Although this is definitely off-topic, I have a client in Western New York that is heavily involved in the Clarence, NY Rotary and needs some help.

So consider this a Public Service Announcement.

As part of the Rotory’s mission, they raise funds to benefit those in the area that need healthcare, sponsor you activities, fund scholarships and community projects.

To help with that effort, the Rotary is having a Porsche Raffle. They are selling chance to win either a 2011 Porsche Boxster, a 2011 Porsche Cayenne or $40,000 in cash.

All proceeds go to the Clarance Rotary Foundation so they can help the community.

If you’re interested, go here – Porsche Car Raffle. It helps a good cause.

I received a call the other day. Haven’t had a call like it in years.

An attorney was on the other end of the phone. And after he introduced himself and we exchanged pleasantries, he said he wanted to…..

Thank me.

He had graduated from law school a couple of years ago, married a young lady from New Mexico, went to work for a large law firm in the upper Midwest for a short time… and then took the leap and opened his own shop.

He had no clients, was a year out of law school, with a mortgage and all the other fun stuff that life brings to us.

And then he said….

Because of me…. he was recently able to put a new roof on his home and he paid cash for it.

Because of me?

Yep – here’s why.

He downloaded my e-book, “Does Your Website Make This Mistakes” and my three-part series, ”
“Your Law Firm On The First Page Of Google In 2010 – For Free” – and just followed along as he built a very solid, and rewarding Internet presence.

In less than 12 months, he had hit six-figures. Two years out of law school – and he did this? All by himself? Freakin’ awesome. So what if I provided the guidance – he did it himself.

Honestly, he did have an advantage. He’s young and Internet savvy, so he gets all this Internet “stuff”.

The point is, this “stuff” works – and at the end of the day, it will significantly increase a law firms revenue, whether they do it themselves or hire someone smart to do it for them.

As his practice matures, he’ll likely discover that the real revenue comes from referrals. He’s a smart guy, he’ll figure it out…right JW?

I’m happy for him and grateful for his call – it made my year.

So I’m chatting with a prospective client the other day and he wants me to look at his AVVO profile.

I hit the bookmarks and AVVO pops up ….. quickly as always ( I love a huge site that loads fast).

What the heck is this? Where happened to my AVVO?

The AVVO I know….the one that attorneys all over the country have used to build a personal profile, and a boatload of consumers use regularly to get answers to common legal questions …. is now highlighting ….

Doctors!

What a perfect way to screw-up a brand.

They had already passed by www.lawyers.com (Lexis) for total monthly traffic and I’m sure Findlaw was looking over their shoulder to see how close AVVO was getting.

Avvo, who was methodically grabbing market-share from the established players, and probably making a little cash too, decides to target physicians as well? Wow.

This move makes no sense …. whatsoever.

Is it stupidity? Arrogance? Greed?

All Three?

AVVO has just started down the path …. of killing their own brand.

They could learn a lesson from Google …. build a better mousetrap and continually make it better, till you kill your competition.

Then you start playing around in other markets.

Over the past several months, Google has been testing new search results targeting “local” search – meaning any search that has a geographical locator in it, i.e., St Louis or New York City, will give you a completely different look.

These new results were rolled out last week, and not unexpectedly, there were a few issues. So as of this date, these new results are only being shown on Internet Explorer. It’s only a matter of time before every browser shows these new results.

The bottom line is this….a law firm can’t just target Google Places/Maps.

And they can’t just target Organic/Natural Search.

They have to target both….work on both….and show Google they are a player for the local search terms they are trying to target.

Rank well – and the phone will ring.

If you don’t….the silence will be deafening.

Just below, I shot a quick video that details the changes.

If you want to see a full-size video, go to Law Firm Internet Marketing On Google…today.

On 11/10, Matt Cutts indicated on his blog that the Caffeine update was going to roll-out to only one data center till after the holidays. A great move on Google’s part given that the last time they introduced an algo change (Florida) they did it right before the busiest shopping time of the year for many online retailers.

Anyway, I used the Caffeine Sandbox tool (now closed) to check my clients rankings and didn’t really any differences with how they were treated in the search results.

One did jump out at me though – a Craigslist result that was usually at the bottom of page 1 or top of page 2….was at #1. I thought it was odd but let it go.

So, today I’m doing a bit of research and type in the exact search phrase I typed in several weeks ago.

And what do I see? The same results I saw several weeks ago using the Caffeine Tool….with the Craigslist search result at #1.

I’m thinking Google rolled out Caffeine in New York – see the video.

Google has just introduced a new ad program (it’s in Beta) that compliments the Google Adwords program…but is not part of it.

The cost to participate, at present, is ridiculously low – and I really don’t know what the pricing will be. But if they want the small and medium size business to participate and feed the beast that is Google stock, it had better be priced smartly.

Take a look at the video below to get an idea of what it looks like….and I’ll be sure to let you know when it rolls-out nationwide.