Look, I can’t make this any more complex than it actually is.
Simply do this…
Place your surveillance gear on the hood of your car rather than on the roof!
That’s it.
Hood not roof.
You will never drive off and have your surveillance camera (or other gear) fall off the roof of your car and smash on the ground!
A Bigger Problem
After this stupid mistake, some P.I.’s actually try to bill the client for the broken camera!
That just ain’t right. Don’t be that guy.
This is the REAL Problem:
The “professional” investigator who tries to bill his client for a camera he broke, does this because he can’t replace it since he doesn’t make enough money to have any cash in savings!
You gotta’ make more than you spend and then be smart about that “extra” money.
If you are struggling with not making enough money, one way to make more is to offer process serving as a service. It really made the difference for me as a full time private investigator owning and running my own detective agency!
You really do need a website as a private investigator and, in my view, a blog is the best way to go for making money as a private investigator with effective, inexpensive marketing!
Allow me to give you three reasons you need a private investigator blog…
1. Search Engine Optimization AKA: SEO
I believe this is the weakest reason to have a blog, but it’s still quite important.
Potential clients will go to a search engine (I like DuckDuckGo) and type in their search for a private investigator in your area and when they do, you want to appear in the search results!
In my experience, the most common searches will be the term “private instigator” and your city. So, it will look something like:
private investigator Chicago
private investigator Fresno CA
private investigator Smithville Texas
Other searches will be for things like:
How to tell if my boyfriend is cheating
How to find the criminal history on someone
How to find where someone works
If you have articles that educate people about these questions, there is a better chance the search engines will present you as the solution to their problem.
And, sure… many of the things they want to do aren’t really possible with a few free online searches, but once they understand that, you want them to hire you. (If they’re actually a client you want to work for – and that’s a whole different issue!)
2. People will get to know, like and trust you.
Once a potential client finds you, they are (for sure!) going to “check you out” and having a website/blog they can visit will give them a chance to know, like and trust you. And people buy from people they know, like and trust!
So be helpful. Be a resource. Answer their questions in the articles you write and post.
When they see you as the expert you are, they will take the next step and contact you. At that point, the case is yours to get or lose. Because of that, I recommend you have some “scripts” or at least an outline of ideas of how to answer the most common question you’ll get from callers.
Pro Tip: Even if you’re already a master of surveillance, my course, The Investigator’s Ultimate Guide to Surveillance may be very valuable to you even if you only gain a couple of extra surveillance jobs each year because of the script I teach you on how to turn a price shopper into a paying client! (And I think you’ll get more cases than that. At least I did!)
3. Your PI blog will ease your workload.
Finally, and no one else is teaching this, you’re blog can greatly ease your workload.
I’m convince that no one teaches this because they can’t seem to get enough calls to need to lighten their workload! But if you market the way I teach you to, you will be getting phone calls. And when that happens, you’ll be glad you’ve got a blog to point people to.
Here’s the deal…
You will get contacted by people who have the same questions you’ve been asked a hundred times before. And having a blog post to point them to will save you a ton of time rather than explaining over and over again the same information to each caller.
So imagine this… you get an email (or contact from your website) asking if you can trace a license plate for them.
Now sometimes I want to talk to this person and see if I can solve their problem legally and ethically because what they really want isn’t a license place turned around, but some other piece of information they think the plate number will lead them to. But if that’s not the case, I want a resource I can quickly and easily send them to so I don’t have to explain every little detail to them personally.
So, if you’re contacted by someone who wants to know about tracing license plates and you have an article posted on your blog about when you will run a plate, what the client can expect, how much it cost and any “no-hit fee” involved… then when the client decides you are the right solution to his problem, the very last thing in the article explains his next best step is to contact you directly. You have (in a matter of seconds!) pre-screened this potential client.
This helps weed out the crazies while educating legitimate clients and setting reasonable expectations of what they will get so they are happier clients when you deliver your report!
You see, with that article, you are helping both types of callers while saving yourself time!
“But, Larry, I don’t know how to do this any of this website stuff!”
If you don’t know how to do this… no problem.
Even if you’re stuck because you don’t know how to put up a website, here’s what you need to be doing… create content (especially write articles)!
Putting up a blog isn’t that hard. You totally CAN do it. Search around, watch a few videos and you will learn how to do it.
But in the mean time – at the very least(!) – begin creating content for your blog so when you do finally get it up you have resources for potential clients to visit!
In other words… there is NO REASON you shouldn’t be doing something TODAY on this important marketing project that will make you more money as a private investigator!
If you like these helpful tips, then don’t miss out on my free special report If You Want To Be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…
Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye, P.I.
P.S. – I don’t have a web-hosting company I currently recommend, but I will say… Avoid Hostgator at all cost!
There are future privacy threats you need to be prepping for now including the lessons we’re learning from the use of DNA in cold cases and what it teaches us about encryption.
DNA and Cold Cases
Criminals are being arrested all the time for really cold cases that are decades old. And even if you think “justice delayed is justice denied”, you have to admit, it’s better than these kidnappers, murderers and rapist never being caught!
The key unlocking these arrest and convictions is DNA.
Because technology allows us to sequence and DNA from super-small samples and (even more importantly), because of the vast data available from the (millions?) of people who have willingly submitted their DNA to testing sites for “genealogical analysis”, samples that would have never been matched 5 years ago are routinely being match to perpetrators today.
So what does this tell us about privacy, encryption and secrets?
Threats to Encryption
Just as criminals could never have imagined in the 1970’s (or even at the turn of the century) that their deepest secret – that could cost them their lives – would be exposed so easily and cheaply, your secrets being protected today by encryption will be exposed.
Of course it’s a good thing that criminal “secrets” are being exposed! Heck, that’s frequently part of our job as private investigators! But today’s encryption protects “secrets” that are legitimate to keep hidden.
You purchase history, location, messages, work projects and a million other things protected by encryption should be secret! Commerce, relationships and society as a whole needs legitimate secrets to be kept secure.
However…
Encryption that today would take “thousands of years” to break, will (in the not too distant future) be torn open like it’s no more than tissue paper. I 100%, guarantee it.
The solution to broken encryption.
The only practical solution I know of is to self-evaluate how you keep secrets now and add layers of security that will (hopefully) withstand future attacks.
Just as you when you do a security survey and look for the weak points in a system or facility, take a “walk around and through” you digital life and ask yourself, “What would happen if this protection failed?”
When you find a weakness, add another layer of protection.
Summary
Look, I’m not trying to freak you out. Just like it’s happened with DNA it’s happened a hundred times before (postal mail, telegrams, telephones, night vision, aerial surveillance, etc.) and we adapt and survive. So this isn’t an end-of-the-world thing. It’s just “another” thing and I’m prepping you for it now so you and your family (and your clients!) will be in a stronger place when it comes.
If you like this helpful information, then don’t miss out on my free special report If You Want To be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. If not, you can get it right here…
Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye, P.I.
P.S. – After a lesson like that, you may find this promise comforting… “If God is for us who can be against us?” Romans 8:31
