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With the popularity of the Internet and its ease of use, many doctors have decided to take the journey down the information super highway and establish a presence on line. And with all the money it costs to design and maintain a great website, you want people to keep visiting your site as often as possible. But how do you do that? You need to gather as many e-mail addresses as you can to remind people about your site and send them notices and special offers.

When visitors enter your site for the first time, have them fill out a short questionnaire asking how they found your website. The questionnaire should also have a spot for them to enter their e-mail address. You may want to offer something in return (a small gift, for example) if they fill it out.

Another way of getting e-mail addresses is to conduct an interactive quiz related to your specialty. For example, if you are a cardiologist, ask visitors if they know what a myocardial infarction is. Not only will you get responses, but you will encourage visitors to come back and see how they did compared with others. Conduct the poll for only a day or two, letting visitors know when the results will be posted (with an explanation of the term). If you leave the same question on for too long, visitors will forget to visit again to view the results.

Here are other ways to gather e-mail addresses:

* Hold a contest and ask participants to enter their contact information.

* Have visitors sign up to get access to download a free e-book. Make sure you have selected something

   that is relevant to your target audience.

* Provide visitors with a free membership to your members-only website.

* Ask visitors to subscribe to your on-line patient newsletter if you have one. You may consider

   producing one if you do not already do so.

* Have visitors sign a guest book and offer something in return such as a promotional item from your

   practice with your information on it or gift certificates or coupons to popular local stores or restaurants.

* Allow visitors to place a free classified ad on your site in exchange for their e-mail address.

With a little creativity, you can build your database of e-mail addresses quickly and effectively. You can then begin e-mailing notices about important issues and new services that your practice is providing as well as valuable information about you and your practice. An increase in traffic flow to your site can only lead to an increased interest in you and your practice and increased revenue.