Helping Hands For Coaches

I’ve recently talked to a couple of coaches that I recommended not build a website. (Yes, it’s true that we do turn business away if it’s not a good fit!) This is a bit of a contriversial subject, but I believe not every coach needs website. Before you spit your coffee all over yourself, let me explain. Coaches that are:

1. Already successful and ready to retire: perhaps you are a coach that left a company and then started your coaching business, which related to what you were doing before. You already have the right connections and have more than enough business right from the get-go, and when the business runs out you plan to retire.
2. Coaching is a Hobby: perhaps you are a coach that isn’t looking to have a business, but just wants to be called ‘a coach’. I don’t recommend this as it hurts the coaching industry as a whole, and thus I would recommend not having an online presence. For more on coach credentials, code of ethics for coaches, or coach training, please visit the International Coach Federation website.
3. You don’t think you need one: perhaps you think it’s a waste of time, energy or money. If this is true, you probably will never read this post anyway because you don’t go on the web.

If, however, you’re new to coaching and you’re just launching your company – it might be best to spend your time connecting with individuals, companies and other potential clients than to spend several weeks trying to put a website together. I recommend, however, at least setting-up a little WordPress.com site that at least explains what you do as a coach, some basic contact information and a blog. This will help you to build credibility to your prospects, and start building a presence on the web.

Now that Indra Successful Coach Marketing and Blaze Interactive, our two companies, build websites utilizing WordPress, you’ll see some more video tortorials on how to utilize this great software as a content management system. All of our clients have been able to easily pick-up how to use WordPress once their website launched, but I thought it would be helpful if they have some extra support as well.

If you are a life or business coach, or an entrepreneur, on a major shoe-string budget, then I would recommend WordPress as a way for you to quickly and easily build a website. WordPress.com is the free version of WordPress in which you can set-up a blog in minutes. Their free templates aren’t the greatest, but it can easily be customizable. If you want your own URL, and host your own WordPress Website – then I recommend WordPress.org. For hosting the WordPress website, I always recommend BlueHost.

When we build a website utilizing WordPress, we first focus on the design of the site – utilizing our own 6-step design process that really captures the essence of our clients. We then build the site utilizing the WordPress technology, allowing our clients to easily make changes once the site launches. It’s also more Search Engine friendly than basic HTML websites.

This first video is how-to make basic changes in your WordPress website.

The second video is how-to make basic color changes to your WordPress website.

Just a reminder – your ‘Admin’ page to sign-in is your URL (or web address), plus /wp-admin. So, for example, for http://www.helpinghandsforcoaches.com it will be http://www.helpinghandsforcoaches.com/wp-admin.

If we didn’t help you develop your website, and you would like custom HEX colors (the series of numbers/letters that tells browsers what colors to show) – then you can visit this website: www.2CreateAWebsite.com

Are you a new entrepreneur, a life or business coach ready to take the plunge and build your online presence: a website? Then you should listen to “Creating a FAPulous Website” to learn how to do it right the first time!

Creating focus:
http://www.Amazon.com
http://www.adobe.com/

eNewsletter Capture:
http://www.womenwholoveyoungermen.com
http://getknownnow.com/

Blogging:
http://www.Technorati.com: search for blogs that will be similar to yours, and remember to post your blog to Technorati once it’s live!
http://www.sixfiguremomsclub.com/
http://familyofentrepreneurs.com/
http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/

Podcasting:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://odeo.com/

Good use of video: http://www.ardicefarrow.com

We broke-up the eNewsletter into 3 simple sections – so that it’s not overwhelming to the reader. The first section is a personal note from Chrissy, the second portion is an article on planning your vacation – in other words the article that is interesting and informative – and the third section is her call to action in which she asks her readers to use her website to book their next travel. She had over 20% click the link – all because the entire eNewsletter was focused and not overwhelming and ended with a call to action. http://blazeinteractive.com/clients/chrissy/newsletter/jun08_02.html
The eNewsletter service I recommend: http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/56191

Be sure to sign-up for the Search Engine Optimization *FREE* class, for this Friday, July 18th: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/ 

Hello Coaches and Entrepreneurs! Last Thursday I had the great opportunity to teach a 3-hour class to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) in Orange County! We discussed how to create a FAPulous website – a website that is promotes strongly what you want to promote, which:

-Makes you more money
-Gets you more eNewsltter sign-ups
-Gets you more Event sign-ups
-and more!

After the class, I received a number of requests to have it again – and so I’m holding the next 1 hour FAPulous class Friday, July 11th at 10am. Go to our “Live Webinars” page to sign-up: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/ if you’re ready to have your website work the way it was intended to!

You do not need, nor intend to, have a website built by us to benefit from this class! Plus, it’s *FREE*, so there really is nothing to loose! Sign-up now: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/

Hi Coaches! A little bird told me that some of my videos are hard to download for those of you on dial-up! I want everyone to have access to my classes, so I’m going to be creating them in audio format too! Below is the audio recording on how to create your own audio recording, publish it for a website and then replace already published audios using Audio Acrobat. Have fun!