Kelli Wise

Onward – to the Future!

Kelli Wise · May 23, 2017 ·

This blog post is a long time coming. If you look at the dates, you’ll see it’s been over 2 years since I last posted and a lot has happened and changed for me in those 2 1/2 years.

I’m no longer a massage therapist

A fall that injured a shoulder and a lot of other old injuries added up. I was massaging less and less. It was becoming more expensive to keep my office open than was profitable.

I am a full time web designer

I’ve been designing websites since about 1997, mostly for my former corporate job. I ended up doing more and more of them for massage therapists who needed websites for their practice. After a while, I was doing more web design than massage. Which totally suits me fine because I love web design. It appeals to the geek in me.

My web design business has grown and changed

I started off in the entry level web design market. $500 websites. In theory, they should be quick and easy (for me) to do and I could make enough revenue to pay my bills and live indoors. But the customer base for that market seems to expect fully custom websites for $500 and I just couldn’t make it work, financially. By the way, a semi-custom website price will start at $5,ooo and tops out at several hundred thousand.

I’ve also taught blogging for business with my friend Dawn Barclay. We hosted several blog challenges and got a lot of folks started in blogging. Those who have stuck with it have found that it has helped them get clients they want. A few have even started writing for industry magazines. Note: this has been a good thing and I plan to start up again.

I’ve also taught business owners how to write their own website copy. A Website That Works has helped a lot of small business owners get beyond the “Welcome to my website” boilerplate crap and build a website and content strategy that helps them attract the right clients/customers and make a living. Note: this has been a good thing and I plan to offer the course again very soon.

I speak at WordCamp almost every year.

Speaking at WordCamp is one of the highlights of my year. I get to share what I’ve learned with a room full of people who want to learn. I get to meet some incredibly smart and generous people and learn from them. I sat on a panel last year with 3 people that I admire. I felt like an imposter sitting up there with them, but they are lovely, gracious folks and I had a great discussion with them.

I’ve consolidated and simplified

At one point, I had 7 plates in the air

Massage
Web Design
Teaching live CEs
Teaching online CEs
Teaching at the massage school
Running blogging challenges
Running online courses

What I discovered is that you simply cannot promote and grow 3 very different businesses at the same time. At least not successfully. Even Gary V doesn’t have that much energy. So, I made some decisions. The first to go was teaching at the massage school. I was devoting about 3 hours outside of class for every hour in class and spending way too much time on someone else’s business with no value added to my business.

The next to go was teaching live CEs. Finding venues was a pain and after a venue double booked over one of my reservations, not the first time I had a snafu with a venue, I decided I had had enough. I wasn’t going to continue managing chaos while trying not to make my students angry over date and venue changes.

After that, I closed my massage practice and finally shut down my online ethics course this year. I haven’t run a blogging challenge or online course for over a year.

So, now I’m down to Web Design and I’ve spent the last 18 months concentrating on it. I’ve done a lot of the hard work of reviewing my strategy, client base, the market, the industry trends, and my expanding skill set and passions. I made some decisions.

1 – I can’t afford to do $500 websites

2 – I love teaching people

3 – I love doing more complex/challenging web projects and online marketing

4 – Bigger clients need help with #3

What the future looks like and what it means for you

This will be the last blog post on Massage Therapy World.

It’s been wicked fun and I’ve met some amazing people over the last 7 years. It seems fitting that I should shut it down on the anniversary of the blog. My first post went live in May of 2010. The last will be May of 2017.

I’ll leave this up for a couple of weeks while I sift through the archives. I’ll be taking some of my best business and website posts and rewriting them and republishing them at Pint Sized Sites. If there are any that are specific to massage therapy, I’ll see if I can find another place to guest post, like I have at Massage Business Blueprint.

My web design business is now pretty focused on helping nonprofits with their web presence and online marketing. I’m a proud bleeding heart liberal and helping organizations that help people makes me happy. Helping people is why I got into massage and teaching, so this is just the next step in that process. If you’ve got a decent sized nonprofit that whose website is ready for a level up, you’ll find me at kattero.

And Pint Sized Sites? Well, she’s getting a makeover. And, yes, I think of that website as a she. Kind of like a ship, ya know? Pint Sized Sites will still be focused on helping new and very small businesses with their websites, but with a change in method. Instead of doing it for you, I’ll be teaching you to do it yourself.

When I started Pint Sized and Massage Therapy World, your choice for DIY websites was using the crap site builder offered by your webhost or overpaying someone like Intuit for a crap website. Now, there are some really fabulous solutions out there that do a lot of the technical heavy lifting and will help you build a terrific website. With some knowledge of content creation, blogging, and simple SEO, you can create a website that works for your little business. So, Pint Sized Sites will be the place for how-to articles, in depth reviews of tools, and online courses to teach you to do it yourself.

Finally, you’ll still see me teaching at WordCamps across the US. I’ll be applying to speak at a few scattered across the country. If I come to your town, I’d love to see you at WordCamp and we can share a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea.

And that’s my future. Helping folks with websites and teaching. In a couple of weeks, this site will automagically redirect to Pint Sized Sites. If that’s not your thing, then I want to take this opportunity to say:

Thank You for sharing this journey with me!

It has been my privilege and pleasure to write for you, meet so many of you online and in person.

If you come along to Pint Sized Sites to learn more about websites for your massage practice (or spa or clinic or CE business), then I look forward to working with you on your success.

Cheers!

Kelli Wise

The problem with DIY websites

Kelli Wise · Nov 20, 2014 ·

I know a lot of you are using the free websites available through AMTA and ABMP, or maybe you’re using Weebly, Wix, or WordPress. I’m really glad that you are taking advantage of internet marketing. After all, almost 80% of your potential client base is using the internet to find products and services.

There’s nothing wrong with being thrifty, either, although I’m still not a huge fan of the free AMTA and ABMP sites, but money doesn’t grow on trees and WordPress.com, Weebly or Wix with a custom domain is not a bad solution. Especially for those of you who get sweaty palms thinking about the technical, geeky stuff that comes with creating a website.

The DIY websites take care of the geeky stuff

like installation, setup, settings, and updates. That can help bypass a big source of stress for a lot of small business owners. We have enough stress in our lives, just trying to do bookkeeping, laundry, marketing, networking, newsletters, and all the other millions of tasks that come with running a massage practice.

Having something that takes one source of stress out of your day should be celebrated. If you don’t have a web designer that can help, then the DIY website providers are your best choice.

So you sign up for an account, pay the small extra fee for a custom domain (it’s worth the money, trust me), login in, pick a theme, click on “Add new page” to start work on creating your Home page.

And that’s when it hits you:

What exactly should you put on the Home page?

So you get up, make a cup of tea, grab a snack, and settle down in front of the computer. You still have no clue what to put on that home page, so you check out some of the massage therapists’ sites in town, and kind of copy what they do.

Now you just need to do the same for a few more pages and you’ll be done with that website.

You’re going to need a lot more tea.

I design a lot of website for massage therapists. I’ve even salvaged some sites after they got scammed by someone in the industry. I know what you’re up against. No one teaches this online marketing stuff in massage school. Ok, I do, and I know Allissa Haines over at Writing a Blue Streak does, but we’re definitely in the minority.

And this gets me back to the point of this blog post:

What is the problem with DIY websites?

When I talk to business owners who are trying to create their website content, I get the sense that they are just as lost as you are trying to figure out what to write on their website.

They have a blank sheet of paper, a lot of confusing articles and blog posts on what to put on their website, and an empty WordPress or Weebly site they have to fill up.

So, they delay a bit, walk around the office, make some tea, eat some snacks and finally resort to copy and pasting from other websites. And they hope that it works.

You just can’t get away with that anymore.

Website visitors have seen a lot of websites by now.

They can recognize a good website from a bad one and they really have little patience or interest in sticking around if it’s bad. And don’t even think about using autoplay on videos!

So the result is that the DIY websites don’t tell you what to put on that website or how to make that content great.

So you end up with a website that might look pretty, but it never really brings in any customers.

So the real problem with those free and DIY websites is: They don’t work!

All that time and effort wasted on a website that doesn’t work. That makes me very sad because I hate to see someone spend time and money on this terrific marketing tool and not have it bring them any business.

That’s why I created a course that will walk you through creating website content, step by step. Content that your website visitors will connect with and love. Content that will get them to do business with you.

I taught this course once before and the students who worked through all the material have seen it work. I use these same concepts when I’m creating a website. (Psst, some of this stuff works for flyers and newsletters, too).

This is my secret sauce.

I’ve spent years studying web design and content marketing. I’ve bought books, taken classes, and attended seminars. I’m putting everything I’ve learned and used into this course.

I’m not holding anything back.

If you are ready to get your website working and bringing in business, then you don’t want to miss this class.

10 weeks, 10 lessons, lots of support and real actionable work to give you:

A Website That Works

Registration is now open and we begin on December 1st. Why not start 2015 with a better, more effective website?

Your massage practice deserves a great website! If you are ready to make it great, click on the link and sign up or read more details.

There is nothing new you can write, and why it doesn’t matter

Kelli Wise · May 16, 2014 ·

So there I was, staring off into the distance while the copy machine was cranking out 17 copies of class handouts when one of the recent grads working at the school asked me about blogging. Basically, he wanted to know

Why should I blog?

He has a brand new website and he wants people to see it when they search for massage in our little town. He explained that he understood the benefits of blogging: SEO, improved search ranking, fresh content, etc. What he didn’t understand is

What should I write about?

My advice to him:

Answer questions. Especially the questions that you know people want to ask and won’t because their either too embarrassed or afraid of what the answer might be. One question that we all get is “do I really have to fill out that intake form?” Another that question no one asks, but wants to, is “Are obese people harder to massage?” (If you found your way here because you googled that question, the answer is NO. Obese people are no more difficult to massage than anyone else.)
Keep people up to date on the latest research. You have access to this via industry websites and blogs, pass that along.
Talk about your specials and holiday offers. Talk about other things going on in your business, like road construction or new wallpaper. Oddly enough, people are interested in this stuff.

So he understood all of that, but his next comment is one I see all the time:

It’s already been written. Why would anyone read my post if there’s nothing new in it?

It’s true, someone has already written a blog post explaining what “undress to your level of comfort” means. You’re not going to blaze any trails in that subject matter. In fact, it’s unlikely that you are ever going to come up with something completely original, even if you think it is. Someone else has probably already beat you to the punch. And it doesn’t matter one tiny little bit.

Before I explain why, I’m going to give you the most basic of basic explanations of how Google/Bing/Yahoo (we’ll just call this Google to save time) work. Trust me, it won’t be too technical and it will make all of this make sense.

Google knows where you are

When you type a search into Google , Google knows where you are physically located. No, they don’t have some secret tracking hardware on your computer or phone, but they do know what computer network your are using. It’s like knowing your area code on your phone. 312 is Chicago. So Google knows that you are not only in Chicago, but you are downtown at a Starbucks next to the Art Institute.

Google wants to give you useful information so that you will continue to use Google and not another search engine. So knowing where you are at is a handy piece of information. If you type in “kosher bagel shop”, Google could show you any number of bagel shops in New York City, but that wouldn’t be useful to you. You’re hungry now and have a great parking space, so you want something within walking distance of the Art Institute. So, instead of showing you the listing for the top ranked bagel shop in Manhattan, Google will show you the top ranked bagel shops closest to where you are physically located.

Search results depend on where you are

For a brick and mortar business, like your massage therapy practice, this can work to your advantage. If you are working your website and blog posts so that you will rank well for your local market, when someone in your town googles “massage therapist”, you are going to be on the top of his search results, not a massage therapist across the country.

You are a smart blogger and can take advantage of this. If you are in Tacoma and another massage therapist in Boston write blog posts on the same subject, someone in Tacoma will see your post because Google knows you are closer to that person than the MT in Boston.

It doesn’t matter that you are writing about the same topic

Local people are more likely to see your posts. But only if you are writing them.

You don’t need to be original, you just need to be useful. Write about stuff that people are interested in so that when they find your blog post they decide to call and schedule an appointment.

I don’t want you plagiarizing someone else’s work. But if you read a blog post and get inspired to put your own spin on it, then write about that. Or explain it in a way that is important to your clients.

Did this help explain why you don’t need to come up with all original ideas? If not, let me know what questions you still have and I’ll do my best.

You are worth what you charge

Kelli Wise · May 8, 2014 ·

Have you ever gotten a phone call like this:

“How much is a one hour massage?”

“$65”

“That’s too high, do you have any discounts?”

“Just my package deals, buy 5 and get the 6th free.”

“Can I get a single massage at that rate?”

“No, you have to buy the package.”

“I don’t know how you can charge so much. Can’t you bring the price down to $55?”

And on and on the conversation goes. Every week on Facebook, another massage therapist posts about a similar conversation. They end up either reducing their rates or feeling icky because they stood their ground. I’ve even seen commenters suggest that the therapist who stands firm “forgive yourself and move on.”

What the What? Forgive yourself for not budging on your published price? Nope, don’t forgive yourself. You haven’t done anything wrong.

If you discount the massage for every random caller, how do you justify charging full price to your regulars? Don’t you think they might get a little unhappy if they find out that you charge them full price, even though they are loyal repeat customers, but new clients can negotiate a different price.

How long before all of your clients start negotiating better prices? How much time do you want to spend negotiating prices on every massage you give?

Charging what you are worth is only half of the equation

The other half of the equation is that you are worth what your charge. You have expenses to pay to keep your business running. You need a decent income to support yourself and your family. You have mad skills, yo! You are not obligated to discount your massage because the client thinks the price is too high. If the caller doesn’t have the money to pay your full price

It’s the client’s problem to solve

Not yours. By haggling, negotiating and generally trying to please them, you are making the problem yours. The caller wants a massage. The caller only has $55 to spend on massage. The caller has two choices.

Get more money -OR-
Schedule a shorter massage

I’m giving you permission right now to decline to discount. My friend Allissa Haines, from Writing a Blue Streak, once told me ” ‘NO’ is a complete sentence.” She’s really brilliant about that kind of stuff. So you have my permission to tell this caller, “No, I cannot give you a discount.”

What about the aggressive, bullying caller?

Oh, you know the type. They don’t just ask for a discount, the demand one. And when you decline, they start pressuring you with insults and accusations.

“How dare you charge so much! Don’t you know how much I need this massage?”

Sound familiar? I’ve gotten those kinds of callers, too. By the time I get off the phone with them, I’m furious and so pumped up with adrenaline I could probably kill and dismember a killer whale with my bare hands*. If you’re one of those people that let these bullies guilt you into cutting your price and scheduling around their needs, I want you to copy down the following sentence and post it next to your bathroom mirror.

You are not required to do business with every jerk that knows how to dial a phone.

Got it? You can simply decline them as a client. Trust me, there are other people who want a massage and won’t make you feel badly about yourself.

When was the last time you had this experience? What did you say? How did it make you feel? Let me know in the comments.

* Note to Greenpeace – I would never harm an Orca. I’m actually pretty harmless and very nice to animals.

What to do if your web designer registers your domain in their name

Kelli Wise · Sep 14, 2013 ·

Over at Pint Sized Sites, I insist that all of my clients take care of their web hosting and domain names. In fact, I refuse to register this for them. Oh, I could make extra money doing the web hosting, but I don’t believe it’s in my customers’ best interest.

Your domain name is a business asset

It has value. It is as much a part of your business as the name, the logo, and the client list. You should always be in control of your domain name. Never let anyone else register it for you. If you ever decide to sell the business, the domain name is a part of the assets included with the business.

Unfortunately, too many small businesses don’t understand how important this is. They are intimidated or tech averse and would rather let their web designer handle it. Next thing you know, the web designer has closed the business, retired, moved to Costa Rica, or just decided to never return your phone calls. In the last several years, I have gotten several clients who have found themselves in this situation.

What can they do?

A Quick & Painless Primer™ on domain names

What is a domain name?

Good question, my young jedi. The domain name is all that stuff after www. The domain name of Massage Therapy World is MassageTherapyWorld.com

Yes, the .com is a part of the domain. You might see some that are .edu (these are schools and universities), .gov (these are government agencies), .ca (these are Canadian), .uk (these are in the United Kingdom), and so forth. The ideal domain name is YourBusinessName.com

Do I buy a domain name?

Another great question. No, you LEASE a domain name. A lot of people forget that and then the lease expires and they no longer have the domain name anymore. Not cool. Put a reminder on your calendar to make sure you renew.

If I lease the domain name, who do I lease it from?

You are probably using a Registrar and they register the domain name with ICANN. Confused? Let’s use an analogy:

Domain Name = Apartment

Registrar = Apartment Manager

ICANN = Apartment Building Owner

You will likely never deal with ICANN. ICANN stands for: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Remember this, there will be a quiz later.*

Whois ICANN?

ICANN is in control of domain names and has a big database of all the registered domain names. They are very careful about not letting just anyone call them up and asking them to change the lease holder on the domain name. If they weren’t, I would have already contacted them and gotten possession of google.com, microsoft.com, yahoo.com, and whitehouse.gov. That wouldn’t be cool for those companies, would it?

That’s why it’s difficult, on purpose, for you to get your domain name back from your web designer without their help.

How do you transfer the domain name from your designer to you?

Step 1 – Contact your designer and ask them for their help. Ideally, they will submit the transfer request and, in a few business days, the domain name will be all yours. Dont’ wait for the transfer to go through. Right after you talk to your designer, go to Step 2

Step 2 – Open up an account at NameCheap.com or GoDaddy.com. Personally, I use NameCheap but most of you have heard of GoDaddy. The pricing is almost identical. These companies are both Registrars. They both have instructions and help lines if you need help setting up the account in anticipation of getting the domain name transferred.

Step 3 – Once you have the domain name, you’ll need to get web hosting. I have my preferences here, too. LunarPages, HostGator and BlueHost are all affordable and good quality. **

Ideally, that should do it.

What if your web designer disappears, dies, or refuses to transfer the domain name?

I’ve had clients live through all 3 of these scenarios. It happens. Unfortunately, resolving this is neither easy or simple. Given that ICANN is the internet equivalent of the Illuminati, it’s not like you can just pick up the phone and talk to someone. Your best bet is to start with the registrar your designer is using.

GoDaddy

Since most people use them, I called GoDaddy to ask what steps a person would have to take to get them to transfer the domain without the designer’s help. A Wonderful Dude named David*** spent several minutes on the phone with me even though I don’t have an account with them. (In my defense, I have a lot of customers who have accounts, so it’s not like I’m just soaking up their time for nought.)

Here is what David said: You can file a Request for Change of Account. You will have to be able to prove that you should be the rightful owner of the domain name. He recommended that you include ALL the supporting documentation you can think of. This would include:

Proof of business/tradename registration in your state, city, etc. All of it.
Receipts proving that you paid for the web design and paid for the domain name.
Any contracts supporting that the domain name is for you.
Any correspondence that might show that the designer was registering the domain on your behalf

GoDaddy will review your form. He estimated that it would take about 5-10 business days for them to approve or deny the request. That’s not really all that long, but it will go faster if you submit all your supporting documentation with the request.

If you’re not with GoDaddy, just call that registrar and talk to their nice support people. I can’t promise you’ll get A Wonderful Dude named David, but they should be pretty helpful.

What if you don’t know the registrar?

Well, now you have to go to ICANN. Like I said, there’s no phone number to call, but there is an online form you can submit. I’m sure it will take longer than 5-10 business days, but there isn’t any real data from them on how long it will take.

This is all so confusing! I can’t handle this!

That’s cool. Just contact me. I’m for hire. I’m also just here to answer the occasional question for free.

So while it’s not easy or simple to transfer the domain name, it is possible. I’ve seen it done. It takes time, patience, paperwork, and sometimes an attorney, but it can be done.

Have I answered your questions? Is there more you can think of? Hit the comment box below and I’ll do my best to find you a good answer.

* No there won’t be a quiz. Do you think I have time for quizes?

** You can always contact me for information on hosting stuff. Or hire me. Really, I’m not above asking for your business here.

*** For all of my public grousing about GoDaddy, one thing I will always compliment them on is their tech support. I’ve spent many, many hours on the phone with their support people and they are unfailingly polite, helpful, and sometimes really sweet.