Do you have an under-performing website? Maybe you built it in 2005 and haven’t touched it since? Maybe you’re embarrassed by it? Or maybe it’s okay — but just okay — but you don’t get any clients from it, and you lust for a great, knock-their-socks-off site? A site that you will be proud to send visitors to? A real client magnet?

Now’s your chance to get one for free (that’s F-R-E-E) from one of the best marketing companies in the country!

This is the big one — one final push to get you to attend this year’s MILOfest conference. General Admission ends tomorrow and I’ve saved the biggest giveaway prize for the end.

I am thrilled to announce the Grand Prize giveaway for the MILOfest 2010 conference. With deep thanks to Mark Merenda and SmartMarketing, there are two great prizes being awarded:

Grand Prize: 5-10 page comprehensive website

Second Prize: Complete corporate identity suite/Logo Package

To make this fun, we’re going to have a contest to award these prizes. However, before we get to the details of the contest, you should know that SmartMarketing is known as one of the top marketing companies for attorneys, renowned for its design and website creation services.

Here’s how to win:

The contest is called “My website stinks and I deserve a new one!”

To participate, you need to submit a 300-500 word essay, or a 2-3 minute video on the above topic — essentially letting us know why you hate your website and why you are the best choice to recieve this prize.

Entries will be judged on creativity, insight, humor, sincerity, and “potential for positive transformation.” As you might expect, all entries become the property of MILOfest (you might be featured the website, at the conference, or by SmartMarketing in its promotional materials). In addition, the contest will be judged by me and Mark Merenda. Our decision is final, un-appealable (if not unappealing) and completely subject to our discretion as to who is most deserving.

Entries must be received by October 25th to be considered and the winners must be present at the time of award, which will be just before the final session on MILOfest on Saturday afternoon.

Here are the details on the Grand Prize: The winner will get a custom-designed website of between 5 and 10 pages. The prize will include an embedded blog and any copywriting work by Mark’s writing staff (after an interview with you). In addition, the site will be fully SEO optimized (including Google analytics so you can objectively measure its performance), and SmartMarketing will set up all of the social media pieces for you, if you don’t already have them, so your updates are posted to Twitter, Facebook, etc. You should expect that the site will take 2-3 months to create, and if you would like video on the site, Mark has extended his relationship with a professional video company so you can get an intro video done for about $500 (which is “at cost”).  Finally, SmartMarketing will set it up so you can host it on your own, or you can host it with SmartMarketing (currently $348/year).

By the way, if you wanted to “buy” a website from SmartMarketing, you couldn’t. The company doesn’t normally unbundle its services like this — you have to be on retainer to access any of their talent. If you went out in the market and got a website of this quality, you would pay anywhere between $5,000-$10,000.

Here are some examples of the kinds of websites that SmartMarketing creates, including the one they created for me:

http://www.jerseyestateplanning.com/

http://www.vannattorneys.com/

http://www.caassetprotection.com/

http://www.lifeandlegacylawcenter.com/

http://www.sandstoneconstructionco.com/

(On a personal note, let me take a second to say that this is a very generous offer from a good friend of mine. So I’m going to ask that you don’t be a jerk if you win. I’m sure Mark will work with you to make changes, but don’t abuse the nice gift that you’re getting.)

Second Prize is a logo-stationary package. This is like getting a new brand identity for your law firm. It will give you a fresh look, and I can tell you that the designers at SmartMarketing are amongst the best that I’ve ever worked with. This prize includes logo design, copywriting if needed (say, for a “tagline”), and a full stationery package design including business cards, letterhead, envelope, note cards, labels, etc. The market price for a corporate identity package like this is around $1,500.

And just to make it interesting, I’ve decided to take the $110 Tom Bihn Co-Pilot bag that I’ve received as a giveaway and award it as Third Prize.

If you’ve been on the fence about attending, this is your chance to act. Unlike a random giveaway, you have a chance to determine whether or not you will win, depending on how crappy your website, how devastating your critique of it, and how good your sob story.

We want this to be fun, and we hope that you will enjoy taking part in the contest.

But, remember… you must be present to win!

Victor

P.S. I want to express my appreciation to all of our sponsors and giveaway partners. This conference keeps getting better and better.