Scribd is the document sharing platform that allows users to broadcast and share their documents on the internet. If you’re a regular reader, you’ve seen it on this blog before. If not, see the sample below. Scribd has been aptly described as a “YouTube for documents.” The concept is simple: upload your Word files or PDF documents to Scribd. Scribd converts them into a readable player and gives you the html code. You, and more importantly your readers, can embed the content anywhere. Below are seven reasons why Scribd is awesome, in no particular order.

1. Branding. Since Scribd displays the article exactly as you have it in Word (or pdf), you can customize the look and feel of the article for your readers. It looks better than static text on a web page. And when other readers share the article, the branding never changes. So be sure to tattoo your logo on your articles!

2. Shareability. Scribd makes your articles more “shareable.” When was the last time you cut and pasted an entire article on your website? Probably never. We’ve always shared links, for sure, but what happens when we want the full article to show up on our site? With sites like YouTube and Flickr, they provide platforms that make it easy for us to embed content on our own blogs on our own terms. Scribd allows readers to easily embed articles on their blogs, post articles on facebook, and email articles to whoever. The easier you make it for your readers to share content, the faster your content will spread. Guaranteed. The most dangerous viruses are the ones that spread the fastest.

Today, it’s important for content creators (YOU) to think “distributed,” like Google.  It makes no sense to hoard premium articles on your personal sites. When you syndicate your stuff on sites like YouTube, Scribd, Viddler, DocStoc, etc, you’re injecting your content with steroids, empowering your readers with the ability to embed the content on their blogs, on their own terms.  With your meatier articles, brand it, syndicate it and fan the flame.

3. Google juice. My greatest fear before using Scribd was whether I would lose some google juice. If I write an article full of good content and links, I want it indexed by Google so I get the search traffic. Since the article is technically hosted at Scribd and not on my website, I was worried that Google would not attribute the content to my site. Google juice is important, especially for my law practice. When you search MLM attorney, I want you to find me and my articles. With Scribd, the article is still indexed on your site, which is pretty thoughtful on their part.

4. Links. How many links are pointing to your website? The answer is a very important factor for google. Scribd offers another platform that enables you to build a profile and link back to your site. It’s just one more digital asset that increases your brand value.

5. Search. Since you can tag your articles with certain key terms, the articles get found on google. Also, people go on Scribd.com all the time to search for content. If someone searches for “network marketing and amway,” they’ll find one one of my articles. Scribd is a great place to go looking for ebooks. When I wrote “Legitimate MLMs or Pyramid Scheme,” it was made “public” a few days before I publicly announced it. When I officially announced it, I had over 100 reads over the weekend, all from people searching on Scribd.com.

6. Portability. Readers can easily take the article with them by downloading it as a pdf. And with a pdf, the reader can easily print the article and read it in the exact same format as the writer intended, no changes. The same cannot be said for static text on a website. The reader will not copy and paste the entire article, will not post it on facebook, and will not be able to save it and print it..

7. Ease of use. Scribd is very intuitive.  If you make an edit to a document and want the changes reflected on your Scribd doc, you simply upload the revised version. The changes automatically appear wherever you have the doc embedded.  Piece of cake.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a fan. I’m not a paid fan, just a fan that likes the service and appreciates that I can now create content that lives beyond my websites.

Legitimate MLM or Pyramid Scheme: How can you tell?

It’s possible. Click here to see it in full screen.

In today’s economy, the competitive advantages held by larger organizations are becoming irrelevant.  Bigger is not necessarily better.  Instead, the spoils of war go to those that can collaborate across continents to create products and services that are truly remarkable.  “Smart Outsourcing” is an article I prepared for the foreign magazine “New to the Market.”  The article contains principles and specific concepts I learned while building my start-up business, Advanced Advocates.  In the article, I state the importance of leveraging technology and outsourcing to keep costs at a minimum to remain competitive in the global marketplace.  What do you think?  What’s stopping you from executing on your ideas?

Smart Outsourcing: Tools and Principles To Help You Get Started

Links

The book “What Would Google Do?” By Jeff Jarvis (check out his buzzmachine.com blog)

http://www.abovethelaw.com/

Article about the ABA advisory opinion.

Outline of the video blog

“The law and its execution are aided by its obfuscation.” Jarvis, What Would Google Do? So true! Since the law is so complex, lawyers are [somewhat] insulated from the crowdsourcing/community control phenomenon. However, there are fewer opportunities in the legal marketplace today than there was last year. Part of the contraction in the legal industry is due to the economic crisis. Since money is tight, the market rewards efficiency which places a lot of pressure on bloated law firms. Will they return to their stature of enormity and power? I don’t think so.

What is a Googley lawyer?

Spartan attitude towards overhead. Leverages every technological advantage to drive costs down and passes savings over to clients. Outsources all simple legal tasks.

Authentic and unique. In the Google age, the trick is being found. There are hundreds of thousands of lawyers, but there’s only one you. Instead of showing a facade of perfection, be human, be unique and people will be drawn to the authenticity (which is rare). Check out Gary Vaynerchuk and you’ll figure it out in a few minutes.

Vast network. The Googley lawyer doesn’t deal much in atoms. They stay remote and for connections with partners in a virtual environment and pass the savings to clients.

The masses benefit but they don’t take control

The ABA won’t allow it (yet). None of these suggestions involve turning the reins over to the masses….But these changes do represent a huge transition from how services used to be delivered (with the associated fat/costs). Access will be more feasible for the masses.

In a way, I’m not surprised to hear that Obama is considering leveraging open source technology to save money. He’s already demonstrated an uncanny ability to leverage the net to reach out to millions. I always thought it would take government at least ten years before embracing the benefits of open source technology. After all, it’s typically the CXOs that are the last ones to change anything, then government brings up the rear. Instead of working in a world dominated by Microsoft with all the associated expenses, it’s now possible to run a business (or government) effectively with open source applications. Imagine the amount of taxpayer money that could be saved if the government started using Open Office (docs and spreadsheets) and Thunderbird (email). Free word processing, free email hosting, free calendaring, etc. Take the number of federal employees and multiply by 200 and that’s roughly how many dollars per year would be saved in IT costs (Microsoft updates, maintenance, licensing fees, etc).

Some might ask, “But what about functionality? Isn’t Microsoft Word better?” The answer is clearly “yes” with a follow up of “but who cares.”
In an interview in the Wall Street Journal, Peter Whatnell supported the open source movement as being a viable alternative to expensive Microsoft products. The article reads,

WSJ: You’ve said that you would consider moving to a cheaper alternative such as Google’s email system if you could get 90% of the functionality for 10% of the cost. Why?

MR. WHATNELL: It is not such an unreasonable assertion to make if you talk to people about the products they use and how much they use them. Most people use spreadsheets and word processing and PowerPoint. But most people just scratch the surface of what is available in these applications. When it comes to spreadsheets, they use addition, subtraction and maybe long division. The number of people who use functions and other complicated features is a much smaller part of the population.

So for the power users, give them the Microsoft suite. But for everyone else, it’s not really necessary. Just the fact that Obama is even asking about open source is impressive and explains why Microsoft is so desperately trying to move their applications to the internet.

So what does this have to do with the practice of law? First, when there’s an opportunity to cut fixed costs, it changes every profession. Second, in my opinion, with the barriers to entry being lowered each day, lawyers across the globe will start competing not based on their technology advantages, but based on the quality of their ideas and services.