Going Pro - Building up a client base
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 07 Aug 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| The 78th Fool |
07 Aug 2004 |
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Recently I've started to give readings for money and i've also begun to actively advertise my services as a reader. I now have a small number of regular clients and a very small trickle of new ones.
To all of you on here who do read professionally, could you share some tips on how you built up your client base and your business in general? Have you found advertising effective and if so, which forms worked the best for you?
Alternately, how many of your regular clients came to you via word of mouth ?
Chris. xx
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| Chronata |
07 Aug 2004 |
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Hi Chris!
There must be a lot of ways of building a client base, but I can only tell you what worked for me!
Almost all of my current clients are word of mouth...but that is because I live in a different state, and a whole different atmosphere from where I started (moved from the fast paced city and suburbs of Chicago...into a more rural , small town Wisconsin)
One of the ways that I got started was to offer to do readings at local buisnesses...look for places like small independently owned coffee houses, or bookshops...art galleries or spas.
I even did a local Bed and Breakfast open house.
And also tap into the seasonal holidays.
For me...I found that the best time for doing readings was during Halloween or Mardi Gras...when buisnesses have open houses, anniversary parties...festivals...that sort of thing.
The most important step, after getting one of these types of events...is to have a guest book.
This was my single most valuable tool.
For anyone who did a reading, I had them sign thier name, address, e-mail, and birthdate.
Even those who did not have a reading...but still seemed interested...I would have them sign the guest book.
Often, I would write a few notes next to thier name after the reading...so that I could remember it easier later.
Then I would follow up...maybe a few months later...with a quick e-mail and/or a postcard. Asking them if any of the specific points of the reading became clearer...if anything I predicted came to pass. It's amazing what a great response I got from taking a few minutes to reconnect.
Sometimes, I would also offer a free something on thier birthday...whether a free reading for them...if they brought a friend...or an extra free year to come reading, or a free lucky gemstone...or whatever.
All of things started out slowly but eventually, I had an amazing list of clients that became like friends...and the friends and aquaintances that they knew just added to my list...and I kept very busy (actually TOO busy for a while there!) doing professional consultations and parties.
This worked a lot better for me when I lived in a busier community, as the place I live now is a lot more quiet and slow, and people are a lot more set in thier ways.
But I am sure that if I ever wanted to (or had the energy to)jump back into the Professional Tarot carreer, I certainly don't doubt that this method would work again!
Hope some of this has helped you, and others who want to get started making tarot more than a hobby. :)
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| Mimers |
08 Aug 2004 |
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Chris,
I just recently did the same and have done 2 things with success.
First is I offered free readings for the first 2 weeks my site was up. Surprisingly, a number of paid readings resulted in this, including a booking to do a tarot party.
The other thing I did that brought in an amazing number of new clients was tell my hairdresser about my website. OMG! The requests were pouring in. My hairdresser has also sceduled a party as well. Hopefully, these first 2 parties will result in new clients and maybe even more parties.
Good Luck!
Mimi
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| Shade |
09 Aug 2004 |
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Always remember the 80/20 principle. Can't remember whih brilliant economist came up with it but it applies to just about everything. The way it applies here is that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients, try buiding up a consistant group of people who refer to you on a regular basis than trying to acquire a large number of first-timers.
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| mota |
10 Aug 2004 |
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You need business cards, a phone and answering machine.
First, volunteer for animal shelter type fundraisers. Give donation readings with 100% going to charity, you pass out business cards. Put up a sign next to your (elegant) tip jar that reads, "Nothing is too small, just fold it up and drop it in". You will get a very good response from this group.
Next is psychic day at the beauty shop. Arrange to come in to a private beauty shop with the manager. You are an attraction, offer 30 minute readings at a reasonable price on a special day in the future, two to four weeks away. The beauticians will talk you up for a free reading for them. Put a poster in the window and have the shop schedule the readings. Spend the day there. Works great. When you set up (usually in a corner) make it so the client is facing the store. That way the next person waiting for their reading will help move the readings on time by staring at the person when their time is up...people don't want to wait for their time!
Finally, find out who does local wedding shows. Here you find a vendor and offer very brief, neutral free readings to bring people to their booth. They get crowds, you get business cards distributed to another very interested group. A simple three card spread of any kind with Medicine Cards works well here...the Medicine cards are inoffensive enough to work a large group without any controversy. Tarot may have some reactions, which would be unwanted at a public wedding show. Just avoid the complaints and do Medicine Cards in this venue.
Good luck.
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| Oni |
12 Aug 2004 |
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this info is all very very good, and one day when i feel good enough and not too scared, i would want to do readings for money. but i dont know about other places, and i honestly do not know exactly were i live cause i dont read for money and never have, but like i think one should be careful about violating ordenences and such. like i know i have heard some local readers here talk about having to have a licence if u accept money for readings or like something to that effect. i dont know what the details were exactly but i rember about a year ago i thought of doing some readings at a local shop and then i was hearing about all these legal things that i needed and i just let it go. the licease or whatever was like 200 dollars or something and i just did not have that at the time.
so like just try to make sure u check and make sure u r not going to have to face any kind of legal issues. like especially when u r talking about reading at places of business.
hope this will help someone.
Joy Joy
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| Shade |
14 Aug 2004 |
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One way to get around the business license is to become a registered minister wih an organizaion lik ethe church of universal life (costs a dollr I believe). After you do that you can accept donations for your readings without the legal hassle.
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| shelikes2read |
24 Aug 2004 |
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I'd like to revive this thread because I have a question that's related to it.
If a person wants to go pro via creating an internet website and performing readings online, rather than by setting up a shop or performing readings at parties, etc, what are some good ways to promote the URL?
I am quite seriously considering embarking on a project like this, but I want to be sure that the places I would promote my site are reputable ones. I don't want to promote it in places where people would get 1,000 popup windows while trying to find an online Tarot reading, nor would I want to attach my good name to a promotion technique that's got a bad reputation of promoting dishonest so-called readers.
I'd be very grateful for any advice that people here can provide.
Thanks.
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| The 78th Fool |
24 Aug 2004 |
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Originally posted by shelikes2read
I'd like to revive this thread because I have a question that's related to it.
If a person wants to go pro via creating an internet website and performing readings online, rather than by setting up a shop or performing readings at parties, etc, what are some good ways to promote the URL?
I am quite seriously considering embarking on a project like this, but I want to be sure that the places I would promote my site are reputable ones. I don't want to promote it in places where people would get 1,000 popup windows while trying to find an online Tarot reading, nor would I want to attach my good name to a promotion technique that's got a bad reputation of promoting dishonest so-called readers.
I'd be very grateful for any advice that people here can provide.
Thanks.
The more links you have to and from your site, the more likely it is to come up in a web search such as Google. Meta tags, built into the structure of your website also do the same thing , making it easier for search engines to pick up on you.
Have a look at my site:
www.butlerart.co.uk/tarot
The best way to link to lots of sites is to join a webring. The details of the one I'm in are at the bottom of my homepage. I know that other subscribers here have done the same thing.
Chris. xx
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| le pendu |
25 Aug 2004 |
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I just attended a 4-day Search Engine Marketing conference sponsored by Google and Yahoo in San Jose, CA. "Link Popularity" was discussed pretty heavily at the conference.
Here's a brief summary of what I learned about links. (For Subscribers, I have a long, much more detailed thread called Search Engine Optimization in the Chat area.)
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29804
It's true that links pointing to your site (link popularity) are part of the equation of how high your site ranks... buy not all links are created equal! One link from a "high ranking" site is worth hundreds from a "medium ranking" site. And most importantly, one link from a "link farm" (a page you pay to have your site listed on, along with lots of other page links) can actually HARM your rankings. The SEs (search engines) recognize that you don't have control over who links to you, so most of the time, links coming to your site are not penalized, but really, having even hundreds of links pointing to you won't necessarily help you unless the pages linking to you are considered "high quality". So be careful who you exchange links with and paying for links is probably not a good idea unless it is from a recognized, high quality site. One link from CNN or Apple Computer is worth hundreds, if not thousands of other links.
If you do have links coming to you, it is probably better if the site they come from is related to your content. Tarot pointing to Tarot for instance. A link from a tire shop to a tarot site is not really helpful at all.
Internal links count too! So make sure that your site is structured in a way that makes internal linking logical and helpful to your visitors.
When you do link internally (or externally if you are trying to help someone else's rankings), try to link on keywords. Instead of saying "For a tarot reading click here" and linking "click here", you should rewrite the sentence to something like "Follow this link for a tarot reading", with "tarot reading" as the link. This tells the search engines that 'tarot readings" is important enough content on your page to link to, AND it tells them that the page it links to is probably about "tarot readings"!!! So when you link, link wisely!
As far as outgoing links.. this is important. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU LINK TO. Do not link to unrelated sites, or sites that are poor quality. Each link from your site dilutes your ranking if you are not linking to quality, related sites. You become in SE eyes, more and more like a link farm. The amount of outgoing links does not, at least to my understanding, help in any way. In fact, like I stated, it can hurt you. Link to sites that YOUR VISITOR would find useful if they came to your site looking for information. If they came looking for tarot readings, don't link to a tire shop, why would that be helpful to them? This is a red flag to SEs.
One VERY important link to your site is DMOZ, (http://dmoz.org/). Make sure you are registered there, google uses it as part of the formula to gage rankings.
Please remember this:
The most important thing you can do for your site is to make sure that it has good content on it. That is the number one thing that search engines are trying to look for. It is their lifeblood to help users find quality sites for whatever a user types a search for! They are trying to rank highest the sites that address THE NEED OF THE USER. So they are trying to find the most INFORMATIVE sites based on the keywords. Nothing else is as important. Even Link Popularity is based on the assumption that high quality sites link only to high quality sites and that a lot of links from high quality sites to your site must mean that your site is also high quality.
I hope this was helpful,
robert
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The Going Pro - Building up a client base thread was originally posted on 07 Aug 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.
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