In March, I was
in Hawaii at the American Counseling Association’s annual conference showing many of you how to start your own blogs. I’m always curious about what prevents a hungry therapist from sitting down at the keyboard and cranking out blog posts that show the world the amazing work that you do to help your clients achieve their goals.
I’ve showed you in the past How Blogging Can Help You Get New Clients and many of you may remember my conversation with Stephanie Adams when we talked about why therapists need to blog. In fact, it seems like every year, I revisit blogging in one way or another and still . . . I run into so many reluctant bloggers.
Gearing Up
Since I’m gearing up for another round of BlogStart for Therapists, I thought I ought to just pause here for a minute to give some quick advice to those of you who are a little stumped and those of you who are totally baffled and wanting to know how to go about getting started. If you are scared, confused or overwhelmed with the whole idea of blogging, here’s some simple ways to jump start your blog and win some new clients, too.
Start Slowly
You only have to do a little more than you did the day before. If you already have your website on a WordPress platform, then setting up a blog should be fairly easy. Call you geek. Simply have the conversation to see if you have what you need to begin blogging already in place.
Don’t Over-Commit
If you already know that you aren’t good at following through, don’t promise the ideal to your readers. Instead, under-promise and over-deliver. Ideally, you want to post new content to your blog weekly. However, start by promising just 1 post / month and over time work up to the ideal. If you don’t do that and, instead, over-commit, your readers will become disappointed in you and go away.
Work with an Accountability Partner
I started working with my own accountability partner almost 2 years ago. It was the best thing I’ve done for my business in years. If you have difficulty getting things done and moving forward in your business, consider finding an accountability partner, too.
Sign Up for BlogStart for Therapists
If your reluctance to blog is more about just not knowing how to do it “right” and ethically and you are just now getting started, I hope you will join me in my 4-week live series, BlogStart for Therapists. I offer it twice a year and is a great way to put some structure in place and get my commitment and support to get your blog started off right! And, besides, you’ll hear about some of the ways I’ve totally goofed and what I’ve learned in the process! You can sign up to get notified about the next round of BlogStart for Therapists by clicking right here. [updated 12-28-18]
(Please pass this on and share with your friends!)
As I am winding down my 20+ years as a psychotherapist (I still maintain my commitment to all former clients), I began a blog a year ago for two reasons: 1) to help me transition! 2) to create a vehicle to share information and experience with a larger audience (I could only see one client at a time.) I find I really enjoy creating the weekly blog. As I review a year’s worth of posts I can see how the blog represents my own personality and niche interests. I also create infographics for the blog and then post them on Pinterest. I highly recommend that people do this. You can also join some group professional Pinterest Boards. Most of the traffic to my blog comes from Pinterest. (I use the free services PicMonkey and Canva to create my images.) If I were still taking on new individual clients, my practice would be flooded…. the interest generated by my blog activity has been intense! Share good, solid info. You never know whose life you are pollinating!
🙂 I love that you included “If I were still taking on new individual clients, my practice would be flooded . . . .” May I quote you on that, Mary?
Of course! I was an old-fogey regarding social media until a year ago. I’ve come to appreciate it’s power to educate and influence. (My online presence is my small effort to counter what we all know there is to complain about.) Having an online presence on Facebook, Pinterest, and my web page also builds credibility. It makes getting the word out about workshops or study groups much more effective and easy. (I use Eventbrite to streamline things.) It lends credibility when people are considering using me as a speaker.
Mary, if you are one of the dinosaurs, like me, that pre-dates the internet, then you also know how much less expensive it is than print advertising in the Yellow Pages, magazines, and newspapers! A therapist in private practice back in the 1980’s or ’90’s could easily spend thousands of dollars trying to get seen, known, and trusted – with minimal impact in his / her community. Social media has definitely leveled the playing field creating opportunities for newer therapists to access the same opportunities that large agencies and long-established practices had.
Mary, can you tell us about Eventbrite?
Sure thing. Eventbrite is an online service that lets you create announcements for anything you are offering (workshop, event, study group, lecture, etc.) You create the announcement, including links, images, map, etc. You create the “tickets” that people easily register to claim (whether you are charging for your service or it is free.)
I HATE paperwork and tracking financial matters. Eventbrite takes care of it all, in one place. It collects and tracks payments, sends out reminder emails, etc. I do not have to answer the phone, take names, return phone calls or emails, etc. All the registration information is always available on my page. . I can mass email attendees at any time. I just focus on creating an enticing description, create tickets and # of attendees, then publish the event on Facebook, newsletter, Pinterest & blog and ask people to help spread the word. I would never organize an event in any other way now.
I will attempt to put in a link to an old eventbrite announcement and hope it shows up for you as an example. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/soulcollage-dangerous-old-women-carry-the-light-tickets-1499094833
Otherwise you can find the Eventbrite home page here: https://www.eventbrite.com/
Eventbrite also protects me from wasting my time. I usually announce “this event will run with a minimum of 10 fully committed people.” If not enough “tickets” are sold or claimed for free, then I’d email and cancel the event. (This has never actually happened. When you create a professional enough presentation, and people see that the limited number of available tickets I’ve set is dwindling, they are more motivated to sign up.)
Hope that helps!
Thanks, Mary. I’ve seen quite a few people using Eventbrite and you’re making me question why I’m not!:)