What It Means to Be Your Own Webmaster

Copyright 2014 Deah Curry PhD

Being your own webmaster sounds intimidating but it just means being a good parent to your creativity child. You are already engaged in the care and feeding of your private practice. Webmastering is simply another area in which to exercise some simple techie hygiene.

On a Weekly Basis

Blogging is the main thing you should be doing every week. This is not only helpful for your search engine optimization, but it is also the primary way that new visitors have for telling if you are really still in business because new blogs are dated.

Which means -- be sure to double check when you install a new blog post that it does have the current date.

Associated with blogging is social media. I tell my clients that you aren't done with posting a new blog until you have also promoted that blog on all your social media accounts.

Blogging and social media are considered marketing maintenance practices. Think of blogging as doing the weekly laundry, and of social media as doing the daily dishes.

On a Monthly Basis

When you are needing to fill your practice, it pays off to put in more effort on adding value to your website. Things that add value include:

• give-away tip sheets, checklists, and special reports

• audio files to listen to or download

• videos that instruct or reassure

It's good to have a mix of things that add value -- some that are totally freely accessible. No email opt-in required, no protected page passwords, nothing to buy. Just get to it with the click of a button. Short videos, meditation audios, or tip sheets work great for this purpose.

But then, yes, do offer things of even higher value in exchange for requiring an email address, so that you can begin to do some email marketing. Longer special reports -- 6-10 pages -- or special self assessment quizzes, with an answer key, or a short sample audio would be in this category.

And also create one or two or more items that you can sell from your website at a low cost. Short ebooks, meditation tapes, self-drected courses would fall into that category.

Every Couple Months

Check your links every once in a while, especially those going to other websites. Make sure the links work, and that the site is still worthy of your connection.