Name of your website?Official Medifast Site, Medifast Weight loss meal plan
Your name?
Patrick
Your Location (city, etc)
Saint Louis
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Medifast diet plan and meal plans for healthy weight loss.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
To help others get healthy meal plans to assist with their weight loss. This is one of four websites that we have launched that deal with helping others improve their health and learn to live a healthy lifestyle.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
We first launched www.JuliaHavey.com in 1997 and it was 2 pages offering a weight loss book and recipe book based on the weight loss success of Julia Havey who lost 130 pounds. We have since launched a site detailing our weight loss program - www.vicebustingdiet.com, a blog about all things health and weight loss - http://juliahavey.typepad.com. Then a third site about a fruit and vegetable extract supplement - www.jpsupplement.com. And finally this site about healthy meal plans from Medifast - drinkchooselive.com, that originally started as a site about the harm of drinking soft drinks, and the weight gain and other health problems caused by such.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name was decided based on the product offered and description of such product.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Unfortunately, this site is not different from many, but we have a great customer support center that helps those who have questions about their weight loss and meal plans, and need help, motivation, or coaching when it comes to healthy choices in their life.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Goal is to help end the obesity epidemic and teach others about healthy living and creating a healthy lifestyle. To get others more active in their own health. We'd like to expand this site to contain more information about health-related items.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We have started to make strides toward our goal of increasing public awareness of healthy choices will reduce the cost of health care by creating a healthier society.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would create a nationwide campaign on the radio, tv, print, and increased web presence to increase public awareness about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Educating and motivating others to take an active role in their health, and making the decision to choose healthy foods and beverages over those that are unhealthy, addictive, and cause health problems in the long-term. Also, the cost of advertising, promotions, and media is very costly before a return on investment is seen.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge is streamlining our business so we can focus on media exposure hence driving prospects to our site and utilizing our recommended products for healthy living.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Text link placement around the web has been most successful as it helps draw people to our site from other sites, and from increased search engine ranking with some related search terms.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It has been a great learning experience in an area that was presumably going to be difficult, tedious, and cumbersome.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We will continue to run the site for another 3-5 years if it doesn't start to show promise, positive feedback, and a net profit.
What would you need to carry out your business plan?
We need a much larger budget and a few more people on our team who are experts in marketing, media placement, product development, and fund raising.
What is your website address?
Official Medifast Site, Medifast Weight loss meal plan
