Running a Reiki practice requires implementing many strategies throughout your practice that cover the many different aspects of running a wellness business including training, client management, and business tasks.

To manage all of these tasks effectively, it’s useful to refer to resources as much as possible to help you develop and implement best practices in your business.

As your Reiki practice grows you will become more aligned with the way you want to operate your business including aspects such as:

• the type of clients you like to work with
• marketing your Reiki practice
• developing products and services for your Reiki practice
• the unique client experience that you like to provide

As you learn more about each aspect of your business, it is helpful to refer to the collective wisdom of other Reiki practitioners and wellness business owners to help you develop your own Reiki practice.

In this blog post we’re including a number of useful online resources that will help you develop your Reiki practice in the fundamental aspects of your business including:

• Training resources
• Business resources
• Marketing resources

We’ll include 3 links for each section to help get you started in your journey towards operating a Reiki practice that you dream of. These resources are online only so that you can access these resources without the limitations of location.

We’ve also included some previous blog posts in each section that you might like to explore for further information.

Below is a list of online training resources to develop and broaden your knowledge about Reiki.

• International Center for Reiki Training
• Reiki Level I, II and Master/Teacher Program
• Reiki Level I, II and Master Certification | Energy Healing

ADDITIONAL READING:

• How To Stay Updated With Your Reiki Education
• 10 Reiki Associations and Organizations

Below is a list of business resources to develop and broaden your knowledge about your Reiki practice.

• Build Your Ideal Reiki Business
• Reiki Professional Academy
• Reiki Therapy Resources (yes that’s us. Start with downloading our FREE Reiki Business Checklist)

ADDITIONAL READING:

• 10 Steps to Set Up Your Reiki Practice
• How to Design Your Reiki Therapy Website
• Recording Financial Information For Your Reiki Practice
• 10 Blogging Tools to Increase Your Blog Writing Productivity
• Image Resources to Use For Your Reiki Blog
• Link List: Reiki Pinterest Boards
• 10 Useful Reiki Websites

Below is a list of marketing training resources to develop and broaden your knowledge for your Reiki practice.

• IICT Marketing Guide
• Your Reiki Practice
• Your Wellness Marketer

ADDITIONAL READING:

• Free Social Media Schedulers Review
• Create an Annual Social Media Plan in 1 Hour
• How to Use Google Analytics in 5 Easy Steps
• Plan Your Marketing Strategies For Your Reiki Practice
• Understand the Marketing Cycle of Your Reiki Practice

Using images amongst your blog content can help break up larger sections of text. Using images can also provide context to your written content by illustrating important points that you are trying to explain. Many readers absorb information in a variety of ways including text, audio, video, and images. Therefore, images can help reinforce your readers understanding of your content.

To make the most effective use of your images, you should include terms that are relevant to the keywords used in your blog content when creating titles for your image. If your picture shows an image relevant to reiki then it is helpful to name your file reiki-tips.jpg instead of a default title such as photo001.jpg. You should try and keep your file name titles to a 3-5 word minimum range so that you have an opportunity to meaningful keywords but not make your file name too lengthy.

PROTECTING YOUR IMAGES

It is great if you can use your own images on your blog posts as that way you will ensure that you retain control over when and how you use it on your website. You can choose to add a watermark or your Reiki practice name somewhere on the image.

This isn’t a foolproof method of preventing use of your image, however, it can act as a deterrent. If someone uses your image without your permission, at least your name will appear on the image as a watermark. This lets other readers know the source of the image.

Below is an image that illustrates how you can use watermarks on your images.

The first image has the logo and website address at the bottom right hand corner. It shows the owner of the image and is not obstructing the view of the image. The downside is someone can crop out this section of the photo and use the photo.

The second image shows the website at the lower right hand corner of the owner of the image. In addition to that text, another transparent website name has been added to the middle of the image. The opacity of the text is set at 20% so that the image doesn’t completely cover the image. With the transparent name across the middle of the image, this means it is more difficult for others to crop out your name. The downside is that the watermark can detract from the overall image, however, this may be a compromise you are willing to make to add protection to your images.


The method that you choose to use will depend on how you would like your images to look on your blog and the amount of time and effort you want to put into protecting your images.

The images above were watermarked using Adobe Photoshop, however, if you don’t own Photoshop you can find some free resources below that will add a watermark to your own photos:

• uMark Online
• Watermark (free version has usage limits)

You don’t need to use the traditional idea of photos (pictured below) for your images.



You can also create images based on information that might be contained in your blog post. Examples of each type of image are included below:

INFOGRAPHICS are a visual representation of data or information using a chart, diagram or flow process.



MOCKUPS are a representation of a design that provides the viewer with a snapshot of how the final concept will look before building or creating it.



QUOTES can be used to inspire and motivate readers. The simple text of a quote can be transformed by including some images and design.



ARTWORK can be used to illustrate concepts or simply as a decorative element to your blog post.



COMPILATION IMAGES are used to create an overall picture of a story using multiple images that stand alone but are used collectively for the purpose of showing the reader an overall concept.



SCREENSHOTS are taken from computer screens and digital devices to provide insight into how a digital process looks so that the reader can see how something might work.

If you don’t own your own images to use on your blog, you can source images from websites that provide photos created by others. You shouldn’t download any images from the internet and assume you have permission to use the image.

Using websites with stock photography means the images contained on the website are permitted for use by the creator. Each website will have its own guidelines which detail the ways in which you can use the photos. Some may provide you with open use or place restrictions on whether you can use the images on a website only or use them to create printed products for sale.

Below are some useful websites to access free stock photography to use in your blog posts:

1. Death to the Stock Photo
2. Kaboompics
3. Life of Pix
4. Morgue File
5. Negative Space
6. Pexels
7. Pic Jumbo
8. Pixabay
9. Stock Snap
10. Unsplash

When you are ready to add your images to your blog you should consider a few tips on how you can apply best practice to using your images on your website so that Google and other search engines will use the data contained in your image to improve your content searchability.

Add SEO metadata

Images are not read the same way text is by search engines. With this in mind, you should include some information in your image to increase the likelihood of search engines ‘reading’ your images correctly. Website platforms such as WordPress can assist you in including this information as they provide fields such as alt text, captions, and descriptions.

1. Title your image using keywords that are related to the content in your blog post. For example, name your image file reiki-tips.jpg, not photo001.jpg

2. Add alt text to your image when uploading it to your website. Platforms such as WordPress provide space for this.

4. Add a meaningful title to your image that relates to your content when uploading it to your website.

5. Add a relevant description to your image that relates to your content when uploading it to your website.

6. Add a relevant caption to your image that relates to your content when uploading it to your website.

Adding the type of information as mentioned above helps with SEO as well as sharing on social media platforms such as Pinterest.

Your Reiki website is the first impression of your business to your potential client. The choices you make for color, content and overall design will tell your client who you are and educate them about your business so that they ultimately book an appointment for your services.

The best approach to designing your Reiki therapy website is to keep it simple. This approach will help you stick to a budget of financial resource and time spent on making decisions about your website, logo, and general business aesthetic. When designing your website for your business, you should keep in mind the following essential questions:

• What impression does my website say about me as a therapist
• Does my website clearly explain the services I offer
• Does my website encourage potential clients to book an appointment

By having a simple design implemented for your website, you will help your website remain flexible to future changes in internet standards such as mobile responsiveness and search engine optimization.

Before you make the important decisions about our website, it is useful to review some websites that appeal to you. Ask yourself why you like these websites – is it the design choices, the content, or the ease of navigation? Each website that you like might have a small detail which you can use as inspiration to include in your final website design for your business.

It’s possible you may like a website because it’s interactive and quirky. While this might be design concepts you want to include in your own website, you should consider the costs of implementing such features and always keep in mind the essential questions previously mentioned. A website may be interesting and quirky, however, it should also be functional and helpful to running your business.

As you collect websites that appeal to you, add them to a list or Pinterest board to collate into one spot. If you are working with a web developer, they may request that you do this step as part of the information gathering stage. As you collect information about the website design that appeals to you, you should also record general ideas on the type of content you wish to include in your website including an About Page, Contact Us page, a booking page, a blog etc.

To create your Reiki website, you can create your website yourself or hire a website creator to do the work for you. A website creator will either create a website for you from scratch (which is the most expensive option) or they will use a website theme and make individual changes and adjustments for you to suit your business brand.

If you are creating your own website, you can also use a theme and make the changes yourself. This decision will be based on how comfortable you are with technology. Most website themes have many videos available online that will help you create your website step by step.

If you choose to have your website created for you, you can show the website creator your ideas and sources of inspiration you have collected. If you’re not sure how to collect your own ideas of inspiration, your website creator will work with you to define your ideas through their intake process. Most website designers begin working with clients based on a checklist of steps to work through that ensures they gain an understanding of your website requirements.

The most important elements to include on your website include:

• Home Page – this represents the main page of your website and explains what your business is and how you can help your potential client
• Blog – a blog is not essential to your website, however, it provides an opportunity for you to regularly add content to your website that will help provide your client with useful information.
• About Us Page and/or Contact Us Page – these pages can be included together on your website or split into separate pages.
• Booking Page – this will provide your potential clients with a method of booking a session with you.
  Store – you can have a store on your website if you are selling physical or digital products

Additional pages that you may want to consider adding are:

• Start Here – a Start Here page helps guide your readers through the best path to learn more about you and your services with tips on how to get the most out of your website
• Resources/Tools – you can use this page to include your recommendations for resources, apps, or tools that you think will benefit your readers

Other important elements of your website include:

• Header – this is the area on your website where your logo and menu options are placed
• Footer – this area includes links to your social media and important website policies
• Sidebars – using sidebars helps to provide a space on your website where you can highlight extra information for your reader to explore. Eg links to items in your online shop or new blog posts
  Social media sharing buttons so that your content can be shared on social media by your readers

Below are a variety of website designs that are commonly used. These designs help provide you with a foundation to design your website:

• Simple
• Minimal
• One page
• Gallery/Grid

SIMPLE

The simple website design has the ability to show a mixture of text and images. This design shows a variety of content boxes that you can use to highlight services or benefits that your Reiki business offers. This website design is the most common as it provides a balance of useful text and images.


MINIMAL

The minimal website design displays one large image on the main page which captures the reader’s attention. The image should be compelling enough to make your reader interested to seek more information on your website.


ONE PAGE

The one page website design is an extension of the simple design and includes additional space for including more information about your Reiki business. This design is good for readers who use mobile devices because it means you can include the majority of your business information on one page instead of requiring readers to click through multiple pages for information about your business.


GALLERY GRID

The grid design provides you with the ability to showcase multiple images on your main page. This is a good option if you prefer to use visual images to showcase your Reiki business services.


EXAMPLE WEBSITE DESIGNS

Included below are a few website designers who can help you design your Reiki website.

http://www.therapywebs.co.uk/website-designs/website-templates/
https://resonantimagery.com.au/portfolio/
http://studiothirdeye.com/

SIGN UP below to receive your FREE DOWNLOAD. Use the website design templates as a guide to create your website layout.