How to Create and Sell Your First E-book (part 1)

In this guest post counselor and consultant Clinton Power shares how to create your first E-Book

There's no doubt that creating and selling your own digital product is a great way to increase your online exposure, credibility, expertise, and earn some money while doing so.

And the creation of an e-book to sell through your own website or an online bookstore like Amazon or iBooks is the quickest and easiest product to create to get started.

I wrote my own e-book called 31 Days to Build a Better Relationship and published using the Kindle platform on Amazon. It's been a great way to increase my online presence and credibility as a specialist in relationships and has now been downloaded over 2000 times and received 19 five star reviews in Amazon.

With a $2.99 price tag, I didn't write it to make money (though the checks from Amazon are very nice), but more to reach thousands of people that I never could have on my own, through the power of the Amazon Marketplace.

Selling an e-book through your own website is also a very good idea, and the good news is you can charge much more than Amazon e-book prices.

So let's dive in and look at the steps you need to get started.

Select a topic that will sell

It's important to do some research at the beginning to check there’s a market for your e-book and people looking for the information you want to write about.

As a therapist you are well positioned to create an information product because you have years of training, knowledge and experience about good mental health, the change process, and self-improvement. These information products are often in high demand because they are providing a solution to a pain or problem.

So to get your research underway I suggest you start with Google and Amazon. Search for keywords that are related to the e-book you're considering writing.

For example, if you're a specialist in child ADD/ADHD, search for combinations of keywords in Amazon and Google such as "How to overcome child ADD", or "I think my child has ADHD", or "best ideas for dealing with ADD". The idea is you want to see how many people already have products for sale that are similar to your idea.

If you find similar products, but your idea has a particulate angle that is not covered by other e-books, then this is a good thing.

There are hundreds of books on relationships in the Amazon store, but I didn't find one that used my approach of a tip a day for 31 days, so I knew I was bringing in a different angle that might help with sales.

Create an outline

The next step in the creation process is to create an outline for your e-book.

Start by writing down the headline or theme for each chapter. This helps you organise your thinking and then you can flesh out the content later.

Here's a tip: 50% of my e-book used blog posts I had previously written, so if you have been already been writing on a regular basis, don't discount that you may have some of your e-book written already.

This was a huge time-saver that added 15,000 words to my e-book, and I then wrote the remaining 10,000 words in 10 days.

Choose a writing platform

One of the simplest ways to write your e-book is to write it directly into Microsoft Word. This is a good option if you're going to turn it into a PDF for your own website.

I used the free platform Press Books, which is like writing in WordPress, but it converts it into the .mobi file, which you need to upload to Amazon.

I found this software easy to use and enjoyable to write in. You can then make as many changes as you want and quickly upload the latest version to Amazon within minutes.

Write clearly and simply for your audience

It's important that you write in an informal and conversational way, so you can connect with you reader.

Try to avoid writing in an academic voice as it will turn off your readers. The challenge here is to let go of your college training and write as if you're speaking to a close friend.

Use calls to action and hyperlinks

The great thing about writing an e-book, either for Kindle or a PDF for your website, is you can use hyperlinks to link to websites and other online resources.

So take advantage of this and include hyperlinks to link to other websites, or your own. This makes your e-book and more valuable resource.

Also use clear calls to action, so you tell the reader what actions you want them to take.

My e-book had a tip at the end of each chapter, so I told the reader exactly what to do for the next 24 hours. This then helps the reader feel they are getting something from the e-book because they are taking action.

Watch for part 2 on how to sell your e-book!

Clinton Power is a Sydney-based Gestalt therapist and the owner of Clinton Power + Associates- a private practice dedicated to helping singles and couples move out of relationship pain. He is also the founder of Australia Counselling Directory, a free directory for find counsellors and psychologists in Australia. Clinton is also a passionate coach and consultant for healthcare professionals. Find him on Twitter or Google+.

10 Best FREE iPad Apps for a Productive Private Practice

In this guest post counselor and consultant Clinton Power shares his top iPad App picks for managing a private Practice

I just love my iPad mini. It goes everywhere with me and has become such a valuable asset in helping me run my therapy and coaching business in an efficient and productive manner.

So I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 best iPad apps that help me run my business day-to-day. And best of all, they are all FREE!

Please note that any apps below that save to the cloud are not HIPAA compliant and I don’t advise you use them for storing any confidential client data.

1. Dragon Dictation

I don't know about you, but sometimes my hands and fingers just get too tired and sore from so much typing all the time. This is where Dragon Dictation comes in handy.

Dragon Dictation is a voice-recognition software that helps you translate your spoken speech into words on the page. They even say that spoken dictation is 5 times faster than typing.

The app does require an Internet connection to run, however it is surprisingly accurate. A great way to start dictating your emails and SMS messages without typing and no more tired hands and fingers!

2. DropBox

If you haven't heard of Drop Box, you've probably been living under a rock. DropBox is the phenomenal tool for syncing your folders between multiple devices.

You can work on your document on your laptop or desktop, and then keep editing on your iPad and you know that you're always working on the most recent version of your document.

But did you know you can also store audio and video in your DropBox and watch them on the run?

I find dragging audios of therapy and marketing training that I am listening to into DropBox is much more convenient than having to add them to iTunes and then sync with my iPad or phone.

The folder lives on your desktop and you just drag any files you want to access into the folder and voila! It's on your iPad ready for you to access.

3. Evernote

Now I don't know how I could run my life or my private practice without Evernote.

If you haven't heard of Evernote, it's the incredibly powerful note-taking system that syncs all your notes with the Evernote cloud so you can access them on your iPad, smartphone and desktop computer.

You can save typed notes, PDFs, Word documents, audio notes and photos.

It has a powerful search feature that can even search photos of text and your handwriting.

You can also create notebooks and notebook stacks so you can organise your notes via categories and sub-categories for easy searching.

I love the checklists feature so you can create checklists you can use over and over again for important organisational lists that you repeat.

If you haven't tried this app, dive in and discover how much you didn't realise you needed it.

4. Penultimate

Penultimate is a very cool natural hand-writing app that allows you to take handwritten notes and save them for later.

Best of all it syncs with Evernote, which means your handwritten notes are searchable in Evernote, with it's searchable technology. If you love doodling, drawing mind maps or just getting back to the feel of natural handwriting, this is the app for you. I do recommend you purchase a stylus to use with Penultimate as it does give the best results.

5. Buffer

I'm having a love affair with the Buffer app at the moment.

Buffer allows you to queue up your social media posts to be delivered at a schedule determined by you.

This is a huge time-saving tool as I can share all the interesting content I'm curating at once, but it won't be delivered to my social media networks until the next scheduled time I’ve chosen.

Now I don't use the iPad app so much for creating the posts. I much prefer to use the Buffer bookmarklet in my Chrome browser, but the iPad app is great for seeing what's queued up for my accounts, as well as view the statistics for my recently shared posts.

This is a free app, but I pay the $10 a month for extra social media accounts and unlimited posts in the queue.

6. Mindjet Maps

Mindjet Maps lets you easily enter ideas, tasks, and meeting notes into intuitive visual maps that help you quickly organize concepts and prioritize action items.

If you've used a mind map before, you'll be familiar with how great it is to brainstorm in a visual format to help with the expression of your ideas.

Anytime you're stuck for ideas or just need to start thinking in a more creative way, Mindjet helps you explore and expand on your ideas by forming quick and simple visual representations of your thoughts.

You can also add photos to your mind maps and then share them to DropBox so you can collaborate with others. Cool!

7. Titan Downloader

You know all those amazing TED talks that you don't have time to watch right then-and-there when you come across them? Well the Titan Downloader allows you to download them into the Titan video library to watch at a later time.

It's pretty easy to use. You use the in-built browser, go to the page where the video is and click on 'save video'. The video automatically downloads to your library and you can view it when you're offline. It will keep downloading in the background even as you do other things on your iPad.

This is a great way to store video content for you to access later. You can also password protect your library so no one can access your videos.

I preferred the paid version (0.99c) as it is ad free and much a little less clunky to use.

8. Adobe Reader

iPads can already read your PDF's without needing the Adobe Reader, but the cool thing about this app is you can annotate and add comments to your PDF documents.

I just love being able to write notes on my PDF docs as it really helps my learning, so this app gives you the ability to do that.

It allows you to fill out forms and type in any text field in a PDF document. You can also select radio buttons and checkboxes by tapping them.

Also, you can jump to a specific chapter in your PDF document by using the bookmark feature, which is not something you can do with the built-in reader in the iPad. Easy!

9. Feedly

Since the demise of Google Reader is on the horizon, everyone has been looking for a good alternative for subscribing to the RSS feeds of blogs.

If you're not familiar with RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication), it's a way that you can subscribe to the feeds of your favorite blogs so you automatically get the latest blog entries without having to go to the blog.

If you're curating content and looking for fresh and interesting articles for your social media accounts and the people that follow you, Feedly is a great way to get quick and easy access to the articles you're interested in.

Feedly is a big step up from Google Reader because you can also view the feed of your favorite blogs in a beautiful magazine style format.

10. Stitcher

I'm totally addicted to listening to Podcasts. I'm listening to podcasts when I'm walking the dog, doing the shopping, driving my car or working out at the gym.

So Stitcher is my app of choice on the iPad for listening to all my favorite podcasts to keep me abreast of news in the therapy and marketing worlds.

You can save your favorite podcasts for easy access and even set them to automatically download for offline listening in case you're on a plane or don't have wifi or 3G access.

And it's easy to find lots of interesting podcasts in any area of interest you may have.

11. Pocket (A bonus app!)

Ok, so I couldn't restrict myself to only 10 iPad apps because there are so many good ones!

Pocket is a wonderful iPad app that is also available for your browser on your desktop or laptop and smartphone. Essentially it allows you to quickly copy articles of interest that you come across on the Internet for later reading.

If you're reading in your desktop browser, you can use a bookmarklet in your browser to quickly copy the article to your Pocket list with one click.

If you're on you iPhone or iPad, you can also add articles to your Pocket list by sending the article with one click to your dedicated Pocket email address.

I find this a huge time-saver that allows me to read the articles I'm interested in when I have the time to sit down with my iPad.

So that's my top 10 best free iPad apps that help me run a productive private practice. What are yours? Please add them below in the comments.

Clinton Power is a Sydney-based Gestalt therapist and the owner of Clinton Power + Associates- a private practice dedicated to helping singles and couples move out of relationship pain. He is also the founder of Australia Counselling Directory, a free directory for find counsellors and psychologists in Australia. Clinton is also a passionate coach and consultant for healthcare professionals. Find him on Twitter or Google+.

iPad Photo (c) Canstock photo

Counselor Self-Care Practices

Guest Post: Hollie L. Hancock, M.S., CMHC

Reflect on how well you take care of your own needs. Help me learn more by filling out a counselor self-care practices questionnaire.

While attending an ethics conference last week, I took the opportunity to solicit participation from my fellow counselors and psychotherapists for my dissertation research.  As I described the study, and as the words “counselor self-care” crossed my lips, a loud and obvious laugh erupted from various corners of the large ballroom where the conference was being held.  From the front of the room I saw people looking at one another, laughing, and rolling their eyes; I even read the lips of one man in the front row as he said to the woman next to him, “Yeah, right!”

Honestly, I was not surprised.  In fact, I almost expected this type of response.  The laughter, snickers, and side-ways comments are exactly the reason I am researching counselor and psychotherapist self-care practices.

As therapists, we use our education, training, and skills to help patients live more rewarding and healthy lifestyles, independently.  Ironically, many therapists seem reluctant to offer themselves the same kind of understanding and care.  Yet, in reality, it is this self-care, both personal and professional, that ultimately is the most important, not just for patients, but also for we as therapists as well.  It is quite possible that mental health professionals are one of the few professions that does not purchase or utilize their own product.

Lack or absence of self-care practices among mental health professionals appears to be almost synonymous with compassion fatigue and burnout.  The literature seemingly suggests that by mentioning self-care – counseling professionals are burned out or experiencing compassion fatigue to some degree.  Do a small research study of your own: Conduct a Google search using the words “counselor self-care”.  You are likely to find half of the top results include the word “burnout”.

Participate in my dissertation research on counselor self-care practices

In an effort to understand the possible phenomenon of the lack of self-care practices among counselors and psychotherapists, I am asking colleagues across the nation and even around the world, to provide responses to a brief questionnaire created for my dissertation research.  Therefore, you are cordially invited to participate in a study that will ask questions about your experiences with self-care practices as a counselor or psychotherapist. This inventory is called The DEFT Questionnaire. “DEFT” represents what counselors and psychotherapists “do” for self-care, how they “experience burnout”, how they “feel” about their self-care practices, and finally what counselors and psychotherapists “think” about self-care. The purpose of this study is to explore whether or not there is a correlation between self-care practices and burnout among counseling professionals.  Completing the questionnaire will take about 15 minutes of your time.

To be better clinicians in our roles as counselors and psychotherapists, we owe it to our patients, and more importantly ourselves, to be aware of our self-care needs, and adjust our behaviors accordingly if necessary to avoid impairment, burnout, compassion fatigue, and even post traumatic stress disorder.

I have provided the link to the questionnaire below.  I respectfully ask that you take 15 minutes of your time to complete the questionnaire.  Then, please share the link with your peers and colleagues.  I thank you in advance for contributing to the body of literature available regarding counselor self-care practices!

Fill out the counselor self-care survey here:

https://acsurvey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cvWrM4l8iqBWU1D

The questionnaire will be available until March 31, 2013

Hollie L. Hancock, M.S., CMHC is in private practice at Iron Mountain Counseling is a Doctoral Candidate in Counseling Psychology, Argosy University, Salt Lake City, UT

5 Steps To Transforming Your Practice Into A Thriving Business

Guest post by Edita Atteck

I believe I know who you are. You are here to be of service to others and you want to create a thriving business. You want to get client referrals, retain existing clients, and you don’t want to live from paycheck to paycheck.  You want to have a good reputation and earn client's trust.

I know first hand how starting a business is a challenge. I’ve been there and I fully respect your feelings. I left my corporate career to pursue my passion and committed to turning it into a business helping one person at a time. And I am here today to share with you six steps I believe can help guide you to building a practice that will help you and your business to thrive.

1) Crystal clear profit clarity

Just like any creation, your business starts with a foundation. Be very clear on how your business makes money. Who is your ideal client and how do you stand out from your competition? Review your current revenue model and identify gaps. What is the minimum income you need to make and what is your ideal annual income? Use these numbers to work backwards to figure out the number of hours, clients, sessions you need to have to arrive at the income you want to make. Address gaps creatively.

2) Create a website that attracts clients

Do you have a website that conveys a clear message and exceptional content to your target audience? Have you Googled your name lately? If so, what search results did you get?  Think of the words or phrases your ideal client would use in a Google search? Can s/he find you? Be visible in the digital world and that includes social media.  Just think of the hundreds of potential clients hanging out on Facebook or Twitter.  Allow your website to be a dynamic platform where clients can tap into an expanding knowledge base and valuable resources. Leveraging your online presence is essential to your success.

3) Communication and client list building

How do you communicate and build client lists? Having effective open channels of communication with your existing and prospective clients is a key to creating trusting relationships. You want to be the “go to” person when people are trying to solve their problems. Create a blog where you post valuable tips weekly or a newsletter that offers relevant content. Stay in touch with your client base. Even if some people may never book an appointment with you, they may recommend you to their family and friends because they hear from you regularly.

4) Create excellent products, services, and marketing

Brainstorm on the possibility of creating unique service offerings or value packages. It’s your job to prove to your clients that you are the solution to their problems and not the other way around.  And don’t be afraid of marketing.  I used to think that certain industries should not use marketing otherwise they may be perceived as "sleazy".  I was wrong!  Create marketing that is completely honest, ethical, and truthful and your clients will love you for that.

5) Infuse your personality into your brand

Do you incorporate your personality into your practice brand? If not, I suggest you get creative and infuse your unique personality into your brand. While many therapists can offer good therapy, nobody can replicate YOU. Step outside of the box and allow creative thinking to develop an image that is uniquely yours, draws on your strengths, and attracts the clients that you want to work with. And while you may want to be tempted to look for inspiration inside your industry, I challenge you to step outside. The biggest breakthroughs come from getting insights from professionals in other industries.

If you want to learn more about these steps, I highly recommend you enroll in Marie Forleo’s b-school program. I am a proud graduate and an affiliate.

Edita Atteck entered the world of healing, empowering, and motivating people as a result of her passion to make a difference.  Edita’s mission is to inspire her clients to overcome stress, deepen their intuition, achieve a quieter mind, heal their lives, and fall in love with their lives. The result of her passion led to founding Journey to Healing, a company dedicated to helping people live more healing, empowered, and joyful life. You can connect with Edita through her website, editaatteck.com, Facebook, or Twitter.

Plant photo (c) Canstock.com

Pause Before Posting About Work On Social Media Pages (part 2)

Guest post by Kimberly Sandstrom, MFTI

We all have days where we need to let out a little steam about a difficult day at work. Social media is not the place to do it.

In the first post on this topic, my goal was to bring awareness to our community about the hazards of posting personally about clients. Although our clients may not see our personal posts (see Julie Hanks Digital Dual Relationship Dilemmas), our own personal communities will, and our reputation is built on that community.

While my personal profiles are private, my extended friendship community and family I am connected with on these sites, trust me and my ability to keep things confidential for their referrals What I portray on my personal and professional sites will reflect the reputation I have as a therapist.

Does this mean we cannot post anything at all about the work we do on our personal accounts? Certainly not! My heart is for fostering a safe environment for consumers so they will feel comfortable sharing with us in the intimate space of our offices, and assurance that their stories will be kept contained within the walls of our office. Here are some tips to protecting not only yourself but our therapeutic community at large when posting about your therapeutic work.

Think before you post

Ask yourself these questions: If my client saw this, would they like what I posted about them? Is this fostering a positive message about my therapeutic community? What are my motives for posting this (i.e., vent frustration, draw others to me through humor, etc.)? Am I venting my frustration in a way that protects my client and my reputation? Would it be better if I shared this with another colleague privately?

Keep your posts about work general and positive

After a recent couples intensive weekend, my co-facilitator and I were so blessed to see the positive transformation in the couples that attended our workshop. It inspired us. I posted on my personal Facebook profile, “So blessed to watch couples transform their relationships over this weekend at the couples retreat. I love my job!”  Nothing specific about what conversations took place. If one of the participants to read this, it would most likely reflect their own positive experience of the weekend. Occasionally, I have asked for permission from clients to share their inspiring story or something they have written (poem, inspiring reflection) in a blog or to post on my professional social media sites, and again, I keep the information general and positive. And I make sure it is in a place they can see this posted (even though I do not accept former or current clients on these sites—they are open to the public to view).

Develop safe relationships with like-minded colleagues in your own community

We all have funny and frustrating stories from work—no matter what profession we are in. Developing relationships with other therapists in your community can provide you with a group that follows the same values of confidentiality that you do. You can vent your day to them, share funny stories (without giving identifying information about your clients, of course!), and explore your own triggers and countertransference in confidence, instead of publicly.

Have grace with fellow clinicians who may violate this gray area

If you feel inclined, send them a private message with your concerns about their post. If it is done with a spirit of helpfulness, gentleness, and affirms their good intention, they will most likely be grateful.  If, after reading this, you realize that you may have posted something about a client that qualifies as negative or comical, have mercy on yourself! We are human, fallible and worthy of lots of grace in the uncharted territory of social media etiquette!

Kimberly Sandstrom is a Marriage & Family Therapist Intern and Relationship Educator, Supervised by Kathryn de Bruin, LMFT, working in private practice in San Diego, CA. Married for 24 years, she and her husband are raising three daughters, two of whom are now adults.  She works with couples, and families to create emotionally safe and enduring connections in their most cherished relationships.

social media image (c) CanStockPhoto