Jenksismyhero Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 So because I managed to graduate law school in the worst legal job market in decades (or ever), I've decided to try and start my own firm. I'd like to create a website for it. Does anyone have experience doing this? I just started messing with godaddy.com for the domain name and hosting. Looks like it'll only be like $60 bucks a year, which seems reasonable to me. Any other suggestions? And does anyone have a web design software they like? Apparently Adobe Dreamweaver is the best, but I'd like some reviews before I drop $300 on it. And I guess I should preface this by saying I'm not looking for anything too fancy. Probably a main page with 10-12 sub pages with some firm specific information, and maybe the option of in the future adding a blog area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palehosefan Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 (edited) People will poopoo your choice of GoDaddy, but to be honest I have used them for several years and I'm pretty happy with them. Just be sure you choose the Linux/PHP hosting system over the Windows/ASP version just in case you want an easy email page on your site that will probably be run with PHP. Choosing a program with Adobe like Dreamweaver is a pretty good idea. Adobe is making great strides in everything from Flash, to Photoshop, to Dreamweaver. However, before you shell out several hundred for Dreamweaver, you might look into free HTML templates and see if you can get what you are wanting out of it. I'm a web developer for AMD, so if you need some help feel free to email me. If I can find some time I'll try and help you out. Chris Edited May 14, 2009 by Palehosefan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kapkomet Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 And I host. Chris has done several websites for me and he does a really good job. And I second the notion of using godaddy for domain names - not too sure on the hosting side. I threw something together really quick (with Chris' help - I'd recommend making yours somewhat more professional - which he can do) ... http://www.integratedactionconsulting.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobDylan Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Dreamweaver IS the best, as long as you know how to use it. For simple web pages, you should be fine, should you choose to go with it. Anything more complex, I recommend picking up a tutorial book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scenario Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 (edited) I'm going to propose a counter-suggestion to the above. I run several websites and have ditched godaddy, dream-weaver, etc. (I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on tools in the past.) IMO, find yourself a quality host like hostgator.com, and run your entire website using Wordpress. Setup is simple, edits are easy... it's easier to keep your site fresh with content. You don't need to learn HTML or buy an HTML editor, and the software is free. Wordpress is a tool designed for blogs, but you can do pretty much anything you want website-wise with it. In fact, alot of professional websites have made the same sort of conversion I describe above. If you want more input on this, I'll be glad to talk with you about it. Here's an example of a template that can be used to create a professional website using wordpress. (I bought this one recently.) Edited May 15, 2009 by scenario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kapkomet Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 Wordpress is a good way to go, depending on what you want to do. With GoDaddy, the ONLY thing I use them for is a registrar. I wouldn't host or design through them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 Volumes have been written on this subject, and of course I will toss my .02 in, but in a different direction that has not been addressed. Before you do any of this STOP! You are an attorney, not a web designer, etc. Before you take off in this direction, and I know you want to get started on this immediately, you need to plan. Sit down and write the business plan for your firm. Included in this document should be the answer to a simple question, where will my clients come from? And eventually, how will the web site be used? A website as an advertisement to get customers to your door is one thing, a website to allow you to effectively communicate with your existing customers is another. You may find that your initial advertising and marketing dollars should be spent in other areas. For example, yellow page ads are expensive, but people still use directories. A little market research is helpful, a lot of research is even better. What area of law are you planning on practicing? Where do those clients go to find an attorney? Once you have your plan in place, and these is a whole lot more to this than above, you will see where you need to spend your time to maximize your return and where you need to sub out the work. You may find you do not need a fully custom web site initially and can make do with a prepackaged web presence. Hint: If your entire marketing plan at this point is create a web site and the customers/clients will come rolling in, you are probably fooling yourself. Bottom Line: A web site is part of your over all business strategy, do not get too tunnel focused on it and remember you are an attorney and ultimately you will earn more money for your firm by practicing law than designing a web site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenksismyhero Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 QUOTE (Texsox @ May 15, 2009 -> 07:56 AM) Volumes have been written on this subject, and of course I will toss my .02 in, but in a different direction that has not been addressed. Before you do any of this STOP! You are an attorney, not a web designer, etc. Before you take off in this direction, and I know you want to get started on this immediately, you need to plan. Sit down and write the business plan for your firm. Included in this document should be the answer to a simple question, where will my clients come from? And eventually, how will the web site be used? A website as an advertisement to get customers to your door is one thing, a website to allow you to effectively communicate with your existing customers is another. You may find that your initial advertising and marketing dollars should be spent in other areas. For example, yellow page ads are expensive, but people still use directories. A little market research is helpful, a lot of research is even better. What area of law are you planning on practicing? Where do those clients go to find an attorney? Once you have your plan in place, and these is a whole lot more to this than above, you will see where you need to spend your time to maximize your return and where you need to sub out the work. You may find you do not need a fully custom web site initially and can make do with a prepackaged web presence. Hint: If your entire marketing plan at this point is create a web site and the customers/clients will come rolling in, you are probably fooling yourself. Bottom Line: A web site is part of your over all business strategy, do not get too tunnel focused on it and remember you are an attorney and ultimately you will earn more money for your firm by practicing law than designing a web site. Totally agree with the bottom line, which is why I'm not wanting to invest TOO much into this. I don't expect to use the website as a marketing tool to bring in business, but more of a if i'm networking/throwing out my business cards it'll allow people to check out my firm and what I do. So I guess in a sense it is for marketing if that causes a client to call my office, but really it's more "here's who we are and why we can help you" than *flash cheap legal work here! click now! *flash My experience is in civil litigation (contract disputes, personal injury/medical malpractice, discrimination, etc) but I've always wanted to get into helping businesses from formation to dissolution and everything in between. I was just sent a referral for a guy who has just started his own company which could become huge thanks to Obama's green energy initiatives, so there's potential it could be a very long deal. That was the basis for wanting to get a website going and actually get the firm established. I think I'll look into Wordpress. Any other ideas on hosting? Specific things I should be looking at (like the Linux/Windows issue)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenksismyhero Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 QUOTE (scenario @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:22 PM) I'm going to propose a counter-suggestion to the above. I run several websites and have ditched godaddy, dream-weaver, etc. (I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on tools in the past.) IMO, find yourself a quality host like hostgator.com, and run your entire website using Wordpress. Setup is simple, edits are easy... it's easier to keep your site fresh with content. You don't need to learn HTML or buy an HTML editor, and the software is free. Wordpress is a tool designed for blogs, but you can do pretty much anything you want website-wise with it. In fact, alot of professional websites have made the same sort of conversion I describe above. If you want more input on this, I'll be glad to talk with you about it. Here's an example of a template that can be used to create a professional website using wordpress. (I bought this one recently.) That corporate theme looks really nice. That might even be more complex than I need, but that was along the lines of what I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 15, 2009 -> 09:40 AM) Totally agree with the bottom line, which is why I'm not wanting to invest TOO much into this. I don't expect to use the website as a marketing tool to bring in business, but more of a if i'm networking/throwing out my business cards it'll allow people to check out my firm and what I do. So I guess in a sense it is for marketing if that causes a client to call my office, but really it's more "here's who we are and why we can help you" than *flash cheap legal work here! click now! *flash My experience is in civil litigation (contract disputes, personal injury/medical malpractice, discrimination, etc) but I've always wanted to get into helping businesses from formation to dissolution and everything in between. I was just sent a referral for a guy who has just started his own company which could become huge thanks to Obama's green energy initiatives, so there's potential it could be a very long deal. That was the basis for wanting to get a website going and actually get the firm established. I think I'll look into Wordpress. Any other ideas on hosting? Specific things I should be looking at (like the Linux/Windows issue)? You could start with a blog and it would achieve most of what you want. You want the phone to ring and the cash register to jingle. Here is a thought. In the next hour you could make 12 phone calls to potential clients or work on a web site. Which will net you some income quicker? Work through the process, would you rather talk to someone, preferable face to face about your experience and skills, or send them to your website? You do not have an impressive list of clients, etc to make that kind of impression. Initially, your clients will come directly from your efforts and who you are. To get the web placement high enough that a web search for "Hometown Attorney Civil" hits you takes additional money and work. Perhaps some well thought out and written blogs in the area you want to practice will get you the phone calls you need. I could be reading this all wrong, but I've seen too many business start ups think all they need is a really good website and clients will beat a path to their door. Do an internet search right now for your competitors and analyze what you find and think about how easy it will be for a potential client to find you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 BTW, when you do the website, and I know you will, I would find a hosting company like Kap has. A friend can help a lot when you run into issues. I've been down the road with "cheapest" host and when your website feature is not playing nice with the hots' system, life sucks. That is unless you have a good relationship and not some 1-800 number and a customer service rep to whom you are just another call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RibbieRubarb Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 I can help you get started in no time. Just send the naked pictures you want up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenksismyhero Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 QUOTE (RibbieRubarb @ May 15, 2009 -> 10:18 AM) I can help you get started in no time. Just send the naked pictures you want up you can handle vids too right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskyCaucasian Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 I would HIGHLY recommend the use of a Content Mangement System like Wordpress, Drupal, or Joomla. I manage a Drupal site and my personal site is Wordpress. Wordpress is the easiest and fastest to deploy, but Drupal scales a little better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palehosefan Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 Some very good suggestions on the thread as well. HostGator is another good hosting site and WordPress is a good site management tool if you can sit down for a little bit and understand it. WordPress is also based off of PHP and MySQL and actually lets you see your changes immediately upon submission. Here is a nice website for web hosting reviews, http://www.webhostingreviews.com/index.htm GoDaddy has gotten it's worst marks for customer service, but their customer service has always been excellent for me in my 5 years with them. I can tell you one host to stay away from and that is IPowerWeb, they are unbelievably bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RibbieRubarb Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 15, 2009 -> 10:24 AM) you can handle vids too right? Whatever floats your boat is our motto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beautox Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 I've had great experience with Go Daddy www.iamthetrend.com and id recommend word press Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almagest Posted May 20, 2009 Share Posted May 20, 2009 I worked for a hosting company for a while, and the suggestions for Wordpress and Drupal are definitely ones I would second, as well as the suggestion to go with a friend/acquaintance for server space. I would also suggest, however, that you wait until you either have the money to pay for someone to work on your site for you, or have a friend do it for you as a favor or pay him in beer. Don't spend any time on it yourself -- you wouldn't advise a web developer to defend himself in court, right? Focus on practicing and getting customers first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Who would you guys host with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Ok, Ok, now you all can go back to the nerdery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soxbadger Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 If you are going solo practitioner I suggest that you join Chicago Bar Association, etc. People will call up the CBA asking for an attorney and they give out names of people who are members. I assume by your first post that you already have passed the bar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenksismyhero Posted May 28, 2009 Author Share Posted May 28, 2009 Yep, i've had my license for about a year. I'm a member of the chicago and illinois state bar associations. Unfortunately this town is not hiring lawyers, even ones with 2 years of experience. If anyone needs a lawyer let me know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoxFan1 Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 I'm a graphic designer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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