The Practice: Real World Experience – Yellow Pages v. Website: “Hi everyone, this is Barry, one of the three solos ‘responsible’ for this blog. I put the word responsible in quotation marks because the real brains behind this thing is Jon (whom I am convinced is going to be one of the top trial lawyers in California within the next decade). This is my first comment to the The Practice – you probably thought I didn’t exist. Well, in cyberspace, I don’t. Note there is no link to my website on the blog.
I did have a ‘website’ through a legal marketing company, but I cancelled it for reasons that are not important at the moment. While the website was up and running, I had at least 10 inquiries from potential clients, and one has become a paying client. This was a no-frills site with generic content.
I have a yellow pages ad – about a 1 inch square, nothing fancy, obviously. I pay $190.00 per month. I have had several people call from the ad, only one of which became a client. Most were folks looking to get an answer to a question – never intended to come in for an appointment. I think I can do better with my limited ad dollars.
Shawn, I absolutely do not agree that a solo practioner does not need a website. The best bang for the buck is a website. Nothing wrong with a YP ad, but unless you want to pay thousands of dollars a month for a half or full page ad, the ad is nothing more than one more entry of one lawyer in a sea of lawyers. There are a whole host of things you will want to be skeptical about when you open your practice – having a website is not one of them. It’s gold.
Now I guess I’d better put my money where my mouth is!”
