Common Practitioner Membership Questions
This page has commonly asked questions and answers about listing your practice with us as well as questions that members ask frequently. Related pages are our list your practice page and our using your membership effectively section.
Questions below are divided into two main sections:
- Considering Listing?
- Why Do You Offer A Directory of Practitioners?
- How Will This Help The Visibility of My Practice?
- Why Isn't It Free?
- Already Listed With Us?
- What Should I Write About?
While it is true that there are many directories out there for practitioners, our vision for this directory and its usability for the public is quite different. First, directories are only valuable if people read them. Many sites that are just directories are not read widely except, perhaps, by practitioners. Our directory is unique in two ways. First we have a highly read site with a range of content that is interesting to the general public, students, and practitioners. Because of this your listing has the potential to be read by people who didn't start out searching for an acupuncturist or healer, etc. - they just wanted information. Second, unlike most directories, you can publish articles to help spread the word about your practice and yourself. This helps you in many ways, one is somewhat technical but the more you publish, the more your name is listed, and search engines like google appreciate information. When people search for information about you and your practice, then, you are more likely to appear high in search engine rankings. Finally, our directory allows for searching by various disciplines and specific techniques which is also very unique among current offerings.
How Will Listing With Us Help You:
You should start by reading the section above, but in general listing with us gets your name and information to people that are not specifically looking for you. For those of you with existing websites, you may find that your site doesn't appear high with certain key phrases or at all with general searches that people do on google, for example. In other words, if they don't already know about you, they may not find you. Listing with a highly read site like ours increases the range of people who will find you. Furthermore, our site is not just a listing, but contains quite a bit of information about you. When people are comparing practitioners in a city they are more likely to go with someone whom they get a sense about and this is facilitated by your abiility to publish articles, news items, and events.
Well, we've considered that. The main reason is that it there are a host of fees involved in running a site this large. And, while we do it out of our passion for the field, it is difficult to manage many practitioners, their listings, and their articles. The fees are very, very minimal and often do not even cover our operating expenses. Additionally, when it is free people seem to value it less and they don't contribute. Our vision is not just to have a listing of practitioners, but a listing of practitioners who contribute to the field and to the public. The more valuable information there is on the site, the more people will find you in our directory.
Many people are concerned that they are not "expert" enough in their field to write articles that are read by large numbers of people. This just isn't the case. Our community and the public need your viewpoints, your passion, and your skills. The articles can be directed more towards practitioners or towards the general public - so what you will write about can vary tremendously. We recommend you simply start writing - share your skills, things that interest you, self-help techiques you share with your patients, etc. Our only real criteria is that you are not just writing to put something up on the site. Make it valuable and not just about getting attention to your practice.
