wal-Mart wants people to develop while searching for their stores. Wal-Mart needs to learn from Costco. - Contact Information. I really don't want to call a business because the experience is almost always uniformly unsatisfying. Difficult voice mail navigation. Long wait times. That's enough to make me opt for the web every single time when presented with a chance to interact with a company. However, when your website does not contain the information I am seeking and I absolutely must call in to obtain an answer, please make it easy for me to find your phone number.
- Inventory/Services. If you sell merchandise, let me know which products you have in-stock. Save me from making a futile trip down to your store. Also, don't make me call in and be placed on hold while the call is transferred to some department where no one answers the phone. For smaller stores, let me know what types of products you carry. It helps me find you when I am searching for a dealer of a particular product.
If you offer services instead of products, then list the types of services you offer. This applies to law firms and other service providers. Give me as much information about your business as possible. That way, when I call you, I will be a qualified prospect and you will be a qualified service provider. - Offer Solutions. When people are confronted with a problem, they sometimes don't know what products or services can solve their problem. So, think of what problems your products or services solve, and describe these on your website.
- Feedback Loop. Incorporate what your customers are telling you into your website development process. For example, maybe you're getting tired of answering the same questions every day. If so, consider posting the answers to these questions on your website. Take this opportunity to educate your customers before they come into your store or office, so that both of you can have a more meaningful experience.
Have a Happy Fourth of July!
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Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Law Firm Web Site
- Skip the skip button. When confronted with a "skip this page" button, your visitors have to quickly decide whether to click on the "skip" button to avoid the annoying web page or the "back" button to avoid the annoying web site. The "skip" button or link is usually found on the home page of a web site with some sort of flash animation, like where the law firm logo zooms by or spins in and out. Sometimes, there may even be some sound effects. By placing a "skip" button on the home page, the web site is already tacitly admitting that a fair number of people will find the flash animation annoying. So, why put it online at all?
- Discover your visitors deepest desires. How can you tell what visitors to your web site are looking for? As it turns out, this is a pretty easy question to answer. By using a web traffic analysis program, such as Google Analytics, you can look up the search terms a visitor had entered into a search engine to arrive at your site. See if potential clients are looking for certain information that is not currently available on your web site.
- Avoid an online Yellow Pages ad. A television ad should never look like a Yellow Pages ad. Neither should your web site. Since you are not bounded by the dimensions of a quarter or half page ad format, take advantage of this freedom by offering a robust web site with articles, information about your firm, and attorney biographies. Don't put up a one-page web site and then complain that the Internet doesn't work.
- Ban the scan. As you build your law firm web site, you may consider uploading some existing print content (such as articles from a quarterly client newsletter) onto your web site. In general, that is a good idea if you can post the articles in a text format. Don't pass the newsletter through a scanner and post it as an image file though. If you want potential clients to find your articles, make sure that these are first readable by Google.
- Link properly to other web pages. Print publications and web publications have different conventions. An example of this is how these two mediums handle web links. In a print publication, the author citing a web page will list the URL (e.g., http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_documents&docid=f:td016.108). That's because a reader will have to type in the URL to reach the web page. However, for an online publication, the author should encode the URL in the anchor tag and provide a short title of the web page (e.g., U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime). If the URL does not have to be retyped, why clutter up the page with an undecipherable string of characters?
- No one likes to view television ads. With the exception of humorous and expensive Superbowl ads, most people don't like viewing television ads. That's what the remote is for. So think twice before placing your television ad on your web site.
- Don't be too unconventional. Have you ever seen a web site that includes a user manual? The one with such a complicated interface that it has to explicitly tell the users where or what to click on? If you find your web site heading in this direction, stop right away. The conventional web site contains a navigation bar, text with identifiable links and maybe even a search box. As you step away from this paradigm, you risk frustrating your visitors when your web site operates differently than their settled expectations.
- Avoid new windows. The pop-up is probably the most hated ad format. So, don't be a pop-up site. Even if you open all outside links on your web site in a new window, your visitors will still leave your web site when it no longer serves their purposes. Avoid the temptation. Instead of keeping potential clients on your site, you'll probably end up driving them away even faster.
- Turn your visitors into clients. Why does your firm want a web site? To attract new clients. If your web site is attracting decent traffic but no clients, you should analyze why potential clients are slipping through your grasp. How easy do you make it for a potential client to contact you?
- Read Other Blogs. To be a better blogger, spend some time reading other blogs. Note the writing style of different bloggers. Some bloggers author short and simple posts. Others create long and detailed articles. See which techniques best suit your own style and interests. Also, study the headlines of their blog posts. Are they sufficiently catchy that a visitor browsing the headlines will be enticed to read the full article?
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Justia clients' Web sites honored by the Internet Marketing Attorney Awards
Hi Friends,
The Internet Marketing Attorney's Micah Buchdahl has released the 2006-07 INTERNET MARKETING ATTORNEY AWARDS and 2006-07 Nifty 50.
We are happy that Web sites we have worked on with our law firm clients have received IMA honors.
The Internet Marketing Attorney Awards are given to law firm Web sites that are using best practices. More than just giving awards, the goal is to provide legal marketing professionals with ideas and examples of design, content usability interactivity and intangibles that they might want to use on their own Web sites. We ourselves studied the examples before we started our Web site building business. Hundreds of clients later... we are now studying the latest installment, and happily this year some of our clients' Web sites are included as award recipients and examples of best practices.
The Nifty 50 examines components on law firm web sites that go beyond the basics of bios, practices, offices and news. The Silverberg Zalantis LLP Website was shown for how they integrated their New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog into their Web site. Silverberg Zalantis represent municipal, corporate and individual clients in New York.
Stark & Stark, a multipractice law firm in New Jersey and New York won a Platinum Internet Marketing Association award for Small & Mid-Size firms. The firm was recognized for end-user effectiveness, search engine optimization and the creative integration of numerous blog feeds into the site. The Stark & Stark site incorporates over 100 different blog feeds into their site for immediate updating of new posts. We worked with Stark & Stark's Director of Business Development Richard DeLuca on the Web site and with LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe on the Web site blog integration. And don't forget to subscribe and listen to their New Jersey Legal Update Podcasts.
And our first client and good friend David Swanner (whose site went live last year) won a Silver Internet Marketing Association award. He was the sole solo to win an award. We worked on the site with David and the late Kerry Randall (whose team carries on as AVALANCHE: The Lawyer Marketing Group), who developed the David v. Goliath theme, and Kevin and LexBlog on integrating the South Carolina Trial Law Blog with his Web site. David’s site was also recently named one of the best small law firm Web sites in South Carolina by Lawyers Weekly
One thing to note about all of these law firms is the high value of their content and their willingness to blog. And it is no accident that those firms that blog produce better Web sites as well... something to think about. You can design and optimize, but great sites come from great lawyers who write.
Congrats to the firms and thanks to Micah for considering us and them!!!
Peace - Tim
You can learn more about justia's Law Firm Web Site Design Services and our Lawyer Blog Design Services on our Marketing Solutions Web site.
:: Can't Stop, By the Way by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
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Legal Talk Network' Bob Ambrogi & J. Craig Williams' Coast to Coast PodCast on Law Firm Web Sites with Peter Boyd, Dennis Kennedy and Tim Stanley
Hi Friends,
The Coast to Coast show with Bob Ambrogi (Website | LawSites Blog | Media Law Blog) and J. Craig Williams' (Website | May It Please The Court Blog) did a PodCast on Lawyers' Websites for this week's show.
I was honored to be the West Coast legal talker, which also included from the East Coast law firm Website design firm PaperStreet's Peter Boyd and Middle America's legal technology thought leader, LexThink's Dennis Kennedy.
You can download the Coast to Coast PodCast as an mp3 or Real Media file directly on the Coast to Coast Website or by you can subscribe to Coast to Coast by way of iTunes (like I do :).
If you are interested in law firm Web site design beyond the program, you can read this blog, visit our Law Firm Search Engine Optimization Center, read Bob Ambrogi's articles and blog, PaperStreet's articles and blog and visit the resources Dennis Kennedy has put together as well as Dennis' blog.
You can find the Coast to Coast show and additional legal talk shows on the Legal Talk Network.
Peace - Tim :: Soul to Squeeze, Red Hot Chili Peppers: Greatest Hits by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
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The Path of Least Resistance
If you want to expose your law firm to millions of potential cients, then there's no better destination than the Internet. However, drafting the text for your Web site is no easy proposition. Writing for the Web requires more than just transcribing your latest stream of consciousness. Here are a few tips to consider:
First, think about your objectives for building a Web site. Are you trying to provide information for visitors? Are you trying to encourage potential clients to e-mail or call you regarding a legal issue? Prioritize these objectives so you know what to focus on.
Next, make sure your text ties into your objectives. If you want people to contact you, do you invite them to call for a free consultation or do you hide your phone number on some difficult to locate page? Do you offer a convenient contact form so that potential clients can e-mail you without having to leave their computer? Simply put, how easy do you make it for a potential client to contact you?
Also, structure your text so that it is easy to read. Bolded headlines before paragraphs cue your visitors to the topic of the text. Shorter paragraphs aren't as visually intimidating and are much easier to digest.
Finally, while a little bolding offers structure and identifies important words and concepts, a lot of bolding suffocates the text. Don't overdo it with bolded italicized text, bolded italicized underlined text, ALL CAPS, BOLDED ALL CAPS and other difficult to read or understand combinations. And don't bold entire swaths of text. If a few select words are bolded on a page, then these terms stand out. If an entire paragraph is bolded, then none of the words in that paragraph will stand out.
In the end, the key to success is to offer the path of least resistance. Focus on creating a Web site where it is too easy for a potential client to understand your practice and to contact you, and you might just discover that they will.
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The Art of Being Discrete
How well do you know your clients? Sure, you may know where they work and what they do, but have you ever paid them a visit at their workplace? Of course, your clients probably visit you at your office, and not the other way around. After all, when someone needs a lawyer, usually trouble is a foot, and most people prefer a discrete consultation in their lawyer's private office rather than a more public chat in their own cubicle in front of their co-workers.
Well, as it turns out, you probably have visited your clients at their workplace, that is if you have a law firm Web site. A quick scan of your Web site statistics should tell you whether your visitors are browsing during the weekday when they are at work or during nights and weekends when they are at home. If your visitors are coming to your Web site during working hours, you should make sure that your Web site exhibits the same level of discretion that you would show if you were visiting them at their workplace.
For example, if you walked into the lobby at your client's office, asked the receptionist for your client, and then casually mentioned that you were his attorney and were meeting him to discuss his recent arrest for spousal abuse, what do you think would happen? First, all his co-workers will think he's a wife beater. While this may or may not cost him his job, it will most certainly cause you your job. Your client will fire you at the his earliest opportunity for your lack of discretion.
This leads us to your Web site. Do not place any flash, audio or video file on your law firm Web site that will potentially embarrass your client if his co-workers would happen to overhear. Your client may not want his co-workers to know that he is seeking a divorce, was cited for drunk driving, was arrested for burglary and a bunch of other unpleasant details. If he wants to share this with his co-workers, then it is up to him. Until then, don't let your Web site broadcast the nature of his problems around the office.
Be discrete. Be trustworthy.
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Respect the Medium
When you enter the theater, the lights have already been dimmed. The final trailer is showing. You wait a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the darkness before you spot a pair of open seats. "Excuse me, pardon me," you mumble repeatedly as you wend your way down the crowded row. Once you've reached your padded stadium-style seats, you savor a quick sip of cola before settling down and turning towards the screen.
You've already read the novel. Now, you're wondering whether the director has honored the original text—which you've held as practically sacred. Then, to your horror, you realize that while the director had left nothing out, he also didn't add anything in. For the next two hours, you stare in boredom as a close-up of each page from the novel flies across the screen. What's good enough for book lovers is not good enough for movie viewers.
To transform a novel into a movie, you need an attractive cast, a gorgeous set, engaging dialogue, a luscious soundtrack and stunning special effects. You cannot treat a movie as a novel, and you cannot treat a web site as a brochure. In other words, you have to respect the medium.
For law firms making their first foray onto the Internet, a common mistake is to just post content online that has come from prior marketing efforts. You may see some of the following when browsing the web:
- Scanned copies of yellow pages or magazine advertisements.
- Scanned copies of client newsletters.
Repurposing existing marketing collateral is a great time-saver. However, it must be adapted for the web. First, let's take a step back to see why. In all likelihood, a potential client will come to your site through one of the search engines. And, what are search engines good at? Reading text, categorizing text and matching text patterns.
This dependence on text highlights the problem with displaying scanned images on your web site. If Google cannot understand the text contained within your scanned image, then it cannot match it to user queries. So where will Google send your potential client? To another law firm's web site. The second problem is that even if a potential client comes across your scanned newsletter, she will find it frustrating to use. Unless it's a high resolution scanned copy that has been OCR'd, your potential client cannot search through it for particular keywords or phrases.
So, if you are going to reuse your existing offline marketing collateral, make sure that the text is readable both by the search engines and your potential clients. Furthermore, whenever you develop offline marketing collateral, remember to preserve an electronic copy of the underlying text so that you can easily adapt it for your online readers.
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Silence is Golden
When you meet with your clients, do you bring them into your quiet office or conference room so that you can speak to them free from distractions? After all, you have some valuable advice you wish to impart and you want them to absorb as much of it as possible. And, surely, during an intial consultation, you do not have an associate or paralegal standing by your side ringing a bell or striking a gong every time you mention your law firm's name, let alone spinning a poster of your law firm's logo in the background, do you?
So, why would you think differently when you are trying to communicate to clients via your web site? If a repetitive chime during an initial consultation meeting is considered annoying, why would it be perceived as being cool or high tech the second, third or fourth time your potential client hears it as she browses through your web site. The truth is, it isn't. Be judicious in incorporating any flash, audio or video on your web site. Make sure it enhances, rather than distracts from, the user experience.
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Happy Year of the Dog
Chinese New Year is coming up and, as fortune would have it, January 29, 2006 marks the start of the Year of the Dog. I know one smart pug that just can't wait for the festivities to begin.
Anyways, as this year winds down, Sheba and I would like to offer some legal marketing suggestions for law firms.
Woof!
Did you catch that? If Sheba were to repeat herself, I'm pretty sure that she'll say the same thing again. The lesson here is that barking is a poor way to communicate with people. If you want to communicate clearly with English-speaking people, then speak English. Likewise, if you want to communicate with Spanish-speaking clients, then make sure your web site contains Spanish pages. Otherwise, you are just barking at them and they'll have to turn to a translator to decipher your message. And, who knows how accurate those are.
Don't bark at clients. Speak to them in their own language.
Se Habla Inglés
But, your law practice is different. You don't need a Spanish page, because your audience speaks, reads and writes English fluently. Sure, they do, but do you? Consider for a moment the problem that Plain English for Lawyers seeks to address. Now, look at your law firm's web site and see if it is easy to read and communicates to potential clients using the keywords and phrases that they would use to describe their problems.
Translate your web site from lawyer English to client English.
Turkey?
Sheba loves turkey. I mean she L-O-V-E-S turkey. So, when I am trying to communicate with her, you won't find me waving around a big flap of turkey because her eyes will be glued on the turkey and not on me. Likewise, if your law firm web site automatically plays some audio, video or flash file whenever someone visits your site, you can bet that your client will be distracted by the special effects when they should be focusing on the great content on your site.
Unless you are selling turkey, don't wave it all over your web site.
May you and your clients enjoy a safe and prosperous Year of the Dog, sorry, Pug.
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FindLaw FirmSite -> Justia Law Firm Web Site :: Justia Web Site Design Before & After
Hi Friends,
A picture is worth a 1000 words...
BEFORE: FindLaw FirmSite (Thomson-FindLaw West Firm Site)
AFTER: Justia Law Firm Web Site
We made this new Web site for Wilson & Wilson, a LaGrange, Illinois Law Firm.
Wilson & Wilson services include estate planning, probate and estate administration, elder law and other services in the Chicago area. They also help set up Special Needs Trust and Supplemental Needs Trusts for families with disabled children.
Given Wilson & Wilson's target audience, we added in some additional accessibility features, such as optional white on black text and the ability to change the font sizes.
If you would like your own "After" version of this Before & After Web site example, feel free to call us at 888.587.8421 or contact us online.
Peace - Tim
:: Wishing You Were Here, The Very Best of Chicago - Only the Beginning by Chicago
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Overview - Justia's Free Law Firm Web Sites - Free Online Marketing for Law Firms Tool #1
Hi Friends,
I will start this series of posts on free marketing services for law firms with Justia's own free lawyer Web sites service.
Although we have only been up and running for a few months now, this has been the one project we focused on from the get-go. It is the same backend as our pay system, with certain limitations on the number of sections and pages, as well on the number of localities and practice area keywords for search engine optimization. Currently there are only three template designs, but we will be adding additional designs over time.
All Justia's free Law Firm Web sites include:
- Your Own Subdomain (firmname.justia.net)
- Template Web Design
- Search engine optimized pages
- Firm Home Page
- Firm Profile Page
- Firm Location Page
- Practice Area Profiles
- Attorney Profiles
- Web Resources Page
- Legal Articles Section
- W3C Web standards design & layout
- U.S. 508 and W3C's Web Accessibility Guidelines
Setting up a site basically is composed of a few steps.
- Registering into the system.
- Initial firm data entry with the Step by Step Editor
- Additional editing using the Site editor - if desired
- Previewing the site and/or Publishing
You do not need to publish the site immediately. The (unpublished) preview will allow you to see the Web site exactly as it will appear to users. You can add content and data multiple times, until you are ready and the publish the site.
You can update the site with our online editing tools 24/7. You can even change designs whenever you wish (limited to the templates we have in the system).
We save the data in database and publish static xhtml files for faster loading for users and search engine spiders.
Even if you already have a Web site, you can make a free Justia law firm Web site. You can even link to your current Web site.
So with that introduction, let's begin a walk through the application in the following blog posts.
Peace - Tim
:: I See a Darkness, American III - Solitary Man by Johnny Cash
* Justia's free Web site service was originally announced on Sheba's Hug Pug Weblog.
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1. Initial Registration - Justia's Free Law Firm Web Sites
Hi Friends,
Here is how you register into the system. This will seem obvious to most, but here it goes...
You begin on the Justia free Web site home page and click on the "New User >> Sign Up Now!" button.
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2. Initial Data Entry - Justia's Free Law Firm Web Sites
We are now ready to start entering data. You do not need to have everything ready, although it would be helpful to have some home page, firm overview, practice area(s) and attorney information ready for the application.
If you do not have some information, just continue in the application, you can always add it later before you publish your Web site, or you may add or modify your Web site after it is live.
I will show some of the input screens here (the others are very similar).
Enter you password and log into the system.
You will see an overview screen. This screen lays out the steps you be following in the application for the initial data entry.
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3. Additional Editing, Previewing and Publishing the Site - Justia's Free Law Firm Web Sites
We are now ready to preview the Web site....
Click on the "Preview" button
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Welcome to the Justia Legal Marketing Blog
Hi Friends,
Welcome to Justia's Legal SEO Blog. On this blog we will comment on the Internet and legal marketing industries, as well as introduce new Justia features and services.
We would like to thank Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog for helping us set up our own Marketing Blog.
Have a great day!
Peace,
Tim
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