Creating Your Sign-In Name and Setting Up Your Profile
The steps for creating your sign-in name and setting up your profile will take less than five minutes of your time.
1. To create your sign-in name, click the “Join” button in the upper right corner.
2. On the Join page select a sign-in name that is easy for you to remember. We highly recommend that you use your real name without any spaces as your sign-in name, for example, BenFranklin. This name will appear in several areas of our site, so if you decided not to use your real name pick something professional looking. Your password can be anything that is easy for you to remember.
The email address you enter is very important. All client activity in your area will be sent to this address, so be sure it’s one you check on a regular basis. This email address is not visible anywhere on our site to prevent junk mailers from mining our pages for lawyer’s email addresses. Later you can optionally select a secondary email address that is visible. Select the correct time zone for your location and then click the “Join now” button.
You should see a Welcome message indicating that you are now signed in.
3. Next click “Edit Profile” in the upper right corner.
4. Your “Signature” will appear on every message, email and reply to make to clients. We suggest you put your contact information in this box. Items such as your phone number or website address are perfectly acceptable. This box also accepts html code so you can even put a link directly to your website.
Since many attorneys don’t know html, if you want to put a link to your website, type this into the signature box. <a href=”www.yoursite.com”>www.yoursite.com</a> substituting “yoursite” with your actual website name.
For your “Bio” say something positive about your law firm. This is visible to clients who look up your profile to get more information about you.
After you have finished filling in your Signature and Bio, click on the “About” tab to continue.
5. Under the “About” tab enter your name, or your law firm’s name and the location of your practice. Be sure to list your location with both city and state, for example, San Francisco, CA.
You may leave Interests, Gallery and Recommended Reading blank. Also leave the Birthday as Not Set.
If you have a website, enter it for the Web Address. Be sure to begin your web address with http://, for example, http://www.divorce-and-child.com. If you have a Blog on our site, please enter its full address for “Blog”. If you don’t have a Blog and want to supercharge your online marketing exposure, visit our Blog Basics for Attorneys page.
6. The Avatar tab is where you change the default grey silhouette picture of yourself to something more interesting. Your avatar image should be one that looks good at a size of 100 pixels by 100 pixels. Use the “Browse” button to locate the picture you want on your computer then click the “Update” button. Don’t be overly concerned if you don’t have a picture handy, since you can always come back and do this step later.
7. The Email tab is where you enter your Public Email address. This is the email address that you want to display to clients who desire to email you directly rather than use our built-in messaging features. You may use the same email address as you did for “Private Email” if you prefer. If you use any of the instant messengers listed and want to publish them on our profile you may fill in the appropriate fields, but you can also leave these blank.
8. Now, click the save button. You have successfully created your sign in name and set up your profile. The remaining tabs can be left alone since they don’t have anything to do with how clients see you on our site. The items under the remaining tabs are self-explanatory.
9. The next step is to let us know that you are an attorney so that we can put a “Real Lawyer” icon on your client replies. This is how clients differentiate between actual attorneys and everyone else on our website. To let us know that you are an attorney, send a private massage to our inbox at http://divorce-and-child.com/forums/AddPost.aspx?ForumID=0&UserID=2100 or simply click here.
The private message window uses the same interface as in our forums so ignore the text about lawyers being notified and responding, as it does not apply. The message can be short and simple, for example, you can put “I am a Lawyer” for the subject and tell us your sign-in name in the message body. When you are finished, be sure to click the “Post” button to send your message to us.
10. The final step is for you to “Subscribe” to the client forums for your area. Once you have selected your subscriptions you will be notified by Email whenever there is client activity in those areas. You are not limited to the number of subscriptions you may have, but it’s probably a good idea to be within driving distance from your intended clients.
Now would be a good time to mention that if you don’t see a forum for your area, go up to step number 9 above and send us a private message to add your city. We will immediately include a forum to match your exact needs.
There are several methods for subscribing and un-subscribing to different areas. The easiest way is to point your browser to http://www.divorce-and-child.com/forums/ForumSubscriptions.aspx or simply click here. Go down the list to find the forums for your area and change the “Subscribe” column to “Yes.
Welcome to our growing online community. You will now receive automatic notifications whenever there is client activity in your area. Unless you are taking advantage of our highly targeted divorce and child support Blogs, there is no reason to return to this site until you receive an automatic notification in your Email.