I responded by asking him if he had tested his web site for conversion.  It turns out that his web site is not yet live – it is in production and will be produced by a friend at no cost.   I just took a look and, yes, the domain is registered, and the "in production" version of the site is there.  The designer is using a template downloaded from Free Website Templates, and the site looks to be about 10% complete.

Now let me stop right here and say that I have nothing against a free website template.   In my view money spent on expensive design is often money wasted as one can have a very effective web site with a free template that displays good content.

My point here is simply that before my friend even thinks of signing on for $3,000 per month of pay per click traffic, he needs to have a live web site up and running and he needs to test that site to verify that live visitors are responding appropriately.  If live visitors don't like your site, and if they don't follow the path that you have set out for them, you are wasting your money with paid advertising.

I explained to my friend my concerns about marketing for personal injury online and that in my view his target ought to be the "researcher" type who will spend hours online looking for a vendor who will provide extensive information.

I also suggested to my friend that he should capture names and email and add a sequential autoresponder to his site to communicate with past, present and future clients.

Now, my friend is a very smart and successful lawyer.  But this episode shows that even smart, savvy, trained minds can fall prey to the hype of a good salesman and the excitement of wanting to tap into the Internet gold rush.  My friend needs to either educate himself about how the Internet might work for his practice or he needs to associate a consultant like me to advise him.  Otherwise the $9,000 he plans on spending will do him no good at all.

In my view, the Internet functions as a research tool.  This is especially true if you are offering professional services.  People go to Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. to learn about a particular topic, not necessarily to choose a vendor or to buy that service right now.

Contrast this to the visitor dynamic in the yellow pages.  Yellow page browsers are not researchers.  They know that they will not find extensive information about a topic.  Yellow page buyers tend to be visual people who will respond to large, dramatic ads.  This is why in the lawyer market, yellow page ads work well for practice areas like personal injury, DUI, uncontested divorce and bankruptcy.  A significant percentage of buyers for these services are looking for any reason to make a buying decision – price, location, immediacy, social proof.

Internet browsers generally look for more detail.  I have had a great deal of success with my bankruptcy sites because I offer extensive information.  The people that respond to my bankruptcy web sites tend to be better educated, have more complex situations, and are less price conscious.   I have had much less success with personal injury web sites because most people involved in soft tissue auto accidents are looking for quick settlements and they do not perceive that there is much difference between Lawyer A and Lawyer B.

Therefore, before I will agree to work with a lawyer, I have a long discussion with him/her about his market – are his clients people who are looking to research?  If so, I will give those clients more information than any other competitor in the market, and my client will dominate this "researcher" part of his market.  I use blogs, podcasts, web sites, wikis, forums – whatever makes sense for the particular market.

Fortunately, the search engines also like extensive, relevant content.  So, in the ideal scenario, I can map out a multi-site approach that will please both the search engines and the client/researcher and, as a result, keep my client extremely busy with new business.