This question came up in my last workshop, from a nutritional therapist who was just getting started with her own private practice. We had been talking about building trust, and how testimonials help with that. My short and sweet suggestion: give a friend a chance to experience what it’s like to work with you and ask for her or his honest feedback. No need to be shy about it. Completely OK. It’s super common for your first client (after yourself) to come from your existing community, and their testimonial is no less valid just because they already knew and liked you as a person.

One more tip for getting strong testimonials: Ask specific questions. For example:

• What changes did you notice after working with me?
• What did you especially like about the consultation?
• What was your first impression of my practice?
• What would you tell someone dealing with a similar issue about working with me?

While you’re at it, this is also a good opportunity to ask for suggestions on how to make the experience of working with you even more awesome. Nothing like a sincere testimonial to make your day – or make your practice better.

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Essential Ingredients
For your sweet and simple website to be live and functional, you need:
- a domain
- hosting
- a design
- some content

Let’s look at each one of them for just a few minutes.

Domain
You can register a domain (your website address) online. Lifehacker has compiled a list of their favorite places to get your domain here. Pick a domain name that is easy to remember and to write (you don’t want to have to spell it every time). A domain typically costs $10-15 per year, but you’ll see lots of lower-price offers for new customers. Sometimes you can get a free domain when you sign up for a hosting plan.

Hosting
This is basically storage space for the files that make up your website. It typically costs $4-10 per month, depending on how many months you pay for in advance. Email me if you’d like me to recommend a couple providers to you.

Design
If you have no design background and are not sure how to best present your content, I’d say just keep your website as simple as possible. Pick a nice, clean template and add your content.

If you have other materials (business cards, or a flyer maybe), the look and feel of your website should be consistent with those. You can do some super basic DIY branding by setting rules for how you are going to treat colors, fonts, and images. For example, you could decide that you will always use the font St. Ryde in all caps for headlines and Arial for body copy, or that your color scheme will consist of chocolate brown, pistacchio green, and cream.

Side note: With services like Squarespace or Weebly, you get a kind of all-in-one package – you get your templates, hosting service, and domain registration in the same place.

Content
By far the most important aspect of your website is the content. You can have the most gorgeous website, if people can’t figure out what you offer or how to get a hold of you… not much is going to happen beyond them appreciating your sense for aesthetics. Your website should tell people who you are, why you do what you do, what you offer and how it makes their lives better, and how to connect with you and/or accept your offer (sign up for your classes, or buy your hand-made lotion, or do that cleanse…).

If you have any more questions or would like my help with the set-up, head over to my contact from!

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Think version 0.1

Maybe you want to create a marketing plan, or establish your niche, or launch a new product or service. It’s exciting, but also daunting, and you’re not sure where to begin.

In that case, I often suggest “think version 0.1.” What is the smallest workable version of your project that you can create right now? I mean now as in today, this afternoon, without making any big investments, or cancelling all other plans.

Examples

For example, let’s say you are a nutrition consultant toying with the idea of specializing in nutrition for stress management. Right now, you can write a blog post on the topic, or make it the theme of your new newsletter, or add a line about it to your Services page.

Or maybe you want to finally set up a website. You can start with a clean and simple single page that introduces you and your services and gives people a way to get in touch with you.

The benefits of version 0.1

In a nutshell, version 0.1 is the antidote to overwhelm. Here is why:

1. It gets you out of analysis paralysis and into action.
2. You can start getting real feedback on your idea.
3. It gives you the opportunity to test and learn what works.
4. Your full version will likely turn out better than if you jumped right into it.

If you are intrigued and would like some help figuring out what your version 0.1 could look like, feel free to connect with me anytime.

{Photo by CIMMYT on Flickr.}

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