Today I am reporting from our new apartment. Yes, we have moved and looks like we are almost settled. There are a few more boxes to be unpacked but they can stay for now. We do have to make some purchases soon.
As for the new house, I am delighted by the amount of sunshine it gets all through the day. And we chose a high rise building and now we can see both the sunrise and sunset from our balcony, well almost. Of course we still have to wait and see how hot it is in summer. But for now, we will enjoy it.
How does our view look?
What was your week like? Do you enjoy gazing at the sunset/sunrise? What are you reading currently? Let us talk.
What I read this week
With all the rush and chaos, I forgot that I was reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. And started reading The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.
I will have to finish them both, if and when I get sometime to take a break. Fingers crossed.
What I watched this week
I caught up a few episodes of The Office but the show kinda lost it charm after Steve Carell, don’t you agree?
During the days before shifted the television and got it running, I was obsessively watching silent vlogs on Youtube. Here are some that I really enjoyed.
It has been a busy few days on the home front. We are planning to move houses soon, so went on a massive decluttering drive last week. Discarding things is a difficult thing for me, my Indian-ness wants to reuse or repurpose things that I have never seen in a year or two.
But I powered through and got it done. Everything has been sorted and classified and discarded, ready for the movers who will be coming later this week. Except for the bookshelf, which will move without any declutter.
I have not found much time and I am still reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong, but I am enjoying it.
I also started Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg this week, which I am liking too. If you enjoyed Atomic Habits by James Clear, you will enjoy this one too, I suppose.
What I watched this week
Every time I had a break from the house chores, I slumped on the couch to watch the Office (US) re-runs on Amazon. Nothing else.
On my blog
In case you missed the posts from my blog, last week.
Who knows how long it has been since I wrote a review? Actually I know, it has been almost 6 months. But here I am with one. So read on to find how The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe turned out for me.
Nora O’Malley and her friends were not prepared for being held hostages when they went to the bank that morning. Neither were the robbers prepared for these normal looking teens to foil their heist. They were especially not prepared for Nora to be an ex con artist.
Before she became Nora O’Malley, she was a number of other girls – a prop for her mother to lure gullible men into their sweetheart trap. She was raised to be a con artist herself until she escaped.
Did the hostages survive? Did the bank heist succeed? You will have to read The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe to know more.
Book review of The Girls I’ve Been
The Girls I’ve Been follows a multiple timelines – a bank heist in the present and Nora’s numerous cons in the others. While I loved the present timeline, the narrative style of some of the other timelines didn’t sit well with me. Too distracting from the heist part, if I may.
I really enjoyed the strong and complex background stories of each of these characters and their complicated family dynamics.
The Girls I’ve Been had so many beautiful and strong relationship angles. I loved that the romance (Sapphic or any other kind) didn’t entirely take over any of them, and the platonic friendship was exceptional.
I especially adored Nora’s very dependable and devoted sister Lee, the only adult in The Girls I’ve Been who deserved to be with these teens.
The Girls I’ve Been is full of strong women and smart girls, and I hope you will love Iris as much as I did. And another yay for the strong LGBTQIA+ and good mental health representations.
What worked for me
The Girls I’ve Been is a fast paced young adult book that maintains the action and suspense until the end.
I loved the friendship between the three teens as well as the beautiful Sapphic relationship between Nora and Iris.
Morally grey characters are my favorites and grey characters who try hard to be good are the best.
What may have been better
The Girls I’ve Been has quite a few flashbacks that kinda slowed down the pace. I felt the narrative style of the flashback became annoying after a while.
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe is a perfect page turner that you will enjoy if you are into young adults. It has great representations and MORALLY GREY CHARACTERS. Can’t wait for the Netflix adaptation with Millie Brown Bobby!
It has been a while since I did a Sunday post or even blogged. How have you been? Is the New Year treating you alright? Well, it has been almost ten days and I am here online, so you are right that I have some of those “new year, new me” vibes sticking to me.
But it is 2022, and let me not forget that I barely survived got through the last few two years, so I am going to keep everything as light as possible, and not have huge plans or overhauls. Basically all I am going to start with is doing the bare minimum on my blog and stick to flexi-schedule, and see how it goes.
How about you, guys? What did I miss in the blogging world?
I had to scramble to finish my last year’s Goodreads reading challenge, but I did it finally. And that is why I want to pace myself by reading a book a week, for my 52 books goal for 2022. Of course, I will be a bit flexible with it. So fingers crossed.
So last week, I read The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe and currently reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
I will let you know how they were soon, okay?
What I watched this week
Did anyone watched the Netflix adaptation of Anxious People?
I loved the book, as I have mentioned earlier as well, but I was left disappointed with the adaptation. I think it missed the whole “feel good” factor that Beckman’s books are known for.
The official voting is out and 2021 was a shit show. But of everything that happened, I loved how consistent I was in blogging here and writing in few other places, for more than eight months in 2021.
Of course all good things have to come to an end. Or so it seemed, when I hit that dreaded burn out or crash that lasted almost since September. And it took quite an effort to get out of it, but here I am.
Pin me!
Let us chat
What was your 2021 like? How many books did you read and how many are you planning to read? What did I miss in the blogging world? Let us talk.
Whether you are just booking your first client as a coach or a seasoned pro at it, you are already inspiring and helping people to unlock their potentials. But does your coaching business website show your best side up and convert leads into sales and bookings?
A good website will act like the anchor for your coaching business and help you attract more clients. It also help your audience find you and your content easily.
10 must-have things on your coaching business website to improve conversions
Here are ten must-haves things on your coaching website to improve conversions, whatever your niche is. You can be a life coach, a business coach, a fitness coach, health and diet coach or a time management, these are things things that you really need on your coaching business website.
1) Own your niche
You go to a orthopaedic doctor if you have a knee problem, even if your general physician might know what could be the issue. You go to a specialist, who probably charges a bit more, because you trust his treatments and you want the best.
That is exactly what your business needs as well.
Figure whom you serve specifically, rather than just trying to sell to everyone. While this applies to any business, it is more critical for a coaching business, because you are solving specific problem for them.
You are a weight loss coach, but who are your target demographics? You might work for “women, above 30, who are looking to lose that 30 kg”.
Niche down to the specifics because no one wants a generalist to guide them.
2) First impressions matter
You have about 3 seconds to impress your first time visitor on your website. And you have about 15 seconds to convey they can get from your website and hook them into staying.
Make sure your above fold content (i.e. the first section below the menus) creates an emotional response (“yes that’s true!”) from the reader. Addressing their pain points directly helps to attract the correct audience for your content.
Stating your specialty as a life coach, time management coach, career coach, business coach or even a blog coach, right of the bat helps people to remember you as one, even after they leave your site.
Also that it helps your SEO of your website is an added bonus.
The main reason that your audience followed you to your website is YOU. Unlike other company websites, the business of coaching largely depend on YOU, YOUR FACE AND YOUR PERSONALITY.
And that is why your coaching website cannot get away with a bland coaching website template and stock photos. No, that one dingy photo, taken 10 years ago, in about me section is not enough, especially for a coach!
Whether you are into life coaching, marketing coaching or time coaching, the personal connection is vital and people connect better to real persons, obviously.
The more you pepper your content with your personality, the more the chances of connecting with your audience as a person and the more the chances of conversion into sales.
Take some professional photographs, especially using on your website. It doesn’t have to be all serious and grim. Just remember to stick to the brand colors and mood, but otherwise, have some fun with it.
4) Clear aspirational goals
A person goes to a health coaching website to be inspired and guided towards a healthier lifestyle. Likewise, if you are overwhelmed and always running out of time, you might look for a time coaching website to learn to manage time better or to be more organized and productive in your life.
What I am getting at is, people come to your site looking for a benefit or an outcome towards a goal.
A good coach should help them visualize what they can achieve or manifest with your guidance. Putting the benefits they will derive out of your coaching session in an aspirational way will help your website convert visitors into clients easily.
Please take extra care that your aspirational goals are positive and encouraging, and doesn’t “put anyone down”, especially when you are dealing with tough and delicate situations like weight loss goals or financial guidance.
5) A clear offer
Once you have them hooked, you need to dish out the finer prints. AKA your offer. A good place to list and brief them about this would be on your menu bar, under the header “work with me” or “services”.
While you can be offering a number of services, make sure you explain them all individually and distinguish between the target audience, if they are different.
Even if your services are intangible, you have to make what you will deliver clearly. Some key aspects can be
Will your coaching be 1-on-1 or a group session?
How will your measure your client’s success?
How will you/they keep track of the progress?
How many hours or sessions will you spending, monthly or weekly?
How many hours or sessions do you expect your clients to work on your program (on their own)?
You are the one that has to lead the clients, not the other way around. You have to be prepared with a plan, though it can flexible, you should not expect them to come with one.
6) Show your expertise
Building a website is just one part of the whole online presence. But adding consistent and resourceful content on to your website will improve your authority as well as keep your website fresh.
Use your content to educate and inspire your followers and visitors, and thereby creating a good relationship with them. This personal connect will help you convert readers to potential clients.
Some ways to create content for your site
Write a series of how-to posts and e-books
Share past client success stories as a post
Include some resources like checklists and templates relevant to your niche
Add some fun quizzes and challenges
Videos and podcasts are great additions too.
If you are new to content creation or you hate doing it, and would rather spend your time on your clients, you can hire a SEO content writer (such as myself, he he!) to help you out.
Call to action is the one vital thing that every page or post in your website should begin and end with. People, especially first time visitors of a site, need a lot of encouragements and reminders to come out of their shells and engage with you.
Some good examples of CTAs are
Schedule a consulting call.
Sign up for your newsletter or
DM you on Instagram.
whichever is your preferred method of communication.
End every blog post with a question for your visitor to respond or even ask them to share it with their friends.
Testimonials and reviews are a great way to convince that your methodology works. According to a recent survey, 9 out of 10 buyers consult online reviews before making any purchase.
Especially for a service offering like coaching, which depends a lot on trust and authority testimonials from past and present clients are critical.
Some questions you can ask them to help them share their feedback are:
How did your coaching help them?
What problems did they solve with their help?
Can they share some number and success stories like, number of clients gained, kilos lost, or a before and after picture etc.
Personal case studies and tangible/photographic evidences (of course with the required consents) will help you get those in dilemma to take the leap of faith.
Adding an “as seen on” or “logos of past clients” tab in your home page can improve your standing and build trust instantly.
9) Easy booking
Now that you have impressed them with your services and expertise, the worst that you can do to your business is making them jump through hoops to book you.
Yes, I am serious. It happens.
Put up a few easy, no-nonsense methods for your visitors to book an appointment with you or at least contact you easily.
A simple way to do that is to add in a contact form in your site. Instead of using a generic contact form, add in a few specific questions about them so that they will understand that you are interested in talking to them. It will also help you look professional when you contact them after you do some homework.
You can go a step further and add in call scheduling app (like Calendly) on your site. A “free” consulting call might help as a great sales funnel.
A site with call scheduling option immediately looks ten times more professional, than without one. And it is pretty easy to set one up.
10) Clean and professional looking website
When I say professional website design, it differs from person to person. But what I mean is, the layout should be easy to navigate and appealing to the eyes.
You can use a free template designs for your coaching business website or invest in a premium theme as well. Again, make sure you have a good hosting and speed too.
Do what works for you, but make sure you are not spending too much of your valuable time in tweaking or DIY-ing the site. For a few extra bucks, you can have your entire site designed and developed by a professional.
A final word
I know building a website might sound intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. In fact more than half of my clients have got their investment on their sites back in the first few months.
So take a leap of faith, and get your own website for your coaching business right now! And ensure you have these must-have things on your coaching business website to improve conversions!
