The doctor is in, and online

THE Internet has changed people’s lives in many ways. For 39-year-old Dr Ong Tien Kwan, it gave him the opportunity to learn all he could about information technology, an area that he had been interested in since he was 17-years-old. 

Today, Dr Ong not only runs his own clinic in Bandar Sungai Long, but also maintains three websites which he personally designed and launched over the last two years. 

The good doctor’s first exposure to computers was right after his SPM exams. 

“While waiting for my results, I took a basic computer programming course,” he says. “Those programming languages have become somewhat obsolete today.” 

Unfortunately, he could not pursue programming any further because Form 6 and his medical course at Universiti Malaya (UM) kept him very busy. 

“Until my third year in campus that is, when my class took part in an expo,” says Dr Ong. 

As part of their project, he and his coursemates put up a PC-based medical quiz for members of the public to test their general knowledge on health matters. 

“This was a simple program which I had helped to write,” says Dr Ong. 

“Needless to say, once I graduated from UM in 1989, I had even less free time,” he adds. 

Upon graduation, he was sent to Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a year as part of his housemanship programme.  

He spent another two years in Sabah as part of his compulsory service, returned to Peninsular Malaysia for a year at Universiti Hospital in Petaling Jaya before joining a group practice in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, for three years. 

“Then in 1996, I decided to move out and set up my own clinic in Bandar Sungai Long. It took me about three years to establish my own practice,” he says. 

Throughout this time, he never once lost interest in learning more about computers and programming, he says. 

“General practice requires long hours and most of the time is spent in the clinic itself,” he explains. “I found that I was quite free during the afternoons, since my clinic was busiest in the mornings and at nights. 

“So, I decided to use that free time to learn as much as I could about computers and the Internet.’’ 

These days, Dr Ong spends about two to three hours every afternoon looking up information on the Internet, taking up an online course or maintaining his websites. 

Simple lessons
Dr Ong says that the Internet gave access not only to the “world outside,” but also to a vast pool of knowledge. 

“I discovered that I could learn all the programming languages I wanted, online, without having to leave the clinic,” he says. 

“For instance, I learned about HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) – the language for creating websites – from a website called PageTutor.com, which offers free HTML lessons online.” 

These lessons, he points out, were not only interesting, but were also fun and simple to understand. 

“In fact, I managed to create a basic webpage by the third lesson, and a rather decent website by the end of the whole course,” he says. 

Dr Ong says that it took him about a month to complete the entire course. 

“Armed with this newfound knowledge and skills, I ventured into creating my first website called The Self Improvement Site (www.theselfimprovementsite.com) at the end of 2000.” 

He decided to create a self-improvement website because he felt that it was important for people to learn how to improve themselves. 

“I think that it is important for us to always look for ways in which we can upgrade ourselves to become better individuals,” he says. 

One of the main features of the self-improvement website is a weekly newsletter which he had recently just managed to automate with an auto responder. 

“There are about 250 registered subscribers for the newsletter currently,” he claims. 

Making money online
Dr Ong also says that after two years, he decided to try his hand at earning some additional income via the Internet. 

“I wanted to see if it was true that a person could actually make money online. I discovered that there were many online companies that were offering affiliate programmes which users could sign up with for free. 

“Once a user has signed up as an affiliate, that user can promote and sell products from those companies and receive a commission for each sale transacted online. People are selling all kinds of products online, from physical items, to services and digital products. 

“For me, an ideal online business would be selling digital products, since the sale of such products can be fully automated. All you need to do is set up a website to promote the products, upload your products to your server, find an affordable way to accept credit card transactions via your website, and you’re set,” he says. 

He soon found out however that the greatest challenge was not in setting up the website. 

“That was the easy part. The difficult part was in generating enough targeted traffic to my website. 

“I discovered that to do this, my website should have a theme relevant to the products that I was promoting. 

“In my case, I chose to sell e-books since I would be basically selling information. Thus my second website, GreatEbookDeals.com (www.greatebookdeals.com), was born. 

“The website promotes e-books that focus on information, such as how to set up an online business, how to get targeted traffic to a website, etc,” he says, adding that his e-book website also provides information on how to write an e-book, how to compile it into an executed file, how to create an e-book cover, and how to market it. 

“With this simple knowledge and tools, just about anyone can publish his or her own e-book; publishing is no longer the monopoly of publishing houses,” Dr Ong says. 

“In fact, I am now in the process of writing my own e-book, which I hope will be completed soon.” 

The website, which has been online since January, also features a weekly newsletter with about 54 subscribers. 

Value-added services
Surprisingly, it was only in the last couple of months that Dr Ong finally thought of creating a website to complement his own medical practice. 

“The website is actually just an experiment to see if it would be a good way to add value to my existing services for my patients. I wanted to see how many patients were ready for this type of value-added service,” he says. 

Dr Ong’s clinic caters to about 5,000 patients. 

One of the key features of the website is a bi-weekly newsletter, which provides health facts and information such as the latest outbreaks, question and answers, personal experiences, etc. 

“I also promote special programmes such as free bone scans or blood tests, via the newsletters. However, only those who are registered subscribers will be able to make full use of these programmes as they have to sign up for them online,” says Dr Ong. 

He encourages patients to visit his website, which went online on April 28, with posters at his clinic. 

“I encourage them to check out the website because I think that it would come in handy in certain situations, especially when patients want to ask me some very personal questions while remaining anonymous,” he says. 

Despite the fact that his website has been up for several months now, there were still a large number of his patients who were completely unaware of its existence. 

“I believe that this is because most people in Bandar Sungai Long have not started actively surfing the Internet yet. “It’s still something new for many of them,” he says. 

Learning opportunity
Dr Ong says that the Internet has provided him with a truly remarkable learning experience. 

“I find that I learn more and more as I continue to maintain my websites. For instance, if there was a special feature which I wanted to add to my website, all I needed to do was do a search for it online.” 

“I think that it is amazing, the amount of free stuff one can get on the Internet these days. I, for one, am very grateful indeed for all those generous people out there who are making the Internet experience a truly unique experience for people like me – who are always looking to learn new things.’’