People keep trying to convince me that I need to be online because that's where my clients are.
I'm not buying it.
No one really uses the internet to research their legal issues, ask legal questions and find lawyers.
And even if they were, these people don't have money to pay me for my services anyway. After all, they're asking questions and looking for lawyers on the internet.
I've had a website up for over 15 years. My nephew built it for me on Dreamweaver.
I've got all sorts of "legal images" up there so people know what I do.
And I ask every person who calls or emails me how they find me. And not one of them has said that they filled out the contact form on my site.
Not one.
Fortunately, my nephew did it for free and I pay for the cheapest Godaddy hosting account there is.
Besides, I haven't heard one lawyer tell me that she ever got a case from the internet. And I know a lot of lawyers. And I know that they would tell me what is and isn't working for them to get new business. Most lawyers are very open about what works best for them for client development.
Also, I don't practice criminal defense, personal injury, bankruptcy, etc. My clients don't use the web like this. They are much more sophisticated.
My clients come to me because they talk to family, friends and other people they trust about my services. And when they get my name, they never look me up online.
They don't care what other people write about me online either. They don't believe what my clients and other lawyers post about me.
No one REALLY uses online rating and review sites either. And certainly not when it comes to looking for lawyers.
Everyone knows that everything online is BS anyway.
And all of this social networking nonsense is a complete waste of time.
I signed-up for all of them. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, you name it, I signed-up for it.
I would post several times per day that I offer free consultations. I even included my phone number.
You know how many clients that got me?
Zero.
Complete waste of time.
And don't get me started about SEO. I created a page on my site for every keyword I could think of.
I started a blog and paid some kid to write posts for me every single day.
I bought up over 400 domains with keywords that I would use to find lawyers like me online.
I even linked them all together.
I bought this software that posts articles and comments all over the web. I was everywhere.
Nothing. Not one new client telling me that they found me on Google.
Obviously, no one is using the internet to find lawyers.
I tried that pay-per-click advertising too.
I opened my own account and launched my own campaigns.
Cost me an arm and a leg. Oh, I got a lot of clicks, but they were all fake.
That Google is the biggest scam of all-time.
But lawyers like me aren't buying it anymore.
Lawyers like me are smart enough to know that no one really uses the internet to find lawyers.
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I guess we can all call it a day then.
I can't tell if this is satirical or not...I'm assuming based on what you do that it is.
I have been accused of having a very dry sense of humor...
Exactly...
I guess we can all call it a day then.