Tag Archive for massage websites

How do I build a Website?

March 31, 2009 Julie Onofrio Massage Websites

How do I build a website is one of the first questions I get from massage therapists that I am working with.  I have written just about everything I know about creating websites somewhere on one of my many sites.

Build a Website on www.thebodyworker.com

Websites for Massage therapists on www.workless-playmore.com

The thing is that people are still hesitant to take the time to learn and implement all of these things.  For some the process can be overwhelming because it is a lot of technical work.  I still see so many sites that are so poorly done.  When I first heard the term webmaster back in the early 90′s I thought it was someone who could get all of those really bad sites taken down! ( I am not joking !)

A website has to get you on the first page of search engine results for all of the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, Live and Ask.  If it doesn’t get there you don’t have a chance of getting many clients.  That is the first step.

You can get to the top and still not clients.  The problem is in how you set up and design the site and learning to create the site with the client in mind.  So many people are creating sites that say something like this:

Welcome to my website.  I am so and so a massage therapist that is trained in such and such unknown type of massage that the person really doesn’t care about or know what it means.  I am NCBTMB certified which will mean nothing to you again but I did pay a lot for it.  To find a contact number for me you will have to hunt around on this website and see if you can find it.

To get to the top and get clients it requires that you create an optimized website and also provide enough information that you build trust with the reader.  They want to know what is in it for them.  They want to know if you will be able to help whatever condition it is that they have.  You don’t have to be a writer.  All you need to do is write down the info that you tell people all day long – how massage works, all about muscle tightness etc.  You need to write down what you do and be clear about it (informed consent) so that clients will be able to tell if you are a match for them.

So I have been talking about this for years and telling people to use Site Build it! to build their website.  It is an investment in your business.  It is the only marketing you will ever need to do to get a steady flow of clients who become repeat clients.  I have been helping as many people as I can and now there is an 12 week online class on that will answer your question of “how do I build a website“  being offered by Site Build it! that can help you more than I can!  It will take you step by step through the process of building a site.  You also get a website system included.  They will also teach you how to create a site that will make you money while you do massage.  You don’t have to sell retail items anymore or carry any stock.  You can refer people to the best health books and products and get paid to do so.  All the information on how to do this is included in the class.

I am also in the process of figuring out if this class can be counted as continuing education credits for your license and AMTA renewals.  Many states just allow you to take almost any class.  Let me know what you need for CE credit in your state if you can.

Find out more about the online class on how to build a website!

You can read the whole action guide that comes with SBI! and the class.  Email me and I can send you a link so that you can download the whole guide before you start.

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Biggest Massage Website Mistakes

March 24, 2009 Julie Onofrio Massage Websites

I have been looking at a lot of massage websites and find them to consistently making a lot of big mistakes.  The biggest massage website mistake is to name your site the same as your business name.  While that isn’t always a problem if you choose your business name wisely but naming a website  massagebylucy.com or sunsetmassage.com is a really poor choise of using keywords properly.

The best domain name is one that tells what solution you provide and may include your location – deeptissuemassageaustin.com or massageaustin.com is a much better name for search engines to find you and for readers to easily tell what you do.  This is one thing that will help you get on the first page of results for your keywords – massage, your town.

Most people don’t know how to optimize the website pages for the search engines.  It takes a little bit of learning but is fairly straight forward.  Use your keywords again to create file names for your pages – like www.massageaustin.com/deeptissue.html   – deeptissue.html is the file name.  You use those keywords over again in the metatags (description, title and keywords list).  Metatags are things on the webpage that visitors don’t see but the search engines do.  Actually they also will be the words that are listed in the search engine results so choosing these carefully can create a better listing that people are more likely to click on.

The home pages are also filled with info about massage therapists credentials and long lists of different types of massage that they do.  The homepage is the page that most people will find first.  You will have all of about 5 seconds to hold a persons attention.  The first thing that people want to know when they go to a site is can you solve their problem.  People are looking for a solution to their problem. Can you solve it?  What people are looking for is an answer to their pain, stress or other condition.  Talk about what solution you provide on the very first page.  You can have an about me page with all of your credentials and experience but again remember that most people don’t really have a clue what all of the training and words mean.  Take the time to explain them.  Include in your about me page your philosophy on healing and why you became a massage therapist and what your misssion/purpose are in offering massage services.

My two other pet peeves are Flash intros and music playing on the website.  Flash intros are cool but you lose so many people.  Flash is more about you than about your visitor.  The same with music.  If I wanted to listen to music I would be playing what I want to hear at home.  I usually have about 20 windows open and if music starts playing I am scrambling to find the window that is doing it and usually end up closing many other sites till I find the offender.

Put yourself in your potential clients shoes.  What would make you make the call for the appointment for a massage?

You can learn more about building a successful website when you use Site Build it! to plan and create your website.  They will teach you everything you need to know about getting your website to the top of the search engine results and get you a steady stream of new clients.  They now even have elearning that will take you step by step through their system and the process of building a successful website.  You will also learn how to have your website make you money while you are doing massage.  Investing in yourself and your massage business is the key to creating a steady flow of new clients.

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What should you write about on your massage website?

March 14, 2009 Julie Onofrio Massage Websites

Figuring out what to write about on your massage website can often leave massage therapists shaking at their table!  Writing for a website or any marketing piece begins with knowing who you are writing for.  Who is your ideal client?  Are they male or female?  Do the participate in a particular sport or activity?  Do they live or work close to your office?  Do they value massage and your services?

Starting with who your ideal client is you can then take it to the next step – What solution do you provide for these people or group of people?  When people find your website they are really looking for a solution to their problem which is usually some type of pain or stress or some combination of the two that may have even led them down the path of injury or disease.  They want to know if you are going to be able to help them.  They don’t want to know about you right on the main home page- they only want to know what is in it for them!

The biggest mistake I see massage therapists making is starting off talking about themselves and all of the credentials or classes they have taken.  People don’t really care!  Most don’t know the difference between myofascial release or craniosacral therapy.  People only know how it feels to them.

When a person finds your site by searching for ‘massage, your city’ and they land on your home page – you have about 20 seconds or maybe even less to catch their attention.  You need to start with words that catch their eye like ‘You don’t have to live in pain’ or ‘Relief for fibromyalgia pain’ or ‘Sports massage therapy to improve your performance’.

The goal of a website is to build trust with the reader so that they will make the call for the appointment! You do that by adding content – writing about what you do and how massage (or whatever type of work you do works.) The more content the better.  Many massage therapists are put off by this but it really is just taking the things you already say everyday to people and writing it all down for others to see that you know your stuff.

There is room for information about you in an ‘about me’ page.  You do want to list your credentials and philosophy on healing there.  You may even want to write a story about what brought you to the massage profession in the first place.

Figuring out what should you write about on your massage website just takes a little playing around with also to see what works.  You can fine tune your results to keep improving them.  Keep in mind your most wanted response when writing – what do you want the person to do ?  Sign up for your email newsletter?  Call to sign up for an appointment?  You need to keep asking them to do that without pushing them away.  Ask ‘Call for more information or call for your free phone consultation’.

You can learn more about how to create a website that works to get you a steady flow of new clients in this free Ebook “Make Your Content Pre-sell” (Don’t get turned off by the words pre-sell.  Preselling is just building trust with your potential clients.  It includes figuring out your most valuable preselling proposition and your unique selling proposition.  Combining the piece of information together to educate your potential clients has a much greater success at converting readers into clients as compared to just writing a basic site about you, how much your services cost and how to contact you.  It will help get your site to the top of the search engine results for your keyword AND then it will help you get the client.

Special SiteSell Promotion

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Websites for Massage Therapists

January 31, 2009 Julie Onofrio Massage Websites, News

If you haven’t already noticed I am a fanatic about websites for massage therapists.  For me they have been a saving grace because honestly I hate marketing and being the shy person that I am – I hate having to be a sales person.  I just let my website do all of the work for me.  I just have to keep focused on what I want and the rest just happens.  Of course I take action and lots of it – writing new articles for my website each week and writing a regular email newsletter for my clients.  I am not that good of a writer really.  I just write the way I would talk.  That makes it much easier for me.

If you don’t have a website for your massage business or you have a website but it isn’t getting a steady flow of clients coming into your massage business – it is about time you invested in one.

The website host that I use and recommend is Site Build it!  I just spent a few days updating the pages on my websites about websites for massage therapists on www.workless-playmore.com.  I have written down everything I know about creating a website and how to get that website found and get a steady flow of clients.  It is best to use Site Build it to help back you up.  They also now have a team of webmasters who can build a site for you -their SiteSell Services team for those of you who don’t have the time to spend on creating a site.  For do it your-selfers you can actually do it all yourself because it comes with a complete step by step action guide.  (If you want to read it before you buy just email me and I can give you a link to the guide that comes in written and video form.)

See websites for massage therapists on www.workless-playmore.com

Special SiteSell Promotion

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Why a Website for your Massage Business?

November 29, 2008 Julie Onofrio Massage Websites, News

This post officially starts the month of posts and articles on how and why you should use your website to build your massage business. While there are many various ways and hosting platforms you can use to build a site, most of them don’t do anything to get your site found nor does it teach you how to write and create content that will also help you get conversions (visitors to your site that either become clients or put money in your pocket in someway!)

The web is the one place where you can get away with not having a specialty in massage. Most massage therapists just want to do massage and work with a variety of clients – pregnancy massage, sports massage, deep tissue massage, injury massage or whatever is in your tool box of techniques. When you do other types of marketing it is best to have a target market or a specific technique or population that you want to market to otherwise it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. With a website you can target everyone who is looking for massage in your city/town because that is the way that most people search for a massage therapist in your area. When you get your site to the top of the search engines you already have willing and able clients who are looking for massage. They aren’t necessarily looking for you but when they find your site easily by searching for ‘massage, your city’ they will already have more trust in you because they did not find you in an ad which sometimes leaves people feeling like they are being given a sales pitch.

So there are many services that offer websites for massage therapists. You can find free hosting or low cost hosting such as using officelive.com or use a blog format such as www.webnode.com. You can also set up a simple site using ez-web-hosting.com which comes with a simple template system and easy to use page creators. I use them for this site and blog. I have written some information on how to set up a blog with their severs on one of my sites www.workless-playmore.com (which I use Site Build it! to build that site). Setting up a blog is really simple but you also need to know what plugins and accessories to use to get the site found. My site also covers just about everything you need to know about getting your site found by search engines. Most of everything I know, I just learned from Site Build it!

The hosting and business development system that I recommend is Site Build it! For no other reason than it just works to get a site to the top of the search engines. It is also more than just a hosting system. It teaches you everything you need to know about creating a business online or offline.
But it really isn’t for everyone. I started out 10 years ago with free hosting and learned as I went along. SBI! does take some time to learn and understand but the results are well worth it.

And this month only I am offering my services to get your site up and running. I will build 8 pages for you to start with and plan our your site and teach you how to build the pages yourself when you buy an SBI! package – but heres the thing- Don’t buy it now! Yes that’s right! Wait until a few weeks before Christmas when SBI! has their annual sale that is worth waiting for. (I have been waiting all year to start a few new sites!) You will be able to buy one SBI! for the usual ($299 a year – and the price hasn’t changed in 5 years!) and get the second one for absolutely FREE! It is an incredible offer that they only offer once a year. You can use one site for your massage business and one to brainstorm and develop a site that will make you additional income or like my sites half of your income and even more if you put more time into it!

What would you create a second site on? Whatever you are passionate about and know alot about. SBI! comes with a piece of software that helps you brainstorm a niche or concept for your site and helps you research it’s profitability potential. Know alot about chair massage- how to do it, create a chair massage company, promote chair massage, do chair massage? That would be a great topic.
Know about growing herbs, eating gluten free, your area or city that you live? Create a site on it!

Not sure how you will make money? Most of my online income comes from Google Adsense. It is a program that Google has that allows you to put their ads on your site and when someone clicks on an ad – you get paid. There is even a tool that will give you and idea of how much clicks are getting. Massage schools is one of the highest with them paying about $15-$20 per click but you don’t get that amount. You get a small percentage (that no one really knows how much) so the way you can make money is by having lots of pages with content on them about massage schools (or your topic) and getting lots of traffic. My site that I just sold massagetherapycareers.com was getting about 300-500 people a day. This site gets about 2500 -3000 people a day – so you get the idea. Lots of pages of content + lots of traffic = $$$$$. The more pages and traffic the more the money. The more sites you have that have a lot of pages and content the more money you get!

Having an additional source of income is just basic self care. The more you have coming in and in savings the more you can begin to create your ideal massage practice and not be a slave to low paying jobs like Massage Envy or other places. The more you have in the way of financial support, the more you can choose who you want to work on leaving the draining clients who show up late or miss their appointments and don’t want to pay for their sessions for someone else. It will allow you to raise your rates more comfortably and make what you are worth knowing that when you raise your rates you may lose a few clients. Charging more and doing more massages on the people that you want to work with the most is just again basic self care.

So if you do want to still start a free site or a low cost site, I suggest that you read and follow the SBI! action guide that comes in written or manual form which is available for anyone to read for free at any time.

or take the SBI! Video tour to get a better idea of what it is all about.


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