Chiropractic San Diego

By Michael Dorausch, DC

There must be dozens of different ways to contact me. I’m sure the experience is similar for you. Most of us have that primary e-mail address, then there’s the e-mail address used when we want to mark things sent as spam, and e-mail addresses used when not communicating with friends and family. I estimate I have about a dozen different e-mail addresses that get used regularly, I just don’t get a chance to check them on a daily basis.

Earlier this year I had a new business card created that didn’t have any information from my chiropractic office on it. Since we’ve handed out thousands upon thousands of cards from my office, people have often called me for Internet questions, marketing information, or other stuff I wouldn’t consider related to my chiropractic business. So for 2008 I had the new card created.

I used one of those online business card making sites (cards arrived in about a week) to put together this simple card with several ways to contact me. It’s interesting that since I had the cards made I’ve discovered messaging me via twitter is probably one of the best ways to get in touch. You can also send me e-mail but I sometimes don’t check it for several days at a time, especially when traveling. You can call me on my cell phone but I almost never answer it during chiropractic office hours (Monday through Friday). Sending me a message on Twitter however, will typically get noticed (my apologies if for some reason I have not replied to you yet).

Sending information via snail mail is actually still very effective, especially when it’s handwritten. I think that the majority of chiropractors that took the time to personally mail me stuff in 2008, got mentions in the news, posts on this blog, and other types of thank you replies.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

There’s some cleaning up going on at the planetchiropractic world headquarters in Los Angeles, and I’m being thankful while going through files and documents from the years passed. There are lots of chiropractors to thank, but I like to do some shout outs on names and addresses from time to time. Your continued use of the site and your support is greatly appreciated, many thanks.

The little guy in the image above (n8) used to appear on the homepage of the planetc1site around January 2000. It’s one of thousands of images sitting on local hard drives. We actually took steps recently the move this another content online, perhaps on the chiropractic media domain.

Saying thank you from planetchiropractic…

Dr. Robert Berry - Annabel Chiropractic Center - 316 East Main Street, Montour Falls, NY 14865 (607) 535-7080

Dr. David Phipps - Phipps Chiropractic Clinic - 100 North Cottonwood, #104 Richardson, TX 75080 (214) 437-5800

Dr. Steven Silk - Wiarton Family Chiropractic Centre - 417 Brown St., Wiarton, Ontario - Canada (519) 534-1330

Dr. Jamie Settimi - Settimi Chiropractic Center - 17800 West Bluemound Road - Brookfield, WI - (262) 789-0576

Dr. Walter Sanchez - 3826 W. 16th Ave., Hialeah, FL 33012 (305) 821-1800

Thanks also to all of the chiropractors who participated in the Cinco de Mayo May 5th chiropractors post earlier this year. The “meet a chiropractor” series came out of that post, and we still have chiropractic interviews to add to the news, thanks to all of the chiropractors that provided feedback.

Some of the chiropractors since the May 5 post were Danella Whittaker, Nick Baker, Scott Swanson of San Francisco, Nicholas Campos, Tim Swift, and others.

Thanks again everybody!

By Michael Dorausch, DC

It’s come to my attention that there are those on the Internet stuck in some sort of chiropractic dyslexia. While almost no one would ever notice entering the URL chiropracticplanet.com works just as easy as entering the term planetchiropractic.com. If you click on either one of those URLs you will have noticed that they both direct you to the homepage of Planet Chiropractic.

Funny thing is, when checking log files I discovered that some people type the domain using chiropractic first, where as the great majority (96.95437%) type planet first. I think even fewer people realize the domain they get directed to is planetc1.com (instead of planetchiropractic.com or chiropracticplanet.com).

The “c1″ in planetc1 stands for the atlas, or first cervical vertebrae. Most chiropractors are familiar with that abbreviation but the real story behind the creation of the “c1″ had very little to do with the bone at the top of one’s neck, and a lot more to do with the bones in my wrists. There was a time I wrote code for many hours of the day (late 1990s - early 2000s) and I got tired of writing the word chiropractic over and over again. In retrospect, I could have come up with some other solution but the shortened C1 version worked at the time.

So for all of you that are inadvertently typing chiropractic before planet versus planet before chiropractic, you’ll still get to the homepage. If that’s not confusing enough for you, try visiting chiropracticblogs.com and see where that takes you. HaHa.

I had a nice photo to share but it’s not uploading from where I’m at so I suppose it will have to wait.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

It’s not often that I receive handwritten thank you letters from chiropractors in North America or Canada. One arrived in the mail earlier this week, and I wanted to say thank you in return.

The card comes from chiropractor Danny Desaulniers of A.D.I.O. Chiropractic in Okotoks (Alberta), Canada. I hope he doesn’t mind me repeating the message here. It reads…

Dr. Mike Dorausch,

Thank you for planetchiropractic.com. Ever since our first time meeting each other (C.A.C. convention in Niagara) I’ve enjoyed the articles & the audios that you have on your web site. Thank you for the dedication that you have to preserve the principles and purpose of chiropractic.

I love and appreciate you,

Danny Desaulniers

Thank you Danny, I love and appreciate you as well.

Allow me to share a story with you guys. As Danny mentioned, I first met him at a chiropractic conference taking place in Canada. It was early 2001, and I had flown from Los Angeles, to represent planetchiropractic.com at an exhibit booth I rented at the CAC convention. I’ve found a news post (weekend with the CAC) that posted to planetchiropractic on May 7, 2001. Almost hard to believe that we’ve been posting news since before that time. I even found photos, that are still available online, that I took during the weekend event.

Danny was also working a booth at the event, representing Life University in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a chiropractic student at the time, and I learned that he was part of a long list of incredibly active chiropractors from Canada. As is to be expected, he was fired up about the practice, principles, and philosophy of chiropractic. In fact, everybody I met that weekend at the White Oaks conference center, was fired up about chiropractic.

Thanks to Michelle Whitney (Canadian Chiropractor of the Year 2000) I was invited to the event. There’s something really special about getting to hang out with a group of like-minded individual for several days at a time. I remember Michelle laying into me for traveling with fluoride toothpaste, there would be no such thing in her home.

Dr. Danny is a good example of what happens to fired up chiropractic students when they graduate from chiropractic school. I can’t say that all of them turn out to be great chiropractors, but in his case, chiropractic is in his blood. The best part about receiving a card from him is the fact that I know there is someone in the Alberta area serving their community with the same passion and dedication that he had when representing the college he was attending in 2001.

Located south of Calgary, the city of Okotoks should be aware that they have a fantastic chiropractor practicing in their community. I’d love to hear that area residents have learned about his chiropractic office from reading this post. Looking for a chiropractor that’s passionate about what they do? Go visit Dr. Danny.

A.D.I.O. Chiropractic Centre?
3-18 Southridge Drive
Okotoks, AB T1S 1N1, Canada
(403) 995-0855

By Michael Dorausch, DC

If you’re not familiar with the backlash that’s been going on surrounding a Motrin (ibuprofen) campaign that hit the Internet over the weekend, this post and video may be a bit offensive to you. Actually, it’ll probably be offensive either way, but the video spoof (which appears below) is quite creative and pokes fun at the entire debacle.

In a previous post, I ranted about the Motrin Video Campaign, and I was only one of many untold thousands. There was also a weekend planetchiropractic.com news post on the major fail. There’s been a great amount of opportunity to learn how marketing campaigns move through social media since this whole baby sling Mom blogger thing took off.

While it’s become a major issue of reputation management, I believe many are beginning to look at the long tail of this campaign, and predicting it will be a major success for the over-the-counter headache medicine manufacture.

This spoof video talks about breast implants, big boobs, and back pain, so leave now if you can’t handle the humor. Obviously, this was not a real commercial.

From the video… Silicone, saline, through the belly button, under the armpits, and who knows what else they’ve come up with. These things can put a ton a strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders, did I mention your back?

As a chiropractor, what I found funny is that this version actually makes sense. Hey, I’m in celebrity central, and I’ve had a ton of women with breast implants complain about pain in all those areas (especially the neck and low back).

Ironically, I take care of a large number of moms that use (or have used) baby slings. In my experience, when used properly, the practice of baby wearing is virtually pain-free. I personally think it’s a lot better to wear one’s baby (as long as you’re maintaining good posture) than it is to hunch over and push a stroller. Don’t forget you have to load and unload that stroller into the car all the time. That puts additional unneeded stress on the spine.

Well, maybe the headache pill manufacturer, had their target market all wrong. Maybe they planned all this in advance. Bumbling advertising fail or genius marketing strategy, it won’t be for me to decide.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

What name did Obama give his dog? I realize this question may be a bit premature, but I’m a bit concerned as to what the president’s first dog is going to be named. First off, amongst all the Obamania going on in the world, there’s been plenty of discussion as to what kind of dog America’s 44th is going to have in the White House.

The notion of a presidential pooch came up during Obama’s press conference on November 7th. President-elect Barack Obama stated that the situation involving a dog, was a major issue. He mentioned that there are two criteria that had to be reconciled, one was that the dog was to be hypoallergenic, and the other was that the family preferred a shelter dog, or as he referred to it, a mutt.

We’ve pretty much established that the presidential family is going to be getting a dog, but what will it be named? I had a discussion with my yellow Labrador, Zoey Daisy Love (that’s her in the picture), and we had a few thoughts.

You may not realize it, but this really is a big issue, especially for somebody involved in search engine optimization. Lets face it, whatever the Obama family decides to name their dog, the word is going to be all over the news, and all over the Web.

Something to consider: Obamas dog’s name will quickly rank in top search positions, potentially making it near impossible for a person, an animal, or even a business, that may potentially be sharing the same name, to rank as they did in the past. For example, if the dog is named Fluffy or Buffy, Buster or Stanley, someone is going see their search rankings affected. So I hope that’s considered when the presidential dog becomes part of the family and gets its name.

I figure it’s pretty safe, that the dog won’t be named Joe or Sarah, so people with those names won’t have to worry. I don’t know whether the presidential family will be getting a labradoodle, a poodle, a goldendoodle, or other breed of dog, but I’m sure any choice will be a good one, and the dog will be a great addition to the Obama family.

What do you think Obama and his family will name their dog?

By Michael Dorausch, DC

I like getting these postcard and mailing related posts added to the site. It is actually helping people to find resources they may be interested in, and it gives me a chance to vent. My last mailbox post was on October 27, inbox recycling. I’ve got a pretty hefty stack to go through today.

(photo: I took a picture of these bananas when at a chiropractor’s office in Lancaster, California. What happens when you straighten a banana?)

okay, stuff received in the mail. No one has sent me a digital x-ray unit get, just lots of postcards and brochures. First piece of mail is for chiropractic software solutions. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about this, but I have yet to find chiropractic software I like. I think it’s because I’m too picky and tech minded. A number of my friends have been going with ChiroTouch, but I haven’t used it, so no review as of yet.

The mailer is for a practice management software from a company called Eon systems, Inc. Visit their web site if you want more information.

Second piece of mail comes from Maine and it’s a letter addressed to Fellow Chiropractors. At a glance I keep seeing the word MAXEGEN listed in their letter. Sounds like an anabolic steroid. I believe it’s some kind of pharmaceutical grade nutritional product. I am seeing a boatload of  marketing for products like these coming to my office. Doesn’t look exciting. Haha, after doing a Google search, turns out it’s an MLM product. I’ll be staying for away from it. MLM is teh SUCK.

What are the odds the next piece of mail I open is for another multi-level marketing product? Probably about 100%, since I get way too much stuff in this crap on my desk. OK, this piece of mail is for a product called Monavie. Is a wild and organic juice that looks like it’s in a wine bottle. I tasted this stuff in a chiropractic conference and I thought it was pretty gross, better than the desiccated liver shakes a drink as a teenager, but still pretty gross by today’s standards. I think I’ll do a detailed post on this product. Lots of bullet points about inflammation, arthritis, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and oxygen radical absorption capacity, in the letter. Looks like a disease mongering, fear based piece.

Next postcard, another nurtional product. Chiropractors get marketing by nutrition vendors more than anything else. This on is for NanOmega3, which is a Golden Fla, Vegan DHA & Synergistic Vitamin mix. Looks like it is being marketed as a superfood dietary supplement. There was a link for getting free samples so check it out. They will try and subscribe you to a newsletter, so watch the boxes if you don’t want to be on a list. I know I come across negative about most of these products (because many of them suck) but I really liked the NanoGreens I got from this company in the past.

Postcard, taking chiropractic to a new level, with John Donofrio and David Lee. This was for a 12 hour relicensing event in Los Angeles at the Shereton Gateway LAX hotel. Not my stle but looks like a good program. Probably doing these seminars every month in some US city. $295 seminar includes 4 hours of technique. To register you can call 612-921-2030 (Pennsylvania)

Another postcard, Million Dollar Nutritional Cash Practice, going in the recycle bin. Apparently, chiropractor Lori Puskar, has built a booming cash nutritional practice since she is on the front of the card.

Tong & Associates postcard for 2008 DC License Renewal Seminars. Dr. Tong was my x-ray instructor at CCCLA and I’d say anything he puts on is worth attending. Good guy with a great interest in what he does. Event co-sponsored by Cleveland Chiropractic College KC/LA. Too many seminars to list and I’m sure there will be a 2009 scedule. Call 626 913-3013 for seminar information.

Not done yet, a better life chiropractic t-shirts postcard. These look preety g4y so I won’t be promoting them. Show me a cool chiropractic t-shirt and I’ll put the word out. DCS (Dead Chiropractic Society) makes the best shirts I’ve currently seen. They get peoples attention.

Yikes, another postcard from John Donofrio and this one has info about Cold Laser Technology. OK, maybe not the kind of event I thought it was. Personally, unless you are getting paid to do so, I think going to “seminars” where you get pitched products to use in practice is a great waste of time. Save you money and go to events that teach hands on (or even instrument based) adjustive techniques and work on improving your skills. Crutches suck balls and all gizmos become a crutch eventually.

Huge brochure, self-pay seminars, too big to read. Some guy on front that looks like he has a brain aneurysm or massive headache. We do people use these photos? Concept looks good though and there is a toll free number to call for more info. 888-482-5208 for details on Self-Pay Seminars.

Last card, postcard for nutritional seminars (yes another one). This one by Ulan, think I have covered that before. Same info as before, nutritional systems program for adding that kind of thing to practice.

Desk clear, enjoy, peace out. <>

By Michael Dorausch, DC

More than 39,000 people participated in the 2008 New York City Marathon this past Sunday. A chiropractor practicing in Clifton New Jersey not only ran the 26.2 mile NYC marathon, he promoted chiropractic along the way. In fact, Dr. Vincent Malba, wore a shirt with his name on the front, and the words “Oaklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center” on the back.

The timing by Dr. Vin is perfect, as it’s time now to gear up for supporting the 2009 Oklahaven Have-A-Heart Fundraiser. One chiropractor will run through five city boroughs of New York promoting chiropractic for kids, what will you do?

Here are some photos from Dr. Vincent’s marathon journey.

The front of Dr. Vins ING Marathon T-Shirt

Looks like Central Park to me, Dr. Malby must have placed a camera in a tree

Dr. Vincent Malba on the streets of New York City with his NYC Marathon metal

The back of chiropractor Vincent Malba T-shirt

Very cool that a chiropractor in New Jersey would go through such an effort to promote chiropractic for kids while running through the streets of New York. It’s not just wearing a T-shirt, there’s intention and action in everything he did. If this chiropractor is so excited about running the New York City marathon, and promoting chiropractic care for children, imagine how excited he must be to deliver chiropractic care in his office. Fortunately I’ve got his contact information. If you’re in the New Jersey area, I’d suggest paying this chiropractor a visit.

Abundant Life Chiropractic Center - Vincent Malba, DC
1005 Clifton Avenue - Clifton, NJ 07013
(973) 777- 0058

By Michael Dorausch, DC

I believe the last time I covered postcards and the other mail coming to my California chiropractic office was earlier this month. There’s another stack on the desk and I’m posting information here before sending everything to the recycle bin.

(photo: iPhone loving chiropractor Russell Kun and Butler Pennsylvania Chiropractor Ram Parikh. Picture was taken during attendance at a educational conference)

Stuff in the mail: I received a postcard from the International Chiropractors Association of California (notice that’s chiropractors and not chiropractic) in regards to a seminar taking place in Los Angeles on November 15. Hotel location is the LAX Four Points Sheraton (9750 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045). Event is taking place on a Saturday and it is a personal injury insurance related seminar.

It’s not clear according to the postcard but I’m guessing that the seminar is only $99, since there is a sentence that reads “ask us about our $99 seminars” underneath their address information. For those doing personal injury in Southern California, this looks like it could be a good Saturday event to attend (I’ll be in Las Vegas).

Dr. Kyle LeBlanc has sent me mail from St. Louis, Missouri. Upon opening it I see the headlines Create More Time, Receive More New Patients And Give Yourself a Raise! After that there’s 6 pages of small text that I’m honestly not going to bother reading. Must be for a seminar taking place in Los Angeles because the words Los Angeles, California and November 15th & 16th are in bold on the last page. Personally, I dislike multipage mailings like these. Postcards work much better in getting my attention.

The Southern California University of Health Sciences (that’s a Chiropractic College in case you’re wondering) has sent me two different postcards along with a brochure mailer. I give the school credit for being consistent with their continuing education marketing efforts. I get a lot more mail from this school than I do from Life West and Cleveland Chiropractic College (2 schools where I’ve attended lots of continuing education programs).

The first postcard is regarding the 2008 interdisciplinary symposium on sports injuries of the extremities. I just noticed it takes place on October 25 and 26 so I’ve missed out on that since I was at Barcamp Los Angeles (number six) all day today. It was a 13 hour continuing education event which included four hours of technique. It’s likely this event is held more than once a year so if you’re interested contact the alumni association for more details. 562-902-3337

The second postcard are received from SCU was a general list of events taking place during 2008. Pretty busy to get all this information on one oversized postcard, but nice to get everything in one glance. What’s odd though is that nearly every seminar listed on the card has already taken place. Out of about 19 events that I can count, there’s only one still upcoming, an all in one day CEU program taking place on the chiropractic campus in Whittier California. Contact the school for more information at 562-902-3379.

The brochure from SCU (when did they start calling it that?) was specifically for the sports injuries symposium so I won’t cover that again since the event was yesterday and today. I like postcards, a lot more than the brochures, much easier to read. I also think they stand out better amongst all the mail being sent to the office.

I’ve got a supersized postcard from a chiropractic software company called Practice Studio. For years I’ve had a really hard time getting good information about billing software for chiropractors, I always hear someone tell me a horror story (not about this particular product but all software billing products). Here’s the funny thing for me.. I’ve been a practicing chiropractor for more than 10 years. This postcard reads Chart Notes a Pain? Need an integrated EMR / PM System?

I’ll be honest, I have no idea what EMR stands for. Electronic management reports, electronically managed reports, extraterrestrial multiplying radiographer? I’m assuming PM stands for Practice Management but I could be wrong. Maybe they should make a special postcard for retards like me. I do like the picture of the touchscreen, seeing lots of that lately from software billing companies. I’m really looking forward to touchscreen marking of x-rays. That’s going to be sweet.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

Taking a look at 14,653 different key phrases that accumulated since the beginning of this month, it’s interesting to see how many of the top 10 are related to chiropractors making money, employment in the chiropractic industry, buying or selling chiropractic items, and getting some chiropractic education. There is also 2 related to the upcoming presidential election, in one search for a sexy girl that seems to appear month after month.

So in checking key phrases for the month of October, it’s clear that chiropractic is at the top of the list. To the best of my knowledge, the majority of searches for the term chiropractic results in visitors landing on the planetchiropractic.com homepage.

If we look at key phrase reports ( like this one from early October and this one from June ) we see that the same search term has consistently been at the top of the list.

What I found interesting was the increase in search traffic for chiropractor salary and chiropractic salary terms. It’s easy to think that these are related to changes in the US economy but I don’t have any specific data to back that up with.

I’m personally pleased to see the term planet chiropractic appearing more frequently in search logs. Ad the .com and it shouldn’t be that difficult to find us.

No idea how long the www.obama.com searches will continue to appear in log reports. I think the traffic to our chiropractic web site related to that term will continue to dwindle during the next few months, regardless of who wins the presidency of the United States. Reason being is we were getting traffic because this article related to presidential websites was ranking as high as number one when searches were made for the www.obama.com term. Besides that, the Obama campaign has either purchased the web site people were seeking, or has paid to have traffic redirected to the candidates official site.

The information on chiropractic salaries appears more economically related when I see that searches for chiropractic jobs and chiropractic classifieds are both appearing prominently in top 10 listings.

The term chiropractic seminars is a common popular one, but searches appear to be higher in the month of October, then I noticed during the summer months. Time to get that continuing education taking care of since holidays are quickly approaching.

Has been more than 2 1/2 years since Candice Michelle graced the cover of Playboy magazine, and we featured a few articles related to her and her chiropractor husband since that time. I have a strong assumption that most people searching out that name are not seeking information on chiropractic services but they end up on the web site nonetheless. It’s amazing how much more search traffic the names of attractive women get online, when compared to commonly used search phrases typically seen in other industries. I believe the term Beyoncé drove more traffic to our site in a single day, when compared to any other persons name.

The last search on the list, who won the vice presidential debate, is likely no longer getting much traffic, but it was a directly targeted page around the time of October 2, 2008. Sometimes keyphrases just turn out that way, other times they are intentionally created and targeted in hopes of increasing search related traffic.

I’m looking forward to seeing what searches appear in the top 10 for the month of November.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

Sometimes the most seemingly obvious stuff gets missed by those with the best of intentions. Like millions of other blog owners, I delete comments and mark comments as spam, nearly every day. There’s the obvious stuff like posts for online poker, male enhancement pills, a wide array of pharmaceuticals, and all sorts of stuff in the adult category. In my case (and many others) the majority of that type of comment spam gets caught by Akismet, a WordPress spam detecting plug-in.

I don’t know about others but I don’t even check my spam folders, everything gets deleted within a 30 day period. The really bad stuff that most of us are seeing is automated comment or track back spam. I have to imagine there’s a lot of people out there thinking they’re doing a good job of promoting their web site or blog by posting lots and lots of comments, but I have news for you (although you’ll probably never read this), you are doing it wrong.

Since this is a chiropractic blog I’m going to use an example of some comments posted recently by a chiropractor. I took some screenshots and removed identifiable information (except for the commenters name). Let’s take a look at three comments Steve left over a matter of minutes.

Those that use WordPress will be familiar with the screenshot shown above. What we are looking at is the manage comments section. I currently have all comments on the site set for moderation before going public so people really never get a chance to see all the stuff that’s being deleted or marked as spam. If you’ve posted comments to this blog, and they haven’t appeared, it’s extremely likely you are engaging in spam like activity.

There are three comments awaiting moderation and they are all from the same individual. The comments are related to chiropractic so I wouldn’t consider them blatant spam, but none of them had anything to do with the posts that were made.

The first (shown above) reads “a local Chiropractor has put together this service. It allows you to find a chiropractor at a reduced rate. Check it out and let me know what you think please.”

Here’s what I think: 1) the keyword chiropractor is hyperlinked to the web site in question. To me, that is flag number one that this is spam. 2) the comment has nothing to do with the post. 3) the commentor has never before participated on the site. 4) two more similar comments were made in a matter of minutes.

Above is a screenshot of the other two comments. Notice they both have hyperlinks to the commenters web site using the keyword: Chiropractor.

So this is not spam like automated buy drugs or male enhancement formula spam, but it is spam nonetheless. Think about it this way… Imagine I’m in my chiropractic office serving my community. A stranger walks in that no one in the office has ever seen before. He doesn’t say hi, he doesn’t comment on how the office is running, he doesn’t offer any complement or criticism, he just announces to everyone there that he is a chiropractor and would like everyone to come visit him. How would you react if someone did that in your place of business?

I shouldn’t have to get into how to leave a comment on someone’s blog, that really should be common sense, unfortunately it’s not. To be helpful, I asked the simple question to my friends on Twitter… What are your best “how to leave a comment on a blog” tips? Can you give me something in 140 characters or less?

I received the following responses moments later…

LisaBarone: Read the post, then comment. Not the other way around.

davesnyder: RT @LisaBarone: @chiropractic Read the post, then comment. Not the other way around. … golden advice!

serena: @chiropractic: be succinct, use bullets to keep ur points straight, limit your adjs/advbs to keep it hype-free, link to back up data

CarrieHill: @chiropractic - dont say “nice post” - leave something valuable - even if it’s WHY you agree or dont agree.

I’m glad Carrie Hill brought that last point up. If you are new to posting comments, saying things like “nice post” or “great post” may seem a perfectly OK thing to do. In reality, it is probably irritating as hell to the person/s moderating the blog. You may get through once, but posting such empty comments on a consistent basis is likely to get you banned.

OK, those are my thoughts on posting comments, and I’m sticking to them.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

Bare with me while I take you through another post related to top 10 key phrases appearing in planetchiropractic.com log files. Trust me, while this stuff may appear boring, studying keywords and key phrases related to your web site’s traffic, can open up your eyes to entirely new opportunities.

Saturday morning I took a screen shot of search results for the previous day, which happened to be the day after the vice presidential debate. Take a look and you’ll notice that five out of the 10 most popular key phrases driving traffic to the website on that particular day were related to politics and the upcoming presidential election.

We’re looking at the top 10 search related keyphrases for the day. Notice that number two (who won the vp debate), number three (who won the vice presidential debate), number four (www.obama.com), and number six (who won vp debate), are all related to the upcoming presidential election. That’s a lot of bounce traffic unless we’re providing worthwhile information that has relevance to those visiting the site.

I authored the Obama campaign website post back in September of 2007. At the time I did some research on three candidate web sites (which didn’t include the web site of John McCain). There’s been a fair amount of traffic for that particular article ever since it posted, with visitors increasing slightly month after month. After November, searches for terms like www.obama.com will likely drop-off significantly.

The other four search phrases were all related to an article that published on Thursday after the vice presidential debates. I don’t expect those keywords to appear in search results again any time soon. If we are paying attention to trends though, anticipate seeing nearly the exact same search phrases in website log files during the month of October 2012.

Chiropractors following the election may find this January 2008 article on chiropractic money in politics interesting. As of most recent reports, chiropractors have given 57% donations to Democrats versus 43% donations to Republicans. That includes contributions from both individuals and PACs.

If you are interested in keywords and phrases, some archived related articles include: blogs top 10 search keyphrases, keyphrases used on search engines, popular keywords in alternative medicine category, topics driving traffic to website, and see how easily you can drive new traffic.

We haven’t seen the end of politically related keywords in search log traffic. I’m looking forward to next month when people are searching for chiropractor gift ideas.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

Last night Dr. Fred Schofield spoke at DCS in Orange County California. His presentation was marvelous, wish I would have recorded it. Towards the end of the night he had a hand out flier titled The Dynamics of Energy of which I grabbed a copy. The flyers from the book Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

The flyer shows high versus low energy. Broken into four categories, there is high negative, high positive, low negative, and low positive.

Low positive includes characteristics like relaxed, mellow, peaceful, tranquil, and serene. Low negative include characteristics like depressed, exhausted, burned out, hopeless, and defeated. High negative includes characteristics like angry, fearful, anxious, defensive, and resentful. High positive (fully engaged) includes characteristics like invigorated, confident, challenged, joyful, and connected.

I scanned the document to a PDF file which you can download or view here… 2008_dynamics-of-energy.

Dr. Fred talked about the different characteristics and he selected several people from the audience to show different levels of engagement. He had individuals stand on a chair and speak affirmations amongst the crowd of people in attendance. It was interesting to observe that most people would begin in one of the three categories (low positive, low negative, high negative) and would eventually move into the high positive or fully engaged state.

My take away was that getting to and maintaining a high positive (fully engaged) mental space takes time and effort. Get the PDF link above and check out the flyer.

By Michael Dorausch, DC

Returned home today from the 2008 San Francisco WordCamp which took place at the Mission Bay Conference Center. This was my third WordCamp event and for me it was the best of them all.

The facility was fantastic, the speakers were awesome (more detailed post coming on that later this week), bagels and coffee were great, there was an abundance of stickers and buttons, T-shirts galore, geniuses to hang out with, and I was surrounded by an incredibly open hearted community of individuals. I came home so charged up and I wasn’t expecting that.

This was one of the first photos of the day taken, and there were plenty more. Photos taken from my camera have been uploaded to a WordCamp Flickr Group page. While the 2007 WordCamp was lots of fun, this one really rocked my brain with some new insights and positive inspiration.

Thanks to all the volunteers that worked so hard to make this event such a huge success!