Initiatives

NaturalHealthcare.ca is in the process of expanding in some exciting ways. We launched in late 2003, and by 2009 we had 2,425,844 million unique visitors.

Now we are creating new areas for them to explore, and new ways for natural health practitioners and businesses to be found. We kicked off 2010 with a complete rebuild of the entire site from the navigation to the look and feel, through additional features on the listings (see the inset for what this site looked like in December 2009).

In 2010 expect to see:

• New subdomains for spas, organics, and more;
• The long-awaited gift certificate engine;
• More events like the Now That I am Healthy evening that brought alternative health practitioners and mainstream medicine to the (dinner) table to discuss creating a research-based natural health resource for survivors of critical illness;
• Bringing the Holistic, Helping, and Healing Business Networking evenings in-house;
• and the Practitioner Services Exchange to facilitate bartering/trading of services.

We'll also be reopening the Discussion Forums using the Open ID system to enable people to use existing logins on this site rather than creating yet another account (and to cut down on comment spam).

Past Innovations

We strive to keep the site up to date with the latest tested technology innovations - but only when we can identify a truly useful reason to implement it. For instance, we added a bunch of social media tools (in stages) to the site, including Twitter - but not necessarily for the reasons you might think.

We finally got on the Twitter wagon because it allows us to feed the website live from events. Yes, we're a technology company, and we could well have developed a system to live feed the website, but why? In addition, we have developed quite the selection of Twitter lists that enable us to track new research and health information faster than going research website by research website.

On top of that: it is also a way to have practitioners notify us quickly about events and workshops they are holding, and pass the information along to the larger group following - AND live on the website. How's that for finding a proper business use for what so many still think of as a toy?

2009

In 2009/early 2010 we opened several new subdomains and new channels for practitioners and business owners to reach their audiences: pets.naturalhealthcare.ca • coaching.naturalhealthcare.ca • energywork.naturalhealthcare.ca • supplements.naturalhealthcare.ca

Result? Traffic went from 1.81 million unique visitors to 2.42 million.

2008

In 2008, we created Wellergize™ www.wellergize.ca, to separate out the workplace wellness products and services. It's another channel for our practitioners and development partners to access a market using the Internet, with NHC staff providing marketing, coordination, and a point of contact. A new twist on the Employee Assistance Program model developed and we're working with Pragmos Consulting Inc. on EmployeeCounselling.ca - test market in the Greater Toronto Area, and soon spreading across Canada.

We started the Holistic, Helping, and Healing Business Networking Evenings to help connect practitioners and other healthy business owners to each other for cross-marketing, creating joint ventures, and general community-building.

We also kicked off a whole bunch of subdomains, including osteopathy.naturalhealthcare.ca • detox.naturalhealthcare.ca • and stress.naturalhealthcare.ca

Result? Traffic went from 1.63 million unique visitors to 1.81 million.

2007

• Began hosting networking evenings for practitioners
• Teamed up with major Canadian health expos to provide prizing and promotion
• Promoted the site at more public events than in the past

Result? Traffic went from 1.37 million unique visitors to 1.63 million.

Going back further

At some point we will do a full chronological review of the innovations we have brought to this site, but in the meantime, feel free to peruse the Statistics and Analysis page to see just how the changes we make have resulted in growth.