Welcome to the ShTexaslawyer.com Blog

I know this blog is new and there is a lot of competition for blogs. I’m pleased with the growth of readers of my blog, but I have no idea what a good number of visitors should be. Google Analytics allows you to compare your statistics with other websites “of your same size,” but they don’t really define what that means. For a blog such as mine, limited to a specific set of topics and focused on one state, there is no way to know if those Google benchmarks are accurate.

I ran across a blog discussing similar matters, unfortunately I didn’t bookmark the site. The author pointed out that these benchmarks are likely very inappropriate for specialized markets. People looking for lawyers are much different than people looking for entertainment. Many people go their whole lives never needing to consult a lawyer. Google Analytics does allow you to compare yourself to a specific market, but again the definitions are very vague.

So I set out to understand my market better. I decided to find out how many people in Texas might in any given month be looking for a lawyer like me. Unfortunately, I can’t find good statistics yet for the number of all types of automobile accidents per month, but I did find statistics on divorces.

There were some 79,500 divorces filed in Texas in 2006 according to the records kept at the Texas Department of State Health Services (http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/vs/marriagedivorce/dindex.shtm ). That works out to about 6,625 cases a month. Of those divorces, I’m sure quite a few did not have attorney representation. Lets just assume 12% since I can’t find a statistic for that. That would leave about 5,830 cases a month. Therefore, if I were getting 5,000 visitors to the divorce topics of my site each month, I could presume I was catching the attention of nearly 100% of the market (a big assumption I know, but work with me).

Now, in June, I will have had a total number of visitors around 500. Pretty small, I know. I also know that many of these visitors were looking for other terms besides divorce. In fact, a ton of them were here looking up the Latin phrase for “Never Surrender.” Incidentally, I bet that phrase being in this post is going to skew my statistics even more. Also, some of these hits are from friends, some are likely hackers or bots. Some are repeat visitors. I am also getting visitors from several states and other countries. So, the whacked out logic that follows is just that, whacked.

Ready, here’s my whacked statement:

“Considering the number of people in Texas who want a divorce, who would consider hiring a lawyer and who have internet access, I guess 500 isn’t so bad. That’s .01% of the whole market!”

My math friends all just had strokes when they saw the logic jumps I just made.

What does this all mean? It means the market is large, there is a lot of competition, and who knows what number is “good.” I can take heart that 500 is better than nothing, and that the closer I get to 5,000 the closer I get to actually saying my blog catches the attention of a large portion of the Texas market.

At least now I have a number to shoot for.

If you want a successful and easily trafficked blog, the word is you need to give and receive links. I have looked at numerous link services, but I do not want links to sites that are either direct competitors to my practice, nor do I want links to totally irrelevant sites. I want link that people who come to this site could use. For example:

Marriage Counselors
Financial Planners
Body Shops
Auto Repair Shops
Elder Care Specialists
Therapists
Chiropractors
Doctors
Surgeons
Plastic Surgeons
Orthopedists
Private Investigators
Churches
Funeral Homes
Artists (because of the t-shirt advertising campaign)
Motivational Speakers
Counselors

If you practice in a similar type of business as these, and you would like to do a link exchange, feel free to drop me a message. I want to establish quality link exchanges. No fees, no surprises, just good ol' networking.

I used to do some HTML some fifteen years ago. I must admit re-learning things for developing this blog has been interesting. For instance, this post is solely to test if I set up the RSS widget right.

Crossing my fingers.

This entry is for my fellow lawyers really. It concerns the industry and its current state.

I hear a lot of discussion about why there is less auto-accident business since March. Most attorneys I talk to all think that the cause is the facilities that contact potential claimants based off police reports. Although I detest these marketing groups as much or more than most, I disagree. I think the cause is gas prices.

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... Well, at least a step closer anyway.

A good friend, Michael, who works at the Dragon's Breath in Bedford, Texas, did the artwork. I hope to have a link to contact information for him. He's an excellent young artist, and I like what he has done with the concept.

The concept I had in mind was to have artists do a series of shirts based on their interpretation of the lady justice.

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