FREE $100 Google AdWords Credit

Have you ever wanted to try Google Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing? Are you interested in leveraging this highly effective marketing tool for your law practice with the potential to reach the scores of potential clients conducting searches online every day on Google? For a limited time BlawgHouse is offering a $100 free AdWords credit for new Google accounts. Click here to learn how Google Pay Per Click can help your business today!

We also provide Google Adwords Management services for a variety of other businesses!

BlawgHouse Publishing FAQs

Why should I publish a book?

Book publishing is always a personal choice. It’s one of those “if-it-feels-good-do-it” things that you just “know” you want to do. But what about “need-to-do”? Will your name as author on the cover of a manual or other publication help establish your platform? further your career? draw in potential clients? Do you want to be considered an expert in your field? A book goes a long way to build your reputation and make you the professional people are seeking.

I know how to write a sentence and say what needs to be said, so why do I need an editor?

The bottom line is this: None of us is capable of editing the final draft of his or her own work. Why? We know it too well. Also, we understand all the “backstory” or research that went into it.  Readers, however, enjoys none of these advantages. The trained eyes of an editor will catch problems involving clarity, terminology, or transition that might confuse or stumble a lay reader.

Writing an understandable sentence with all the appropriate parts is a great beginning. However, it’s just that—a beginning. Sentence structures and lengths need to be varied. Strong verbs breathe life into mundane topics and action scenes. Elimination of adverbs tightens the prose. Heavy topics should be punctuated with an occasional breath of “fresh air” in order not to exhaust the reader.

Editors review topic development, flow, continuity, and a host of grammatical elements that make the final product a polished professional publication. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. You never know when that first impression may be your written word.

I still think I can polish my own manuscript. Can I get a “quick” edit rather than the full-blown service?

Editing comes packaged and “a la carte.” A writer can choose just the amount of editing needed to make his/her manuscript press-ready without paying for any additional services. Ask us about this option.

How does the publishing process work?

Once a book is edited, it needs an appropriate cover and interior layout and design. The final files are then assigned an ISBN number and sent to the writer in PDF format for approval before going to the printer. Typically, the printer overnights a proof of the final product (an actual finished book) to the writer for one last approval, and then books can be ordered. Delivery time on the books is generally less than two weeks. We offer both POD (print on demand) and offset printing, depending on the number of books you desire. We can do all the prep work in-house at a very reasonable cost, and there is never any mark-up on the price of the books. The amount we charge you is the same amount the printer charges us.

Do you have questions that are not addressed here? Contact Us and we’ll be happy to answer them.

Law Book Publishers and Authors – New Publishing Forum

Are you interested in learning how to publish and market your own law book? Publishing a law book or manual can help enhance your reputation and establish you as a trusted authority in your area of legal expertise.

BlawgHouse has launched a new forum on LinkedIn where you can discuss how to publish and market your law book. Feel free to jump right in and post your questions and share your ideas. You can reach this forum by clicking the following link: Law Book Publishing Forum.

Local Geographic and Language Targeting for Online Legal Marketing

Online search engine marketing has evolved to allow you to be more effective with local search.

Did you know Google Adwords has a feature which allows you to select any combination of locations, enabling you to target your legal marketing campaigns to regions, cities and custom areas? If you want to target a particular city like Miami or Los Angeles you could do so. You can select a particular location if you know the coordinates (that’s right it will accept longitude and latitude coordinates you input if you know them), choose a point on a map and specify a radius around where you want your ads to appear or create your own custom shape on the map.

If your law practice works with a specific language group not only can you select a specific Geographic location but you can go as far as targeting a specific language as well,  like French speakers in Los Angeles or Spanish speakers in Denver, etc. According to Google, “the AdWords system looks at a user’s Google interface language setting to see if it matches one of the languages that your campaign targets. For example, only users whose Google interface language is Spanish will see ads in a campaign targeted to Spanish”.

Yahoo Search Marketing also allows you to run ads in specific zip codes. You select the zip codes where you want your ad to appear and your selected regions will appear shaded on the map with a flag to indicate the targeted region.

This type of local geographic targeting, while not perfect, is more relevant to potential clients looking for your services in the geographic area you serve and helps you with your legal advertising budget by helping you avoid spending money on ads that appear in areas where you do not do business.

Generate Qualified Leads With Google Adwords

Google Adwords Pay Per Click marketing is an effective way to generate qualified leads for your law practice. Google Adwords helps you with your law firm Internet marketing in the following 3 ways:

1. Easily control costs – pay only when people click on your ad.
2. It allows you to advertise to people currently searching on Google and their extensive advertising network.
3. You can effectively reach people who are actively looking for information about your law practice and the legal services you offer online. For example, note the following Google search stats for the month of June 2009:

• Keyword: Los Angeles Bankruptcy Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 3900
• Keyword: Los Angeles Injury Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 6600
• Keyword: Los Angeles DUI Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 6600
• Keyword: Los Angeles Tax Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 880
• Keyword: Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 1900
• Keyword: Los Angeles Employment Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 1300
• Keyword: Los Angeles Immigration Lawyer   – Local Search Volume: 2900

If you would like more information about how Google Adwords can help you generate qualified leads for your law practice Contact BlawgHouse today.

Law Firm Internet Marketing – Why It’s Time To Blog

Law Firm Internet marketing is becoming more and more essential. Today’s economy is having a negative effect on law firms with an unprecedented number of lawyers losing their jobs due to the downturn. The economy’s negative impact on the real estate market, financial markets, and others has had a severe effect on the law profession. Traditional sources of clients and marketing strategies have become less effective in this environment.

Many law firms have decided to look online in an effort to increase their market share and visibility. Blogging has become one of the most effective forms of Internet marketing for law firms. Why? Legal blogs help to keep law firms in front of potential clients. Blogging also invites interaction with like minded legal professionals which may in turn open the doors to acquiring additional clients. Law blogs also help to bolster the position and platform of legal firms and individual attorneys by establishing them as experts in their field of legal practice.

With time blog postings have the ability to show up in the search engine results. In some cases this has occurred in less than 24 hours and on the first page of Google! How does this benefit the law firm?

Imagine an attorney expert on bankruptcies in the state of California posts a blog discussing an important development in bankruptcy law. If someone types into Google, “bankruptcy law” and “California” there is a chance the blog posting will show up in the search results. The potential client can click on this link and acquire additional information on the topic of bankruptcy law and at the same time see that it was written by an attorney in their home state. If the appropriate contact information is available on the site this provides an opportunity for the lawyer or law firm to be contacted by the potential client.

The Google search engine alone receives two-thirds of all searches conducted online. That’s 76% of all searches conducted online. The search term “bankruptcy law” was searched for 135,000 time in Google alone during the month of April 2009. “New bankruptcy law” was searched for 12,100 times during this same period. This data indicates people are searching for this information on a daily basis and why legal blogs have become one of the hottest forms of law firm Internet marketing available today.

3 Benefits of Having Your Own Legal Blog or Blawg

There are many advantages to having a legal blog or blawg. Here follows at least three of the benefits:

1. It allows you to easily reach a larger audience, giving you a chance to exhibit your expertise and stature in the legal field.
2. The search engines reward sites with regularly updated content. Adding blog posts can improve your web site’s position on the search engines. (i.e. Google, Yahoo, MSN)
3. Posting your blog comments and observations is relatively quick and simple and does not require you have any knowledge of HTML.

Many in the legal field attest to the benefits of having a blawg. The Internet continues to expand as one of the first destinations potential clients and others look to for information regarding legal matters. Blawgs make it easier for them to find you and the legal expertise you have to offer.