In 2005 several important learning's occurred and a major millstone was passed on the path to total wellness:
1) Our newsletter subscriber count increased dramatically from 280,000 in 2004 to over 525,000 subscribers before the end of 2005.
2) Even more amazingly, nearly every individual subscriber at Mercola was responsible for this remarkable near doubling in those we together serve.
From 2004 to 2005 more valued subscribers than ever introduced Mercola.com to more of their cherished loved ones than ever before (i.e. immediate and extended family members, cherished friends and loved business colleagues who they each care deeply about... both their immediate plus long-term health and wellbeing).
"Why ?" we asked.
The response was overwhelming: "Dr. Mercola cares as do we." Others stated: "Its all about those we love in our lives and care enough to share the gift of knowledge."
These were not passive answers from a passive group of self-serving individuals. Rather these were an amazing, caring and loving group of over 525,000 people that may well have included you.
Caring people committed to helping and serving others needs with no expectation of anything in return.... other than knowing they had done something good for some one whom they cared for greatly by offering and recommending Mercola.com.
3) Our goal now, knowing this, is to help our subscribers even more. To provide easier ways to gain and share the knowledge needed by all those you care about whom may truly need or just want the truth.
Mercola.com now averages over 1,000 new subscribers every day and closed the year with approximately 525,000 subscribers. This year we also advanced to the fourth most visited health site in the world.
All this due in large part to those we serve like you who are serving others.
Now only WebMD and the US government have health sites with more traffic than mercola.com. Where do you place your trust? Help us in 2006 exceed even those sites by introducing more of your family members and friends to the website that is designed to better serve their and your needs.
Major Site Improvements For You This Year
There are many reasons Mercola.com has succeeded, but one element it has clearly lacked is community.
That is all about to change later this year!
Later this year I hope to release software on our site that will finally allow you a chance to actively participate and share your opinions on content published on the website. Not only will you be able to comment but you will also be able to rate articles AND comments from others.
Multi National Drug Companies Control Through Their Marketing
For the last 50 years a major reason why the drug companies have been able to seize control of the medical field is that they have essentially controlled the media.
The multi-national drug corporations are spending $4 billion on direct to consumer ads to influence you. This started when they were able to influence Congress and the FCC to change the law so they can sell you even more drugs.
The United States is currently the only country in the world that allows drug companies to advertise prescription drugs directly to the consumer. It used to be that prescription drugs could only be touted to physicians.
They hired some of the most brilliant marketing minds on the planet that are able to use highly sophisticated technology to produce consumer ads that tantalize you with great promises of health and well-being, skim through the side effects as quickly as possible and then suggest you contact your physician or a drug company hotline for more information.
If $4 billion sounds like a lot, multiply that times 400% and you arrive at $16 billion that is spent on marketing to physicians. That is more than $10,000 for every physician in the US. This enormous amount of spending is one of the primary reasons they are able to control the medical journals and the studies that influence current medical thoughts
An Alternative to the Drug Companies
The drug companies will likely increase their annual $20 billion dollars so they can capture an ever increasing percentage of the $2 trillion dollars that the US alone spends on "health" care.
What type of chance do we have to change this enormous influence?
Plenty.
What the multi national drug corporations NEVER expected or counted on was the Internet. It is the future and if effectively utilized it can and will blindside them before they knew what hit them.
Just look at Google, Amazon and eBay. They have radically changed our culture. What many people fail to realize is that there is plenty of innovation left on the Net, and the best is yet to come!
New Health Network
One of Amazon.com's greatest benefits to society is the database they have created of user comments on items they sell. They have understood early on the ENORMOUS power and value that the consumer has on evaluating and rating these items which is one of the reasons they have been so successful.
We have a team of very dedicated programmers developing changes for our site that will make Mercola.com look like Amazon.com on steroids. No, I am not talking about their sales side, but the ability to go to Amazon and read the comments to make an informed decision about the book, CD or product based on others evaluation.
It will provide a framework to enable the brightest people on the planet in health care to provide their insights and then to have the community sort through and vote on what the truth is.
The best elements of the old model at Mercola.com one will remain, but you will also start to see some incredible improvements. While I will continue to share my insights and opinions, the site will also transform to an open forum with highly sophisticated and intelligent software to allow you to easily sort through the mountain of community input that will be generated so you can find out the answers to your health questions.
This system will finally allow you to easily determine the truth for yourself and cut through the nonsense.
It is my belief that once this platform is successfully deployed Mercola.com will become the destination health site in the world where people come to find out the truth about health and we will become one of the top 100 most visited web sites in the world, but more importantly will have made a MAJOR step forward in our goal of catalyzing the transformation of the conventional health care model that is harming and killing so many of us through lies and deception.
I will need your help if this will succeed and I will continue to provide you with updates as we move closer to our goal of implementation of this radically new technology.
Until then please know that the best is yet to come at Mercola.com
