Contractor or Freelancer - Both Can Work for a Virtual Assistant

When I was initially researching the Virtual Assistant industry, I asked some experienced VAs if they saw themselves as freelancers or contractors. Most of the responses I received said they saw themselves as both, or either, depending on circumstances.

If you're having trouble winning your first Virtual Assistant contract, you may want to consider freelancing as a way to jumpstart your business.

GoFreelance is a freelance work exchange site that connects freelances with potential employers. It could be the fast track to making the right connections for your VA business.

Look Who's Talking... About You and Your Clients!

I was just running through my Google Alerts earlier this afternoon, and feeling really encouraged by some of the nice things people on the Web are saying about my article directory, WAHM-Articles.

Want to know who's talking about you? Google Alerts are an easy way to keep track, plus they keep you up to date on the latest happenings in your industry. You can sign up at http://www.google.com/alerts and choose the types of alerts you need.

Search terms you should definitely subscribe to include:

• your clients' business names (so you can tell them who's talking about them too!)
  
• your clients' industries
• your own name
• your business name
• your niche
• any other topics that are relevant to your business

Google Alerts can:

• tell you who's talking about you (and what they're saying!)
• show who's reprinting your articles and press releases
• help you keep up with the latest information in the Virtual Assistant industry
• help you stay current on happenings in your niche
• help you impress your clients by knowing the latest news in their industries too
• help you send you well-time press releases
• respond quickly to anyone who is speaking negatively about your or your business.

You can sign up here: http://www.google.com/alerts

Virtual Business Niche Idea – Article and Directory Submissions

More and more online business owners are recognizing the importance of submitting to article directories and website directories. This is a legitimate and effective way to build an online presence and credibility. The problem is, though, it can take a lot of time to submit articles and website information to all these directories.

The Niche: You can submit articles and website descriptions to relevant directories for clients.

Research Required: Before you offer a submission service, you will need to create a list of sites to submit to.

You should list the name of the site, the URL, a description of what content the site will publish (i.e. only certain types of listings, or all types?) You can find these by doing some Internet research of your own. You may also need to sign up for an account before you can submit.

Four major article directories you want to include are:

EzineArticles.com
Isnare.com
IdeaMarketers.com
GoArticles.com

Software You Need: Submissions can be done by hand, but it is very time-consuming. You will find it much more profitable to acquire a software submission program.

Here are some programs you may want to look at:

RoboForm
Article Submitter
Article Announcer


Skills Check: You should be able to write site descriptions (unless your clients will be doing that part themselves). You must know how to submit content to various article and web directories.

What You Can Charge: Prices vary, but you can charge around $45 an hour for submitting to article and web directories. What you charge should depend on your target market and what they are willing to pay for this service.

Potential Clients: Clients for this niche will be website owners and online business owners who want to establish more credibility on the Internet, and gain more traffic for their websites.

How to Sell This Service: To sell a submission service to prospective clients, you may need to educate them on the value of links created by article and website directories.

Focus on the benefits this service provides. For example, it can take hours to submit to directories by hand. You save them time and by submitting for them, and money because you’re paying for the software yourself and can do more submissions per hour than VAs who submit by hand.

You will also increase your clients’ profits because these links will ultimately mean higher rankings in the Search Engines and increased traffic to their websites.

Santa Can Stuff Your Stocking with Higher Profits This Christmas

For the virtual business owner who wishes Santa could stuff her stocking with more customers and higher profits, there just might be a way to make that Christmas wish come true.

Here's a Work at Home Mom’s Christmas Wish List by Barbara Ryan. The included links are mine, to make Santa's online shopping even easier:

Every year in the late fall it happens to me. Family and friends ask the question, “What do you want for Christmas?” I am usually asked for a list and I always struggle to come up with things. There are things I want and need, but they are not always things other people can get for me.

This year though, I am thinking outside the box and am going a different route. I am going to ask for business related things, or at least, money for them. Much better than just random things I don’t really need. Ask for products or services that will help you take your business to the next level.

Think about all the all the services out there that a mom entrepreneur could use.

• Money towards big ticket items like a new laptop
• Media or publicity services
• Business books
• Ebooks related to your business
• Coaching services
• Business software
• Mentoring or Mastermind group
• Monthly PLR membership
• Ghostwriting, copywriting, or press release writing services
• Menu Planning subscription service (because who has time to think of what to make for dinner!

Do you want to write a book? Ask for Book School. Planning on creating an information product? Ask for Information Product Sweetie Course. Looking into becoming a podcaster? Ask for Shoestring Radio or Podcasting Intensive.

Come up with a list of business products and services that you would love to have, but just are not quite ready to spend the money on and put them on the list. That way, in the new year, instead of adding to the bath products and kitchen gadgets in your drawers, you can grow your business and reach your goals.

Barbara Ryan is publisher and co-editor of Mom2Mom Lounge , an online magazine and blog written by moms for moms. Barbara is also owner and designer of Cherish Collages, a custom Photo Collage Design business developed from the love of a digital photography hobby.

Article Source: http://wahm-articles.com

Free Virtual Assistant Training - Be a Virtual Assistant Intern

No need to spend a small fortune on learning all the skills you need to be a successful virtual assistant. Angela Wills over at Internet Profit Planning has a much better idea. She's looking for a virtual assistant intern to learn a smörgåsbord of internet marketing techniques, beginning in January.

This could be an amazing opportunity for the right person, and it's also a reminder of how valuable virtual assistants really are. Even virtual assistants need virtual assistants!

It also sounds like there's only one intern position available, so in case you're not the winner, consider asking another VA you respect if you could intern for her. She may welcome the opportunity for some free assistance, and it's probably the best VA training there is.

Starting a Forum to Promote Your Business? Three Things You Need to Know

Starting an online forum could be a great way to get targeted traffic to your virtual assistant website, and to connect with your target market. Then again, it might not be...

I found this informative article about starting about the "dark side" of launching a forum. A forum still might be an excellent idea for your business, but be sure you know what you're getting into before you jump!

Three Key Elements You Should Know Before Starting A Forum by S McIntyre

I can assure you starting a forum are not as easy as one make think. Before you start your forum, here are three key elements you need to know.

Goal. What kind of forum are you building? Is it an advertising forum where anyone can come and promote their opportunities or is it a community forum where people can network, learn, and share? If it's the latter, you will need a lot more planning.

Time. It takes a lot of devotion, effort and energy. You can't start a forum and expect it to run itself. That won't happen until you start the groundwork and even then don't expect miracles. To develop a viable community forum it can take months and even years.

Patience. Not only will you be spending a lot of time creating it, but when you open its door and a few dozens have trickled in will you feel you have failed? What if these few dozens turn out be lurkers/readers only? You will need to create threads and peak people's interest or get them to respond to your posts. You want to start discussions and hope it takes the domino effect. You want them to contribute and start discussions on their own. It needs to be promoted constantly and consistently if you want the traffic and people to come. After all, you didn't create it so you can talk to yourself.

You will need to train your moderators. Yes, eventually you will need moderators because...

"If you build it, it will come." Yes it will! As a matter of fact they will come in droves...spam bots and human spammers that are. Not exactly the type of members you would like to have, right? You will want your moderators to know what is not acceptable, training your mods how to move/delete/merge posts, ban, etc. Tip: Don't wait for the spam bots...install a hack to curb the bots before they get the chance to take over you and your forum.

Hard work aside, having a community forum is fun and it's a wonderful way to be interactive with many people around the world. It's a valuable and excellent marketing and learning tool that if used properly can be successful for everyone involved.



S McIntyre owns Work At Home Space, a free work at home resource offering telecommuting jobs, daily job leads, articles, business resources and other work at home related issues. You can also visit her blog Healthy Perspectives, featuring an array of health topics, nutrition, fitness and recipes for maintaining a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Getting Beyond Yes - Getting Prospects to Take Action

Sometimes, it's not just about getting a potential client to say yes. Sometimes they know they need your services and they want what you're selling... they just have trouble getting around to taking the first step.

For example, I've heard many virtual assistants complain about clients who have gone so far as to sign the contract, but they've never gotten around to taking action, whether it be send you the files you need to get to work, or scheduling a phone call to discuss exactly what projects they need help with. Since most VA's only charge for work that is done, that means you're not reaping the profits you could (and should) be.

I think the answer might be to make it as easy as possible for clients to take action, and take the next step towards working with you.

Here's a really good example that came to my inbox last week. I'm on the mailing list of a local charity. They were looking for people to support a new initiative by writing letters of support to our city council. I fully support the work this charity does, and if they had simply asked me to write a letter, I would have said yes, added it to my to-do list, and then, probably have never gotten around to actually writing it. Not due to lack of interest, you understand, but there are many more pressing things on that list.

Fortunately for this particular charity, they understood how busy I am, so they made it really easy for me to participate. In the email, they included a link to a sample letter that I can add my name to, fill in any extra notes I want to add, and just print and drop in the mail box. How easy! They did all the work for me, and all I had to do was print, so of course I took action right away.

That's just one example of how an organization can make it easy for people to do what you want you want them to. That example may not work for you, but the concept behind it will!

You got the client to say yes, now make it just as easy for them to take action.

Not Too Late to Skyrocket Your Christmas Sales

Two weeks to go, but your website can still produce a pretty profit this holiday season.

If your Christmas sales aren’t where you hoped they’d be – or even if they are – you can still skyrocket your online sales.

It’s all about the content on your website. At this time of year, Internet users are searching for Christmas gifts and ideas. If your content is relevant to what they’re looking for, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll have more traffic, which should lead to more sales.

Here are some of suggestions to make the most of the remaining holiday shopping season.

AdSense Sites- If your site displays Google AdSense ads, you may have seen your revenue drop over the past few weeks, depending on your niche. To put that profit back in your pocket, consider adding some Christmas content to your website or blog. When AdSense crawls your new content it will add Christmas related ads that your visitors are more likely to click on at this time of year.

You don’t need to spend hours creating the Christmas content. Look for quality Private Label Rights articles or simply use free reprint Christmas articles from an article directory.

Affiliate Sites – Do you make money by selling affiliate products? Post reviews of the products people are looking for this Christmas. You can write your own or find free reprint product reviews in article directories. Find reviews on products that can be purchased at Amazon and post your affiliate link to the product along with the review.

Sell More of Your Own Product - If you create and sell your own product, an easy way to increase your sales before Christmas is by writing and submitting articles about your product and submitting it to reputable article directories. By submitting your article to an online directory instead of only publishing it on your own site, search engines and human shoppers will find it more quickly. In the resource box of the article, include an active link to your website where your readers can purchase your product.

You shouldn’t openly promote your products in the articles you write, but you should use the article to presell your product. For example, if you make tie dyed scarves, you could write about how to choose the right scarf for a Christmas gift, or about how to accessorize with a tie dyed scarf. Win your readers’ trust first by giving them the information they need; when they click through to your website, then you can sell them.

If you don’t have time to create more of your product for last minute Christmas sales, you shouldn’t let that stop you from trying to fit in more holiday sales. Your customer just needs something to put under the tree Christmas morning. If you don’t have time to get the product to them, send them a certificate or something saying your product is on its way.”

Visit http://www.wahm-articles.com for more creative ideas on how to sell your products online, and to find free reprint articles you can use in your website and blog.

Plan Now for a Profitable 2008

The year is almost over. Are you ready to experience a great 2008 in your virtual assistant business?

Setting goals and planning how to achieve them is essential to the growth and success of your business. In fact, it’s impossible to be successful without them. Your goals define success for your business and give you a plan you can follow to achieve that success.

If you haven’t set goals before, planning all your business activities for the year ahead can feel intimidating. You may wonder how you can possibly know today what you should be doing a full year from now.

Below, you’ll find an easy way to set goals for the upcoming year and learn how to make a plan to achieve those goals.


Goals should be SMART

Before you begin your own goal-setting, remember that good goals are SMART. There are a few variations of what the acronym SMART stands for, but here is the definition I use:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A - Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Time bound (completed by a set time)

Any goal you set should have these qualities.


List your goals

First of all, envision what your virtual assistant business will look like by the end of the next several months. What will you have achieved?

Write down everything you want to accomplish by the end of the year. Make sure every goal you write is SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound).

This list can include anything you want to achieve, such as how much money you want to make per month by next December, how many articles you want to write, how many new clients you will have, which projects you want to have completed, etc.


Make a chart for the year

Next, divide the upcoming year into quarters (January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December) and make a chart for each quarter.

Give each chart five columns with headings that read something like this:

Goal – In this column you will write your specific goal

Measurement – How the goal will be measured

Steps – Here you will list the exact steps you need to take to achieve this goal

Date for completion – Date by which you will have reached your goal

Date completed – The actual date you reach your goal


Charting your goals

Now, return to your list of goals. For every goal on your list:

A. Decide in which quarter you will complete the goal. Write the goal down on the appropriate chart in the “Goal” column.

B. In the "Measurement" column, describe how you’ll measure the goal. Ask yourself, “How will I know when I’ve reached my goal?” For example, one my goals is to write a book about article marketing for small business. I will know I’ve reached my goal when the book is published.

C. Under “Steps,” list the steps you need to take to complete the goal. When Ruth and I set our goals for 2008, one of my business partner's goals was to put an audio recording of a story on her website. The steps she needs to take to complete that goal look something like this:

1. Write story to be recorded
2. Rehearse reading story aloud
3. Record story
4. E-mail recording to Denise to publish on website

While you're listing the steps that lead toward your goal, you might realize you don't know all the steps involved in reaching a certain goal, or that you lack information you need to complete a goal. In that case, consider adding a relevant course or reading a book on the subject to your list of goals.

D. Finally, choose a completion date for the goal and write it down in the appropriate column. Remember to be realistic in setting a completion date. It needs to be attainable or you’ll become frustrated and achieve nothing instead.


Managing Larger Goals

After writing out the steps to your goal, you may discover that a large goal, such as making a certain monthly income by next December, requires that several smaller goals are met first, such as building a bigger subscriber list, offering more products, getting more website traffic, etc. Add any additional goals you discover to your chart where appropriate.


Putting Your Plan into Action

When you’ve followed these steps for each goal, you will have set your goals for
2008 and planned how you will achieve each one of them by the end of the year.

But, even the best plan won’t help you if you don’t take action.

To keep you on track, you may want to plan your year in more detail and break your goals down further into monthly, weekly, or even daily goals, depending on how you like to work. For example, if I want to write 100 articles by the end of next year, I can break that down to the goal of writing 2 articles a week, or writing one article every three days.

Review your goals regularly throughout the year. Make sure your current goals are still desirable, and add new ones if necessary

Follow the plan you’ve just set and you’re on the way to a profitable and happy new year.

Ad Swap Magic

Here is a little used technique you can implement to build your mailing list for no additional cost. I call it “using subscribers to make subscribers, ” similar to “using money to make money”.

This simple list building formula can be summed up in two words: ad swap.

Generally, you trade advertisements with other eZine publishers, preferably of the same mailing list size or bigger. You broadcast the eZine publisher’s advertisement to your mailing list while the eZine publisher endorses your ad to his list. Yes, you are actually cross endorsing or cross promoting each others offer to each of your mailing list.

Your advertisement’s goal should be to get as many subscribers possible from the other eZine publisher’s mailing list to sign up for yours.

The result: you grow your mailing list. This method does not require money, which means it can be done for free. And the return of subscribers? Infinite!

You only have to do this with one eZine publisher at least once, because his subscribers who are also your subscribers can now be followed up within the boundaries of your mailing list.

Perform ad swaps with as many eZine publishers as possible and soon, you will have a huge mailing list of your own – built free.

Converting Every Visitor into Subscriber

If a person visits your website and leaves, chances are that he or she will not come back, especially if there are no compelling reasons to do so. After all, we all behave rather impulsively on the Internet, so much so that we can easily forget where we were 10 web pages ago.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website, leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost, simply because they do not come back.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitor’s name and email address through your opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your services, or endorse another offer to him or her.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential clients you rightfully deserve – the easy, wise way.

Using Free Reports to Build Your List

Aside from pre-selling your virtual assistant services and products, one other reason to create your free report should be to build your mailing list.

If you cannot convert the reader into a ready client, you should attempt to convert him or her into your subscriber. When your reader becomes a subscriber, you can follow up with your reader on future offers and have a chance at converting him or her into your client... preferably a lifelong client.

Offer a lifetime update to your report or a unique notification list your reader will be interested in subscribing to, which leads to having him or her subscribed to your mailing list.

To be successful though, your report must be of good quality and contain useful information. If your readers find your information worth sharing, and you encourage them to do so by giving them the right to give your report away for free, you will be able to have your name, status and links within the report passed around without any effort on your part – simply because others are willing to do so for you!

Increase Your Bottom Line by Hiring Help

by Alicia Forest

Do you do everything yourself when it comes to running your business? Or are you like me and find it difficult to delegate to others, at least sometimes? Do you think you don't have the money to hire help? Well, I'm going to show you how hiring help can help increase your bottom line dramatically.

Not delegating is one of the major hurdles my private clients seem to struggle with. They are doing everything themselves and are so busy with the little administrative things that they have little time to devote to their "genius" work - developing products and services for their niche and working directly with their clients. Once they've hired help, either a virtual assistant or an in-office assistant, and move through the growing pains of delegating and trusting that the work will get done (and might even get done faster and better than they could do it themselves), I can always sense a feeling of freedom and excitement as the space opens up for them to work on the things that are really creative and inspiring to them, instead of dealing with invoices or fixing a glitch with their web page. And very soon after, their business really starts to move forward because they have the time and focus to dedicate to increasing their product and services line, which, of course, translates into more profits.

There are many ways that you can work with an assistant. You can hire someone on an hourly basis, or hire someone on a monthly retainer, which is often less expensive. You can hire someone for a single project only or you could hire someone fulltime to work in your office with you. Think about which of these scenarios might work best for you.

A tip: If you hire someone as an employee, remember to check with your accountant about filing the appropriate paperwork. The beauty of working with a freelancer, independent contractor or virtual assistant is that they cover their own overhead, including any insurance needs.

Here are 10 ways you can use an assistant:

1. submitting your articles to hundreds of submission sites
2. handling registrations for your teleclasses/workshops
3. proofing and formatting your written material
4. creating graphics for your products
5. maintaining your website
6. inputting any necessary updates to your products/services
7. as a sounding board for new ideas
8. responding to your customer/client inquiries
9. bookkeeping
10. packaging and shipping your products

If you can't quite see how an assistant could help you deal with all the time-suckers in your business, keep a log of your business activities for a week, including how long each task takes you to complete. Then at the end of the week, review it and circle all the tasks that an assistant can help you with (there should be quite a few!). Consider the number of hours those things have taken you to accomplish, and decide if the $30-$50 an hour for an assistant would be worth the investment. Statistics tell us that your bottom line could increase as much as 40% once you hire help - now that's a pretty good return on investment, isn't it?

And if you still think you can't afford to hire someone, then start asking around in your network for someone who would be interested in an exchange of services, or for an intern or apprentice.

If you're ready to start the process of hiring a VA in particular, I recommend these services:

www.MultipleStreamsTeam.com - VAs particularly well-versed in helping entrepreneurs who use a multiple streams approach
www.AssistU.com - VA training program
www.IVAA.org - the International Virtual Assistants Association

Or ask your colleagues who are happy with their own VAs to see if any of their assistants are looking for additional clients.

So before you burn out and lose the passion for owning your own business that you started off with, hire someone to help you. You'll reach more people with your message and make more money at the same time. Start small and add hours as you feel comfortable and for what you find necessary. You'll never regret it and you'll never go back to being a lone ranger!



Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & CoachT, founder of ClientAbundance.com and creator of 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success SystemT, teaches professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Top 10 Marketing Tips

by Shonda Miles

1.Repetition is key. According to research it takes approximately 7 contacts before someone will buy from you. People buy from people they like and trust. There is the relationship factor here. That is why it is imperative to have some type of follow up system in place like an autoresponder. Follow up. This is self-explanatory. Customers need to be reminded that you are great and also what it is you offer. A lot of sales are lost because someone didn’t follow up. People get busy and they forget. People are bombarded with marketing messages galore. Repetition is key.

2.Be Consistent. Decide who it is you are in business and what you stand for and stick with it. Don’t sell t-shirts today and tools tomorrow. This just won’t work and people won’t buy from you. That is why niches are such goldmines. Niches force you to focus on one key area and then possibly move on to another.

3.Know your target market. It is essential to know who it is you are selling to and their buying behavior. It is no longer okay to just determine their age, sex, occupation. Now in order to remain competitive you have to research where and how they live, what they read, associations they are apart of, income and geography.

4.Listen to your customers. It is nothing worse than finding your target market and asking them what they need and then giving them what you want them to have. This is a total waste of money. Give your customers what they want. Believe it or not customers don’t always buy what they need but they usually always buy what they want.

5.Ask for feedback. If you need to know more about your target market then just ask. Use polls on your website, surveys, interviews as well as focus groups. A trend I’ve noticed lately is surveys by email through your opt-in list. Make sure you tell your customers why you need the information.
6.Test! Test! Test! This is the first law of Advertising . If you are not testing your advertising then you might as well as be putting your hard earned money down your garbage deposal and then shredding it. Yes, it is money gone down the drain.

7.Know Your USP. This is crucial. WIIFM is a question that should be on all of your marketing medium. Your USP should be unique, compelling and motivates the individual to take action now.

8.Never Stop Learning. While this is not easy to do especially for seasoned professionals, things are constantly changing and you have to be prepared to change with them. Continuous Learning gives you an advantage over those who refuse to learn anything new either through reading or attending seminars and the list goes on and on.

9.Relationships are crucial. We have to put the necessary time into building solid relationships. Without relationships customers will leave you high and dry over price or something very minor. Where there is a relationship there is trust, effective communication and respect. Make the Time to build relationships through networking, luncheon, meetings and whatever else it takes to seal the relationships. Be willing to give up something before you get anything in return.

10.Over deliver and Under promise. Do more than is expected. You will be known for the value you bring. Don’t make your claim or USP too over the top. People will expect you to do what you promise no matter what. You won’t get a second chance. If you mess up it will spread like wild fires. They won’t forget it.



Shonda Miles is a business consultant and business coach. Gotta Take Action provides informative articles and advice to women-owned businesses who are ready to skyrocket their profits. Learn more about how to catapult your business success by visiting http://www.gottatakeaction.com for more information. If you enjoyed this article, join our newsletter Hot Marketing Tips today.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Evaluating the Performance of Your Virtual Assistant Website

Question: What is the one thing you want your visitors to do when they arrive at your Virtual Assistant website?

If you don't know the answer, most likely your visitors are doing nothing. Without goals to guide you in developing and monitoring your website, your site is only an online announcement that you are in business.

The success or failure of your website depends greatly on how specifically you define the goals you have for your website. Do you want them to contact you? Purchase your product? Subscribe to your newsletter?

Before you can evaluate your website’s performance, decide what it is you most want visitors to do. Once you know that, keep reading to find out how well you’re meeting that goal and to learn steps you can take to ensure your website is functioning at peak efficiency.

To determine your website’s success rate, you should first take a baseline measurement of your site’s traffic. Find out the number of visitors in a given period of time. A good baseline measurement is a month in which you haven't been doing any unusual offline promotional activities.

It’s important to remember that, even if you have thousands of visitors landing on your pages, this does not necessarily mean your site is successful. Usually, you want those visitors to actually do something while they’re there.

This leads to next step: Monitoring the number of visitors to your site who made a purchase, subscribed to your newsletter, etc. Officially called the “site conversion rate,” this is an essential measurement in evaluating your website’s success.

To find your site conversion rate, take the number of visitors per month and figure out the percentage of them that actually performed the action you intended them to (i.e. buy a product, subscribe, fill out a form). For example, if you had 2 000 unique visitors to your site, but only 25 of them purchased your product, your site conversion rate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number of visitors and divide that figure by the number of visitors who made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100.

If you decide your site could be doing better, and you want to crank up your conversions and your traffic, here are some suggestions to get you started.

Do You Need More Traffic?

If traffic to your site is extremely low, you may want to implement some additional marketing strategies. Consider launching a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.

An SEO campaign is targeted at increasing your position in search engine results so that consumers can find your pages faster and easier.

You can either research the steps you need to take to improve your search engine rankings, or contract an SEO company to do the work for you. In either case, after your have improved your search engine positions, make sure you keep on top of them by regular monitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain high positions.

Is Your Site Easy to Use?

Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitor to your website to accomplish the action the site is designed for. Let’s say your goal is for the visitor to fill out a form. Is this form easily accessible or does the visitor have to go through four levels to find it? If it's difficult to get to, the customer may just give up in frustration and click to another site.

Here’s an easy way to find out how usable your site is: Have a friend or family member visit your site and attempt to order a product or fill out your form. Watch them closely and see if they follow the path you intended, or if they find it confusing.

How Well Do Your Words Sell?

Website copy must be specifically geared to your online campaign, not cut and pasted from your company brochure. There are many articles and books that can teach you how to write web copy that sells.

It’s also a good idea to have a professional evaluate the copy on your website. A professional evaluation doesn’t need to be expensive. Many online Virtual Assistant forums offer threads for website critiques, where experienced online business owners will look at your site and pass on their feedback.

If You Remember Nothing Else...

And finally, here’s the most important thing to remember if you want to improve the performance of your website. Use what you learn and make changes to your website accordingly. Research, testing and feedback won’t do you or your business any good if you don’t use them.

Analyzing Web Traffic to Your Virtual Assistant Website

Knowing how to analyzing your web traffic statistics can be invaluable knowledge for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use this information, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will give you basic web traffic information you can to interpret and use. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website.

Let's begin by examining the most basic data – the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better your website is doing, but this not so. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to gauge accurately the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is truly qualified, quality traffic to your site. “Hits” simply refers to the number of information requests received by the server. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

Possibly your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website. Maybe your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing visitors to leave too quickly.

Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

Statistics can reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Very likely, your website has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so your statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page.

In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you should closely examine that particular page to find out what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase – the more valuable that keyword is. However, if you find a large number of visitors are being wrongly directed to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment.

Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

What Does it Cost to Start a Virtual Assistant Business?

I think one of the reasons why starting a virtual assistant business is so appealing for many people is that the startup costs are minimal.

Most of us already own or can easily afford the necessary equipment:

• a computer and necessary software
• an Internet connection
• a fax machine
• a phone
• an in-home office space

But the one thing many new virtual assistants forget is that their new business won't bring money in right away. It may be one to two years - or even longer - before their new business will bring in a regular income.

This is often one of the overlooked costs of starting a home business. What will you live on, pay bills with, buy food with until then?

Before you start any business, be sure you have at least 3 months income in reserve. At LEAST! The more you have the better.

Because when start running out of your reserves, you'll start feeling desperate for business. And no one wants to do business with a desperate business owner.

Is your virtual assistant blog a winner?

More and more virtual assistants are blogging and letting their clients get to know the entrepreneur on the other side of the Internet connection.

Here are some things you can do in your virutal assistant blog:

• Give your clients and colleagues a peek at the personal side of your life. We all like to know we're dealing with a real person online!
• Post regular tips and tricks for your clients. It's a great way to keep visitors and clients coming back to your site.
• Share your latest news, without waiting for the next edition of your newsletter to go out.
• Write articles for your target market
  

If you're a member of VANA (Virtual Assistant Networking Association) your blog can reap other rewards too. The association gives the VA Blog of the Week Award 52 times a year to one of its over 7 000 members.

The VA Blog of the Week Awards recognize the virtual assistant's professionalism on the web and on his or her business blog.

And just what does an award winning blog look like? Take a look at the most recent winner, Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services.

The prize? Public recognition by other virtual assistants that your business is respected and credible.

You do have to be a member of VANA to win, though. If you're a virtual assistant, or thinking about becoming a virtual assistant, you really should be a member anyways!

They have awesome articles (including some of mine :)), helpful links, a Virtual Assistant Directory, RFPs, and - most importantly - the answers to all your virtual business questions!

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant, or VA, is an administrative professional who outsources his or her administrative talents and experience to small business, individuals and corporations for a long or short-term period. Most virtual assistants have several years of experience in the corporate world, and bring to their business the training and experience accumulated during those years. Many administrators who leave the corporate world to start their own virtual assistant business do so because they are motivated to achieve and want to influence how their talents are used and developed. Virtual assistants are known for continually developing their administrative skills, business knowledge, and keeping up with leading edge technology to provide you, the client, with professional and reliable virtual service.

Virtual Assistants In Business

Virtual assistants are not employees. VAs are small business owners who work with you to support your business goals and needs. When you contract a virtual assistant, you receive expert and flexible administrative support, provided through popular and leading edge technology. VAs are business owners themselves and understand why you and your business need professional, timely, reasonably priced service. Because the client's satisfaction is key to the success of a virtual assistant business, you can expect solid and reliable performance on a continuing basis.

Though virtual assistants can be engaged for an occasional project, their potential is best realized in ongoing business relationships with their clients. Over time, your virtual assistant will become more familiar with the workings of your business, so he or she can better support you and add to your success.

History of Virtual Assistants

The history of virtual assistants, as they are defined today, is only a few years old. Though "work-at-home secretaries" existed in the 1980s, the technology was not available for the industry to be truly virtual. The true virtual assistant began to emerge in 1995, after the explosive growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the mid-1990s. Through the Internet, faxes, and the telephone, these pioneers proved time and again that they could fully support their clientele virtually, from their home offices.

Virtual Assistants Today

The virtual assistant industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The many small businesses and entrepreneurs of today's business world have found virtual assistants to be an invaluable resource.

Virtual assistants have come a long way from being "work at home" secretaries. They can be writers, proofreaders, editors, database creators, researchers, marketers, web designers ... The list of possibilities is as diverse as the people who enter the VA industry. Business owners and independent professionals are realizing they no longer have to do everything on their own and are hiring virtual assistants to take care of tasks they no longer have time for, or that they don't enjoy doing.

Where Is The VA Industry Going?

At one time, a common question was, "What's a virtual assistant?" Now people are asking, "Who's your virtual assistant?"

The current trend in business outsourcing means that the role of virtual assistants will become more significant in the future. As technology develops and business need grows, a virtual assistant may become a vital part of every successful business.

Virtual Assistant Resources on Squidoo

I finally got my lens up for virtual assistant resources! It's brand new and needs some work, so keep checking back!

10 Handy Tools for the Savvy Virtual Assistant

By Crystal Redhad-Gould

If you were just getting started as a Virtual Assistant you would obviously need to prepare a list of tools needed to get your business up and running. Over the years I have found a lot of new innovations to make my life as a Virtual Assistant as trouble free as possible. I have a completed list of over 40 tools that I use at some point or another. For the purpose of this article I have listed my top ten, these I use almost daily.

VANA

Add some VANA to your day! If you have a quick question, need some motivation, need to connect with another Virtual Assistant, have a work overflow, or simply need to vent, then head on over to VANA and I promise you will always find the support your are looking for.

Skype

I have to admit that this is one of my all time favorite tools. It’s quite a bundle wrapped in one small package. You get an instant messenger, free video calls, free calls to people on skype, cheap sms, cheap calls to phones worldwide, conferencing and more.

Microsoft Outlook

I use Microsoft Outlook as an email client. It is superb for organizing, calendars, has solid spam and phishing filters, and seamless integration with to-do lists and scheduling. You can also create virtual folders, a great tool for keeping emails organized and the search feature makes finding emails a snap.

EverNote

EverNote is an all-in-one notes organizer that enables you to keep track of notes, To-Do items, memos, sketches, website snippets and more. It integrates with Internet Explorer and Firefox, allowing you to add website excerpts, source code snippets and other items directly from your browser. You can choose to sort your notes into categories, password protect them, export them to XML and more. EverNote supports several notes templates, which allow you to add T-Do lists, Excel-like spread sheets for expenses (that automatically calculate a total), phone notes, contact information and shopping lists, in addition to regular text notes or handwritten notes (via mouse or pen tablet). All that PLUS the ability to search through your notes! Bottom line I use EverNote for everything. There is a Pro Version but I personally never felt the need to upgrade, the free version meets all my needs and more.

Cutepdf

After trying several other print to PDF packages which left watermarks or other nags, I finally found CutePDF and have discarded all the others. It is freeware and contains no nags. It does require Ghostscript to be installed as well but both installs are straight forward, I just take all of the defaults. Once installed, it is maintenance free. Just select CutePDF from the list of printers, click OK, give the output file a name and folder, and you are done.

Smartftp

A Virtual Assistant just needs to have some sort of ftp software to update websites and to accept and transfer files. I use and recommend SmartFTP. Simply put, this is the best FTP software you can acquire for FREE. I was having trouble connecting with other programs, so I decided to try SmartFTP. Best decision ever! The interface is very "user-friendly" and it connects on the first try. The ability to click and drag and have multiple sessions open is also extremely helpful.

Wordpress

Every Virtual Assistant should seek to set up a blog. I recommend that wordpress as the platform for your blog. It’s free, easy to install, and you can find thousands of high quality themes and plugins.

Timestamp

A Virtual Assistant must have a means to track client hours. I use timestamp, it is a very simple reporting utility that helps you stay on top of working time. It also comes with a handy reminder, letting you know w hen its time to go home!

MyFax

Myfax lets you send and receive faxes through email from as little as $10 per month including 100 faxes free per month. The price is standard and the support is terrific.

Groove Virtual Network

Groove Virtual Network is a great tool for keeping in touch with clients far and wide. Maintain a sense of teamwork between yourself and your client as you can do virtually anything in Groove. You can hold online meetings, store files and folders, save threaded discussions, scribble on whiteboards, share calendars, and track project information and timelines, very important to my clients.

There you have it, ten handy tools that you can easily access and most of them are free. For an up and coming Virtual Assistant, it doesn’t get any better than free.

(c) Five Star Executives. All Rights Reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Crystal Redhead-Gould is the managing principal of Five Star Executives a Virtual Assistant Practice that specializes in Internet Marketing and Graphic Design. She is a pioneer for Virtual Assisting in the Caribbean. She serves as President of the Caribbean Association of Virtual Assistants. Crystal draws on over 15 years of experience in the industry and seeks to help small and medium sized businesses with their marketing tools in order to increase profits.

Crystal is a frequent speaker at small business forums across the Caribbean. She is also author of Unwritten Rules: Become an In Demand Virtual Executive. Feel free to visit her online at http://www.fivestarexecutives.com or pop in on the Caribbean forum at http://www.caribbeanassist.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Crystal_Redhad-Gould

Your Virtual Assistant Business - How to Get Started

Valerie Dansereau has this tip for starting a successful home business: DO SOMETHING!

If you want to work from home and have your own virtual assistant business, stop dreaming and start doing.

But that's easier said than done... which is why I love the Virtual Business Startup System. It gives you a step-by-step plan to put those dreams into action. If you're still dreaming instead of doing, you should really take a look.

Here's Valeries's article:

The Secret of Successful Entrepreneurs: Getting Started by Valerie Dansereau

There is one secret that all successful entrepreneurs have in common. It’s not luck. It’s not unlimited financial resources.

The secret is they get past inertia. They DO SOMETHING.

When you’re a beginner, you may be tempted to keep surfing the net, looking for the perfect opportunity. You may think if you keep looking, you will find that someone will tell you exactly how to smoothly sail to success, without making mistakes, without leaving yourself scarred. Many of us throw away money on opportunity after opportunity, e-book after e-book, only to end up frustrated. We end up broke – and exactly where we started.

The truth is, there is no such thing as Get Rich Quick. And there are few, if any, successful business persons who have attained success without mistakes. There will be mistakes, some of them costly. The point is, each mistake you make allows you to correct what you’ve done wrong, and do it better the next time around.

As Mark Twain said:

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.”

Breaking your tasks into smaller tasks means not allowing yourself to become overwhelmed by the whole project. For instance, if you are thinking of starting your own website, you don’t need to decide today what will go on every page. Today’s task could be as simple as writing one article or placing one ad – or even more simply, making a decision which “guru” you want to follow. It’s important to give yourself a focus and not keep interrupting projects you’ve already started to begin new ones. A pattern of constantly beginning new projects isn’t any better than not getting started at all.

It’s also helpful to make a schedule and stick to it. If you know that every Monday you will write an article to submit to article directories and every Tuesday you will work on link building or place some classified ads etc., you are more likely to accomplish the goal of the day. Without a schedule or plan, you may sit down at your computer and begin surfing the net, reading your emails, or worse – not turn it on at all.

The fear of failure can immobilize you from getting started. The thing we don’t always think about is that every successful person has experienced failure. The difference is they don’t allow it to defeat them or hold them back from trying again.

As Zig Ziglar said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Make a decision to take action today. One simple beginning step today brings you closer to making money tomorrow



Valerie Dansereau is a banker turned entrepreneur. For work at home ideas, parenting tips, stress busters and more, visit her website at http://www.work-at-home-parenting.com

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

VA Industry Supports Charities

Virtual Assistant Forums is pleased to announce its first annual charity sponsorship event; showcasing the inherently supportive nature of professional virtual assistants, for a good cause.

Get the whole story here.

Where is all of my time going?

At the end of your work day, are you left wondering where your day went?

If you don't have time to get everything done, it may be time to re-evaluate how you're spending your 24 hours.

Here's a simple exercise that can help you discover where your time is really going.

You can also use this exercise with your clients to help them identify areas where they could use your virtual assistant services to manage their day better.

Choose one day and track all your business and personal activities for that day. Start from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you get into bed at night.

Write down each activity and how long you spend on it.

Include everything you do, including interruptions, time spent thinking and planning, and looking for misplaced items

Do this activity on a regular working day to give yourself a good idea of where your time’s going. Proceed with your day as you normally would.

At the end of this activity, evaluate how your hours were spent. How many hours do you spend solely on your business? Do you see any ways you could manage your time more efficiently? Are there any activities you could outsource so you could have more time to devote to your regular work?

You might be surprised at what this little exercise turns up!

Win Free Virtual Assistant Training

VANetworking.com recently announced a new contest for virtual assistants, and the winner will receive will receive a full scholarship to VAU, http://virtualassistanceu.com, that totals $1 500.

Learn about the contest and how to enter. It's easy!

Free Publicity for Your Virtual Assistant Business

When I officially became a virtual assistant in 2005, virtual assistance was virtually unheard of. In fact, when I told a friend about my new business, she asked me, "Is that just something you made up?" Others, though not so outspoken as she, had similar responses, like

"What's a virtual assistant?"

"Can you really make a living doing that?"

"Is that a real job?"

Today, instead of "What's a virtual assistant?" the more common question is "Who's your virtual assistant?"

This change is due in part to media coverage, such as a story at ABC News today called, Being a Virtual Assistant Offers Women Flexibility.

If you're a virtual assistant, you can leave a comment to let others know more about your business and the virtual assistant industry.

If you would like to tell the ABC News editors more facts about the story, you're invited to send them a separate email. It's a wonderful publicity opportunity for your virtual assistant business.

A Virtual Assistant Business Plan

Do you need a business plan for your virtual assistant business? Jenn Givler, a Business Empowerment Coach, presents some very convincing arguments for why you should have one.



Do You Really Need a Business Plan? by Jenn Givler


I hear it all the time. Entrepreneurs are not convinced that they need a plan. And, I have to admit, when I started my first business back in 1999, I didn’t think I needed a plan either. I just figured I wanted a successful business and that was enough to move me forward. I started working with a business coach who gave me quite a few reasons to write a plan. I broke down and wrote the plan. And you wanna know what? It helped my business take leaps toward my goals.


See, before I had a plan, I was just out here floundering around. I couldn’t even really articulate what success meant to me. Once I had a plan in place, I knew exactly where I was headed, and I had a pretty good idea about how I was going to get there.


It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have – your own, or a direct sales business – you will benefit from having a plan. A business plan includes your long-term goals for your business, as well as a short-term plan to get you there. Still not convinced you need a plan? Here are three good reasons to have one.


1. It’s not so much the plan document itself that is important, but it’s the process of going through and creating a plan. When you create a plan for your business, you really get a chance to pull apart your idea and look at each facet of it. You have the opportunity to decide if this is something you are truly passionate about. And, you get to clearly define your business. When you have a Crystal Clear picture of what your business looks like (on paper, and off) you can articulate what you do to your customers. If you can’t tell people what you do and what your business is about, you’ll lose them.


2. Do you know for sure that you have a viable business idea? Creating a business plan will allow you to see how feasible your ideas are. If you do an in-depth plan that includes financial and market research data, you can see in cold hard numbers how your plan will work. You’ll know exactly how big your market is, and you’ll know exactly how much money you need. You will also be able to see if there are places that you need to make adjustments.


3. Your business plan is your road map to success. Without having a clear picture of the end result you’re seeking, how will you know when you get there? Your business plan will allow you to set longer term goals, and it will give you a plan that you can follow to achieve them.
It’s possible to create and follow a very simple plan. In fact, your plan doesn’t have to be longer than one page. A good plan includes your vision, mission, your objectives (or goals), and the strategies you will use to reach your objectives.


If you are not seeking financial backing, you can create a simple plan simply by outlining the sections mentioned above. Once you’ve set up your plan, take action. It’s not enough to just write everything down. Follow your plan and update it often. Before you know it, you’ll have a Powerful Business!

Jenn Givler is a Business Empowerment Coach. She specializes in teaching new entrepreneurs how to get started in their business. Jenn can help you find your passion, create your business plan, and begin effectively marketing your business. For weekly business tips and advice check out her e-zine: http://www.jgivlercoaching.com/newsletter.html


Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com/



For some practical help in creating a business plan for your virtual assistant business, check out Tawnya Sutherland's Virtual Business Startup System. She includes templates and easy to follow instructions to create a business plan that will get you started on the path to virtual success.

Providing an At-Home Proofreading Service

Do you have an eagle eye for grammar mistakes and typos?

Are you the first one to spot when a comma or an apostrophe has been misplaced?

If so, proofreading might be the right niche for your virtual assistant business.

Although many proofreaders have a masters degree in English, that's not a prerequisite to providing a proofreading service through your virtual assistant business. A BA with an English major, or another English course will suffice, so long as you have an excellent grasp of the English language.

And proofreading is certainly an in-demand skill. As the need for good website content grows, so does the need to make sure it's spelled correctly.

Proofreaders charge by the word or by the hour, whatever works best for you or for your business.

If you need more help finding the right niche for your new virtual assistant business, check out Tawnya Sutherland's Virtual Business Startup System. Tawnya walks you through all the steps of finding your right target market and choosing a niche that's in demand and that you will LOVE.

Learn About the Virtual Assistant Industry from the very best

If you're looking for more information about the virtual assistant industry, or ways to help your virtual assistant business grow, look no further than Virtual Assistant Startups

Owned by Diana Ennen, the site is a wealth of FREE information to get you on your way and help you find the right clients for your virtual biz.

Diana has been involved in the virtual assistant industry since 1985 and has written several books on virtual assistance and working from home. Her goal on this new website is to "provide the best information and tips on not only how to become a virtual assistant, but how to become the best virtual assistant you can be."

I know I've learned TONS from her and her books. Check it out at http://www.virtualassistantstartups.com/

And if you're thinking about purchasing Tawnya Sutherland's Virtual Business Startup System, remember that it INCLUDES Diana's book, Becoming a Highly Sought After and Productive VA - required reading for ANY virtual assistant.

Writing a Virtual Assistant Newsletter

A newsletter, or ezine, is an important tool in your Virtual Assistant business. It helps you build a relationship with your clients, or potential clients, and it helps keep your name fresh in their memory.

But what should you include in your newsletter? Content is still king! Include information that is valuable and relevant to your target market.

If you don't enjoy or have time to create your own articles and content, here are some other ways you can put together a highly relevant, informative newsletter.

1. Use reprint articles. Make sure they're well-written and contain accurate information. You'll find high quality articles about online business, home business, and virtual assistance at WAHM-Articles.com.

2. Include valuable tips to share with your audience. You don't have to do a lot of writing, just jot down a sentence or two on how your readers can do something better.

3. Use inspiring quotes written by others. They're easy to find, just do a bit of research.

4. Feature other writers. Many business owners would appreciate the opportunity to have a regular column in your newsletter. It's original content for you, and a promotional opportunity for the columnist.

5. Pay someone to write for you. Hire a ghostwriter to create a unique article with your own ideas. I ghostwrite WAHM and home business articles for a very reasonable price at DeniseWillms.com.

With all these options available, what's holding you back? Create that newsletter, and start building those client relationships today!

To learn more about finding clients and marketing your new virtual assistant business, take a look at Tawnya Sutherland's Virtual Business Startup System. It has EVERYTHING you need to make all the right decisions for your VA business.

Found! An extra 5 - 6 hours every day

"It is estimated that the average small business owner spends upwards of 60% of their time performing administrative responsibilities. Outsourcing these administrative tasks to an expert, a Virtual Assistant, is the solution for many."

Source: http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/23765/

As a small business owner, thinking that I spent 60% of my time on ANY one thing frightens me.

I'm assuming that the author of this press release, Shannon Abbott of The Virtual Vantage, is referring only to my working hours... At least I hope so!

With approximately 8 - 10 hours in an average business day that means 5 - 6 hours are spent on administrative responsibilities... routine tasks that could easily be taught to someone else. And that means that those 5 - 6 hours could be spent on something much more productive, like finishing work for a client, finding the next client, or even spending time with the family. :)

With services including, as Shannon's do, word processing, information management, editorial services, accounting tasks, desktop publishing, and even making travel arrangements, the convenience a virtual assistant provides is almost impossible to ignore.

If you're a small business owner who hasn't yet considered hiring a virtual assistant, why not?

And if you're a virtual assistant, be encouraged to know your work is valuable. You really can add more hours to a day!

Authors: Short on Help? by Gayle Buske CEO

Hire a Professional Virtual Assistant!

Are you short on time? Do you spend your entire day trying to find a publishers, reviewers, signing opportunities, or do you need help editing your creation? Like most business owners, many authors find that there aren’t enough hours in the day. If you are one of them, you may want to consider a virtual assistant to help you edit, publish, market, and find endorsements for your book. You may have even though about hiring an employee but you don’t want someone’s desk crammed into a room in your home. Then it’s time that you consider a virtual assistant (VA). Using a virtual assistant negates the headaches of trying to screen, interview, and hire an employee. You don’t even have to provide them with a computer, a desk, or a space in your home office.

Gaining in popularity among large and small businesses alike, VAs can help bail you out of a rough spot on a temporary basis or even work long-term just like a regular employee, only better. A virtual assistant runs their own business. They are a professional just like you, except their business focus is making your business more successful.

In today’s soft economy and world of corporate scandals, failures, and layoffs, many a good employee has been ousted from his or her job. The ambitious ones are out there daily trying to find a new position. Trouble for them is the help wanted section of most newspapers has become extremely thin. Most people can’t go very long without some sort of income. So, the most ambitious and resourceful are making their way back into the working world any way they can. For many, this means starting a business of their own.

What does a person do when what they know is secretarial? What do they do when they need to feed their family and pay the mortgage? Many professionals create their own business and several are opting to become virtual assistants.

What does a Writer’s Virtual Assistant do?
In short, a VA can do just about anything a regular employee can do. Many virtual assistants are Jack’s or Jill’s of all trades. Here is a list of some of the things a virtual assistant can do to help you:

• Keeping your financial records
• Accounting
• Researching Publishers
• Researching marketing opportunities
• Writing and Submitting your press releases
• Concierge services
• Fill book orders
• Create your e-book cover
• Answer your phone and screening your phone calls
• Customer Service by email, phone and chat
• Marketing your business online, by fax or phone
• Make your travel arrangements and send you directions
• Research other services you need
• Typing your handwritten manuscript
• Advertising your business on newsgroups, blogs, press releases, in articles or other outlets
• Appointment setting
• Meeting arrangements
• Event planning
• Letter preparation
• Reports
• Manuals
• Newsletters
• Flyers
• Mailings
• Data entry
• Data processing
• Document scanning
• Procedure documentation
• Customer support
• Copyrighting
• Web design

Virtual assistants s are typically a very intelligent bunch as well. Many are college educated and even more have countless years of excellent business experience to draw upon. This comes in very handy when you’re looking for ideas.

How does a virtual work?
Virtual assistants come in all shapes and sizes, just as any business does. Typically, however, VAs work from home-based offices. They’re the savviest of the savvy when it comes to operating on a low budget and using technology to their advantage. Most are equipped with the latest software (and lots of it), multiple phone lines, Internet, e-mail, fax machine, cellular phone, copy machines, scanners, and a great attitude. Many even come with a cat or dog! He or she will use all of the latest technology to communicate with the client and get the work done as quickly as possible. And, possibly best of all, they only “clock in” when they’re on your project, not while they’re sitting at your desk, using your electricity, playing solitaire!

What’s all this going to cost?
All well and good, right? But aren’t virtual assistants more expensive than regular employees? Absolutely not! Actually, a virtual assistant is far more cost effective than a regular employee. You may pay more per hour than a regular employee, but leave out the FICA, state unemployment taxes, Social Security, health insurance, vacation time, sick time, 401(k), profit sharing, Christmas bonus, holiday pay, and other benefits you need to offer a regular employee, and a virtual assistant’s wage comes out far lower than that of a regular employee.

A virtual assistant can save money in other areas as well. How much does it cost you to maintain office footage, a computer, a phone line or two, a refrigerator, a microwave, a desk, electricity, heat, air conditioning, computer software, tech support, and parking for your regular employees? With a virtual, you don’t need any of those things either - he or she supplies his or her own.

The fee for a virtual assistant usually depends upon the area of the country where he or she is located and their area(s) of expertise. Virtual assistants charge between $15 and $75 per hour. But, you only pay for the time he or she actually spends working on your tasks. Some will ask that you pay for a “minimum guaranteed usage” each week or month. Many will also agree to work for varying hourly rates depending on the task. For example, if they’re to perform basic word processing, the fee might be $18 per hour, but if they’re expected to research the legalities of transforming your Copyright information, they may charge $45 per hour. Yet, others may agree to a flat fee based upon individual project requirements. Either way, you come out ahead.

Why should I trust someone I’ve never met?
VAs are as concerned with your business success as they are with their own. In fact, their success depends on your success. So, a virtual assistant can become one of the best assistants and business partners you’ve ever had. Just like you, they are business owners and even more importantly, they rely on you to be successful.

Virtual versus temp or temp agency
Virtual assistants tend to work harder than the average person issued to you by a temporary agency. Keep in mind that the temp agency is charging you as much as 20% more than the worker is actually getting paid. This practice often leads to the use of unskilled or unacceptable laborers. Hiring a virtual allows you to choose who works with you. You’ll also need to provide all of the temp’s supplies like paper, toner, pens, computer, electricity, etc, whereas, the VA comes with his or her own supplies.

How many times have you hired a temp who you spent time training, only to have her stick around for three weeks, then you had to train yet another temp? A virtual, as we mentioned, is in this to succeed and help you succeed. You’ll have to train him or her too, but only once!

Oh, yes, and you still need to pay the temp while she sits there and waits for another assignment from you. Not with a virtual assistant. While she’s waiting for the next assignment from you, you can bet she’ll be working on something for another client.

Choosing a virtual assistant
Now that you’ve decided to hire a virtual assistant, how do you go about choosing one? There are several things you need to know before you start looking:

• What exactly do I need help with?
• What expertise does the VA need?
• How much do I have to spend?
• How quickly do I need this project done?
• How long will I need virtual assistance?
• How often will I need my VA to work?
• What hours should he or she be available?
• What days of the week?
• Is there any specific software he or she needs to have?
• Is what I need accomplished so specific that I’ll need to incorporate some training time?
• How will I pay him or her? Visa, MasterCard, Check, Paypal?
• How do I want to communicate with my VA? Phone, e-mail, snail mail, or a combination?
• Does my VA really need to be located in a particular time zone, country, part of the country, city?
• Any other particular qualities you’d like your virtual assistant to have?

Just as you would screen someone who would apply to work in your office, you’ll still need to spend a little time screening your virtual assistant. You’ll need to tell him or her what you need and want, and what is and isn’t acceptable. You’ll also need to negotiate pricing and terms with the virtual assistant.

The best thing you can do to ensure you receive the help you need, is behave as though you’re choosing a new car. Push the buttons, turn on the stereo, kick the tires, and ask, ask, ask. Listen to what the potential VA has to offer you as well. He or she may even be able to do several other tasks, which you hadn’t counted on, or even offer some very sound business advice.

What happens if I don’t like the VA I’ve hired, or s/he doesn’t work out?
Unless you’ve signed a contract guaranteeing a particular amount of time or pay, the answer is rather simple: you just don’t offer any more assignments.

If you do happen to have a bad experience with one virtual, however, don’t let is sour you from finding another. Treat it as though you simply had a bad date. Bad dates to happen and some people just aren’t compatible. Get back out there and look for another VA that better suits your needs or personality.

A win-win for everyone
The use of virtual assistants truly is a win-win for everyone involved. For the employee-challenged business, VAs dramatically increase your labor pool. And, for the cash-strapped entrepreneur, virtual assistants save money - lots of money. What’s more, it’s better for the environment to hire a virtual. Just think of all the vehicle emissions you’ll be saving by having one or two workers telecommute. As for the VA, they typically enjoy a better quality of life, as they are also able to be home and raise their children in between working on your projects.



Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-ClickSM - the country’s foremost virtual staffing agency. With over 18 years of business success, including six years as the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 26,000 professionals in its pool, Gayle is uniquely qualified to aid her clients’ growth through virtual outsourcing. For more information on Gayle Buske, visit www.teamdoubleclick.com.


Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Are You Referring to Me?

by Jill Chongva | VADiva.com

There is an on-going debate in the Virtual Assistant community about potential clients asking for references. Some are offended; some don’t really care one way or the other. This is my spin on the issue.

Virtual Assistance is still a new industry, though for those of us who have been at it a long time, it doesn’t really seem that way. However, most of the business world is just beginning to discover the benefits of partnering with a VA. And it is the job of all VA’s to educate potential clients about what we do.

When you are interviewing a potential client, you cover all your bases by asking pointed questions about their work style, business plans, technology, etc. You ask the questions that get you the answers you need to determine if (a) you can work with this client and (b) if you have the skills to do what they need to have done.

And the potential client is interviewing you as well. So don’t be surprised when they ask for “references”. They are simply following good business practices.

Would you hire another VA for your team without checking with people she/he has worked for or with? Doubt it. And if you would, well don’t get me started.

Many of those who argue against references (and I used to be one of them) say that because you are an entrepreneur, you should not be asked for references. They see it as demeaning. You wouldn’t ask your accountant or lawyer for references would you? Um, yes, I actually would.

If I am going to trust ANY part of my business to another person, I want to know about their track record. I want to hear from people they have worked with/for to get a sense of whether they can do the job I’m asking them to do. I want to know about quirks. I want to know about results.

I wouldn’t hire a [insert any job title here] without asking about their success stories or without speaking to some of her or his clients first.

Testimonials are great, and many say that that is what you should give to people asking for references. While testimonials can help, they are static. They are never going to give you the same feedback and information that a phone call to an actual human being will give.

And since most people find their Virtual Assistant via web searches, it makes sense that they are exercising a fair bit of caution. The web is notorious for fly-by-night schemes and shams, and those who are looking for a VA should be cautious in choosing one. That means they will ask for references. They will want to speak to your clients. They will do their due diligence.

After all, wouldn’t you?



Jill Chongva is a Virtual Assistant with over 21 years experience in the Administration field. Her marketing assistance help solopreneurs make the most of their message by creating branding that stands out in the crowd.

Her new ebook “Find YOUR Ideal Clients: 99 Questions to Use to Create YOUR Ideal Client Questionnaire” is available at www.vadiva.com

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Work At Home Time Management

by Tammy Embrich

Are you finding lack of time for your online business becoming more and more evident?

Are you finding it more difficult reserving well-needed time for your children and family?

Well, you are not alone. All too often, many home based business owners (unintentionally) fail to prioritize their time efficiently. I think time is about the most valuable and limited resource that we have.

Balancing our personal and professional lives is indeed quite a challenge. This important task can be accomplished by taking a look at some significant small steps.

Goals

What are your business and professional goals?

Turn your dreams and intentions into reasonable, achievable goals by writing each goal down beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.

Purchase a special journal all your own for this purpose. Keep this journal close by, on your desk at all times.Write down what you want to achieve yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily. Plan long projects by breaking them down into bite-sized pieces and dedicating so much time each day for achieving your goals.

Put Together A Work Routine Schedule And Stick With It

Keep A Business Daily Planner On Your Desk. Prioritize your home business according to specific deadlines. Make a note of tasks that need to be completed daily.

For example: Make a note to do your website updates on Mondays, Make important phone calls on Tuesdays, Do your business research on Wednesdays, and so on.

Carve out a reasonable schedule for yourself and base it around your business needs and goals. The most important thing about a schedule is of course sticking to it. Staying focused and consistent is the key element to achieving success in any home business.

Make Time For Yourself And Your Family

This is the most important issue home based business owners face today. You must reserve special time for yourself and for your family. If you don't make time for yourself, you run the risk of business burn out. You need time to yourself to feel refreshed, energized, and ready to tackle the next task that needs completing.

Take at least one half hour to a full hour each day solely for yourself. Take a walk, take a drive, take a nap, read a good book, watch a good movie or favorite program, schedule lunch with a friend. This is so important to you and also your business If you have children at home, you need to also involve them in this important time.

Take your little ones to the park, the zoo, out for lunch, anything...just as long as you take this special time just for you and your children. Always take time out for that special bedtime story, helping with homework, making that special breakfast, or just talking and cuddling. Isn't this the main reason for deciding to work from home...staying home with your kids and spending quality time with them?

Always schedule specific times with your kids, and also with yourself....this will help avoid getting over-stressed and over- worked with your home based business. Children like routine. You will also find that following a routine schedule will make you more productive and successful with your business.



Article written by: Tammy Embrich

Tammy Embrich is an Internet Marketer and is the
Owner of: http://www.onestopwebemployment.com/
And Owner of: http://www.real-wah-jobs.com/

Tammy's two WAH websites focus on free telecommute job leads and more.


Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Work At Home Time Management

by Tammy Embrich

Are you finding lack of time for your online business becoming more and more evident?

Are you finding it more difficult reserving well-needed time for your children and family?

Well, you are not alone. All too often, many home based business owners (unintentionally) fail to prioritize their time efficiently. I think time is about the most valuable and limited resource that we have.

Balancing our personal and professional lives is indeed quite a challenge. This important task can be accomplished by taking a look at some significant small steps.

Goals

What are your business and professional goals?

Turn your dreams and intentions into reasonable, achievable goals by writing each goal down beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.

Purchase a special journal all your own for this purpose. Keep this journal close by, on your desk at all times.Write down what you want to achieve yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily. Plan long projects by breaking them down into bite-sized pieces and dedicating so much time each day for achieving your goals.

Put Together A Work Routine Schedule And Stick With It

Keep A Business Daily Planner On Your Desk. Prioritize your home business according to specific deadlines. Make a note of tasks that need to be completed daily.

For example: Make a note to do your website updates on Mondays, Make important phone calls on Tuesdays, Do your business research on Wednesdays, and so on.

Carve out a reasonable schedule for yourself and base it around your business needs and goals. The most important thing about a schedule is of course sticking to it. Staying focused and consistent is the key element to achieving success in any home business.

Make Time For Yourself And Your Family

This is the most important issue home based business owners face today. You must reserve special time for yourself and for your family. If you don't make time for yourself, you run the risk of business burn out. You need time to yourself to feel refreshed, energized, and ready to tackle the next task that needs completing.

Take at least one half hour to a full hour each day solely for yourself. Take a walk, take a drive, take a nap, read a good book, watch a good movie or favorite program, schedule lunch with a friend. This is so important to you and also your business If you have children at home, you need to also involve them in this important time.

Take your little ones to the park, the zoo, out for lunch, anything...just as long as you take this special time just for you and your children. Always take time out for that special bedtime story, helping with homework, making that special breakfast, or just talking and cuddling. Isn't this the main reason for deciding to work from home...staying home with your kids and spending quality time with them?

Always schedule specific times with your kids, and also with yourself....this will help avoid getting over-stressed and over- worked with your home based business. Children like routine. You will also find that following a routine schedule will make you more productive and successful with your business.



Article written by: Tammy Embrich

Tammy Embrich is an Internet Marketer and is the
Owner of: http://www.onestopwebemployment.com/
And Owner of: http://www.real-wah-jobs.com/

Tammy's two WAH websites focus on free telecommute job leads and more.


Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Don't Write That Proposal Until You Ask The 'Magic Question"

by Tessa Stowe

Have you ever had a potential client ask you to write a proposal or give a presentation only to respond with "Thank you for doing this and we'll get back to you at some time in the future if we decide to do something"? All that wasted time for nothing.

If only you'd known they were going to say that before you wasted all that time writing the proposal. If you knew they were going to say this, would you have written the proposal? So how do you find out what they are going to say? The way to find out what they are going to say after you have given them your proposal is to ask them the 'magic question' before you have spent time and money preparing the proposal. Simple really.

The 'magic question' is magical for two reasons. It's magical as it transports you both into the future (to the time when they have received the proposal you have yet to write) and it's also magical because much of the need for writing the proposal will vanish after you have asked this question.

So what is this 'magic question'?

When someone asks you to write a proposal (or give a presentation), just reply with this question "Imagine that you've read my proposal and, without doubt, the solution proposed is a perfect fit for what you want then what will happen next?"

Let's suppose that the response to your 'magic question' was one of the following:

"I would then discuss it with my manager (partner, etc.) to see if they want to move ahead."

"We'd need to assess it along with everything else we are doing right now and decide on our priorities."

"I'd need to make sure that the costs are within our budget."

These answers will have identified to you that writing a proposal is not really the next best step and may, in fact, not be necessary at all. So for the time being at least, the need for writing a proposal has vanished (magical!).

With the above examples instead of spending your time and money writing a proposal, the best next steps could be:

- Meeting with the manager (partner) as they appear to be involved in the decision making process. Who else is?

- To ask a lot more questions to find a compelling reason for why they should solve this problem now. If you can't find a compelling reason, chances are high they won't be doing anything.

- To discuss your pricing range to confirm it is within their budget.

Depending on the outcome of these next steps, it may become obvious that this is not a qualified prospect or that you to need to meet with more people and ask a lot more questions before writing a proposal.

Make it a rule that you only write proposals if you know in advance what they are going to say after they have read your proposal and are happy with the solution you are proposing. Only write proposals if you are satisfied with this answer and you know that writing a proposal is therefore the next best step for them to become your client.

(c) 2007, Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation. WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Yes, you can, provided you make all links live and include this copyright and by-line below.



Tessa Stowe teaches small business owners and recovering salespeople 10 simple steps to turn conversations into clients without being sales-y or pushy. Sign-up for her FREE monthly newsletter that is full of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself at http://www.salesconversation.com

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com