So what do they want to know, these possible clients who come to check you out?

Who are you, anyway?

Thanks to the magic of Google, your website is more likely than ever to be someone’s first contact with your business and your personal expertise.

You don’t need a 5,000-word essay about your business history, treatment philosophy, and relevant education, but your about page will be one of the most visited pages of your site. Letting people get to know you a little better here will help them decide you’re someone they want to work with.

If you’re part of a group practice, the website should reflect the personality of the clinic as a whole, while still describing members as individuals. This is particularly important if your practitioners have contrasting skill sets or therapeutic approaches.

How much do you charge?

Unless you’re booked so solidly that a person stumbling across your site could never hire you anyway, it’s better not to make visitors guess your fee range. A streamlined menu of services will take care of this, or you can give a range if you work on a sliding scale.

If you prefer not to name a dollar amount, you can handle it gracefully by describing how you determine your fees– psychotherapist Aimee Hartstein does a great job of this on the FAQ page of her site.

When are you open?

If you have a physical office with regular hours, make this information really easy to find. Have an actual “Hours & Location” page, or even put it on the footer of your site so it appears on every page. If it’s buried on a page with your contact info, the irritation of hunting it down can be a turn-off to a potential client.

If you don’t have a physical office or if you work by appointment only, it’s helpful to indicate what kind of business hours you keep. Some practitioners choose to build a strong practice around serving clients on evenings and weekends, when many others in their field are not available. In this case you definitely want to feature your working hours prominently.

How does scheduling work?

Do people call for an appointment? Do you take walk-ins? Are people usually able to see you the same day, or the same week? Include the information you can be specific about.

What can I expect when I see you?

The two main things inexperienced potential clients want to know about bodywork like acupuncture or massage, after “where is your office” and “how much do you charge”, is “…do I have to get naked?” and “will it hurt?” Don’t leave them wondering, or they may never call to ask!

Talk a bit about your treatment experience, note if there’s anything people should or should not do beforehand (eat lightly, bring your insurance card, etc.), if they should expect a recovery period, any anything else related. You might decide to address these things on individual service pages, one general FAQ page, or a separate appointment prep page, depending on the nature of your work.

How do I get in touch with you?

Point people to your preferred methods of contact. If you like to screen clients and book appointments over the phone, list your phone number prominently. If you prefer to communicate over email, make emailing you convenient by including a contact form. Whether or not you keep a physical office, visitors find a physical address reassuring; consider listing a mailing address in your contact information.

::

Addressing these points is one of the fastest ways you can make your website work harder for your business. Take the time to fill in the gaps, so you can start off on the right foot with your potential clients and get them looking forward to working with you.

1. Boot Camps

Consumers overall are still more visibly interested in diets, intensives, and more dramatic short-term programs in lieu of incremental lifestyle changes. The boot camp trend in particular continues on in 2012 with more granularity– the concept no longer centers around fitness trainers. Wellness coaches, counselors, and even spas and resorts are offering short-term intensive programs based on narrower topics like “Go Vegan in 30 Days”, “Self-Care Boot Camp”, and “Fresh Start for 50+”. Activities from blogging to dating, and combination programs like diet/exercise or writing/meditation are all fair game for the camp-style approach. The public is busy, knows it needs to improve, and wants to just be told how to do it.

2. Juicing and Plant-Based Diets

Even President Clinton is on the bandwagon now, and The New York Times has reported on his “vegan journey”. With the steady stream of food-related films like Food Inc., Forks over Knives, and similar films in recent years, the public is more aware than ever of the consequences of diet. Look for vegetarian, vegan, and even raw choices to become a more mainstream part of the American foodscape this year.

Juicing is also experiencing a boost from the public’s continuing interest in meal replacement and detoxification. Juice bars are becoming a more popular spa investment, and Starbucks will open the first of its own juice bars on the U.S. west coast in mid-2012.

3. Invigorating and “Contrast” Therapies

Hot and cold is becoming a bigger trend at spas in particular; many facilities are adding cold rooms or plunge pools to work in tandem with saunas and hydrotherapy. Infrared saunas are compact, economical, and becoming more popular as an add-on service for estheticians and massage therapy clinics. Stimulating treatments like icy waterfalls, overhead showers, eucalyptus and mint-based products, and even artificial snow will continue to move into offerings for 2012.

4. Technology Integration

As smartphones and personal media devices become increasingly prevalent, consumers will continue flocking to mobile and web-based apps to help improve and manage their health.

Nike+ and GPS-based tools reign over the fitness category, sleep-management and meditation apps are increasingly available, and companies like HabitLabs are creating tools to make smaller lifestyle changes easier. The popularity of separate electronic tools that integrate with smartphones, like FitBit and WakeMate, will continue to grow in 2012.

5. The Mainstreaming of Meditation

The results are coming in, from studies on conditions ranging from PTSD to ADD to HIV, and the evidence is mounting that meditation may well be an effective treatment and stress management tool. Programs for seniors, at-risk youth, and other populations are springing up around the country, and meditation classes are ever more accessible to the public. Meditation is being increasingly seen as a preventative health care tool, and a growing number of medical professionals are recommending basic meditation and relaxation techniques to their patients.

6. Gastro-Wellness

Resorts and hotels have long offered both wellness treatments and fine dining as separate pursuits, but the two will become increasingly intertwined in 2012. Look for an uptick in spa and esthetics services with epicurean appeal, more attention to healthful “comfort foods”, food-based body treatments, and the integration of food and relaxation as a complete sensory experience.

7. Global Modalities

Growing familiarity with industry mainstays like Eastern aesthetics is leaving many wellness-seekers looking for something new and different. No longer content with broad but generic “exotic” offerings, consumers are willing to pay for techniques and experiences that emphasize authenticity.

Resorts, like the Kalispel Tribe’s lush new Current Spa in Spokane, Washington, that offer wellness services in this context are at the front of this wave of popularity. Specialized modalities like ayurveda, lomilomi and Polynesian healing, and Thai massage continue to become more attractive.

8. The Science of Wellness

Consumers are asking more detailed questions about the proven effectiveness of treatments and methods, and providers who can comfortably discuss and promote evidence-based therapies will be well-positioned in 2012.

The increasing visibility of integrative medicine, and the growing number of medical doctors and other healthcare providers recommending and prescribing massage therapy, acupuncture, and other mind-body treatments, will continue to break down the walls between traditional medical treatment and wellness-oriented alternatives. 42 percent of U.S. hospitals now offer spa/wellness services, up from 14 percent in 2000. A recent Archives of Internal Medicine study found that of 41 million Americans using mind-body therapies like yoga or tai chi, 6.4 million (15.6%) began practicing because it was “prescribed” by their medical provider.

Sigillorum was originally what I called my imaginary design firm, which was just an intellectual exercise, back around 2004 or so (sort of like Dave Seah’s Agenceum). Then in 2009 I started doing design work for other people, and it accidentally became a real business.

Rule #1 of entrepreneurship: if you want people to talk about you, don’t name your company something people are afraid to pronounce.

So Sigillorum was fine for a side project, but we’ve officially outgrown it.

Why Roku Design?

Roku means “six” in Japanese, We love seeing all sides of a problem, as well as getting down to the nuts and bolts of things. When I’m cooking up a concept or Edwin’s locking down your security, we’re coming at it from at least six different ways.

What’s going to change?

If you’re a current client, not much. We’ll change our tagline in your site footer, and you’ll be receiving emails from our new addresses now. We’ll still get messages through our old accounts, but we encourage you to use our shiny new ones! You can talk to me at shannon (at) rokudesign (dot) com, and find Edwin at edwin (at) rokudesign (dot) com. If you’re a newsletter client, you’ll receive more information about the switch soon, but your account info and newsletter dashboard won’t change a bit.

Anything else new on deck?

We’re pretty excited about our new Instant Suites program coming out soon. Stay tuned for some previews on that soon, and contact us if you’re interested in being one of our early adopters!

So what’s a body to do about it?

Sadly, there’s not much you can do to totally lock down your content if you want people to still be able to read it. But you do have recourse if you find some of your work posted elsewhere without permission (whether it’s a legitimate site or a splog).

Taking action

Thankfully, copyright is still copyright, and you still own your writing. So you can have your material removed from these sites by notifying the right folks. Hosting companies aren’t interested in being a part of copyright disputes, so informing the site’s web host is an effective way to get your content taken down if you’re not getting a response from the site owner.

To get the ball rolling you’ll need to send them what’s known as a DMCA takedown notice– DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Telling the right people

If (when) you experience problems with people or splogs stealing your material, use the form letter and tracking info below to get your material taken down. Read it carefully and swap out my links with your own, and change anything else to make it fit your own situation.

There are several people you need to contact to fulfill your notice:

• registered owner of the domain name (the thief)
• domain name registrar (Godaddy or similar)
• hosting company (Bluehost, Dreamhost, Godaddy, etc.)

Copyright infringement claims for sites having domains hosted by GoDaddy go to: trademarkclaims@secureserver.net

Your email will need to go to each of these people. The email address of the thief is often fake, but it’s important to cc: everyone regardless. You can also include a contact email you find on the actual site, but don’t omit the registered address.

When registrars and hosts get repeated complaints about violations they will drop the site or block the account altogether, so it’s important to report every violation you find to everyone involved.

Thief hunting

To find this info, enter the offending site name at http://www.whois.net/ under WHOIS lookup. Scroll down on the next page and it will give you the domain registrar, the registered owner’s (the thief’s) name, listed contact info, and contact emails.

The domain registrar will usually be Godaddy. When you send the email, put “DMCA Copyright Claim Notice for http://thievingbastardexamplesplog.info/” as the subject line. GoDaddy needs “copyright claim” to appear in the subject line for the email to get routed correctly.

There are four categories of domain contacts: registrant, admin, billing, and tech. Usually this info is all the same (and often fake), but scan it anyway. if there is more than one person or email address listed, send your notice to all of them.

To find the host, scroll to the bottom where it lists “name servers”. It will have two or more listed, with something like NS3.TEKTONIC.NET, NS4.TEKTONIC.NET. The middle will tell you the hosting company- Tektonic in this case. Google the company, find their tech support contact info (they may or may not have a specific address for copyright complaints), and add them as a recipient. If the hosting company has live chat, ask them- you’ll sometimes get a more direct contact email that isn’t listed.

After you send your notice, your material will generally be removed the same day. If it remains up after three days, try again and reference your previous email. Good luck!

Tektonic Network Services
1000 E. Walnut Street
Suite 721
Perkasie, PA 18944

Copyright Agent
Go Daddy
14455 N. Hayden Road, Suite 219
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Copy to:
Jean Rocheleau
23 Burke Avenue
Brantford, ON N3S 6V5

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to you to avail myself of my rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This letter is a Notice of Infringement as authorized in § 512(c) of the U.S. Copyright Law. I wish to report an instance of what I feel in good faith is an instance of Copyright Infringement.

The material which I contend belongs to me, and appears illegally on the Service is the following:

The following website page: http://azteccalendar2012.info/ask-the-astrologer-retrogrades/, credited to one Janet Jones, contains an article on the mechanics of retrograde motion. That glossary was obviously copied from the following page http://signsofpotential.com/2010/12/ask-the-astrologer-retrogrades/, which was published by me on December 9, 2010. My website has been on the web since early 2008, and has contained a Copyright notice since that time. Furthermore, you will notice that the copied article in question contains links back to my site, and the original post on my site contains comments and trackbacks from others dated two days before the offending copy was published. I can also furnish you a copy of the revision log showing when I created the draft of the article, at your request.

The domain name of the site in question is pointed to your nameservers at ns3.tektonic.net and ns4.tektonic.net. The domainazteccalendar2010.info is registered to Jean Rocheleau.

I am the author and Copyright owner of the post in question. My contact information is as follows: Shannon Garcia, 1037 NE 65th St #125, Seattle, Washington, 98115, 305-981-6633, shannon@signsofpotential.com. Please contact me by email. I do not wish to waive any rights by anything I say in this notice. I have already documented the infringing content, and all traceroutes and whois lookups.

I have a good faith belief that the use of the material that appears on the service is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by operation of law.

The information in this notice is accurate, and I am either the copyright owner or I am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner. I declare under the perjury laws of the United States of America that this notification is true and correct.

Yours truly,
Shannon Garcia