discuss Legal niche domains is there a future?

[MrXBack]

Im talking about domains which include legal terms such as legal forms, power of attorney, bill of sale etc?

Do they hold value when we expect to sell them? or do they only sell if its been developed and its making money...i saw a few sales on flippa which were above 20k and the niche were related to legal terms..

What are you thoughts on it?

 

[MisterSoft.com]

Im talking about domains which include legal terms such as legal forms, power of attorney, bill of sale etc?

Do they hold value when we expect to sell them? or do they only sell if its been developed and its making money...i saw a few sales on flippa which were above 20k and the niche were related to legal terms..

What are you thoughts on it?

Lawyers have got money ==> good prospects for law related domains. It's just a matter of time...
I've domains:
8Law.com
LawyerGirl.com

 

[Recons.Com]

I have manslaughter.com
Manslaughter has a positive spin to it, compared to Murder. Manslaughter is normally unintentional or in self-defense, so lawyers/defendants will try to argue for it. Hence the huge number of exact monthly searches (around 40K only in the US), which gives it big potential to be developed into either an information/catalog pages on manslaughter related laws in various countries/states or a law firm's page/blog.

But, yes, law firms are clueless to the value of domains for the most part, you can look at the list of the domain names they chose for their companies to see that they might have hundreds of millions in annual turnover, but have a cheap domain name for their business.

https://www.ilrg.com/nlj250

Greenberg Traurlig GTlaw.com (very intuitive, right?)
Squire Patton Boggs SquirePattonBoggs.com (imagine number of misspelled type-ins, emails etc.)

There are different patterns there:

- Partner initials + law dot com
- Partner Initials (few LL, few LLL, few LLLL dot coms)
- Partner full names (so could be 3-4 last names in a row) dot com
- Only first or first and second partner name dot com
- First partner name plus initials of the rest dot com
- First partner name + law dot com

They don't care about being intuitive, it is business based on referrals, heavy advertising, reputation, connections.

 

[Recons.Com]

Or Manslaughter.com (10M results, monthly 40000 exact searches in the US and 80K+ globally) for criminal law attorney )


But, again, most law firms/lawyers are clueless about the value of such names.

 

[youdoyou]

I own about 20 lawyer-linked domain names, but I am a lawyer, and I tend to use them as leverage to network and it actually works great. It's very niche - I only focus on practice areas that I'm in, I am familiar with, or would need to use, which is only about 3-4 (crim, crim-imm, IP, admin, essentially), but this is also kind of the bus bench version of lawyer ads except online so you gotta know your market. I think class-action and those civil kids would get more play but I wouldn't imagine selling domains full time but if the guy who has 1-800-NOT-GUILTY offered the number to me I'd probably do the backend work of his murder trials as far as writing is concerned. Exposure and rep means a lot but since I target mostly the lower-to-lower-middle class and immigrants convenient exposure is great.

My advice is not to get too specific. Unless you're really amazing you do not want to get pigeonholed, and it'll be a redirect anyway at the end of it for the most part. The truth is that while there are almost no generalists anymore most attorneys practice in more than one niche either out of interest of need. If they are solo, that is, but biglaw dudes don't need sites to advertise.

Exception: Traffic, low-level misdemeanor, and to a certain extent basic immigration work are high volume sort of linese that I know that gets traffic.

There's also a fine line between "mere puffery" and "false advertising" under the Lanham Act section 43 that you might want to look at. Specificity is a big thing and no lawyer who knows anything about IP/Ad would go near anything that could trigger it. Also, lawyers never make actual, absolute guarantees for a good reason.

 

[joethrows]

I find it ironic that Manslaughter.com could in theory be used as Man's Laughter dot com ))

that was my signature line back in my online FPS game days. "i put the laughter in manslaughter"

 

[Domain Wildcatter]

I have manslaughter.com
Manslaughter has a positive spin to it, compared to Murder. Manslaughter is normally unintentional or in self-defense, so lawyers/defendants will try to argue for it. Hence the huge number of exact monthly searches (around 40K only in the US), which gives it big potential to be developed into either an information/catalog pages on manslaughter related laws in various countries/states or a law firm's page/blog.

But, yes, law firms are clueless to the value of domains for the most part, you can look at the list of the domain names they chose for their companies to see that they might have hundreds of millions in annual turnover, but have a cheap domain name for their business.

https://www.ilrg.com/nlj250

Greenberg Traurlig GTlaw.com (very intuitive, right?)
Squire Patton Boggs SquirePattonBoggs.com (imagine number of misspelled type-ins, emails etc.)

There are different patterns there:

- Partner initials + law dot com
- Partner Initials (few LL, few LLL, few LLLL dot coms)
- Partner full names (so could be 3-4 last names in a row) dot com
- Only first or first and second partner name dot com
- First partner name plus initials of the rest dot com
- First partner name + law dot com

They don't care about being intuitive, it is business based on referrals, heavy advertising, reputation, connections.

Don't forget the professional subject matter experts that testify in courts.

 

[SBS66]

I have a few city based legal domains i grabbed at a good price for lead generation, but I try to stay away from doing business with lawyers as much as possible in case things ever go sour.

I don't think it matters much whether you're dealing with a lawyer if things "go sour."

The greater problem is getting through their gatekeepers. If you get through their gatekeeper, then you have to convince them how getting your domain is better than throwing $X,XXX on Google Adwords (like some of my friends do).

I
...
But, yes, law firms are clueless to the value of domains for the most part, you can look at the list of the domain names they chose for their companies to see that they might have hundreds of millions in annual turnover, but have a cheap domain name for their business.

https://www.ilrg.com/nlj250

Greenberg Traurlig GTlaw.com (very intuitive, right?)
Squire Patton Boggs SquirePattonBoggs.com (imagine number of misspelled type-ins, emails etc.)

There are different patterns there:

- Partner initials + law dot com
- Partner Initials (few LL, few LLL, few LLLL dot coms)
- Partner full names (so could be 3-4 last names in a row) dot com
- Only first or first and second partner name dot com
- First partner name plus initials of the rest dot com
- First partner name + law dot com

They don't care about being intuitive, it is business based on referrals, heavy advertising, reputation, connections.

RE: GTlaw.com.. lmao!

Partners initials + .com ....made me laugh, too,cause it's so true.

I think there is value in having your law firm branding domain, whether you're a large or small firm, or even a solo practitioner like me. However, people hearing these long@ss or short@ss domains while driving don't remember them. I find I get a high ROI when I use different domain names, redirected or just outright developed for leads.

Still, I find the valuable, and that's why I have so many...now I have to figure out how to best market them so that's what I'm looking into now.

 

[Casey L]

Imagine if a divorce attorney owned Divorce.com, or a bankruptcy lawyer owned Bankruptcy.com, now they are set up as informational sites. Extremely brandable and valuable.

 

[SBS66]

Imagine if a divorce attorney owned Divorce.com, or a bankruptcy lawyer owned Bankruptcy.com, now they are set up as informational sites. Extremely brandable and valuable.

I can see divorce.com great for a national/international (so extremely large) firm. It's such a great name!

For a local divorce lawyer (like me) I do better with geo + keyword.

 

[SBS66]

ExToBe.com <-- Great brandable for divorce attorney.

Lmao! But who knows? Maybe it could be a celebrity divorce site..like TMZ does their news, only about gossip-news such as "Are So & So headed for a breakup" I can think that the Kardashians alone can keep that going!

 

[MisterSoft.com]

I have manslaughter.com
Manslaughter has a positive spin to it, compared to Murder. Manslaughter is normally unintentional or in self-defense, so lawyers/defendants will try to argue for it. Hence the huge number of exact monthly searches (around 40K only in the US), which gives it big potential to be developed into either an information/catalog pages on manslaughter related laws in various countries/states or a law firm's page/blog.

But, yes, law firms are clueless to the value of domains for the most part, you can look at the list of the domain names they chose for their companies to see that they might have hundreds of millions in annual turnover, but have a cheap domain name for their business.

https://www.ilrg.com/nlj250

Greenberg Traurlig GTlaw.com (very intuitive, right?)
Squire Patton Boggs SquirePattonBoggs.com (imagine number of misspelled type-ins, emails etc.)

There are different patterns there:

- Partner initials + law dot com
- Partner Initials (few LL, few LLL, few LLLL dot coms)
- Partner full names (so could be 3-4 last names in a row) dot com
- Only first or first and second partner name dot com
- First partner name plus initials of the rest dot com
- First partner name + law dot com

They don't care about being intuitive, it is business based on referrals, heavy advertising, reputation, connections.

manslaughter.com Great domain

 

[Recons.Com]

I find it ironic that Manslaughter.com could in theory be used as Man's Laughter dot com ))

I have another one like that: GoalWays.com or GoAlways.com )

 

[Casey L]

Or Manslaughter.com (10M results, monthly 40000 exact searches in the US and 80K+ globally) for criminal law attorney )


But, again, most law firms/lawyers are clueless about the value of such names.

That's awesome that you own that one, as good as a legal domain could be

 

[SBS66]

There's also a fine line between "mere puffery" and "false advertising" under the Lanham Act section 43 that you might want to look at. Specificity is a big thing and no lawyer who knows anything about IP/Ad would go near anything that could trigger it. Also, lawyers never make actual, absolute guarantees for a good reason.

I agree with the bulk of your post.

But the Landham Act isn't just for lawyers. Plus, each of us (as lawyers) would be more specifically governed by our bar rules, which prohibit deceptive advertising.

However, speaking of domain names generally--not just in the legal niche--I don't think that a domain name such as "Best3DPrinters.com" would run a fowl of the Landham as deceptive advertising. I think it is generally understood that the internet is a marketing vehicle, subject to puffery.

In terms of selling domain names to lawyers, speaking from conversations with many of my colleagues, we don't seem to have the patience that it takes to develop lead generation sites, growing them along. It seems to me most of us prefer to throw money at PPC, as I mentioned above, or to SEO companies. These may work well most of the time for large firms, but for solos and small firms other marketing may do better, like the dreaded networking tactic.

 

[youdoyou]

Re: the Lanham Act, of course, but outside of class actions I don't think there's actually any grounds for individual consumers to have a cause of action for falsehood in advertising and so when it gets ugly it really gets fairly ugly (all on paper, of course). It's a trend thing, ultimately, but I'm not so much concerned about attorneys going out to register overly specific domains that promise too much but rather resellers who gobble them up not quite knowing where the line is and it could be a giant waste of money. 98pctnotguilty.vegas? Guaranteedonlinedivorces.com? (Oh, if you the whole tribal council of a Native American tribe who's willing to do that please let me know, I've been asking for years). I suppose if people have faith in that kind of thing actually happening it'd be one helluva investment but for the layperson who's investing I think it's very much a risky proposition if one goes all in on anything like this.

And I guess it segues into my observation of whether there are inherently SEO-friendly legal fields and inherently SEO-neutral ones. Personally I've seen a lot of very generic domains for sale in very established and competitive fields - DUIs, family law, wills/trusts, etc. And these are big fields with money to be made even by the sole proprietor or partnership, and in some cases, especially by those. But then you have actually "trendy" niches. Last few years EB-5, DACA, and U-Visa related legal stuff was very hot in a very small field, but that very small field had so little access to the legal field at large that a little foresight goes a long way. But with the quotas full and waiting lists long and DAPA on hold, all of a sudden the portfolios would be worth next to nothing. "MillionDollarTacoBellGreenCards.com" anyone? The gap of knowledge and foreseeability is pretty big, but if you find a niche-worthy field that'll be hot for a few years and with the right marketing... that million dollar Taco Bell for EB-5 thing wasn't a joke, I know someone who was basically playing up to BRIC investors the ability to invest in franchises for EB-5s for quite a few years. Of course all worthless domains and niches for now but the cash was already in the bank (and hopefully not comingled).

I do actually use a lot of SEO-ish tactics to network and I'm doing something that's niche, urgent, requires specialized skills beyond just legal qualifications, and represents essentially not just the EMT but the actual defibrilators that the important players all get known real quick, which I guess makes my particular thing SEO-proof in a way, but I've always wondered that since legal trends are not actually random and politics, social trends, as well as either deliberate or compromisingly shoddy rulemaking or legislation may actually be the canary in the coalmine if only people knew how to wade through the stuff. I have some areas of the Federal Register on a feed because it relates to my work, but the same also tells you bigger stuff, like how since last Sept or Oct the talk of reevaluating DMCA safe harbor provisions and more concrete rules about fair use (noncommercial experimentation of registration circumvention, for example) have been an interesting topic that may have a huge impact at some point, but you see the hosting boards and whatnot and it doesn't look like anyone's paying any attention. Stuff like this: The Congressional Library and the Copyright Office are studying the feasibility - and have already made some new legislative rules and have passed notice-and-commentary on others, regarding DMCA and fair use and safe harbor provisions (can't link them due to my account status)t could create huge ripples in SEO, web-hosting, privacy, all sorts of huge markets sometime down the line, but are people observing it? Because there sure isn't a lot of chatter. Which side would you bet on?

Then again, we're all kind of pidgeonholed because of how the market works, so maybe I just missed all the memos and since sysadmining is essentially a weekend hobby for me I may just be so out of the loop I didn't even know there is a loop.

 

[Simon Taylor]

This thread just kicked me in the butt to do some outbound marketing on LegalWorld in Net.

 

[youdoyou]

Haha it's absolutely true, Mondays, especially after long weekends, are hellish, although it's because the cases are backed up, usually you get the call Monday afternoons or over the weekend since most jails don't release in the morning, and you'd have some 2L take the calls. I did the bond hearing docket for a few months before moving to felonies and like day after Memorial day you can have 32-33 new arrestees and you're the public defender doing everyone's bond hearings and you had exactly 90 minutes to review their files to see who can get ORed and who's not looking too sharp. Private solos get conflict work pretty frequently and in my experience Don't actually do this, but I would've preferred to deal with a hit and run rather than a straight DUI because all this administrative BS you have to go through separately but you can't really charge too much extra for it because you almost never win those and expectation and enumeration go hand in hand... anyway...

Lawyer aggregation sites are interesting, as in, I don't think lawyers run almost any of them. Maybe the bar association somewhere does, but you're more likely to see lawyers hire law students or grads to write blogs and maintain their sites under their firm name (do not reg these you just threw money away) or use some sort of legal jargon that only people in trouble and the attorney will know. InReBarrPleas.com anyone? (Again, DO NOT DO THIS, this is the equivalent of "PleadGuiltyToBullshit.com" in Washington state). Maybe only we find it funny but a few of us always wanted something along the lines of FeloniousJunk but only as a joke because you can't advertise that.

The fact is, since most people have no idea what to look for in a good lawyer for most cases ordinary people run into (hint: not winning percentage), it gets incredibly tricky, and newer attorneys don't yet have the wisdom to not sue over small change. I won a small claims case out in the desert in Nevada that netted me a total of under $200. At least I'm a Nevadan so was only 4 hours from mom and my own bed and my girlfriend happened to actually live in that very sparsely populated county, otherwise who the hell would do something like that? But I didn't even think about that when I sent in the demand letters and affidavits (free for me, not for you). So watch out for those, we're not gonna go out of our way to get sanctioned but we'll find a way.

Niche words might be good but ultimately I think ancillary legal services would be a field you want to look into for investment. eDiscovery is hot. I hate eDiscovery and I hate the fact that the current format is even allowed, but every legal startup has a new idea and I have one too - get rid of it, who else sends TIFFs and unOCRed documents? Hours of recordings, hours of video, all sorts of crap. Is someone's facebook post relevant? Sure, but for the most part you will not win a case based on that but eDiscovery will get you that kind of crap. Legal tech incubation is still very much underdeveloped. West/Lexis has a good handle on their products (nobody really uses Bloomberg unless they're being forced into it), Denton is funding.... a lot of eDiscovery, but you want to invest? You can jump into the field, just read some blogs, the ABA publishes a LegalTech blog or whatever it's called, Abovethelaw, influential lawyer-blogger ones like Popehat, those are all good places to start. I'd say get something avvo-like that doesn't require what avvo became - just another ad board.Read up on big cases, read up on big concepts, realize that you'll never be able to sell someone the word estoppel and nobody wants to buy Blockburger.com unless Blockbuster comes back selling burgers but there are a lot of service providers that aren't firms, or aren't strictly firms (owned by lawyers, as mandated, but provide additional services), that would be looking, and they won't be looking for something too technical.

I think people are generally thinking about the legal field in the wrong way. We didn't just go to school, we interned and externed and did hundreds or thousands of hours of free work, slept in our offices, I know what 3 different county jails smell like in a blind smell test. If you take my firm's name I don't need to pay anyone to sue you, we exchange favors. My buddy will cover this one while I cover his sister's 4th degree assault, or if we have good mentors, bring out the big guns. But how many lawyers maintain their own pages anyway? Most solos have law students write their blogs in my experience. But look a little out of the box and you can find areas of growth, even if you don't know what the best metrics of finding a good lawyer is (ask another lawyer who they'd have to represent them, repeat, repeat, repeat, hope they're not fucking with you but still give you an answer). The attorneys at the big New York Wall St adjacents all have federal income poverty guideliens tacked onto their walls because they can't take all the cases, but cases skew in demographics and in scope, so find the under-represented niche and find someone willing to populate that and you have something going.

Just a suggestion though, no idea what goes on below the Mason Dixon, but I hear in Texas things are wild.

 

[Kazzia]

They are very good, but I find you have to do the marketing to them.

 

[affable]

Most of the good legal term domains are already registered in the good/more desirable extensions. I know because I was looking for one recently for a website.

If you do find one available it's more than likely in an extension that doesn't have much value. That's not to say that it can't be made into something of value if you were to develop it into a working website or do some great promoting of the name.

 

[Domain Wildcatter]

I own:

GeneticLegalConsulting.com and DentalLegalConsulting.com

 

[Brandon1]

I have a few city based legal domains i grabbed at a good price for lead generation, but I try to stay away from doing business with lawyers as much as possible in case things ever go sour.

 

[Silentptnr]

USLaw.online

 

[Silentptnr]

ExToBe.com <-- Great brandable for divorce attorney.

 

[Nubnub]

i got narcoticslawyers.com narcoticlawyers.com and privatepracticelawyers.com
and some relatable like fireinsurances.com and juridicalcouncil.com councilz.com

i think with the right buyer they can get a good amount. Only have to find buyers now.