Is your web site boring? Try these quick fixes

January 31, 2013 by
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Many competent and successful attorneys are, frankly, a bit dull. They live in a world of dry facts and esoteric knowledge and in that world they may be brilliant, but clients don’t usually live in that world.

The truth is, if your web site is boring people won’t read your content. If they don’t read it, they won’t know what you can do to help them. And trust me, they won’t call to find out.

How can you improve your writing? One of the best ways is to study good writing.

Think about your favorite web sites, the ones that aren’t boring. The next time you visit, save some of their articles and study them. Read them several times, slowly. Read them out loud. Copy them, by hand. Then, create an outline of the article and use it as a template for your own.

Now, what can you do right now to improve your web site’s content? Here are three quick fixes:

  1. Don’t write, speak. Dictate and record your thoughts and transcribe them. You’ll have a more natural, conversational first draft. You’ll be more likely to say what you want to say and leave out the boring bits. You could also record your content on audio or video and post that on your web site, along with a transcript.
  2. Put people in your posts. Stories breathe life into writing because they engage human emotions. Readers relate to the people in stories and keep reading to “find out what happened.” I’d much rather read about your client and what happened when he didn’t follow your advice than to only your advice.
  3. Make it visually appealing. Many people don’t read anymore, they scan, so give them something scanable. Use more white space and photos. Shorter articles, shorter paragraphs, and shorter sentences. Use bold headlines, sub-heads, and bullet points. By scanning, they’ll get the gist of what you’re saying and for now, that might be enough.

Don’t stop with quick fixes, though. Writing is one of the most valuable skills any attorney can have and worth the time and effort to improve. Read books or take courses on writing, copy writing, and sales. Make writing a daily habit. The more you practice, the better you will get. And, if you have more money than time, hire an editor or writing coach. Their feedback will help you get better.

You may be boring but your writing doesn’t have to be.

If you aren’t open minded, don’t buy this course.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Online Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Does your email Inbox need to go on a diet? Try mine.

November 28, 2011 by
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email overloadMy spell checker tells me “unsubscribe” isn’t a word but I know it is because I’ve been doing a lot of it lately.

Now that I’ve achieved “Inbox Zero” (I’ll tell you how I did it in a later post) new emails into my nearly-empty Inbox stand out like a big pimple on an otherwise unblemished forehead. And I’m getting more these days now that the holiday shopping season is in high gear.

And so I’m being ruthless at unsubscribing (also not a word) from as many newsletters and other email subscriptions as possible. I know I can always re-subscribe if I change my mind.

It feels great. You should try it.

Ask yourself, “Do I usually read email from this person/company/group?” If the answer is no, hit the unsub link (okay, now I’m making up words).

If you’re not sure, or if you do at times read these emails, leave the subscription in place for now. You can have another go at this once you’ve removed the most obvious subscriptions.

Another option is to create a filter to automatically send these emails to your email archive. You’ll still get them but you won’t have to see them, unless and until you choose to. Filters are easy to set up in gmail; check your email client’s help file to see if this is possible and how to do it.

A third option for reducing the amount of incoming email is to set up another email address specifically for these subscriptions. Some email services allow you to change your email address. Others require you to unsubscribe and re-subscribe with the new email address.

I have an email address I set up for this purpose. Right now I have all of those messages forwarded to my regular Inbox, but it’s easy to turn off this function. I can then check the other email account once a month, scan through the messages, and decide if there is anything worth reading.

I like getting email. It’s an important part of my work and personal life. I’m sure email is important to you, too. But when you get too many emails, particularly emails you aren’t reading, it’s time to put your email Inbox on a diet.

You might want to hurry. The after Christmas sales will be here before we know it.

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,