The Top 3 Health and Medical Sites

If you think that you’re coming down with some irritating, difficult to describe malaise, there will seemingly be no shortage of family members, friends or acquaintances willing to give you their opinion and to suggest a snap remedy for you. While they are well-meaning, you don’t think that they’re particularly qualified, but then neither are you when it comes to diagnosing your condition. When you also consider the cost of healthcare and doctor visits these days, it is no wonder that we are turning to online health-related information portals and search engines to help us get a handle on what ails us. For the sniffling entrepreneur, here are our top three picks for health and medical sites:

1. Web MD

This is the most highly trafficked site of its kind on the Internet by far and with good reason. It is a well-organized, authoritative, documented and comprehensive site and certainly the best, in our opinion. This was one of the first sites to realize the thirst for health-related information on the Internet and it does a good job of linking together professionals, medical insurers, patients and support organizations. As this industry is so dynamic, Web MD seeks to keep its finger on the pulse for you by providing the latest news and news alerts as they happen, giving you a breakdown of what it actually means. Web MD makes you feel better already!

2. Daily Strength

Let’s face it, if you are unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with something fairly serious you need all the help that you can get, both in terms of medical care and strong emotional support. Daily Strength gives you the opportunity to interact with people who are facing the very same problem that you are. Through hundreds of support groups covering a variety of different illnesses, you never need to feel as if you are alone, even if you don’t have too many close family members or friends around you. Help, support and encouragement is freely available and there are discussion and advice boards to help you get the answers to those many questions. Whilst the site may not offer the answer to as many technical questions as others, such as Web MD, it does offer you support from the sharp end.

3. Right Health

This is a comprehensive site, rich in features and is very user friendly. It has quite a powerful search engine which is well optimized and engineered and they have clearly put a lot of effort into integrating resources and providing levels of education covering the spectrum of illness and disease. Some of the information is indeed comprehensive and you may have to register with certain third party providers to access full documentation, but you are able to pick up valuable education in layman’s terms, without getting lost in a sea of technical jargon. User-friendly and comprehensive.

So what do you think about our top three picks? Do you have any favorite sites of your own? Get in touch with us and let us know what your thoughts.

Adam Toren

Measuring Marketing Success With More Than Just Click Through Rates

The more that we learn about the ubiquitous click through rate the more we should realize that it is not a good measurement tool for our marketing efforts. Since the Internet emerged as a serious marketing medium, we have been bombarded with reports about click through rates and how we should pay attention to them as a symbol to quantify the effectiveness of our approach.

More and more studies are pointing to the fact that a high click through rate is not necessarily a harbinger of great conversions to come. Even so, recent surveys tell us that a large number of online marketers rely on this metric in the decision-making process as opposed to any other metrics, such as brand awareness.

Online brand marketers seem to be somewhat blinded by this measure and this appears to be largely a hangover from the early days of the net when the pure novelty and the potentially serious ramifications of the “click through” first dawned upon us.

In the world of direct response marketing, it seems that more tangible measurements have greater importance. Instead of merely paying attention to clicks and impressions, it is far better to quantify the number of leads generated, especially if these are qualified.

As the consumer is blinded by an ever-increasing assault from the marketing media encountered on a daily basis, so it seems that the click through is losing even more of its meaning. Could it be that the click through is becoming just a natural physical reaction for some people? Ironically, many studies have shown that campaigns with the highest click through rate generate the least number of conversions.

With the emergence of social media marketing the waters are even more muddied, as studies by Forrester Research show that many top online marketers are very naive about social media measurement. Digital branding and branding specific metrics will become increasingly more important and it falls to system designers to come up with some robust and readily available analytic technologies. As this happens less emphasis will be placed on the pure analysis of click through rates as a measure of success within the marketing environment. Just as the click through has endured a significant decline in response rates since its introduction, so its elevated status in the online marketing business will recede.

Do you click out of habit?

Adam Toren

Effective Email Marketing Campaign – All You Ever Wanted to Know About Email Marketing

There are certain steps you need to create an effective email marketing campaign. You can’t expect to send out a few measly emails and make huge sales. You need to think STRATEGY when it comes to email marketing.

Lead Capture Forms
The lead capture form isn’t used to advertise your company. It’s meant to collect names and emails that go straight to your autoresponder (which builds your email lists). You need to think about who is reading the form. You want visitors to take IMMEDIATE action – entice them with a SPECIFIC CALL TO ACTION.

There are a few strategies that you can use. Just remember you want them to ACT NOW. In return for their name and email address, you provide them with VIABLE information.

Give something away for FREE – One of the best ways to capture leads is to offer freebies that are VALUABLE and RELEVANT to your email recipients.
• Special Reports
• Free samples/trials
• Special discounts
• Coupons
• Free consultations
• Newsletter

The Best Email Marketing Solutions
The best way to create campaigns is through email marketing software that simplifies and automates the process. Read through the software’s guidelines to learn how to create capture forms and autoresponders.

Aweber

• Creates website sign-up forms

• Automates emails/autoresponder to email lists

• Allows you to create and send email dynamic newsletters

• Tracks web analytics and segments subscribers

• Performs reliable email deliverability

InfusionSoft

• Combines CRM with email marketing and e-commerce features

• Captures online leads

• Manages contacts

• Automates follow-up and workflow

• Collects cash and tracks sales

iContact

• Sends and tracks emails and surveys

• Creates autoresponders, RSS and blog feed tools

• Decreases lost emails with SpamCheck feature

How to Set up Autoresponders
Autoresponders in Aweber, InfusionSoft and iContact allow you to send out emails as many or as few times as you want. Autoresponders are powerful and can do a lot for your email marketing campaign. It’s easy to set up autoresponders:

• Subscribe to one of the following above programs. Some programs such as Aweber offer a 30 day free trial.

• Set up your initial responder in the list settings. Make sure you personalize your list names (so you don’t send duplicate emails to multiple lists).

• Create your messages and send – write them in a plain text editor (such as WordPad or NotePad), or use the HTML option or the software’s templates (depending upon which software you use)

• Follow the software’s specific instructions to set up lists and send automated emails: Aweber autoresponder, InfusionSoft autoresponder or iContact autoresponder

Once you set up your autoresponder, automated emails that you create are sent out to your subscribers. You control what information you send to subscribers - content can be sent in “series” or increments (such as videos, reports, etc.).

How to Write Powerful Email Messages

As mentioned earlier, you need to make sure you give your subscribers VALUE when they sign up on lead capture forms.
Here are some helpful tips to use when writing messages:

• Remember that 95% of your email message needs to be HIGH VALUE CONTENT while ONLY 5% includes a personal invitation to get a free sample, free month of services, etc.

• Offer SPECIAL DEALS for members only – i.e. Buy products at a discounted price and include a money back guarantee (make sure you include that risk-reversal tactic!)

• PERSONALIZE your message – Mention their first name in the subject line and first paragraph to capture their attention

• Emphasize BENEFITS not features – How will your product or service solve their problems and make their life easier?

• Write ATTENTION-GRABBING subject lines – If you don’t capture people’s attention in the subject line, they won’t open up your message. Keep it simple but pack it with POWER!

This is a Guest Post by Zeke Camusio who is a serial entrepreneur, Internet Marketing expert and founder of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet Marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York. Let’s Do It!, his blog, is read by thousands of people all over the world.

Tomorrows Adults…How Teenagers Access the Media and How You Can Reach Them

Marketers who do not pay attention to the buying habits and general activities of the teenager of today do so at their peril. Teenagers may not have the buying power necessary to cause marketers to salivate, but they represent the adults of tomorrow and some of the amazing trends that are emerging from the world of the teenager will have a significant effect on the marketing arena ahead.

Change is a constant, as we all know, but some of the accelerating trends of the last few years have given us all cause to stop and think. Those of us who are somewhat more mature can clearly remember the rise and fall of certain “hot” products and services – remember 8-track and cassettes?

If you want to reach the teenager of today with your marketing message, you can completely forget about the radio and the printed newspaper. Teenagers do want to hear music, but whereas ten years ago the radio was the prime source of the hippest beats, these days online streaming music sites provide the tracks commercial free. Newspapers appear to be very strange to the teenager of today and they cannot really see the value of what is, let’s face it, an industry in significant decline.

If you really want to reach the kids of today you will find them interacting through the Internet, popular gaming platforms and, increasingly via their mobile cell phones. A large number of teenagers have access to conventional gaming consoles, such as the Xbox 360 or the Wii and they can spend long periods of time interacting with others, as the consoles are able to connect via the Internet. By and large, the hottest games are viewed and played on the standalone gaming consoles, rather than via a PC version.

It seems that every teenager has access to the Internet, at school or at home and social networking is taking on increased importance. Facebook is by far the most common site and is visited by teenagers on an almost daily basis. This format allows interaction with friends on a widespread scale and has almost universal acceptance within this age group. Conversely, Twitter appears to be on the outside looking in and has not yet captured the imagination of the teenager due to its somewhat more focused and regimented approach, perhaps.

The Internet, and Google in particular, is the source of information for the learning teenager and has, in line with other age demographics, completely annihilated the power of the erstwhile directory resources, such as Yellow Pages.

Whilst teenagers do generally own a TV, they are not avid watchers necessarily. The more virally popular shows and series will be followed, but many teenagers see commercials as too intrusive and will often refer to TiVo and other products to skip through or eliminate these annoyances.

Almost 100% of teenagers have access to a mobile phone and most of these have a good degree of functionality, or are smart phones. This is definitely the growth area of opportunity for marketers trying to reach the teenager of today and the adult of tomorrow. As functionality and feature availability becomes more widespread and mainstream and the premium services morph into standard features, teenagers are likely to use cell phones more and more for their social networking, music and communication.

Do you know how to reach your teenager?

Matthew Toren

The Top 3 Car and Auto Sites

For a product that is such an integral part of our life today, don’t you think that it is surprising to see the demise of the automobile as we know it, almost before our very eyes? It is probably fitting that for a country credited with inventing the automobile - or certainly bringing it to life - the United States has been at the epicenter of the reinvention, which is sure to continue apace. Whilst in the grander scheme of things what we’re going through is probably a “significant correction,” there is little doubt that the shape and feel of the humble car will be very different in years ahead. Our love affair with the automobile is likely to still continue though, and there is still a vibrant online community catering to the “petrol heads” of the world. For those who would rather be on four wheels than two legs here is the Young Entrepreneur’s classification of the top car and auto sites online:

1. Car Domain

This is one of the success stories within the world of automotive enthusiasts. The site was started and privately financed by two young entrepreneurs in Seattle, WA. Surviving against initially strong competition, Car Domain went on to achieve a ranking as one of the top sites in the industry in relation to visitor traffic. The site is dedicated to its core clientèle, the up to 25 demographic, for whom cars can be an obsession. The site is very much tailored to this community and also focuses on what continues to be a strong aftermarket for parts and accessories. With 600,000 registered members and an avid following, Car Domain will be poised to capitalize on the industry’s comeback.

2. Top Gear

Top Gear has always been an “off the wall” phenomenon. Based on the original BBC TV programs in the UK, topgear.com has successfully translated its small screen appeal to the web. Much of the success of the TV series was due to its personalities, some of whom achieved an almost cult like following, and that has not been lost by the website creators. The site is visually stimulating with much emphasis on video reviews and multimedia. Although the layout is somewhat quirky at times, maybe in keeping with the site’s roots, interaction is encouraged with the legion of fans through several popular WordPress blogs.

3. Auto Week

Autoweek, as a publication, has been around for some 50 years and has evolved into a symbolic brand. For many it is a must read if you love the automotive lifestyle and the website is famous for taking an in-depth look through a wide spectrum of issues. They have been quick to embrace social networking with the introduction of a community online, reaching out to many tens of thousands of registered users. Realizing the power of video online, Autoweek TV features a daily videocast summarizing developments in the world of the auto enthusiast. You can be sure that autoweek.com will be one of the first to break a story.

So what do you think about our Top 3 Car and Auto Websites? We want to hear your thoughts about our choices. Who would be on your Top 3 Car and Auto lists and why?

Matthew Toren

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