Frustrated With Health Care

One of the absolute best ways to gain credibility and presence on the internet is by writing articles.  What do you write about?  You write about what you know.  While the purpose of a Press Release is to announce an event or something new, the purpose of an article is to share information.

You can write about what’s important in your life or business.  You can share a simple “How to” or “Why to”.  For example, as a healthcare provider you can offer advice relative to your specialty that would benefit your patients and the community.  As an internet marketer one of the best ways to attract followers is by providing information to let people know that you are a leader.

That all said, to capitalize on your articles and to gain the most exposure, it is important to submit a minimum of three articles weekly; some authorities suggest that if you can’t submit ten or more you’re not getting full benefit.  The impact your articles have on the search engines is exponential.  If you submit three weekly you might have a 2x impact on the search engines.  Submitting five weekly would give you an 8x effect.  Whereas submitting ten articles weekly would increase your exposure 100 times.  This is definitely the case where more is better, and while quality is important, quantity wins out over quality; as long as the information is worthy.

Another strategy to get your article recognized is to have a title that is of interest to people; something that is being searched for.  You can check this by going to http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com.  Type in a few key word and see what comes up.  You might want to choose a title based on what is searched for most.  Once your title is set you will want to mention your title within the article 3-4 times as a normal part of your article.

You can do a Google search for article submission sites, but the two that I like are http://www.ezinearticles.com and http://www.goarticles.com.  You can submit each article to as many article submission sites as you like, but you can’t submit the same article to the same site more than once.  They don’t like this and it could jeopardize your account with them. 

Thank you in advance for providing your comments and opinions about this post.  Please let me know if this has been helpful information for you, AND if you were able to implement these strategies to a positive result.

A press release is an announcement or explanation of a new product or service.  You can also use a press release to announce an event that has happened or is about to happen.  If you’ve had experience sending press releases to your local newspaper, the difference between an online press release and one that you might send to your local newspaper is that the one online is more likely to be posted.  In fact, if you follow the guidelines for submitting your online press release you are more or less guaranteed that it will be posted.  By contrast, how many press releases have you submitted to your newspaper that apparently made it to the circular file?  Of course another advantage is that your online press release has the potential to be viewed by many more people who are interested in your announcement.  And, do not be concerned if you are promoting a local brick and mortar business on the world-wide-web, you’ll find that many local people have computers too.

Again, you need to have something to announce; a new piece of equipment, a new staff member, a new doctor in the office, new hours, a special talk your going to do or did, an unusual condition you’re treating, a new product you’re offering . . . heck, you can announce ANYTHING from a new paint job in your office to moving your office.  If you don’t have anything, find one; hold an event.  How about “Hawaii Day”, “Summer in February”, “Patient Appreciation Day” . . .  I think you get the idea.

Now that you have a topic you need to write the press release and come up with a title.  Your press release can be anywhere from two paragraphs to 1  1/2 pages.  However, the shorter the better and of course you want to include your contact information at the end, preferably your web site URL. 

Your title has two purposes.  First, it has to grab your reader’s attention and qualify them as a targeted prospect for your message.  You’re not going to get everyone to read it, but you do want to have a targeted market in mind.  Second, your title needs to have your primary keywords that you want to be indexed by Google and other search engines.

For example, most every press release I would do for my office would begin, “Middletown, New York Chiropractor, Dr. Peter Holst . . . “  “. . . to speak at local senior center”,  “. . . . announces July is Patient Appreciation Month”

Next you will want to create a summary of two to four sentences.  “Residents at the XYZ Senior Home in Middletown were all excited to hear Dr. Holst.  Many of them learned how to safely stretch to keep young.”

For the body of your press release your goal is to give enough information without going into too much detail.  You want to wet their appetite so they want to call you or click through to your web site.  Within the body of your press release you want to:

1. Mention your key words 3-4 times.
2. Be sure to write it in the third person.
3. Include one or two quotes.

Always include a call to action at the end of the body of your press release.  Tell them to call your office to receive a free report, have them go to a specific page on your web site for additional information.  Tell them they can print your new patient forms right from your web site.

There are a few online press release services, some are free, some charge as much as $200.  The difference is that the paid ones claim to offer a better chance to get you to the top of the search results.  Although I have not yet invest the big bucks, I have found that the $15-$20 sites do a pretty good job.

1. www.free-press-release.com
2. www.24-7pressrelease.com
3. www.1888pressrelease.com
4. www.prlead.com
5. www.prweb.com

For a couple of examples, you should be able to pull up one or two of my press releases by just Googleing my name, Peter Holst or Peter A Holst.

Make no mistake about it, people are looking for you on the internet.  They may have heard about you from a friend, from the Yellow Pages or from your sign, but they often times want to know more about you.  Even if you have an office web site, which is great, but people know that this is basically just self promotion. What they really want to do it find you on Google.  And, they want to find you high up on the ladder.  So . . . , have you tried to Google your name or your practice with yourtown?  What did you come up with?  Are you on the first page? At or near the top?  To get there you need valuable content about you on the internet.  Here are the 5 strategies.  The specifics for each will be illustrated in seperate posts.

1. Press Release:  A Press Release is an announcement about a specific event that happened or that is about to happen.  Did you open a new office, get a new associate, get a new piece of equipment, change your hours, change one of your office policies, or have a baby.  Any of these are worthy of submitting a Press Release.

2. Articles:  An article is basically your opinion on a specific topic.  We are all experts in something and an article is your way to tell the world about your expertise.  It could be something about your profession or your hobby.  It could be about anything you feel strongly about or you have knowledge about.  If you think you are a great joke teller you could write about that; if you are a member of a service organization you can write an article about that.  Articles are posted on line at an article posting website.

3.  Start your own blog:  Just like an article, your blog should be content rich and not just a sales pitch.  With a blog you need to have a domain name and a blogging interface.  You should also post to your blog at least once or twice a week.  If this is of interest to you start thinking about a domain name.  A good place to start is your name, like JohnSmith.com.  However, if your name is fairly common you might need to be creative.  When we specifically discuss blogs I will offer some suggestions.

4. Video:  Videos are another great way to get your name to the top of the search engines.  This strategy does take a little more time and effort, but it is getting to be a favorite of mine.  If it interests you start kicking around YouTube to get some ideas.

5. Social Networks: This is just another way to get your name out there. However,you probably will not want to open too many different accounts; three is typically a good number. For example, LinkIn, FaceBook and Twitter; these are a great start.  For now you may want to go to these site and open an account using your name.  Try different iterations if your first attempts is already taken.  That’s what happened to me when I tried joining as PeterHolst; believe it or not there are a couple of us out there.  So I chose to use PeterAHolst.  You could use DrYourName.  Since you want to “brand” yourself, it will be in your best interest to use your own name.

Next post I will go into Press Releases and Articles.

Peter Holst, D.C.

http://www.whoispeterholst.com

Do you have a presence on the net? 

Even though I was perhaps one of the first chiropractors in my area with an office website, up until recently I didn’t really believe, nor did I notice that we ever got any new patients from the internet.  I always thought of my website as providing information for my patients and the community, if they happened to stumble upon it.  My website is also part of a service that provided a monthly e-Newsletter that is distributed to my email list.  It happens to be a great service, but that’s another story altogether.  The point I am trying to make is that even though I have had an internet presence for many years it wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I started to notice an increase in my referrals from the internet, and it has been increasing ever since.

What do you get when you Google your name?  Are you within the top ten?  Are you on the first page, the second page?  Do you show up at all?  Obviously the higher up you are on the list, the better your presence.  You know I always thought, “this thing is called the www, which stands for the World-Wide Web”.  What good is that to me when most of my business comes from within a 15 mile radius of my office?  However, there are more people going on the net every day and they ARE within your sphere of influence, and they can, and do, search for local business.  So . . . what do you get when you Google your profession and your town together, say, “Dentist Poughkeepsie New York”?  Again, are you in the top 10?    Also, did you know there are “Geo-specific” searches so that in many cases you do not even have to include your location; you can just Goggle “Dentist”.  The results will by different from zip code to zip code. 

Increasing your presence on the net is a great, and often times free, way to advirtise.  All it takes is a little creativity and the know how, and before long your name will appear at the top of the list.  The first step, however, is determining how you want to “Brand” yourself.  So here’s what I want you to start doing.  Think about how you want to be branded, how do you think people will look for you?  By your name?  This is always a good start, but how else do you want to be found?  By your business name?  How about by your profession?  How about by what conditions you typically treat?  Once you have all the searches in which you want to be found try doing the searches to see what comes up.  Vary your searches.  For example, search for your profession with and without your town, with and without your State.  Also, using quotes provides a more specific search so try searching with and without quotes.  For example, “Your Name” and Your Name.  What you want to do is take notes on the total number of hits with each search, as well as whether you come up in the results and if so, where you come up.

Before moving on to discuss internet marketing strategies that would be helpful for any business, including businesses that are dependent on local traffic, it might be important for you to know where I gained my expertise to offer this information.

By this time it should be secret that my second passion has been network marketing.  Over the years I have been involved with a couple of really great companies.  Unfortunately, no matter how great the company their business model has always been to compile a list of names and then attack those people on your list; friends,  relatives, loved ones; it doesn’t matter, no one is spared and no one is sacred!  Well, if you happen to be one of those friends or family members, it is no fun to be put in that position – trust me, I understand.  However, as the network marketer we are trained to believe in our product and our mantra becomes; “Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Someone is Waiting”.  Sounds good, but it has the potential to get downright ugly!

For this reason, I have decided to study internet marketing and the newest craze, Social Networking on the Internet.  Believe it or not, there is a right way to do it, and there is a totally wrong way; I believe I have come across the right way.

That right way started with a company called CarbonCopyPro (CCP).  CCP is an online marketing platform and business sales system with a first-class, top-tier product line.  This product line is called Wealth Masters International (WMI).  WMI was started and is run by Kip Herriage and Karl Bessey.  WMI is a wealth creation and management education system.  Quite simply, they teach wealth strategies and wealth mind-sets.  These are strategies that are typically not taught in schools, but should! 

So . . . CCP teaches internet marketing strategies specifically for WMI.  However, their marketing strategies work for any business.  In fact, I am applying them to promote my practice as well.  And, I welcome the opportunity to share what I have learned with you in future posts on this blog.

By the way, you might want to take a look and see if CCP/WMI might be right for you, http://www.oneyearplan.net/pahdc.

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