Now Hear This

SOME MAY THINK OF BLOGS AS just a place for the Internet-savvy to rant and rave. But for longtime public relations and technology executive David Copithorne, blogs became a key marketing tool for Hearing Mojo, his Web site.

The new vendor-neutral destination offers reviews of medical and over-the-counter products for people with hearing problems. There's also articles on coping strategies, industry news, and links to advocacy organizations such as the Starkey Hearing Foundation and its Web site (www.sotheworldmayhear.org).

At present, Copithorne estimates the worldwide market for hearing-loss devices ranges from $5 billion to $6 billion.

The genesis for this project began in 2002 when Copithorne suffered sudden and severe hearing loss and became quite frustrated at the difficulty he had in finding good information on the topic.

“I'd had milder hearing loss in the past,” he said, “but nothing like the near-total loss I experienced after 2002.”

That all led up to his decision to launch the site (www.hearingmojo.com), which now has three advertisers. Copithorne said he's looking for more and wants the site to be supported solely by advertisers.

But he noted, “I didn't want to just sell products. There are lots of sites like that. I wanted to start the site to give people a place to get info and talk about their issues.”

When the site debuted, it got only between 700 and 800 page views per day. Clearly, something more was needed. So Copithorne called on old friend Tom Simons, founder of Boston marketing agency Partners and Simons, to see what he could do.

Simons then began moving the site toward what he terms a “Web 2.0” second-generation approach in which blogs are “not just a place to rant.”

Pretty soon thereafter, Hearing Mojo's page views rose to more than 1,500 per day.

The site recently began a twice-monthly newsletter, which at deadline had about 150 opt-in subscribers, according to Copithorne.