Show Notes

Kayla: Welcome back to the Designer Practice Podcast, and I’m your host, Kayla Das.

Have you ever wondered why private practices add blogs to their website?

It’s because blogging is a great way to build website SEO, expand client reach, and grow private practices.

In today’s episode, Alex Theordor, social worker and life-first business coach, will discuss how to attract clients into your private practice through blogging.

Hi, Alex. Welcome to the show. It’s so great to have you here today.

Alex: I’m so excited to be here, Kayla. Thank you for having me.

Kayla: Alex, before we dive in, please introduce yourself, where you’re from, and a little bit about your own practice journey and then, of course, going into business coaching as well.

Alex: Sure. So, as you mentioned, I am a social worker by trade. I’m here in New Jersey. I started my private practice in 2020 during the chaos that the world was. Mostly out of necessity. I loved it. I knew I would love it because I’ve been doing counseling for years before that, but I found that I loved the business side of it, which ultimately is what led me to business coaching in 2022 and really helping those new budding entrepreneurs figure out how to kind of be that business woman. And really looking at marketing because quite frankly, I mean, I don’t know about grad school for you. They didn’t cover any of that in my graduate courses, like, not even like a lesson. So that was a whole new world that I had to learn just by trial and error. So, if I can be a shortcut for somebody else, that would be fantastic.

Kayla: I agree a hundred percent. Whether it’s undergrad, grad, really anywhere. The reason I became a business coach is because even after graduate school, there’s really not that many resources out there for private practice owners, specifically with building businesses, because outside of building any type of business, there’s so many other really important things that we got to consider like our ethical guidelines, our standards of practice just the way we run our businesses are very different than the traditional business.

So, I agree with you. Having someone like yourself to be able to help other people. I just know for myself, like, I just love helping other business owners grow their practices.

Alex: And you’re right, I mean, it’s such a unique field in that it is very people based. I mean, I don’t know many other professions that get the privilege to really have that deep, private, one on one conversation with the client. And so how do you market that in a way that one, maintains confidentiality, of course, above all else? But two, also doesn’t make it sound like salesy, because we are leading with our hearts, it’s that people first, and how do you let your personality shine without it sounding like a sales pitch and that’s why I really love blogging because it allows me to have that personality. And a lot of people to access it on their own time without necessarily being in the room with me directly. At least not yet.

Kayla: Yeah, that makes complete sense. So, who should start writing a blog? And are there any people that shouldn’t write them?

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. So, I think the best way to tackle that is to go pro and con, so to speak. So, the best person in my head who will be really thrive with the blog are private practice owners, specifically if they are out of network providers and/or if they have a unique specialty because those are the clients that sometimes want to learn more. I mean, I don’t know about you, but for me, if I’m going to invest my time, energy and money into something, I’m going to do a lot of research. Right? I want to know that it’s going to be a good fit for me and that they’re going to be able to help me through whatever I’m struggling with. And sometimes on a one-page website, you’re not getting that full detail.

That being said, if someone is a generalist, maybe they are brand new or like, listen, I want to try every client out to see who my specialty is going to be. I don’t know if I would bother with blogging just yet, because it is a time commitment. There is a lot of work that goes into it, especially if you’re taking insurance. You might not necessarily need that extra TLC to speak to one direct client. And from a consumer standpoint, it would be rather confusing. I would feel if your blog is talking about anxiety one day and schizophrenia the next, then eating disorders on the next week versus if you have one place, that’s all about anxiety, for example. Then, it’s really going to speak to that direct client base, and they can learn more with each post.

Other people that might want to consider blogging in the therapy world would be someone who maybe has dreams of being a writer or writing a book. A blog is a great place to get some of that pre-work done to test out things. To see what people like, and are interested in reading and to see how you like writing for extended periods of time. And those blogs can ultimately become some type of publication and that publication can be in and of itself uses a marketing tool, not just as kind of something that sits on a shelf. But I mean, how cool is it to not just hand out a business card, but to hand somebody an actual book that you wrote? That’s a huge authority builder.

If you are looking to diversify your income, and I know we’ll talk a little bit about this later ways to do that, but a blog is a great way to seamlessly integrate some of that. I think too, maybe if you are a pre-licensed therapist. Maybe, you want to do something in the world of mental health, but you’re not entirely sure what just yet. A blog could be a great place to start to find your voice. To put things out there to build that SEO, especially since it does take some time and you can always morph for later. Just because you pick one niche today. Doesn’t mean 3 years from now that’s what you’re going to be working on. But it gives you that foundation that practice. This way when you do find the spot that, like, you know what, this is my forever home. I want to work in this population. You already have those skills and kind of those learning curves under your belt.

The only other person, and I know I’m jumping a little bit that I think might not be a great fit from a blogging standpoint is if you’re an employee for somebody else and you have no interest of doing your own side hustle. Basically, if you’re going to be doing the marketing for your agency job. I think it would be great from a marketing standpoint, the agency will really appreciate it. But again, it’s a lot of time and energy, and if you’re working for somebody else, the understanding is that they’re going to be helping you with the marketing. So, I mean, unless you’re being hired specifically as the marketer, I don’t know if I would put my time, and energy, resources into that department. I would focus on the clinical pieces that they’re paying me for. I know it was kind of a long-winded answer to the big question, but it’s really flexible. It could go to a lot of different people in a lot of different capacities.

Kayla: I agree with you when we think, like if you are working in an agency and you are writing a blog for that particular agency on why that might not be the most effective way, because the truth is, like you said, you’re putting a lot of time and effort and especially if you’re not getting paid for that. Blogs are a really great marketing tool and as you mentioned we’ll talk about like monetization and things later. But it really takes a lot of time. And if you want to blog, if you work in an agency, you can still write your own blog of the same topic.

Alex: Yes.

Kayla: Especially if it’s not considered a conflict of interest or anything, but you don’t even have to be in private practice to start a blog. You can just have a website that is fully about giving free information to somebody and then monetize that blog.

Alex: Absolutely. And I know we talk a lot about the time consistency of it. To put it in perspective for somebody who maybe has never done blogging before, on average it can take anywhere between four to eight hours to really craft a good quality blog. Now, I’m not just talking about words on a page. I’m talking about A really catchy headline title, researching the keywords, making sure that the images have the keywords in it with the alt descriptions and marketing it.

I mean, the professionals, when they do it, and they do it well, they’re doing it maybe even still at that 2-to-4-hour time frame. So if you’re a brand new person to the blogging world anticipated, it’s going to be taking you 7 to 8 hours per blog to get it out there. Which is a commitment. I mean, that’s a full day’s work if you’re really going to do it with your whole heart.

Kayla: I love that you brought that up because sometimes people think ” Ooh, I’ll just do like a 250 word something that means nothing. That’s not going to help you with SEO and it’s also not going to help the reader because if it’s very surface level and they could have found a lot more depth by somebody else, then it’s not going to necessarily be helpful.

I’ll just give an example. My most recent blog was how to be a guest on a podcast. And it took me three days to write. Now to be fair, I didn’t sit down the whole time to write it. But it is very in depth, and I made sure to put every step that you would need if you were going to be a guest on a podcast. And since then, people have commented on it, and basically said it was really great, it’s helpful, and all that kind of stuff. But it’s because I put my whole heart into it. You want the reader, whoever that reader is, to appreciate and find helpful what’s on that blog.

Alex: I think you need it now more than ever to have that deeper connection. Especially with AI, I mean, you could type in a prompt. You can flat out and ask it, please write me a blog on anxiety and it’ll throw one out there for you. But it’s also going to probably throw the same thing out to the 12 other people that minute who are Googling the same thing.

So, the whole point of a blog is to showcase your personality, right? If someone just wanted the information, they can go to WebMD for that, they can go to Google for that. They want to know your perspective and your take on it. But also, that you know your stuff and that you have the authority to be talking on this topic.

So, I think it’s important to know what the time commitment is and know that it’s not just words on a page. It’s not just fact sharing. It really is that a conversation through paper. And I know when I first started, I struggled with that because I’m thinking like, purely content words on the page. And then I had to do research because I was beating myself up for not getting this in on time. But no, it does take time to do it and to craft it and to become good at it.

The first couple of blogs write are probably going to be trash. Let’s be honest. But the more you practice it, the better it is. And the beauty about blogging in particular is you can go back and edit it. You could fix it. You can change it. You could update it. Things like YouTube or podcasts, even sometimes you can’t always go back and edit it. You have to kind of re-record it and maybe make a new release of it.

With the blog, I can go back and edit it every day if I wanted to. And so for me and my lifestyle, that works really well, because God knows there’s a typo at least somewhere in there. No matter how many times I proofread it before I click publish. But those flexibility pieces are nice to have in a blog as well.

Kayla: Yes, so I’m going to just tell a story. I think I’ve actually said this on the podcast a few times in the past. But when I first started blogging, my first blog that I ever wrote in 2021 still is my number one blog today. Now I have updated it, I’m going to say probably at least five times. However, my second blog. I have never updated it, and it’s trash, like you said, it is the worst thing I ever wrote in my life. But I wanted to take it down multiple times, but I said to myself, I said, no, I want to keep this up here to show where I came from, like, how far I’ve gotten.

And anyone listening, go back and look at my second blog, my first one, like I said, has been updated. And it’s the worst. But the reason I’m sharing this is to show that just put yourself out there. Just keep doing it because you’re going to get better. You’re going to get better.

And the other piece that I love that you commented on as well, is that if your goal one day is to write a book, your blogs can actually be pieces of that book and I’m going through that now and I’m writing a book on passive income. Now I won’t lie, I have been kind of slacking since I’ve had my daughter, so it’s nowhere near being published. But because I’ve had so much content already created, a lot of that is going to be in my book. Of course, it’s going to go into more depth and it’s going to be more steps, but you’re not starting from scratch because you’ve already created the foundation

Alex: and that’s the hardest part for me, quite honestly, is that starting from scratch when you’re looking at the white page of death, and having no idea where to start. It’s intimidating and it can make you really just want to close the laptop and walk away and find something else to do. But if you have a framework, even if it is one of those early blogs that you know only your mother read and it has a thousand grammatical errors in it. That, okay, at least you have some place to jump from and you can edit it. What’s missing? What are people asking me questions about constantly that I can go back and re-answer? Did the times change from when I wrote this to now that it absolutely needs to be re-updated because it’s just old out of date information? At least you have something and you can use that not just for your book itself but to promote your book when you have to do your social media pieces for it or maybe giving people a little sneak peek so they know what it’s about and if they’re interested in you have that flexibility because you just pick a chapter out or you pick a blog post out and you’re good to go.

Kayla: I agree a hundred percent. So, I think we’ve talked a little bit about this, but what are the benefits of writing a blog and adding it to a practice website?

Alex: So, for me, the biggest benefit by far, in my opinion, is the SEO benefit. Now it’s funny because when I first started my private practice journey, I was actually discouraged by my business coach to focus on SEO because it was quote unquote, too time consuming and not enough kind of bang for your buck and was redirected towards paid ads. But again, you don’t know what you don’t know. So, you go with the flow. And as you’re in the world and in the market, you figure it out that, “Oh, this SEO thing is actually important. Maybe I should learn more about it.” And blogging is a great way to boost your website’s SEO because essentially what you’re doing is using keywords meeting the search terms that you would put into Google. You are putting into your blog and helping it gain authority and visibility. And the more you write consistently, the more times Google seeing like, “Hey, this person is up-to-date. This person is accurate. This person is interesting because people are constantly visiting,” they’re going to bump you up higher and higher to the list.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if you do a Google search on something, especially if it’s like therapists near me, I’m not going to the 20th page of Google to find my therapist. I’m going to probably start on the first page, maybe even the first like four non-paid ad pieces, those first four organic listings. And that’s where I’m going to begin my search. So, the closer you can get to the top, The better you are from a visibility standpoint, and the way you get close to the top is by boosting your SEO as much as possible.

Kayla: I’ve never invested in Google Ads, although I’m not against them, I do want to say. I just personally am not a big fan of pay per click ads for my own business. And even before I was in business, I know me as a consumer, although this is not true for every consumer, is I would never click on a Google ad, which at the time I didn’t really realize it was Google ad. To me, it just looked like spam because it says it’s sponsored on it. I knew it was always legitimate websites, but I knew that Google itself didn’t rank it as legitimate, it was someone paying for ad space. Honestly, I go to the organic or like you mentioned like the ones that are not paid and go there or look at Google business pages, but for the most part, it’s like what is Google ranking on the top and that is who I choose because anyone can pay for ad space. Not anyone can be on page one of Google.

Alex: Correct. It is very hard to get on page one of Google, and that was a humbling perspective when I first started blogging, was you can write the best piece in the world. But if no one knows you, and those kinds of eyeballs don’t get on it, Google just needs time to get to know you, right? Eventually you’ll start to grow, but it’s not going to hit day one. And I think that that’s why the paid ads were so popular, at least when I was starting out. Because it got you to the top real quick. Now, the challenge that I learned with that, especially being an out-of-network provider is people wanted more information. They wanted to know me more. They wanted to build a bit of that trust and authority before they were paying $200 plus a session. That’s a lot of money, especially since therapy is usually not a one and done thing. I mean, yes, now there are therapy intensives, which is a different story, but even with those, you’re paying usually thousands of dollars up front. It’s not just a simple copay where people might be willing to give it a test run and okay, I’m out 20 bucks. I’ll try again next time. Being out $200, $250, especially if you’re doing an intake appointment is tough to change for people. And so they wanted to know more and a Google ad wasn’t enough for it, even a website alone. Yeah, it helped, but they wanted something different.

And that’s really where blogging became that answer is because they had pages and pages of more that they can read. Or if they signed up for a newsletter of mine, they can get emails weekly, bimonthly, whatever the schedule that I was doing was, where I was staying top of mind, because let’s face it. I mean, how many of us are usually that proactive where as soon as the problem pops up, we’re quick to kind of hit that call button and get help. If there is to do anything like me, it’s usually festering for a couple of weeks and only finally comes up when it is no longer ignorable.

Kayla: Agree and adding on to that. If I were to seek help for anything, again, whether it’s therapy or anything, I almost never reach out to, say, a person first. I will surf the internet, try to find all the free resources, try to YouTube it, do all of those things. But my first thing is always put it in Google. So, if my concern is I’m experiencing significant anxiety at work, guess what I’m going to put into Google. How do I manage anxiety at work? There you go. That is what people are typing in there. So, if your blog shows up, you’re getting people even before they’re ready to hire somebody. Because almost no one starts hiring someone the minute they’re like, oh, I got a problem. I think I’m going to hire someone. They try to do it themselves. They try to find free resources and then they’ll start paying.

So, if you can get them before they start paying, you’re going to be the person that they’re going to eventually enlist with their problem as a therapist. They’re going to reach out to you if they found help with your blog. And how powerful is that if every time someone goes to Google looking for that self-help answer, an article of yours pops up, right? I mean, that’s building authority and trust and reputation every time they do a click on your website, right?

Even if they don’t necessarily click on your page and they maybe pick a different search engine, if they’re seeing your name as they’re scrolling, again, it’s showing that, “Hey, she must know what she’s talking about. Maybe she can help me.” And if your writing really depicts what that client pain point and they can see themselves in your words and in your stories, that’s just going to help you even more because especially when it comes to therapy, I mean, that feeling of isolation that, “Oh, my God, I’m the only one going through that is.” not only crippling, but a very big deterrent because people are afraid to reach out and get help. But if it’s on your blog post, and it’s like, hey, I’ve seen this. I’ve worked with this. Hell, maybe I’ve even gone through it. Right? It gives that relatability and that kind of guard can come down a little bit.

So, when you do actually get into session, some of that, awkwardness might already be defrosted a little bit and you can get down to work maybe even quicker because you don’t have to go through the awkward dance of getting to know you because they already feel comfortable with you in some degree.

Kayla: Agree. So, we sort of already got into this but I know the podcast is titled How to Attract Clients Through Blogging. Can you tell us a little bit how it attracts clients through blogging?

Alex: Sure. So, there are a couple of different ways that it can do it and the ways that I do it. So, the first we talk about being SEO and that kind of that organic search, the more Google sees your website and your blogs as an authority, the more natural it’s going to bring you up to the top of the page. You can also help Google out a bit by sharing your blog posts through, and that’s how I do it, through social media, through even paid ads, quite frankly, that’s something that I’m experimenting with currently is using paid ads to retarget those posts. So, people are seeing it versus just seeing an ad that says, “oh, pick me, pick me.”

It is a great way to even get some opportunities outside of the therapy field. For example, opening doors to different speaking engagements. Different writing opportunities. Different kind of places where you can share your voice. So, for example, I sent over a couple of my blog posts as writing samples to the NASW. And they offered me an opportunity to write an article for their, I think it’s a quarterly magazine, the focus magazine. And that was a great opportunity to get some visibility and I’ve been able to do that a couple of times and now I know that the people that work there, so I can usually just kind of reach out. But I would not have gotten that opportunity if I didn’t have samples to show them and the samples that I use for blogging.

I have peers that have done it from a speaking perspective. That’s somebody who’s looking for a presenter. They are looking for either a conference or maybe it’s just for a group that they’re doing. They need kind of a key witness expert kind of person sending over a couple of blog posts on the topic that they’re looking to present on. Could, again, help be your little bit of a resume, so to speak, and get your foot in the door. And you never know where you’re going to find clients. Sometimes it’s the people directly. But oftentimes, too, it’s family and friends who will pass your name across because they see that Tommy is really struggling. So, Tommy’s kind of baseball coach is going to be like, “Hey, have you considered maybe reaching out to somebody about this? I saw this person that they can really help you.” So those opportunities are always available as well.

Kayla: Agree, and I love diversifying my income. So, I recently had taken a very part time, I would say almost hobby, but I get paid for it, content writing job, in addition to my business. And it’s just because I just love content writing. And it was actually showing my blog posts to this company that they were like, “yes.” So, it can actually, like you said, open doors to an array of possibilities.

And if you are someone who loves to write and you want to get paid good money to write something having these already created can be a part of your portfolio to show them.

Alex: Oh, I’ve absolutely been approached by people for like sponsorships and affiliate marketing, and I know that’s different than the therapy world where you’re looking for clients for that one-on-one service. But if you did want to diversify into promoting other people’s products or even putting ads on your blog, as long as you’re getting traction and visibility, people very well are willing to invest in that and invest in you. Because quite frankly, you’re doing a lot of the legwork, right? You are doing the creation of it and the marketing of it. They’re just kind of riding on your coattails of your reputation and using that. Now, the one thing I will say with that, and I’m sure you talk about this in length is make sure if you are going to do a sponsorship or affiliate that you know, like, and trust the person you’re doing it for. Because your reputations be tethered to them as well. And especially with the clients that we work with in the therapy world. That’s a really important thing because you want to make sure above all else that therapeutic relationship isn’t harmed in any way, shape or form.

Kayla: Agree. So, on this podcast, we love talking about generating alternate and passive income. So, let’s talk a little bit about how blogging can be a source of passive income. And what are some ways a listener monetize and generate passive income?

Alex: Yeah, so that’s actually how I started in many ways, like getting really serious about blogging. I had done some blogging before and done some playing with keywords, but never was really in the thick of it until I dove into my coaching business. And that all really started with a digital product, a small little digital product that I was selling on Etsy. And I was tired of one, paying Etsy all the fees and commission and two, was tired of just sending them to a sales page. I wanted to give a little bit more background to show how things were used and what was done. So, blogging allowed me that space to have a voice and to showcase things that I really couldn’t do in a character restricted sales box.

So, you can sell your own digital products, whether that be a template of some sort, whether that be a course, it could be the book that we were talking about before. It doesn’t have to be digital. It could be a print product to. It could be a different service. I mean, there’s a lot of areas in that arena and I know we kind of touched on the affiliate marketing aspect of it. If you don’t have maybe the time space, energy or creativity to make your own product. If you can find somebody else who has made it or something similar, be like, “Hey, I’m happy to do the marketing for you and do it via blogging. I just need you to do the actual product creation, customer service side of things.” And that could be a really beautiful partnership that can come and not be as time investment for you, but still give great monetary reward. And especially, the summertime, having that summer slump can really be a tough on therapist because a lot of clients will go on vacation or pause treatment, especially if you work with kids or school age people, they’re going away. So having something to diversify, bring money in those doors without having to overstuff your caseload in preparation for cancellations or vacations is a really nice option.

Kayla: Yeah, I agree 100%. And a lot of those ways are how I monetize my blogs and also my podcast as well.

So, do you have additional advice, insights, or tips for listeners on how to attract clients through blogging?

Alex: So, my biggest tip would be stay consistent, right? If you can’t commit to. once a week blogging, don’t set that goal just yet. Maybe make it once a month, right? Every week you type out a paragraph or two and eventually those things become your posts and you schedule it out and it’s done. The biggest killer for SEO is that variability, meaning maybe you get 30 blogs out in 30 days, but then you ghost Google for six months, right? It’s going to be like, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t understand this.

But if you can say, write one blog post a month, pre-schedule them out for the year, maybe you take 2 weeks to just bang out those 12 blog posts, right? And then at least you know you have that consistency done. And if you have time and energy and the mental space, you start to fill it in, so now you have one every other week, twice a month. And then once you get into a role, because the more you do it, the easier it does get, not just to do the writing process, but also finding the keywords and knowing what people are interested in. You can ultimately bring it up to once a week, which is the goal, right? A lot of bloggers, I know that’s what they’re trying to strive for, but quite frankly, it’s up to you. It’s your blog, it’s your life. If once a week sounds like torture, don’t do that. If once a month sounds like, “Okay that’s feasible. And I can maybe do a little surprise one here and there.” That’s good too. But having some type of consistency is really going to be important.

Kayla: Something I noticed, and this is more with my podcast, because my podcast comes out every single week was that Google actually send their bots to my website every single week now on Tuesdays because that’s when my podcast is released. So, when we think of SEO, Google has these bots that come on your website and that’s how they start ranking you, right? They have to actually see that your content’s there.

Now, there is a way that you can send things manually, but once you start sending up these consistencies, the bots are going to start coming once they realize that you are putting it out consistently. They’re going to show up on your website almost immediately. I will say it’s like the same day, if not the day after, because for the last year and a half, it’s always been out on Tuesdays. And then they actually go through your whole website. So, they’re index your whole website, which is a good thing, because if you updated another page, that now gets updated on Google and it just really helps you. So that consistency is not only important for that respect, but it’s so the bots can actually know that this is going to happen every Tuesday. So, we’re going to show up every Tuesday. Whereas if you’re putting things out here, there and everywhere, the bots just have no idea when to show up.

Alex: No, absolutely. And I like to think of it, not just from the SEO analytic piece of it, but even from a therapeutic piece of it. I mean, if I’m working with somebody in the therapy room, I want my therapist to be consistent. I want to know that if I need them, or if I have questions that I can reach out to them and be there. And yes, obviously, it’s a different thing than blogging itself, but you’re demonstrating and modeling that consistency of “Okay, every other week, once a month, every Tuesday, the third Tuesday of the month, you can expect this from me, and then you deliver on it,” you’re building that trust and planting those seeds right there, right? Even if they don’t necessarily make that decision. explicit connection, you’re demonstrating it with your actions, which, for me, actions speak way louder than words. I can write on my website, I am a genuine human being and trusting and always reliable, but unless I actually prove it, that means nothing.

Kayla: Couldn’t say it better myself. Alex, I know you have a free resource that you’d like to share. Can you please share what your free resource is and how it can help our listeners?

Alex: So, I mentioned earlier that looking at like the white page of death is the most intimidating thing when you start to write, at least for me. So, to help you get over that hump, it’s three different blog post templates that you can use to help get you started. And I even threw in a couple little bonuses in there to get you started with keywords as well as crafting some headlines and some blog topics. Because again, once you get started, it starts to kind of take a life of its own and really makes it easier, but figuring out how to even get your foot in that door can feel impossible if you don’t have a guidepost. So, I’m hoping that this can at least jumpstart someone’s blogging journey, so they’re not intimidated when they’re walking right up to the door.

Kayla: Amazing. And there’s not many products like yours out there helping therapists specifically create blog posts for their website. So, I’m so glad that you have this.

So, to sign up for Alex’s resource, 3 Free Blog Post Templates for Therapists, check out kayladas.com/alextheordorfreebie.

That’s kayladas.com/alextheordorfreebie

Or you can simply scroll down to the show notes and click on the link.

Alex, thank you for joining us today on the podcast and sharing tips for how to attract clients through blogging and also giving us some passive income monetization tips as well.

Alex: Thank you, Kayla. It was great being here and I can’t wait to see what your readers create.

Kayla: Thank you everyone for tuning into today’s episode and I hope you join me again soon on the Designer Practice Podcast.

Until next time. Bye for now.

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