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It's a fact in this information age, viable businesses will have a good website. Websites are now almost as critical as the regular telephones or a cell phones. Most customers expect businesses to have one. The internet has become a way of life and patients will very often do research on a practice or a physician by using the internet in the privacy of their own home.

A patient can get a good first impression of your practice and services from the internet. With the patient referral feature a patient can recommend your practice through email. The AASP has had much success with this feature on the site spinephysicians.org.

Why Do I need the Patient Information Center?

We also highly recommend the Patient Information Center. The P.I.C has a plethora of features that are very educational for the Patient. The Animations are very useful especially for patients that may have to have a surgical procedure or would like to know more about the spine or back pain.

The physician or staff member can really educate the patient from the office with the Patient Information Center; detailed brochures can be printed as well. The P.I.C. is not only available in the office but can be accessed through the internet in the privacy of the patients own home.

What is a Domain Name? A domain name is an internet address. This is how patients or interested persons may dial up your website on the World Wide Web. For instance,

spinephysicians.org
www.yourpracticename.org
www.physicians.org

We recommend a domain name that is short and very easy to remember.

What is a Domain Renewal? The initial set up of your domain name is included in your setup fee for the website; however domain names must be renewed yearly. Our charge to renew a domain name is $20.00. If domain names are not renewed someone by get the domain name you were using and you will need to get another domain name.

What are recommendations for a Domain Name?

We recommend a domain name that is short and very easy to remember.

What is Hosting? The Monthly hosting charge is like your telephone bill. It allows your site to be posted or connected to the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Included are the disk space your site takes up with pictures, articles newsletters and other content.

How do I market my website? The marketing of a website can be looked at in two types of marketing, traditional marketing and internet marketing. We advise a combination of both.

What is Traditional Marketing? Traditional marketing includes placing your domain name on any traditional forms of advertising.

1. Existing stationary
2. Business cards
3. Newspaper ads
4. Patient bills
5. Radio ads
6. T.V. ad

Any form of local advertising. Your city may have a city wide website with a section where businesses can place their website.

Your local news channels usually has a website and some usually get a lot of hits per month. Some have business sections where you can place your website.

Do a press release to your local newspaper about your practice or being a member of the A.A.S.P. Make sure your domain name highly is visible.

What is Internet Marketing? We are not set up to offer internet marketing at this time, but would like to caution you about common tactics offered on the internet and give you some hints of some good practices.

Their are some companies that have very effective methods of internet marketing and there are some that are flat out scams so be cautious when approaching an internet marketing company, ask many questions, how long have you been in business, do you have a referral list, what are some previous customers, may I contact them, etc.

Some Legitimate Internet Marketing Techniques.

Placing Reciprocal Links - Placing your domain name on other high traffic sites with the similar topics or subjects to boost your site up in the search engine rankings.

Pay Per Click Search Engines - You deposit or set a set amount of money in an account and bid on a keyword per click. If you are the top bid you will be number one in some search engines. (Can be very effective, this can immediately place you at the top of Yahoo or Google, but please do a cost analysis to make sure this is feasible for you.

Good Examples are: http://www.overture.com or http://www.findwhat.com

Eblasting - This is where you pay or lease an opt-in list from a company and the company will Eblast a tailor made email to many potential business or customers advertising your site.

Will my website appear in Google and Yahoo? Getting a high ranking in Google and Yahoo are very attractive to most when purchasing a website. People who manage to get their websites on the first page of these popular sites usually enjoy mega traffic to their sites.

We want to add balance with this type of internet game plan. There are millions of websites added to the web weekly and all want to be on the first page of google and yahoo with some specific key word say for instance chiropractor. This is more of a science and an art to get to the top. Can it be done yes, but remember this is advertising and we again caution the physicians to stay balanced in appropriating your budget for advertising.

There must remain a balance in advertising and advertising that is generating good patient referrals.

Can I add my own data / text and pictures of my staff, our physicians and office building? Our websites come with a total of 22 pages of which 8 are dedicated to the practice or physicians to add pictures, text and modifications as needed through the AASP member console.

What are the termination policies? You may terminate your contract by contacting the AASP. Your website will be immediately removed from the internet and all monthly fees will cease after the month you applied for termination.

To re-establish your connection will result in setup fees being paid again.

Termination will also result in your website being removed from your full profile page in the National Directory of Spine Physicians ( http://www.spinephysician.net)

What is Spam? We define spam as sending unsolicited email. Advertising your business without receiving an opt in from that person or business entity. To protect our hosting company and the A.A.S.P, we will not tolerate spam and if spam is reported will result in the immediate termination of the hosting contract and the removal of your website from the internet !!!

What is 24/7 ? 24 Hours a day and 7 days a week.

How do I build an eNewsletter List?

Visitors to your site will have an option to opt in on the free eNewsletter page. Once they sign up for the eNewsletter, their information will be stored in the online database and the newsletters and articles that you write can be immediately sent to everyone on your list. This is a good way to keep current patients and potential patients informed about services or specials offered by your practice.

What is a database? A database is a special program that allows information to be stored and updated or modified via the internet through the website. This allows your site to have fresh content.

What is a dynamic web site? A web site in which the data can be changed via the internet, pictures and text, etc. If you by the P.I.C. certain subjects will continue to grow over time without extra charges. Some features may be added that will be available at a minimal cost.

What is a static web site? This is a web site in which the information is always the same. The text and pictures never change.

Can I add my own non-surgical procedures? Yes if you desire this can be 1 of the 8 pages that you may want to modify. This can be done on the website and not the P.I.C. The information on the P.I.C cannot be changed.

Do I have to stay a member of the AASP to keep my website and P.IC ? We highly recommend you stay a member of the AASP because of the many features the AASP offers and also because the AASP plugs will drop out of the website if your membership lapses.

What is the Set up Fee for? The setup fee is used to customize your site to your practice. This is where we give the website portal your personality with pictures, etc; your initial domain name registration is also included.