Welcome to ESQ LawTech Weekly
Welcome to The ESQlawtech Weekly, a weblog dedicated to law office technology tips, tools, and tricks for lawyers. Come here regularly and learn how law office technology resources can help you manage and expand your practice. We concentrate on providing you with the most current information on law office technology, law firm management, and law office management, and you will benefit by being a regular part of our community.
If you have not fully explored law office technology, and considered how addressing law office management through technology could enhance your practice, you are in for a treat. Virtually all of our tools are free to lawyers, and we never stop working to make sure you have the best of the best at all times.
Be sure to become a registered user to gain access to all features on our site. Also, click on the “Subscribe Now” link on the menu bar above to join our opt-in mailing list, and to receive an email reminder every Friday to check this site for posts.
Endless Referrals
If you want to start this coming year on the right foot, get yourself to the bookstore and pick up a copy of Bob Burg’s “Endless Referrals, Third Edition”. This book is the definitive road map to building and nurturing your network of referral sources.
I’ve read a lot of books, listened to a lot of tapes, and attended a lot of seminars on building relationships, and relationship marketing, and nothing I have ever seen pulls the concepts together into a step-by-step guide as neatly as Bob has done with his most recent edition of this golden nugget.
In chapter one alone, Bob reveals a technique for jogging your memory on all the people you know, and who should know about your practice. Bob then teaches you how to nurture those contacts, among other things, so they become perpetual promoters of your practice.
Attorney Marketing Minute: Testimonials are Gold!
If you have followed my blog postings over at The ESQlawtech Weekly, you may have noticed that 99% of the products I recommend are things I personally use myself. And, I recommend them because I want people to have a good experience with them just like I did.
I did a radio show on the Blackberry, and Blackberry is one of my advertisers, but I use the Blackberry device myself, and still do. If I recommend a software program that I don’t regularly use myself, I typically demo it first, or at least let people know I haven’t used it before I suggest that they look at it.
VoIP Woes Continue.
I love my Vonage VoIP service. For almost 2 years my service has been virtually flawless and trouble free. In the past month however, I have experienced a few incidents that are causing me headaches. First, Vonage had a switching issue which kept me from being able to make phone calls to the West Coast. Okay, that could have happened to any phone company, and had happened with other traditional service providers I’d been with in the past. That wasn’t a big deal, although it was inconvenient.
Marketing with Links
Who links to your web site or blog is an important factor in determining where you will show up in the natural search engine results. Here’s a tool that allows you to see how many links to your sites are getting picked up in the major search engines. It’s free, and very easy to use, so check it out.
Developing a link building strategy can be very simple and cost effective, especially if you hire a professional who really knows what they are doing. Many companies charge as little as $25 per link to get you high quality links back to your web site that are relevant to your content, and I believe that it’s a good investment. A high quality link not only sends traffic to you itself, but also helps to improve your positioning in Google and other search engines.
If you would like more information on linking strategies please feel free to contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and I’ll put you in touch with someone who can help you out.
My Christmas Gift to you.
Those of you who are on our mailing list should have gotten an email today with links to the gift I referenced in the announcement of our switch to the new autoresponder we created. Please be sure to let me know if you didn’t get it, and I’ll resend it.
I hope you find the gift useful. It was very kind of Matthew Samp to allow me to make those available to you for free. My thanks to Matthew for his Christmas spirit and generosity.
A Fresh Look at Skype.
I’ve been experimenting with the latest version of Skype which now incorporates video conferencing capability to what was already free Voice Over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) phone service. The service is indeed free when you’re calling another Skype user, but you can also pay for inbound and outbound service for literally pennies a call.
The knock on VoIP used to be that sound quality was not great, but I have pretty decent experience with it. In fact, last week, was the first time I experienced any serious issues with it, and those have now be corrected. As I think back on my use of standard telephone lines over the years, there were occasions when that didn’t work either.
Internet Telephony Experiencing Growing Pains.
I have been using Vonage as my main phone service for almost two years now, and it has performed extremely well until recently. During the past two weeks, I have had a number of people complain about sound quality. This is the first time I have had that happen while I’ve been with the service.
This past weekend, I also had an issue with being able to call certain parts of the country. I was told the problem was caused by a switching issue that was beyond Vonage’s control, which I accept because I’ve actually experienced that myself with traditional telephone service from time to time.
Attorney Marketing Minute: Facts Tell, Stories Sell.
Think about how much you enjoyed stories as a kid, and now contrast that with lectures you sat through in college and law school where the focus was primarily on facts. The stories blow away the lectures don’t they? Yet, when we try to convince clients to utilize our services we typically start by telling them all the factual reasons why they need us.
I used to do that too until one time when I was trying to convince a friend of mine that he was crazy not to have a will, especially since he had a wife and minor children. He thought I was just trying to drum up business for my law firm, until I told him a story about a guy I represented who died in a work related accident, and left his wife, and kids sharing half of his assets with relatives he hated.
ATTENTION: WARN YOUR CLIENTS!
I was just advised about a new VISA/Mastercard scam that is taking root around the country. Read below for details and warn your clients immediately:
WARNING…CREDIT CARD SCAM. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.
This information is worth reading.
By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you’ll be better prepared to protect yourself.
Did you Ask for a Weblog for Christmas?
For all of you who forgot to ask for a weblog for Christmas here’s another way for you to get one:
Remember, Christmas only comes once a year, so take advantage of this today!