Man it is slow

Hey all,

I hope everyone is having a good week, after all it is FRIDAY.

I told you that I was thinking about lecturing again.
Turns out that this year at the ADA's annual meeting, they are having something called The New Speaker Stage.
I read in one of their gagillion mail outs that they were taking applications for one hour presentations. You submit your application and if you are selected, "this will be a great opportunity for individuals looking to expand their professional speaking opportunities!"
(Now I don't know if this is new for the ADA but I know that the AGD has been doing this for a long time. In fact I did this for the AGD about 6 years ago in San Diego.)

I decided to jump in with both feet.
Officially, I have sent my application. No thanks to all of you I thought of a title for it.
I am calling it (don't tell me if it sucks) Drill'em, Fill'em, and Bill'em....how to make money doing exquisite fillings.
I had to think of something. I couldn't just call it, "How to do a nice filling" or what one commenter suggested, "How to make a filling that will need a root canal in 3 months".

So I am officially in lecture mode. I am doing some research on the stuff I don't know. And as it turns out, it is a lot.
I have opened a dialogue with my old biomaterials professors who is dying to talk to someone about biomaterials. It seems that it is not everyday that someone calls who cares about the properties of a nanohybrid.

I have started reading again.
Let me know if you come up with something that would help me.
I am researching 2007 PowerPoint. I am talking templates and slide design.
I am talking slide transitions.
Oh, you think lecturing is that easy, huh?

I will keep you posted. They are suppose to let me know by July 31st.


Topic....

I have to tell you that it has been very slow at the office.
I mean scary slow. I don't know what else to do.
I don't know who to call. I don't know what ad to take out.
I don't how to improve my customer service.
I have exhausted all my resources to getting people in the chair.
I just is what it is.
I know I have to hunker down and do the best I can.
I mean yesterday there wasn't much on the books but some emergencies saved the day.
Today is like a ghost town in here....wait look a tumbleweed.
And I know I am not the only one slow because when my friends are slow I notice a lot more forwarded emails with jokes and pictures of drunk people in precarious positions.

Now I even have time to open every piece of mail. And I am opening all of the junk mail looking for that golden bullet.
Well what do you know, nothing yet, no golden bullet.
But one thing I did get from some junk email is that I was intrigued about.

It was something called my3zips. Have you gotten this one?
Well what they promise is traffic to your website.
This is what they claim....
You give them your name,
you give them your website,
And you give them 3 zip codes and they take it from there.

Let me back track a second. I have had a website for a couple of years and it has generated about 7000 hits. I know this not because I am checking it all the time or all into this but it has a little counter down at the bottom.
I don't know if this is good or not. But I do know that people have abandoned the yellow pages and just go to their computer for information.

The way I do business now is almost exclusively internet. If I need something my first move is always GOOGLE.
So I have a website. I don't know if I am getting any real business from it but it is at least out there.
My office is called A Soft Touch in Family Dental Care and it is Apopka, Florida.
So I bought two domain names. Asofttouchdental.com and apopkadentist.com

Okay so back to the numbers, I have had 7000 hits in two years. They are claiming that they will generate a ton of hits to the site (claiming they have had up to 50,000, yes I said FIFTY THOUSAND hits in one month).
And they are giving a three month trial for FREE.
I know that this is total bullsh@!t.

But I say to myself that I have nothing to lose.
So I do it.
I sent in the 3 requirements yesterday. I have already had 2 confirmation emails sent to me.
Apparently it is all set up and the magic is going to happen anytime now.
They have sent me a link to monitor the magic (hits).

I know, I know a shot in the dark. I know it is not going to work. I know we are going to get a bunch of hits but it is not going to mean anything.
But maybe just maybe something will happen.
Like I said I have nothing to lose.

I still feel like treating people right and making them happy is the place to start.
Then they tell their friends.
Now the problem with this is it takes a while. You might be good and people really like you but all those people that like you and think you are the cats meow, yeah their income has be reduced to levels that they have to make decisions.

So what do I do?
I know I am going to have to be more visible. Get people talking about the dentist and more importantly ME.
I guess I am going to start with my3zips but trust me my wheels are turning.
I called the chairman of the little league and told them it is time to get my name on the back of some shirts.
I having a banner made to put on my outside sign about getting kids in for the summer.

I am not a marketing genius or anything....I am a dentist for crying out loud.
Help.
How is it for you?
Are you hunkering down?
Are you doing anything that is helping?
Are you a non insurance practice that is thinking about getting on some plans?
Tell me.

Hope you have a great weekend,
John

GO MAGIC.