Women First Healthcare, San Diego, is marketing its products through AMN Healthcare's nursezone.com, which is targeted at the more than 2 million nurses in the United States. Nursezone.com also will buy syndicated healthcare content from Women First's Web site, marketplace.womenfirst.com.
Women First sells health products ranging from exercise equipment and videos to dietary supplements. The company's site also features clothing and accessories for women.
Through a link in nursezone.com's DealZone, users can go directly to Women First's online catalog, which caters to women approaching menopause, said Susan Dube, senior vice president at Women First.
A significant percentage of nurses are in this category and would be interested in using the products for themselves, Dube said. More importantly, nurses have influence over and know the needs of patients who would use Women First products. The company hopes nurses will see its products and pass them along to their patients, she said.
“They have unbelievable access to women and can be a very good source of communication with these women,” Dube said.
The company also plans to help nurses use the Internet to recommend products and supplement their incomes.
In the second phase of the agreement between the two companies, Women First will allow nurses to start their own Web sites. By signing up at nursezone.com, nurses will get their own URL and will be able to display ads for Women First products, for which they will receive a fee.
The program probably will not start until next year, Dube said. Women First will charge a fee to nurses who sign up, but it will be small and in line with what other companies charge, she said.
For their personal pages, nurses will be able to choose templates and write introductory paragraphs about themselves and the products they like, Dube said. Women First will control which product ads their sites will display.
