Some people get stuck thinking about offering a group coaching program because they feel intimidated by the technology options to support the program. Forums? Membership sites? Email lists?  Which is right for your program?

Let's boil it down to ONE thing: keep it easy. Easy for you as the group leader and easy for the participants.

Easy Option #1. Email
I've participated in several group programs in the last year that were email only.  No forum. No logins.  Everything got distributed by email.  These work particularly well for small groups, like a dozen or fewer members. At first, I thought "Yikes, this is going to be a ton of email." And at first it was. But things settled and over time I have come to appreciate the simplicity of this approach. These were not programs that had a lot of reference material so there wasn't a great need to maintain a location to find things. The email was great for timely messages and no one had to remember an extra password. The casual nature of email also promoted a lot of interaction between members of the group.

Easy Option #2. Set up a blog on a password-protected section of your site
I like for my group coaching programs to have their own domain names. That domain name, e.g. program.com, can serve as the sales page for the site and a sub-directory like program.com/private can host a password-protected blogsite to support the group coaching program. It's straightforward to install another instance of WordPress into a sub-directory. The control panel of your hosting account usually offers an option to password-protect that sub-directory and it's contents.  By doing this you have created one user name and password combination for all members of the group to use. Not everyone likes having to remember another password but it's very easy for you as the leader to manage the class resources since you already know how to manage a blog. The password-protected blog posts are a great way to ask members of the group to check-in via comments. Blog posts are also an easy way to start a topic for your group and keep all the information for that topic together in one place. By using Feedburner, you can make it easy for participants to subscribe to the program's blog in their email or an RSS feed reader.

Easy Option #3. Use a membership site plug-in like Wishlist Member
If you want to springboard from a public blogsite to run your program, give everyone their own login and you want the flexibility of a forum, I recommend WishList Member. It also supports various levels of membership. WishList Member is especially attractive because it does not charge a monthly fee. You buy it once and you own it for the lifetime of the site. They also have an unlimited license option so that you can use it on multiple program sites. If you haven't considered treating your group coaching program like a membership site, I truly think it's worth the learning curve. For a large group coaching program where participants come and go, running it like a membership program is a perfect match.

Laurie Foley, Blogging Expert

Laurie Foley has been helping people and organizations thrive online for more than 15 years. Resourceful and intuitive, she's an online business coach and dedicated guide for those who want to create meaningful work and amplify their message. Besides writing as Group Coaching Mastery's Blogging Expert, you can find Laurie at http://lauriefoley.com and on Twitter as @lauriefoley.

While there are obviously many reasons why we write articles: to attract traffic to our sites, building backlinks, establishing credibility in our marketplace, enhancing our visibility in our niche, etc. There really should be one BIG reason why we write - so that potential clients, customers, read them and find value in them. With that in mind, I pose a question to you: Do your clients care about what you write?

If your answer is "I don't know Lisa" or better yet "I don't think they read them at all", then let's take a minute to discuss how you can begin to write articles that your clients and prospects really care about.

Pick Good Topics
Are you writing about topics that your clients and potential clients find informative? Are you teaching a new concept? Explaining an old one? Are you solving a client problem? Are you discussing a hot topic in your niche? It's really important that when you sit down to write an article that you are tapping into article ideas that are a source of interest or pain of your clients. If you are disconnected from the needs of your clients it will show. You will consistently write articles that get only 10 hits on high-traffic article directories, that receive zero comments on your blog, that are never shared or tweeted about.

So How To Do You Get Connected?
It's simple, just ask. You can write an email to your list and ask them what they need help with. What questions they need answered. What they're stuck on. You can also use social media powerhouse sites such as Twitter or Facebook to connect with people in your niche and get a pulse for the topics that interest them. See what they're tweeting about, re-tweeting, and again you can directly ask them what they want to know on these sites as well.

Care About Quality
Make sure that you are holding yourself to a high standard when you write and publish articles for your clients. Your articles are a reflection of how much you care about your topic, how much you know, how much attention you paid to spelling and grammar. In other words, your work is a direct reflection of you.

Establish A Voice
I'm going to assume that you have competitors in your field. That means that you are not the only one writing about what you are writing. So if you and another coach write about the same topic (ex. How To Find Your Passion), how does a prospect make a decision on which one to read. That's simple. Your article will resonate with readers who can relate to your "writer's voice". Your writing voice is totally unique to you and its what keeps readers coming back for more.

Many of my clients have told me that I have a way of explaining concepts in very simplistic terms, without being condescending. They like that about my articles, and it's what gives me my unique writing voice.  You will find your voice too as you continue to write on a consistent basis, AND as long as you write from an honest place. Don't try to imitate or copy another writer. Write in your own natural voice "the way that you would talk to a friend about your topic" and you will find die-hard fans of your articles that will easily convert to future clients!

*Bonus Tip - Take a look at the stats on your blog or on your favorite article directory. Which of your articles receives the most hits? What articles have been commented on or shared the most? Those are the articles that you need to create article series from. That's how you get clients to care about what you write.

Article Marketing Coach

Lisa Angelettie is a professional coach, published author, and article marketing expert. She's been using articles exclusively since 2003 to drive traffic to the websites of her clients as well as her own. Lisa is the Article Marketing Expert for Group Coaching Mastery. Stop by and read some of Lisa's free article marketing tips over at her site: Article Marketing Tips.

The other day I stumbled onto the website of a business coach.   Two seconds after I got there, I was ready to click away.  I know I’m one of the most skeptical internet buyers out there so I’m always curious as to what makes me click away.  It keeps coming down to the same thing…sales jargon and cold information.

Let me define what I’m talking about first.

Sales Jargon - Pre-formed statements that supposedly get people to buy.  Things like “Sign up right now!”  “You’re going to love this.”  “You can’t live without this.”  That kind of thing.

Cold Information - Information for information sake, with no real value to offer.  These are the sites that explain exactly what you are going to get without telling you why you want it.  This feels cold.  Like there is no person behind it.  A robot could have written it.

For some people these tactics work great!  In fact, your website shouldn’t be devoid of these things.  You just need to add some of YOU into your website if you want clients to trust you enough to share their life stories with you.

Let’s go back to the website I saw the other day.  Most of the headlines were some sort of marketing jargon.  In between it was all information about building a business that I had heard 100 times before.  Now, yes, I do surf coaching websites all the time, so I’m more likely to have read it elsewhere.  At the same time, do you think your potential clients are going to go to your site without checking out others like it?  I doubt it!

Market to me without telling me your marketing. They are on your website.  They already know you are trying to sell them something.  Talk to your target market as if they are in the room with you.   Share with them that you know who they are by describing them.  What would your ideal client want to know up front?  Give them the information they need conversationally.  As if you were answering their question one-to-one….not one to masses.  That’s why it’s so important to get to know your ideal client. So, you know who they are and can speak to that.

Infuse your personality. I have editors that review my copy before I put it out on my website.  Many times they make suggestions to get rid of certain colloquialisms.  Usually, I ignore their advice because it’s MY words.  I want MY words out on that website so people can relate to me.  It’s important to use proper grammar and use correct spelling, but it’s also important to speak like you do in person.

I didn’t see a picture of the coach anywhere. In fact, there weren’t any graphics for me to connect with at all.  Just a bunch of words.  When I did finally find my way to the “about” page, I found even more information.  Information about the education of the coach.  I found information about how that coach works with their clients too.  That’s not going to cut it.  By the time I get to the end of this page I should have a sense of who this coach is and why they care about me.  Credentials, experience and the coach’s process substantiate that but if I’m going to trust you with my dreams then you have to give me a little more than that.  I want to know who you are as a person and as a coach.

Share with me. Tell me that you run marathons, enjoy time with your kids, play baseball in the summer, and go on a hiking retreat every year.  Substantiate your expertise with information about who you are and what you love.  Tell me that your mission is to help your clients find happiness in their lives, because you once weren’t happy.  Things like that will get my attention.

Your most valuable asset is not your list!  It’s YOU! Use it to your advantage.  What do you think?  What do you want to know?  Is there anything you want to change now?

Kristen Beireis, Trust Marketing Expert

Kristen Beireis is the Trust Marketing Expert for Group Coaching Mastery. She helps coaches and other personal transformation professionals establish trust through marketing.  First, she establishes a foundation that's rooted in your authentic differentiation. Then she follows up with solutions that bring consistency to everything that has your name on it — from your newsletter to your business card to your social media pages. And while she's happy to teach you how to do all this yourself, many of her clients love the way her team reduces their workload and overwhelm.

Greater trust means a shorter sales cycle, more of the right clients, and the confidence that comes from knowing your sales and marketing are in integrity with who you are as a person.