Today is the 15th anniversary of the initial incorporation of Access Media.  Founded to help ophthalmic marketers produce consumer-directed educational materials, the company almost immediately detoured from that mission when the opportunity arose to start OptiStock - an program designed to enlighten investors about global optical market opportunities. OptiStock was funded with sponsorship from public companies, which at the time included Bausch & Lomb, CooperVision, Summit Technology, TLC, Visx, Wesley Jessen and many more.

In 2000, Access Media refocused on consumers with the inception of All About Vision. Now in its 13th year, the site has more than 500 pages of trustworthy consumer education and is expected to serve more than 15 million visitors this year.

To further make eye care practitioners aware of the free patient education offered by All About Vision, the site has introduced a new practitioner-directed promotional theme:  Take Patient Education to New Heights.

The slogan and image will be featured in AAV’s promotional literature, professional magazine advertising, trade show display and promotional giveaways.

The image also appears on the site’s Facebook page, which helps eye care practitioners to stay abreast of new articles published on the site.  The page recently surpassed 8,000 “Likes.”

AllAboutVision.com is partnering with First Vision Media Group (FVMG) to create All About Vision – The Magazine, a patient-education, reception-area magazine to be distributed via FVMG’s Vision Care Product News. The Vision Council will be the exclusive sponsor of the first two issues, scheduled for May and October 2012.

“Eye care practitioners value AllAboutVision.com for its comprehensive, up-to-date and easily understood information,” said Tom Meinert of AllAboutVision.com. “Now that high-quality content can be used by eye care practitioners right in their offices.”

“It’s obvious from the enormous success of AllAboutVision.com that vision care consumers are hungry for information about all aspects of vision – from procedures to products to eye conditions. We’re delighted to be AllAboutVision.com’s partner in bringing added exposure to this brand in a print magazine format,” said Frank Giammanco, FVMG president & CEO.

First Vision Media Group, Inc. publishes magazines, supplements and custom print products for optical industry professionals and hosts a suite of electronic products such as websites, email newsletters and Internet-based education.

The Vision Council represents manufacturers and suppliers of the optical industry and is co-owner of International Vision Expo. The Vision Council uses proceeds from International Vision Expo to educate consumers about the importance of vision care and options in eyewear and other related products.

Access Media relocated to new offices earlier this week.  Like the former location, the company’s new home is in the Pacific Beach section of San Diego. The new address is:

1010 Turquoise Street, Suite 350
San Diego, CA 92109

The phone number remains the same, but extension numbers have changed.  For details, see the Contact Us page.

A Facebook promotion run by All About Vision has generated a $7,465 donation for Optometry Giving Sight.

In conjunction with World Sight Day, All About Vision asked eye care professionals to “Like” the site’s Facebook page, pledging a $5 donation for each new Like. The promotion ran for three months, September through November, and generated 1,313 Likes. All About Vision also ran a limited test campaign asking practices to link their websites to AAV, which supplemented the donations generated by Likes.

Optometry Giving Sight reported record participation in World Sight Day this year — more than double that of 2010.

Unique visitors to ContactLenses.org, a consumer website provided by the GP Lens Institute, more than doubled in October 2011 compared with October of last year, according to Google Analytics.  The site was developed by Access Media Group and the company provides ongoing maintenance and search engine optimization services.

Over the last 12 months, unique visitors are up 62% compared with the previous 12-month period (see chart).

ContactLenses.org educates consumers about the benefits of contact lens wear, with an emphasis on GP contact lenses. The site also provides downloadable literature about GP lenses, offers a directory of eye doctors who fit GP lenses, and accepts questions about contact lenses which are answered by Dr. Ed Bennett, the Institute’s Executive Director.

The GPLI is the educational arm of the Contact Lens Manufacturers Association.  CLMA has been an Access Media client for 15 years.

Last month, All About Vision celebrated a milestone of 75 million cumulative unique visitors to the website since its launch, as tracked weekly by Google Analytics and WebTrends.  The site is expected to serve 12 million unique visitors in 2011.

All About Vision debuted on January 2, 2000 and served just over 800,000 unique visitors that year — about the same number of visitors now arriving in a three-week period.

Search engines drive the most visitors to All About Vision, and that continues to grow:  Traffic generated by Google is up 75% from what it was just three years ago.

In the years since the site’s inception, searchers have become more sophisticated and more specific:  10,315,710 search-initiated visits during the first ten months of this year were generated by 936,118 different keyword searches.

Despite the dominance of search, referring sites and direct traffic still accounted for more than 1.3 million visits so far this year.  According to Google, there are more than 1.1 million links from other domains to All About Vision, with the most popular link targets being the site’s home page, the LASIK & Vision Surgery main page, the article on ocular migraines, and main pages for Eyeglasses, Conditions & Diseases, Contact Lenses and Eye Exams.

A news story about how eye color affects a baseball player’s ability to hit on sunny days provided an opportunity for CBS News to quote All About Vision.

Last month, 2010 American League MVP Josh Hamilton claimed the disparity between his daytime and nighttime batting average could be chalked up to his blue eyes.  CBS News substantiated that theory in part with information from an All About Vision article on photophobia, or light sensitivity.

The topic has received substantial media attention, including a story this week in The New York Times.  That piece featured an interview with Dr. Donald Teig, a sports vision specialist who’s consulted for numerous professional teams and is the Sports Vision content reviewer for the All About Vision.

All About Vision Editorial Director Liz Segre has been included in the 2011 edition of Vision Monday’s “Most Influential Women in Optical.”

For the ninth annual edition, distinctions were bestowed in four categories.  Liz is included in “Innovators” for her role as “a pioneer in providing online consumer education about eye care and eye health.”  She was one of the founders of All About Vision in 1999 and was instrumental in conceptualizing and developing the site.

Read the entire special report including Liz’s profile on the Vision Monday website.

This month, All About Vision will donate $1 to Optometry Giving Sight for every new Facebook “Like,” and $10 each time AAV’s free Eye Health News Feed is added to an eye care practice’s Facebook page.

Just five “Likes” can provide an eye exam and a pair of eyeglasses to someone in a developing country through Optometry Giving Sight funded programs, which provide services to people with little or no access to eye care. Optometry Giving Sight estimates there are at least 670 million people worldwide who are blind or vision impaired due to uncorrected refractive error.

By “Liking” All About Vision on Facebook, eye care professionals can be the first to hear about eye care news and new articles that are published on the site.

The free Eye Health News Feed helps practices educate their patients via Facebook.  By keeping a practice’s Facebook page fresh and interesting, the feed encourages return visits and practice loyalty.