Are you using a blog for your massage business?

[Robert Vignoli]

Please Members of BWO

When you get a chance reply whether you are using a blog for your massage business yet? I tried to create a poll for this but I am a newbie here so I am not sure if I had done it right.

But I am wondering how many massage therapist/bodyworkers out there are using a blog for their massage business. If not please explain why not and if you are please let us know how you are doing with your blog.

[pueppi]

No, I do not use a blog for my business.

I don't like the idea of a blog, as I personally think it adds to a more personal feel than a business feel. And, though I am quite forthcoming with my clients, and friendly as well, I just don't think it suits me to have something like that for my business identity.

[cabwy]

I don't use a blog for my business either.

I wish I could give you some profound reason as to why I don't, but I don't have any off the top of my head.

I have found that referrals (from existing clients) are the single most effective way to gather new clients. If I feel the need to update or educate my existing list I send out a typewritten newsletter.
It would be interesting to hear how you make out with a blog if you decide to do it, please post an update after a few months??

[shivashiva]

I had (have) a blog that I thought I might use for marketing purposes. But I find that what I *want* to write on the blog is not necessarily marketing-appropriate. And I don't want it to be a drag to write holisitic health articles. I also agree with pueppi (if I think I understand what she was saying) that writing an authenic blog might be too personal for me to want to use for marketing purposes.

I think having a blog can be fun...but I'd rather not use mine for my marketing.

[JasonE]

I don't blog because it's too far removed from the core face-to-face aspects of my work. I've seen some people blog successfully, but they generally had a higher profile to begin with, so it was easy for them to establish a high level of readership.

Some blogs can be educational, even useful, but most are not. It's a rare person who can consistently turn out good, interesting material worth reading on a weekly basis. The fundamental structure of blogs makes it difficult to archive the best material, and it's usually difficult to print. For all these reasons, I prefer to write articles for established publications or simply post them in pdf format on my web site. Because I also hope to eventually author research studies, writing informational articles and case studies is good practice.

[cstbrian]

I do have a blog. However, it is secondary to my website. My website takes top priority in letting people know about me and my work, and informing them about general massage/bodywork info. I regularly add and update content on my site to continue to attract visitors and be seen as a local 'authority' in the field.

I blog because it's fun and I like that there is a higher level of interaction with my readers. My website is more about the right clients finding me and my work, whereas my blog is more about reaching those not in my immediate geographical area and helping to educate about CranioSacral Therapy, massage, bodywork, and general health topics I find interesting.

I would not, and do not recommend that one uses a blog as his/her primary website to get new clients. I highly recommend having a more 'traditional' website or web page to do this and add a blog to it if you want to be a blogger.


Brian

[ThatMassageGal]

I love 'snooping' through MTs websites, to admire a wonderful business approach, see what not to do, get good ideas and whatnot, and during my snooping I have seen a one website where the therapist posted a blog as well - I have to say - it was wonderful. I thought it was a great insight into how she ran her business, if I were to have been a potential client.

Now, she didnt get into deep personal things by any means - it wasnt the online diary that most blogs are. She updated it weekly and talked about the week in her office, she talked about a move she had recently made, her new office and how much she loved it, and listed the reasons she was sure her clients would love it too. It was all very, very positive, not very long, just little updates and her personal (but not too personal) thoughts on bodywork. I really liked it and thought if I did have a website it would be a nice way to establish a pace.

So, from the one site I saw It looked like a great idea. This gals was just short, sweet, positive updates and I liked it. But done any other way, I may not be so fond of it.

[moose_goose]

I love 'snooping' through MTs websites, to admire a wonderful business approach, see what not to do, get good ideas and whatnot, and during my snooping I have seen a one website where the therapist posted a blog as well - I have to say - it was wonderful. I thought it was a great insight into how she ran her business, if I were to have been a potential client.

Now, she didnt get into deep personal things by any means - it wasnt the online diary that most blogs are. She updated it weekly and talked about the week in her office, she talked about a move she had recently made, her new office and how much she loved it, and listed the reasons she was sure her clients would love it too. It was all very, very positive, not very long, just little updates and her personal (but not too personal) thoughts on bodywork. I really liked it and thought if I did have a website it would be a nice way to establish a pace.

So, from the one site I saw It looked like a great idea. This gals was just short, sweet, positive updates and I liked it. But done any other way, I may not be so fond of it.

Care to share which site you are speaking of?
(either on this thread or through PM)

[ThatMassageGal]

I would love to if I knew what the address was!! I read it awhile ago, probably some night at 11:30 when I was just aimlessly surfing the net and didnt make any bookmarks - but its something that really stuck with me and when this post was posted it jogged my memory about this gal's site. SORRY!

[moose_goose]

I would love to if I knew what the address was!! I read it awhile ago, probably some night at 11:30 when I was just aimlessly surfing the net and didnt make any bookmarks - but its something that really stuck with me and when this post was posted it jogged my memory about this gal's site. SORRY!

That's okay, I was just curious! I love looking through other people's sites

[thebodyworker]

I encourage people to set up a blog and use it like a website. One of the things that is really lacking in this profession is educating the public. I don't suggest they use it to share their personal life but to write educational posts like how muscles work, how often to get a massage, analyze current massage research, talk about various types of massage, talk about various diseases and conditions that you work with.

The thing I like about blogs is that you can set it up and use what is called the rss feed to get traffic to your site and ping the search engines. My SiteBuildit! websites do that automatically for me so a blog is the second best thing I think even better than a website because of this. You also get twice the spam though too.

I use wordpress for my professional blog. You can set up a free one at wordpress.com but I like the fully functional one.

I even have written an ebook on how to set one up and use it at my site
www.workless-playmore.com

Julie