Reminder: Visit New Blog! Posts Weekly

Hi! Thank you for visiting our blog! I now have a central blog that I keep well-stocked with new posts - so be sure to visit that one. Merci bocu. http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/

Search Engine Optimization: What the Pros Don't Want You to Know: *FREE*

Sign-up for the next "Helping Hands for Coaches" class at: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/

Our next class will be “Search Engine Optimization: What the Pros Don’t Want You To Know”: Friday, July 18th at 10am PST (That’s 11am Mountain Time, 12pm Central, and 1pm Eastern Time)!

Perhaps you have a website up, but you’re not sure how to get people to it.

OR

You’ve been interviewing “SEO Professionals”, and you’re thinking there must be an easier or cheaper way to optimize your website for Search Engines.

I’m very excited to offer this class again - plus, I’m not just offering this one class - but a series of classes on Search Engine Optimization! If you missed it in April, please be sure to sign-up for it today: Search Engine Optimization (and what web designers wont tell you - but you can do yourself!) If you haven’t already done so, PLEASE be sure to register now by signing up below:

Learn:

-Free tools that can help you develop keywords
-See how you rank compared to your competitors
-Find out what SEO tricks are out-of-date
-Find out what New SEO tricks help you the most
-How you can help your website Google, MSN and Yahoo ranking without touching your Website code!

Sign-up today as this class is limited and popular!

Plus: I’ll send you a document with all the notes you need to follow the class!

Sign-up for the next "Helping Hands for Coaches" class at: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/

Here’s to Your Learning Adventures,
Rachel Pradhan
President of Indra Successful Coach Marketing!
Creating Online Possibilities for Coaches!

Need to Niche = Life and Business Coaches: Find your Target Market

Read my article on Niching and Target Marketing for Life and Business coaches:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977286894

Should Life and Business Coaches join BNI?

Article: Should You Join BNI?
Written by: Michelle Schubnel

A client recently asked, "Do you think I should join BNI?"

BNI, short for Business Networking International, is a lead-sharing networking group.

I was a member of a San Francisco BNI Chapter during my first year in business as a full time coach. It was a great experience and I definitely benefited from my involvement in BNI. Specifically:

• 5 fellow chapter members became clients
• 8 referrals became clients
• 3 strategic alliances were formed (with an accountant, graphic designer and biz attorney)
• several speaking engagements were generated
  

Back then I was coaching by phone from my studio apartment in the Marina District of San Francisco. Having a weekly in-person meeting where I built friendships, gained business knowledge, improved my speaking, developed a great pitch and dressed to impress at least one day a week was definitely key to my success.

Joining BNI, or another lead-sharing organization, such as Le Tip (USA/Canada) Elite Leads (SF Bay Area), can be an excellent tool and marketing strategy to grow your coaching business.

But is it right for you?

5 Key Criteria for Deciding about Joining a Lead-Sharing Networking Group

1. You need to be specific about who you coach and what you coach on. Think about it. In order for the other members to give you qualified referrals, they need to easily understand what you do. And you don't have to be a business coach. There was a career coach in our group who was constantly getting leads.
   
2. You must enjoy it. Do you like the idea of attending a weekly meeting with other small business owners in your area? Are you excited to build business and personal relationships and become an active member of a group? If so, great. You'll like this type of networking.
   
3. Join a large, healthy and dynamic chapter. The coaches who generate the best results by joining lead sharing groups are members of a great chapter. Shop around and choose wisely. The size and quality of your fellow members impact your results.
4. You need to give leads to other members. It's the law of reciprocity. Givers gain. You need to refer people you know to your fellow members, and this can sometimes be challenging. For example, a chiropractor who sees hundreds of clients per month has a much easier time generating referrals than a coach who works from home and coaches clients across the country.
   
5. You need to be committed. You can't just show up when you feel like it. To get good results you need to make it a weekly priority.
   

Go for a Test Drive
Research organizations in your area and visit their meetings. Many chapters will allow you to attend a few times so you can get a feel for the group.

Weigh the Pros and Cons
In addition to potentially gaining new clients, be sure to consider the intangible benefits that address the loneliness and isolation that that is so common in the profession.

Trust Your Gut
If it feels right, go for it. If not, say no thank you and move on to the next thing!

Working Hard - Feel Connected to My Coaches

When I watched this video on Yahoo! this evening I thought - Yes! This is how I often feel in the evenings - and I know that there are many of you coaches out there working on your Internet Marketing to better your business too, so we're all really connected when it comes to 'sleepy puppy syndrome' :)
The evening is a great time to catch-up on emails and our other Indra projects that we've started to help with life and business coaches. One is Helping Hands for Coaches. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that we've been having a regular Friday class on Internet Marketing for coaches - and it's been going very well. However, I also wanted to complement the live class with how-to videos to the students. But, when I taped the live calls it didn't feel right - and there was so much content that I thought it might do better broken-up into smaller more 'bite-size' how-to videos on Internet Marketing. So, we've started a new blog: www.HelpingHandsForCoaches.com! It will be a video blog of how-to videos on Internet Marketing for coaches. I'll still hold the Friday classes, but perhaps more periodically since the Video Blog will take some time too. So please visit! www.HelpingHandsforCoaches.com and let your fellow coaches know too!
Right - now where's the coffee?
Love - Rachel

Life Coach in Sunday Comics

CLICK THE IMAGE TO READ! When I read this in the Sunday comic's today, I just loved it! I hope all you life coaches love it too! With love - Rachel

No Helping Hands Class this week

Thank you for all of you who have participated in our on-going internet marketing classes for life coaches and business coaches! We've learned so much! This week (Friday, February 8th) I will be volunteering with the ICF-Orange County board at Chapman University for their 2nd annual ICF-OC International Coaching Week 2008 program! For more information, please see my post. They are currently at 300 participants - 200 more than they were expecting!! What a fabulous turn-out.

If you are a coach, or thought of being a coach, or want to be coached, and are in the Orange County, Southern California area be sure to stop by between 9 and 4. If you aren't in the area, why not take this opportunity to practice some of what we've been learning - blog, podcast, use paypal for payment, or create a slide show! Have fun - and happy International Coaching Week 2008!

Love - Rachel