Rowboat Media | Legal Websites | WordPress-Based Website Designs

Announcing ExpressLaunch Websites from Rowboat Media

Cynthia LaLuna — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:57 +0000

Affordable, professional-looking websites – launched in about a week.*

Don’t we all get stuck in a rut sometimes? Here at Rowboat Media we sure do.

While we love our work, and our clients (thankfully) love us, sometimes the process of putting together a 100%, fully custom website from scratch can just drag on.

A lot of clients don’t realize how much they are responsible for, even with a full-service studio like ours – like writing their content or hiring someone to do it (and managing that process), and providing actionable feedback on our design presentations, etc., and as a result, they can get caught up in running their own businesses (shocking, we know) and take weeks – sometimes months – to get back to us so we can launch a shiny new website and crow to the world about it.

We understand how this happens, but it doesn’t make life very much fun for us creative types who like to see our work going out into the world in the service of joy and commerce.

Therefore, we developed ExpressLaunch^TM – an affordable website program two years in the making, finally made possible by the incredible selection of Genesis child themes over at StudioPress.

ExpressLaunch helps us get websites out into the world, where they belong – instead of stuck on our development servers waiting for content or feedback.

We get to create, which makes us happy, and you get fast websites with less management, time, and money invested. (Yes, I just used an Oxford comma there.)

What’s the catch?

Due to the extreme affordability of these websites, we can only take 10 clients at a time.

We have to honor our commitments to our fully custom clients, and we want to make sure we also keep our promises to ExpressLaunch clients in terms of turnaround.

Therefore, once we have 10 ExpressLaunch clients on the boards, we will close the program until our schedule clears up enough to accept another 10.

Find out what ExpressLaunch is all about, and discover the meaning of asterisks.

Design Inspiration – Manual Photography Cheat Sheet

Cynthia LaLuna — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:00:24 +0000

Thank you to Jeff Sarris for turning me on to this insanely gorgeous – while also being correct and useful – Manual Photography Cheat Sheet by Miguel Yatco. He’s made it available as a print poster, and I have to say I am mightily tempted.

Given that our Deborah Wolfe has been a commercial photographer for over 20 years, and not too long ago we were dodging and burning in the darkroom, the content is beautiful to us in a way that is deeply emotional.

Content aside, the beautiful vintage fonts, the faded paper effect as if it’s already spent a bit too much time in the sun – the whole package has me attempting to reach inside my computer screen and touch it.

Eighteen year old Miguel has amazing talent. Whippersnapper.

The perfect introductory video for your website

Cynthia LaLuna — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:00:32 +0000

While speaking with some prospective clients, they pointed me to a video they thought “struck just the right tone for an introductory video.” I went to watch it, and couldn’t agree more.

The video is by Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies.

Things Tad did right:

Casual approach with attention to detail

Tad dressed casually, to put his target audience at ease. However, he paid close attention to the background of his video and what was in front of him. Was his phone there just in case he got an important call while he was making his video? No – it sent a subtle signal that he’s technologically connected.

The coffee mug, just like for your favorite morning show host, subliminally invites you into his “digital living room.”

Finally, the background is clean and neat – nothing to distract the viewer from focusing on Tad and his message.

Tell the viewers what they can expect to find

Tad mentioned his free stuff first, then moved on to his blog. In describing the blog, he set expectations for how often he would update it and the type of content that would be on it.

Last (the position of most importance), he mentions his e-book and explains what it covers.

Sandwiched in with his ebook pitch, he lets the viewer know what sort of follow-up emails they can expect if they go for the “ethical bribe” that is the e-book.

Use titles judiciously

When Tad is talking about the most important thing – the item that builds his list – a title shows up at the bottom of the video reinforcing what he is saying and instructing the viewer in the action they need to take to get the e-book. Because he doesn’t use titles throughout the video, it makes that one judicious use particularly eye-grabbing.

MOVE your body

Talking head videos can get static and boring in a nanosecond, so Tad behaves as if he really is IN his website – he looks up and around at the different content as he speaks about it, points over at the e-book opt-in, etc.

While this does require knowing how your video will be sited in your design, it’s worth doing and paying attention to.

Throw in some personality

While his entire video is full of personality, at the end of the scripted portion of the video, Tad cut in a montage of himself being…himself, or at least the version of himself he wants to present in his business, which is casual, concerned, appealing, and wacky. If you’re not hiring a talented video editor to help you out, this part can be skipped without hurting the value of the rest of the video.

So many of us provide services that are similar to those of our competitors – it’s important to leverage our personal uniqueness.

Keep it snappy

Tad managed to do ALL that, and throw in some groan-worthy hippie jokes at the end, in a mere 110 seconds. Once your video stretches over 2 minutes long, unless it’s a class or tutorial on something, you’re losing pretty much all of the audience.

I tried to find some data that was fresher than this, since online behavior is morphing daily, but this study is still being quoted: “Most videos steadily lose viewers once “play” is clicked, with an average 10.39% of viewers clicking away after ten seconds and 53.56% leaving after one minute.”

The formula is pretty simple – but simple and easy are two different things, and Tad Hargrave made it look effortless.

Do NOT upgrade to WP 3.3 just yet!

Cynthia LaLuna — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:00:13 +0000

January 31, 2012 – we’ve found the culprit – the W3 Total Cache plugin. As of this writing, it’s still not playing well with 3.3 or 3.3.1, and hasn’t been updated since last August. So if you’re NOT running that plugin, you should be able to upgrade safely. However – the caution in upgrading WordPress the MINUTE it comes out remains – give your hard-working plugin developers a couple of weeks to catch up. The more plugins you run, the more likely there is to be a problem.

Hi folks, you may have gotten an email today (Monday, December 12) about the shiny new features in WordPress 3.3.

Don’t hit that upgrade button just yet!

One of my top clients, who shall remain nameless (seriously), got all excited and hit that link and bad things happened. HostGator chuckled and said, “yep, that version appears to be buggy.” And downgraded my client so his site worked again. I love HostGator tech support. I owe them all a pitcher of beer.

Our typical modus operandi here in the Rowboat is to wait about 3 weeks when big new releases come out before upgrading, to give plugin developers and webhosts a chance to catch up and let the REST of the world be the beta testers. So if you’re WebMistress clients, that’s why you see that upgrade link nagging you for a while before our team gets to it. That’s on purpose.

Be careful out there!

Simple SEO for YouTube

Cynthia LaLuna — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:00:06 +0000

So you’ve gone to the trouble to create a video – or seven – to help promote your business. You upload it to YouTube chiefly so you can easily embed it into your website, and go on about your merry way.

WHAT A WASTED OPPORTUNITY!

I can’t tell you how many times a client has sent me a link to embed, and when I visit it on YouTube, the title is something like “myvid01″ and the description is…completely blank.

That’s like spending $25,000 on a booth at the top trade show in your industry but not being listed in the directory…or hanging a sign above the booth…or, for that matter, bringing any brochures.

Google owns YouTube. If you do it right, you can even see your videos outrank your website – and this is not a bad thing, because your video – optimized correctly – will lead visitors RIGHT TO your website.

Optimizing your YouTube video title

What should be in your video title ? KEYWORDS. If you’re an Asheville veterinarian named Jane Smith, titling your video “Jane Smith, DVM” will not help people who are looking for a veterinarian find you. However – if you title it “Asheville veterinarian Jane Smith” – then you look like you know something.

Optimizing your YouTube video description

If you’re using video to help market your website, and thereby your business, what’s the #1 thing that MUST be listed in the YouTube video description? I’ll wait…

If you said, “a link to my website,” then you’re way ahead of the game, believe it or not. If people can’t easily click through to your website from your video, then all 80 takes and sweaty palms were a waste of your time. At the bare minimum, that’s what needs to be there.

Beyond that, you need, once again, the relevant keyword phrases you want to rank for.

So, in her description, she might write,

“Looking for an Asheville veterinarian?

http://janesmithdvm.com

In this video, Dr. Jane Smith demonstrates her unique approach to helping your pet stay calm and comfortable during a veterinary exam. Feel free to stop by the office anytime to meet Dr. Smith and learn more about her experience providing veterinary care to Asheville’s best-loved residents.”

Above, we started with the keyword phrase “Asheville veterinarian”, came right out with the website address, and then provided an appealing description that both included her name and repeated the words veterinary and Asheville later on in the description.

It takes less than five minutes to do and makes your video a vital part of your SEO strategy.

Including a call to action

People won’t do what you want them to do – that thing that puts money in YOUR pocket – unless you tell them how. So, when recording your video, make sure you TELL them what they need to do to engage with you – and then in the description, do the same in words.

Happy video marketing!

Headway 3.0 is coming – and the price is going up

Cynthia LaLuna — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:04:14 +0000

We received a notification from Headway that they are getting ready to release Headway 3.0 – and when they do, the license fee is going up (currently $87 for single-use and $164 for developers). Also, they’re moving to an annual subscription model for updates and ongoing support – but if you buy now, before it comes out, you lock in the current flat rate and get lifetime updates and support for FREE.

The teaser video below looks like it’s going to boast more child themes (we wonder if this will be like Genesis currently does), collaboration with other themes, and even more drag-and-drop layout capability.

If you’re on the fence about trying out Headway, now is the time.

Is site load speed REALLY that important to Google?

Cynthia LaLuna — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:04:26 +0000

Matt Cutts, who works for Google, often posts fabulous videos that set the rumor mill straight on what Google’s practices are. In an earlier post, I linked to one of Matt’s videos to disabuse you of the notion that the meta keywords field buys you ANYTHING other than carpal tunnel. (Google ignores meta keywords.)

Today, I came across a video addressing the issue of the Facebook Like button, which many of you may have noticed DOES slow your sites down a bit. A site owner wanted to know if they should remove it because of the so-called almighty speed issue.

Matt addresses the speed vs. user experience issue in an extremely lucid manner, basically stating that Google merely wanted to “start a conversation” about site speeds – NOT cause the obsession with speed above all else that seems to be the result. He points out that if you sacrifice user experience and quality content for a speed score, you’re also hurting yourself with Google.

Bottom line: Keep your social media buttons and keep producing great content.

Why We Love Designing Websites for Lawyers

Cynthia LaLuna — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:33:53 +0000

We get a lot of questions from our colleagues – and some prospective clients – about why it is we get so much design work from the legal community. I thought it would be interesting to address here what it is like designing websites for lawyers, and why we enjoy it so much.

Lawyers are good people with a bad PR problem.

If you’ve ever been misunderstood and had people think they know you from just a tiny piece of information about you, you get this one. Over the course of my career, I’ve worked in 3 law firms – as an assistant and paralegal – from the gigantic to the boutique – and there’s no better way to understand that lawyers are people, too (a shocker for some), than working shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

They spend a lot of money on schooling and have the student loan burden to prove it, they have families and children who get sick, and most have a stronger sense of ethics than the population as a whole. And a work ethic. The work ethic most lawyers have would make the rest of us just want to lie down.

Rather than treating me poorly as a support staff member, most of the associates I aided would encourage me to go ahead home, while they wearily opened the file that a partner had just slapped on their desk at 6pm with an 8am deadline.

We help our client overcome perception issues with designs that don’t look like everyone else’s, and coach him through copywriting and photography choices – particularly through his “About Me” page, in order to convey his actual personality and help prospects feel comfortable hiring him.

Solos and small firms are underserved by the technical community.

Contrary to popular belief, most lawyers don’t earn six-figure salaries, and the current economic situation is making that even worse – big corporations hurting means they aren’t paying the big law firms who drive those salary perceptions.

There is a vast network of companies that has formed over the years to make money serving the legal community, in terms of technology services, marketing, case law research and more. Unfortunately, most of those companies have set their rates at a level that is out of reach for the lawyer who is practicing on her own, or who has only 2 or 3 associates.

As a consequence, many of these solopreneurs are finding themselves lost in the weeds when trying to find competent, cost-effective vendors to provide marketing services to them. We love helping them convert techno-speak to English, figuring out what they REALLY need, and providing them with the necessary hub for their marketing wheel without hefty monthly fees and restrictive contracts.

Lawyers embrace outsourcing and value specialized knowledge.

As a profession, lawyers know the value of specialization – they choose an area of the law to practice, they refer work to associates who know more about an area of the law than they do, and they employ paralegals, assistants and clerks to help them get the job done.

Therefore, you’ll rarely hear from a lawyer, “I’d code it myself, but I just don’t have time.” They’re clear on the difference between saving money (doing it yourself) and making money (doing what you’re best at). As part of that, they’re comfortable with delegating, which makes for a good partnership in a web design project. Because they charge their own clients based on their specialized knowledge, they value ours as well.

Lawyers are clear on the goal of a website – “Get Me Some Clients!”

We find that the most difficult type of clients are the “ego clients” – the ones who want a website that is all about them – and want us to find some magical way to convey “the essence of moi,” much like an interior decorator.

Lawyers are businesspeople, and as such are clear that a website is not about seeing their name in lights – it’s about getting clients in their offices. This means we get to discuss cool concepts like conversion rates and email marketing and information flow, instead of whether this shade of mauve matches their couch.

Lawyers don’t get freaked out about revisions.

Some clients think that if the first draft isn’t the perfect draft, maybe you’re not the right designer. Lawyers live in a world of revisions – revised pleadings, briefs, markups from colleagues, etc. They’re super-comfortable collaborating in an iterative fashion.

Lawyers pay their bills promptly.

There may be some exceptions to this rule, but we have not encountered them. We find that when lawyers make a purchasing decision, it’s usually not until they know they already have the funds. Bankruptcy lawyers, in particular, tend to walk their talk and run debt-free practices.

Lawyers understand the value of referrals.

Do a good job for a lawyer, and she’ll not only be a repeat client, she’ll tell everyone she knows who is looking for a similar service. They get all sorts of unsolicited marketing aimed at them as a profession, and as such, tend to lean on the referral system more heavily than others – just to screen out the white noise. Win her trust, and you win a solid referral stream of clients just like her.

Sponsored by the letters E, S, and Q.

If you think you might like to work with us, check out:

our services page for more details about what we offer,
find out how we work,
read our client references, and then
submit a website design inquiry.

Client Spotlight – Richard S. Feinsilver, Esq.

Cynthia LaLuna — Tue, 04 May 2010 00:39:24 +0000

Back in ’09, (read that with an old-timey squeaky voice), we did two satellite website designs for Rich Feinsilver, a bankruptcy and real estate lawyer in Long Island, New York. They were pretty simple projects with a lot of context-sensitive video integration.

When Rich got ready to revamp his flagship site, he came back to us – which is about the most gigantic compliment a client can give.

“I want all the bells and whistles,” he said. We made loud rummaging noises in our bell box and whistle closet, and designed an elegantly simple design to present his content for both practice areas, support a blog, and connect clients and prospects with Rich via social media.

We designed separate landing pages for the Long Island bankruptcy practice:

And the Long Island real estate law practice:

It’s always a pleasure to work with Rich’s Blackberry Rich!

Do you recognize yourself?

Cynthia LaLuna — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:28:53 +0000

Every couple of months, this one makes the rounds on Twitter, and it’s so good I just had to share here.