The Practice

New Marketing Email List

I have a new product for you, but its free. Who can complain about free?

For the last several years, I was running a marketing list with limited membership. That list will stay that way. But, due to popular demand, I am opening up a second list to anyone who wants to join. And what will it cost? Nothing. That's right - here is an opportunity to share marketing ideas with other attorneys and learn what has worked, what hasn't worked and what may work. And all it takes is signing up.

Click to join sololawyermarketing

Come join my list.  And tell your friends to join as well.

Spam and the practice of law

Interesting - we all know that spam can get the spammer in trouble. But, it seems like the spam gets worse - not better. And the worst spam - spam to lawyers about legal services.

Let me see if I get this right. You want me to use your service, yet you can't seem to follow a little thing like a federal law? Hmmm......that sounds like something I want.

Recently, I was contacted by two services. One was a marketing company and one a legal research company. I have been asking these folks (who shall remain nameless, but if they spam me again, its on) to remove me from their lists for at least 6 months. And what do they do? They keep spamming me. So, last week I hit my breaking point - I responded to the president of the marketing company, or as he likes to call himself the "head guy who can't figure out the law," er, "head guru." Sorry, you can see how I could get those confused. I write him a lengthy, well thought out reply that was, in my humble opinion, quite funny. No response. I then sent one to the president of the legal research company - still no response.

Why does this bother me, especially with these two companies? If you are a marketing company and you are spamming me to use your service, what does it say about your service? It clearly says you do not understand how to properly email someone and that means to me if I hire you, I face a potential liability. Thanks, but no thanks. It also says that your program is not very good. Notice that Ben Glass at Great Legal Marketing or Mark Merenda at SmartMarketing don't spam attorneys. They don't need to - their program works!

If you are a legal research company, it makes me question your ability to research. Seriously - did you miss the CAN SPAM act when you were trying to figure out how to market? If you did, your research skills may leave out other important documents, say the US Constitution. If you did find it, why are you spamming me? Do you think it does not apply to you? Lisa Solomon at Question Of Law never spams me and she can find the CAN SPAM act. I know - I asked her!

I think there may be a more basic problem. They know that most of us, especially sole practitioners, are too busy to sue them over this nonsense. So, they figure they can get away with it. Sad, but probably true. Of course, do they really get business from spamming us? I hope not. Please, when you get spammed by a service provider, do not give them your business. Maybe that will start to clean up this mess!

Great Marketing Audio

A quick note: Mark Merenda of SmartMarketing, has some great audio over at his blog. A few things about this. First, Mark is a really smart marketing guy. I would put him up there with the Ben Glass' of the world in terms of marketing. Second, you can either listen to it or download. How cool is that? Third, go do this now. Its some great stuff.

The Video Venue

WOW! Lisa Solomon is at it again. I am waiting for her to write a book on how to practice law AND run a side business or three. Here is Lisa's latest: The Video Venue!

The Video Venue, a new niche video website featuring humorous law-related videos, is hosting a contest to name the funniest legal video on the web. The Billable Hour Company, which sells humorous gifts and greeting cards for lawyers and legal professionals, operates The Video Venue and is sponsoring the contest.

The Video Venue, at www.video.thebillablehour.com, aggregates funny law-related videos from various web video sites (including YouTube, Revver and Google Video, among others). Videos are grouped into playlists organized by topic (such as law school, jury duty, court reporters and paralegals), practice area (such as contracts, torts and criminal law) and type of video (such as music, movie clips and commercials). Site visitors can also create their own playlists to personalize their viewing experience.

"So many of the law-related videos on sites like YouTube just bash lawyers," observes Billable Hour Company partner Mark Solomon. "But The Billable Hour Company’s success has proved that lawyers and legal professionals appreciate content—like the articles and poems featured in The Timesheet (our monthly e-newsletter)—and products—like our greeting cards and our CDs by groups with names like the Bar & Grill Singers and Bob Noone & the Well Hung Jury—that find humor in the law without attacking lawyers. That’s what TVV is all about." Solomon and his partner, Lisa Solomon, are both practicing lawyers as well as entrepreneurs.

Visitors can contribute to the site by suggesting videos that are already posted on the web, uploading videos, or even recording webcam videos. The Solomons review all submitted videos for content and quality before the videos are posted to TVV.

The widget can even be configured to display videos from a specified playlist. Tech-savvy lawyers can follow the site in their feed readers by subscribing to its main feed (for all recently added videos), or to feeds for individual playlists.

To encourage visitors to The Video Venue to actively participate in making TVV the best site for law-related videos on the web, the site is running a contest to name the funniest legal video on the web. The winner will receive a $50 Billable Hour Company gift certificate.

Site visitors can enter the TVV Funniest Legal Video on the Web contest by posting a video, or reviewing, commenting or tagging any video already on the site. One participating TVV community member will be chosen at random to win a $50 Billable Hour Company gift certificate. The highest rated video will be featured in the Timesheet as February's Video of the Month.

The contest runs through January 31. The winner will be announced in the February issue of The Timesheet.

Write A Book - The Right Way!

As you know, I wrote a book about Litigating MIST Cases - a type of personal injury case. Well, I did it the hard way. Okay, not the very hard way. But, a hard way. I just found out there is a better way. You can publish a book without tearing out your hair. (Okay, I admit it. I have no hair to tear out!!)

Anne Loehr is an executive coach, speaker and author. She published her book, "A Manager's Guide to Coaching" (by American Management Association) in the arguably record time of 6 months. She learned a lot along the way, and now she's teaching a one-on-one course for others who want to take a shorter route along the rocky road of publication.

Anne is teaching the 10-week course to help you capture an agent's attention, get the right endorsements, and grab attention for your new book. Price is $1,500. Mention you saw it here and get 15 percent off (take the course for $1,200). Read about the entire training package that Anne offers.

A discount. Imagine that. Hey wait, I keep giving you guys information on discounts. By the way, publishing a book fits in well with Ben Glass' Great Legal Marketing!

2007 Holiday Gift Guide

So you want a gift to give to your mentor, mentee, friend, coworker, boss, or other lawyer you know? Try my friend Lisa Solomon at The Billable Hour. Here is what Lisa has for 2007:

Our Music Department, carries the world's most comprehensive line of humorous CDs by and for lawyers. Where else can you find music by The Bar & Grill Singers and Bob Noone & the Well Hung Jury, as well as CDs like The Billable Hour Blues (by Dan Klau) and Soulless, Bloodsucking Lawyers: A Brief Musical (the soundtrack to an original play by the same name written by Minnesota lawyer, speaker, comedian and playwright Toni Halleen) in one place? And, of course, we carry a full line of CDs by legal music veteran Lawrence Savell, including his brand new album, The Lawtunes: Live at Blackacre.

Our Original Pocket Briefcase and Soft Sided Leather Pocket Briefcase make perfect stocking-stuffers.

We also have a growing Games and Books Department, and, in our continuing quest to help lawyers achieve work/life balance, we have added Helios Pens—which appear to float in the air as they balance over their gracefully curved bases—to our TBH Office Department.

In fact, we've been adding so many fun products to our website that we know it must be getting hard for our website visitors to choose just one item for that special lawyer, law student or legal professional in their lives. So we've carefully sifted through our inventory of products and assembled Survival Kits for Judges, Partners, Associates, Law Students, Paralegals, and one especially for anyone preparing for—or awaiting the results of—the Bar Exam.

Each kit contains one of our signature timepieces, plus a selection of items from our Music, Games and TBH Office departments. The items are artfully arranged in a first aid-themed gift box (the Partner Survival Kit comes in a photorealistic golf cart gift bag) and topped by a huge 4" red bow.

Over at The Billable Hour Card Store, we've added over 100 new humorous legal greeting cards, bringing our selection of humorous legal cards to over 200. You can't find these cards anywhere else on the web: they are exclusive to The Billable Hour Card Store. Stu's Views (our largest collection) is by Stu Rees, a cartoonist who—when he's not drawing—represents other cartoonists in their legal matters. The Lawtoons line is from Suzan Charlton, a professional cartoonist who is rumored to practice insurance coverage law as a hobby for a major Washington D.C. law firm. Her cartoons cover a wide range of law-related topics, from law school grades to law firm romance. The Cartoons by Dan line is by Dan Rosandich (who, while not a lawyer, has a better grasp of many legal concepts than opposing counsel on some of cases). All of our cards can be used as holiday cards, since the inside message is completely customizable. 

We also carry a wide selection of more "traditional" holiday cards featuring nonlegal themes (such as snowflakes, ornaments, Christmas trees and menorahs).

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And now a word from me: I get asked to review all kinds of products. Very few do I recommend. You know the list by now. Lisa and The Billable Hour have the most creative gifts I have found. If only she would get some Lawyers Breath hot sauce, made right here in the Sacramento Valley, she would have it all. Even without the hot sauce, Lisa has more lawyer gifts in her online store than you can find in all of the Central Valley. Give it a peek!

Great new advertising firm

I came across a great new advertising firm in California. Well, new to me. But, the founder has over 25 years of experience. From his website:

Hipnotic Inc is a full service advertising, design and marketing firm located in Santa Monica, CA. We provide integrated solutions for web, print, multi-media and broadcast. With 25 years of award-winning work and experience we have the knowledge and ability to create outstanding ideas and execute them across all mediums.

His list of past and current clients is impressive. And you will see from his other projects how he can help you build a message.

Put Gary Alpern's design expertise in conjunction with Ben Glass' marketing program and you have a sure fire way to make sure you stand out in your field and get the clients you want!

Jump Start 2008

Ben Glass of Great Legal Marketing fame is having a conference in January in Fairfax, VA. Jump Start 2008 is going to help you learn to take control of your law practice and make it so your law practice will serve you instead of you serving your law practice.

Ben, as you know, is the creator of GLM, the system I use to market my practice. His methods work. He will teach you how to make your practice a tool to help you instead of you being a slave to the practice. I wish I could make it, but alas, it is three days before a scheduled trial and someone has to keep the bad guys at bay, right?

If you go, and you should, let me know what you think.

New source for holiday cards

Want some custom holiday cards to send out this year? Check out Redbean Design. Melissa over there is custom designing holiday cards for law firms. And the best part? 15% discount if you mention my name.

Here is a bit about Redbean:

Redbean Design is an award-winning San Francisco based design firm with aspirations of delighting correspondence connoisseurs worldwide.

Driven by the notion that good design spans all mediums, our work includes print, web, surface, packaging, product, identity and textile design.

We published our first holiday cards three years ago, with the goal of offering a fresh perspective and stylish, premium quality alternative to card buyers, at an affordable price. We sold out within just a few weeks, and decided to make the holiday cards an annual project.

Make sure to put my name (Jonathan Stein) in the notes field to get your discount.

How friendly is your website?

Lisa Solomon, famous for Question of Law and The Billable Hour, sent me this website that will help you figure out how friendly your website is.

The Customer Focus Calculator tells you how consumer oriented your website is. From their website:

As proud as you may be of your company and your product or service, most customers only care about how well you can help them meet their wants and needs. If you want more of them to buy, your focus has to be on your customer. How do you communicate that to them? With the words you use on your site. Are you talking mostly about them and their needs or are you talking mostly about yourself?

To help you answer that question, we've developed a unique and free analysis tool that counts certain words on your site that are key indicators of whether your focus is on the customer or not. As you use it, keep in mind this is nothing more than a handy, but rough guide that will help you focus on something important. There are lots of variables and also remember there are no shortcuts to writing great copy.

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From me, again: I checked this out. Interestingly, my website is more focused on the customer than my blogs. And some pages turned out better than others. No surprise that my "About You" page was the most customer focused.

Give it a shot. It really is a useful tool.