If the numbers indicating online success are in clicks, memberships and posts, one locally-based Web company is building an impressive résumé: ElderLawAnswers.com.
While the average lifespan of a Web forum might be about a month, with a few hundred hits and replies, ElderLawAnswers.com has active topics more than four years old, with more than 10,000 replies. And it’s no wonder topics on the site – which bills itself as the best information on the Internet about crucial legal issues facing seniors – are lively.
According to a report by the United Nations’ Department of Public Information, by the year 2050 the number of people older than 60 worldwide will exceed the number of young for the first time.
In 2007, Providence-based ElderLawAnswers.com had more than 4 million visitors, accumulated 374,304 monthly visits, and an average of 72,000 unique visitors per month – which is nothing to sneeze at. According to numbers provided by the company, it is the most trafficked elder-law informational site on the Web.
Harry S. Margolis, president of ElderLawAnswers.com, began 20 years ago as one of a few hundred lawyers in the country working with elderly clients to develop estate plans and secure affordable long-term care.
Out of his efforts to help develop the practice of elder law, Margolis began a newsletter. Subsequently, he became a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
Margolis, who has his own law practice in Boston, soon saw a business opportunity in the increasing number of cases and information available on elder law. In February 2001, ElderLawAnswers.com was launched.
Executive Director Mark Miller is in charge of the marketing and business development of ElderLawAnswers.com. He has worked with serial entrepreneurs in the “gun-slinging days of the Web boom in Seattle,” he said. And when the bubble burst, Miller returned home to Rhode Island.
“Back then, people viewed the Web much differently,” Miller recalled. “Posting information to the Internet was marketing on the Internet. But a few years later, we found out that putting your name in a directory didn’t necessarily connect you to clients.”
Still, experience with Internet start-ups helped him see ElderLawAnswers.com as “a niche business in a huge growth area.”
Miller created a more comprehensive program for the site by “customizing content to communicate with potential clients and referral sources.”
He also began membership recruitment, managing Web development, creating strategic alliances and even handling customer service calls. About a year later, he sub-leased office space. Two years later, he moved the growing staff into offices on West Exchange Street.
“When the public goes to ElderLawAnswers.com, they are not going to find attorneys that handle one or two elder law cases a year,” Miller said. With more than 1,000 lawyer members, ElderLawAnswers.com has always stressed a standard for membership applicants.
But the site is more than a referral source. ElderLawAnswers.com supplies information on important cases and developments for attorneys and hosts a Web page for each, with articles and news feeds. Members also can customize information releases for clients by state. But there was more to come.
With a backbone of providing information, referrals and answers about elder law, a new Web site dedicated to information about long-term care for young people with special needs was a natural offshoot.
“With the onset of increased public awareness, better diagnosis and advancements in treatment,” Miller said, “parents are looking for solutions.”
In April 2006, the Web site SpecialNeedsAnswers.com, and its affiliate, The Academy of Special Needs Planners (ASNP), were created. Both were developed by ElderLawNet, parent company of ElderLawAnswer.com, to provide cohesion for “the many legal issues relating to the long-term care for young people with disabilities,” said Miller.
In addition to providing ASNP member lawyers with up-to-date information on legal developments nationwide and a forum for exchanging best practices, SpecialNeedsAnswers.com provides information to consumers and a monthly e-mail newsletter.
“The two practices of elder law and special needs dovetail,” Miller said. “And while I understand the business, Harry understands the issues.” •
Company Profile: ElderLawAnswers.com
OWNER: Harry S. Margolis
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Web-based legal information for consumers and attorneys
LOCATION: 260 West Exchange Street, Providence
EMPLOYEES: 9
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2001
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND
72,000 unique visitors per month is insignificant.
Why are we reading about this business?
PBN RESPONDS:
Each week, our Main Street feature profiles a different local small business or startup. This week, our subject was ElderLawAnswers.com.
Much of our coverage focuses on corporate financial results, technological advances and large real estate developments. But that sort of breaking news doesn’t give a full picture of the local business community.
The Main Street feature, like our weekly Newsmaker profiles, is one of the ways we broaden our coverage.