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!

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.

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.

I look forward to “seeing” you tomorrow!

Denise Griffitts

We all use them either physically or in my case, on my various desktops. Truly, I would be lost without them!

Why you should download this FREE program.

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically savvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

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!

Napping on the job is usually grounds to be fired, but Your Virtual Assistant / Your Office On The Web, as a forward-thinking and progressive company encourages employees to nap to improve safety and increase productivity.

Approved nap time is part of the company’s broader fatigue counter-measure program developed by both the companies (Your Virtual Assistant and Your Office On The Web) and its union workforce comprised of Denise Griffitts and all contractors and salaried employees.

National Workplace Napping day is always observed the first Monday after Daylight Savings Time begins.  Because of the loss of one hour’s sleep due to the return of Daylight Savings Time,  Your Virtual Assistant’s employees will be more sleep deprived than usual. We therefore declare March 15th, 2010 a paid holiday.

Signed in to law this day: January 20, 2010

by Denise Griffitts

Denise, I am looking at some career choice options–How does one get job experience or training as a VA?

Thanks, Michelle

Answer

This question requires a two part answer so I will tackle the training part of the question first. As in any career, or job change, training is exceedingly important. You would not walk into a doctors office and simply announce that since you have spent some time on WebMd researching heart disease that you are now ready and able to discuss heart disease with patients. What is important that you understand about the Virtual Assistance Industry is that it is a highly technical industry that in my professional opinion requires constant and on-going education as the internet changes at what seems to be the speed of sound. As Virtual Assistants we are working via the internet for most of our working hours. What this means is that a system, process, online tool or site that you may have used as little as a month ago may be considerably different than the last time you accessed it.

The first step is to visualize what your Virtual Assistance practice is going to look like. You will need to determine what your hard and soft skills are and what niche or areas you are interested in. Are you primarily interested in working with clients to build their social media marketing strategy? Are you a brilliant copywriter or technical writer? Can you assist your clients in editing, writing, re-purposing content and disseminating it across the web? Can you see yourself positioning yourself as an online research specialist who can ensure that the information you deliver to your client is both authoritative and accurate? Are you familiar with HTML and feel comfortable working in the WordPress platform? What are your skills and why would somebody be wildly excited to work with you? Don’t make the mistake of trying to be “everything to everybody”. It is the rare VA who can offer everything from web development to product launches and everything in-between. Those of us who can, wisely build our teams to ensure that our service offers are always top notch and delivered on time.

Once you have decided on your career path within the VA industry, it is a good idea to begin to network with other successful virtual assistants on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There are also several really great Virtual Assistant communities such as Virtual Assistance Industry – Where Online Entrepreneurs Collaborate and Find Virtual to name a couple. Network with us, chat with us, follow us around and see what we are doing and sign up for as many free (and paid) teleseminars and workshops that you can find from people who’s work you admire. And never be too shy or too embarrassed to ask questions. Visit our blogs, ask questions, make comments. Connect with us on Facebook, ask questions, make comments. After you do this for a period of time you will have a much better sense of what your service offerings will be and who your ideal clients will be. Then, and probably only then, will you be able to decide what type of training, coaching or mentoring you will require in order to build and grow your VA practice to a healthy six figures.

I am a firm believer in seeking out help, guidance and mentoring and always seek the wisdom and practical experience of someone who has walked down the same paths that I am traveling. Seek out a coach or mentor and give serious consideration to joining a mastermind group who can motivate and nurture your brilliance.

The second part of the question is about gaining job experience. Once you can clearly list your skills, hard and soft, have your elevator speech perfected so you can quickly and confidently explain to somebody in just a few sentences just what your business offers then it is time to offer your services to other VA’s. Working with an experienced VA or multi-VA firm on a project-by-project basis will allow you to try something new and stretch beyond your current experience or knowledge. As you build your network of practicing VA’s who find you delightful to work with you will find your Virtual Assistance practice filling up in short order.

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically savvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

**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://askdenisegriffitts.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com.

Table of contents for Ask Denise Griffitts

1. As a Virtual Assistant, How Do I Find a Niche?
2. Does a Virtual Assistant Need a Blog?

To Blog, or Not to Blog, That is the Question

Question

I have been researching the Virtual Assistance Industry for quite some time now and notice that most well-known and well-established VA’s have blogs.  Is this a critical component for my business success?

Rochelle, Modesto, CA

Answer

There is no hard and fast rule on this.  However… I do recommend that as you gain experience and confidence in your industry that you begin to speak about it and share your knowledge. And this is another “however”; unless you are willing to put in the time and effort required to update your business blog with great content, it is better not to have a blog than to have one that hasn’t been updated in months.

• Blogging demonstrates true commitment and passion to your industry.
• By writing knowledgeable and insightful articles you are building your reputation and creating a name for yourself within your industry or niche. A great blog can position your firm as thought leaders, creating greater authority within your industry.
• Blogging allows you to build your network, and let’s face it, people do business with those they know.
• Ideas spread. Blogging is viral. A properly built blog will notify Twitter of new posts, allow readers to “re-tweet” or share the post with their connections or communities, and subscribe to your feed.
• Blogging allows you to remind people that you and your products/services exist. Research shows that blogs are influencing purchasing decisions, which is critical for your VA practice.

A Few Things to Think About

If you are still on the fence about blogging,  here are a few things you can do to overcome your doubts.

1. Start a group blog with several authors to spread the workload. Do you have several team members or other Virtual Assistants that you work with? Arrange with them to share the responsibilities of publishing great and informative content.
2. Recruit guest bloggers whose work you respect.
3. Offer to write a blog post or two for a thought leader in your industry. The offer may, or may not, be accepted but you will never know unless you try!
4. Monitor popular blogs, news sources and events in your industry or niche and respond to what others are saying about the topics.  In other words, join the conversation.
5. Be sure to create a gravatar that will help people identify your posts on blogs and web forums.

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically savvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

**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://virtualassistanceuniversity.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com.

Table of contents for Ask Denise Griffitts

1. As a Virtual Assistant, How Do I Find a Niche?
2. Does a Virtual Assistant Need a Blog?

Niche: A place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing: to find one’s niche in the business world.

Question

I recently lost my job as an Administrative Assistant in a small company and decided to become a Virtual Assistant. I have been trying to find clients and recently downloaded one of your teleseminars where you were talking about niches.  How do I find a profitable niche?

Karen, Bronx, NY

Answer

Good morning Karen. This is a question that we hear frequently and as I hear it, you are actually asking two questions even though one may be undefined, and that is “How do I find clients?” We will tackle that thorny question in future posts so please bookmark this site and return often to ask questions and browse the answers that other Virtual Assistants are asking. You can also get blog updates delivered to your email box by subscribing to this site.

The first request I would make of you is that you with down with a piece of paper and a pen and clearly determine what both your hard and soft skills are as well as where your true interests and passions lie.  By  assessing your own interests, work style, skills, and personality characteristics you will see patterns emerge that offer clarity about which services you would be passionate about offering. It will also offer clues to where you may need further training in order to achieve the success in your industry that you crave. Keep in mind that working in a traditional brick and mortar office is vastly different then working with a client, or clients, remotely. I cannot stress this enough!

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

In the business world, “hard skills” are technical or administrative procedures related to an organization’s core business. For example if you are a Excel spreadsheet expert, this is a skill that is easy to observe, quantify and measure. 

“Soft skills”, however are difficult to observe, quantify and measure. Soft skills can be defined as “people skills” and are very critical to your Virtual Assistance practice either growing and thriving, or never becoming a viable practice at all.

When assessing your hard and soft skills, be very honest with yourself. On the hard skill, or technical side of the sheet, are you listing systems or processes that you have worked with a little but are by no means expert in? List them, but make a note letting yourself know that if these skills are what you would like to base your Virtual Assistance practice on, that you will enroll in a training program that focuses on the area of highest need.

Soft skills are needed for everyday life just as much as they are needed for business. Honestly assess how well you communicate with other people, with emphasis given to telephone and email interaction. Remember, you are working remotely and this is how you will communicate with both your clients and other team members or consultants if you are in a multi-VA team environment.  Give serious consideration to the following soft skills and add your own where appropriate:

• Communication
• Listening
• Engaging in dialogue
• Giving feedback
• Cooperating as a team member
• Problem solving
• Conflict resolution
• Proactive innovation
• Decision making
• Planning
• Delegating
• Instructing
• Observing
• Coaching
• Encouragement and motivation
• Team building

Once you have clearly defined what your current skills are, what areas require further training or coaching and most importantly, where your true passion lies, you can formulate a plan to focus on those clients/markets that most interest you and will continue to interest you over the life of your practice.

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically saavvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

**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://virtualassistanceuniversity.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com.

Please DO NOT send information as at attachment as it will not be opened or responded to. The resume must be copied and pasted into the body of the email.  Subject line: 1shoppingcart resume.

Include your experience working with 1ShoppingCart and supply at least 2 current references, including name, telephone number and email address.

Only Virtual Assistants who are experienced with the shopping cart will be considered for an interview. 

Virtual Assistance Training

To train with Virtual Assistance Industry Expert Denise Griffitts to become a highly paid, highly sought after Virtual Assistant Professional call 888-719-6711 or visit Virtual Assistance University.

With every passing day and missed deadline the tensions rise. Both the service provider and the client wind up dissatisfied with each other and with the end result. This is bad news all around, isn’t it?

What complicates this situation is that most Virtual Assistants do not have a formal project management background and are largely unprepared to deal with this situation. On the other hand, VAs are exceptionally client-centered and have a hard time drawing the line between responsive customer service and scope creep.

Yes, the never-ending project situation has its own name. Scope creep is a slow and uncontrolled change in project requirements that negatively affects the entire project. In other words, your client requests new or different features or services without adjusting delivery deadlines and/or budget. And in your very real desire to be helpful and keep your client happy you may find yourself knee deep in what we call “Customer Pleasing Scope Creep” meaning that you want to please your customer or client and are reluctant to say no to a change in the project requirements.

Scope Creep is not only inevitable; it’s natural

The simplest and most direct way of preventing scope creep is by establishing a rate structure that provides a disincentive for the client to fundamentally change the project. This means that it is the Virtual Assistant’s or the project team leader’s responsibility to let the client know that the request change is considerably different from the requirements approved during the project scoping process. At this point the client needs to be presented with options and explanations of how these changes could impact the budget, timelines, and resources. It may well mean that the project needs to be re-scoped and you should not shy away from this.

Another less intrusive form of scope creep is that if the client’s request takes only a couple of minutes to implement, many Virtual Assistants tend to do it free of charge since it may take longer to open your client management system and log the quick project in. The problem with this is, if you do enough of this type of free work those few minutes can add up to an hour or better at the end of the month and you have just given away your time, your expertise and managed to lose money doing it.

The Solution

Making minor adjustments in the project is a normal part of doing business and can actually present a great opportunity to make a project more robust. But the question remains, what is scope creep and how do you control it?

Scope creep is the pejorative name we give to the natural process by which clients discover what they really want. Fortunately, there are several effective ways to diminish or at least manage scope creep.

1. Ask the client for clear project description – it’s no secret that clients might have only a vague idea of what it is they really want to accomplish by hiring a Virtual Assistant. It is especially true for more complex or technical projects such as a WordPress installation. It is very likely that at the beginning of a particular project your client won’t be able to put their finger on exactly what they want, although they will be able to tell us quite politely what they don’t like. I suggest that you schedule time with your client on the phone and record that call so that you can have it transcribed. Without these notes it can be surprisingly easy to forget the specifics of the conversation. These notes can be a daily reference point that will guide both you and your client to a successful project conclusion.
2. Define in-scope and out-of-scope tasks – when developing a quote or discussing potential project with a client, clearly define what’s included in your rate and what would cost extra and require extra time. Include rate break-down and scope definition in your contract or work agreement.
3. Work with the client to develop a project plan – what gets done, how it gets done, when it needs to be done and the resources you need to get it done. This is the best time to discuss with the client what their current systems and future needs are.
4. Stick to the plan – do you frequently add nice little (or not so little) extras to the deliverables? Do you pride yourself on overdoing things and delivering more than what the client originally asked for? It might sound counter-intuitive, but this practice of delivering more than what’s specified in the original plan, or gold-plating, is a bad idea. It increases your costs and potentially reduces the quality of the project. But here’s the sad thing –frequently the client will not view your nice little touches as necessary or valuable.
5. Ask questions – there is no such thing as over-communicating. Unclear about the requirements? Ask questions early and often. And if you would like to do some extra work for your client, let them know what it is you would like to get done and how it would impact the deadline and the cost. Do not proceed without their approval.

It’s impossible to completely eliminate the possibility of scope creep. Even the best-defined and the most-carefully laid out projects might end up dragging on. In this case, the only thing a Virtual Assistant or Web Developer can do is to reduce the impact of the changes.

Scope creep can be a minor annoyance or a major disaster depending on your ability to recognize it and manage it. For that, you must plan for scope creep and be prepared to handle it. Building some slack into the project, especially if you haven’t done much similar work in the past is important. Making minor adjustments in the project is a normal part of doing business and can actually present a great opportunity to make a project more robust.

Another must is to establish a way to manage client’s change requests by inserting appropriate clause in the work agreement and developing a simple change form with cost and time estimates.

The bottom line is that scope creep is just one of the many challenges you can count on facing. Even if you follow the mitigation strategies outlined above, it will happen sooner or later. By properly planning and preparing for it, you can make it less of an ordeal for both you and your clients. And that’s a real value-added service.

**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://virtualassistanceuniversity.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.