Choosing a Name For Your Life Coaching Business
One of the most common questions new coaching professionals have is around choosing a name for their life coaching business.
Choosing a name for a life coaching business is really no different than choosing a name for any other business. There is one very popular school of thought about naming a business where you make up a name that is SO unusual that you will be easy to find when prospective clients come looking for your business.
It sounds good, doesn’t it. Make an unusual name for your coaching business and that way, when your prospective clients go searching for you, you’re easy to find. However, that’s not the way it works.
I should know because I made that mistake when I named my business.
Way back in 1997 when I was choosing a name for my business, I decided upon the name Virtual Impacts. However, much to my dismay, another web development company in Texas had already secured the correct spelling. So, I picked up the catchy and edgy Virtual Impax. A few years later, the correct spelling became available and I grabbed that one too.
Over the past 12 years, I’ve created several HUNDRED websites for clients. I’ve launched over 100 blogs over the last 18 months alone! After 12 years there still isn’t a SINGLE PERSON searching for my business name of Virtual Impax.
There are people searching for Virtual Pets, Virtual Sex, and Virtual Hairstyles… but the number of people who searched for Virtual Impax last month didn’t register with any of the free keyword trackers available on the internet. There are a few people who search for me by my business name every once in a while, but for the most part, my business name isn’t helping my business one iota.
They say wisdom is learning from other people’s mistakes. This is your opportunity to learn from mine!!!
When choosing a name for your life coaching business, choose a name that includes words potential clients might use to find you!
Carol Solomon chose the domain name Hypnosis and Diet to promote her EFT Weight Loss Products. Sandy Clendenen chose Move Beyond Grief for her website. Rosemary Davies-Janes chose Miboso Training for her latest website.
Other great domain names which help potential clients find the coach when doing a web search are:
- Beyond Infertility for couples who are having trouble conceiving.
- Boost Your Low Libido for those who need to re-ignite the flame
- Clutter Busting Coach for those who need help conquering clutter
- Do Not Grieve Alone providing help for Widows and Widowers
- Effective Training Solutions for those who need effective training solutions
- Lose Weight Find Life for those who need to lose weight.
- Stress Relief for Life for those who need to conquer stress.
What does each website name have in common above? You can tell in an INSTANT what benefits each coaching professional is offering.
When you’re choosing a name for your life coaching business, try to focus on the words people who need you might use to find you.
SelfGrowth.com
Several of my clients have gotten emails inviting them to become a member at SelfGrowth.com
SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web.
SelfGrowth.com is well worth the investment of time and energy to sign up. One way that the search engines determine whether or not your website is “worthy” is by the number of links coming into your site. If Self Growth provides nothing else, this is yet another breadcrumb trail to lead to your coaching blog or coaching website.
However, Selfgrowth.com also offers you the ability to showcase your expertise through publishing articles there. That means it’s a good place to begin leaving breadcrumb trails to allow prospective clients to find your blog or website.
Coaching, Relationships and Blogs
Building your coaching practice is all about building relationships. One of the biggest advantages of Web 2.0 is how easy it is to build those essential business building relationships.
One of the reasons blogs are better than “traditional” static websites for coaches is the ability to build a relationship with your blog’s readers. RELATIONSHIPS are the result of TWO WAY COMMUNICATION!
Blogs provide coaches an opportunity to establish that two way communication with prospective clients. That’s what makes blogs an ideal marketing tool for a coaching professional.
See, when you blog, you are planting the seeds for communication. When visitors come to your website, they can respond to the seeds of communication you’ve started.
I have two clients whose blogs have grown at an AMAZING rate over the past 6 months. Even though neither of these coaching professionals have been especially good about “blogging” regularly, their infrequent posts have found their way through the internet and have reached out an touched hurting people who are in need of their services.
Despite relatively little content being posted on their blogs, both of these coaches have blog websites which attract hundreds of visitors monthly. Visitors read the posts and are signing up at an amazing rate for each coach’s newsletter. I’ve got to admit, even I am amazed at how much “action” they’re getting from so little content.
Blogs continue to grow in popularity because of success stories like the ones featured at Easy Coaching Websites.
How to Find Paying Clients for Your Coaching Practice
Have you ever wondered how to find paying clients for your coaching practice?
You know that your website could have people racing to buy the products and services you provide, but it’s not and you don’t know why.
Most coaching websites are ineffective. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Your website has the potential to be one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use to connect with people are actively seeking a coach. That’s right… right now there are people searching the internet right now. They’re using very specific keywords like:
- cary nc business coaching
- raleigh business coaching
- leadership coaching uk
- professional life business coaching
- personal mastery and coaching
If you didn’t know what words people are using to find your products and service… then you can’t know what words to target on your coaching website.
That’s why the best investment you can make in marketing your coaching practice is:
- Sign up for an Easy Coaching Website.
With an easy coaching website, you can create search engine friendly content quickly and easily. - Sign up for Wordze
Unlike the free keyword research tools, Wordze gives you more accurate results… and shows you the keywords that are WORTH optimizing your web content around.
An Easy Coaching Website + a Wordze account deliver a 1-2 punch when it comes to potential clients finding your website.
With your Easy Coaching Website, once you’ve found the keywords that people are using to find YOUR coaching practice… you can easily create content on your page around those keywords. The thing is, these keywords change MONTHLY! Most of the free tools are reporting from old figures. But the time the figures hits one of the free tools, it’s old news. Subscribers to Wordze have already beaten you to the punch.
Your coaching website should be the best way to find paying clients for your coaching practice. If your current website isn’t delivering clients… it may be time to upgrade your website to one that works hard at attracting clients to your practice.
Fresh Content is a Key to Your Coaching Website Success
Fresh content is the key to your coaching website’s success.
The problem with “traditional” HTML websites is they are FAR from easy to update. So your faced with contacting your web master and having him or her make the updates for you. Usually it becomes such a hassle that you just don’t update your site as often as you should.
Since fresh content is the key to website success, your website is almost doomed from the start if you can’t update it regularly with fresh content.
If you are able to use a word processing program, then you can make posts to a blog.
Even if you don’t know how to code in HTML or transfer the files to the web, posting to a blog is MUCH easier than updating the content on a traditional HTML web site.
Your website can act as a way to introduce potential clients to what you can do for them. Imagine if you could post an article each week to reach out to potential clients. They could “sample” your services without picking up the phone to call.
This is a wonderful marketing tool…and you may already be posting your articles to article sites. But wouldn’t it be great if those articles appeared on YOUR website as well?
With a blog, they can feature those articles and more.
Fresh content is key… and providing readers of your articles a place to come to get MORE information also makes sense. If you have a traditional website, be sure to include your articles on it. If that’s a hassle… check out Easy Coaching Websites.
Blogs Advantages over Traditional HTML Websites
Blogs have a LOT of advantages over traditional HTML websites for the coaching professional.
Blogs are “better” than traditional HTML web sites because blogs are easy to update and maintain.
One of the essential ingredients to a successful coaching web site is fresh and engaging content.
Fresh and engaging content is essential no matter WHAT medium you use to communicate. In television, stagnant content is known as “re-runs”. No matter how much you love a particular show, you probably won’t watch it every day, over and over.
Even in traditional media…whether it be magazines, newspapers, radio or television…., you have to provide fresh content to build an audience, usually on a daily basis. How many times do you pick up the Sunday paper to read it again throughout the week? The answer for most of us is “rarely if ever”. While you may save back issues of a favorite magazine, truth be told, you probably don’t go back and read those back issues very often.
Blogs vs HTML Websites
There’s a lot of buzz going on these days about “blogs”. You may have heard that blogs are “better” than traditional HTML web sites.
Chances are, if you’ve been surfing on the web that you have seen a blog. What many people don’t know is that you can’t tell a blog site by just looking at it. As a matter of fact, some blog sites do an AMAZING job of ‘imitating’ a traditional HTML web site.
If you can’t tell at first glance which sites are blog sites and which sites aren’t, then why oh why are blog sites so great?
One of the reasons that blogs are so much better than traditional HTML websites is that they’re easy for “regular people” to update. An essential key to a successful web presence is fresh content. Ever visited a website and saw horribly outdated content?
Outdated content makes a HORRIBLE first impression.
However, in addition to being easy to update, blogs are also naturally “search engine friendly”. That means when you post great new content to your blog, the search engines are more likely to find it. When they find it and index it… people who are searching for the answers you provide in your coaching practice will find your posts or articles. They find your articles, they read your articles and if you’re lucky, they’ll link to those articles. Before you know it… VIOLA! You’ve got traffic coming to your website.
If already have a traditional static HTML web site and you’ve been struggling to increase visitor traffic to your web site via the traditional methods, after a few months of blogging you may be tempted to proclaim that blogs are a source of MARKETING MAGIC.
They aren’t. You still have to put forth effort…. but to paint a word picture for you…
Launching your traditional HTML web site is like riding a bicycle up a steep hill. Meanwhile, using your blog to attract visitors to your web presence is like riding a motor scooter up that same steep hill.
If you’ve been doing the following to promote your traditional, static HTML web site, then you’re going to LOVE what a blog can do for your web presence..
- If you’ve been writing and posting articles on other sites…
- If you’ve been purchasing Ad Word campaigns trying to attract traffic
- If you’ve been trying to swap links with other web site owners with no success
Then you will be pleasantly surprised when you begin engaging in the very rewarding act of blogging for your coaching business.
Check out Easy Coaching Websites for how a blog can act as a powerful marketing tool for your coaching business.
Blogs are the ultimate in “sticky websites”
While your 3 year old’s sticky fingers aren’t necessarily a good thing, a stick web site is. A sticky web site is one that visitors spend time exploring. The more time a visitor spends at your web site, the more likely he or she is to return or make contact with you. Isn’t that why you published a web site in the first place?
Marketing specialists all agree that it takes approximately 6 to 8 contacts from you (whether it be via email, snail mail or phone call) before your prospect will turn into a client.
There are lots of “tools” you can install on your web site to make it more “sticky”… but the positively most effective stickiness tool for any coaching practice is a blog.
The “beautiful” thing about blog stickiness is it’s YOUR insights… YOUR vision…. YOUR blog posts that keep visitors coming back for more.
Many blog “gurus” will tell you that RSS is the reason for a blog. Unfortunately, RSS (which stands for Really Simply Syndication” is not a widely adopted practice… YET! For that reason, it’s not reason in and of itself to launch a blog. (Don’t worry… there are lots of GREAT reasons to launch a blog for your coaching practice. It’s just the ability to deliver RSS is NOT one of them!)
In an effort to raise awareness of what RSS and how you can use it in your daily life, the Daily Blog Tips has announced it’s sponsoring RSS Awareness Day.
Believe me, I’m ALL for 100% adoption of RSS feeds. However, when someone like Chris Garret says he’s adding an email newsletter subscription to supplement his RSS feeds, I think we all should sit up a listen.
Chris is very “tech savvy” and as a tech savvy user, he has chosen Aweber to deliver his email newsletter. However, if you’re not tech savvy, you may find the learning curve at Aweber to be steep.
That’s why I recommend Marketer’s Choice for my “less than tech savvy” clients.
- First, the live support with Marketer’s Choice is TOP NOTCH.
- Second, they provide TONS of online videos which make calls to live support very rare indeed. If you use the link in this post, well… it’s an affiliate link but it also gives you a first month free bonus that you won’t get if you visit the site directly.
The secret to “sticky”…. lots of good quality content… and then remind them that your blog is still there with an email newsletter.
If you’re still fuzzy on the difference between the two… your blog lives “online”. The content you post there is indexed by the search engines just like a “traditional” static HTML web site. The big difference between a blog and a web site is how EASY it is to add fresh content to your blog. This ability to easily add and edit content is the BASIS of the “magic of blogs”.
Your blog will serve as a “sign up point” for your coaching newsletter. It’s where the sign up form will live so people can sign up to get your email newsletter. When you SEND your email newsletter, unless you also post that content on your blog, that content will not be available to the search engines for search.
RSS is a way for people to sign up for your blog’s content without sharing their email address. Less than 10% of web users even KNOW what RSS is. Some day, RSS will be a great reason to launch a blog. Until then, a blog is a great “sticky” website. One that allows you to communicate with potential clients BEFORE they pick up the phone and call. For that reason alone, you should have a coaching blog.
Business Challenges: Learning to change
Change is usually a topic covered in quite frequently among coaching professionals and consultants. Whether you work with the topic of change in your client’s businesses or you address the importance of change in your client’s lives…. change presents a challenge for all of us. Learning change is an essential skill.
What changes do you need to make in your business? Are you pursuing change for the sake of happiness?
According to Sue Burness in her post “Start From Where You Are”
It is possible to make HUGE changes in our lives, but only when we’re ready!
Are you ready? What do you need to create successful change your coaching business?
Maybe the change you need to make is how you view yourself…. if you’re a coach chances are you’re highly creative. Take a moment to read the blog post “The ten paradoxes of creative people“. Maybe you need to quit putting lipstick on a pig…. maybe you need to focus on creating community… maybe the matter is urgent… and if you don’t change then your business will die.
Learning to manage change is probably the most difficult part of managing your business.
Blogs as essential elements in the art of persuasion a.k.a. marketing your services
John Hoff has a great post on his blog entitled: The Art of Persuasion
In the post, John outlines 5 Keys to Persuasion:
- storytelling
- being observant
- being knowledgeable
- timing
- listening
I encourage you to read the post to get the full benefit of his wisdom (the link above goes to part 1 of the series). It’s really good stuff!!!
From a marketing point of view, John’s list could also read, “5 reasons blogs are better than traditional static web sites at selling your services”.
Don’t like to use the “S” word… then how about “5 reasons blogs are better than traditional static web sites at PERSUADING your web visitors to become your clients”.
- Blogs are great for story telling…..
Often the best stories come from personal experience. Your coaching blog can be easily updated to include the latest and greatest “stories” from your life and times. - Blogs allow you to record your observations
While a blog won’t “magically” enhance your powers of observation, you are able to be “spontaneous” in sharing your observations. Instead of “composing” and article and then sending it to your web master for “publication”, you can just log on and share. There is no “recommended word count”… and your blog allows you to comment on topics of current events as well. - Blogs allow you to demonstrate your knowledge
Keeping content current on your blog will be a habit you’ll want to develop. Regular blogging is a great way to “showcase” your knowledge. When a reader starts clicking on other posts… it’s a good sign that they’re interesting in learning what you know. When a reader clicks to subscribe via RSS, you’ve hit paydirt!
Daily Blog post writes:
“Visitors will subscribe to a blog when they are 90% convinced that it would be a loss indeed to miss that content. I say 90% and not 100% because they can always unsubscribe later, and for 10% people would be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.“ - Blogging allows you to take advantage of the here and now.
A static web site whose most recent feature is an article about the 2004 US presidential election is going to look pretty outdated these days. However, a blog allows you to make commentary and time stamp it with a date. That means you can write a post about a topical event (for example, a candidate for the upcoming 2008 US presidential election). Your blog post will be topical and current AND may actually land a great SERP (Search Engine Results Page) in the process! - Blogging allows your readers the opportunity to comment.
Listening to users is an ESSENTIAL skill when it comes to communication. Allowing readers to comment on blog posts allows you to see inside your visitor’s thinking process… and allows you to change course if necessary.
If you’re a coach and you hate the idea of the “S” word (selling) then perhaps you should consider a blog as a marketing tool. That way you can “soft sell” your services by sharing your expertise!
