Client Leaving Findlaw - These are his concerns

There are two ways to look at this.

1. Findlaw was providing him value: if so why would he want to leave? $1,900 a month isn't expensive if he was getting value. How many blogs were they putting up? If it was original content that is a good price.

2. Findlaw was not providing him value: If he wasn't getting leads from Findlaw why is he worried about the domain and the content. Starting from scratch is likely not a bad course of action. If he wasn't getting leads from them why does it matter?

Do you see my point?

If you believe and have sold him on the fact you can provide greater value than Findlaw that is great. Well as long as you can deliver.

If you truly as the marketing expert believe he should drop Findlaw completely the rest is easy.

First he is a lawyer. He signed a contract with them. There is no need to ask us rather he owns the domains and content. Ask him. He's a lawyer and should know where the contracts put him in regards to that.

Honest in this situation I would ask any client these questions.
"Do you own the domains?"
"Great do you handle the registrations of did (old provider)?"
"Who do you contact to get the registrations transferred?"
"Does the content (old provider) created for your website belong to you?"
"Does the 800 number belong to you?"

Now the average guy will not know this and I would ask to see the contracts but a lawyer should know this and if not be able to read the contract and find out.

Second if said content and domains do not in the contract belong to him are they using his trademarks? if so he should be able to tell you that and be able to get them back. After all he's a lawyer and that is what lawyers do.

With a normal client you might have to have them contact a lawyer (maybe this lawyer will be your go to guy in the future) on the contract and the trademarks. But your client is one. He should not need you to explain how to do this. Assume he is the professional and have this conversation as if he should know what to do. If he doesn't you can offer a bit of advice or refer him to the lawyer you normally use.

Third create the new content on another domain until it is ready to go live. At that point you would put the new web page(s) on the old domain(s). Same as you would normally.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
Now another possibility is that Findlaw is providing him with value and leads. In which case replacement might not be the best marketing plan. It may be best to recreate an alternative site. Get it ranking and providing leads. If once it is doing well that significantly lows the ROI of Findlaw then reviewing Findlaw's place in your overall marketing plan may be best. It could have value now and not have value later.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
Also from a pricing stand point I hope you are charging this guy more than Findlaw and providing more value. if not you left a huge amount of money on the table.

After all if he was willing to pay Findlaw that much to bring him in ___ leads wouldn't more and better quality leads be worth more to him? I don't know how you landed this client or if he came to you or what he was looking for. But charging less for more is nice but your long term value is in knowing that you can provide greater value than Findlaw while still charging more.

He pays a total of $3000 per month for various things, and no, he does not feel he is getting the value he should be. I have a local DUI lead site and have been sending him 2-3 calls per month for a couple months now - no charge - so he knows I can deliver and trusts me.

He is checking on the phone numbers and the other stuff now. I get the impression that many attorneys don't really have a clue as to what Findlaw really does for them. They just go with what every other attorney is doing and pay the bill each month.

He told me there is not even a rep in the area any more, so to talk with anyone about his online marketing, he has to call someone in MN who doesn't have a clue as to his business.

I will probably end up building local niche sites with blogs to drive leads in his areas of expertise, along with adwords campaigns, a youtube channel etc. I was just checking here to see if anyone had taken over an attorney's stuff after being with Findlaw and what their experience was.

Sounds like leaving Findlaw now is the right move. Given what you said I would tell him to toss them.

Has he given you access to the tracking info he gets? You can check it out to get a better feel of what value the content and URL have.

And ask him the questions. Have him pull out the contract if he needs to. That way you two together can find out what kind of limbo the content, 800 Number, and urls are in.

I took it more of a "can we" question vs. what people experienced when they did get the URLs and such from Findlaw. And those are two different questions. One is merely the law and ownership. While the other is how hard it was to do.

You can legally have rights to something but it might take hours and money to get possession of it.

And on that question I don't have experience. Sorry for taking the question the wrong way.

Thanks for the great input guys. Because the DUI site works for bringing in leads, I am leaning towards creating other local sites with the same model but in other areas of criminal law.

The bottom line really comes down to results (i.e. calls). He told me he had no problem paying $3000 per month to someone who brought him 90K in business, and he would be ecstatic to pay $6K per month for $180K/yr in business. So it really is wide open. Its really all about ROI, which is the way it should be. But the advantages of having someone locally to meet with monthly to discuss and implement strategy is a huge advantage over a large firm of cubicle dwellers in another state.

The other option is to provide your ranking/marketing services to Findlaw...

Thanks A LOT MAN! Your question and the level of detailed addressed helped me zero in on info I have been unsuccessful at finding on Google - no many how hard I search!!

There was some interesting information about Findlaw in this old thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...r-findlaw.html

You may also want to check out posts by Vosai, he has a firm that, specifically, targets attorneys for internet marketing.

One does not simply make a directory site for attorneys and charge 500 a month until that directory starts showing up at minimum on the first page of Google.