About two years ago, I realized I needed to develop a good website. One where people could come and get an idea of who I was.
There were things I didn’t want. Most lawyers like to use big words, and words other people don’t understand. You might think they are trying to impress you, or hide things – and maybe they are, but the truth is, they’ve grown used to thinking that way.
Anyway, whatever the reason, I didn’t want to come off like that.
Another thing I didn’t want was a “Chinese Restaurant Menu” – one with a million different descriptions of different types of lawsuits and damages, and all the different wonderful things a good lawyer can do for suffering people.
I think I am pretty good at most lawsuits for money, but most of the people who come to my website want a lawyer who can get money for them after they’ve suffered an injury to their body – and more specifically, because of a car accident. I represent lots of people, but most of them were hit by another car.
And I wanted people who come here to be able to see how I think, and how I try to relate to people. Maybe I’m imagining things, but if people don’t like me, they won’t hire me – and most of the people who meet me hire me. So I wanted some videos.
I went to a legal online publishing and research company. They offered a “design your own website” service for a reasonable price. I signed up for this.
The biggest problem was that you couldn’t design it yourself – it was far too complicated.
And even if you designed it yourself, you wound up using all their graphics – pictures of office buildings, blue skies, dropdown menus showing “Attorneys” “About” “Home” “Contact”.
Boring. Nothing new there.
So I asked a friend for a good website designer. He sent me to an excellent designer in Georgia. But her first effort was pretty boring too. Pictures of the Cincinnati skyline – that everyone has seen. More identical dropdown menus. Nothing that stood out.
I complained to her, and we nearly had a fight. But I realized that she was good, and her biggest problem was that I hadn’t given her a very good idea of what I wanted.
So I started looking at other lawyer’s websites. I liked websites with big pictures of the lawyers on them. I think you can tell a lot from one picture, and more from several pictures. The designer told me where to go to find more websites with lawyer pictures on them. I did. I liked those too.
She said to hire a professional photographer. I did. It was one of the best investments I ever made.
I hired a SEO – which is fancy talk for an expert on how to get people to look at your website. The best website in the world is worthless if nobody can see it. He said that I needed tapes of myself talking.
So I hired someone to shoot videos of myself talking about what I do, and about parts of the law. I thought they weren’t as good as they could be – but my wife hated them. You can still see them; they contain valuable information, and some of my clients told me they liked them a lot.
A few weeks ago I shot some more videos, after I got some good basic information from the videographer. I like these better.
Today I was talking to a woman who called in with a worker’s compensation claim. I got her on the phone with a friend of mine who specializes in that area. Toward the end of the conversation, she said that she felt like she knew me from my website.
That’s what I wanted.
I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I try to keep an open mind on new ways to listen to people. If you have a personal injury case in Cincinnati, Ohio or if you want to know what your lawsuit is worth, talk with an experienced Cincinnati injury lawyer> about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 513-621-4775.
Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.
{ 0 comments… add one }