NEWS FLASH
Vickie Weighs in on Nursing Shortage for Gazette
David Abrams, staff writer for the Gazette, recently interviewed Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD about the nursing shortage. In a May 17, 2002 article, "Shortage of Nurses Worsening, Survey Says," Vickie states, "I think the fact that nurses are leaving traditional settings tells you everything you need to know about the work environment. This year, nurses are complaining more than ever that they are stretched too thin to provide adequate care for their patients rather than about pay and benefits."
The Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. offers an exciting alternative to those nurses seeking new, lucrative career adventures. If you'd like to learn how to use your hard-earned nursing expertise and insider knowledge of the healthcare system as a Certified Legal Nurse ConsultantCM (CLNC®), click here.
There once was an African tribe that became famous for its rain dances. This particular tribe was unique in all of Africa because their rain dances always succeeded. Some tribes in the region had very low success rates, others had mediocre rates — but this tribe stood out because they alone were 100% successful.
Anthropologists studied the different tribes to learn what might be causing this phenomenon. Some theorized that the tribe had better dancers; others thought the tribe used special steps, more powerful chants or more sincere prayers; still others believed the tribe's costumes, feathered accouterments or masks made the difference. Members of some other tribes were even jealous, claiming it was simply luck that made the gods smile on that one tribe — but not on their own.
After observing the tribe's practices, one anthropologist finally uncovered the key to their 100% success rate. He was surprised that it was such a simple secret, one that I'll share with you later.
When I first heard this story, I immediately thought of its application to legal nurse consulting and all types of business.
Have you seen someone with a background or talent similar to your own become successful while your own efforts stalled?
Have you ever looked at another's success and found numerous reasons to rationalize why they were successful and you were not?
In legal nurse consulting I have seen RNs succeed far beyond their dreams and watched others founder and give up. What distinguishes the successful CLNC®s from their less successful colleagues?
Certainly it's easy to credit luck, experience, education or connections for another's success. But that's not the key ingredient.
Researching these questions myself as I edited the success stories in my CLNC® Success Stories book, I found the clue to the success of these CLNC®s to be the same as famous musicians, entrepreneurs and scientists.
A tourist stopped a famous musician on the street in New York City and asked, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The musician answered, "Practice, my boy, practice."
Walt Disney was bankrupted twice and unable to find financing for a family-oriented theme park, yet Disneyland eventually became a reality.
After his restaurant failed, Colonel Sanders slept in the back of his car because he couldn't afford a motel room while trying to sell his chicken recipe. Today the world is covered with KFC restaurants using the Colonel's famous recipe.
Ben Franklin didn't fail 10,000 times — he simply found 10,000 ways his numerous inventions didn't work — yet he is credited with breakthroughs in everything from electricity to stove design to the invention of bifocals.
One of our legal nurse consulting students struggled for over a year to get her practice started, then grossed $17,000 in her 14th month — just one month after she almost gave up.
All these famous people and the successful CLNC®s exemplify Sylvester Stallone's belief about success. Sly says, "I am not the smartest or most talented person in the world, but I succeeded because I keep going, and going, and going."
Remember the African tribe? They mastered the secret to 100% success with their rain dances. They had no special powers, no magical interventions. Like Sylvester Stallone they simply danced their rain dance until it rained. They never quit, never gave up, and never grew despondent over how long it took for the rain to come. They expected it would always rain when they danced, and their experience supported their belief. They just kept dancing, knowing that sooner or later the gods would be satisfied and reward their persistence with rain. Rewarded they were — 100% of the time.
This is one of the most basic and simple secrets to success. It's always easier to quit the dance but much more rewarding to dance on. Begin dancing your dance today. Keep dancing daily, and the gods will smile upon you and shower you with success.
BEST PRACTICES FOR MARKETING
Secrets of Successful Internet Marketing
by William C. Moody, BBA
A complete 21st Century marketing plan has to consider advertising on the Internet. If you have surfed the Web, you've seen the big banner ads that appear at the top of your computer screen. Clicking on the image magically takes you to the sponsoring company's website. But banner ads are just the beginning of the world of Internet advertising.
Learn to Speak the Language of Technophiles
To take full advantage of this relatively new medium for your CLNC® business, you need a basic understanding of Internet advertising terminology. The following key terms are essential:
Banner — A graphic image placed on a search engine or website that links directly to the advertiser's website. Banner ads are currently the most popular type of online advertisement.
Browser — A software program or application used to view information from the Internet. Browsers provide an interface for accessing and navigating through the vast amount of information on the Internet.
Button — An object on a website that, when clicked once, allows the user to go to a different location on the Web.
Click-through Rate — Percentage of times a user responds to an advertisement by clicking on the ad button or banner (number of impressions or views divided by the actual number of clicks).
Click-through Engine — A search engine using a bid-per-keyword approach. An advertiser bids for the privilege of being listed when a user types in specific keywords. When someone uses any of those keywords and clicks on the advertiser's listing, the advertiser's account is charged the price bid for that keyword. Some of the best known click-through or bid-and-pay search engines are: Xuppa, ePilot, FindWhat, Kanoodle, Overture, 7Search and Sprinks.
CPM — Cost Per Thousand (M = the Roman numeral for 1,000) — the price advertisers pay for each 1,000 impressions they purchase.
Domain Name — The unique name that identifies an Internet location. For example, LegalNurse.com is the Internet domain name for the Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc.
Email — A quick and inexpensive way to communicate electronically with business associates. Email can take many forms: a simple letter; a letter with an attachment such as a photo; a text file such as an electronic newsletter (also known as an ezine).
Hit — An access to an element of a website, such as an image on a page. Each access of a webpage usually results in multiple hits because several elements, such as graphics, photos, etc., are transmitted along with the page of text, resulting in hits of their own. Because the number of hits on each webpage varies, a hit is not suitable for measuring the number of visits to your site (you have to divide the number of hits by the number of elements on each page).
Home Page — A document intended to serve as the front page or initial point of entry to a website. Also called an index page, a home page contains general introductory information, hyperlinks to related resources and internal navigation buttons to help users find their way among the various linked pages available on the website.
HTML — Hyper-Text Markup Language, the scripting language of the World Wide Web.
HTTP — Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol, the format of the World Wide Web. When a browser sees "http" at the beginning of an address, it recognizes that site as a World Wide Web page.
Hyperlink — A selection of text on a webpage (usually highlighted in blue) that links to another portion of a website. When clicked, a hyperlink takes the user to another webpage or a totally different website.
Impressions — The number of times an ad is seen by users. The term "guaranteed impressions" refers to the minimum number of times an ad is expected to be seen (based on historical data).
Keyword — A term typed into the search box on a search engine or search page in order to locate websites containing this word. Website contents are carefully designed to include the keywords the site's target market might use in searching for information the site features.
Page Views — The number of times users request a page (which may contain a specific ad).
Search Engine or Directory — A database, directory or index that helps users find information on the Web. They usually have memorable names. Some of the biggest are: AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, Dogpile, Excite, Google, HotBot, LookSmart, Lycos, MSN and, of course, Yahoo!
Sponsored Link or Text Link — An Internet ad that gives a short description about an advertiser along with a hyperlink to the advertiser's website.
URL — Uniform Resource Locator, a company's Web address. The URL for the Medical-Legal Consulting Institute is: http://www.LegalNurse.com
Webmaster — The person in charge of a website.
Getting Your Internet Advertising Program Started
After you have established your website, getting the word out to the world is relatively simple.
Submit your home page to all major search engines. You can do this yourself for free. Each search engine has different criteria you must adhere to. Be sure to follow these criteria exactly. If you violate the guidelines, your website may be permanently banned from being listed. There are numerous software programs and Internet companies that for a fee will submit your website to search engines and directories, but not all are worth the cost.
Some search engines will automatically find your website. This is known as "spidering." Search engines use software that actually find keywords or phrases matching your website by crawling through related websites on the Internet like a spider. You do not have any control over how the search engine will display your website's information. A new website could take six months or more to be crawled.
Supplement the hits you get from free search engines by using a click-through search engine. You can usually set up an account for as little as $25 and bid on keywords of your choice for as low as a penny. The great thing about this approach is that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your listing. Bid on keywords an attorney might use in seeking information on legal nurse consulting.
When your business grows, consider banner advertising. Some search engines charge a flat fee per month and others charge on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis. Search engines that charge on a CPM basis often have a high volume of visitors, resulting in a higher cost. Develop a catchy banner that will entice viewers to click on it. Most search engines have a hyperlink to direct you to their advertising information and rates. Initially, concentrate your advertising budget on the largest search engines and directories for maximum results:
AltaVista
HotBot
Ask Jeeves
LookSmart
Dogpile
Lycos
Excite
MSN
Google
Yahoo!
Some additional guidelines to make your Internet advertising more effective:
As in print advertising, a volume buy will lower your overall cost.
You can access daily, weekly or monthly reports to monitor how your advertising is performing. I recommend checking reports monthly.
Pay close attention to the click-through rate. For example, if 500 people view your banner ad, but only 3 click through, this is not a very good percentage (less than 1%). However, 50 or more click-throughs a month (10%) is an excellent rate in Internet advertising terms.
Promoters of any method of advertising can always come up with a way to give you the illusion that their method is better than another. Don't be fooled. When in doubt, seek the advice of a professional Internet marketing consultant.
Remember that "it takes money to make money."
Above all, don't let the Internet intimidate you, or your competitors will leave you behind. You have to be committed to trying new things. Never sit back and expect people to find you. Seek them out! Be assertive in your marketing efforts, and your reward will be an increase in your income.
William C. Moody, BBA is advertising coordinator for Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc.
