Tamara Suttle Information

Julie: I'm Julie de Azevedo Hanks, LCSW, a private practice consultant, author, media contributor, wife and mother of 4, and owner and executive director of Wasatch Family Therapy in Utah. My private practice, founded in 2002, has grown from a solo practice to a private pay practice that employs 20 providers with 3 locations. Tamara: So how how have you used blogging to build your private practice? Julie: I tend to be an early technology adopter and had a website in the early 2000's, before most therapists had websites. About 8 years ago I had a gut feeling that I needed to and wanted to gain media and social media skills and build a trusted online presence. I added a blog to my practice website and started blogging regularly on topics that I hoped would speak to our ideal clients. After building a decent archive of articles, I started looking for opportunities to blog on larger websites. I read somewhere that back-linking would help your website SEO. Around that time I stumbled across Psychcentral.com and was drawn to their Ask a Therapist column so I decided to email the CEO to ask if I could join the Ask a Therapist team. In early 2011 I started blogging for them. What shocked me is that John, the CEO, offered to pay me! What was even better is that I got to own the content and repost it after 4 weeks on my websites. I had no idea that I could get paid to answer mental health and relationship questions and own the content. Tamara: How did you make the transition from guest posting on PsychCentral to having your own column there? Julie: After regularly blogging for PsychCentral I pitched my own blog on PsychCentral Pro - Private Practice Toolbox. The idea was sparked by an increase in therapists contacting me with questions about how I had continued to grow my fee-for-service private practice, during a downturn in the economy, free of managed care or any other contracts. Also, I had recently been invited to speak a few times to mental health professionals on building an online presence, how to land media interviews, how to use social media, etc. and I found that I loved sharing what I had learned about the power of building an online presence as part of growing your private practice. I'm all about helping people achieve their dreams and if there is anything I can do to facilitate that, I'm all in. Tamara: What led you to make the decision to guest post on sites other than your own and how you decided where to do that? Julie: I decided to seek opportunities to blog on high-traffic websites to serve my communities, build trust by establishing myself as an expert, to raise visibility of my practice, and to build back links to my websites to increase my readership. I looked for websites that had high traffic, so I could reach more people with my message, had a good reputation, and whose mission was aligned with my purpose and passion. Because of my extensive content creation and online presence I now get solicitations to write for and/or interview with high-traffic websites. For example, I was invited to be the relationship expert for Answers.com. Tamara: Is guest blogging something you would recommend to other therapists and what are the steps to doing that? Julie: I definitely recommend blogging to other therapists because it is a great way to serve, build trust, educate, and share your passion. I usually recommend blogging on other sites after they've laid some groundwork first. That groundwork is:1) Launch your own practice website with a blog on the site. 2) Blog regularly on your site on topics that you are passionate about and that are helpful to your ideal client to demonstrate your writing skills. 3) Create accounts on least 2-3 social media platforms and share your blog posts and curate the best of other content relevant to your ideal client. Tamara: Can you talk about the benefits of guest posting on other websites? Julie: There are so many benefits of blogging on other websites. For your private practice, it makes it easier for potential clients to find you. You'll be easier to find in Google searches. Your content will be more accessible. Your name will be seen which develops trust and establishes credibility. An unexpected benefit for me has been that it has opened up additional opportunities for sharing my message on even larger platforms and help more people. This has helped to grow my social media following, further establish me as a trusted expert, increases traffic to my websites, improves SEO. Tamara: How did you initially learn about guest posting? Julie: A few years ago I had an experience where I really GOT the benefit and the power of regularly creating content on my websites on higher profile sites. A couple of years ago I received the following email:Hi Julie -I hope this note finds you well! I wanted to get in touch to let you know that you'll be included on the "SharecareNow 10 - Depression" list . his list will be publicly announced next week. This is a list created using several different metrics to ascertain the most influential members of the depression community. If you'd like a more detailed description of how we created the list, please don't hesitate to reach out. You are not asked to include any payment or any sort of participation in order to be included on the list. Of course, you're more than welcome to share with your readers. We'd also like to personally invite you to join the Sharecare community as an expert - so you can help to answer questions that relate to depression..." I soon learned that Sharecare was a health-related social media platform created by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz, in partnership with Harpo Studios, HSW International, Sony Pictures Television, and Discovery Communications, the company provides a wide array of expert answers, ultimately creating a community where healthcare knowledge is built, shared and put into practice. Then I learned that I was #1 on the list! I was floored.