CoolMD.com
433 Gleason Parkway
Cape Coral, Fla. 33914
941/542-9268
Fax 941/542-0649
CoolMD.com is not your usual health Web site. From screen colors that vibrate to tidbits like how many parents own vibrators, the site aims to give young adults an upbeat source
of serious health information geared to their concerns. The site went live Aug. 15 and is getting about 2,000 hits a day, says operations manager Cliff Woodhall. CoolMD.com is the
brainchild of a group of Florida physicians, and they provide the content.
Content/Contacts
CoolMD.com runs stories tied to current events where a health angle can be worked in without nagging visitors. When Madonna recently delivered her second child by Cesarian, for
instance, the Web site ran a story about the event as a hook to explain the procedure. A story explaining blood dopingm ran during the Olympics. And women rockers performing a
benefit concert to fight breast cancer makes an easy lead-in to the page dedicated to that subject. There's a pull-down menu with 45 different topics, so far, ranging from
mononucleosis, acne and hangovers to movies, music and gaming. There are factoids scattered throughout, some funny, some serious, that share one small bit of medical information.
For example, an Asian cure for a hangover is a bowl of spinach. Contact Cliff Woodhall at 941/542-9268 or [email protected] with story
ideas.
Pitch Tips
Woodhall says ideas come in from visitors, other doctors, even the site's 19-year-old programmer. Woodhall judges the relevance to the Web site, then runs the suggestions past
company president Dr. Mike Carron, SVP Dr. Dave Turkel and VP Jeff Carron to get a consensus about inclusion.
Woodhall suggests looking at message boards and letters to the site for a sense of what visitors are seeking. The ideas also need to be in hip terms that will appeal to the 18-
to 25-year-olds that make up the bulk of the traffic.
Comments
CoolMD.com really works to include humor at all levels. Dr. Turkel writes some of the humorous stuff, Woodhall says. "He saw the need to add some really corny humor and it
worked."
The site's contests stimulate traffic; most popular is the "pizza party," where visitors can answer trivia questions and qualify to win free pizza - Woodhall says visits surge
those days. The best part of the site for Woodhall is the feedback he gets from visitors - "'This is unbelievable - this is the coolest site in the world. I'm going to tell all my
friends about this,'" sums up their responses, Woodhall says.