Marketing

12 Steps For Effective Phone Directory Ads

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

One day, usually shortly after you have your phone line installed, your friendly local yellow pages account representative will come calling. If you have nothing better to do that day, take about 30 minutes to listen to his presentation – it will do your ego some good and occasionally you can collect some neat swag. But, before you sign on the dotted line and commit to that scary monthly payment, consider that effective directory ads aren’t necessarily expensive and the expensive package the account rep is pushing may not be effective for your particular situation. Here are 12 points from my crash course into the world of phone directory advertising:

  1. The general “Attorney” category is very competitive. Unless you can afford an ad that will be placed in the front third of this section, spend your money elsewhere.
  2. If you do place an ad in the front third, position does not matter, “first” ads are not called more frequently than “last” ads.
  3. Good ads will always get more calls Continue reading →

The Uncertain Glory of an April Day*

/ Bruce Cameron

Spring has come to this rural practice and with it brings the ritual and renewal that is spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is that biannual event, not quite unlike a wiccan sabbat, where one marks the turning of the seasons with some sort of great occasion. The tedious eviction of the accumulated detritus of the past six months may to give way to some great bacchanalia but it does provide for a certain amount of contemplation and reflection.

Some years back, on one of these April days where the weather was too good to work inside, but not quite good enough to work out in the yard or in the fields, I found myself lying half way into the manger of my horse trailer attempting to rivet a metal patch in place. Continue reading →

The Right Host For The Small Firm

/ Bruce Cameron

In addition to the basic rules there are a few additional items to consider when choosing a web hosting provider for the solo/small law firm.

  1. The free web host conundrum – sure the price point is great, but can you live with the restrictions on disk space and bandwidth? Are you comfortable with little to no support. Remember, that “free site” is going to be plastered with advertising because the provider’s the bills have to be paid somehow.
  2. Disk space and bandwidth – don’t pay for more than you need and don’t buy less than you will use. The average web site uses 40-50 kilobytes per page, so unless your site requires large databases, provides tons of multimedia content, and vast numbers of images it is unlikely that you’ll need 10’s of gigabytes of disk space. The less bandwidth you have, the slower your site loads and the longer each visitor will have to wait to access your site. The best way to estimate your bandwidth needs is to multiply:
    1. the average/expected number of visitors your site will get in month
    2. the average page size for your web site
    3. the average/expected number of pages viewed by each visitor
    4. a small margin for error – pick something you are comfortable with
  3. Backups – the provider should provide a mechanism for automatically backup and restore your data. Also, be sure that you own your data and not the provider.

The Ideal Web Host

/ Bruce Cameron

Face it, a web site is in your future and you are going to need a web hosting provider. The problem is that there is no such thing as the universal ideal web hosting provider. However, there are really only 5 things that matter when choosing a provider:

  1. Support – if they are not there 24/7/365 move on. A good test is to email the provider and see how quickly they respond. Try asking the sales department a question about their product. If sales is slow to respond, do you think technical support will be any better?
  2. Price – this is a two-edged sword. Sure we all want that unbeatable price, but the better criteria is: is the price reasonable for the service provided.
  3. Guarantee – find a provider that offers at least a 30 day money back guarantee policy.
  4. Platforms and Applications – basically your choice of platform will come down to using either a Linux or Windows server. If your website is based on .ASP technology, then you must have a Windows host, otherwise go with the platform that supports the back-end applications your web site uses.
  5. Scalability, Reliability & Security – you want to look for a provider that makes it easy to upgrade, to add bandwidth, disk space and email accounts as your web site’s traffic grows. You want a provider that will guarantee their up-time. A proven up-time guarantee means that your site will be there when your clients try to view it, so ask for one. Finally, you want a provider that clearly states they have spam and virus filtering already installed and this feature is provided to all web sites. After all prevention is less painful than the cure.