Another update on the June 9th Legal Marketing Seminar in Portland and the June 11th Legal Marketing Seminar in Seattle: This free seminar has now been approved for one-hour of Ethics CLE credit in Oregon!

A quick update on the June 9 Legal Marketing Seminar in Portland and the June 11 Legal Marketing Seminar in Seattle: this free seminar has now been approved for one-hour of Ethics CLE credit in  Washington (Oregon CLE pending).  We are expecting a great turnout (over 124 of you have registered to date) – but there is still room for more.

Note the change in the Seattle venue from Avvo’s offices to a Perkins Coie Conference Room to accommodate the demand and the slight change in time frame (from 2 to 4:30 to 2:30 to 5).

"Rollerderby Wave" courtesy of San Diego Shooter via Flickr CCL

Featuring: Michael A. Conger, Gordon Levinson, Mark Britton, Stephen Fairley & Conrad Saam

Co-sponsored by the Law Practice Management and Marketing Section of the SDCBA and AVVO, Inc.

This CLE is worth 1.0 LE & 1.5 GEN

Local Lawyers and online marketing experts will share tips on how to use the internet to your advantage, including advertising, thought leadership and social media marketing. Learn what works, what doesn’t and explore cost-effective secrets to doing it yourself.

Agenda Items: 

• Discuss best practices for retaining existing clients through the power of the web;
• Proactively manage your online reputation;
• Building relationships with other attorneys online;
• Tactics and tools to get started easily; and
• Explore legal/ethical concerns about participating online.

Registrations are due by noon on June 12, 2009:

 https://www.sdcba.org/index.cfm?pg=events&evAction=showDetail&eid=1557  

Late registrants and walk-ins will incur a $5.00 late registration fee.  Walk-ins will be accomodated as space allows.  Registrations will be held until 25 minutes after the published seminar start time. The SDCBA certifies that this activity has been approved for MCLE by the State Bar of California.

Ever get one of those “let’s exchange links” emails from out of the blue? You should ignore them. Here’s why: Search engines use the quality and quantity of links to your website as a very significant element in determining search rankings. Because of this, online marketers spend lots of time, energy and even money to built links to their site. The most rudimentary link building technique is the mutual link exchange – you link to me and I’ll link to you – and should be avoided because:

1. Search engines counteract this gaming of their algorithm by identifying and even penalizing sites caught engaging in link exchanges.
2. Many sites who offer request link exchanges actually don’t pass value back to their “partner” – links can be labeled with “no follow” commands, diluted through URL redirects or placed on pages deliberately hidden from the search engines. Click here to see just how creative online marketers can get when disguising their links.
3. A common tactic is to post a genuine link and then quietly remove it after the “partner” has reciprocated.
4. Sites engaging in link exchanges are often engaged in other, more nefarious tactics. Google frowns upon linking to these “bad neighborhoods”.

Our friends over at TERIS are hosting a Casino night on June 3rd as a fund raising event for Washington Court Appointed Special Advocates. CASA provides legal services and support on behalf of abused and neglected children.

Prizes include a hands-on helicopter flight, fishing tour and a 2 night super get-away weekend.

Register at TERIS.

Here is an interesting video of an LA police chase that turns into a foot chase that turns into a Manchester United-quality free kick. What do you think? Is this excessive force or a justified response to our suspect stealing one car, crashing into another, wasting public resources and/or wearing capri pants in the commission of a felony?

Mark

Neil Squillante over at TechnoLawyer Blog wrote an interesting post panning our Top Legal Blogs list. He even offered some suggestions as to how to make it better. We are always interested in feedback, so I decided to open a dialogue by commenting on his blog. Unfortunately the link for “commenting” went to a generic email address and the email I sent him has not been posted on TechnoLawyer. So I thought I’d post it here. (I won’t linger on the abject irony of TechnoLawyer having a blog without a working comment function.)

Neil – thanks for the post on the Top Legal Blogs – sadly your “comment” links to this email address – feel free to update your post with the following:

Thanks for my Monday afternoon slap in the face and yes, I agree, we could do with more of that within our legal blogging world. Believe it or not, yours is the third suggestion I’ve received today about what we should be doing and how we should change. We listen to all of the feedback and often implement suggestions. In that spirit, let me offer the following rejoinder: regarding Alexa – it is far from reliable, and I suspect if Bezos was actually aware they owned it, it might get a bullet. However, to date I can’t find a publically available solution with a broader reach. Regarding your suggestions:

1. Go entirely editorial – someone once said something about opinions. To that end, we’re pretty partial to data. I would argue that opinions influenced by politicking and popularity (no offense ABA) can be even more useless than subpar Alexa data. (But that’s just my opinion.)
2. Use Compete – Great suggestion and we built our list initially with Compete data in mind. The problem was that it had such a limited data set that the vast number of legal blogs didn’t even register. In the spirit of your point about a large sample size, this would make our list even less useful.
3. SiteMeter – I applaud your accuracy argument. The person we hired to identify all of the lawyers in the US who write blogs, get them to agree on a common tracking methodology and walk them through the complexities of installing it through a myriad of hosting services did a terrible job. He was fired. Unfortunately I’ve been having trouble filling his position.

(Oh – and thanks for the update on how to spell “meantime” although I’ll never convert to “blawg”.)

Regards,
Conrad

As a native Montanan, my home state never ceases to amuse me. Montanans are great at keeping it simple, and here is one Montanan landowner keeping it very simple. :-)

Amen.

Mark

• ATL tests the waters of U.S News Fourth Tier Law Schools
• Legal Blog Watch looks at whether law firms can mark up (flat fee) legal research costs
• Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog explains that those having Power of Attorney must act in the best interests of the grantor
• Seattle Trademark Lawyers has been busy telling INTA attendees how to enjoy their time in Seattle – this time providing a guide to Seattle Hotel Lobby Bars
• Spam Notes looks at the surprising implication of Facebook v Power Ventures Inc. that Facebook users violate Facebook’s rights when accessing Facebook through Power.com
• Ms. Jd looks at why women apply to law school
• Alaska Public Defender argues that Alaska’s definition of domestic violence is overly broad

Avvo Legal Marketing Series: Tips From the Experts

Thursday, June 11, 2009 from 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM (PST)

Seattle, WA 

Marketing for lawyers is moving online at a rapid clip, and it is important for all rainmakers (or aspiring rainmakers) to harness the power of the Internet and Social Media Marketing.  Learn online marketing techniques from the experts – lawyers and marketing consultants that use the web everyday to generate new clients and maintain their existing ones.  

Presenters:

D. Jill Pugh, Law Office of D. Jill Pugh: Jill has practiced in employment law since 1994, and is a sole practitioner in Seattle. She represents individuals as well as businesses, handling traditional employment disputes as well as drafting employment agreements, employee handbooks and policies, negotiating and drafting severance agreements, non competition agreements and non solicitation agreements.  She authors the Employment Law Blog and is the Chair of the Solo and Small Practice Section of the King County Bar Association. 

Mark Britton: Mark is the founder, CEO and president of Avvo. Mark is a 17-year lawyer with deep experience in the legal and e-commerce industries.  Mark currently authors a bi-weekly column on legal marketing for Law.com’s Legal Technology Blog.

Conrad Saam: Conrad is the Senior Marketing Manager at Avvo, where he oversees the firm’s online marketing activities.  Prior to Avvo, Conrad developed award winning websites and online content for clients including Disney, Ford, Lego, and Microsoft.

Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/341355002