Ask the Oracle and Other New Blog Features

Yesterday I went a little crazy installing some new plugins for the blog. Most of these were on the administrative side, but there are some new public features as well.

There are thousands of WordPress plugins available, so it can take quite a while to sort through them to find the gems. One thing that helped me a lot was to do a Google search on “best wordpress plugins,” which brings up many sites with good compilation lists. It beats spending hours wading through the official WordPress plugins archive page by page.

Ask the Oracle

The simplest addition is a new Random Article link. This link also appears at the bottom of the “Best of StevePavlina.com” section of the sidebar, so you can access it whenever you want. I put a link to it in the RSS feed as well, so RSS subscribers can spontaneously ask the Oracle for advice whenever they want. It surprised me that this was one of the most requested features. I guess a lot of people want to use the Law of Attraction to manifest their answers. There are currently about 700 articles to choose from. Since it’s totally random, someone will click the link and get this article — will it be you?

Email this article to a friend

The blog articles now include an “Email this article to a friend” link. So far about 20 people have already used it. You can also use it to email articles to yourself as a reminder to read them later. This was another commonly requested feature.

Social bookmarking

Each article includes a “Share this” link, so you can quickly add any article to your favorite social bookmarking sites. You can also use this feature to send articles via email, AIM, MySpace, and SMS. This feature is available for RSS feed subscribers as well.

I looked into a lot of social bookmarking plugins, and I’ve used a couple different ones in the past. I like this one the best so far, partly because it reports general stats, so I can see which articles are getting bookmarked the most. This helps me recognize what people liked enough to save and/or recommend.

The most popular article on the site is still the ubiquitous How to Become an Early Riser, which is nearly 3 years old. I suppose if you want to work on personal development, the first step is to get out of bed.

Print this page

Sometimes people request a link to a printable version of each page, but there’s no need for one. Just go to any page on the site and click “Print.” You’ll get a nicely formatted printout with no navigation elements and no ads. If you’d like to see an example of how any page will look when printed, just use your browser’s Print Preview feature (File -> Print Preview… on most browsers). This is done by using a separate CSS file for printing. The site has included this feature for years.

If you know of other good WordPress plugins, please let me know. I don’t want to overload the blog with featuritis, but if there’s something people find really useful, I’ll consider it.

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Perkins Coie Makes Crain's list of Best Places to Work in Chicago

The law firm Perkins Coie, with 129 employees (staff + lawyers combined) at the office at 131 S. Dearborn St. in Chicago, made the list of Chicago's Best Places to Work just published by Crain's Chicago Business.

Congratulations to Christopher Wilson, Office managing partner, for breaking the code on how to make a law firm a great place to have a career.  If you want a job there, just contact Joyce Wlodarczyk at jwlodarczyk@oerkinscoie.com.

With more than 650 lawyers in 14 offices across the United States and in China, the firm represents companies ranging in size from start-ups to FORTUNE 100.  Perkins Coie was named to FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. 

See my earlier report 5 Law Firms Included in Fortune's Best Places to Work on the LawMarketing Portal.

Logfiles - Google's Click Fraud Fighting Ally

The third in a series of We Heart Log Data posts from Google brings back an old friend and a controversial topic.

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More...

Google Earth Leads Geologist To Meteor Crater

Australian Geologist Arthur Hickman accidentally discovered a meteorite crater while using Google Earth looking for iron ore.

Dr. Hickman, from the Geological Survey of Western Australia sent the Google Earth picture to a colleague who was able to confirm that it was an undiscovered meteorite crater. The crater is now named Hickman crater.

The crater is believed to be between 10,000 and 100,000 years old and is 885 feet across.

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Podcast: Virtual Law Firms

Almost since the earliest days of the Internet, lawyers have been experimenting with virtual firms to increase efficiency and lower costs. More recently, virtual firms have taken on greater levels of sophistication and complexity. On the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discussed this phenomenon with the principals of two virtual firms and a business-development consultant. The speakers included:

• Co-hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi
• Myself as business development consultant and author of the Law Marketing Blog
• Wyatt Durrette, founding member of the virtual IP firm XDL Group
• Mark Harris, CEO of Axiom Legal.

Among the things we discussed were putting a law firm on the Web with lawyers at widespread locations, the convenience of virtual firms for clients, and letting the Web do your own marketing for you. Other advatnages are less travel, less overhead, and no boring office meetings.

Download or listen to the program on this page or listen on your mobile phone using mobilize. Subscribe to receive all Lawyer2Lawyer programs via RSS or using iTunes.

Right Click and Download Play Windows Media

Turn $6 into $1,000s as seen on Oprah and 20/20

Make 15k in 30 Days!!!! As seen on Oprah
and 20/20!!!
That's Right 15,000 dollars in your PayPal account - That's all it takes...
FIRST, PRINT THIS OUT TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS EASIER!
. PAYPAL MAGIC!!!
. TURN $6.00 INTO $15,000 IN ONLY 30 DAYS...HERES HOW!
This is Not a Scam!!!
How to Turn $6.00 into $15,000 in 30 Days with PayPal.
AS SEEN ON OPRAH!!
PAYPAL VERIFIES THAT THIS $6 INVESTMENT
IS 100% LEGAL AND IS A BIG HIT THIS YEAR
SEE THEIR NOTE BELOW OR ASK THEM DIRECTLY...
THIS MIGHT TAKE 15-30 MINUTES AND JUST $6,
BUT IT IS 100% WORTH IT TO MAKE THOUSANDS SO
QUICKLY.
From PayPal:
"Dear Member, it has come to our attention that there
is a PayPal scheme floating around at the moment you
may have heard or seen the $6 scheme. You may have
even taken part in it well we have been asked a lot of
questions about this scheme the answer is yes it does
work and yes it is safe to use providing you follow the
rules it is legal and has made a big hit on the internet
this year. If you would like to take part in this scheme
or would like a bit more information then please see the
attached file that was kindly donated to us. Thank you for
using PayPal!" This Really Works Keep in mind that everything stated below is 100% legal as stated by the U.S. Post Office (1-800-725-2161).

Now honestly,what is six Dollars, especially out of a Paypal account. In exchange
you will make thousands in the first few months. You then place your own name and email address in the bottom of the list at #6, and post the article in at least 200 newsgroups. (There are thousands of
newsgroups)

I sent out my measly $6.00 to the six people on the list. Within 7 days, I started: getting $$$$$ in my account!
I was shocked! I figured it would end soon, but the CASH just kept coming in. In my first week, I made about $25.00.By the end of the second week I had made a total of over $1,000.00! In the third week I had over $15,060.00 and it's still growing.This is now my fourth week and I have made a total of just over $26,000.00 and it's still coming in rapidly. It's certainly worth $6.00 and 6 minutes to send it out. This program WORKS. Put in message boards or send as emails.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Login to PayPal and click the "Send Money" tab near top of
screen
In the "Recipient's Email" field type: the email address
In the "Amount" field type: "1" (your $1.00 payment)
In the "Category" field select: "Service" (Keeping it
legal)
In the "subject" field type: "EMAIL LIST",
In the "message" field type: "PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR EMAIL LIST".
Finally, click on the "Continue" button to complete the payment.
Repeat these steps for each of the 6 email addresses. that's it!
Below are the emails that you transfer the money into:
Paypal accounts to send 1 Dollar to:
The Email List:

1. linkatam@yahoo.com
2. Jcmabrey85@aol.com
3. skgates30@yahoo.com
4. rickreineke@hotmail.com
5. hawki336@hughes.net
6. Shandriver2003@yahoo.com


2.After sending the money to the first 6 people on the list, you can
remove the name next to the #1 on the list and move the rest of the
names up one position (#2 becomes #1, #3 becomes #2, etc?) Then place
your name in the #6 position. Then save it.
3. When you have completed the instructions, take this letter and then
go to (Google, Yahoo,...) and type in (Making Money Message board, Money Message Board, Money
Forum, Free money Forum, or anything along those lines that are forums)
and start posting your copy of this message at least 200 times, to as
many unique message boards as you can, or more. The more times you post
this at a unique board, the more money you will make.
Keep a copy of this letter so you can use it a second time.
Remember, play FAIRLY and HONESTLY and this will work.
4. This program remains successful because of the honesty and integrity
of the participants. Please continue its success by carefully adhering
to the instructions.
5.This is perfectly legal! If you have any doubts, refer to 18 Sec.
1302 & 1241 of the Postal Lottery laws.
You can try this or buy another lottery ticket and see which pays first. It's up to you!
[[[ IMPORTANT NOTE: If you can not see full email addresses (this
happens on some web-based groups), just click on the link that appears
near the @ symbol of any email address above. This will take you to a
page for you to verify that you're human and then it takes you back to
this message finally revealing the full email addresses. ]]]

User-Generated Site JD Supra Goes Live

Launched today, JD Supra offers lawyers a free platform to post official court filings and articles that can be accessed without fee by anyone using its site – www.jdsupra.com.   It is one of the first Web 2.0 businesses designed expressly for the legal community. 

“In a world in which YouTube and Google have established new rules for user-generated content and universal search, JD Supra hopes to redefine those two key concepts for the legal profession,” founder Aviva Cuyler said.

44 million research the law and lawyers online

According to a recent study by Web research firm ComScore, more than 44 million people now use the Internet to research the law and seek legal services in their area.  While most law firms have Web sites and many attorneys are active bloggers, JD Supra creates a central site where legal content is aggregated for easy research and one-stop shopping for legal counsel. 

Attorneys who post content can create in-depth professional profiles highlighting their practice expertise and experience along with latest postings. The profile is available by browsing or keyword searching, as well as via link to posted documents. All documents are connected to contributor profiles. Thus, when potential clients research a subject, they are can connect to an attorney they can see has experience with their particular issue.  

“Someone conducting legal research or investigating a particular topic online is much more likely to then contact a lawyer who has posted relevant documents,” Ms. Cuyler said.

 

JD Supra also works as a qualified resource for the media. Reporters can use the site to find a lawyer with experience and point of view on a specific issue for possible commentary.  In turn, attorneys can direct journalists to newsworthy court filings, decisions and verdicts simultaneous with their filing. Contributors can designate a posting as a “Hot Document” for added urgency.  Users will be able to flag it in the “Scoop” section, available from the home page. Additionally, journalists and other interested users can subscribe to an RSS feed of these hot documents to stay current on issues of concern to them.

For the rest of the story, visit the LawMarketing Portal.

The Latest issue of Originate! is Now Online

The newest issue of the online rainmaking newsletter Originate, is now online at http://www.pbdi.org/originate/.  Here's the lineup of articles aimed at helping individual lawyers get more clients and make more money.  Get your own subscription and don't miss an issue.

Featured Articles

7 Principles of Client Development: Making Their Bottom Line Yours Darryl Cross sees 7 key principles in successful client relationships and client business development, whether you're an individual, part of a small firm, or in a big city one.  The attorney's bottom line gains from focusing energies on improving a client's bottom line. Generating Business: Doing What Does NOT Come Naturally

Most of us assume that rainmakers are fundamentally different from them, that they enjoy natural advantages we can only marvel at. The truth is very different, according to Michael Cummings. Most attorneys simply have to leverage their personal strengths and their existing professional skills in new ways. Learn from one non-natural rainmaker how you too can succeed in getting business .

Memo to Senior Partners: Motivate Younger Lawyers for Your Business's Sake

Motivating younger lawyers to get business is possible, says Larry Bodine, if you take some simple but powerful steps. Start by recognizing how much their world and their experience differs from their seniors in the firm. Then mentor and involve them so you stir their interest and build their capabilities. The result will be rewarding for both the firm and the individual lawyer.

Marketing Partner of the Year: What Does It Take?

In January, Mark A. Long, managing partner and head of marketing at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, earned recognition as Marketing Partner of the Year at the Marketing Partner Forum. What he did to merit that accolade was not revolutionary; mainly he did some important things well. Barry Schneider reviews what it took, and what you or your firm can learn from this example.

Ten Most Effective Marketing Techniques for the Little Guy Larry Bodine presents a brief and pointed podcast in which he identifies the ten most effective marketing techniques for solo lawyers and small firms. Learn what your priorities should be and what it takes to get results, even if you're a small part of a big firm. They Say They Want a Revolution: Reconnecting Legal Costs to Value Delivered

Amy Spach reports on the sparks generated by a new initiative from the Association of Corporate Counsel, one that aims to narrow a perceived gap between billings and value received. Hear now what your clients may be telling you soon about your worth to them.

Best Practice Tips

Case Study: Nothing Succeeds Like Your Clients’ Success

Charlie Miller, Esq., Deputy Managing Partner of Patton Boggs, recounts two specific stories that illustrate how the firm wins by helping its clients win.  Here’s how their lawyers actually listened to the Voice of the Client, how they put themselves in position to gain new work and how they actually landed two major new clients.

A Day in the Life of a Rainmaker...and How You Can Do the Same Are you missing out on Business Development opportunities today? Definitely, unless you heed the simple guidelines that rainmakers set for themselves. Michael Cummings looks at the day-to-day life of some rainmakers you can emulate for your career success. A Shout out to Younger Lawyers: Business Development is the Key to your Destiny

Larry Bodine shouts this message from the rooftops, telling his tale of how younger lawyers must and can take charge of their own destiny.  Don’t let your career just happen to you; get into the arena.  Seize on the work that you want, make strong contacts, and do what it takes to become the captain of your own destiny.

Relating through E-mail: Talk to Your Clients, Not at Them E-mail newsletters and alerts can be a great way to communicate with clients, and complement other business development activities. But Darryl Cross laments that too many lawyers lose a great opportunity by delivering the equivalent of junk mail. Here are some hard facts about using e-mail effectively, and what to do about it. Make Your Garden Grow: 10 Ways to Invigorate Your Referrals

As in cultivating a thriving garden, there are no "secret shortcuts" to generating referrals. Clients and colleagues most often refer business to lawyers they know, respect and trust - and such relationships take time to cultivate.  Carolyn Elefant, Esq. offers ten tips you can use though to nurture future business from referrals.

Market Beat: Hildebrandt Report Warns of Services Downturn

In its first downbeat client advisory in 10 years, Hildebrandt warns that law firms are in an economic downturn that has not been accompanied by the usual upturns in litigation, bankruptcy or reorganization.

Subscribe to Originate, the only newsletter aimed at helping an individual lawyer get more clients and earn more revenue. Simply visit here or go to http://www.pbdi.org/Originate/users.asp and subscribe today.  The newsletter is 100% original, new material that will show you how to boost your practice.

Get Smart on Marketing with Technology at ABA Techshow

Marketers will find a feast of programs on how to use technology to connect to new clients at the annual ABA Techshow 2008 coming up on March 13-15 in Chicago.  More than 1,500 people will convene at the Chicago Hilton.

There are 16 educational tracks including Advanced IT/Security, Client Relationships, E-Discovery, Going Green, Internet, Large Firm/Corporate Counsel, Litigation, Mac Track, Microsoft Office, Mobile Technology, Paperless Office, Records Management, Roundtables, Show Me How, Solo/Small Firm I and Solo/Small Firm II.

Among the programs that caught my eye were:

• 60 Sites in 60 Minutes with speakers Tom Mighell, Reid Trautz and Craig Ball. This perennial favorite is always one of the best attended sessions. The panelists will review the hottest new websites for lawyers and legal professionals -- great web resources on legal technology, practice management, research, ethics, and they'll toss in some practical and fun stuff, too.
  4:15 PM, Friday March 14
• Lawyering In a Virtual World: How to Snag the Connected Client, with Judge Monty Ahalt, Will Hornsby and Greg Siskind
  8:30 AM , Friday March 14
• Working Together from Wherever You Are: The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaborating on the Internet, with Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell
  1:00 p.m. Friday March 14
• Winning the Beauty Pageant: Catching Corporate Counsel’s Eye with Technology, with Ted Banks and Toby Brown
  1:00 p.m. Friday March 14
• Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Connecting with New Clients Using Technology, with Kevin O’Keefe and Greg Siskind
  8:30 a.m. Saturday March 15
• Client Retention: Technology to Avoid the Seven-Year Itch with Toby Brown and Carolyn Elefant
  9:45 a.m. Saturday March 15
• Who's Watching You? A Conversation About Privacy on the Internet
  ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Keynote Address: Marc Rotenberg is Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC.ORG) in Washington, DC. He teaches information privacy law at Georgetown University Law Center and has testified before Congress on access to information, encryption policy, consumer protection, computer security, and communications privacy.
  1:00 PM, Thursday March 13

You can register for ABA TECHSHOW 2008 online at http://www.abanet.org/techshow/

Awesome Discoveries at the ABA Techshow Exhibits

For the first time I can say that a vendor expo was awesome. The ABA Techshow had the usual collection of case management and time-and-billing stuff, but I found some really cool items:

I bought a top-of-the-line fast laptop/main computer at the Dell booth.  I got A Latitutde D630 for 35% off -- for a total of $1831! Ask for salesman Jesus Ortega, a big guy with a big smile. The system includes:
- Core 2 Duo T9300 2.50 GHz processor with 6M Level 2 Cache with an 800 Mhz bus
- XP home edition.  No Vista for me, thank you.
- 120 Gig hard drive -- a faster one that runs at 7200 rpm.
- DVD player and burner
- built in wireless card
- MS Office 2007 Small business edition (I winced that I would have to learn yet another version of Word, but Jesus told me I could master it in 3 days).
- a 9 cell batter that lasts 9 hours
- 3 year mail in service warranty

The next cool thing was the KeyScan KS810 keyboard scanner.  Most scanners have huge footprints.  With KeyScan you just insert your document into a slot in the keyboard. KeyScan can save it as a PDF and automatically insert it as an attachment in Outlook.  Or, if you're working on a document, you put the cursor where you want the image to appear, scan it, and it is automatically inserted there.  Here's the best part: the price is $159.  If you want one, call Ophira Rosolio at 781.658.2020 or ophira@keyscan.com (see www.keyscan.com)

Thirdly, I was walking down a aisle as saw my face flash up on the TV monitor.  Being curious I tracked down the camera and found Audience Response Systems, Inc.  I congratulated Regional Sales Manager Doug Kinsella on his eye-catching marketing.  It's the best draw in the entire Expo.  They sell Pulse, a continuous real-time audience polling system.  Each audience member (or mock jury member) is given a little keypad, and every 5 seconds they indicate whether they are bored (click 1) or that they're fascinated (click 10).  The results appear live on a screen viewed by monitors.  A speaker or lawyer doing a closing argument can instantly see when he's losing the audience, or when he's got their total attention.  Level 2 Pulse for 24 participants is $4,160.  For more info go to www.audienceresponse.comk or call Doug Kinsellla at 800.458.9081.

Finally the best "gimme" was a yo-yo that lights up when you spin it.  I'm meeting my son Ted for lunch (he's an analyst at Fidelity Investments in downtown Chicago) and I'm going to give it to him.

Stay tuned for more.

7 Principles of Client Development: Making Their Bottom Line Yours

By Darryl Cross in discussion with Larry Bodine  

Darryl Cross is Senior Vice President of Business Development of Concep, Inc. in New York. The company does client surveys/market research, communications, client relationship management (CRM), graphic design, holiday cards, marketing, survey software and web site development.  He can be reached at (212) 925-0380 and darryl.cross@concepglobal.com.

Darryl Cross:  We're talking looking at things from the client's bottom line point of view instead of ours. That idea leads to seven principles of client development, consistent principles that we see on a regular basis, whether they are a 30 lawyer shop in Dallas or a big New York City law firm. 

Number one is leveraging our existing assets.  There is so much content and so much information available at law firms about clients; they're swimming in it.  We're talking about things like what relationships do we have?  What is the billing history of some very large maybe pharmaceutical clients?  It tells us a lot about what kind of problems they have.  We also look at things like who are the other people we know outside of here?  What is our matter history?  What part of our existing client base could be duplicated?  We have all this content at our finger tips.  A lot of times it's out of context, but we can bring that together using technology and some good old fashioned elbow grease be able to make some sense of it. 

Principle two is once we start compiling information and seeing all those assets, we have to have the ability to think small.  Think about last time you were asked to write a short 400-word article.  Hard, isn't it, Larry? 

Larry Bodine:  It's much harder than writing a 2000-word article. 

Darryl Cross:  It's a great exercise to take a 1000-word article and nail it down to 500, then 250, and then a 50-word synopsis.  It's a great exercise in thinking small.  Here's another one you should take back to your law firms to illustrate the need to think small when it comes to business development:  When you have a gathering of lawyers in the room, ask every lawyer to pull out of piece of paper and take 15 seconds to write down 5 clients they've never done work with before.  I've never run into a group that can't.  The world is way too big, and there are too many opportunities and too many possibilities. 

For the rest of the article visit the Originate Web Site at http://www.pbdi.org/Originate/default.asp?Action=GetDetails&ArticleID=99.  An annual subscription costs only $397.