I rarely make it through an entire day without getting a question about virtual law practices: they’re hot. Lawyers and law students (especially law students approaching graduation) want to know whether they can sell legal services via the Internet. The questioning is most intense when I’m talking to a student who doesn’t yet have a job or a lawyer who doesn’t have much revenue.
Can you make money with a virtual practice? Can you sell services or documents through the Internet without having clients show up at a physical office and write you a check?
The answer?
Probably not.
What You Need to Get Law Sales on the Internet
Here’s the deal: you can only sell services via the Internet if you have traffic coming to your website.
No traffic means no sales. No sales means no money. Game over.
If you’ve got traffic accompanied by the right offer, then you’ve got sales. Game on.
Most of the people asking me about virtual practices have no traffic.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Site
Can you get traffic? Sure. How? Two ways.
1. You can develop content. You’ll need good material that attracts visitors. The content can be text, audio, video, or helpful tools. It all works, and if it’s of good quality and is carefully targeted to assist people in need of help, then it will draw traffic—eventually. It might take some time for the word to get around and the traffic to come. You can shorten that time by using social media to promote your site.
2. You can buy traffic. You can place pay-per-click ads on Google and other services. Some people will see your ads and come to your site. Once they arrive, some percentage (usually a small percentage) will buy your offering if it’s well designed to meet their needs. You’ve got to have some capital to invest in order to get started, and you’ve got to carefully calculate the cost of obtaining each customer and keep the endeavor profitable.
If you go with buying traffic, then you’d better be sure you’re charging enough for your product to cover your cost of acquiring a customer. If you’re paying $25 per click (and lots of lawyers are) and it takes you 20 clicks to get $250 in revenue, then you’re losing money—fast.
Why Most Virtual Practices Can’t Compete in the Market
I’m not optimistic that you’ll make it work. I’m sorry.
So why can’t you sell services/products virtually when LegalZoom et al. can succeed?
I’ve got a couple of responses.
First off, do you have any idea how much revenue LegalZoom is doing in your market for your service? How much do you think it’s taking in for divorces in Idaho? We don’t know, and we’ll likely never know. The company doesn’t report that level of detail. I can tell you that it doesn’t advertise or emphasize divorce in Idaho much. I bet Idaho isn’t a huge online market for it. Why would it be for you? LegalZoom offers a broad range of solutions for a variety of problems. You probably offer a narrow range of solutions.
Second, LegalZoom has a brand. It advertises that brand like crazy. Buyers trust brands. LegalZoom is well capitalized and is spending its money. You don’t have the capital, and you probably haven’t developed a brand. That’s a big problem when you’re competing with the likes of LegalZoom and going head to head.
Should you give it a try and see what happens? Sure, go for it if you’ve got plenty of free time and not much work to do anyway. I think all experimentation is a good. However, is it the best use of your time? I don’t think so.
Is anyone making money with virtual practices? The only lawyers I’ve met who are winning in this arena are the lawyers selling you advice about virtual practices. Maybe you should become an advisor and start teaching other lawyers how to build virtual practices?
