My RSS feeds at Google Reader are definitely growing! And as a result I find some great reads during the week and I’m sharing some of them here with you today!

Another inspirational story at Equus! The owner, Christine, has been interviewing people in the Equestrian industry and has found some really interesting people. This blog is for and about working with horses but the story I’ve linked to shows how a sight disability didn’t stop one horse lover.

Blog Writing gives 5 Top Tips for a Blog that Readers Love.

Sue Blimely looks at Majestic as an alternative to Wordpress for a CMS type site - something I need to go explore!

Sparkbits at Sparkplugging.com had a tidbit about being a a Geek - I’m not as bad as I thought! I only came out with 9 out of 15. I don’t know if that’s good or bad!

Darren Rowse at Problogger did an interesting and informative piece on making good use of Adsense for your blogs. I do have Adsense on some of my blogs but I believe I can make better use of that after seeing what Darren had to say.

And if you’re a Wordpress fanatic, as I am, then Wordpress Planet always has great info - this time about some cool plugins!

Have a great weekend everyone!  I’m at the OIVAC from today through to Sunday afternoon Australian time - hope to see you there.  If you’ve missed out on purchasing seats for the paid sessions, there are free sessions and of course, you can drop by my booth as well.

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A chance comment from a VA on a forum during the week prompted me to think about the message they were conveying. They gave the impression that they only networked now and then for their business when they ran out of work, but not often otherwise.

Before I started my business I had been attending seminars and events for personal and professional development back in the early 1990s and one of the things that was constantly re-iterated, was the need for networking, in order to get ahead. This was for the corporate world as an employee - how much more important is it for us as self-employed business operators? I bought books about networking and read constantly. Much of what I learnt back then still applies today.

During that time I met Australia’s networking guru, Robyn Henderson who wrote Networking for $uccess and a multitude of other books on networking. In fact I kept in contact with Robyn, letting her know how much I enjoyed her books and what I’d been learning, and do you know what happened? Robyn became one of my clients a few years later! Networking even occurs in simple written communication, in this case letters and cards as it was pre-Internet.

I strongly believe that networking isn’t something to be carried out when work has dried up (which was this VA’s problem) but rather something that is continuously worked upon, every single week. It doesn’t matter how busy you are, something constructive should be done regularly towards the building of your business. Otherwise, a few weeks or a couple of months down the track you’ll find things quiet again and wonder what’s happened?

You stopped networking, that’s what happened!

Networking can happen both online and offline and, in fact, I believe it’s important that both are carried out equally. We may operate virtual businesses but clients can still be found locally and quite close to where you live and work. Why ignore this potential client base?

Make it a habit to network regularly every week and over time you’ll find a constant stream of enquiries and client contact happening which will keep moving your business onward and upward. And if you get too busy, you can then outsource or sub-contract to other VAs, or simply pass the work on!

Technorati Tags: virtual assistant, networking, success, clients

Filed under: Business Networking | 1 Comment »

The last opportunity to order passes to OIVAC is fast approaching. Ordering closes Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 12 midnight (US). Don’t wait until the last minute and miss any of the seminars you really want to attend.

To recap:

• 35+ seminars
• 5 International Networking Sessions
• International Virtual Assistants Day Celebration
• Special Guest Speaker Paddy Spruce
• Sponsor Presentations
• Introducing the Virtual Assistants Industry to the Savvy Business Owner
• VA Industry Workshop
• Great VA Giveaways
• Free and Open to the Public
• Exhibitor Hall
• Donations and Prizes Galore

Mark your calendar for the IVAD Celebration (Friday, May 16, 2008 at 5:15 p.m. EDT US). It’s free but seating is limited, so come into the room early and grab your spot.

This event is ENTIRELY ONLINE. That means, no travel, no accommodation, no leaving home! It is running 16 hours a day so there will be sessions you can attend during your waking hours, no matter where you are in the world.

Don’t delay: Visit http://www.oivac.com today!

Filed under: VA Industry | No Comments »

I was at a BNI presentation last week and the guy speaking was a salesman for a window company. He raised the subject of a marketing budget and encouraged us to consider that even our BNI membership fees are part of that budget.This is something I’ve always felt with respect to VA network memberships too. The networks are active in providing exposure for the industry and are proactive in attracting the attention of clients for their members, amongst other things. And yet so often I see (new) VAs complaining about the membership fees and that they can’t afford them, or don’t think they’re necessary.

Peter was saying he felt that 4-5% of your income should be spent on marketing for your business and the key word here is ‘business’. Running a VA practice is a business and as in all businesses, money does need to be invested into it, to keep it running, or to get it up and running in the first place.

Throughout the years of running my own VA business I’ve paid out thousands of dollars for Yellow Pages advertising, printing of flyers, some local newspaper advertising (although I don’t bother with that these days) online advertising such as Google Adwords and directory listings, my own website which includes hosting fees, and of course VA network fees. I do belong to a few networks and yes, I do pay fees. I also pay out for sponsorships for different events, like the forthcoming OIVAC next weekend. Even your business cards are part of your marketing expense - and they should be constantly given out, not left in a drawer at home.

Of course, you should track your marketing efforts and give it a reasonable time to see how it goes. If you’re going to try the local newspaper you probably need to have ads in there weekly for at least 8 weeks to measure the response because the paper is thrown out weekly. Yellow Pages should give you an idea over a one year period as to whether it will work for you - but then again, you might need to reword it and try again the following year.

Google Adwords - you can constantly tweak your adverts and split-test to see which keywords and text ads are working. I recently created some new ones for my coaching course after attending a copywriting course (another marketing expense if you like?) and found that the new adverts are getting better attention and clickthroughs!

So, in using Peter’s guide of 5% of your income for marketing, if you are earning say $10K a year from your business, then it would be reasonable to expect to invest $500 (note I say ‘invest’ and not ’spend’), $1000 for $20K income and so on. In fact, I believe I’ve probably spent well over the 5% mentioned every year in my business but I do believe the returns have been well worth it too.

So, do your sums and get on with marketing your business!

Technorati Tags: marketing,money,budget,investment,spending,advertising,memberships,virtual assistant

Filed under: Uncategorised | 1 Comment »

Now that I’m using Google Reader I’ve come across a number of blogs with great hints and tips for writing, blogging and things relating to business. So, each Friday I’m going to send you some of the best I’ve seen during the week! Here’s my selection for this week!

Interview at Equus - you have to check out this lady’s artwork and her CafePress site. Gorgeous!

Network Blogging Tips gives 16 ideas for posting to your blog. Now you have no excuse for not being able to post something!

Blogging for Dollars gives you 5 tips for blog writing.

And my favourite for this week - how much is your blog really worth? Again at Blogging for Dollars.

Filed under: Blogging | 2 Comments »