How A Blog Can Boost Your Coaching Practice
June 26, 2008
Adding a blog to your website - or getting started on the net with a blog based website - is a great way to improve your web presence. Why?
- It’s an easy and affordable way to get started
- It makes it easier for search engines to find you - and that means it’s easier for the people using the search engines (your clients and customers) to find you
- You can update your content week by week, month by month, without any additional cost, which means you thicken, develop and improve your content as you go
This is good news for coaches - whether solo practitioners or coaches working as part of a practice - when affordability matters and getting found counts.
But that’s not the only reason blogs are such a powerful way to boost your coaching practice. There are a whole lot of coaching benefits too.
The Coaching Benefits of Having A Blog
Here are some of the ways that writing a blog can help you stretch and develop as a coach - that have got nothing to do with websites or search engine optimisation.
1. Writing a blog on a regular basis encourages reflection: on what you’ve learned, how your clients have grown, how you want to develop and improve your practice
2. Writing a blog will improve your language skills: you’ll get to practice using powerful questions, language that supports change, finding the words to engage and connect with readers and potential clients
3. You’ll find new ways to describe what you do: plain English versions of coaching jargon, metaphors that resonate with readers, stories that help to convey your point
4. A blog helps you create rapport with clients: blog writing demands a conversational style, some sharing of your likes and preferences, your personality, your coaching philosophy… all of which helps future clients to get a sense of who you are and what you’re about, as a first step to a relationship of trust
5. Writing a blog enhances creativity: as you look for new ways to write about or communicate your coaching philosophy you’ll boost your creativity, tapping into new ideas for products, promotional materials, workshop topics and so on
6. Writing a blog helps you develop your ideas: helping you to refine your coaching philosophy over time, and to define and establish your niche
7. Writing a blog is an easy way to create content: that you can use again, for newsletters, articles or the raw material for that forthcoming book
Writing a blog keeps you on your toes: inventive, creative, learning, experimenting, open to new ideas, dancing in the moment. Things that will help you boost your coaching practice, and grow as a coach.
If you’re a coach with a blog please do share your experience: what kind of impact has the blog had on your coaching practice?
Powerful Web Content provides you with not just the site but the training, skills and support so you can manage and update your site with confidence.
Find out more about getting started with a blog based website.
Photo Credit: Arch Reflections by Joanna Young on Flickr - capturing reflections in the still waters of the Water of Leith, Edinburgh
5 Benefits of a Blog That Looks Like A Website
June 21, 2008
There are many, many benefits of using a blog to promote the work that you do, but there are downsides too. Blogs can look unfamiliar to those who aren’t regular blog readers (or writers) themselves. They might turn away if they are looking for the information you provide but expecting a conventional website.
The good news is that blogs don’t need to look unfamiliar: it’s perfectly possible to integrate them into a site so the whole thing looks and feels like a conventional website to the casual or first-time visitor.
I’ve just set up a new site for Absorbing Writing - workshops I run in Sardinia - and it brought home to me the benefits of combining a blog with a website, giving you the best of both worlds.
Here are 5 of the reasons why.
1. All the information is on the front page
I’ve used the Essence Theme from iThemes, which creates a visually appealing front page. Everything a first time visitor needs is here, including drop down pages to highlight each of the workshops we’re running.
2. It works for all readers
The home page with tabbed menu at the top is a conventional lay out, and one that’s very easy to navigate. No ’special knowledge’ of blogs and how they work is required. (Blog savvy readers meanwhile can easily find the page with news, articles and updates because they know that’s what they’re looking for.)
3. The news is to the side
We needed a place to provide news, articles and updates - and that’s where the blog comes into its own - but that’s not the primary purpose for the site. It’s not likely to be the first thing our visitors and clients are looking for. This blog that looks like a website allows you to put the blog to the side, with pride of place going to the most important information: the services that you’re offering.
4. There’s an easy way to post updates
Once the site is up and running it’s easy to add updates. It runs like a blog which means you just write the article, hit publish and your new, up to the minute information is there for all to see. Easy, simple, no extra cost and entirely within your own control.
5. There’s room for visitors to connect
Some readers and visitors just want to get the information and go again (and that’s the benefit of having a traditional looking site). But others will want to comment, to sign up for updates, to be prompted to come back when there’s some new information or a new product on offer. Setting up the site with blog software makes that a doddle: things like an RSS feed and comment functions come ready made with the system, and provide an easy way for visitors to provide feedback and ask questions.
Stand alone blogs work for some purposes - but don’t or can’t meet every business need. A website without a blog will limit what you can do: it becomes out of date very quickly, and chances are you’ll find it tricky (or expensive) to keep it fresh, topical, interesting and relevant. Combining the two together and you’ve got an extremely heady mix… and the best of both worlds.
How about you? Do you enjoy reading, visiting or maybe writing at a blog, a static website, or a combination of both?
Want to create your own web presence for your small business, group, or coaching practice?
Powerful Web Content provides you with not just the site but the training, skills and support so you can manage and update you site with confidence.
Find out more about getting started with a blog based website.