Upfront Warning: this is a self serving post, but the content comes from an objective source, so I thought it worthy of showcasing.

Darrin Mish, the tax attorney behind IRS Help, posted a video called “Avvo – What Is It?”. I think it’s one of the most accurate descriptions of Avvo and the Avvo Rating that you’ll see from an objective third party. While we don’t agree with everything (like only hire a perfect 10, Darrin happens to have an Avvo Rating of 10), I think it’s worthy of a watch. He really captures our mission, our philosophy, our approach to the Avvo Rating and the value we bring to both lawyers and consumers.

With all the places online accepting user reviews (including Avvo), some service providers or product manufacturers might be tempted to cheat a bit and post their own reviews, posing as satisfied/happy/thrilled customers. This practice (known as “astroturfing”) is quite obviously unethical and constitutes false advertising. However, it persists to some degree despite the fact that responsible review sites employ some combination of robust tools, human review and community interaction to minimize astroturfing.

So what’s an astroturfer to do if the review sites are taking down its bogus reviews? For a terrific example, we turn to Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery concern of some sort that tried to buffalo RealSelf (a review site and community focused on elective surgery) into taking down negative reviews. Not satisfied with litigation, Lifestyle Life also started adding bogus positive reviews on RealSelf, and engaged in a widespread campaign across the internet to try and control the messaging around its product. Going a step beyond reviews, the company created false websites, including the one below, which purports to be a review of the potential for cosmetics lawsuits that concludes it’s not worth going after Lifestyle Lift because the product is just so, well, great:

Happily, this campaign didn’t escape notice for long, and – in what looks to be the first litigation of its kind – Lifestyle Lift was prosecuted for astroturfing by the New York Attorney General’s office. The company is paying $300K in penalties and agreed to stop its astroturfing ways. For more amusing examples of the lengths Lifestyle Lift went to in its attempt to control its online identity, check out this wonderful collection(pdf) assembled by the NYAG.

We launched a quick update of Avvo last night that addressed three requests we’ve been hearing from Lawyers for a long time.

1. Lawyers can now add up to two name aliases – essentially helping James become Jim. Personal Injury Attorney William Head can now be searched by the more common “Bill Head”, or as he likes to be known, “Bubba Head”.
2. Attorneys can now add links to their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
3. Attorneys can add additional phone numbers.

Hope this helps, and keep the feedback coming.

We get about 5,000 questions submitted to Avvo Answers every week by consumers researching their situation. Here are a select few worthy of a chuckle.

Can I cut the roots of a neighbor’s tree?
My employer watches porn during work. . .
Intoxicated Party Clown
Do I have to give the dog back?
Is it illegal to pay for a body rub in florida?
I crashed a rental car on las vegas blvd, I was dui from the night before. I flew back to England. What will happen?
is it illegal to change someones flight information by hacking into their e-mail?
where my constitutional rights violated when i was arrested for saying “ass”
Marijuana and Gun Ownership

And the, “You-Need-More-Than-A-Lawyer Award” goes to:
What is the difference between a civil rights attorney and a civil rights lawyer.

raman amplifier10 Ways Lawyers Routinely Waste a Ton of Money with Google Adwords

Pay per click (PPC) advertising with Google Adwords can be a great way to reach new clients. But with legal keywords easily costing as much as $70 per click, lawyers can waste a ton of money if they’re not careful. That’s because pay per click is not a “set it and forget it” marketing channel – while it’s easy to get started with Google Adwords, it takes research, skill and discipline to see a positive return on your investment.

Attend Avvo’s free “Pay per Click Minefield” webinar and you’ll learn the top 10 ways lawyers routinely waste a ton of money on Adwords, usually without even knowing it. You’ll also learn secrets of PPC pros, including how to cut the fat from your Adwords campaigns, maximize your return on investment and discover exactly how much you’re paying per client.

Register Here

At the end of next week, I will be talking to a group of attorneys attending Stephen Fairley’s Rainmaker Retreat in Las Vegas. The Rainmaker Institute delivers these two day marketing boot camps throughout the year. They are focused on improving the marketing initiatives among solo and small firms and are highly tactical in their approach. If you’d like to join us, you can learn more and sign up here: Rainmaker Bootcamp.

There are numerous legal blogging platforms with a wide variety of functionality and pricing. In selecting a platform, it’s important to understand the capabilities, technical requirements and pricing among the different options. We launched Avvo Legal Blogs to provide lawyers with an affordable solution that has the functionality they want without the technical headaches.

Once you get set up, blogging is pretty easy. There are lots of ways to get started, from the free, ad-supported platform to the custom-tailored suit. Make the right decision for your firm and start blogging!

I have written a decent amount about Avvo’s tour of the West Coast last month, but one lawyer from the tour has been clinking around in my head (sadly, there is a lot of room for stuff to clink around in there), and I decided to write about it.

During our seminar in Los Angeles, a lawyer commented from the crowd that he was getting too many leads from Avvo that were smaller cases than he prefers. He said he was getting something like 15 leads per week. He was mildly (maybe completely) annoyed by this and wanted to know how we could help him screen out the smaller cases.

I had to do very little talking in response to this because one of our panelists J. Craig Williams quickly pointed out that the lawyer could be referring these “smaller” cases to hungrier lawyers for a meaningful fee. Kelly Chang Rickert then pointed out that all of this activity through the lawyer’s Avvo Profile was free marketing that would help him land the big case from time to time. I also mentioned the six-figure case that Anthony Colleluori reeled in through Avvo.

Ultimately, our commenting lawyer agreed that these were all great ideas and seemed to be happier that Avvo was sending so many potential clients his way. But it once again got me thinking about how hardwired we are as lawyers to spot the issues of every situation rather than the opportunities. I have written about this before, so I will not go on and on. But let me repeat this piece of advice: It is critical that lawyers, in evaluating their different marketing channels, take the time to think through the different potential opportunities of each channel before listing even one potential issue. Take the time to go hog wild and think through all the different ways you could leverage that channel – whether free or paid. After partaking in such positive thinking, only then identify the potential issues. That will in turn allow you to at least consider the ROI of every opportunity, before scrapping it from the outset due to fear.

I assure every lawyer out there that this simple shift in critical thinking will lead to less hand-wringing and more business. A place that J. Craig Williams and Kelly Chang Rickert already are and every lawyer should be.

Be opportunistic!

Mark

Check out our latest edition of Avvocating on the Law.com Legal Technology Blog. I talk about “disaster differentiation” and essentially ask our lawyer readers to better market their expertise.

In addition to Kelly Chang Rickert, Stephen Fairley and J. Craig Williams (who I mention in the LTB piece), I want to thank all of our panelists from the Avvo West Coast Tour: Jill Pugh, Venkat Balasubramani, Candice Aiston, Jonathan Stein, Collette Vogele and Gordon Levinson. Because of our panelists, the Avvo tour was a resounding success (not to mention a lot of fun). We look forward to visiting the East Coast in the fall.

Be differentiated!

Mark