In this solo episode I review the past six months of Qiological and give you a preview on the next six months. Also I'll talking in some depth about the Practice of Business, why SEO is a process, not a product and some thoughts on what makes for an effective website. Finally, I have some news to share with you about being more involved with Qiological.

I used to think that business was a necessary evil, but have come around to realizing its a powerful opportunity. And I have my family to thank for that.

And speaking of business, your web site is an important part of that. I've some opinions about it too, as mine has become over time an appointment generating machine.

If you would like your phone to ring with people saying "I want an appointment" instead of "I have some questions about acupuncture" after they've been on your web site, then you are going to want to listen to this show and take notes.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

The medicine of east Asia is based on a science that does not

hold itself separate from the phenomenon that it seeks to understand our

medicine did not grow out of Petri dish, experimentation, or double blind studies.

It arose from observing nature and our part in it.

East Asian medicine.

From the examination of dead structures, but rather from living systems with

their complex mutually entangled interactions, welcome to qiological

I'm Michael Macs, the host of this podcast that goes in depth on issues,

pertinent to practitioners and students of east Asian medicine, dialogue and

discussion have always been elemental to Chinese and other east Asian medicine.

Listening to these conversations with experienced practitioners that go deep

into how this ancient medicine is alive and unfolding in the modern clinic.

Hey folks.

It's Michael.

Welcome back to qiological.

You know, about six months ago, I tried to do a solo show and then my

friend Paula Campanelli said, Hey, Michael, I want to interview you.

And so that show turned into me being the guest, her being the host.

But here we are, it's the end of June.

Qiological has been going once a week now, since January.

And I've had a few folks say, Hey, Michael max, we'd like to hear from you.

And actually there's a few things that I'd like, just to be able to say a few things

I'd like to be able to share with you.

So today my guest is me.

Just me.

You got me for a little bit.

This show is basically two parts.

The first part I've got some housekeeping stuff.

I want to go review where qiological is.

For the past six months, give you a glimpse of where it's headed.

And then I want to talk to you about something that's near and

dear to my heart, which oddly enough is some business and marketing.

Uh, this is something that I never thought that I'd really be interested in.

It's only recently that I discovered I actually it in my blood.

So to.

Which has given me a tremendous leg up over all these years.

I just didn't know it at the time.

But more about that later, later in the show, I'm going to talk about websites.

I'm going to talk about SEO and how to make your website make a telephone ring.

So we're going to get to that in a little bit, but first.

Let's talk a little bit about qiological first of all, I want to thank all of you.

Number one, for listening, you know, I'm sitting here talking into a microphone and

it's really helpful knowing that you're on the other end of this conversation,

because if I was just talking into a microphone, I'd have like three

minutes worth of stuff to say, but.

This really does seem to be a conversation.

And I truly appreciate those of you that have reached out to me.

There are conferences then, you know, we've met in person emails.

It's so nice to get your feedback here about how you like to show.

So thank you for that.

So real quickly, I just want to do a quick.

Of qiological where it's been for the past year.

Since the beginning of January, I've been doing a monthly

production cycle, not monthly.

I'm sorry.

We've been doing a weekly production cycle.

And for the first time ever the coverage of a conference, I was at the sports

acupuncture alliances conference.

Brought you geological listeners, a little taste of the show.

There hope that you enjoyed that.

It was really fun being there also in this past six months.

I've been really paying attention to, and really taking note of the

technology that goes into podcasting.

Some of this came about because in February I went to a podcast conference

and I learned a ton of stuff there.

A lot about equipment, some about the, how tos, but mostly I learned a

lot about equipment and sound cool.

And I've become really kind of persnickety about the sound quality of qiological.

Now I know that I don't always reach my own measure and standard with it.

I do the best I can, but I'm really striving to bring you a high

quality of sound with this program.

Why?

Because really when all you've got is audio, the audio needs

to be as clear as possible.

Or it gets in the way, and I really would like nothing to get

in the way of the discussions that I get to have with all of you.

So I've been buying some new equipment.

I've been working with some new websites.

I've been doing all kinds of techie, backroom stuff, trying to make the

sound on the show better for you.

I've become a little bit obsessed with it.

I'm not going to bore you with too many details other than to say.

I hope that as the show goes forward, the sound quality gets better and better.

What else have I done in this past six months?

Ah, yes.

And I really couldn't do the show without these guys because

you know, I'm busy in clinic.

I'm like you, I make my living as a practitioner.

I want to make my living as a practitioner sitting around editing

podcasts, not really my cup of tea.

So I've got a couple of guys that helped me out with that.

Some outside editors and they help clean up the sound.

They take out the extra ums and OHS, if there's spaces in between people

thinking, we take that out because.

When those things are taken out, when all the little noises that we

naturally make in conversation are removed, or at least many of them are

removed, then you just get the content.

You don't get the noise getting in the way of the signal.

So a big thank you to the guys that helped me with the editing.

I really could not bring you shows once a week without their assistance.

And there's some other folks that I couldn't bring the show to you with.

Those were the sponsors, the people over at golden needle.

The folks over at LASA, OMS, and Toby daily from the Chinese nutritional

app, all of these sponsors have helped to make chill, logical

arrive in your ears once a week.

Really grateful for their help.

Couldn't do it without you.

Thank you.

What's up next.

Another six months of interviews with practitioners that I

think you're going to enjoy.

I hope you enjoy these by and large are people that you may not have heard of.

I like to try to interview busy practitioners, folks that are just

focused on clinic and every now and then I can just get them online and have a

conversation that hopefully you will find useful in your clinical work as well.

So that's going to connect.

And as I go forward into the later half of the year here, I'm adding when I'm

kind of thinking of as a geological 2.0, I'm opening up an opportunity for

you guys to become subscribers, to.

So if you're a member of public radio, if you contribute to a local

museum or a zoo botanical garden, or maybe you've got season tickets to

something, then you know, it feels good to support something that you enjoy.

I know I thrive better when I feel like there's a sense of exchange and I've

neglected to give you guys the opportunity to show your support for the podcast.

Also, let me just say that having you as a listener, that's a deeply

appreciated form of support.

However, if you'd like to help with keeping the web software up to date,

keeping the servers running the editor's paid, maybe even kicking

a little bit a change to keep me in good Taiwanese tea, French wine, and a

little Irish whiskey from time to time.

Then the subscription option is going to be opening up.

Subscriptions to the show or $5 a month.

Yeah, I know that's less than two cups of plain non fancy

coffee at the local Java hut.

It's such a deal.

And if you'd like to contribute more, you're welcome to do so.

But $5 is the basic contribution to become a subscriber.

What else do you get besides the warm, fuzzy feeling of

supporting something you like?

Subscribers are going to get a little bonus by having

access to some extra content.

First, I get to talk to all kinds of fascinating and brilliant practitioners.

And sometimes I just don't want to wait the weeks or maybe even months it might

take to share my conversation with them.

And as the publishing schedule is usually booked out four to six months in advance.

I just don't have room if I want to squeeze something

really cool in, so sometimes.

I'll be posting these conversations early, over in the subscriber area.

You'll get to pick up this content a little bit sooner.

And if you're the kind of person that likes to listen more than once a week.

You're going to love that second thing.

That'll show up in the subscribers area.

I'll be putting the mini there.

I'm looking to do a couple of different mini series.

The first one up is going to be on loving your business.

Like you love your practice.

It is going to be a little series where I'm going to bring in some guests.

Get this they're experts not focused in the acupuncture community.

These are people who have set out to do their own thing and discovered

that they were actually entrepreneurs.

And really where I sit, I think of anyone who is self-employed and

especially anyone who set out to do some nine stream kind of medicine.

Hey, I think they got a bit of the entrepreneurial virus.

And it's not a bad thing.

Now.

I've been lucky enough over my years to run into some smart little people that

are living the kind of lives that they want and they're getting away with it.

So I managed to corral some of these folks and to sitting down

and doing some interviews with.

The business and marketing miniseries, which will be coming up in the next couple

of months is going to have interviews with these kinds of folks, a very diverse

group of people that are using what I like to think of as basic principles for

building a business, for figuring out how to build a business and for having fun at

making the kind of life that they want.

These are inspiring people to me.

And I hope that they're going to be inspiring to you as well.

So I'm looking forward to sharing those discussions.

Next thing that you'll find in the subscriber area is an

occasional guest interviewer.

I've been talking to a few folks that I think would do a great

job coming on as a guest host.

And the benefit to you is that you'll get to hear from other perspectives than mine.

These guests interviewers will show up from time to time in this

subscription portion of the show.

So be watching for those in the next few months.

They will also be listed in the monthly newsletter.

So if you get that, you'll know when they're on the air and if you don't get

the newsletter, you can sign up for it.

Well, where else the website now subscriptions are handled

through a site called Patrion.

And the thing I particularly like about this website and the service

that they offer is that you will get automatic emails from them when

subscriber content is released.

So you'll still be able to listen to all your podcasts from your iTunes or

your overcast or whatever other app that you use to listen to the show.

It's just that you'll get a special link.

That's going to take you over to the subscriber content.

I want to try to make it as easy for you as POS.

So to make this easy for you, I'm going to have a link over on the website.

So look for subscribe to the show button.

That's going to show up.

As soon as I got this thing up and running, what else is coming

up here in the next six months?

Right?

Conferences I'm currently in the midst of planning to do a couple more of those.

So stay tuned.

And finally, we're coming up to the first year anniversary

of qiological holy smokes.

I can't believe this has been going on for a year already.

And for that show, I'd like you, one of you listening out there

right now, I'd like to invite you to pull up a microphone and do an

episode with me as the anniversary.

Podcast of qiological.

So if you're game for this, if you're out there listening to my voice

right now and you're thinking, yeah, man, I want to get on qiological.

If you're up for this email me and tell me what you'd like to discuss.

You can pop over to the website and send an email from there, or just send it

directly to me at where else would it be?

michael@qiological.com.

Here's another way to pitch your idea.

Click your earbuds into your computer and use whatever sound software

it's built into your machine.

And talk to me, I'm not sure about PCs, but if you use a Mac, I know that

there's a thing called quick time.

It's in your applications folder, and you can record your ideas for discussion.

And then just email me the sound.

I'm really excited that we're coming up to the first year of qiological

and I'm totally looking forward to having a conversation with one of you.

So you got an idea for a show you want to be on the show, you

know how to get me all right.

So that's it for the housekeeping.

I want to get into this.

Uh, as a, my family, we say it, the business thing.

Whenever we have a little talk about business and in

particular websites and SEO and.

I mentioned earlier in the show, I feel lucky that I actually got a leg up

when it comes to the world of business.

I didn't realize this really until just a few years ago, but when I look back on

growing up, when I look back on my family, I realize that very few people had a job.

I mean, we had cousins that had jobs and, you know, Holiday dinner table.

You'd hear about this person or that person who got some big job.

There was always an uncle who, you know, was working in some New York

company or something, but by and large, the people in my immediate

family, they didn't have jobs.

They had businesses, there were small business people.

They mostly ran furniture stores, um, or they were in other kinds of sales or

they had something to do with marketing.

But they had businesses.

And even though we talked about jobs and I was thinking, yeah,

I should have me a job someday.

What I really discovered, what I really recognize in my growing up was

it's always a do it yourself project.

If you're going to have a job it's going to be, because

you've made that job for your.

And the boss you're the boss.

So in a way, I think it's kind of in my DNA, I've never really been afraid to

go out and have a business of my own.

I had several, in fact, before I became an acupuncturist and back

when I was considering becoming an acupuncturist, there weren't jobs,

there were no jobs for an acupuncturist.

Of course, if you were going to do acupuncture, you got to have a

practice of your own, and what's a practice practices, a business.

So.

I think it's helpful.

And I know that many of us in oh, friends, listen, I've been there before where

I'm thinking, Hey, I'm just a clinician.

I'm not a business person.

I just want to practice.

I shouldn't have to do all this other stuff.

Those thoughts that I had about, I shouldn't have to do this other stuff.

I think it really got the way.

I got in the way of the business doing well.

It got in the way of me loving my business.

It got in the way of appreciating the blood and bones and vessels that the

business gives the rest of your life and, and, and that it gives to your practice.

So I've become kind of a family lately of learning to love your

business, the same way that you love.

The practice of medicine, you know, if we gave as much attention to the

business aspect of what we do and as much love and appreciation and

consideration to the business side of our practice, I think it would love us

back a lot more than it currently does.

You know, it, it, I think it's something to look at.

So if you're one of these folks out there and you know who you are, and

trust me, I've been there myself.

You might want to take another look at how you feel about the business part of

your practice, and maybe even consider instead of calling it your business,

if business is a dirty word to you, not my family was not a dirty word.

You know, being a businessman was, was a good thing, but if you consider it a

bad thing, You might just want to revisit that because it's hard to hold something

in esteem and especially hard for us to hold parts of ourself into steam, if we're

actively hating them at the same time.

So love up your business a bit.

All right.

Enough of that rant.

Um, I want to talk, y'all a little bit about websites and SEO.

I've talked to other folks about this.

Um, six months ago when I was talking with my friend, Paula, she was asking

me about failures and one of my biggest failures was making this really cool S E O

for acupuncturists online learning thing.

Oh man, that didn't work, but, uh, I still think it's really useful information

and I think it's really helpful.

And so I am condensing down all of that and you're going to get it

here in the next 15 or 20 minutes.

All right.

So where do I begin with this?

Let's see.

So we all know that a website is really important.

You got to have one, right?

If you don't have a website, you're not in business and.

Anyone, you know, even if you have nothing but a word of mouth practice, anyone who

has been referred to you, they're going to go stalk you first on your website.

So you got to have one and it's, we know it's important.

I'm not, I'm not going to waste too much time with that, but I want

to say this, and this is something that, that I realized recently.

It was a curiosity.

I noticed recently that.

When I get phone calls from people and they call up and they say, and the

first words out of their mouth are, I'd like to book a first appointment.

These are the people that have been on my website and they've read it.

They don't call me with questions.

They call me because they want an appointment.

They call me because they have already decided that I'm the guy that they want.

This.

It's kind of a wild thing, isn't it.

Now there's the other phone calls that I get and I'm sure you get them

to where people call and the first words out of their mouth are well,

um, I'm looking for some information and of course the first information

they're looking for is your prices.

But really, I think the information that they're looking

for is, are you trustworthy?

The information they're looking for is.

Can you help me?

And if they've not read your website, then you're going to be getting

these calls that usually begin.

How much do you charge?

Because they're not sure where else to begin.

If you've got a website that truly helps to educate people

that truly informs people.

And more importantly, gives them a sense of who you are as

a person and as a practitioner.

I'm telling you, that's going to make your phone ring with people that say

I want in, I want an appointment.

So what are some of the ways that we can do this?

This brings me to SEO.

All right.

Search engine optimization.

You've all heard of it.

A lot of you might've paid some company, hundreds of dollars to do it.

I'm sorry that you wasted your money search engine optimization.

This is an interesting thing back in the earlier days of the internet before

Google got as smart as it is now, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Actually, it is a good thing because if you follow the advice I'm going to

give you, it's going to be impossible for people not to find you because

Google is a lot smarter these days.

And Google is getting really, really good at being able to sift through real

content that people are looking for.

Back in the good old days.

It wasn't too difficult to game the system.

There were things you could do to your website.

There are ways of getting back links.

There were ways of getting your webpage in front of lots of people

by gaming the system by cheating it.

And how did they do that?

Through search engine optimization?

And it really worked and it worked well up until a few years ago when it just broke

the heart of the internet for a whole lot of people that were gaming the system.

That's the good news.

Anyway, SEO search engine optimization.

It's important in the other thing about it, if you get nothing else

out of this, other than what I'm about to say that it, I hope this

will have been worth your time.

Search engine optimization is not a product.

Search engine optimization is process.

It's a process of making your website friendly, not just to Google,

but friendly to users as well.

And more than that, the search engine optimization thing.

You know, if you're on the first page of Google, And someone clicks

on you and they go to your website.

And the first thing they do is go, what the hell is that?

And they click away.

Guess what?

You're being first on, Google didn't do you any good because getting

found on the internet and getting someone over to your webpage,

that's not the end of the process.

It's actually the beginning.

And if you can get folks.

To stick around on your website, read what you got to read, where you read

what you've read, what you've got to say.

Hopefully find some value, maybe go read something else you've got to

say, and then decide who is this cat?

Right.

Pop over to the about page.

Maybe then your phone will start to ring.

So here's the thing.

You got to get folks to your website, but you got to make

sure that they stay on there.

And how do you make them stay on.

Well, if you do SEO, the way that I do it, you do it by writing damn

good content and you're right.

A lot of it.

So how do you do this?

What am I talking about here?

I'm sure you're all familiar with the idea of blogs and blog posts and

you know, well, over 25% of websites, these days are built on WordPress.

I suspect most of you are using WordPress, which is a fantastic platform.

It's really good.

Many people have the mistaken idea that their homepage is the most

important page because that's the page that people are supposed to land on.

But here's the deal people because of Google are going to land on the page

that has the most interest for them.

What page is that it's whatever page they typed some words into a search

engine for to find it's the page that hopefully answers a problem

that they're looking to get answered.

It's a page that hopefully solves the issue that they want to get solved.

And so if you can write good content and I'll get into what good content

is here in a moment, and if you can write a lot of it, Every single one

of those posts that you put up is an opportunity for someone who's looking

for the kind of services that you provide to find somebody that's like you.

So how do you do this?

All right.

First of all, you have to have in mind, not, you know, a lot of times

people talk about keywords, oh, you got to get this keyword and

you've got to get that keyword in.

Do you know what a keyword actually is?

A key word is the key thing that somebody is typing into a search

engine search bar because they got a problem that they want to solve.

So when you go writing content for whoever you would like to attract into your

practice, the first thing to do is sit down and think about who is this person?

What is their life like?

What is this problem that they have.

What do they believe?

What do they want?

What do they see?

And actually these things about what do they believe and what do

they want and what do they see?

They may actually be things that you don't believe and you don't want,

and you don't see, but they do.

And so it's really important that when you go writing content, you write for the

person who's going to be reading this.

You write for that person.

Who's looking for the services that you offer.

It helps.

If you can get inside the head of who these people are.

Now, you may have patients that you've already got, that are

kind of emblematic of the kind of people that you like to see.

If you've got that.

That's great.

You already kind of know who these people are, you know, how they talk, you know,

the buzzwords, you know, the lingo, you know what they're looking for, you know,

what they like, you know, what they hate.

All of that is useful when writing a post.

So.

The trick here is actually, it's not a trick.

I take that back.

It's not a trick.

The process here is to write posts for your website on a regular basis.

If you're first starting out, I would recommend twice a week.

And I would recommend doing that for months on end.

Okay.

The reason is the more you write, the more Google index is your website.

The more Google index is your website.

The more they think, oh, Hey, here's a website.

That's got some action going on.

Google likes that.

They're more likely to serve you up, but more importantly, every single

post that you write is an opportunity.

For somebody to find you.

So maybe you're doing, I don't know, maybe you've got a big thing going,

you're really helpful at treating people with migraine headaches.

You've got that dialed in.

You can really understand that problem.

So you might find that you write all kinds of different things

and a post that's about migraine headaches, how maybe, how to treat

them, how to prevent them, how to.

Think about it.

I mean, there's, whatever it is, right?

The main point here being you want to write so that the people who

are reading what you've written, read it and go, oh man, that's me.

They read it.

And they think, oh, this is helpful.

I didn't know that.

Maybe I could try that.

They read it and they go.

Person writing.

This seems they know what they're talking about, or maybe they read it and go, wow.

Whoever this acupuncturist is, who just wrote this article about figuring

out what your migraine triggers are.

They're really generous.

They've just given me all kinds of ideas that might help keep

me out of the doctor's office.

So if you can write a post, a blog post.

That basically covers these things.

Number one, you address the issue.

You show that you're knowledgeable and that you understand the

issue people have and the kind of person that that person is.

Number two, if you can put something in there, you give something away, make

it real, make it something that might even keep them out of your office.

Be genuine about it.

If you can do something in a blog post that helps the person reading it.

They'll recognize your generosity.

And at the same time, they'll recognize your expertise.

So those are really important things to have in a blog post.

Finally, at the end of the blog post, you need to have a call to action.

Now you've probably heard other, especially marketing people talk

about this call to actions are really important and the call to action could be

something like sign up for my newsletter.

The call to action could be call the office.

If you'd like an appointment, the call to action, to be something that.

Take what you've learned here in this blog post and try it out in your own life.

See what happens.

And if you have questions, give me a call, right?

Something like that, asking the reader to take the next step is a really lovely form

of engagement and it doesn't have to be smarmy and it doesn't have to be pushy.

It's just a way of connecting with people.

And I think what people are looking for when they're looking for a practitioner

and it's why you get those calls where they start off with, how much is it?

Because they're actually trying to figure out, can I connect with this person?

And so if you write these blog posts in a way that you connect,

it's going to be really helpful for getting those phone calls that

say, Hey, I want an appointment.

I'm sure that you have.

Found something on the internet yourself, you click on the link,

you go, oh yeah, this is, I think this is what I'm looking for.

I hope it is you get there and you read it and you go, oh

man, what is this crap here?

Right?

The way they write might not be your style.

It might be a really corporate speak, or it might be like way, way too loose

and too casual for what you're looking for, regardless of your response to it.

So your response to.

It says something, it says something important.

And what it says is this site may not be for me and people do the same thing.

When they're looking at your website, they're going to read it.

And they're going to decide based on what they read.

This is for me, or this is not for me.

I have found this is not a problem.

This is not a bad thing.

This is a very, very good thing.

And the reason it's a good thing is because I don't want to see everybody.

I know that I am not the right practitioner for everybody out there.

I'm the right practitioner for certain kinds of people.

I'm the right practitioner for certain kinds of issues.

And I'm really the wrong practitioner for other kinds of things.

So for example, if someone is very, left-brain, they're super

logical, they love, they love research, that kind of thing.

They're probably not going to be a good patient for me because.

I'm not going to be looking at reading and sharing with them.

The latest about acupuncture research.

It's not my bag.

It's not what I do.

I'm not interested in doing it now.

I know there's other practitioners.

They love to do that.

Right.

And if you are that kind of practitioner by all means, make sure that stuff

shows up in your blog posts because the kinds of people that cotton to that kind

of thing, they're going to love you.

And they're probably not going to love me.

So your blog posts.

In addition to attracting people, at least initially attracting people

also helps them decide if you're the kind of person for them, or if

they're the kind of person for you.

And as a practitioner, the good news in this means if someone is

really not the kind of person that you're looking for, guess what?

They're going to go look somewhere else to go get acupuncture.

That is great news.

So I think what it comes down to is authenticity.

And authentic voice.

Now I know that a lot of people get really nervous about writing and talking is easy.

I mean, I'm sitting here talking into a microphone right now and you know,

I talk to patients all day and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I can talk pretty well.

Lucky for me.

I can also write the way that I talk.

And so for me on my website, I just write the way I talk.

I just put my authentic voice onto the website.

Again, this acts as a screening kind of thing, people that read it and

go, Hey, this guy sounds interesting.

They're going to give me a call.

People that, read it and go, who is this dude?

Well, thank goodness they don't call it because they're going to

be better off with somebody else.

I highly encourage you that for the copy on your website.

You have something that reflects who you are, right.

If you write in some kind of very, uh, stilted vanilla, I'm trying

to appeal to everybody sort of corporate speak, probably not going

to get much traction because people don't react real well to that.

Unless maybe they're looking for a corporate acupuncturist.

I don't know.

So I encourage you as part of your SEO, as part of your internet,

bringing people in to your practice, use your authentic voice.

If you have the ability to write, then set your hair on fire and

write like crazy and do it.

If you don't have the ability to run.

Might just want to practice some writing.

There's some good resources out there.

I found that, uh, Natalie Goldberg's wild mind and writing down the

bones are great places to start.

If you want to just learn how to free up your creativity, get out on

the page and Lamont bird by bird.

Fabulous.

Stephen King has a book on writing and there's always Steven Pressfield.

He's always a great source of inspiration.

If, if you think you might want to try to write, go learn how to write.

It's definitely doable.

If you're not going to be writing for your website, then consider this.

You could use podcasts, right?

I mean, you could, if you're good at talking in particular, you could

just sit down, you could record what it is you want to say to people.

And you put that on your website, along with like a paragraph of what it's about,

because you know, and actually this is kind of funny, and this is how I got it.

This is how I got involved in podcasting.

All right.

Side note here, I'm taking a little a diversion.

I don't often go to these business networking things because I'm shy.

And, uh, and I, and I just hate that shit.

So I don't go.

But there was one that was down the street from my clinic and I happened

to have some time and I think I was interested in the speaker.

So I went and I meet this guy there.

This is like four years ago.

Right.

I meet this guy there and he says, yeah, I have a podcasting show.

And I teach people to podcast and I'm thinking, so what big deal?

Right.

Cause I got this website that, you know, rocks the socks

on, on my new patient visits.

And so.

You know, he's a nice guy, but I say to him, Hey look, Steve,

why would I want to do a podcast?

I've got this kick ass website that makes my phone ring multiple

times every week with new patients, why bother with a podcast?

And he looks at me and he says, well, the people that would listen to

your podcast are not the same as the people that would read your website.

And I thought, wow.

I wonder if he's right.

And as a way of testing that I thought, you know, Maybe I'll try a podcast.

And that's actually where everyday acupuncture came from.

Not so much for my business, but more for being able to do

a show on Chinese medicine.

That was educational.

I thought maybe if people are looking for acupuncturist, they'll come across

the podcast and you know, maybe if the show helps them, they'll call me.

I don't know.

Anyway, that grew into what it currently is three and a half or four years in now.

I can't remember how long I've been doing it.

Now qiological, but again, it's that thing about, there are some people

that will be happy to read your website and there are some people

they'd rather listen to your voice.

And so you can use this as part of your SEO.

You can use this as part of what brings people to your website,

gets their attention and asks them to take the next step.

So you could totally use podcasts, but then you would

want to use like some key words.

Uh, you know, and it just a short paragraph or two

that summarizes the podcast.

So Google has texts to pick up on so they can SEO it so that when people

type in the keywords of acupuncture for sprained wrists or acupuncture for tennis

elbow, Guess who they're going to find.

That's right.

It's going to be you.

So just make sure that the title of all your posts actually has the words

that people are probably typing.

And that's probably the most important thing right there.

And the second thing is in the very first paragraph, make sure those

words that people typed into Google are there as well, and also make

sure while you're at it in that first paragraph, make sure that you.

Or if you're speaking to people for the same matter, right?

The first part of your podcast, make sure that the listener knows that you know

what you're talking about, talk about the problem that they've got in a way

that lets them know that you understand what they're going through, that you

can empathize with their situation.

Super important.

Right.

And then what is it also that I said that you need to have, here's a

suggestion on something to do, show your generosity by trying to help

people through that blog post, and then finally ask for a call to action.

That's the simple sauce right there.

Make sure they make sure they know you understand.

Make sure you help them in some way.

If you can ask them to take the next step toward doing

something that will help them.

We're not talking paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs

on a blog post, right?

It could be five or six paragraphs long.

In fact, you don't want to make it too long because people have a

short attention span these days.

Right?

Evidently the research now says goldfish and humans, same attention span.

So don't make it too short.

Don't do the soundbite.

Soundbites there, you know, I don't think that's going to be helpful for you.

All right.

Um, what else do I want to tell you about?

Oh yeah, right.

Again, the thing about SEO, the thing about people finding you

on Google that is only step one.

Step two is.

Having that sticky content on your website that useful, that helpful content on your

website that lets people begin to think, Hey, I think this person understands me.

Hey, I think this person might be able to help me.

And then the other thing that I think is really helpful on

websites, this is not SEO.

This is just a Michael max being persnickety about his website

and, uh, and actually being really opinionated about websites in general.

By the way we're going to have a show about websites, uh, as part of that

business and marketing mini series.

I got, I got some, a great lined up for you on that.

So that's coming up here in a few weeks, but back to my main

point here, your website is it's not just your calling card.

You know, it's not just the sign that says I'm in business.

It is an expression of who you are.

At least the people that are looking at it and reading it, it's an

expression of who you are to them.

And so if your website looks like it's from 1998, or even 2005, for that matter,

You might want to think about redoing it and when it comes to images for your

website, again, this is just my opinion.

I'm no expert.

I just have a website that makes people call me for appointments.

So consider this the images for your website.

Don't use stock photography.

All right, because everyone's got that stupid image of someone with a

nice smile and a few needles in their back, you know, and blah, blah, blah.

And there's a Lily pad and there's some balancing rocks and it's, you

know, people have seen that everywhere.

If you can put some images up there that show you are different,

that show you are original, you know, maybe you know how to draw.

Draw the images that go on your website, maybe you like taking

photos, put the images that you photograph on your website.

Maybe you don't do either, but you know, someone who does use their

work, put something original up there.

If people come to your website and they see images, this

is very subconscious stuff.

Right.

They see images and they go, wow, I've never seen this before.

Right.

They're hitting a website and they're not going, oh yeah,

acupuncture, look, there's a needle.

And someone's talking about gee, if they hit your website and they

go, I've never seen these images associated with acupuncture and

maybe they read some content and they go, this doesn't sound like other

acupuncture websites that I've read.

Now you've got.

And when you get their attention, they might go a

little further into your website.

So I highly encourage you that if you're, if you're building up your website, try

to make it original, try to make it an expression of who you are and try to

put some things in there that you know, are I'm giving you the secret sauce.

I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I'm here to help.

And I'm a contrarian by nature.

So if you're not contrarian, ignore this advice, but this has worked for

me and it's worked really, really well.

I've gone to an extreme on my website where I try to make it look and I

try to make it sound like no other acupuncturist website out there.

So for example, on the first page of my website, you're not going to

find the word G it's not on there.

You're not going to find it.

I'm not talking about.

You're not going to find pictures of needles on the first page of my website.

In fact, I'm trying to think of where I do have pictures of needles.

And if I do it's very.

Um, it may be buried in there somewhere, but generally speaking, I'm not interested

in having people come to my website and look at something that they're scared of.

I don't think that helps everybody knows that acupuncture has to do with needles.

Just like everybody knows dentistry has to do with.

You don't see, dentists' putting pictures of drills or hypodermic

needles on their website.

So give that some thought with your website, with the work that you do, you

might want to try that slightly contrarian approach, you know, look at other

websites and go, what can I put on mine?

That's not on these other ones over here that will get people's attention.

Here's another thing that's helpful.

Look at websites that you think total.

Rock look at websites that you think are, you know, they're just, they're beautiful.

They're wonderful.

You, you love the images.

You love the flow.

You like the language feel free.

When you find websites like that, to really study them, look into them.

Why do you like it?

What is it about it?

How does it feel?

What's the images like, what's the sense of it?

What do they have to say?

Where did they put this?

Or where did they put that you find a website that you like, I'm not saying

that you should go steal it, but I think it's a good idea to be really inspired

by it and inspired enough that you study it and study it enough that you

apply some of it on your own website.

I think it's.

And it will, will, hopefully it will help your phone during like my phone rings and

people don't say I've got some questions.

They say, I want an appointment with you.

I know it's possible because it's happening for me these days.

And I talk it up to my website now.

I've had this website for probably nine years now.

I started it.

I fired it up when I first got to St.

Louis.

So I would start with nothing.

I was starting from zero when it came to SEO, web presence that, that whole

mishegoss, I would say in my first year and a half, I would write probably one

or two blog posts a week and I put them up and that's a lot of work folks, but.

If you're not doing anything else.

I mean, let's think of it this way.

Let's say a patient cancels, or let's say you've got an empty afternoon, right?

So you could go to a yoga class or you could go, you know, work in your garden.

And these are all really nice things, but you might want to consider because

you know, when you've got a business, you got to love your business.

Like you love your practice might want to consider writing some blog posts.

Right?

You've got some empty space, write some blog posts and you

put them up on a regular base.

And you keep adding to it and after, and, and, and I want to tell you this

too, when you first start doing this, it will not make your phone ring.

And when you first start doing this, it's not going to bring you any new patients.

So if you're expecting that, just give it up, do not look for instant results.

It's like planting a seed and then wondering how come

I don't have flowers yet.

You know, when it's only been a week, this stuff needs to cook.

It needs to cook.

It actually needs to cook for a year or so.

If you regularly contribute to your website, continually update the images.

Continually put these blog posts up in the way that I talked about them.

After a period of time, this thing is going to gain momentum.

I know this is going to sound schmoozy, damn things in turn.

The damn thing turns into a referral mission.

Except you, except it's them, the patient referring themselves to you.

So it's totally possible to dial in this SEO stuff.

And again, you do it by creating great content that people want to read that

inspires them to take another step and you put your own authentic voice out.

I think that's probably the most important thing.

And especially, especially on that, about me page, if you've got something

there written in the third person, sink it, write something in first person and

even better yet, you might just have something that you actually want to

say about who you are and how you work.

I mean, the way you really think about.

The way you really think about your work, not the sanitize.

Here's what I say to the public.

Now I'm talking about the stuff you say to your friends.

I'm talking about the stuff you say to yourself when you're

having a good conversation with yourself, write that about me stuff.

You don't have to put it on your website, but I would highly encourage

you at least as an exercise.

Write that shit.

Just set your hair on fire, right from your heart.

It's like a love letter to yourself.

Write that stuff out and then like put it away for a few days.

Don't even look at it, put it away for a few days and then pour yourself a glass

of wine or a scotch or a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, whatever you like, pull it out

and read it, see how you feel about it.

Some of that stuff can be a little bit edgy, but it's that kind of stuff.

That people read and go, wow.

This about me, that someone has on their website.

I, I wonder who I think this might be who this person actually is.

I am, I am curious about this person, right?

Those are the kinds of people that are going to call you.

And likewise, there are going to be people that read that stuff and they're

going to go, who the hell is that?

Click there's somewhere else.

And that's a good thing too, because those are not the people

that were to patient anyway.

All right.

So I think I have rambled on long enough about this.

If you have questions about any of the stuff I've talked about,

feel free to send me an email.

I'm happy to, I'm happy to talk to you about, I'm happy to help you out with it.

If you have questions about podcasting, because yeah.

You could use.

Your voice and put it on your website.

Um, I got some resources I could turn you on to, for that.

All right.

So that's it for today?

Solo show.

Finally.

Did it got away with it again, everybody.

Thank you so much for listening.

I am, you know, I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't you guys out there and

I'm just grateful for the opportunity.

I really am.

I get to talk to all kinds of interesting practitioners.

I learned so much from the guests on the show, and I hope that

you learn from them as well.

I'm inspired every week when I talk to somebody new and I hope that comes

through in the podcast, and I hope that it helps you with your practice.

So thanks for listening to qiological.

And again, if you would like to become a subscriber Patriana is the place to go.

There'll be.

Button over on the website, as soon as I've got that ready, and you can

click on it, become a subscriber.

I was thinking about doing t-shirts and mugs and you know, all that folder,

all that lots of people do, but you know, really I'd rather spend my

time and energy just working on these podcasts, getting great guests, getting

interesting mini series, getting the sound quality and dialing in that shit in.

So that you have something that you like here and it's easy to listen

to, and it's helpful for you.

So don't look for extra goodies with the subscription, just look for more of the

good stuff that you've come to expect.

All right, folks.

Thanks for joining me today and tune in again next week.