Here is the first chapter for my eBook: ‘How to Write a Blog for a Complementary Therapy Business
The full version is available as a Kindle eBook through Amazon: US, UK,
‘How to Write a Blog for a Complementary Therapy Business’
Introduction
If you’ve built a website for your complementary therapy business, you may well have considered whether you should add a blog to it. After all, blogging has become wildly popular and is a good way for a perspective client to get to know you better.
You may already have a website to promote your business, but it will likely be competing with many other websites. Having a blog with a regular flow of new articles, increases the size and visibility of your website on Google. It may also be able to draw traffic from people who find out about you from one of your blog posts.
More importantly, a blog enables you to build an online platform – a number of people online that you can connect with and possibly promote your services or products to. There are a lot of benefits to having a good blog.
Why have a blog?
You have to consider some of the psychology of a prospective client. Someone may come across your site looking for a therapy, but they may be hesitant to contact you. As Tony Robbins says, it is only when the pain of discomfort becomes greater than the problem, that a person will act. A person may come across your site, but still hesitate to contact you especially if they are new to therapy work. After all, what should someone expect from a treatment? What do they know about you?
Obviously you will cover all this information in your ‘Home’, ‘About’ and ‘FAQ’ pages on your website as well as in some of the pictures you show. But still, it may need just a little bit more to tip the balance. It can help to show your beliefs, your thoughts, experiences and your stories.
This is where a blog can help. It is a chance for you to share more information, experiences, perhaps some personal interests or healthcare tips. The blog gives your readers a chance to get to know you a little better and perhaps find some common ground in thought or belief.
Once they can see that you are a normal person, who has some experience in your field, they are more likely to put aside their reservations and contact you. In some cases, it may even create a sense of urgency in them, that you are the person to contact.
Other benefits to a blog
It’s fine to have a good website, but you need traffic. This is lots and lots of people clicking on your website, looking through your pages and eventually contacting you. There are various ways to build traffic, such as using the right amount of keywords in your homepage and writing relevant content. Another method is to gradually build up a blog with interesting articles and slowly build up regular traffic with followers or subscribers.
A blog is essentially like casting another net to increase your chance of catching more fish. Or like having another arm like a Hindu god, to your site in order to grab some more apples. If you create the right type of blog, it may even have the potential to attract traffic in its own right, which would be ideal because then your website would rank higher in Google. In this instance, you could draw more clients in from that traffic. You could also consider monetising your website to bring in some extra income.
Another arm to your website:
Having a blog is much like having an extra arm for your website to grab more potential customers. Kind of like the Hindu god Shiva in this picture.
Some considerations
There some things to be aware of: Whilst there are some people that have made a full-time living from their blog, especially in the early days of the internet, these days, it is much harder to do so. The blogosphere is saturated. There are millions of blogs. Perhaps more than the stars in the sky.
For the same reason, it is also much harder to get traffic coming to your site and can take a long time of posting, seemingly without any reward, before you start to get people coming. But come they will– you must believe. And there are ways to speed up the process. I hope this guide will help you in doing so.
For example, one way to build and write a blog is to focus on a niche or a small subject area. Then you may be able to pick up viewers who come to your site for that express reason, who will then return, because they know you will have more information on that particular topic.
One example, could be someone who creates their own herbal products from their own plants. They may write about the plants, their qualities and how they make these products and what it is good for. Such a site is popular with people these days looking for an natural alternative to their health problems, than the usual pharmaceuticals which carry with it lots of side effects and quite often doesn’t fix the problem.
Other examples are people who only specialise in treating acne or arthritis. Their audience will most likely be acne sufferers or arthritis sufferers and as these can be difficult long-term conditions to treat, their visitors may well bookmark the site and return every week for information or support.
What kind of things can go into a blog
Basically anything and everything. However, as I mentioned before, it may be a good idea to stick to one niche area, which you can specialise in. Then you can start to build a reputation or small degree of authority in that area.
If you specialise in treating a specific problem like diabetes with acupuncture, (perhaps you suffered from it yourself), then focusing your blog on that would be an example of keeping to a niche. In this example, if you then used keywords like “acupuncture for diabetes” in your homepage, then you may be able to attract viewers who suffered from this disease and who were curious if acupuncture could help with it. This is just one basic example. I will discuss keywords later in this guide.
Keep it interesting for yourself
You don’t need to stick to one niche area. A blog should be interesting for you. Personally, I like to write on a broad range of topics in my blog. I can’t help myself. I write about spirituality, health, money, and general ponderings on life. As well as acupuncture.
You see, a blog is more than a few articles on a particular topic. It is an ongoing project. In fact, it is a reflection of your life and your beliefs.
You must write consistently. So for you to do this, it must be interesting for you. You may want to mix it up particularly and have a variety of different topics in your blog. Some successful bloggers do this. Others don’t. The blog also needs to fit you and how you like to work. If a blog is something you have to force yourself to do, then the chances are, you will give it up after a few postings.
Consistency
A person may get excited about writing a blog at first. They write one or two really big articles and then stop. They’ve used up that creativity in a quick burst and produced something great, but then what?
It takes a lot of energy to write. I know. I have written two books. One on Amazon (UK& US). The other, I plan to release by 2019. I have written thousands of words in my blogand on various articles. I have created a couple of short eBooks like this one. I am relatively new to blogging, but I have put a lot of study into creating one, which I decided to formulate into a guide to share with you.
By reading this book, you won’t have to trawl through lots of different websites or read lots of different eBooks about blogging. You won’t have to do what I did and go through a process of reverse engineering a few successful blogs from popular bloggers to understand the process they went through.
A blog requires a lot more work than most people think. It also requires planning, formatting, structuring, editing, proofreading and then just when that has sucked all your energy – you need to promote it to bring in the traffic.
And in return, if you’re lucky, you may get paid the cost of a Cappuccino in return from AdSense revenue or eBook sales. Is it really worth it?
Well, yes. There is something wonderful about bringing out what is within you and putting it into a format that other people can discover. It is a wonderful feeling to write something, in which a single person reads and then shows a little appreciation by giving you a positive comment, an ‘up-vote’, a ‘like’ or even a positive review on Amazon. It makes that Cappuccino taste all the more better.
Avoid the New Year’s Resolution Club
But you need to find a way to write consistently. Suffice to say, you have to avoid becoming a member of the ‘New Year’s Resolution Club’.
This is where on New Year’s day, after the festive period of shovelling roasted turkey, stuffing, pudding and all manner of foodstuffs and wine into your gut, suddenly in a moment of guilt and recrimination, you run like a madman into the back garden and with arms outstretched, you proclaim loudly to the heavens above: –
“Tomorrow I’m going to join the gym!”
So you join the gym and go crazy on the treadmills then the weights, then the treadmill again.
You’re running like a thirsty man in the desert who sees the mirage of an LA swim-pool party off in the distance. Groups of beautiful swimsuit models holding Pina coladas, wave at you enthusiastically to come over.
‘This is great’ you think to yourself. I’m going to do this every day. Maybe in a few months, I can even look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But we know where this is going to end…
The next day, your body aches like it is going to fall to pieces. Despite that you still manage a couple more days in the gym. But it sure is hard work.
Perhaps you’re going too hard on yourself, you think. You’ve worked hard. You deserve a break, a treat.
And then one week later, you’re on your sofa gobbling ice cream and watching Netflix. Your partner asks you if you’re going to the gym and you reply ‘maybe tomorrow’.
But like it says in the Asterisk comics…
‘Tomorrow never comes!’
A marathon, not a sprint
Sure, I’m exaggerating, but writing a blog is really more of a marathon than a sprint. At the beginning of those 26 miles, you can only go slow and steady and have faith that there is an end to this madness that you have signed up for.
You just have to take one step at a time and let go of the ego. But you also have to figure out strategies so that you keep going and don’t give up too soon. It has to be enjoyable for you, but also worthwhile.
One of the steps you take in running a marathon is in putting the preparation in beforehand. You have trained, you have changed your diet and you have studied running strategies. By the time you run that marathon, you are already mentally and physically prepared for it. Well I sure hope you are, otherwise, it’s going to be a short marathon.
That’s what this guide is. It will give you information that can be part of your ultimate blogging strategy. It will help put some things in perspective and hopefully give you clarity.
You may already have a personal blog. A lot of people do. A personal blog is a little different to a business blog. A personal blog can be a great opportunity for you to express yourself. A business blog has the same purpose, but there is a fixed objective. The business blog is designed to spread your message, increase your traffic and promote your business.
Writing for an audience
Finally, just to reiterate, a blog is a way for people to get to know you. But also think back to what draws you to read someone’s blog?
Whilst it is interesting to write about an aspect of healthcare, it is worth keeping that question in the back of your mind. When you write something, ask – is what I am writing going to be interesting for someone to read? Will someone come back to your site to keep up with what you are talking about?
For this reason, it is worth making several of your articles on a topic of interest. Something that will attract people to visit. You don’t have to consider this for all your articles, but do put some thought into your potential audience and the kind of information they are looking for.
Providing value
Ultimately you want to provide some kind of value to the reader. If you simply want a platform for you to express yourself and some life experiences, then that is fine, and in fact, these kinds of sites do attract a fair number of followers. It all depends on your motivation.
If you want a blog to be a part of your overall business, then you may want to put a different kind of work and structure into it. If it’s more of a hobby, then you don’t need to worry too much and a free blogging platform would be recommended for starting with.
A blog can take many different forms. It can be a way to express some musings. It could be a kind of journal or detailed diary. It may express your opinions or experiences on specific topics. A lot of work goes into one. And I believe the blog will become just as relevant as any other historical document for our descendants to peruse through years into the future.
Some blogs contain information that are on a par with mainstream newspapers and magazines, sometimes more so.
For a complementary therapy practitioner, a blog can also be a useful tool to build awareness of you and help promote your business further.
What I will cover in this eBook
In the rest of the short eBook, I will go into more detail on How to Write a Blog for a Complementary Therapy Business. I will discuss the following areas:
- Choosing a blogging platform
- What is the best blog article length?
- Coming up with ideas and how to choose a topic
- Linking to other parts of your website
- Call to action
- Pictures and stock photos
- Structure – paragraphs, sentences, editing and subheadings
- Consistency of writing
- Keywords
- Reposting & promotion
- Creating original content
- Monetisation
Kindle Version on Amazon
If you are interested in reading the full Kindle version, it is available through Amazon. Here are some links: US, UK
Picture accreditations:
EBook on Tablet picture: courtesy of www.PhotoFunia.com
Picture of Shiva: Lord-shiva-arms sarangib. Via pixabay.com
Picture of man with arms outstretched to heavens: Victor Freitas, https://www.instagram.com/victorpfreitas?ref=pexels. Via Pexels.com
Picture of man on sofa with popcorn and football: Copyright: ximagination/123RF Stock Photo