Category Archives: Technology

Are You Ready to ACCELERATE! Your Business?

April 17, 2011 12:36 pm Leave a Comment

Woohoo! The ACCELERATE! Live event registration is now open! http://www.accelerate-live.com

I’m so excited to be offering you a very unique and fun VA conference that will put you forever in the driver’s seat of your business.

I’ve partnered up with my long-time colleague and friend Kristi Pavlik (The Systems Chick) to bring you this truly awesome business-building experience. And one that is sure to fit your pocketbook, too!

Practical HANDS-ON workshops will give you all the information you need PLUS complete details on how to IMPLEMENT what you learn as soon as you return to your desk.

What will you be learning? Here is a general overview (more on the website):

* Business Foundations: Specific, Repeatable Systems that Solidify Success
* Marketing: Including Planning and Social Media – Targeted & Tailored To Your Ideal Client
* The Latest in Online Tools: Time-Saving Technologies for Working Smarter, Not Harder (for both you and your clients!)

You’ll be learning in a dynamic and interactive environment. There’s no lecture mode here. No, it’s all action-oriented from the get-go!

Really, how can you refuse such an opportunity to have this kind of personal instruction in a fun atmosphere with the camaraderie of your VA colleagues to boot? Talk about inspiration!

Extra Special Contest: One fast-acting early bird registrant will win a loaded Apple iPad!

You see, there are many reasons YOU NEED to come out and join us and it’s all here waiting for you. But space is limited so you have to act now to grab your spot before they’re all gone!

P.S. As entrepreneurs, we are sometimes at the mercy of the economy and clients coming and going. But you can set yourself up to thrive no matter what’s going on, as long as you have solid systems in place. Make the commitment to get them in place so you never have to worry again about how you’ll handle anything that comes your way! Register today, I’d love to see you in Vegas!

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Filed Under: ACCELERATE! LIve, Business Success, Marketing, Multi-VA Teams, Social Media, Technology, Training for Success!, Virtual Assistant Tagged With: , , ,

How to Use YouTube to Improve Online Brand Awareness and SEO

April 12, 2011 8:58 am Leave a Comment

Online entrepreneurs and marketers have much to gain from creating a YouTube channel and launching a video marketing campaign. Once a YouTube channel has been created, the following steps should be followed in order to improve brand awareness among Internet users, as well as enhance your visibility – not only in video sharing communities but also among search engine users:

Select a Topic

Choosing a topic for your video marketing need not be a difficult task as there are many options to choose from. It could be focused on better or unconventional ways by which a product can be used for best results or simply demonstrate your expertise on a given topic. It could also include testimonials from loyal customers or even be made just for pure entertainment. When it comes to selecting video marketing topics, your are really, only limited by your creativity.

You need not limit yourself to developing just one video. In most cases, publishing a video marketing series works best and increases the potential of a brand to gain loyal viewership.

Record Your Video

Once you select a topic and plan out all your scenes and important communication points, you should be ready to record. The technology used for this is not as important the concept of the video, as there are marketers who have shot videos with mobile phone cameras have seen the same success as those who have recorded in HD or other more sophisticated devices.

Recorded videos should be focused, direct to the point, and kept below two minutes. After recording your video, simple editing software can be used to fix the transition between scenes, remove unnecessary takes, and finalize the video for public viewing.

Implement Video SEO Tactics

When a video is ready for the public, it should be uploaded to your YouTube channel and optimized for proper video SEO. To do this, you need to include pertinent keywords when entering a title, a description, and tags.

Make sure a link to your website should be added towards the end of the video and in its description. Doing so does not only generate backlinks for your site but also directs viewers to a place where they can learn more about you and your business that is featured in the video.

Generate Video Views

Apart from making a video available in a YouTube channel, you should look for other videos with related content and post your own videos as replies. Doing so increases the potential of views and enhances a video’s relevance to certain keywords. More views and backlinks can also be generated by promoting videos on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Once a video has gained enough views and backlinks, it starts appearing in Google search results for targeted keywords and phrases.

Video marketing is definitely much more difficult to pursue than content marketing. However, the results you can can gain from this strategy can definitely make it worthwhile. With a proper video marketing campaign working you can easily improve online brand awareness, visibility, and SEO.

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Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Technology

Why Every Virtual Assistant Needs an Online Presence

February 23, 2011 7:23 am 1 Comment

Building a VA business? Great! Congratulations! Being self-employed is a fulfilling and rewarding lifestyle. Before you get too far into that business plan, are you planning on having a website? If you’re going to be a virtual assistant, you need one. Here’s why:

Your Clients are Online

You’re a virtual assistant. Emphasis on virtual. That means your business operates online. Via the internet, email and perhaps instant messaging and conferencing. If you’re without an online presence, you’re missing out on clients. The majority of your clients will be online business owners. That means they’re very Internet focused. They’ll turn to the internet first to search for a provider.

Now that’s not to say that you won’t have local clients. You might. However, they’ll still likely search for you online. It’s how our society buys products and services.

Your Website Establishes Your Credibility

Many VA tasks are focused on the Internet. You might be managing a blog or forum. You might be proofreading and uploading articles into article directories. You might be managing affiliates for a business. All of those tasks require a good degree of comfort using online technology. Your website helps demonstrate your ability to use the internet. It demonstrates that you’re comfortable online and skilled with using technology.

If you don’t have a website, many of your clients may wonder why not. They may simply disregard you because you’re not online.

Your Website Markets Your Services

Your website accomplishes a number of marketing tactics. It communicates your services and fees. It answers any questions a prospect might have about your services, practices and policies. It also showcases your personality. You’ll likely have an “About Me” page. This is useful for telling your story. However, the word choice, design and feel of your site also helps communicate your personality and brand your business.

Your website can also broadcast your successes. You can list your testimonials. You can cite awards you’ve earned. You can communicate organizations you’re a part of. You can also list the companies you’ve worked with. All of this helps establish you as a credible service provider. Your website can be used to build trust with your prospects.

Finally, you can use your website to facilitate many of your business functions. Communications, payments and even inquiries can be managed through your website. You can also use your website to generate more income by affiliating with products or services and by selling advertisement space.

In short, if you’re going to be a Virtual Assistant, do it the right way. Create a website that helps you build and grow your dream business.

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Filed Under: Business Success, Technology, Virtual Assistant Tagged With: , ,

Boosting Business with Autoresponders

February 3, 2011 7:57 am Leave a Comment

These days, most everyone is familiar with an autoresponder, although many don’t know why they are beneficial to businesses.  If you aren’t familiar with autoresponders, you would probably find yourself amazed with them.  An autoresponder can help your business by automatically emailing your clients and customers with a preset message that will help to increase your sales.

An autoresponder can help your list of clients grow, even send each one of them their own personalized email message.  If you choose, you can also follow up each individual email with repeated emails, varying the content whenever you wish.  These programs will also allow you to keep track of conversations, and send out broadcast email messages whenever you have news or new products to offer your clients.

As research in the past has shown, personalized email from autoresponders is a great way to boost your business.  When you send a personalized email to one of your clients, the autoresponder by can address him or her by their name – which always makes a customer take notice.  While you could do this yourself using traditional email, it could take you a few hours if you have a long list of customers.

Autoresponders make sending personalized email a snap.  All you need to do is set up your email template, then select where you like the name to go.  You can add everyone in your customer list to the autoresponder, which makes sending emails a snap.  Once you have everything ready to go, all you need to do is send out the emails with one simple click.  Best of all – you don’t have to set it up again when you need to send out broadcast messages.

Although there are some people who will buy products after one or two emails, most people require about seven or eight emails before they will purchase anything.  Autoresponders can really help you there, as they will do all of the emailing for you.  You don’t have to keep sending manual emails or anything like that.  All you need to do is set up the email address, type in your preset message, and then feel free to send it as many times as you like.

Through the use of an autoresponder you can really boost your business.  If you run an Internet marketing business, this tool will prove to be invaluable.  You can spend less time sending messages – and more time doing what you enjoy.  If you’ve never tried an autoresponder before, you owe it yourself to check out everything they will do for you and your business.  Online businesses can get a lot of emails on a daily basis – which is where the autoresponder will really start to shine and show you just how great of an asset it really is.

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Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With:

Understanding Craigslist

January 31, 2011 8:47 am Leave a Comment

Many people hear the name Craigslist and know it refers to some sort of website but many are still unclear about the different ways in which Craigslist can be used.

However, Craigslist receives over four billion page views per month so there are obviously many people who have a better understanding of the services offered by Craigslist. Essentially, Craigslist is similar to the classified section of a newspaper where individual can either post advertisements or respond to existing advertisements. There are a variety of different advertisements offered online and presented in a group of different categories to make it easier for users to find these advertisements. Whether you are new to Craigslist or a veteran of the online community this article may offer useful information about some of the uses of Craigslist. This article will discuss the following ways visitors can use Craigslist:

  • Promote your business with Craigslist
  • Find a job with Craigslist
  • Sell items with Craigslist
  • Meet dates with Craigslist

The above are just four of the most popular options for using Craigslist; however, these four options do not cover the vastness of Craigslist. Readers of this article are encouraged to investigate Craigslist on their own to learn more about what this online community has to offer.

Promote Your Business with Craigslist
One of the most popular uses of Craigslist is for business promotion. Both small businesses and large corporations can take advantage of the free advertising offered on Craigslist to promote their business and attract new customers. Business owners are free to place advertisements on Craigslist in the section for services offered. This section is broken down into a number of categories to allow business owners to place their advertisement in the most appropriate location where it is likely to reach the target audience. There is also a section for small business advertisements but it might be more worthwhile to place advertisements in one of the appropriate categories because it is more likely to be found by interested individuals.

Participating in the discussion forums and providing insightful comments and accurate answers to questions while also placing a link to a business website can help to drive traffic to an ecommerce website. However, when doing this, care should be taken to avoid making posts which will be perceived as spam.

Find a Job with Craigslist
Individuals can also use Craigslist to find jobs. They can either browse through the listings available by selecting a location and a general category. Additionally, the search feature can be used to refine the search for a job. This may include using search criteria such as whether or not the position is a telecommute position, a contract position, an internship, a part time position or a position with a non-profit organization.

Conversely business owners and human resources representatives can use Craigslist to solicit resumes for open positions. Those who post job openings in an appropriate category on Craigslist are likely to receive a large number of responses.

Sell Items with Craigslist
Individuals can also sell new or used items through Craigslist. Here individual can post a host of items which they are offering for sale. These items can be posted into different categories and the user supplies a description of the item as well as a desired price. There are also categories for individuals to place items they are seeking as well as items they are offering free of charge. There are some restrictions placed on the type of items which can be sold through Craigslist. For example the sale of firearms is not permitted in the sporting goods section and pornographic items cannot be offered for sale in the CD/DVD/VHS section.

Meet Dates with Craigslist
Craigslist can also be used to find potential dates. There are however a number of strict restrictions enforced in the personals section. Most importantly Craigslist does not allow individuals to impersonate another individual in a personals advertisement. Those who place a personals advertisement on Craigslist have a number of categories from which to choose. They can post an advertisement seeking platonic relationships, seeking romantic relationships, seeking missed connections or other relationship related scenarios.

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Filed Under: Marketing, Product Reviews, Technology Tagged With:
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