A Virtual Shopping Mall
For example, Talladega attorney Mark D. Owsley has a Web site that is a virtual
shopping mall. At www.alabamalawyers.com, visitors can post free classified
notices. Recently, advertisements promoting the sale of everything from
"dechlorinating shower filters" to weight-loss programs to "business
opportunities" could be found there. Visitors can also link to sites that permit
online filing of income tax returns, that broker loans and that provide investment
information.
Owsley, who describes himself as "a lawyer in Alabama with a PC and too much time
on his hands," acknowledges that part of the purpose behind features such as the
classified ads is to increase traffic to his pages.
Books described at his Web site can be ordered through links to the online bookseller, amazon.com.
(Web pages can make a modest bit of income from affiliation agreements with commercial Web
sites. In the usual setup, the owner of the Web page gets a small commission from every
sale that arises from such a link.)
Besides these features, www.alabamalawyers.com also offers free brochures on a
variety of subjects, including "Credit and Divorce," "66 Ways to Save
Money" and "Vehicle Repossession."
Web Pages with Personality
Although every Web page provides clues concerning the "personality" of its
publisher, small and solo practitioners have the greatest opportunity to speak through
their pages. The most "personal" site I have seen, by far, in my review of
lawyers' Web pages is that maintained at www.divorceinfo.com. Birmingham solo
lawyer Lee Borden has created a Web location with a substantial amount of free and
useful advice for anyone dealing with divorce.
In addition, Borden bas clearly infused his pages with his personality. Besides
imparting a clear understanding of his views on the pain and hardship of divorce, he
explains how he earns his living, his political leanings and why he does the work he does,
which he considers to be making divorce less painful. He also tells visitors about his
wife, son, daughter and his "worthless yellow Lab."
Along the way, Borden attempts to at least touch upon every issue that might arise
through a divorce. In essence, divorceinfo.com provides a set of "Frequently
Asked Questions" about divorce. For example, he has separate pages addressing
"Staying in Control," "When You Can't Stop Crying," "Thinking
Strategically," "How Long Will It Take," and "Packing to Leave,"
all under the general heading of "Cutting Through the Crud." He also covers
different topics dealing with property division, children, mediation, lawyers, religion,
bankruptcy, and life after divorce. One popular feature of this site is an online
"bulletin board" that permits visitors to communicate with each other by posting
messages. Not surprisingly, some find the exchange of experiences with others a source of
support.
Borden reports that his site gets 22,000 page views, or "hits" each day. A
hit means that one of the many pages at the site has been sent to someone's Web browser.
Even though 22,000 hits would likely translate into a lesser number of actual viewers, it
still represents an impressive number for such a Web site.
Although the overwhelming majority of visitors to divorceinfo.com are not
located in Alabama, and although most visitors do not become clients, Borden says getting
business is "not the reason I do it." Spending all his spare time developing his
Web site provides a non-financial benefit: "It's my way of changing the world."
-Paul E. Toppins (pet@jbpp.com), Johnston, Barton, Proctor & Powell LLP,
Birmingham |