Recently, a reader suggested that I profile a "great, `getknownnow.com-approved' website" and explain why it works so well. I’m happy to do so. And I’m proud to say it’s the work of one of my clients, life coach Amanda Murphy.
Amanda was in the audience last spring when I spoke about platform at the Coachville Conference in New Orleans. After I led a meditation about finding your perfect brand for the more than 200 people present, she approached me and told me she’d found her brand. Not long after that, she joined one of my coaching groups ... and here’s the site and the brand she has to show for it:
Courage Lender.
Here’s an energetic site with a cool concept, a great brand name, an elegant layout…AND it does all the things a platform-friendly site needs to do. Here’s what works about it:
She has a very specific niche. Instead of just being Vanilla Coach, Amanda is "owning" the area of Courage. Even better, she takes the overcrowded area of transition coaching and owns her corner by labeling it "Courage Coaching." Big benefit; big idea. Everyone wants courage!
She has a great brand and tag line. "Courage Lender - Gives You the Courage to Take Chances and Make Changes" immediately tells us the problem she solves and our immediate benefit. This set of words also has authority, a certain panache ... you just want to know more. Bonus: "Make Changes" is a valuable key phrase that search engines love.
Great use of photographs. On page after page you see Amanda in all sorts of attitudes, fully present and comfy on her site. So much more alive and better than the usual sawed-off headshot done at Sears. I especially love her photo on the "Personal Stuff." (The page is a fun inclusion that really helps readers connect to her personally.)
Good use of an Ezine offer. If Amanda used a template to style this site, she found a fun way to tweak it to put her ezine offer up front and center. All she needs is a free "pink spoon" to tempt people to sign up ... much more juicy than a free ezine offer.
She’s got a blog! How do you get Google Page Rank fast? With a blog, of course! Blogs help boost PR like nothing else—not to mention boost sales, build relationship and endear you to the media. (Seventy-nine percent of the media find their experts on blogs, according to one study.) Amanda’s is just as solid as her site—all she needs to do is set up domain forwarding on godaddy.com or a comparable site so that her blog domain is simpler and easier to convey to the media.
