Computers & Internet

We've certainly come a long way. Or have we? Ever wonder what basic tenants of hypnosis are the same as they were a century ago? Can you spot hypnosis disguised as other "miracle modalities" from the nineteenth century? Are you able to discuss the development of hypnosis through the decades, what they had plain "wrong" back when, and why the modern shifts in models and techniques are more effective?

If these kinds of questions have ever crossed your mind, and if you have a few minutes until your next client appointment, you might want to check out all of the free ebooks on Hypnosis available on Google Books. You can read them on your desktop, laptop, and now also on your iPad or phone using the Google Books app.

http://books.google.com/ebooks?q=hypnosis&as_brr=4

Explore centuries of hypnosis literature, discover where some of the most persistent (and annoying) myths about hypnosis originated, and brush up on your fodder for sparkling party conversations by browsing scores of books dating from the early 1800's through the 1970's. Newer titles are available for purchase as ebooks, too.

AAPH now provides online in-take forms for members! You can offer instant online and downloadable (to print) in-take forms to your new clients. This service is FREE for all AAPH members!

The sequence goes something like this:

1. People looking for a hypnotherapist search our referral database to find hypnotherapists in their area;

2. Your AAPH Office Page (an extended version of your Professional Profile) comes up in the search results;

3. They read about you on your Office Page, then decide to get things started by completing an in-take form right online. The completed form gets emailed to you, and you contact the client to schedule an appointment. Their contact information is included in the form.

You can also refer people to your office page when they call you or when you meet them. "Just go to my web page and fill in the online in-take form anytime before your appointment," you can say.

Now you can easily offer online tools for your clients through AAPH's FREE member services. No webmaster needed!

by Katin Imes

A number of members have asked me about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, for their web sites lately. There is a lot of confusion and hubub around this topic, and I want to supply some big-picture about it that will hopefully calm concerns about it.

SEO "experts" will make it sounds like being listed at the top of Google is your number one business goal (PS - it isn't). "SEO has made fortunes and broken fortunes," they'll say. "You can't get new customers if they can't find you," they'll say. They'll say that they have a "secret bag of tricks" they use to get your site listed at the top of the search results. And they'll use their bag of tricks on your site for the low, low price of only... whatever.

While there is a grain of truth in all these soundbites, and the technical aspects of SEO are a fascinating puzzle and challenge for some people, the average hypnotherapist with a web site shouldn't be too concerned about spending money on SEO.

My advice to hypnotherapists is: don't worry about SEO, and certainly don't pay someone to "boost your site rankings" through SEO.

Scott Sandland is the founder of Hypnothoughts.com and the co-founder of the HypnoSummit conferences. He's also a hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy instructor. He's making great contributions to the industry - Thanks, Scott! - and we found his new YouTube channel.

It's a new channel, so it isn't loaded with content yet, but he's got a great start and a fascinating video on Covert Pain in Hypnotherapy that gives you a great sense of Scott's style and the great wealth of background knowledge and ongoing study he brings to students, clients and the industry.

The 21st century is all about lifelong learning, and YouTube channels are becoming an excellent resource for continuing education and learning. As an example of the "video encyclopedia" power of YouTube, check out the impressive related videos list (right-side column) when viewing Scott's video on covert pain hypnotherapy in the native (non-channel) YouTube interface. This is a significant improvement over just a year ago.

A little more about YouTube

We have shifted from an Industrial economy to a Information economy. Of course, the remnants of the industrial age businesses are still struggling, some transforming successfully and some not. But the fact that the economy has shifted is, at this point, indisputable.

New skills, new knowledge, new tools, new opportunities all abound. You can drown in new information; as a species, we literally have ten times the knowledge than we had in 1999, across hundreds of different domains of knowledge and science. This does not mean you simply need to learn ten times more than your grandfather knew, but it does mean that you need to learn how to filter and manage information far differently than your grandfather did.

The 21st century is characteristically different than the 20th century, although there are many parallels in the effects and our reactions to the massive changes. Just as we shifted from an agricultural society to an industrial one around the turn of the 20th century, so we shift again.

In the book, "Nine Shift" by Julie Coats and William Draves (link below), they explain that we are going to be replacing commute time with learning time.

It isn't hard to figure: higher energy costs, unstable gas prices, reduced travel and expense budgets, and the need to make more happen in less time with fewer dollars. The cherry on top is that flying just isn't fun - or even really pleasant - anymore.

Put it all together, and it spells fewer in-person meetings, fewer conferences, and less travel. Yet, somehow, more contacts, more connections, more partner projects need to get done? The pressure is on for electronic meetings to become a normal and usual part of modern business. It's been trying to come into regular use for some 15 years, but now finally have both the technology and the demand for it to happen.

A member asked me the other day, "What the heck is 'Hypnotic Blogging?'"

Sure enough, a simple google search for 'hypnotic blogging' returns a slew of results. What is it, and what's going on?

I can certainly understand the confusion. It doesn't really have much to do with hypnotherapy or real hypnosis. It has ended up being a marketing buzzword for writing "catchy" and "effective" blog posts. Interpret that to mean: blog posts that sell stuff.

The idea is that if you use certain words, certain placements, certain colors, etc. in your web page, you'll get a better response from potential customers. They'll click more often. Or they'll spend more.

Really, haven't we heard this for years? Twenty years ago, it was the course in how to write newspaper ads that sold like magic and made millionaires overnight. We got junk mail with pages of "convincing text" on why we should buy these courses, and we watch infomercials telling us the same thing. "The seven magic 'buy' words," and the like.