Bodysite Blog

Two Great New Templates Added

2011-09-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's template month here at Bodysite Builder! We just finished adding two new templates - Lemon and Nova, along with a few variations on other themes.

Lemon
Lemon is a very contemporary layout - with a footer panel that's robust enough to handle large amounts of content you want to display on every page of your site. The site features a header image with editable type - the perfect way to drive your message home.

Nova
Nova is super modern, with a great uncluttered layout. A large sidebar area gives ample room for an integrated blog, special offers, news or whatever you like. A very professional looking theme, this template will work very well for studios or spas that want a little room to grow.

We added a few variations too - Vision Plum, Nova Blue and Mocha Cream. Keep checking back - we're really working hard to add a wider variety of templates for you to choose from!

Two New Designs Added

2011-09-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

We're happy to announce that we've added two new designs to the Bodysite Builder template library: Mocha and Vision. These are beautiful, robust layouts with many options for expansion.

Mocha
Mocha has a very clean, modern style that's perfect for physical therapists and massage therapists alike. Minimalist and masculine, this is a great design that we know you'll love. The left sidebar is perfect for integrating a blog, special offers or mailing list form.

Vision
Vision is a very modern design with a three-column footer - perfect for recent blog posts, newsletter sign-up forms or contact information. It features a header on each page with a customizable message for titles, testimonials or whatever you like. This one's very clean and cool.

We're trying to add more templates these days, and are really puting some focus on some of the current trends in web design so stay tuned and keep checking back if you don't see the perfect site for you!

Newsletter Manager

2010-07-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

We're happy to announce a new addon for our websites - the Newsletter Manager. It's a great addition to your marketing toolbox, giving you the ability to stay in touch with your customers and an incentive to collect contact information from potential clients. This is quickly becoming our biggest seller!

The addon comes with four templates designed to match your website, with each template containing a varying number of articles so you can pick and choose depending on how much you want to communicate.

Email marketing is vital to client retention - it's so important to keep yourself in the front of people's minds so they don't forget how much they like you and your services. Give your customers first crack at special offers, send holiday greetings, or just let them know what's going on with you and your business!

The Newsletter Manager plugs into your existing control panel, and behaves like a second website. You edit it with the same familiar tools you use to manage your site - both text and images.

Give a call today and we'll set you up with a live demo so you can see how it works first hand - you're going to love this one!

FSMTA Convention 2010!

2010-06-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

We're really looking forward to the FSMTA convention in Orlando. Last year was really our "coming out" party - we met so many great people and got such a warm reception. This year, we've got so much to be thankful for - a terrific new Content Management System, loads of new therapists using our system for their websites, and expanded design services among other things - it feels good to go back to the place that signified our launch.

We'll be raffling off a video camera this year, too - be sure to get in on that. We thought about what to give away, and one area that only a few people are exploring these days is video tutorials of massage technique. It's a great way to drive traffic to your site by building up a following of people interested in your videos. It's also a great way to show potential clients where and how you work.

Be sure to come by our booth and say hi - I love being able to put faces to the friends I've made through Bodysite Builder!

Bodysite Builder's New Content Management System

2010-04-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, folks - there are big changes underway here at Bodysite Builder! We learned a lot last year, and are very grateful for all the feedback we've gotten from all of you. One of the biggest challenges we faced was to create a more powerful content management system (control panel) while maintaining the easy of use that has made us so popular. We are excited to announce that it's done, and is already live on our production server.

The new control panel features unbelievably easy editing. What you see is the live version of your website, with "edit" buttons above all the editable areas. You simply click the button, make your changes, and click "Publish". That's it. Plus, you can now make changes to areas that were previously off-limits - like your logo, the header graphics, and the names of pages and links. You can also add new pages. The image manager also got an upgrade, and now lets you optimize and play around with your images - adding effects, changing color balance, resizing and cropping.

There's a new Document Manager as well, giving you the ability to upload intake forms, insurance forms, etc. and make them available for download on your pages.

All our new customers are getting the new system installed, and in the spirit of fair play we're offering free upgrades to all our existing customers. This is not a mandatory upgrade - we realize that some of you are very comfortable with the old system, have no reason to change it, and we will continue to support it.

There are a couple things to be aware of when deciding whether to upgrade or not. Our Premium Appointment Calendar now comes standard with the new system - without the $9.95 monthly fee. Please be aware that the new system does not support the old Appointment Calendar, so if you want to upgrade bear that in mind. Also, the super easy "add new service" feature has changed. With the new system, you download a document from Bodysite Builder with all the services listed and then copy and paste services into your pages. It's not quite as slick as the old way, but it's very easy and quite effective.

If you decide you'd like to upgrade, just give us a call we'll schedule it as soon as possible. And of course, send an email or give a call if you have any questions.

Do I Really Need a Website?

2009-10-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

It's surprising how often I still get this question. I started building websites in 1993, and believe me - they were tough to sell back then. In those days, people still used phone books and used them alot. There was so little competition on the web, designers used to be able to make extravagant promises and actually follow through with them. Well, things have changed. Very few people use phone books anymore. Competition on the web is fierce. And yes - if you want to do business, you really do need a website.

A website is like a business card these days. I check out everyone and everything beforehand with some quick google searching. If you don't have a website, I'll never even know you exist. Seriously. If you do have a website and it's awful, that's worse than not having a site at all - I won't take you seriously, and you've blown your chance to make a good first impression. Massage therapists compete in a local pool for clients, and when they look for you, you need to make sure you've adequately separated yourself from the crowd with strong marketing material.

I meet a lot of experienced bodyworkers who already have a loyal client base and are not seeking new clients. Websites for this group aren't about marketing tools so much as information stores. The therapist can refer his or her clients to the website for massage related articles, descriptions of techniques, etc. A website for this group is just a place where their clients book appointments, read more about the techniques they're receiving and perhaps pay for massage.

If you're a new therapist just starting out, you can't afford not to have a website. There are still relatively few therapists with quality sites and it's the easiest way for you to position yourself competitively.

Expanded Design Services

2009-09-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

We've recently begun offering common marketing materials to our clients at deeply discounted rates. In the spirit of Bodysite Builder's founding premise, to offer high-quality websites to bodyworkers at entry-level prices, you can now choose to add business cards with handy appointment reminders on the back, postcards, logo design and car door magnets to your account at very, very low prices.

Business cards are so important because they go home with your customers. If you put their next appointment on the back, they can even end up on their fridge for all their friends to see. A strong, elegantly designed card can go a long way promoting your business for under $30.

Postcards are the old standby for marketers. They provide a fairly large space in which to communicate to your existing and potential customers, and are a great way to keep yourself in the front of people's brains!

Basic Search Engine Optimization

2009-09-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

Most new site owners come to realize pretty quickly that no matter how gorgeous their craftsmanship, their potential customers can't find their sites with a Geiger counter. Depending on how many therapists are practicing in your city and the size of your city, getting your site to show up in the search engines can be a bit arduous.

If you live in a small town with a minimum of competition on the web, you probably won't need to pay a dedicated search engine optimization (SEO) company. By using keyword-laden page titles, good meta tags and a simple site map, you should be reachable. On the other hand, if you are in a saturated market and want your site to be on the first page of Google, you'll need to bring in an expert to employ more aggressive techniques like press release submission, posting articles to relevant informational sites, and maximizing the reach of your blog.

The basics are easy, don't take too much time, and will produce some decent results. Let's take a look at what you can do yourself.

Keywords
The first step is to identify your top 5-10 keywords. Since most bodyworkers have a limited area where they do business, you'll want to use this to your advantage. Use your town's name in your keywords and you won't be competing with every therapist in the country - just the ones in your town.

For example, a massage therapist in Sarasota might use these keywords:
Sarasota massage therapist, Sarasota massage therapy, Sarasota massage, Sarasota swedish massage, etc.

Copy
Go through all the copy you've written for your site and work your keywords into the text. You don't need to repeat them often, but it's a good idea to have them all appear at least once somewhere on your site.

Images
In your control panel, right-click one of your images and choose "Insert/Edit Image". Enter one of your keywords or keyword phrases in the field labeled "Description" on the "General" tab. This gives what's called an "alt tag" to your image. Repeat this for all the images on all your pages. It's a good idea to have the keywords you choose for your images also appear in the supporting copy on the same page - the search engines look for relevance.

This should get you started. Once you've filled your copy with keywords and given descriptions to all your images, it'll take a couple weeks for the search engine spiders to "crawl" your site and add you to their indexes. If you like, you can submit your site manually. Here are a few of the major ones:

Google: Add your URL here
Yahoo: Add your URL here
AOL: Add your URL here