There are 3 things you need when you open your clinic:

1. You really need to know what you’re doing.
2. A place for your clinic.
3. Patients.

Assuming you have the first 2 things, you need to work hard on getting patients.
I already presented a way to market yourself- Never Market Again by Burton Kent provides you with good ideas and strategy to market yourself and get those patients into your clinic.
One of the things Burton talks about, and I feel is a very important thing to have, is a website.

In this post, part one of two parts, I will take a look at the options one has when thinking to have a website.
This part will talk about Chinese Medicine Websites as one option (one of many) to pay someone to build and maintain your website.

May the WWW be with you
The Internet is a powerful thing.
Everything we can think of can be found on the web. Some have more information and variety and some less.
If you don’t put yourself out there on the web- it’s like you don’t exist.
OK, maybe I’m taking it a bit too far, but I really do think that you need to have a website. Especially when most of us hear a name and try to Google it. If you don’t have a website or some kind of presentation of yourself on the web, people who Google you and find nothing just might choose to go to that other practitioner they read about on his website. Why? Each has his own reason- because they saw a photo, because the map on the website shows he lives just 10 minutes from them, because they read something he wrote and liked how he expresses himself… You get the picture.

Having a website for your clinic makes you start thinking like a business, which is something that I think is the first good thing that comes out of a website.
Many practitioners don’t like to think of themselves as a business, or as business-men (or women), but the truth is they are. Practitioners who don’t take themselves seriously as a business are in trouble if you ask me, because they fail to do the things that should be done when you have a business- for example promotion. But this is not what I want to talk with you about today, so I’ll leave it here.

Doing it alone or have someone do it for you
When it comes to having a website, I always say the same thing to people who ask my advice:
If you’re going to have a website, have a good website that will serve you as best as possible. Don’t compromise.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, it’s not enough to just have a website.
There are a lot of things you need to think about even before you get your website on-line, and then when you’re on-line, you need to maintain your website and make sure you get as much traffic as you can.
But how can you do this?
You can always learn how to do this on your own. Many people manage to do it, they find sources on the net to teach them how to do it, they apply the information and a lot have good results. Others don’t. This independent option is good if you have the time and patience for it, and you’ll need time and patience for it as there are a lot of things to think about once the website is up.

Another way to do this is to hire someone to do it for you.
This is where Chinese Medicine Websites comes in.

Chinese Medicine Websites
Chinese Medicine Websites offer Chinese Medicine practitioners what they call a “cadillac package“- they can order you your domain, they provide the hosting, they offer a variety of themes for the design of your website, they provide the technical support, they offer the SEO for your website….
That sounds like an interesting deal, doesn’t it?

Why is this good for me?
If you have no idea about websites and the Internet and how things work around here, this option is a very good one, and one you should consider.
Just as you pay for someone to print your business cards, you pay for someone to do build and maintain your website for you. If you don’t have the time to maintain your website- you’ll do well if you pay someone to do it for you.

How much?
Prices vary and you can find it all by clicking here.

Got the advantages. Any disadvantages?
Although you have 100% control over your website, you’ll need to wait at least a year before you can actually own that website.
Some people don’t think this is a disadvantage, but I feel that this is something you need to fully understand before you decide whether to follow through with this option or not.

You might not be the kind of person who likes to have a website that is similar to others, that Chinese Medicine Websites are providing for their different clients.
In this case, I’d suggest you contact the people behind Chinese Medicine Websites and share your concerns with them. They might offer something that will be helpful.

Bottom line
There is no one bottom line, but to each his own.
This means that you need to first figure out if you want to manage your website on your own or not.
Once you have that clear, and if you decide that you need someone to do it for you, you need to shop around. One place you should look at is Chinese Medicine Websites.

Over to you
Did you work with CMW? Do you have something you would like to share?
Please leave a comment.