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Therapist Blog Challenge #9: Power of Infographics

Therapist Blog Challenge #9 Infographic
Therapist Blog Challenge #9 Infographic

 A picture IS worth 1000 words. Find a credible infographic that is helpful to your ideal client for your next blog post.

Visually interesting and sharable infographics can provide easily digestible information for your blog readers. It's easy to find infographics on a variety of topics by doing a Google search of your area of interest and the word "infographic".

Many infographics are easily sharable with the HTML code and a copy function near the infographic. Another option for adding the infographic to your blog post is to right click and copy the "copy image location" and insert into your blog post (If you have no idea what I'm talking about contact your webmaster for help).

It is best practices to post a link back to the site where the infographic was originally posted. I've shared a few infographics below as examples that you are free to use for your blog post. Write a few sentences, embed the infographic, and you're done! This is the easiest challenge yet!

Additional reminders about the 2013 blog challenge

Write and post your blog article in the next 2 weeks. If you miss the deadline or you read this article months later, that’s OK too.

  • Post a link for this blog challenge in the comment section of this blog post.
  • Read, comment, and share other therapist’s articles.Tweet your post using hashtag #therapistblog and tag @julie_hanks so I can retweet it.
  • Pin it on the challenge Pinterest Board. I’ve invited everyone who posted a comment on the initial blog challenge post as collaborators so you can pin onto the group board.
  • Spread the word and invite mental health colleagues to join the challenge. Articles can be added anytime throughout the year.
  • Write no more than 600 words, make it easy to read, use a conversational tone, and gear your articles toward your ideal client (not other professionals).
  • The goal of a professional blog is to provide value to your website visitors, help them get to know your professional perspective, increase traffic to your private practice website, and build your practice.

Here are a few examples of infographics on 3 different topics. This first is from Sharecare Now and is the one and only appearance on an infographic. Feel free to use any of these for your post or search for your own!

Top 10 Online Influencers: Depression

The Science of Mental Illness
The Mobile Lives of College Students

[Video] Peek Inside This Office With Soothing Mountain Views

I felt calmer just watching this office tour by Ashley Eder, LPC. Ashley does a great job conveying a serene setting and amazing mountain view. Angel, Ashley's therapy dog makes an appearance in this video too. Watch for the darling accent pillow on the therapy couch. I want those. Thank you Ashley for sharing your office with us.

To find out more about Ashley's practice visit www.ashleyeder.com

If you’re interested in submitting a YouTube virtual office tour video get details here.

 

6 Reasons I'm Obsessed With Wordpress

WordPress is a fantastic platform for your private practice website. Originally a blogging platform, it's commonly used for websites because it's user friendly, functional, and easy to customize. I'm completely "in love" with it. For clarification, I'm talking about WordPress.org that is installed on your web hosting system, not WordPress.com - a web-based blogging platform. Since I changed to WordPress about a year ago for my practice website, I've been able to create a more dynamic and interactive website with fresh content, social media interaction, and an integrated a blog.  So here's more about why I love WordPress:

1) You can be the webmaster

Even without knowing HTML, you can be the webmaster of your website with the ability to customize the function and appearance at any time. You can easily add or delete pages, change the color scheme, add blog posts, and customize the features at any time and from anywhere. Once I paid to have the basic WordPress site installed on my web host and had a few custom images made, I took over from there.

2) Free themes

WordPress allows you to "try on" different themes to your site with the click of a button. A "theme" is the skin of your site -- the format, colors, layout, etc. There are many free themes available, in addition to customized themes for a variety of fees. ThemeForest.net is a great site to explore variety in custom website themes.

3) Plugins and widgets galore

Plugins are tools that extend the functionality of your WordPress site and allow customization to your site. Widgets are WordPress plugins "that add visitor visual and interactivity options and features, such as sidebar widgets for post categories, tag clouds, navigation, search, etc." (WordPress.org)

Here are a few of my favorites:

  • YouTube Videos -- feeds YouTube channel to websites
  • Author Bio -- shows customized bio at the bottom of each blog post
  • Amazon Associate -- integrates a bookshelf of our recommended books with a link to buy on Amazon.com.
  • Google Analytics -- tracks visitor information.
  • Constant Contact API -- integrates our newsletter sign up on the website.
  • SexyBookmarks (by Shareaholic) -- add social media share links to each blog post.
  • Share and Follow -- adds social media links bar on pages.

4) Easy to navigate

OK, that one's partially true. Though navigating the WordPress dashboard can be a bit overwhelming at first, once you're familiar with it, you can easily navigate it. For example, my juliehanks.com and wasatchfamilytherapy.com sites are built on WordPress, so when I started writing for PsychCentral (also built on WordPress) it was easy to jump right in.

5) It's cheap!

After paying for domain registration, web hosting service, and basic site installation costs, there are minimal expenses to update and maintain your WordPress website. I will occasionally hire a web designer to consult or add elements that are beyond my abilities, but that is the exception. I used to pay around $60 a month for a website service but I quickly outgrew the options they provided. Even with the start up costs, WordPress has been a cheaper option and much more fun to create a dynamic practice website.

6) Integrated blog

One of the reasons I started looking  for a better website platform was that my current site platform didn't allow for an integrated blog. I had a blog on an external blogging site, but hated sending my visitors away from my private practice website in order to read my blog. Since WordPress is a blogging platform, visitors can stay on our site and read blog posts.

What platform do you use for your practice website?

Are there any other WordPress lovers out there?