Integrator Annual Report to Readers for 2006: Use Trends, Donors, Top Stories, Outreach, plus
Written by John Weeks
Integrator Annual Report to Readers for 2006: Use Trends, Donors, Top Stories, Outreach, plus
Summary: The Integrator is now nine months and 18 issues old. This report is to readers and participants based on action in calendar year 2006. What are the numbers of users? What articles most caught your interest? Who has "subscribed" or sent along a donation? (Thanks to all who did!) Is the business model functioning and sustainable? What marketing has been engaged and how has it worked? Welcome to the Integrator Annual Report to Readers for 2006.
Send your comments to
for publication in a future Your Comments article.
Yes, the Integrator is a private enterprise. But it's mission - shaping an industry/creating health - is public. The Integrator serves a community of individuals who believe that a new alignment of relationships between healthcare's distinct disciplines and stakeholders is essential for the betterment of the care people receive.
So, in the spirit of the public nature of this endeavor, here is the Integrator annual report for 2006. I share information on use, donations, business outcomes, top stories, and more. I hope you enjoy this look behind the functioning of this growing news-source and commentary site. Steady Growth in Visitors
The Integrator has seen a steady growth of visitors and a particularly nice arc upward in the last two months. In December, the site had an average of 447 visits per day, with each looking at roughly 3.5 pages (or clicks per visit). Many of you didn't hang around a long time, but came flipping through, as is the way of internet surfing and flipping through magazines.
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Integrator Use: April 2006 -December 2006
Month
Unique
Visitors
Total
Visits
Visits/
person
Total
pages
Pages/
visit
Vistors/
Day
April*
1132
1790
1.58
17353^
--
45+
June
1987
3118
1.57
11864
3.8
104
Aug
2722
4094
1.50
13851
3.38
132
Oct
3764
7704
2.05
21316
2.76
249
Dec
7236
13863
1.91
48369
3.49
447
2006
--
54376
--
190923
3.51
196
* The first "April" issue was actually published March 27
so these numbers are for a 34 day month.
^ The high number of pages seems to be linked to curiosity
about my return - and a lot of reading of the sabbatical section.
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Advisor Clem Bezold, PhD, suggested I go electronic with the Integrator
Those who know more than I about these things tell me that the page views per visit of 3.5 (know as "stickiness") is not a bad number. But how are we to view the total number of visits? In a moment of concern over lagging growth which I shared with Integrator advisors last July, Clem Bezold, PhD said to me: "Just keep putting out good information. The internet will take care of the rest." Recent growth has suggested there is something to Bezold's advice.
Interestingly, few people who visit choose to subscribe to the twice-monthly updates. Instead, many choose to save the site as a "favorite." Roughly 3400 of you out there have the Integrator on a favorite list on your machine. In December, 14.8% (1073) of visitors saved the site to their "favorites." Apparently, most people are not looking to add to the mail in their inboxes.
Integrator light I have been told by a number of you that you like receiving and skimming the twice-monthly e-updates but only rarely visit the site to read whole articles. The Integrator-light is one form of the Integrator service ...
The Integrator Business Model: How it Fared
The Integrator, while it wears a "blog"
title, is actually - as I have been told by someone who knows more about these things than I do -
"more of a news-feed site." The Integrator purpose is to
inform, investigate, network, comment, organize and cajole. So the business model
has been to find the revenue that will support this as the most
significant part of my work life - the 40+ hours per week it takes.
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2006 Sponsors Donors/Subscribers and Sponsors
I am deeply grateful to the following individuals
and businesses for their contributions that allow me
the pleasure of doing this work. Here are the
contributors/subscribers for 2006. Thank you all!
Sponsors ($13,500 for 12 months)
Sponsor since pre-publication
NCMIC Group (Lou Sportelli, DC)
Triad Healthcare (Agostino Villani, DC)
Standard Process (Charlie DuBois and David Barnes, PhD)
Alternative Medicine Integration Group (James Zechman and Richard Sarnat, MD)
Donor Subscribers
Sponsor since April 2006
Complementary Healthcare Plans ($2500)
Matt Russell Public Affairs ($2000)
National University of Health Sciences ($1000)
Clyde Jensen, PhD ($750)*
Special Project Sponsor ($1500)
International Association of Yoga Therapists
Sponsor since July 2006
Subscriber Contributors ($100+)
Jan Schwartz, LMT
Jared Zeff, ND ($10/month)
Other Subscribers
Sponsor since August 2006
Veronica Zador, RYT 500
John Kepner
Linnea Larson, MSW
David Matteson
Wendy Lippman, LMP
Roger Jahnke, OMD
* A donation of airfare and hotel which helped in initiating a relationship which led to the sponsorship by Standard Process.
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In 2006, the Integrator received $41,000 in income. The bulk of Integrator support came from the four sponsors whose total contribution during 2006 was a function of their start date. The Integrator
also received $1000+ contributions - out of the blue - from three other organizations and individuals. These contributions to the mission of the Integrator are what have allowed the work to take off this year. You've had a chance to read about most of these organizations. I'll share information about the others soon. Sincere thanks to all.
NCMIC president Lou Sportelli, DC, stepped forward with the sponsorship which got the Integrator rolling
In addition, in Issue #1, I noted my willingness to accept contributions from any of the rest of you who thought to do so. A few have chosen to use Pay Pal to send me a "subscription" of their choice. Others have sent a check (3345 59th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98116). Thanks to each of you. All are meaningful, to body and spirit. I like the mix of professional degrees represented in the donor list.
Expenses and Needs: My target has been six sponsors and/or at least $80,000 of income each year. My spouse thinks that the sponsor target should be more like eight sponsors, to limit the need for other work as to allow me capital for some editing and tech support. For me, the equation is simple: The more revenue to the Integrator, the more time I can spend on developing better Integrator stories and the less time I need to spend scrambling for other work.* The good news is that after paying about $2000 in tech costs to get started, the Integrator has been a one-person show, with little overhead. The bad news is that the one person has limited technical skills and is the crowned King of Typos.
In the coming year I anticipate an appeal or two to readers who think the work is valuable. Those of you who are anxious to even out any karma from value you find in the Integrator can feel free to send a check to 3345 59th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98116 if you don't like Pay Pal ... Any amount is a happy thing!
The Most Read of the 150+ Integrator Articles
In the first nine months, the Integrator reported roughly 150 stories, or 16-17 articles per month. On average, some 350 of you have looked at each of these stories. The most read to date is from my first on March 27: Bravewell-backed "The New Medicine" Debuts March 29 on PBS.
The typical Integrator experience is that the longer something has been posted, the more visitors it will have received. News on the web is never old news. People keep popping in, based on searches or sends from friends. Articles in one issue tend to float up in use together. Of the top 10 stories, for instance - each of which has between 1207 and 1581 visits, all but one was published in April.
So for the Integrator "most read" list, I selected the articles not for the total number of visits but for their more rapid climb up the list of "most-clicked" stories.
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The Integrator Top 13 Stories in 2006
This list is based on the most read relative to
the amount of time each has been posted.
The Top 13 list shows a pretty good split between articles that attract for being good news and others that are fear-based. On the positive side we see the IAYT series, the (successful) campaign of now US Senator Jon Tester, Bradly Jacobs' role with Steve Case's Revolution Health, the Edmonton research meeting, etc.). Then there is the attraction of fear and mayhem that sell news of all kinds (threats to NIH NCCAM, AMA action against others, murder of the AHCPR, etc.)
Marketing and Outreach
Marketing of the Integrator has played a minor role in the Integrator activity this year. I have not consulted with specialists on what I should do to create a successful internet presence, for instance. Perhaps one day. My goal has been to reach leadership of the distinct disciplines and stakeholders. To do this I have engaged the following steps.
American Association of Oriental Medicine I prepare briefs on 3-5 Integrator stories for AAOM's monthly, electronic Qi-Unity. (If your organization has a newsletter and would like to explore something like this, let me know.)
Thanks to all of these organizations, and the individuals involved, for these relationships. Again, if you have a website or newsletter through which you can broadening your constituency's integration awareness, let me know. I provide abstracted, update copy at no charge and on your schedule which you then merely load into your system.
Participant/User Involvement
This is an area where identity confusion and tech limitations have converged to form the Integrator's current model for receiving your input which I am not sure is best.
Blog comment field My original tech support was never able to come up with software which would work with the site to allow the classic blog comment field. So that level of inter-activity has not been available.
Integrator "Your Comments" articles In lieu of this typical approach, I invite you to comment on any topic. We've had some good given-and-take here, particularly on NCCAM, on the series on my hospitalizaton and on the community room acupuncture model.
Forums I dropped my early use of Forums when they began to be daily corrupted with nasty spam. While visited by many, there was never a lot of participation and commentary. Christy Lee Engel, ND, LAc, Bill Manahan, MD and Lisa Yater, LCSWmade participarly good early contributions.
I look forward to comments from more of you in the coming year!
Integrator Advisors
In October, I announced the Integrator Editorial Advisory Board. While I have not yet made the most of this exceptional resource, I am daily, energetically bolstered to have this diverse group of leaders in the Integrator's corner. Each has helped to shape the work product delivered in 2006.
So, the first year's in the can. Let's see what fun we can cook up for 2007. Your ideas are always welcome.
The Integrator Business Model: How it Fared
