Here we interview HealthRanker's Israel Lagares; we see it as kind of a Digg for health news.
1. What is HealthRanker-- how does it work?
ANSWER: HealthRanker.com is a social news/voting site that is solely dedicated to health. It allows users to submit any health news, stories, blog posts, etc. to be ranked by their fellow members. I believe that HealthRanker can blossom into a valuable resource for health news.
2. When did you launch, and what was the impetus to launch HealthRanker?
ANSWER: HealthRanker launched in beta mode on Feb 17th, 2008 as a result of my increasing frustration with other, more popular social news sites. These other social news sites do not focus on health news and information, which is something that I find to be disturbing.
3. How is the traffic to date, and what plans do you have going forward?
ANSWER: The membership and traffic to date, a week only, is pretty outstanding for not having done any significant promotions. I simple told a few of my fellow health bloggers, and so far the response has been very encouraging. . It's very motivating to see journalists responding to the early buzz. I plan on executing some social media initiatives to drive valuable, targeted traffic to the site.
4. How will you monetize the property?
ANSWER: We will most likely partner with a leading advertising service and test out different placements. To be honest, it is not something I am focusing too heavily on at this stage of the process.
5. Do you seek partners? If so, what type?
ANSWER: We are looking for health news partners that will allow for us to distribute our popular user submissions on their site and allow us to do the same. We are open to any ideas and welcome any suggestions.
We cover the key Online Health/PHR/EMR companies in our wiki; the entire list is here. Should we be covering your company? Email us at mattc [@] marketintellnow.com.
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