Does your business have a blog? Are you sharing information with your readers about what it is that you do and how you can help them build and grow their business? Do you have a wonderful tool, product, service, or widget that can be a money or time saver for other small businesses?

Blogging has become one of the most popular ways to get the message of your business and service out to the world. It is no longer just a way for people to share thoughts, pictures, recipes, wedding and vacation plans online with friends and family.

Business blogging is a very powerful marketing tool and every major industry uses blogs to ensure that their customers and clients are kept abreast of new developments and just about any other kind of news that needs to be available on the internet 24 hours a day. If you are not leveraging the Internet to market to a global audience and give your small business a decisive competitive edge, you are very likely leaving a lot of money on the table.

Combine blogging with social media marketing and you can literally explode your online presence in a very short time. By committing to posting to your blog at least 3 times a week you will create a wealth of content that can be used to advertise your services and build trust and rapport with your prospects. And search engines love blogs that are updated regularly!

By leveraging the Internet, your small business can get more done and complete effectively in a global marketplace, but this can be time consuming, and often confusing for a small business. That’s where outsourcing can help. Blogging is one of the services a highly technically savvy Virtual Assistance firm can handle with ease.

There are a number of great blogging platforms available today with the most popular being WordPress and the list below will help you get started with your blog.

A common checklist of blogging tehnologies that you may need to get started:

• Domain Name. I use and recommend GoDaddy for domain name purchases, but NOT for hosting. Be sure to purchase most extensions of your domain name such as dot com, dot net, dot biz, etc., to ensure that your name and brand is protected. Each domain name will cost about $11 annually.
• Hosting for your website. I use and recommend HostGator for hosting. Depending on the plan you need, your cost range from $4.95 to $12.95 per month. If you need a toll free number this is also available on their largest hosting package. You will be able to install WordPress from your cpanel using the Fantastico application. This is easy and quick.
• Premium WordPress Templates. I have several companies that I use a lot, but these are two of my favorites:
  • Elegant Themes
  • WordPress Dream Theme
• If your website/blog will be functioning as a membership site, now or in the future, I consider WishList Member an essential plugin.
• Shopping Cart. 1ShoppingCart incorporates all of the tools your business needs to market and sell online in a single, easy-to-use web-based solution. If you need an affiliate program, you can build that in your shopping cart. The basic plan (I don’t recommend anything below this plan) will cost $59 per month and the professional plan, which includes affiliate marketing, is $99.00 per month. You can also make application here for a payment gateway through Authorize.net or PowerPay so that you can accept credit card payments on your website.
• PayPal account for accepting payments if you don’t currently have a payment gateway. This is free and you will only pay a fee when a payment is made. You will be able to use your PayPal account in place of a payment gateway if you prefer.
• Newsletter or email marketing software. Two excellent tools for this are Aweber and Constant Contact.
• Social Media Profiles. KnowEm Username Check allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly on over 400 popular and emerging social media websites. Grab your name and secure your brand before someone else does. They offer free and premium plans.
  • LinkedIn Profile (FREE)
  • Facebook Fan Page for Your Business. (FREE)
  • Twitter Account. (FREE) For branding purposes we use and recommend TweetPages for a very professional Twitter background. They can also create and Facebook designs. Tell Matt I sent you!
  • Gmail account – you will need this for various services such as Feedburner, Google Analytics, Google Maps, etc.
• Essential WordPress Plugins. The WordPress community has developed thousands of plugins and themes. If you haven’t tried out WordPress plugins yet, you owe it to yourself and your blog to give them a try. They’re amazingly easy to set up and can boost the functionality of WordPress to an astonishing degree. You will install these directly from your WordPress control panel:
  • Yoast Breadcrumbs (FREE)
  • All in One SEO Pack (FREE)
  • pageMash (FREE)
  • Google XML Sitemaps (FREE)
  • WP DB Backup (FREE)
  • WordPress Database Backup (FREE)
  • Advertising Manager (FREE)
  • TinyMCE (FREE)
  • Bad Behavior (FREE)

Are you ready to start building?

If you are interested in tackling this project on your own and want to learn how to build a seriously professional WordPress website/blog my best recommendation is that you sign up for the next Go For Your Dream WordPress Website Workshop. This 4 week online e-course takes you step-by-step through the process of building your website using the Premium Dream Theme. There’s also an additional 2 weeks of basic training bonus modules on 1shoppingcart, Authorize.net, PayPal, and installing a Membership site. I highly recommend this training.

Too much information! I can’t even begin to tackle a project like this.

Another alternative is to have us build it for you. We are a Web Development company paired with a Virtual Assistance firm. What does this mean? It means that we do it all, from concept to launch. Our websites are turnkey, meaning that your social media marketing is built in, your branding is complete and all you have to do is blog! And we train you on the backend of your website/blog so you are in control of your content.

For a free 20 minute consultation please call us at 888-719-6711 or use our contact page. We are here to help!

Table of contents for Weekly Recommended Resource

1. Build Your Own Affiliate Program
2. Free Press Release Generator
3. Recommended Resources – Spyware Removers
4. How to Create a Whitelist Instruction Page
5. Free Resource – Build a Personal Mission Statement
6. Recommended Resource – MP4 Converter
7. How to Get Publicity Interviews On Talk Radio

Weekly Recommended Resource

Did you know that a recent whitelist study showed that only 22 percent of all email newsletters give specific instructions to recipients to whitelist their newsletter?

I came across this nifty free tool by Chris Lang that will create a detailed set of email whitelist instructions for all major ISPs, mobile devices and spam filters. None of your information is recorded or stored, it only creates a web landing page for you as you can see by the image below.

Once you have created your page, simply “View source” and copy the code to your html editor. Voila!

As a virtual entrepreneur, virtual assistant or remote contractor, have you made your offshore competition irrelevant?

Do you live in fear that you current or potential clients will decide that outsourcing to an offshore Virtual Assistance company might be something that is interesting to them?

In their official report, 52% of all Office and Administrative Support Occupations are classified as HIGH or MIDDLE ranked jobs likely to be outsourced.  As a virtual entrepreneur, virtual assistant or remote contractor, have you made your offshore competition irrelevant?

You are personally invited to join me and Development Expert Tony Bodoh  for a free teleseminar where we will share real strategies that you can use today to increase your value and ensure that your clients don’t offshore your livelihood.

Thank you and I look forward to talking to you on the 19th!

Denise Griffitts

Register Here

When: Friday, March 19, 2010.

Time: 11 am Pacific / 12 pm Mountain / 1 pm Central / 2 pm Eastern.  Please be on time! We always begin promptly according to http://www.time.gov/so mark your calendar and be sure to call-in a few minutes early so you’re not pre-empted by other teleseminar callers.

Where: Your home office telephone.

Submit your questions prior to the call here. We will do our best within the time constraints of the call to answer as many of your questions as we can.

Table of contents for Weekly Recommended Resource

1. Build Your Own Affiliate Program
2. Free Press Release Generator
3. Recommended Resources – Spyware Removers
4. How to Create a Whitelist Instruction Page
5. Free Resource – Build a Personal Mission Statement
6. Recommended Resource – MP4 Converter
7. How to Get Publicity Interviews On Talk Radio

Weekly Recommended Resource

If you, or a client needs to build a quick affiliate program but don’t want to pay 1ShoppingCart $99 each month to have a few products available to affiliates, or don’t have sufficient sales to become part of traditional Affiliate Networks such as Commission Junction (CJ.com) Linkshare, Azoogle, etc., consider PayDot.com.

PayDot.com is free to join.

PayDotCom Vendor/Affiliate Accounts are free. You are allowed one free Vendor account to sell your product. If you, the Vendor, want to offer an unlimited number of products for sale you have the option of paying for a lifetime membership which will cost you the munificent sum of $29.

Sales are paid directly to your merchant account or Paypal account.

You can sell physical and digital products.

You can collect monthly subscriptions.

You get paid instantly. You are not required to way 30 days as with most affiliate networks.

There is no pre-approval, meaning that you don’t have to prove that you have a pre-specificed amount of sales each month to qualify.

You have access to your stats tracking.

You can provide promotional tools to your affiliates.

You will very likely need a Paypal account as most Vendors choose their as their payment method.

Your customers can pay you via your PayPal account. They can use their available PayPal funds or they can use their Checking Account, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Eurocard, Bravo, Visa Debit, MasterCard Debit, or Novus that is on file with their PayPal account. So if you don’t already have a PayPal account, be sure to sign up now.

Once you have your affiliate program set up, please revisit this page and let us know where we can find your products!

These are online resources that will help you develop, gain knowledge, find new information and absorb new ideas.

Enjoy!

This Weeks Recommended Resource

WordPress Tip of the Day is a free video podcast from the “Internet Genius” Ben Cope that delivers high-quality video training for WordPress in 5 minutes or less every day in a format that is easy to follow, easy to understand, and always free!

This post is going to explore how accessible your business phone should be.

Recently I was given a couple of recommendations for (insert service here) by somebody whose judgment I trust. I called both people and had no problems at all connecting with the first person on that very short list.

However, the second recommended business person would not allow my blocked number call to go through. Now understand that my phone number is blocked for some very legitimate reasons, one being that if my direct phone number became widely known, I would never get anything done. That number is given to my clients and team members. Period. My toll free number is published on all my websites/blogs and is embedded into my business emails. We are easy to get in touch with!

Now, I really did want to speak with this person about a project for a client and just kept going down the numbers given me until I reached a toll free number where I was relieved to be able to leave a message. That was three days ago.

This is where the accessibility question comes in.

Today my call was finally returned and when I mildly expressed my concern with not being able to reach this person’s business phone I was treated to fairly huffy explanation of their reasons. When I explained why my number is blocked (remember now, I have several reasons, all of them legitimate) the response was, “Well that’s weird.” Not a great start to a working relationship.

So my question is, why would a business, whether brick and mortar, or home-based block callers who may not want to show their phone number right away? Isn’t this where voice mail become a wonderful business tool? I have to wonder just how much potential business this person is actively turning away by refusing to accept calls.

Your thoughts?

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://internetmasteryblog.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

I recently came across Jeanne Robertson who leaves me rocking back on my heels from sheer enjoyment of her humor and wit. In this clip she is discussing her assistant Toni Meredith who is clearly somebody any service professional, whether onsite or virtual, should emulate. I often pontificate on the absolutely critical need for superb customer service, but Jeanne explains it so much better than I ever could!

Enjoy!

To find more Jeanne Robertson videos click here. I would LOVE to hear your reactions to these video clips!

I am interested in becoming a VA. How does this work? Do you send the work to me weekly or are there larger, longer term projects to be had?

Please let me know – thank you!

Clearly this person has no concept at all about what it is that we do. I hate to admit that we are seeing more and more of this type of resume which is what prompted me to write this article. People are losing their jobs at a truly frightening pace and turning to the internet to either supplement or replace their income and the Virtual Assistance Industry on the face of it looks like something that could be easy and fun to do.

Job seekers are reading online that there is a very high demand for Virtual Assistants without understanding what the qualifications and skill sets are that set us apart from our competition. Simply possessing entry level office skills does not an entrepreneur make and that is exactly what we are. We are highly trained, highly competent, highly motivated professionals who regularly self-invest in career training, certifications and continuing education.

One of the best pieces of advice that I ever received is this: “Invest in yourself”.

When employment opportunities are scarce, investing in yourself can mean continuing your education, staying on the cutting edge of your chosen field or developing a new area of expertise. In any case, investing in yourself requires time, energy and often a financial commitment. Self-employed professionals who pursue continuing education stay on the frontiers of their fields more effectively. Their pursuit of new knowledge signals to clients that they take nothing for granted, that they are not stagnant and they are working daily to self-improve. When you invest in your own career training you are increasing your market skills and will earn consistently high professional fees.

While there is no formal path to training for small business ownership or entrepreneurship, training with successful professionals can give you a helpful edge in your market. As more companies and individuals rely on new technology and the internet to do business, job growth in the Virtual Assistance Industry is expected to grow rapidly.

My colleague’s advice, offered so many years ago, continues to ring true. We must invest in ourselves and, as a corollary, in our employees and team members in order to reap maximum returns.

Virtual Assistance University

Virtual Assistance Certification Training

The Virtual Assistance University is a collaboration of experts from a variety of backgrounds. Some of the faculty members are virtual assistants, web developers, WordPress platform experts, social media marketing experts, technologists, profit growth consultants, sales trainers and business development coaches. We even have a nationally renowned Psychologist who will teach you how to overcome fear and self-resistance. Each faculty member contributes years of practical experience to accelerate your growth and success.

The Virtual Assistant Certification course is a structured 20 week performance improvement program in which goals are set, actions are taken and results are realized. You will be provided with a performance plan, a disciplined implementation process, daily measurement systems, and a very unique accountability process along with specific tasks, tactics, tools and strategies to attain your business goals.

Social Media Marketing Certification Course

During the course of this 4 week intensive course you will learn how to balance your online social media marketing efforts. Every online marketing campaign needs balance. To stay relevant with your core audience, you need to interact with them and create impressions across several marketing channels. By experiencing the brand’s message across several marketing channels, the likelihood of being able to recall the brand (you) and your message is greatly increased.

Have questions about the Virtual Assistance Industry? Email them to me at info @ virtualassistantindustry.com.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://internetmasteryblog.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

Do you struggle, strive, work, and wish for more virtual assistant clients, better paying clients… and still not have as much as you need and want? With the economy failing, companies making cutbacks, and your financial future at stake, you might be feeling pretty grim.  But don’t even think about throwing in the towel. There are plenty of opportunities out there – opportunities to attract the type of clients  you love working with and who love working with you.

If you had 60 seconds to ask Denise Griffitts one question about the virtual assistance industry what would it be?

Join us for a LIVE 60 minute teleseminar Tuesday, Sept 1, 2009

This call will be recorded but will not be made available for download so to speak directly with Denise you must be on the call.

DATE & TIME: Tuesday, September 1 at 7:00pm Central (5 pm PST/ 6 PM MST / 7 PM CST/ 8 PM EST)

FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

EVENT:  Ask Denise Griffitts FREE teleseminar

Proper care of a child begins at the prenatal stage when the mother is informed of both detrimental and positive courses to take during the pregnancy. After the child is born you take him to a pediatrician, not to a friend of a friend who finished a couple of years of medical school. When your child starts walking, you look for just the right shoes, not for the cheapest or cutest ones. Your child needs good supportive shoes that will protect the little one’s foot from the hazards of the outside world. And when it’s time for the child to start school, we oftentimes move to a new neighborhood simply because it is in a great school district. We do everything we possibly can for our children without being told to. It is human instinct to want the best for those you love.

Sadly, this is not always the case with our business needs. For all the comparisons, when people start new businesses, they often make a mistake of going to sources that are grossly inadequate or simply not the best. When planning a family most people sit down and map out just what needs to be taken care of from prenatal care to a college savings plans. They have huge expectations for their family and strive mightily each day to realize those expectations. So why in the world would a new business owner not exercise the same due diligence with the very thing that will allow their family to prosper financially as it grows?

Is self employment right for you?

Working for yourself, much as starting a new family means that ALL responsibilities rest on your shoulders.

Do you have a support system in place?

If this was a new family you were planning instead of a business you would naturally enlist the support of family and friends. Have you created a strong support structure for those times when you are overwhelmed, need assistance, or even financial help? Plan on hiring or retaining professional service providers such as a bookkeeper, a virtual assistant, or a business coach and make sure that you educate your family about the help you will need from them.

Do you have a strong business concept and a business marketing plan in place?

Have you clearly defined who your market is for your product or service? Is your business plan actually written down on paper and includes start up and operating cost projections? Do you know how many employees you will need? How about insurance, office furniture and supplies, software, web development, social media marketing?

Why you absolutely need to hire professionals to help you.

One of the biggest and most costly mistakes that home-based, or small business owners make is trying to do it all themselves. By not concentrating on the core activities that only you can do and by trying to wear all hats at all times, you completely lose control of your own schedule. Some tasks demand your personal attention but others do not. In fact, outsourcing many tasks such as information technology tasks (social media marketing, web or blog development, etc.) to an outsourcing partner such as a highly technically savvy virtual assistant saves your company money by saving time.

Elena M. enlisted the help of her cousin to design a website for her business. She bought a template for a simple brochure-style website. The cousin was enthusiastic about this opportunity, yet life kept getting in the way. It took 2 months to launch the site and every time Elena needed to make changes, she had to wait for days. The site is not particularly professional in appearance and is almost impossible to update in a timely fashion.

Aaron B. wrote a sales letter for his technology start-up. He asked an old college friend to edit it because he remembered the guy getting As in English Comp class and on his term papers. The results were less than compelling, down to a few grammatical errors that weren’t caught by word processing software.

Ken Z. felt overwhelmed by his new business’ to-do list and needed to make more room for networking when he hired a virtual assistance company. Unfortunately, he decided to go with a lowest bidder whose work was unacceptable because of low quality and had to be redone by another multi-VA company. The time and money wasted was considerable.

These business owners went through significant issues and ended up paying a lot more than originally expected because of their choices. Why didn’t Elena M. hire a professional web designer and Aaron B. – a copywriter? Why did Ken Z. go with the lowest bidder? And why do hundreds of fledgling entrepreneurs repeat these mistakes every single day?

The first reason that comes to mind is money. When you contact a friend or a relative or select the lowest bidder, you get work done for free or incredibly cheaply. But when true costs are taken into account, it really gets to be very expensive. Some of these costs include:

Your time – a friend you enlist to help you has only limited experience with projects similar to yours. As such, she doesn’t have tools and processes in place to efficiently keep track of every aspect of the project. As a result, you will end up spending too much time overseeing every single detail of your request.

Delayed launch – when you don’t get paid for your work, you tend to put it on the backburner. Elena M. found it out the hard way when her cousin kept apologizing for not getting work done because of various events in his life, including a birthday, several holidays, and a weekend out with friends and a few evenings spent working on paid projects.

Poor quality – grammatical errors in Aaron B.’s copy did nothing to help him win customers. In this case, his friend had no quality control processes in place other than running a simple spell check, which proved woefully insufficient. Of course, grammatical errors can be corrected and a website can be redesigned. But by the time these problems are discovered and taken care of, you might lose a few clients or damage your company’s reputation. You have lost both time and money.

Additional costs – Ken Z. ended up hiring a new vendor that spent time undoing all the mistakes the lowest bidder made which made Ken’s project that much more expensive. He learned that it would have been much more cost effective and less time consuming to get it right the first time by a professional.

Damaged relationships – involving close friends and relatives in your business is in this way may lead to arguments and open or hidden resentment. It is one thing to “fire” a contractor since most of the time she can be replaced fairly easily. It is quite another thing to “fire” a close friend.

The sad thing is that for all the trouble you put yourself through, the end product – whether a website, a sales letter, or a data file – is barely above average and that’s if you are lucky. If you expect outstanding results, you need to hire the best help, not the cheapest.

There is, of course, an upside to this situation – you learn a heck of a lesson. The downside is you lose time, money, opportunities, potential customers, and quite possibly damage great relationships with friends and family.

Instead of calling in favors and looking for the cheap solutions, recognize that what your baby – your business – needs at the moment is the right start in life. It needs the best expertise, advice, assistance. Look for help accordingly to your business needs.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://internetmasteryblog.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.