Lawyers: Help Yourself By Helping Me!

Attention lawyers: I want to take this opportunity to tell you about an exciting new way to help out one of your favorite blogs! I’m talking about Windypundit, of course! I know we’re one of our favorite blogs because you’re here now, reading this. Even if this is the thousandth blog you’re read today, there are millions of other blogs out there, and that puts us in your top tenth of one percent!

As I’m sure you’re aware, all the authors here at Windypundit are volunteers. We do this work because we love it. Nevertheless, producing this high-quality content involves certain out-of-pocket expenses. We pay hosting charges for the blog itself, we pay hosting fees for some of the high-quality photographs, and we pay fees to a content distribution network so the blog loads quickly. In addition, we incur expenses for our computers, our cameras, photo processing software, and so on. Basically, providing all this high-quality content for free means we suffer financially, and you don’t want that on your conscience, do you?

Of course not! That’s why you’ll be excited to hear about a revolutionary new way for you to help us cover these costs, and it won’t cost you a dime! Would you like to know more?

Good. Here’s how it works:

Over in the left-hand column you should see an ad for the Avvo website. (I’ve also scattered several helpful ads throughout this post) I’m sure you’ve all heard how Avvo is using the power of their social networking(-ish) website to leverage law firm marketing by empowering legal consumers. Your potential clients can now search through thousands of lawyer profiles on the Avo site to find the best match for their needs, and if you’re not careful, they might pick someone besides you!

Even if you’ve only heard of Avvo in passing, you may have noticed that Avvo has created a profile for you or your law firm based on publicly available records. But did you know that in order for you to take full advantage of Avvo’s amazing services, you have to register and claim your profile?

Well, here at Windypundit, we’ve taken steps to make that easy. All you have to do is click that Avvo ad on the left (or any of the ads embedded in this post), and it will take you straight to a special page on the Avvo site where you can claim your profile. It’s just that easy!

Now here’s the best part: Even though claiming a profile costs you nothing, every time one of you claims a profile by clicking the logo on the left, Avvo pays me ten dollars. That comes out of their pocket, and it costs you nothing! So if you love Windypundit and you love the idea of Avvo, and yet you haven’t claimed your profile, now is the time!

But perhaps you are ambivalent towards Avvo. Does that mean you shouldn’t bother to claim your profile? No. Not at all. Even if you never plan to use your Avvo profile, it’s still a good idea to claim your profile as a way of locking out nefarious tricksters who could steal your unclaimed profile. Unless you act fast, your customized profile could be stolen by a random prankster, a disgruntled former partner, a dissatisfied former client, a disturbed ex-spouse, a pedophile, or even a terrorist!–and they could post anything they want in your name–libelous comments about competing lawyers, racists jokes about local judges, even some hard core donkey porn! You don’t want that, now do you?

(Note: You really, realy don’t want the hard-core donkey porn. Don’t even google “donkey porn” if you know what’s good for you. You have been warned.)

Sure, Avvo will tell you they have some sort of verification process, but you know how things work on the internet, right? Why take chances? Claim your profile today! Don’t forget: You’ll also be supporting this fine blog.

I know what some of you are thinking: What if you hate Avvo? What if you believe that Avvo stands for the kind of cheap, ethics-free marketing that is ruining the legal profession? What if you pray each day for Avvo to fail and for its founders to burn forever in the fires of hell while demons feast on their flesh?

Well, that’s even more reason to click the Avvo ad on the left and claim your profile! Don’t think of it as joining Avvo; think of it as draining ten bucks from Avvo’s marketing budget! And you know that ten bucks comes right out of Avvo’s bottom line! They’re a bunch of money-grubbing scum, so hit them in the wallet where it hurts the most!

In fact, why stop with just claiming your profile? Contact your friends, spam your listserves, post a link to this page on your website. You could start a movement that ends up costing Avvo hundreds or thousands of dollars in affiliate fees! It’s like you’re stealing money from those bastards, and it’s totally legal!

So take action now! However you feel about Avvo, your course of action should be clear: Claim your profile! Tell your friends! Act now!