Today I stumbled into a new website named Bloggled.  I have been trying to gather as much information on them as I can because from what I have found and what I have read, it seems like a pretty neat and interesting business idea that might actually help me out personally with all my blogging.  Right now, there isn’t much to their site as they are in beta testing, but they have just launched a blog at www.bloggled.com/blog that hopefully will be posted to along the way as they launch officially.  So, after reading a few Squidoo lenses on bloggled and Brent Ramey I decided to contact them for an official take…this is what I got back.

“Look out Facebook and MySpace, a brand new social utility website designed specifically for bloggers is set to go live by the end of October, 2008.  Bloggled.com is the perfect one-stop-shop for Bloggers, both novice and professionals alike.  Bloggled.com will build upon the existing capabilities of blog-hosting sites such as Blogger and Blogspot by providing free hosting to the blogger and permanently backing-up the user’s blog as a part of a free subscription for bloggled.com users.  Most bloggers are unaware that one of the risk of blogging for free with the mainstream  hosting providers is that if your blog were accidently erased or if in the unlikely event hosting was ever interrupted or lost there would be no way to recover your blog.  This in some cases would be a major emotional or financial loss to the blogger considering the fact that many families use their blog(s) as virtual journals, diaries and scrapbooks.  Not to mention the fact that professional bloggers who are accustomed to making money on the internet through selling advertising space would be temporarily “Out of Business” with all of their prior content lost.  (Posts, comments, pictures, etc.)

In addition to being able to back up their blog, users will have advanced editing capabilities, similar to digital scrapbooking to format and edit their blog in an extremely user-friendly fashion.   Subscribers will also receive as part of their subscription free blogging tips, monthly newsletter updating the latest and greatest in the blogging world and access to a bloach (Blog Coach) to help them make their blog look and fell exactly how they want.  Many beginning bloggers, especially those who aren’t computer savvy, struggle making the layout of their blog (posts, pictures, font, color, etc.) look exactly how they would like.  Our Bloach’s will work with them through short online tutorial videos and chat to help them layout their blog exactly how they would like.  There will also be discounts on products and services offered from bloggled.com and the ability to share ideas, templates and editing capabilities.  Bloggers from all fields (sports, religion, politics, cooking, decorating, businesses, etc.) will be easily able to find each other through search features built into their profile in order collaborate, bounce ideas of each other and share with one another not only what they are blogging about, but why.

As one the first flagship products, Bloggled.com will provide its users with the first web-based software to convert their blog into a book.  Users can decide on sizes, hardbound or softbound, color or black & white along with multiple “digital scrapbooking” editing tools.   Users will be able to click and drag pictures from their blog, as well as comments, posts, and virtually anything else they want.  Users can then format their book to look and feel anyway they please through the assortment of editing tools offered.   Books will then be shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep.   Customers at that point can either keep the book as a family scrapbook or gift it to relatives and friends, especially those who may be older in age and not accustomed to using the internet on a daily or weekly basis.  Professional bloggers also will benefit from converting their blog into a book in order to generate additional revenue streams through book sales.  Bloggers will have the ability to interact and share with one another their ideas, templates and advice, as well as find new Blogbuddies which they can add to their network.   Finally, for the professional blogger - coaching packages will be available ranging from tuition of a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending upon the number of coaching sessions and value of the material shared.  More and more individuals are in the business of making money from their blog and our top internet/blog experts will be there to show them how to maximize their blog’s earning potential.   With over 120,000 new blogs a day being started on the internet, Bloggled will be the premier community for all of them to host their blog, edit their blog, convert their blog, and receive additional blogging education and skills.  You can visit Bloggled.com now for a preview and trailer of what’s to come later this fall.”

In the last 30 days I have been approached by two different dentist concerning SEO for their practice. Both of them invited me in to sit down with them because they were excited about the opportunity having a ranked website affords them as a professional in the dental industry…I was surprised to find out that a few thousand dollars a month is “way out of their budget” for online marketing or “SEO” as I called it.

I’m not a dentist by any means; I brush my teeth night and day and floss once a day and call it good. I thought my few visits a year from me x 100’s of patients would put some money in their pockets, but I guess I was wrong. I thought Dentists were made of money, at least all the houses of Dentists that I’ve been too are. One of them told me that they are even reluctant to spend $200 a month for the SEO plan that GoDaddy offers. I couldn’t believe my ears. The quote I offered them was fair and the rankings they would have received would have been top 10 for sure.

Now I can handle being rejected. Every business owner has the right, and should have the ability, to choose what is best for their business. I respect someone who tells me, this sounds great and the price is right, but we are going to market through another means. However, having someone tell me they expect my services for less than $200 a month is plain ridiculous. Maybe I was being punked or something?

So, to answer my title question…YES. Most dentists rely on word-of-mouth referrals to grow their business. What they don’t realize is that tens of thousands of people are looking for dental services a month in their locations and most of them are using the web as a means of finding what they are looking for. So here are my top 3 reasons why every dentist should have a great site that is ranked.

1. New patient acquisition. Dentists are not selling a physical product, rather a service that targets local customers. They need to do all they can to find local customers to bring into their chairs to enjoy the laughing gas as I so do.

2. Patient interaction. A great dental website will allow patients to get information about the services they might consider so they can ask questions to their dentist about these services. This will increase a dentist’s dollar per patient revenue and grow their business. They can also offer features such as online scheduling to allow patients the opportunity to schedule and unschedule their appointments.

3. Reputation management. With all the news out there about dental malpractice and dentist’s molesting their patients every Dentist should be very interested in controlling their rep online so they don’t get dragged into any of that by accident.

Maybe I don’t understand their concerns, but I think my arguments are pretty strong.

Posted by Andrew Melchior