It’s been a while since I made time for this blog. As I reread my last article, I take a lot of pride in announcing the launch of Medicare Sherpa, Your Guide to Health Insurance and Retirement. In March of 2008, I launched this blog to help me chronicle my successes and failures. Flipside Journal is my attempt at redefining my career path, documenting my experiences and providing a place for me to look back.
I have to admit, I had a great deal of difficulty educating myself on Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media. I spent nearly all of last year struggling to learn Joomla’s Content Management Platform including the various plugins, components and tools. It turns out many of my problems were simply the company I chose to host my Joomla site – GoDadday – and the developers that I worked with to help me integrate all the tools.
The Good News
I found a great hosting company in India that saved me a significant amount of money – nearly 1/12th the cost of any vendor in the U.S. They’ve been outstanding and working off-shore has incredible economic advantages. At the end of the day, I have to track all my costs and let my wife know how much I am spending on my pet project. The last seven months have been spent well. I have a clearly defined business plan, target audience, content strategy and SEM program in place that should result in a site that places in the 10 results of organic search for a specified list of keywords by the end of the year.
The Audience
I have a grassroots audience development program in place and potential endorsements that should line up over 300 site subscribers by the end of the year and possibly over 1000 subscribers by the end of 2010. The single greatest challenge is developing trust and rapport with this audience and building key relationships one person at a time. I am laser focused on building a marketplace in Massachusetts and going national from there.
The Advertisers
I’ve been very fortunate and I have several opportunities to pursue from the Health Insurance Industry. Initial interest is very strong and a few key meetings have yielded extremely positive feedback. I’ve decided to hold-off on seeking advertising or seed money until my SEM programs have yielded a site with a Google Page Rank of 6 and my keyword strategy starts to position my site in the 10 results for organic search. Once these metrics are in place, I expect to provide advertisers with a truly unique advertising program that cannot be easily replicated by my competitors.
Product Development
Medicare Sherpa is an online news magazine with a social networking component for Elder Affairs Professionals. This site essentially supports a Public Education and Outreach Program with a target audience of intermediaries who serve as guides to Medicare Eligibles – SHINE, COA, Elder Affairs, Visiting Nurses, Hospice, Pallitive Care, Social Workers, etc. The site has many of the same features of LinkedIn and Facebook – Wall, Discussion Groups, Private Messaging Systems, Blogs, Events, Photos, Video, and more. The site also tracks rewards through our Karma Points engine. Karma Points allow our community to reward themselves for interacting with others, earn additional points for utilization of various features/tools and building networks. The more you participate in our community the more rewards you earn.
It’s been a long road, but I feel that I have a plan that will result in a profitable venture.
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