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Why Do I Sell Products on the Site?
By Dr. Mercola
Since I started this web site 12 years ago, the most common criticism I get is that I sell products on the site. I believe this is related to a perceived conflict of interest, so I want to directly address this concern.
Why Do I Sell Products?
I initially went into medicine with the intention to help people. That desire has never changed, and after 15 years in practice, I realized I could have an even larger influence.
As many of you know already, one of my passions and hobbies is computer science, so I finally decided to merge the two fields and created this web site in 1997. I shared everything I knew about health, such as exercise recommendations -- another passion of mine --, dietary recommendations, and how to address emotional conflicts that are an underlying factor in nearly all disease.
I spent nearly twenty years seeing over 25,000 patients to try a large variety of natural therapies and observe just how effective they were. I felt that many would benefit from my experience and shared it online.
I put everything I had learned on the site, I held nothing back . There weren’t any “secrets” that I would share with someone that would see me as a private patient that wouldn’t already be on the website.
For the first three years of the site, a few of you may know that I sold nothing at all.
However, despite the fact that I was the only employee and didn’t draw a salary, it cost me more than $500,000 to keep the site up and running for the first three years. It quickly became self-evident that I couldn’t continue that way for much longer.
A couple of obvious options were to start using paid advertising, or get investors. But I didn’t want to be limited in sharing my view of health truths, and I didn’t want to be handcuffed to endorse anything I didn’t truly believe in.
So my last option was to sell products that I personally believe in and can comfortably endorse.
For each and every product I sell, I, together with my research team, have rejected literally hundreds of other similar products. Each one is carefully vetted and tested, and oftentimes the research can take years, to make sure it’s the best on the market.
I’m also fanatical about customer service.
I’m very pleased that 85 percent of my customers rate the customer service as a 9 or 10 out of 10. And I personally handle every review that receives a rating of less than 9, to resolve whatever the issue may have been that caused the experience to be less than perfect.
Where Does the Money Go?
I recently moved my medical clinic, which had been located in a strip mall in Schaumburg, just outside of Chicago since 1985, to a brand new, state-of-the-art building.
Since environmental health is a concern of mine and I wanted to create the healthiest office possible for my staff, we built the “greenest” building we could.
So green, in fact, the building is not only LEED certified but it will likely receive platinum certification, which is the highest certification level that can be awarded. (LEED certification is what the government uses to quantify how green a building is.) If we receive this certification, we’ll be one of just 17 buildings in the entire U.S. to have that level of certification.
The proceeds from this site also go to pay the site’s 100-plus staff, which includes researchers, editors, IT personnel, and customer service. This magnificent, diverse team is what makes it possible to provide all this valuable information to you -- information that has, and continues to make a real difference in so many people’s lives.
Paying the Price for Telling the Truth
Another hidden expense that no one ever sees or hears about, and probably never thinks about, are legal fees.
Legal fees are the inevitable result of having a virtual target on my back. After all, my health recommendations go against the conventional grain, and frequently contradict the long-term benefit and interest of many multi-national, multi-billion-dollar corporations that don’t want the truth to be told.
So they frequently generate frivolous lawsuits to harass and intimidate me from sharing what I know. But I refuse to capitulate and surrender to these kinds of scare tactics, and I will continue to tell the truth as I know it. However, there’s oftentimes a price to be paid.
I have paid well over six figures in legal fees to defend my ability to tell the truth to you, and I have never asked for donations for this legal defense. I felt very strongly it was my responsibility to serve you in ways that would generate a profit so I could pay for my own legal defense.
However, by no means am I the only one these corporate influences are targeting. They are running so scared now that they have even attacked famous celebrities. A prime example of this disturbing trend of blatant intimidation is the recent media bashing of Oprah.
Newsweek magazine published a not-too-flattering image of Oprah on the cover of their magazine and basically called her CRAZY for endorsing alternative medicine. That’s how you know WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE, and the Big Pharma cartel that has conventional medicine in a choke-hold, and most of the traditional media in their pocket, is getting nervous.
I'm absolutely committed to catalyzing change in this fatally flawed health care system, which causes hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the U.S. and needless suffering to millions across the world.
I’m also committed to preserving your health freedom, and so every time you purchase something on Mercola.com, the profits go to further this mission.
We’re Making a Difference, and a Revolution has Begun!
It’s also important that together we are all making a difference. This is largely due to the incredible media transformation that has occurred, and the high-tech social networking that has sprung up in the past several years.
One example that demonstrates this fact is the case of the exaggerated swine flu pandemic.
At the end of April, people were panicking, fueled by horrible media headlines declaring the inevitable demise of millions of people as this never-before-seen hybrid flu strain crept across country borders.
In response to the over-blown hype, I issued a 15-20 page swine flu report (which continues to be updated from time to time), which became the 6th most read article on the Internet on the day of its release. It spread so widely that within a few days it had been read by more than one million people.
That is the power of this new form of social media networking.
Tools like Facebook and Twitter allow you to quickly distribute information across the globe, spreading it so far and wide, instantaneously, that governments and special interests for industry can no longer suppress the truth.
This is exciting!
Please read the media revolution article in this issue of the newsletter, which expands on this exciting emerging trend.
It’s important that we preserve our freedoms, such as the freedom to choose whether or not to be vaccinated against a virus that offers a minimal threat, and not be forcibly injected with a potentially dangerous concoction by mandate.
Join the Mercola Social Network and Help Spread the Truth
Our ancestors paid a dear price for the freedoms we currently enjoy, but unfortunately we’re gradually losing many of them. Health freedom is one of the freedoms inching up to the chopping block, and without concerted effort and teamwork, we may very well lose it.
But there’s no doubt in my mind that together we can make a major difference.
I recommend you sign up with Twitter and Facebook, if you haven’t done so already. Tying yourself, and your friends and family, to these social networks is the perfect opportunity for you to leverage your personal power.
You can sign up by clicking on the links in the previous paragraph.
To add me as your Friend in Facebook, once you’re logged in, simply click on “Friends” in the upper hand, left corner of the page. In the “Search for People” box, enter Joseph Mercola. When my profile comes up, just click on “Add as Friend.”
You can also find me on Twitter and add me to your network there as well.
Last, but certainly not least, one of the most important networks you’ll want to join if you care about your health freedom is the new social network right here on Mercola.com.
My team has been working on this new platform for the past five years, which will offer all these benefits:
Full access to the natural health community and forums: Most people blindly trust the status quo with their disease because they don’t know any other way to get the information they need. But now you can simply ask the Mercola.com community a question and...
Uncover answers to your health problems: there may be somebody who has been where you are and overcame it who can give you a direct and immediate answer to your questions, saving you precious time in solving your health problems.
Avoid making expensive mistakes: before committing to surgery or drugs, why not ask the group and get a few other viewpoints on the situation. There are hundreds of health care professionals on the network (who have a special icon on their profile) who may be able to point you in the right direction
Get support for your specific health challenges: you can even form your own group and discuss issues that are important to you, providing everyone involved with a strong level of support and assistance.
Share and exchange health knowledge: perhaps open up about your own healing experiences with those suffering from circumstances similar to yours. It always feels good to make a real difference in somebody else’s life.
Transfer your health insights to others and find a channel for your energy and giving
By linking together on these social networks we can quickly and efficiently disseminate the truth all across the world. So don’t wait. Join Now!