HARO: My Secret Weapon to Landing Media Interviews

Media interviews are a great way to share your passions and spread the word about your practice. 

They can connect you with other professionals in the field, get your name out there to potentially attract more clients, and can often give you an additional source of income.  But how exactly do you land those media interviews?  How do you get the word out that you have expertise that you want to share with an audience?

I have a secret weapon that has opened many doors for me, including media interviews with The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, Fox News, Health, and dozens of other top-tier publications, without paying for an agent or PR representative. Here's the full list of my recent media interviews. The weapon?  www.helpareporterout.com (otherwise known as HARO)

What HARO?

HARO is an excellent free tool where reporters or journalists can go and make inquiries about what professionals they can connect with in order to cite in their publications.  In other words, they are looking for experts in a certain field.  You might be exactly who they are looking for!  HARO is used by hundreds of news outlets, including very well-known ones such as Huffington Post, ABC, and DowJones.

How Does HARO Work?

As a potential source, you register through their website.  After signing in, you’ll receive 3 emails a day that match the keyword references on your profile (where you entered your areas of expertise).  If it looks like a good match, you respond and get the ball rolling.  Be sure to reply quickly; these opportunities go fast!

What Results Can You Expect?

While HARO can be a great way to get exposure and land those interviews, don’t expect the offers to come rolling in right away.  It can take a while to get responses. You will have to be persistent and patient in order for things to pay off.  In the past few years since using HARO, roughly 20% of my query responses have resulted in published quotes.  So you'll likely need to go through a good bit of rejection before you finally get an interview or a quote published.

So be sure to check out helpareporter.com today, and get started!

Guess my secret weapon isn’t so secret anymore.

Have you been interviewed for web, print, TV, radio, or podcast? Share your links to your media interviews in the comments below

If you want the nitty gritty about how I use HARO to land top-tier media interviews, check out my 90-minute PR webinar for tips on how to share your passions and expertise with a broader audience.

Image (c) CanstockPhoto.com (4705025)

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5 Steps to Finding Your Professional Blogging Style

Here are 5 steps to getting more comfortable blogging on your private practice website

Maintaining a blog is an important part of your therapy practice's online presence.  A blog is a great way to show that you are knowledgeable about current topics in the field, but it's also a way to personally connect with your clients.  When it comes to blogging tone and style conversational is the new "professional"

Some therapists who are new to the blogging scene can have a tough time understanding how to write in this format.    Here are 5 steps to help you find your professional blogging style:

1)  Be Yourself

The way you create your blog is completely up to you.  You might look at other blogs to get an idea, but remember that this is your endeavor, and you have the freedom to use whatever structure or style best fits your professional style and practice.

We are often conditioned to avoid using first-person pronouns in our writing.  But a blog is an appropriate medium to say something like, "My years as a therapist have taught me ______," or "We often place unnecessary burdens on ourselves by  _________." Don't be afraid to let you shine through your writing.  This makes your content more approachable and helps you build trust with your readers.  The key is to balance your professional tone with a personalized voice.

2)  Know Your Audience

Remember who you want reading your blog.  It's not for a professor.  It's not a personal journal. It's not a scholarly publication.  It is to attract ideal clients and/or existing clients.  You don't need to include lots of percentages and numbers (although a well-placed, relevant statistic every now and then could work).  On the flip-side, don't write about yourself too much.  Although you are drawing from your own personal and professional experiences as inspiration for writing, make sure everything you put out has value for your intended readers.

3)  Practice, Practice, Practice.

This might be your first experience with this type of writing.  Maybe you're struggling to articulate what it is you are trying to say or you're not yet sure how to use certain formatting tools.  Whatever it is, know it will take some time to get the hang of things.  Everyone starts somewhere.  And one of the great things about a blog is that you can go back and change something at any time .  If there's something you want to rephrase or add to, you can edit any past post.

4)  Make it Appealing

Using images and graphics can be visually appealing and can also help break up text and make your blog post easier to read.  And don't be afraid to include pictures of you every now and then!  It's good to show you're readers that you aren't just a therapist; you're a human being, too!  The aesthetics of your blog needn't be over the top or gimmicky; instead, a well-placed image relating to your topic can really add to the overall look of the post.  Simple is often better.

5)  Blog Often

When it comes to blogging, you need to regularly produce fresh content.  Not necessarily everyday, but you should aim to publish on a consistent basis.  This is good for your SEO, it helps brand you as a relevant source, and it gives your clients reasons to return to your site.  If you're brand new to blogging, twice a month is a good place to start. Once you've gotten more comfortable I recommend  post a new blog article each week.

Some might worry they will run out of things to write about.  Ironically, though, the more you write, the more topics you discover, and the more you have to write about!

Because you'll be blogging regularly and for laypeople (instead of other professionals), you should make each post short. Keep it to a length that someone could read in one sitting: 400-600 words is pretty standard.

What is YOUR experience blogging so far?

How can you use these tips to help find your own blogging style?

How to Create and Sell Your First E-book (part 1)

In this guest post counselor and consultant Clinton Power shares how to create your first E-Book

There's no doubt that creating and selling your own digital product is a great way to increase your online exposure, credibility, expertise, and earn some money while doing so.

And the creation of an e-book to sell through your own website or an online bookstore like Amazon or iBooks is the quickest and easiest product to create to get started.

I wrote my own e-book called 31 Days to Build a Better Relationship and published using the Kindle platform on Amazon. It's been a great way to increase my online presence and credibility as a specialist in relationships and has now been downloaded over 2000 times and received 19 five star reviews in Amazon.

With a $2.99 price tag, I didn't write it to make money (though the checks from Amazon are very nice), but more to reach thousands of people that I never could have on my own, through the power of the Amazon Marketplace.

Selling an e-book through your own website is also a very good idea, and the good news is you can charge much more than Amazon e-book prices.

So let's dive in and look at the steps you need to get started.

Select a topic that will sell

It's important to do some research at the beginning to check there’s a market for your e-book and people looking for the information you want to write about.

As a therapist you are well positioned to create an information product because you have years of training, knowledge and experience about good mental health, the change process, and self-improvement. These information products are often in high demand because they are providing a solution to a pain or problem.

So to get your research underway I suggest you start with Google and Amazon. Search for keywords that are related to the e-book you're considering writing.

For example, if you're a specialist in child ADD/ADHD, search for combinations of keywords in Amazon and Google such as "How to overcome child ADD", or "I think my child has ADHD", or "best ideas for dealing with ADD". The idea is you want to see how many people already have products for sale that are similar to your idea.

If you find similar products, but your idea has a particulate angle that is not covered by other e-books, then this is a good thing.

There are hundreds of books on relationships in the Amazon store, but I didn't find one that used my approach of a tip a day for 31 days, so I knew I was bringing in a different angle that might help with sales.

Create an outline

The next step in the creation process is to create an outline for your e-book.

Start by writing down the headline or theme for each chapter. This helps you organise your thinking and then you can flesh out the content later.

Here's a tip: 50% of my e-book used blog posts I had previously written, so if you have been already been writing on a regular basis, don't discount that you may have some of your e-book written already.

This was a huge time-saver that added 15,000 words to my e-book, and I then wrote the remaining 10,000 words in 10 days.

Choose a writing platform

One of the simplest ways to write your e-book is to write it directly into Microsoft Word. This is a good option if you're going to turn it into a PDF for your own website.

I used the free platform Press Books, which is like writing in WordPress, but it converts it into the .mobi file, which you need to upload to Amazon.

I found this software easy to use and enjoyable to write in. You can then make as many changes as you want and quickly upload the latest version to Amazon within minutes.

Write clearly and simply for your audience

It's important that you write in an informal and conversational way, so you can connect with you reader.

Try to avoid writing in an academic voice as it will turn off your readers. The challenge here is to let go of your college training and write as if you're speaking to a close friend.

Use calls to action and hyperlinks

The great thing about writing an e-book, either for Kindle or a PDF for your website, is you can use hyperlinks to link to websites and other online resources.

So take advantage of this and include hyperlinks to link to other websites, or your own. This makes your e-book and more valuable resource.

Also use clear calls to action, so you tell the reader what actions you want them to take.

My e-book had a tip at the end of each chapter, so I told the reader exactly what to do for the next 24 hours. This then helps the reader feel they are getting something from the e-book because they are taking action.

Watch for part 2 on how to sell your e-book!

Clinton Power is a Sydney-based Gestalt therapist and the owner of Clinton Power + Associates- a private practice dedicated to helping singles and couples move out of relationship pain. He is also the founder of Australia Counselling Directory, a free directory for find counsellors and psychologists in Australia. Clinton is also a passionate coach and consultant for healthcare professionals. Find him on Twitter or Google+.