Name of your website?Ceci Bolan, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Your name?
Ceci Bolan
Your Location (city, etc)
Laguna Hills
Please give us a short summary of your website?
I help professional women who are struggling to find a better balance between their career and family life.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I wanted to let the general public become familiar with the counseling services that I provide.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This is my first website, which I launched in February 2009.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I wanted a name that represented my personal style in providing counseling services.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Everything I discuss on my website focuses specifically on a particular population (professional women) who are experiencing a particular problem (struggling to find a better balance between career and family life.)
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I would like to help as many women as possible to connect with their inner wisdom and power, so that they can lead happier, healthier lives -- and positively affect the people in their own lives.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
The time and money I have invested have helped me increase my access to the general public, and to inform them about the counseling services that I provide. As a result, I have been able to reach, connect with, and help out more people than what I was able to do, prior to making the necessary investment.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would add a blog-type of page, where I could discuss current events on an ongoing basis. Luckily, there are other options available to set up a blog, even if it is not officially part of my actual website. I really like my website the way it is now, so there are no other changes that I would want to make.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes -- I would just have to hire people to handle e-mail responses to my website visitors!
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
It took me longer than expected to figure out what website text I wanted for each page, and to finalize the overall website design. There were a LOT more details involved than what I had originally expected!
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge for me was actually writing out my website text. I really had to focus on what type of person I wanted to specifically address, and then figure out what would catch this person's attention. I wanted a website with the text that would attract a particular population to my website.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
This is all still new to me, so I am still figuring out what method would be most successful. I have listed my website on all the main search engines, and I am still fine-tuning the keywords that would help people find my website online. I am also doing a lot of face-to-face networking with people from a wide variety of fields and industries, and handing out my business card with my website information on it.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I realize now that it is not enough to have a well-written and easy-to-navigate website live on the Internet. A website is only useful if the people you want to attract are actually able to FIND IT online!
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
My website just went live in February 2009, and I expect to keep it up indefinitely. I think it is vital for every business (both large and small) to have a consistent Internet presence, since most potential clients already go online to find whatever products and services they need -- and will most likely continue to do so.
What advice do you have for anyone who is interested in establishing their own website?
I would encourage them to figure out what particular population they would want to reach with their website. Once they do that, they can then design their website and write out their website text according to what they believe would attract their desired population to their website.
What is your website address?
Ceci Bolan, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
