Hi there, I am brand new on here. First off hello to everyone. I am really stuck on something and need some help. Our company is launching a legal directory in a few weeks. You know, the kind where a user can go in and choose a lawyer based on his or her needs. Since we are a start-up, we obviously do not have any ads yet. However, we are quite interested in taking an established model from other directories and applying it to ours. We just don't know how to make that happen & need your help. We are really perplexed on this one. The model we are trying to replicate is this...We want to upload a FREE ad for every solo lawyer in the country (or as many as we can) as quickly as possible. The initial ads we upload will be FREE to these attorneys. However, we will be offering to upgrade their ad if they want premium benefits, etc. Now, we have seen this exact model on hundreds of other websites. But, our question is this; How did they get so many ads in their directory? Some sites have over 100,000 attorneys!!! Are they doing this by hand, with automated software, or, are they hiring a data entry firm? I truly cannot see them manually entering this amount information. Is there any type of automated software to accomplish something like this? Or, are these companies just doing it the old fashioned way?? BTW, if you are a bit confused, go and take a look at almost any directory. From attorneys to plumbers to mechanics, there are these sites out there that have THOUSANDS of listings!!! Some of these companies are start-up's too. How the heck are they getting all of these listings in their databases??? Please help. Thanks in advance. P.S. - If you'd like to take a look at an example of what I'm talking about, take a peek at this website: www.lawyercentral.com
The easy way is to buy rights to use a database, you should be able to find one easily in MySQL format or with a bit of digging any format you need. Search on "for sale database of US Lawyers" Once you have the database your developers should be able to easily import the list into your system, either at the SQL level or by quickly throwing together an XML export / import.