About the HealthCritiques.com Editor

Who am I?  

 

Hi there, my name is Stephen, the owner of the HealthCritiques.com blog. I'm a 40 something guy with a wonderful wife and adorable daughter who will be turning 5 later this summer (2007).

I've been building sites for a few years now, but they have all been traditional static html sites you see all over the web and so as a result my content has also been static (rarely changes). As a result of having been doing this part time (yes I still do have a J.O.B.). I've met a lot of marketers online and have listened to too many of the gurus out there who just waste my valuable time on worthless scams causing me to chase my tail instead of learning to focus. Had I paid more attention to Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid" I would have been much further along and my fence would be freshly painted!

What I've learned is that blogs are the best way to post new information quickly and to keep readers up to date in real time. A blog is always changing and provides fresh content; something a static site can't do.

 

Why I built this site and what I hope to accomplish with it:

 

As I get older I find that I'm starting to (gulp) put on a few pounds and (gulp) are those wrinkles? Yes I'm finding that I, like many am getting to the point where I would like to try some products out there with the latest miracle cure for what ails me, but what to try? Well considering the size of the health and wellness market out there I am certainly not alone so I decided building a site; nay a blog on the subject would be a good idea, but I wanted more than just an online diary of my fountain of youth journey, I want partners, and that my friend is YOU!

There are many good resources out there on health & fitness, but there are a whole lot more scam sites, so how do I weed out the junk from the gold and not lose my shirt buying snake oil masquerading as the latest wonder product.

Ok so I had this light bulb moment  to build this site so that not only I benefit, but others could too. How you say? By building a list of people who are all interested in saving money on health products and sharing their experiences with others on whether they found the product and or company worth while.

You may wonder how building an opt-in list (collecting names and email addresses) helps accomplish this goal. Well look at the big warehouse places like Costco or Sam's Club (found in the U.S.) that sell at huge discounts. They can do this because they have a huge member base and they can buy in bulk.

I also see many discounts given in the internet marketing field all the time and the reason this can be done is because they have a large subscriber base (opt-in list). They are able to secure discounts for their members by leveraging their list to get vendors to offer them a discount. When a company has a large membership they can secure deals from product vendors the average Joe and Jane can't get and so I thought why not do that in the heath & fitness niche!

The biggest question for me was how could I get people to want to join my list?

 

• I could create and or research good quality health related content and post it to my site, but I'd need a blog to do it right. I now have the blog so Step 1 is underway with the creation of this blog and content will be coming soon!

• Providing up to date content is good, but I felt I needed a product or service right out of the gate to entice people to want to sign-up so I managed a 10% off discount code from 4rx.com that can be used on all current and future purchases made with them and that is in addition to any current offers they may have going at any given time. Step 2 accomplished!

• I obviously also need to collect names and email addresses so I can leverage the list size as it grows to entice other vendors to give my newsletter subscribers a discount others don't get. I opened up an account with Aweber and created a short auto-responder series (series of automated emails) that go out on auto-pilot over the course of a few days to those who sign-up to the HeathCritiques newsletter. Included in that first series of emails is the 10% coupon code that can be used at 4Rx.com. Step 3 accomplished!

• I need to create a product vendor page listing vendors who have agreed to give discounts to my subscribers and I'd make a post about their offer and people can express their opinions of that vendor or a particular product on my blog. Step 4 will be done when I can get enough people to sign-up to my newsletter so that I have the leverage I need to get you, my subscribers, a price break on thier products.

 

 

Conclusion:

So there you have it, you know a bit more about me and why I built this site and what I hope to accomplish with it. In the end I can post the worlds greatest content, but unlike 4rx most companies will not just give away discounts to someone who doesn't give something back and in this case it's a list of people intensely interested in what they have to sell.

What I mean is a product vendor can afford to give special deals to a list owner if the list owner is willing to email their list with the vendors offer because the vendor doesn't need to spend money on marketing thier product or service to those people and so they can give back some of thier profit margin to the consumer.

This model works for the online marketing niche all the time; I know because I've seen it time and again and there is no reason it can't work in the health & fitness niche, but I can't do it without your help.

You only have one thing you need to do to make this site successful and a couple other things to do that will help out greatly. The most important thing is for you to signup to my FREE no obligation newsletter. The other things that you can do to speed the process up is to let others you know about this site and ask them to do the same (if they're interested in this niche), then bookmark this site and come back often.

Everyone wins from the product vendors to all of you and heck even me! There is no cost involved so you really have nothing to lose.

I will never sell, rent or give away your name or email address to anyone so your information is secure with me. I will only let my list know of any new discount offers I may secure, but it is all done through me so your contact information will never be passed on to a vendor. You alone decide if you want to take advantage of the offer or not; no obligation what so ever.

Together we can accomplish anything!

 

Best Regards,

 

Stephen C. Dayton