17 places to list your business online

Guest blog post, courtesy of Frank Cowell, Elevator Marketing Store

When it comes to increasing inquiries and traffic to your business, the more visitors to your website, the better. Of course, targeted traffic is best and you don't want to drive people to your website in unrelated ways.

That's why we've compiled a list of 17 places that you can list your business online. While there is no charge to list your website, be prepared to spend some time getting through all 17. However, if done correctly, it can pay off. In addition to the no-cost listings, many of these websites offer paid options that provide you with "enhanced" listings.

Once you establish your listings, you'll want to pay attention to them on a monthly basis to make sure the information stays up-to-date and that you are monitoring any feedback or reviews from customers. Praise the good and immediately address the bad to show that you are a business that cares about its reputation. And, remember, the more tools you use in your marketing, the more your "phones will ring and the doors will swing!"

Yelp - "Word of mouth amplified". This is a favorite. Once set up we encourage you to maintain updates. Your customers will review and post their experiences... for the whole world to see. Talk about accountability!

Facebook - More of a social networking site, we added Facebook because of your ability to 'be found.' While most people don't specifically use Facebook as a resource finder, listing your business with a 'fan page' can help people 'stumble upon' you!

LinkedIn - Another social networking site, primarily for individual professionals. This site offers great opportunities to connect and a ton of resources.

Backpage - A lot like Craig's List in that it's kind of a classified ads website. Here, you can post basic ads with options for inexpensive, automated reposting. Very user friendly, super quick and highly recommended.

See all 17 on the Elevator Marketing Store website...

Job opportunities for legal freelancers increase as the insanity of large law firm model continues to be revealed

The current economic downturn has served to disclose more and more examples of why the large law firm practice model should be discarded, in lieu of smaller, more nimble, legal freelancers and law firms. While the business world struggles to adapt to lower profits and making tougher financial decisions, law firms still seem slow to understand. Here are a few examples.

The dissolving 106-year-old law firm of WolfBlock, LLC is reported as using a line of credit at the beginning of the year to pay bonuses for the previous year. “’When they felt the real earnings were inadequate, they just borrowed to pay themselves what they thought they were worth,’" former chairman Robert Segal is quoted in the ABA Journal.

Stroock, Stroock & Levan is offering to pay new law school graduates to whom they had extended job offers previously $50,000 to delay starting work from the fall until January 2010, or $75,000 to find other employment. (link).

Morrison & Foerster is offering to pay $5,000 per month plus the cost of medical benefits to 2009 law grads who will defer their start date to January 2011. (link)

Summer associates paid around $3000/week, were just a year ago complaining about “skimpy” lunch stipends of $55 and being plyed with too much expensive food and alcohol. (link)

Is it any wonder that legal costs to clients have been soaring out of control? Why does a law firm need to charge $400, $500, $600 an hour and up? Corporate America is finding the answer to that question and changing course. Major corporations are slashing their legal budgets by using smaller law firms.

The Association of Corporate Counsel is also involved in an active quest to redefine the value of legal services with its “Value Challenge.”

“ACC believes that many traditional law firm business models and many of the approaches to lawyer training and cost management are not aligned with what corporate clients want and need: value-driven, high-quality legal services that deliver solutions for a reasonable cost and develop lawyers as counselors (not just content-providers), advocates (not just process-doers) and professional partners. . . . ACC has launched an initiative to reconnect value and costs for legal services . .

Freelancers, this is your time to make contact with those law firms and inhouse counsel that want and need to make a change in how they provide legal services to clients. Show them your skills and abilities, and demonstrate they can decrease their overall costs without sacrificing high-quality services.

Upcoming TeleWebinar - "You Are Your Own Brand - Make the Most of It" - April 16, 2009

Join Lisa Solomon of Legal Research and Writing Pro, and presenter Carol Schiro Greenwald, for a marketing telewebinar -

You are Your Own Brand—Make the Most of It

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 3 p.m. Eastern (noon Pacific)

Everyone talks about branding your firm, but few talk about the more important concept of branding yourself. You are your own brand: how you dress, move, and speak convey reams of information about you that is quickly absorbed by your audience.

You have only seven seconds to make a first impression. In this program, you’ll learn:

• what your clothes, the colors you wear, your bearing, your eye contact and your body language all say about you before you even open your mouth
• how to use all forms of communication to present a coherent set of messages to clients, contacts and prospects about how you approach your work and what services you sell
• how marketing terms such as “branding,” “positioning,” and “key messages” apply to your personal marketing activities

The major areas that transmit messages about you—from your workspace to your web site, from your writing to your networking spiel

Presenter Carol Schiro Greenwald works with law firms, practice groups and individual lawyers to help them quickly grow their client base. She uses a research-based approach to discover how her clients are perceived by their clients and prospects, and helps her clients create effective marketing strategies. Carol also works with individual lawyers to maximize their client relationships, cross-selling and referral opportunities, and to develop the personal marketing and sales skills that work for them.

This program will be presented as a “tele-webinar.” In a tele-webinar, you call in to a conference call line to receive the audio portion of the program. If you have access to your computer, you can follow along with a Power Point presentation as well. There is no need to install any software on your computer. If you will be calling in from outside the office, don’t worry: you can view or print the slides before the program, if you wish.

Registration for this program includes the live tele-webinar, plus access to downloadable audio and video recordings.

The cost for this program is $97. NAFLP members receive 25% off ALL Legal Research & Writing Pro programs and products using the members-only promotion code during checkout.

To register, visit Legal Research and Writing Pro and add a Silver Membership to your cart.

What We're Working on for NAFLP in 2009

2008 was an amazing year for the National Association of Freelance Legal Professionals. Thank you to all of our members and sponsors! We are overwhelmed and blessed by the response to the Association since our opening. Our goal has always been to provide a place of support, education and benefits for the freelance legal professional. Therefore, we are working hard to provide more opportunities for education and professional development, networking and specific benefits to our members. Here are a few things we're working on for 2009.

New Fresh Upgraded Website allowing immediate Access to Member Benefits including recorded teleclasses, the NAFLP forum, etc.

Teleseminars:

• How to Market Yourself as a Freelance Legal Professional


• How to Use Economic Downturns as Marketing Opportunities


• Personal Coaching for Legal Freelancers


• Financial Planning for the Self-Employed


• How to Develop Flat-Fee Service Packages for Law Firms

Sponsors and Member Benefits:

• Complete marketing packages for freelancers (website and print materials)


• Discounts to various stores for your office needs


• Retirement Solutions


• Insurance (Health, Auto, Malpractice), and


• Gym memberships

We would love to hear your ideas for member benefits, teleclasses you'd like to hear, or other resources we can provide. Please never hesitate to contact us!

Amanda L. Mineer - amanda@naflp.org
Melody Kramer - melody@naflp.org

Talk about outsourcing - law firm travels to cyberspace to market services

Some law firms are desperately hanging on to traditional ways of doing business, but some are boldly going where no law firms have gone before. I am talking about Davis LLP, a Canadian law firm whose Video Games & Interactive Entertainment Law practice group has opened a branch office in cyberspace.

No kidding! Davis LLP, who prides itself on creativity, has opened a law office in a virtual world called "Second Life."

“The virtual world of Second Life gives us the opportunity to interact with our current and potential clients in a unique way,” says Dani “Lemon Darcy” Lemon at Davis LLP. “We also aim to generate business leads and attract job candidates for our bricks-and mortar business through Second Life,” according to a story on the blog Law Vibe blog.

Maybe the virtual world is a great place for law firms to test innovation. The Second Life world has a fully-integrated economy architected to reward risk, innovation, and craftsmanship. Residents create their own virtual goods and services. Because residents retain the IP rights of their creations, they are able to sell them at various in-world venues. Businesses succeed by the ingenuity, artistic ability, entrepreneurial acumen, and good reputation of their owners. The legal profession sure could use some ingenuity.

Second Life has over 14 million “residents” and 65,000 virtual acres to develop, so I am sure they will need many more legal professionals.

I couldn’t resist a visit to the future and checked out the cyber Davis LLP. After teleporting to the closest town square, I made the short walk to the Davis waterfront offices. I didn’t find any attorneys, but settled into a comfortable leather couch in the lobby. As I sat down to relax, hoping that an associate or paralegal would peek around the corner at any minute, I suddenly began laughing at the irony. This modern, cyber law office still had massive bookshelves with legal books!

Escape the Billable Hour Trap for Good, and Win $500

I must give a heartfelt thank you to Jeff Bleich, President of the State Bar of California, for his recent article “Escaping the billable hours trap.” Several quotes are worth repeating here:

“We all know about the lifestyle burden that billable hours places on lawyers, but on a deeper level, a billable hours system is corrupting to our profession in both obvious and more subtle ways. . . .

“[the billable hour system] has cast an ethical cloud over the work we do, demoralized lawyers and degraded our efforts to train lawyers to solve problems.”

“[A]s a profession, we need to start finding billing methods that will reduce distrust and damage to our client relationships, that will refocus young lawyers on being problem-solvers again, and that will remind us of – rather than distract us from – why we are lawyers in the first place.”

The entire article, which is a very good read, can be accessed here: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_cbj.jsp?sCategoryPath=/Home/Attorney%20Resources/California%20Bar%20Journal/April2008&MONTH=April&YEAR=2008&sCatHtmlTitle=Opinion&sJournalCategory=YES

Mr. Bleich’s observations are not new. The legal profession has given lip-service to the problems inherent in a law firm business model that rewards inefficiency for years, but very little change has been made. So, if law firms are unwilling to lead the action to change, perhaps it is the freelance legal professionals that should make the first step.

Let’s stop talking about escaping “the billable hour trap” by actually opening the door and walking out. FreelanceLaw, Inc., a sponsor of NAFLP, has announced a contest related to this subject. FreelanceLaw will pay $500 to the freelance legal professional who produces the best marketing brochure for their services that features non-billable-hour pricing to potential law firm or inhouse counsel clients. The requirements are as follows:

1. The entrant must be a member of NAFLP.
2. The marketing brochure must be limited in size to both sides of an 8-1/2” x 11” page or the equivalent in an electronic format (i.e. for email advertising).
3. The brochure must contain an explanation of the benefits of the freelancer’s pricing structure over billable hours, and sample fees.
4. Submissions must be forwarded to mailto:melody@naflp.org on or before June 16, 2008.
5. Submissions will be judged on (1) professional appearance; (2) creativity of billing structure(s); (3) likelihood of commercial success. The winner will be announced on July 4, 2008, and the winner’s brochure will be featured in this blog and in an NAFLP press release.

This is an excellent opportunity for freelancers to take a significant step to make a positive change in the legal profession. I look forward to seeing your ideas!

Offshore legal outsourcing sparks concerns, and marketing strategies

There has recently been an emergence of legal outsourcing companies that send work traditionally done by associates and paralegals overseas. India seems to be a common home for these practices. The work reportedly outsourced includes legal research and writing, document review, and other tasks.

As a practicing attorney, I have always felt a little queasy about foreign outsourcing of legal work, but I hadn't ever sat down and listed out the potential concerns. However, I stumbled across a recent blog entry from someone who does not even appear to be part of the legal industry, that had an amazingly insightful list of concerns that law firms and clients should have about the practice. The most troubling concern raised was that of foreign nationals having access to highly sensitive client information that could easily be sold to the highest bidder, with absolutely no recourse for the U.S. client. Other concerns with the practice of course include the inability of the responsible attorney to adequately supervise subordinates in other countries, lowered ability to confirm qualifications, and possible problems with unauthorized practice of law.

As with rising associate salaries, increases in outsourcing of legal and paralegal work, but with simultaneous concerns about the practice, present a marketing opportunity for freelancers.

Marketing efforts can focus on education about legal outsourcing as well as offering your services. For example, prepare a brochure citing the rise in legal outsourcing by law firms wanting to reduce costs, then explain how local outsourcing (i.e. outsourcing work to you) provides the same cost-cutting benefits while avoiding the possible problems inherent in offshore outsourcing.

Welcome novice law firms into the concept of local legal outsourcing with an offer they cannot refuse – a money-back guarantee or a reduced rate on your first project. Then, and above all, DO QUALITY WORK. There is no better source of referrals than satisfied customers.

"Runaway Associate Salaries" Present Marketing Opportunities for Freelancers

On February 27th, Dan Slater of the WSJ Law Blog posted an article entitled “Runaway Associate Salaries Denting Profits-Per-Partner” (http://blogs.wsj.com/law/?mod=home_in_depth_reports) which talks of equity partners “watch[ing] helplessly as two associate raises . . . eat into their year-end take.” Can’t you just see the cartoon? Law school graduates tying senior law firm partners to their leather chairs behind mahogany desks, putting guns to their heads, demanding higher salaries.

Ironically, study after study shows that associates are willing to accept substantial cuts in pay in exchange for fewer hours. In an ABA Journal poll, a stunning 84.2 percent of those responding indicated they would be willing to earn less money in exchange for lower billable-hour requirements. (http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/f2as.html) See also “Law Firm Associate Dichotomy: Mega Salary vs. Pay Cut for Fewer Hours” at http://www.jdblissblog.com/2007/08/law-firms-suffe.html). But law firm partners are highly resistant to such change.

Frequently increasing associate salaries, it seems, are not a result of associates demanding more money, but law firms in a mad recruiting competition with rival law firms as well as the perception that if you want fewer hours, you can’t be serious about your work. While we could spend a great deal of time commenting on the flaws in this system, as freelancers, there is a way to use runaway associate salaries as part of your marketing pitch to potential clients.

By way of example, consider an inhouse counsel who usually would use an outside firm to conduct legal research projects and other projects. They are accustomed to receiving billings for work of those increasingly pricey associates and may be growing weary of them. As a freelancer, you can provide higher quality work product at a much lower price. Pull up the bios of a couple associates from local law firms that have approximately the same length of practice as you. Compare those with your qualifications and experience, and provide some samples of your work product (a good place to post samples of your work is a newly launched website http://www.jdsupra.com/).

Inhouse counsel are tentatively discussing outsourcing some of their legal projects. In January 2006 an article was published on InHouseBlog – “Freelance Attorneys: A Valuable Alternative For In-House Counsel . . . Sometimes.” (http://www.inhouseblog.com/index.php?sitesearch=search&s=freelance). Another article of note was published on the same site in January 2008 titled “GCs Embrace Outsourced Work” (http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1201169145867&rss=ihc). If you are targeting inhouse counsel as potential clients, it would be well worth your time to peruse the InHouseBlog for other articles on the subject.

In your sales pitch, don’t forget to mention the benefits of outsourcing locally vs. offshore (India is booming with outsourced legal services). Then offer a money-back guarantee of your work. You have now given them no reason to not try your services and when you give them top quality work and predictable and reasonable prices, they will be hooked.