How to get Ink and Links for your business.

I'm proud to announce that this weblog has been named to the EDDix 50 - a list of the top 50 legal weblogs. I'd like to thank my parents for raising me the way they did, my lovely wife, my beautiful daughter, my agent, my producer ....

Really, I'd like to give kudos to the folks at EDDix, a new company in the Electronic Data Discovery business (get it, EDD). With a significant amount of work, they've managed to get most of the top "blawgs" to link to their new business site without paying a dime in advertising! Don't get me wrong, I think my inclusion on the list is really cool, and Michael A. Clark and the others at EDDix have taken a lot of time to compile a great guide to legal weblogs, but I'm most impressed with the sheer brilliance of the marketing behind it. And like any list of Top 50 anything, there will be a bit of controversy -- all to generate more links and traffic to the site.

What kind of thing could you do to get your clients or competitors talking about you? For lawyers, how about beginning a "Top 10 Small Businesses" award? Accept nominations from the public, have a panel of "experts" pick the winners, and invite all of the nominees (with their staffs) to a banquet you sponsor to honor the winners. Have a keynote speaker talk about a unique issue facing small businesses. Make sure your marketing materials are front and center and that you meet and greet every nominee. Arrange for photographs of the winners accepting their awards (with a firm member in each one), and send the pictures to the local paper along with a press release, or ask the paper to cover the event with a reporter. Total cost -- a few thousand dollars. The ability to meet and interact with dozens of your target clients (and their families and staffs) -- priceless.

I like this idea so much we'll work on "The Silver Lake Group Award for Small Business" and see if
we can get it up and running for next year.