Blogs

Do you spend hours researching books, the internet, etc. to come up with great information for your clients? Or maybe you have always wanted to start a blog but haven’t found the time. Time actually is a huge factor of why people don’t start or often abandon their blogs. But doing a blog for your massage practice has its benefits

Personally, I’m in the first boat. I always want my articles to be perfect (for you) and spend hours writing and editing and editing my edits. So when I read this article 8 Ways to Write Quick Articles for Your Blog, I was so excited! And I had to share this information with you.

If you don’t have a blog, did it inspire you to do one? Do you will that this will make your blogging easier? If you do have a blog, what other tips have you found for creating quick articles for your blog. Please post your comments below. I would love to read your experiences.

Before we get to the reasons to start a blog, let’s talk about what a blog is. A blog, short for web log, is a type of website with a user interface that makes it easy to update, or create “posts” for, without any knowledge of html or other programming languages. These posts are typically displayed in chronological order with most recent entries at the top.

1. To Express Your Thoughts and Opinions. As massage therapists, we have something to say about massage and wellness. Blogs provide a place to say it and be heard.

2. To Market or Promote Something. Blogging is a great way to help market or promote yourself or your massage business, a particular service, or a particular product.

3. To Establish Trust. By default, blogs let readers leave comments, which allows a conversation to begin and facilitates the formation of a community with you as the organizer who brought everyone together. Also, blogs have a grass roots beginning, and even though many have been commercialized, most are still updated by a single person. Folks often trust a blog more than a big business site.

4. To Help People. Many blogs are written to help people who may be going through similar situations that the blogger has experienced. What questions do you get repeated asked by your clients? Perhaps others in your area or around the world are experiencing this same situation and looking for answers. Although these people may never become your clients you will be rewarded. Remember you have to give to receive.

5. To Stay Active or Knowledgeable in a Field or Topic. Since successful blogging is partially dependent on posting frequency and providing updated, fresh information, it’s a perfect way to help a blogger stay abreast of the events in a specific field or topic.

6. To Establish Yourself as an Expert. Blogs are wonderful tools to help bloggers establish themselves as experts in a field or topic. Through your posts, readers get a feel for your expertise and your writer’s voice, even as they get a glimpse into your life. In short, blogs can humanize your business.

7. To Make Money. It’s important to point out that most bloggers don’t make a lot of money blogging, but the potential does exist to generate revenue from your blog with hard work and commitment. There are many bloggers who bring in big bucks. With patience and practice, you can make money through advertising and other income-generating activities on your blog.

Blogs can be set up in a variety of different ways (stand alone blogs or part of website), frequency (you will see posts ranging from daily, weekly, monthly), topics and platforms (self-hosted or one of the free versions on Blogger or WordPress). Look for more to come about these topics in future posts. Here are a couple of massage blogs to take a look at and get those ideas flowing.

http://heal-thyselfwellness.blogspot.com/

http://www.yunesa.blogspot.com/

http://www.starkeys.com/blog/

http://blog.diamondwellness.com/

http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/anima-wellness-your-reflexology-massage-retreat