Highlight HEALTH

I’ve written previously about my desire to explore the use of web 2.0 in health and medicine. Two months ago, I created a page on the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory to index articles that discuss web 2.0 in health, fitness and medicine.

… Then I realized my mistake.

No blog. No RSS. Why was I writing articles on web 2.0 and not using the tools?

I alluded to this issue when I introduced The Highlight HEALTH Network, an aggregation of feeds from Highlight HEALTH and the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory.

Accordingly, I’m pleased to present Highlight HEALTH 2.0, a blog focused on following web 2.0 in health and medicine, hosted at the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory. My intention is to develop an article resource discussing social networks and health, and to catalog a series of reviews written by myself and guest writers, describing various health-focused social networks and what they have to offer. Since I believe health-focused social networks can affect patients the same as real-life social networks, offering the information as an additional resource to a web directory of quality health-related websites seemed appropriate.

YouTube as a health resource

Sunday, I published a new article on Highlight HEALTH 2.0 titled YouTube as a Source of Health Misinformation. The article describes a recent study examining “The Wisdom of Crowds” by evaluating YouTube as a source of information on immunization. Readers subscribed to the Highlight HEALTH Network will have already seen the article, since the website’s RSS feed is now included in the network.

In the spirit of web 2.0 and collaboration, I’m also looking for guest writers who are interested in writing an article on web 2.0 in health and medicine or a review of a social health network. A number of people have already expressed their interest in collaborating and I look forward to their articles and insights.

How about you?

This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to a new audience, share your thoughts and insights, and promote your own site. I’ll treat each review as a guest post, with links back to your blog or website. I’ll also be writing about the articles and reviews here at Highlight HEALTH. Please email me if you’d like to be involved.

Additional resources related to web 2.0 in health and medicine can be found in the following Highlight HEALTH Web Directory categories: Health 2.0, Medicine 2.0, Fitness 2.0, Health Search and Weblogs.

The Highlight HEALTH Web Directory is my endeavor to catalog and make available health-related websites I find to be informative and useful. The response thus far has been fantastic. Presently, there are 250 listings in over 40 categories. My thanks to everyone who submitted their blog or website.

For those of you who haven’t listed your website in the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory, here’s 10 reasons why you should:

1. Gain exposure for your website.

   Your website’s visibility increases and its prominence is enhanced when it’s listed in a specific category along with related top-quality sites.



2. Make your website a quality resource for information.

   The Highlight HEALTH Web Directory is human-edited and spam free. Each and every submission, free or paid, is evaluated for content and quality prior to directory inclusion.

3. The directory listing is free.

   All regular listings with a link back to the directory are free cost only $5.00.

4. All bloggers like buttons.

   Once you submit your site, you can add the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory badge to your site:

   

   Simply copy and paste this code wherever you want the button:

   <a href=”http://www.highlighthealth.info/”><img src=”http://www.highlighthealth.info/images/highlighthealth.png” border=”0” alt=”Highlight HEALTH Web Directory” title=”Highlight HEALTH Web Directory” /></a>

5. Receive an incoming link to your website from a trusted, reputable source.

   The Highlight HEALTH Web Directory complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information. The mission of the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory is to compile a select, quality database of online health resources that is free for everyone to use.

6. Free advertising.

   Every day, two random links and their descriptions from the directory are featured on the homepage.

7. Increase website traffic.

   Who doesn’t want more visitors? A link to your site from the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory can help with traffic. Importantly, it’s targeted traffic, meaning the reader is already interested in what you’re writing about when they click on your link.

8. Improve your website’s search engine rankings.

   The Highlight HEALTH Web Directory offers regular and featured listings that don’t require a reciprocal link. These one-way links are beneficial from a search engine optimization (SEO) aspect and are important, especially for niche sites such as health and medicine. Search engines give importance to the number of links pointing to your site when ranking it for position during search. The better your ranking, the higher up your website appears on the search engine results page (SERP).

9. Get your website indexed by search engines.

   Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN use crawlers or spiders to search the web for new sites. If you want search engines to find your site, there couldn’t be an easier way than having them find your site through a listing in the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory.

10. Contribute to the conversation.

    Be part of a larger community discussing health and medicine by listing your website with the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory.

List your site in the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory today!

The Highlight HEALTH Web Directory, a companion site of Highlight HEALTH, is a searchable categorized directory of quality health-related websites, including health & medical blogs, research journals, personalized medicine and health 2.0 resources.

What is a Web Directory?

Web directories or as they are also known, search directories, existed before the popularity of search engines. A web directory is not a search engine nor does it display a list of web pages based on keywords. Instead, it displays a list of web sites by category. Web directories are large collections of links to websites, arranged in different categories.

Although many web directories offer a search function, they are fundamentally different than search engines in two ways. First, most directories do not collect website addresses automatically using web crawlers. Instead, site owners submit their links directly to the directory. Second, most directories are edited by real people. The primary advantage of a web directory is that each website is reviewed by a real person prior to inclusion and, because of this review, the chance of being placed in the wrong category is small. For end users, this means better focused content and fewer clicks to find what you’re looking for. The review also serves to filter less desirable websites from the directory.

A web directory is very useful resource if high quality, informative websites are listed.

The Highlight HEALTH Web Directory is my endeavor to catalog and make available health-related websites I find to be informative and useful. The links from every article I’ve written on Highlight HEALTH are cataloged there. While I strive to write meaningful, informative articles, I know there are many other resources out there for people interested in health. The focus of the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory is to provide those resources to the readers of Highlight HEALTH. The directory does allow for paid regular and featured listings. However, payment does not guarantee directory inclusion. Many sites have been rejected based on poor quality and/or content.

The directory offers the following features:

• Organization - websites are arranged by category to facilitate easy browsing.
• Review - each website in the directory has been reviewed prior to inclusion.
• Search - a sidebar search allows you to search by keyword or phrase.
• RSS - each category has a web feed, making it easy to monitor for new content.
• Top Hits - the most popular sites viewed by users.
• Latest Links - the latest links added to the directory.

The right-most grey menu button at the top of every page on Highlight HEALTH takes you directly to the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory. Once there, the “Directory” button becomes the “Blog” button and allows you to navigate back to Highlight HEALTH.

Is your site listed in the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory?