Article Marketing for Lawyers

What is article marketing? Article marketing is a clever method of promoting a product or service through the use of articles. You simply write articles relating to your expertise. After you've created an article, you share your article with the world. Content is a valuable commodity on the Internet. If you provide good content, your article will likely be picked up for use in blogs, newsletters, lenses, portals and websites.

Article Marketing is an excellent way to promote a law firm. Law Firm articles can help establish credibility for your practice, help establish yourself as an expert in your field, brand your firm and lead potential clients to your firm. Also, since articles can be syndicated, there's an enormous potential to utilize articles to drive visitors to your law firm's website and to ultimately generate more business!

The following are some tips and ideas on how to write and promote your law firm articles.

Start with existing articles. In many cases you may have articles you've written in the past that are still relevant. Why not dust those off and use them to market your firm? In most cases, the content is still relevant or could be easily adapted to fit current trends and conditions.

Write new articles. Share your expertise by writing articles based on practice area topics for which you practice. For example, if you represent clients who have been involved in 18 wheeler accidents and would like to target more 18 wheeler cases, simply write an article about 18 wheeler accidents. To support your topic of choice, consult with research and statistics organizations. They provide detailed statistics, trends and information which can be referenced. Combine hard facts and data with your own experiences for a compelling article.

Keep articles relatively short. Articles do not need to be lengthy. Many articles fall between 150 - 500 words. Keeping it short is a good rule of thumb, particularly when the article is going to be viewed and read on the web. However, oftentimes, it's difficult to convey a message in so few words. In those cases, try to keep the topics under thousand words.

Find a Topic Once you've decided to write an article, it may not be as easy to find a topic to write about. It helps to write about something you have a passion for. That passion will carry over into your article and in turn, produce a piece the reader will be compelled by.

One way to find a good topic for your article is to do some keyword research. If you are hoping to attract clients using the article, it helps to know which topics prospective clients are using to locate law firms and legal information pertaining to your practice area. There are a number of tools available on the web for keyword research. To locate them, search for the phrase "keyword research" in your favorite search engine and you'll generate a whole wealth resources. You may also choose to hire an Internet marketing consultant to handle this task. Oftentimes consultants have the necessary tools and expertise to give you a clear understanding of topic you should be addressing.

Don't Forget Your Author Box The author box consists of your personal biography, copyright notice, and a link back to your law firm's website. This should be kept brief. You want to state in the article box that permission is granted to re-publish this article online as long as the author box is left intact and as long as the hyperlink is linked to the correct website.

Not a writer? Have Someone Write an Article for You It's quite possible that you don't have the time to write your own articles or maybe writing is not your forte. No problem. There are a number of consultants available who can do this task for you. It's referred to in the industry as "ghost writing". There are a number of quality professionals who specialize in copywriting and ghost writing. You simply convey your thoughts and expertise verbally or in written form and let these "wordsmiths" do the rest.

Another suggestion is to tap into your law firm's internal resources. It's quite possible that someone on your staff is an excellent writer and can do the work for you.

Include a Picture Including a picture reminds the reader that there is actually a person behind the article. It lends credibility to the article. Additionally, a photo helps brand yourself in your field with name and face recognition.

Share Your Article Once you've written your article(s), you need to let people know that they are available for reading and re-publishing. There are a number of organizations or individuals who may choose to re-publish your article on their Blogs, MySpace, Lenses, Websites and other online mediums.

To share your article, you need to submit it to any number of article syndication sites and article directories. These sites give authors the opportunity to dramatically increase traffic and exposure by syndicating to thousands of publishers almost instantaneously.

Search Engine Benefits By sharing your article, you not only promote your name and brand, you increase your rankings with the major search engines.

Search engines determine rankings based on a number of factors. Two of those factors are incoming link popularity and keyword density. By including an active hyperlink in your author box for articles, you increase link popularity. Each time your article is re-published, you receive a one-way link back to your site! Also, if your article is on a particular topic with strategic use of keywords, your article is more likely to show up in top results with the search engines.

As a legal professional, it's critical to your success that you establish yourself as an expert in your field. By publishing quality articles with useful content, you WILL drive prospective clients to your firm and establish credibility that will secure more clients. Article marketing is one of the most powerful marketing methods available to lawyers ... and best of all, it's FREE!

Laurie A. Williams is a veteran Internet marketer for the legal industry. She has been involved in Internet marketing for over 10 years. Please see her site, LegalMarketingPros.com for more information

Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers and Attorneys

With more and more of the United States population aging, nursing home and elderly communities are constantly expanding to help accommodate more patients. Tragically however, nursing home abuse of the elderly is becoming one of the most widespread crimes in America. Nursing home patients are vulnerable from many types of abuse ranging from physical violence to theft of property.

Many common types of nursing home abuse cases have been caused by under qualified and inexperienced staff members. Employees are sometimes unable to handle certain situations and have been known to take out their frustrations on residents of the nursing homes. Studies show that over half of the suspicious deaths researched in nursing homes might have been causes by neglect or negligence including dehydration and malnutrition.

Because of conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's, older adults are very vulnerable to abuse. History of domestic violence may also make certain seniors more susceptible to abuse in a nursing home.

Placing a loved one in a nursing home can be one of the most difficult decisions a loved one is forced to make. Often times this decision is very emotional, and not thought out entirely. When you enroll a loved one into a nursing home you are entrusting the caregivers with more than just money. You are entrusting them with a life of a loved one. In the event that a loved one has been victimized by the actions of a nursing home employee, it is your duty and right to seek legal attention. A compassionate, experienced nursing home abuse lawyer can help you understand your legal rights and guide you towards an appropriate course of action.

For more information on nursing home abuse or finding a nursing home abuse lawyer, please visit our website at http://www.resource4nursinghomeabuse.com This article may be freely reprinted as long as this resource box is included and all links stay intact as hyperlinks.

Lawyers: How To Get An 'Unfair' Advantage Over Your Competition

When it comes to getting new clients, no matter what market your in, you still have to work to get the client. Rarely is a law firm so well positioned that no marketing program has to be used.

In fact, today, competition for "good" cases is stronger than ever. With some attorneys willing to sacrifice big dollars in hopes of "the big one" and others under-cutting other local attorneys, it's no wonder that it's harder and harder to get good, new business.

Add to the fact that many firms have one practice area and have no cross-selling capabilities; new business efforts can haunt a good attorney.

The best way to gain an unfair advantage over your competition is to do what I call "stealth marketing."

This is the kind of silent but deadly marketing that is bringing in volumes of new business with little cost, publicity or fanfare. When your competition finally figures out how you're opening 20 or 30 new cases a month, it's way too late for them to do anything about it.

Add that to the fact that most attorneys are not willing to pay for marketing expertise, and those of you who have decided to do something about getting new business are making bucket-loads of money. It's the old 80/20 rule: 80% of the business is being handled by 20% of the lawyers.

Think about this. There is a certain segment of the population (and it's growing like crazy each day, literally) that will only utilize the Internet to collect information before making a purchasing decision. (Many attorneys don't understand that when someone is thinking about hiring them, that person is making a "purchasing decision.")

Therefore, there's a growing number of people who will only find you if you have a website. The good news is, these are the same consumers that are most educated and want to make qualified, informed decisions.

Don't forget the many law firms still don't have websites that work. If you're in a smaller market, the number of attorney websites is even smaller. It's estimated that only 30% of all small and solo firms (10 attorneys or less) have a website.

But remember the fact that nearly each of these sites it a tragic mess.

Adding all that up, gives you a huge advantage to take over a market. With a turn-key website from LawFirmMarketingWebsites.com, you'll get nearly every available case you want from those who are looking on the Internet in your state.

Matthew Samp is a law firm marketing consultant. Information about his turnkey website can be found at www.LawFirmMarketingWebsites.comor by calling 402-292-3400.