Content Creation Opportunities For Shrinks

Writing articles for high-traffic websites can help you grow online presence and your practice.

Content creation is crucial for building an online presence, particularly on your own professional blog on your private practice website. In addition to creating content for your own small website, you may want to start strategically writing for other websites, too. Seek out higher-traffic sites to write for

If the thought overwhelms you, don't stop reading quite yet. Some of the benefits of writing or blogging on other sites as part of your private practice marketing strategy are:

• Getting more back links to your own site which increases traffic and boosts SEO
• Increase name/brand recognition
• More credibility as a trusted expert
• Opportunity to educate and build awareness of important issues
• And best of all, you can re-purpose the content and post it on your own website

All of these benefits will help bring more visitors to your website, which will, over time, mean more clients for your practice. It's important to write on topics directed to your ideal client. Write  on your areas of passion and expertise in order to bring in clients that are a good fit for your practice. Writing articles for other websites does take some commitment, but in my experience, it has been well worth the effort.

Consider pitching articles or blogs to these sites:

About.com

About.com has different levels of paid contributors: guides, topic writers, and video producers.

Psych Central

If you're ready to make a regular commitment to create and write regularly for your own blog, pitch your passion here. you can also submit individual articles to PsychCentral's World Of Psychology blog.

Sharecare.com

Sharecare is a health social media site owned by Dr. Oz. You can sign up as an expert and answer questions on a variety of health and mental health questions. Here's my Sharecare page.

Your local news website

Every newspaper and TV news station have websites and I've yet to come across one that doesn't have additional bloggers contributing. Here's an example from my articles on a local Utah news website

Examiner.com

The Examiner accepts bloggers based on specific topics and locations. See if they are looking for bloggers in your area of expertise.

Professional organization websites

Check with your professional organization to see if they have a blog and accept articles from licensed professionals. The American Counseling Association has a blog with contributors.

GoodTherapy.org

This professional therapist listing site also allows therapists to become "topic experts" on their site and publish blog articles.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the writing opportunities for therapists on the web. My hope was to get you thinking about how to build your online presence and create content that you own and can reuse on your own site.

Do you contribute articles or other content to larger websites? I'd love to hear about your experience. Have you noticed an increase in traffic to your site? What benefits have you experienced writing for big websites?

I've just launched the 2013 Therapist Blog Challenge. Join us!

4 Reasons To Start Creating Content Online

Creating consistent online content can help grow your practice faster than almost any other marketing or networking activity

According to PCMag.com digital content creation is "The development of newsworthy, educational and entertainment material for distribution over the Internet or other electronic media." It falls under the umbrella of content marketing which is a narrative form of sharing information that speaks to a potential client's need while sharing who you are and the benefits of what you do. Content creation is a way of building trust online and with potential clients by being a valuable resource without asking for anything in return.

Consistently creating compelling and relevant content is the primary reason my private practice has continued to grow in spite of the economic downturn of recent years. Not only has my clinic grown, but since I started regularly blogging, writing, producing videos, and doing media interviews amazing opportunities have come my way. Publishing offers, national media interviews, conference invitations, consulting business, and over 25,000 social followers across multiple social networks are just a few of the incredible doors that have opened to me since I started focusing on content creation.

Here are 4 reasons that becoming a content creator can help build your private practice:

1) Visibility

Posting new content on your own practice website will help your site rank higher in search engines. Creating content for other websites, like guest blogging or interviewing with local news agencies who post the video clip and story online, also provides a SEO boost because it demonstrates that you are relevant and it strengthens your online presence. The easier it is for potential clients to find you online, the quicker your practice will grow.

2) Presence

Because the majority of adults are searching for health information online a strong online presence is critical for growing your practice. A general marketing rule is that it takes about 7 exposures to a brand or product before someone will buy a product or service. Strengthening your online presence makes it more likely that potential clients will be exposed to your "brand" and chose to become your client.

3) Value

Content creation can be another form of community education and a way to provide value to everyone, whether or not they become clients. Content that shares helpful information and answers the needs of people you are qualified to help is tremendously valuable. From a business standpoint, content creation provides an incentive for visitors to return to your practice website for your valuable content, which helps build trust in your services.

4) Credibility

Content allows you to show or demonstrate your expertise and competence instead of just telling someone about it. While I have always been an early internet/technology adopter and I've owned a private practice for over a decade, it wasn't until I started writing this Private Practice Toolbox blog that I became a credible practice building "expert". Creating regular content that meets a need for private practice therapists has allowed me to connect with therapists around the globe and to add private practice consulting as an additional income stream. Largely due to content creation on this blog alone, I have been invited to present to the National Association Of Social Workers on building an online presence, to co-present with PsychCentral founder John Grohol at South By Southwest Conference, and to write the feature article for the current issue of Online Therapy Institute's TILT magazine, and have presented locally on practice building.

laffy4k via Compfight

5 Free Ways to Market Your Therapy Practice

Thanks to technology, there are many free ways to effectively market your private therapy practice. Since these free strategies do take time to implement, I suggest focusing on the ones that sound interesting, fun, fulfilling, and a little challenging so you get something back personally from your time investment. It can take some time until you actually see the benefits of your marketing in terms of clients coming to your practice. Part of effective marketing is simply raising awareness of your practice and your specialties, which will bring in clients over time.

After nearly 10 years in private practice, I've found that the most effective strategies for building your practice use what we already know as therapists about building relationships: building rapport, using your authentic self, starting where the "client" is, to name a few, and translating those skills into a new formats that reaches larger audiences.

Here are 5 ways to draw clients to your therapy practice:

1) Speak to your ideal clients

Once you've identified who you'd like to see in your private practice, ask yourself, "Where are my ideal clients gathering?" or "Where are groups who work with my ideal clients already gathering?" If your ideal clients are families with a young children with behavior problems, then you may want to focus on speaking to groups of parents or teachers in the schools, for example.  Or if you're wanting to focus on working with couples in crisis, then speaking to clergy who regularly meet with distressed couples, or speaking to local religious groups on marriage issues might be something to consider.

2) Blog on your niche

If you have a blog on your website, write weekly articles that speak to your ideals clients. Blog posts are generally 300-500 words, so keep it simple. Blogging once a week is enough to keep it fresh. If you don't have a website, or don't have a blog on your website, I suggest that you look into it. Blogs allow tagging and categories which make it search engine friendly to people who are searching for the information you're offering. Here's an example of blog integrated into a therapist site from my own private practice.

3) Target local social media

Social media is global but your practice is local. Talk with other local businesses and therapists on Twitter and Facebook by using the search boxes to find other pages in your city. For example, if your specialty is working with adults living with chronic pain or illness you may want to follow on Twitter or "like" the Facebook pages of local hospitals, newspapers, rehabilitation centers, chiropractors, and other related businesses and services.  The goal of social media is to communicate and interact, not just to inform, so share other local resources on your social media pages. Tag them on Facebook posts or mention them on Twitter status updates. Reciprocity is the key to effectively using social media to build your therapy practice.

4) Interview on local radio

Did you know that radio stations provide a certain number of public service hours each week?  Producers are often looking for helpful topics and interesting people to interview that will benefit their listeners. Call or email the top local radio stations in your area, ask for the producer of their public service show, and offer a couple of topics that are related to your basic message.

5) Write for local newspaper or magazine articles

Which magazines or newspapers are your potential clients reading on a regular basis? Do some research on the demographic of the periodical and contact the editor to offer your writing services. Always lead with information on how your article/column/expertise will serve their readers, not how you hope to get hundreds of clients by writing for them.  Since most news outlets and local magazines have websites, offering to blog for their site is a great idea, too. Fresh content is a valuable asset to websites so pitch with passion your area of expertise as a blog.

I'd love to hear back from you on how you implement any of these free marketing ideas. Please comment below and feel free to post links of your blog, news interviews, articles, etc. that might spring from reading this post.

photo credit: orensbruli (Esteban Martinena)