Over the long 4th of July weekend, I not only enjoyed the much needed rest and time with friends and family but was also able to write multiple posts for future publishing. Even though I’m extremely excited about publishing them, I’ll hold off until the majority of direct messages I received from Twitter over the weekend are answered via this post.
Apparently the three day weekend gave chiropractors enough time to think about the value of blogging. I received more direct messages through Twitter than I ever have over one weekend. And, considering the 96th Tour de France kicked off on July 4th, the neat thing was that the messages revolved around my blog and blogging instead of one of my other passions, cycling.
The overwhelming majority of direct messages asked if I knew of a quick way to get a chiropractic blog started. Without me actually doing the work for you, which by the way is the purpose of Developing Others, I decided to write a post that lists previous blog posts that will walk you through the process quickly.
So, without further ado, here’s a busy chiropractor’s guide to starting a chiropractic blog:
The Who
1. Who’s King of Your Office
2. 7 Bloggers You Need to Add to Your RSS Subscription TODAY!
The What
1. What is a Blog and Why do You Need One?
2. Two Tools that are Essential to the Growth of Your Chiropractic Blog
The Why
1. What is a Blog and Why do You Need One?
2. 6 Essential Reasons Why You Need a Chiropractic Blog
3. Why Your WordPress Chiropractic Blog Needs the Thesis Theme
The How
1. How to Know What the Buyer Wants
2. How to Distribute Your Content
3. How to Setup a Blog for Your Chiropractic Practice
4. How to Register a Domain Name for Your Chiropractic Practice
5. Finding a Home for Your Chiropractic Blog
6. How to Automate the Subscription Process of Your Chiropractic Blog
7. How to Build a Better Chiropractic Blog in 31 Days
Okay, I realize that the aforementioned guide takes time to read and digest. Nevertheless, no good effort is ever wasted. If you want to see results, you have to lay the proper foundation. There’s no secret formula to success. It’s just like building a successful chiropractic practice. You take it one day and one patient at a time.
However, if you truly want to start your blog ASAP, please contact me. I can get you up and running typically within two weeks.
One caveat — you must have content to post before we take your blog live. So, if you don’t have content, you’ll delay the process.
A good rule of thumb is to have four posts already published before you announce your blog. Then, after the announcement, post every day for at least the first two weeks. Once you get a rhythm, you can test to see what works best for you and your readers.
Most successful bloggers blog between 2 to 5 posts per week. Some will post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but others like Tim Ferriss prefer to post on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It really comes down to your decision. If you keep a good pulse on your blog’s stats, you’ll have a better picture of when and how frequently you should post.
If you need any more pointers, as always, I’m here to help in any way I can.
This post by Dr. Patrick MacNamara is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
based on work at www.nextgenerationchiropractor.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.nextgenerationchiropractor.com/contact/.
About Dr. Patrick MacNamara
I was able to get up a blog site and all 6 recommended social sites up in 2 days and got general content etc up within the 2 weeks all in time for a local street fest event I was sponsoring on 7/3 and my first post on youth sports on 7/6 all thanks to Dr MacNamara info and help (and of course my wife and staff too) Just by reading this blog from Day 1 on … and following him and those he recommends above on twitter and RSS all without being much of an internet /computer wiz. The results have been immediately positive… Just by friend/follow requesting patients I had an Email for and inviting the rest to join has increased my practice volumn 20% … in just 2 weeks!
I used to do M,W,F on my blog, but realized I wanted more traffic much sooner, so I upped it to M-F. I’ve been doing that for 3 months now and the results are amazing. This past week, I experimented with posting every single day, posting at least 1 new article each day since last Monday. My Saturday traffic definitely went up (July 4th), but my Sunday traffic stayed low. Not sure if I will stick to 7 days a week (it’s a lot to keep up with, not to mention low Sunday traffic not worth it), but M-F is definitely something that will get you noticed A LOT faster.
Dr. Heins :: First of all, thank you for your kind words. I’m always here to help and am honored that you’ve embraced the vision and message of this blog. Reading it is one thing, actually doing it is an entirely different animal.
As they say, the proof is in the pudding! I’m proud of you and look forward to hearing about even more great rewards since the inception of your blog. Please keep me posted and thanks again for being a loyal reader!
Dr. Harshe :: I agree! The more frequent you post, the more attention you receive. This is critical for new blogs. You absolutely NEED to post everyday for at least the first two weeks. If you can, the best approach is everyday for the first month. Your readers will love it, maybe even expect it and Google devours it for optimal SEO.
However, the main point is not to get discouraged if you can’t post that frequently. Life happens and we’re all busy. If you start feeling stressed because you have to get a post published, then your creativity will decrease which will affect the way you write.
Learn what your rhythm is and stick to it. Your readers will start to see a pattern and follow along since you’ve already established yourself as a leader. Worst case scenario, outsource it. Just make sure you proofread what is being written before you publish it.
Sorry I forgot to mention read AND DO what this blog says, I actually came across it on a twitter search on May 6th (post was on Why twitter is better than Facebook or myspace) I started using FB for personal reasons and an old friend of mine out in SD that I met in Atl while going to Life was talking about twitter. So I signed up and did a Chiropractic search and found Digitalchiro. I then finally one month later on a sat and sun read every article from the first fwd and simply did EXACTLY what it said and in 2 days had it all done. I was amazed how easy it was to do. I’ve always used a monthly postcard alternating with a quarterly newsletter that is educationally based to internally market my practice and it has been very successful so now all I have to do is take it to the digital realm with my blog and social sites… and because it’s free I can now do more than just once a month! Remember all you have to do is tell the Chiropractic Story … and the internet is a powerful tool to get the message across the World… and remember “An organization’s income is directly proportional to the quantity not the quality of it’s mailing list and the number of mailings to it” – L. Ron Hubbard. (ie. OUTFLOW=INFLOW) and if you come across any skeptics just tell them “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.”-Stuart Chase and lastly “Success should not be measured by what We accomplish personally but by What We do to Help Others accomplish” -that’s my own
thanks again Dr. Patrick MacNamara
So I sign on to newsletter and RSS because content is diferent ? how does RSS notify you of new info posted
Dr. Gleason :: The RSS feed, whether you choose to receive it via a RSS reader or email, delivers each post as it’s published.
The email newsletter contains different content not published on the blog. If I were you, I’d go ahead and signup for both just to make sure you don’t miss a thing!