Thoughts and musings on building an innovative mental health practice. by Susan Giurleo, PhD

Blogging is good for your practice.  How do I know? My private practice blog brings in clients from my community and around the United States.  If you are unsure what a practice blog looks like, you can see mine here, attorney Leanna Hamill’s here, and physician, Kevin Pho’s here.   Blogs work for any practice.

The Pew Research Foundation just released a report that says 62% of adults in the US search for health care information online.  If you are not online, you could potentially be missing out on 2/3rds of those who are seeking your services.  You need to have a professional presence online and blogs are the easiest, fastest, cheapest way to start.

Here are the 5 ways a blog is good for your practice:

1. Blogs allow for an (almost) no-cost way to market your practice.  A blog can serve as your website and give you a forum to demonstrate your expertise.

2. Your blog gives you a place to establish yourself as an expert in your field. After a few weeks of regularly posting on a specific topic, (such as managing depression, coping with grief, issues surrounding disturbed sleep, pareting special needs children, etc.) people will begin to view YOU as the “go to” expert when they have questions or need support on that topic.  And remember that we all want to work with an expert!

3.  A blog can be  linked to online search engines (such as Google) by location, so people searching in your geographic area can find your practice when they are searching on a specific topic (i.e. “Family doctor in Boston, MA”).

4.  Blogs can serve as a public service when you post information and topics relevant to your clients.  This can take the form of tips on relieving stress, research findings on specific disorders/treatment protocols, etc.

5.  Your blog is the starting point for using social media such as Twitter and Facebook,which can also be a part of a low-cost, successful  marketing campaign.

Bonus benefit: Blogs give you a place to set up an online “store” where you can market and sell products that can support your clients outside of an office visit. This is the starting point to multiple streams and passive  income.

Blogs are easy and cheap to set up.  They require some discipline to post to them regularly. But if you build in blogging time each week, you will have a wonderful platform to market your practice, build passive income streams, and educate the public about important health care issues.

You can easily start a blog at Wordpress.com, or Typepad.com. If you want something more powerful flexible I highly recommend Wordpress.org, but you may need some help with setting up hosting, installing themes, etc.  A good book to walk you through the process is WordPress For Dummies
(affiliate link).

Now’s the time! 62% of the population is looking for help online. Let them find you. Start a blog!