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Video Marketing For Lawyers – 9 Things You Must Ask Your Video Producer

Here are the 9 most important things you need to ask any video production company:

1. How long will my video shoot be?
2. How many actual video clips will I get for that length of video shoot?
3. How long will each video clip be?
4. Will you upload my video clip(s) to my website and blog?
5. Do you upload my videos to the video sharing sites?
6. Do you blog about my videos?
7. Do you put my videos on your own website and blog about the newest video you created?
8. Do you use your social networks to tell the world about my new video?
9. How much will you charge me to create another series of video clips?

If the video company you’re choosing doesn’t do all of those things with an all-in-one, turn-key system, ask them “Why Not?”

AM I TOO EXPENSIVE?

You’ve decided to produce videos to market your law practice. You’re now looking for a video production company. Here are 3 reasons why you won’t hire me:

1. I’m too expensive
2. I’m an attorney with years of experience creating and producing educational videos
3. You don’t want the commitment of creating video over 6 or 12 months

There. I’ve said it. These are the main reasons why you will not hire me. Now, I’m going to address each one and by the end of this article, you decide who you need to hire.

Most video production companies charge anywhere from $500-$35,000 to create attorney video. At the low end of the spectrum, you can get the cookie-cutter video where they use a fixed template that you cannot change and get only one video clip for your money. At the other end of the spectrum, you get a custom video channel with 3 or 4 video clips.

In the Lawyers’ Video Studio I shoot one hour of video. From that one hour I am able to get about 4-5 usable video clips lasting 2-3 minutes each! I do not recommend having video clips less than one minute; that’s a waste of your time and money. That will not give you enough time to explain to your viewers the information that they need to know.

Most video studios only offer an a-la-carte menu, where you pick and choose your options. That’s not the way we work in the Lawyers’ Video Studio. Contrary to most video production studios, we create a turn-key system where all you have to do is show up and start talking. You do not need to know anything about how the video is created, edited, compressed, uploaded or distributed. It’s totally done for you.

WHO IS YOUR VIDEO PRODUCER?

Ask any of the video companies you are considering whether their video producers are practicing trial lawyers. Why is that important? It’s only important if you want someone to create video that online viewers want to watch. If you just want to create a video to ‘get your name out there’ and give the world a verbal resume of who you are, then you don’t need a producer who is also an attorney. That would be a waste of your time and money. There are plenty of good video producers out there who can create that type of video for you.

A video producer must have experience creating LAWYER video. Not wedding video. Not commercials. Not verbal resumes that do not help a viewer understand how you can solve THEIR legal problem. They may have won awards for work they did in TV or film, but you must ask any video producer these 3 IMPORTANT questions:

1. Do you know what a [fill in your specialty] lawyer (immigration, workers comp, DUI, personal injury, business transactions, etc.) does?
2. Do you know who my ideal client is?
3. Do you know what an online viewer looks for when searching for a lawyer in my specialty?

A producer who is a practicing attorney will know the answers to these questions. Other producers will likely not know the answers.

YOU DON’T WANT TO CREATE 24 to 60 VIDEO CLIPS THAT WILL GET VIEWERS TO CALL YOU

Ok, I understand. You’d rather stick with your very expensive (and useless) yellow pages ad that does not distinguish you from any other lawyer. Maybe you want to try some display ads in the newspaper again. Maybe you’ll try TV commercials or direct mail. Maybe even dabble in radio spots. That’s fine. One year from now I’d like you to come back to this article and objectively look at your stats to see how many calls you received from your other advertising; how many turned into actual clients; how much revenue you generated from that advertising and what your actual return on investment is.

One year from now, you will have lost the opportunity to create 6 months worth of videos. You might even have lost the opportunity to create 12 months of videos. Just think about how many viewers come to YouTube alone: Over 100 million people EACH MONTH! The goal of creating video is to greatly improve the likelihood that an online viewer will call you instead of your competitor. Anything you do to increase those chances will place you ahead and distinguish you from all of your colleagues.

By creating new video every month for six months, you create 4-5 video clips PER MONTH. That gives you 24 to 30 actual videos that will be online. For attorneys who realize how incredible that value is and the tremendous savings you receive, they will eagerly take advantage of the 12 month video incentive program and create 48 to 60 videos by the end of one year. That’s a huge number of videos.

Creating video is the best thing to have happened to me in my law practice. I receive calls from people across the country every day thanking me for educating them and asking me for legal help. Obviously not all callers have valid cases, but just think…if they hadn’t seen my videos, they would have never called.

So, are you willing to create useful video that will get viewers to raise their hands for more information and seek your counsel, or do you want to wait and let every other attorney get the opportunities you’re passing up? The choice, as always, is up to you. My goal is to make you an informed attorney and let you make an educated decision about which path you want to travel.

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Small Business Loans – Easier Source for Financing a Project

As business person, you are always looking for business opportunities and many of them require you to spend smaller money. For instance there is a book store for sale around your vicinity and you want to buy it. It requires small financial help as you would be investing rest of the money from own pocket. So, small business loans come handy and are meant to serve such a business situation.Small business loans sound as if they are provided very easily but that is not the case always. If the borrower has offered a property like home, equipment or any valuable property as collateral, small business loans are easier to avail as risks for the lender are reduced. The loan amount approved usually is up to a certain percentage of value of collateral. But that is not all. More than collateral, lender would see if you have sufficient experience in the business or not. Lenders see risks in a new business. This means that lenders would like to look into the type of business. Repaying capacity of the borrower also is of prime concern to the lenders in approving small business loans. Lenders like to invest their money as small business loan preferably in a business that is earning enough or has potential to earn, so that the borrower returns back the loan in regular manner. for very smaller loan, unsecured business loan can be availed at higher interest rate. Unsecured smaller business loan is usually offered to the business people having excellent credit history and is offered without collateral.Before you approach a small business loan provider, make sure that you have relevant documents ready. But prior to showing the documents you must be ready with a sound business plan that is capable of projecting the purpose of the loan or where shall it be invested. Lenders would like to have a deep look into your repaying capacity through different documents. Take cash flow projections of your business for concrete financial data. The lender would like to have a list of your personal assets and debts and in case of established business, business tax returns may be required for showing about financial health of the business.Also note that many financial institutions especially banks require you as small business loan applicant to invest a percentage of total monetary requirement of a project from own pocket. So be prepared to make a down payment for the business when asking for a small business loan.If a business person has bad credit, it is advisable that he should first make efforts to improve credit score. For instance he can pay off some easy debts for enhancing credit score. This way it would be easier for lender to consider bad credit borrower for small business loan.There are many small business loan providers on internet. Compare there interest rates and terms-conditions for a better loan deal. Preferably apply to an online lender as he can process the loan faster.No doubt small business loans are most useful for smaller financial needs. Make sure that you pay off small business loan installments regularly so that you escape any debt trap. Your credit scored also gets improved with clearing of each installment.

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How To Find A Trustworthy Car Repair Shop

According to statistics, about 50% of the people who live in Canada own vehicles. It’s safe to say that at some point, all car owners will need to take their car to a shop for repairs or maintenance.

However, finding an affordable shop with trustworthy mechanics who fix cars promptly is not an easy task. How do you find a good repair shop for you vehicle? Here are some tips that may be helpful.

  • Talk to your friends and neighbors. Not only will they give you honest advice, but they can also give you hints as far as shops that should be avoided. This is especially helpful if you talk to family and friends who have lived in the area for a reasonable length of time.
  • Look for a shop as soon as possible. Most people don’t think too much about choosing a repair shop until they are having car problems. Then, they will take their car to whatever mechanic is available simply to get the problem fixed. This is probably not a good idea. In fact, the best time to look for a car repair shop is when your car is actually before you need one.
  • Consider distance. You may want to choose a shop that is close to your home simply for convenience. In some cases, it may be possible to walk to the shop instead of asking friends and family for rides to pick up or drop off your vehicle.
  • What are the shop hours? If a shop opens after you need to be at work or closes before you arrive home from work, it may be very difficult to pick up your car or drop it off. If you choose to do business with such a shop, you will need to take time off of work every time you have car problems.
  • Find out what types of payment arrangements the shop has. Some places will only take cash while others take cash and certain types of credit cards. Other shops may offer patrons a 90 day same as cash arrangement if repairs cost over a certain amount.
  • Check online to read customer reviews. Keep in mind that not all business will feature customer reviews, especially small “mom and pop” shops. However, you may find that many shops do actually have reviews. Avoid shops with a large amount of negative reviews, although keep in mind that every shop is bound to have a few unhappy customers.
  • Consider how long the shop has been in business. Repair shops that do a good job tend to stay in business for a long time. However, this does not always hold true. You may find a shop that has recently opened with excellent service too if you take the time to look around.
  • Chains or small businesses? There are good and bad points about choosing either a shop that is part of a chain or choosing a shop that is run by an independent owner. Before making your choice, it is best to evaluate your needs and see which type of shop would be best for you.

As you can see, finding a good car repair shop isn’t very difficult; it just takes some time and effort!

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