This is especially true if you are selling a product, because of the unique requirements a client may be wondering about before they spend money and choose you over your competitors. A live chat can also calm initial fears about contacting you for consultation or signup. It shows that you are immediately available and willing to talk.  You do, however, have to be willing to have someone manning the live chat during your operating hours.

There quite a few providers of live chat software out there. In determining which vendors to our clients, I looked at the following criteria:

1. Functionality;
2. Ease of implementation (setup and code) and ability to customize
3. Aesthetics; and
4. Cost.

In my search, a lot of the software/web apps had features and succeeded in the core purpose of a live chat program. I did not have specific requirements for advanced features, so I was looking at this from a general perspective, with cost as an important factor.

If the site and product look like it was designed and developed in 1998, it lost the race. In my opinion, that shows me that the company does not care about their product or is not keeping it up to date.

My Top Choice

Olark – The Feel-good MailChimp-ish option

http://www.olark.com/features

This service is nice and modern, with good aesthetics. One of our clients, CEDRSolutions.com, uses it. You can chat from an existing IM client, it installs easily, and has statistics/reporting. It can also integrate with Highrise, Salesforce, or Zendesk and has a nice API.

Cost: $15 a month; 1 operator; $44 a month; up to 4 operators;

Top-Tier Options

LiveChat

http://www.livechatinc.com/

This web-based operator app offers customization, tracking, surveys, canned responses, and all that jazz.

Cost: $36 for single operator, $149 for 5 operators

WhosOn

http://www.whoson.com/tour.aspx

This compares similarly to LivePerson.  It includes downloadable operator software.

Cost: $39 a month for single operator;  $114 a month for 4 operators; or buy outright for $640 (1 user) to $1210 (5 users);

Expensive:

Velaro, another full-featured Option

http://www.velaro.com/

This product is award winning. It features click to chat and click to call, visitor monitoring and surveys with  3rd party integration.

Cost:  $52.95 per agent/ per month

LivePerson, One of the corporate top-dogs

LivePerson is one of the “high-tiered” services and, therefore, expensive. We’ve all used this one before.

Cost:They hide prices on their site. From another site I found these numbers:

$95 a month for single operator; $475 for 5 operators

Free

LiveZilla – Free, Fights Mothra when mankind is in danger

LiveZilla  runs on your own web server, with no subsequent payments and 100% control over your data. This isn’t related to the Mozilla suite. There were some overall good comments about it.

Cost: Free – but it needs to be set up on the server and supported.

Runner Up, Worthy Mention

Zopim

http://www.zopim.com/pricing

This option is similar to Olark, except a little cheaper.

Cost: Free with 2 concurrent chats; $9 a month for 1 agent. $15 a month for 2 agents; $39 a month for 5 agents.

Fortunately, there is a great open-source free program called GDocBackup that will export all your Google docs to your local hard-disk with the click of a button. This can be set up to run automatically.

Step 1 – Download and Install GDocBackup

Download the latest Setup EXE from the downloads section of the GDocBackup Google project:
http://code.google.com/p/gdocbackup/downloads/list

Install the program on your PC.
Note that it is available for Mac and Linux, but if you are on those operating systems then you will have to set up the scheduled running of the program in Step 3 differently than is covered in this tutorial.

Step 2 – GDocBackup Configuration 

After the program is installed, run it and click Action -> Config on the menu bar.

Enter the username and password of the Google account that you are downloading the documents from. Check off ‘Remember’ password. You may also want to check off “Disable ‘duplicated items’ Warning.” When we back up our projects, there are always one or two files that show up as duplicates, which can be an annoyance.
Choose the backup directory where you want the files stored. We back up ours to a local network drive.

Step 3 – Set up a Scheduled Task

In lieu of running the program every time you want to back it up, you can set up a scheduled task to run the backup automatically. I have mine set to run every day in the evening. Another office computer runs it every morning.
To run Task Scheduler,

• Open the Start Menu
  In the white line (Start Search) area, type Task Scheduler and press Enter or Click the Icon that appears from the search (see screenshot below).
  or
  In the white line (Start Search) area, type taskschd.msc and press Enter.
• Or Open the Control Panel in Classic view
  A) Click on the Administrative Tools Icon.
  B) Click on Task Scheduler.

In the Task Scheduler, click Create Task. Name your task and give it a description:

On the second tab, Triggers, click New.  Then set up the time interval at which you’d like GDocBackup to run. This should already be set to ‘Enabled’ at the bottom.

Click on the third tab, Actions.  Set the action to Start a Program and click Browse by Program/script. Locate the GDocBackup EXE file in the Program Files folder. In Windows Vista/7, this defaults to:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\GDocBackup\GDocBackup.exe

In the arguments field, put:

• -autostart

This is important, as it allows the scheduled backup to run without your intervention.
That’s it. Click Okay as necessary to apply these configuration changes, and your docs are good to go. You should see the backup pop up and run at the scheduled time, and then disappear when it is finished.

Step 4 – GREAT JOB!

A newly designed mobile theme can act as a simplified framework around the same text content. Why do you need a mobile version of your site, you might ask? Page load times are cut down because of the slower download speeds, and the dimensions/layout are designed for a smaller screen. “ Buttons are enlarged so the visitor to your site doesn’t end up yelling and shaking their fists at their touch screen’s disobedience.

Total Control – Using Existing Content for a Mobile Site

When we design a mobile site for clients that are in Total Control, we create a design that has the same branding elements as the main site: logo, colors, button styles, etc. The home page is the most customized, with a navigation to point visitors to only what’s important to someone on a mobile phone.

When using your main site’s content in a mobile site, we do the following behind-the-scenes:

• Remove certain things from the body content before it’s displayed on the site. This could be stripping out flash or images that don’t work in the mobile context. (PHP)
• Resizing images that are too large. (CSS)
• Adding a “NoIndex” meta tag. Because we are using the same content, we do not want Google to index duplicate content. (HTML)
• Many pages are way too long, and would involve a lot of scrolling. Read more links are automatically inserted after a certain number of characters, to the nearest word. The content past the limit is hidden and will expand when Read More is pressed. (PHP/JavaScript).

Total Control – Custom Mobile Content

Using completely unique content for your mobile site is also an option. In Total Control, we would set up a mobile content category that would be excluded from the main site’s navigation. Any pages added or removed under this category would be reflected immediately on the mobile site.

Mobile Sites in WordPress

To quickly get a mobile version of your WordPress site up and running, you can install a plugin such as WordPress Mobile Pack. Initially you can use the default themes, or some free mobile themes that are available on the web. If you would like your site’s mobile theme to match your site, contact us today. Read more on our Mobile Web Design page.

Logging in to WordPress

If you are already logged in, the following URL will take you to the admin dashboard. Otherwise, you will be prompted to enter your username and password. Replace YOURDOMAIN with your actual domain name: http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/wp-admin/

If only the blog portion of your site is in WordPress, then you will need to add /wp-admin/ after the URL of your blog. If you are a PaperStreet client, this information will be provided to you in your launch email: http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/YourBlogName/wp-admin/

How to Edit Your Content

Page Content

Once you log in to WordPress, you will be presented with the dashboard. To modify the content of the site, you only need to worry about a few sections on the navigation bar to the left. The pages on your site are housed under “Pages.“

If you click that section, you’ll see your website’s site structure. Dashes denote that a page is a sub-page of the one above. Click on whichever page you would like to edit. On the “Edit Page” screen, you can edit your text in the text editor. If you only see two rows of icons, click the last button “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink.”

If you would like certain text to be headings, you can select the text and change the format from paragraph to Heading 2 or Heading 3. Depending on the design of your site, heading 1 may be reserved only for the heading at the very top of the page. Click the big blue “Update” button, and you’re done.

To add a new page, click “Add New” on the side navigation or pages listing, then insert your page title and content. If your page should be underneath an existing section, then you will need to change the parent page. On the right side of the page, under publish, is Page Attributes. Here you can select the Parent page from a list of all pages on your site.

Templates in WordPress allow different sections of your site to have more than one layout. In our typical WordPress site, the Template option will stay as the “Default Template” for general pages. If it’s a practice area page, or attorney/staff bio page, then you may need to change to the appropriately named template.

Blog Content

If your site has a blog section, then this is edited through “ ”Posts” on the left side navigation. Editing and adding posts is basically the same as working with pages, with the addition of an excerpt, categories, and tags. The excerpt is typically used to display the very beginning of your post (or a short summary) on the main blog page, with a Read More link that takes you to the full post.

Categories are like a table of contents for the posts in your blog. You’ll be able to see them listed on your blog landing page. They are used to organize posts into main sections, and they will help visitors find content related to what they want to read about. Choose at least one category for your post. Tags are used to add additional keyword/topics to your posts. I recommend keeping the number of tags low, in order to not have search engines index an excessive amount of pages with similar content. I like to use around 2 to 4 tags.

Additional Custom Features For Editing Your Site

Every WordPress build is a little different. If PaperStreet built your site, then any instructions for custom functionality should be provided. You may see one or more of the following while logged in:

Editable Areas / Custom Post Types

On the left main navigation, you may see other post types underneath “Comments” and above “Appearance.” Adding or editing these works the same as pages. If you see a link titled “Editable Areas,” this contains information that is repeated throughout the site, such as footer links, text in the header/logo area, or sidebar information. There may be other custom post types, such as news.

Custom Fields – Using Verve Meta Boxes

When editing or adding a page, you might see fields like these underneath the main content editor. They are used for custom file uploads, images, vcards, email addresses, sidebar information, thumbnails, and more.

Tabs on a Single page – Using Page.ly MultiEdit

You may also see multiple tabs at the top while editing a page. Paperstreet sometimes uses this on attorney/staff bios. This allows you to edit all of the different sections individually, such as practices, quotes, photo, etc.

WordPress Design and Support

If you are an existing client and need additional WordPress support, give us a call or email the development team via helpme (at) paperstreet.com. If you are interested in us building your site in WordPress or another content management system, then please fill out our contact form.

Since these rules go into effect July 1st, 2010, we’ve created a script that we can adapt to various florida law firm sites, in order to meet the bar requirements. If you are interested in us installing this disclaimer and helping your website conform to the new Florida Bar Rules, please contact us.

Pop-Up Overlay (Lightbox)” Disclaimer Features

1. Ability to add to any page (requires PHP and use of jQuery)
2. The disclaimer pops up/overlays the whole page, whenever it is visited directly (such as through a search engine) or through navigating the website.
3. If the browser does not have JavaScript enabled, the user is redirected to the home page.
4. If the user does not check any checkboxes, and tries to accept, the user is notified that they must agree to each checkbox or not view the content.
5. If the user does not agree, they are redirected to the” home page.
6. Once accepted, the user can view the content and the disclaimer won’t pop up again for the browsing session.

Two working examples

• Past Results and Testimonials Disclaimer – Example 1
  Close and re-open your browser if you would like to see the disclaimer again after accepting.
• Past Results and Testimonials Disclaimer – Example 2 – Optional contact form
  Note: This must be optional according to the bar rules and we would recommend using the first example.
  

About the Disclaimer Language Used

The text used on the disclaimer is taken directly from the “Sample Disclaimer Page” provided by the Florida Bar. This sample disclaimer combines the required wording for both past results and testimonials under “You should know that”.

One of our clients who is using Facebook as a part of their business, mentioned that when they were adding their website’s URL, it was popping up with the wrong text description. The text was specific to a certain part of the site, and misrepresented what the site was as a whole. Not good! Although you can easily click the text and edit it before you send your message, this could get annoying if you are including your business’ URL a lot.

How to change that description and thumbnail

Facebook reads the META description and <title> tag’s that are on the page to generate this information. If you do not have a Meta description (or a Meta description content equal to nothing), this will probably be taken from the first blurb of text that shows up in the HTML code, whether you like it or not. In the case above with one of our law firm clients, it was actually from the sidebar (not that we would leave out the Meta description tag of course! It was not loading correctly from our database at the time).
Add these HTML tags inside <head> in your HTML. The meta title may not be necessary as the title should be pulled from the regular <title> tag:

<meta name="title" content="Name of your page" />
<meta name="description" content="Page summary" />

It’s very likely that the first thumbnail image that shows up won’t be the one you want. The good news is that you can easily add a tag that Facebooks reads to choose this image.

<link rel="image_src" href="http://www.website.com/images/logo.jpg " />

Just give it some time…

The Crawler/Scraper/Bot or whatever you’d like to call it, doesn’t grab this information immediately; it seems there is some kind of cacheing used. So be aware, that your changes won’t show up right away. In our experience it showed up within a few hours. You may want to give it a day; I’m not sure how often they update their cached versions.

For more official information, and information about adding Audio and Video links, see:

• Facebook Share Partners Page – Click on”  “Make Sure the Preview Works’
• Facebook Help Page on Links