Creating Dental Startup Website

[DeltronZero]

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Looking for some input here. I work as an associate at a practice that has been around for 30 years. It has no website. I want to create one to market myself and the practice. Has anyone done this? I have pretty much eliminated going the free route. I was thinking about building one on my Mac and using MobileMe as the host. Should I just pay somebody? Any advice?

 

[HupHolland]

Looking for some input here. I work as an associate at a practice that has been around for 30 years. It has no website. I want to create one to market myself and the practice. Has anyone done this? I have pretty much eliminated going the free route. I was thinking about building one on my Mac and using MobileMe as the host. Should I just pay somebody? Any advice?

I would consider hosting your site using a company (http://wordpress.org/hosting/) that supports WordPress. WordPress is a content managemnt system that is free of charge if you use a hosting company that supports them. You can use a fairly basic, professional template to get the site up and running and best of all updating the site is as easy as posting the question in this forum 🙂

Best of luck,
Hup

 

[DeltronZero]

Thank you! I'll be sure to check it out

 

[K Niner]

You were thinking of building one yourself? So know HTML, or can use a program like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc.?

If so, then look into godaddy.com, or another hosting site. I'm not a computer programmer, just a bio degree, but i have a website for both my parents' practices. The things you will want in order to look professional is your own domain name! like www.smithfamilydental.com. (that is not a real site, but it hyperlinks automatically...). So be sure whatever you do, that you get your own domain name. You can buy one from loads of companies like godaddy.com or any other hosting companies.

Remember, no smithfamilydental.tripod.com (or anything similar) <-- looks very unprofessional and cheap.

Edit: and the other thing is, make sure you use a hosting company. Its a few bucks a month, and if you try to host it yourself, even on a dedicated machine, it will inevitably break or have issues from time to time. And it looks bad and unprofessional when your website doesn't work for periods of time.

 

[OffAngleHatchet]

I'm working through this process with another dentist...

I'd first reserve your own domain name(s) through godaddy.com or similar place.

Then, put up a few photos and a simple page. Keep it clean and professional. Don't make it obnoxious like a 1995 Geocities vanity page.

Now that you have your simple page up, it's time to shop around for someone who can give you a more professional presence with case photos, video education, etc.

Stay away from Prosites and other dental-oriented template-based sites. You'll be just one of many dentists who end up having the exact same site with the exact same wording as the guy next door.

 

[gryffindor]

Stay away from Prosites and other dental-oriented template-based sites. You'll be just one of many dentists who end up having the exact same site with the exact same wording as the guy next door.

I agree with this. In ortho, there are two big companies that seem to do a good chunk of the ortho websites out there. To me, all the website look the same and read exactly the same. Patients may not notice it, but I'd like something a little more unique. Also, I've heard it is an ordeal to get these companies to add or change something to your website despite the enormous fees you pay them to put it together and maintain it. All the Prosites websites look the same as well. One way to get around this might be to have a non-dental website person study some dental website to get ideas and then design it for you.

 

[BingDent]

Looking for some input here. I work as an associate at a practice that has been around for 30 years. It has no website. I want to create one to market myself and the practice. Has anyone done this? I have pretty much eliminated going the free route. I was thinking about building one on my Mac and using MobileMe as the host. Should I just pay somebody? Any advice?

This is my experience and please take it with a grain of salt.
If you need to market yourself working for somebody, maybe you shouldn't be there. If there are not enough new patients to feed you, I recommend you either cut down your time there or find a new job with a existing marketing system in place.