Don’t you just hate it when technology just won’t work? As you may be aware I’ve had my challenges these past few weeks. A cpanel crash meant having to shift all my websites and blogs, and that of my clients to another server. Minor hiccups have meant that we (web guy and me) need to find a fix for UTF-8 on some blogs as the charset isn’t showing correctly although other blogs appear to be fine, but hopefully we’ll get that sorted soon. Everything else appears to be working fine now.

And then add to that, we (my family and I) had intermittent internet connection for the whole of last week so it made it hard for me to check on the status of the server change and I was unable to respond to email as quickly as I usually do. Frustrating.

However, it did mean that I could elect to do things I don’t often spend as much time on, such as reading and writing (I have a new book in progress), sorting through papers and I was away interstate some of that time too which helped to decrease my level of frustration.

Sometimes things are just out of our control and we can either elect to get totally stressed about it, or just accept it after assessing the situation and assuring ourselves there is nothing further we can physically do. It’s important to advise clients when you are unable to carry out work if it’s dependent on internet access (as much of mine is) and then make a date with your diary and plan to catch up when things are back online.

As I said a couple of posts ago, it’s good to realise ‘it’s only temporary’ and take the pressure off yourself.

I hope you like the post I put up on the weekend. Now I know why I write so much. Actually I always knew that writing was therapeutic - at least for me it always has been. A great way for getting my thoughts in order and decluttering my mind. Just nice to see that scientists agree with my theory

Filed under: Author's musings | 2 Comments »

My hubby gets Scientific American and he photocopied an article for me from their June edition. The full article isn’t available online but some of it is and I thought I’d share it with you.

Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.

Scientists now hope to explore the neurological underpinnings at play, especially considering the explosion of blogs. According to Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a “placebo for getting satisfied,” Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly.

You can purchase a copy online at the link in my first para.

How about that? Now you can say blogging is a healthy activity!

blogging, healthy, therapeutic, writing, blogosphere, Scientific American

Filed under: Blogging, Healthcare | 3 Comments »

This week has been a rather challenging one for me. Many of my clients and contacts will know that one of my servers had challenges 3 weeks ago and this past weekend everything was shifted to another server. Most of the challenges now seem ironed out and to my knowledge, only one or two clients, are still getting sorted - my web guy Andrew, has been a great help during this time.

I was out of the office for a couple of days speaking at an EA/PA event in Perth. Consequently it meant that there was no work being done while I was out however when I got back I found that our internet wasn’t working properly. Actually I had noticed it on Monday but thought it might have related to my server being shifted so just ignored it, thinking all would be ok on my return. But it wasn’t - over 500 emails waiting to be downloaded and Outlook was having problems downloading and many websites just weren’t viewing. It also meant any internet related work activity just couldn’t be done, or only in very small doses as I had access on occasion.

After 2 days of discussing things and speaking to people, we (hubby and I) came to the conclusion that it’s actually an ISP problem - they had a major cable cut through several days ago and we believe that it was related to overseas connections which is why Aussie sites are loading fine most of the time and overseas ones only periodically. And my email comes through a spam filter via a US site so I had to change settings on Outlook so I could receive my email direct through my own mail server.

But further to that a third thing entered the equasion - seems our router could also be on the blink so hubby plans to buy a new on this afternoon to see if that helps.

Worth remembering that when you have computer or internet-related problems there can always be more than one reason or possibility behind it. (For those who are not so techy-minded, it’s important to remember this if your tech support takes a while to sort out a problem - sometimes it’s a case of trying one thing, then another, then another, till they hit upon the cause). Grrrrr…. don’t you just love it?

Oh well, as a friend who emailed to cheer me up this morning said ‘it soon will pass’. I agree. One of my favourite sayings is ‘it’s only temporary’.

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Another in our Client Case Studies, Linda has our own Terence Kierans from WA supporting her.   I feel it a real privilege that these clients are willing to share their stories about using Virtual Assistant services to support their businesses.  It is my hope as you read through these stories that you can see how VAs can assist you if in business, or if you are a VA, the type of services you could provide to develop a successful VA practice.

My name is Linda Simmon and I am a certified hypnotherapist in the Southern California (Los Angeles/Ventura) area.  If people really want to find out about me, the best way is to actually visit my site at www.newhypnotherapy.com but, suffice it to say that I was a paralegal for 5+ years and decided I needed a change so went back to school and got ertified as a hypnotherapist.  I completed my schooling and internship about 6 years ago.

I realized almost immediately after completing my training that I needed to have a website set up.  The reason was because I was offered the opportunity of writing a column for a popular astrological site and my column included a question answer section.  Since it reached people worldwide, I realized I needed a way for people to contact me and read about me and my work that didn’t include them calling me at any time of the day or night.

I first “met” TK after my site had been in place for a while when I decided that I needed a Shopping Cart System.  We were introduced to each other by Terri Romine and I felt we were a good fit for working together.

My practice includes telephone sessions with clients and recorded sessions they can purchased.  TK has helped me with the payments procedures necessary for this to run smoothly.

In addition, I put out a monthly newsletter and it is TK who makes it look good and ensures that it is delivered to my client list.  TK is also instrumental in formatting and distributing announcements that I periodically need to send out to my clients.

I do have another VA who supports my business.  The differences between their duties is that TK handles all my shopping cart issues, client list and mailing to my clients while my other VA handles changes to my website for me.

TK and I had been working together now for almost 3 years and during the course of those 3 years I have come to depend on him more and more because he has made it so much easier for me to do what I do best, and that is hypnotherapy and counseling.

Linda Simmon, C.Ht.
www.newhypnotherapy.com

Filed under: Client Ed & Case Studies | No Comments »

Many VAs on forums are found to be asking about what programs they should be using to develop websites. As beginners they frequently don’t have the funding to pay someone to do it for them, but also they feel that they should be learning about things like that themselves so they can advise clients about what’s available, even if they don’t end up providing that service.

I often recommend Wordpress these days. It provides a great CMS (Content Management System) type website with static pages and still allows you to have a blog component if you wish.

In fact, most of the recent websites I’ve developed for clients, and for myself has been done with Wordpress. There are thousands of templates out there (and I mean thousands upon thousands) and often you can modify them to change background colours, font types, and add in your own images or logos, or you can pay someone to create a new header or template for you - which is often cheaper than getting a whole website designed.

For my clients, many want the ability to log in and make changes to text and images themselves, without having to pay for constant updates and this type of site suits them well.

Here are some examples of how this works:

Sites for authors:

www.chrissysiggee.com
www.worth-more-than-rubies.com
www.out-of-the-shadows.com.au

Bridal wear designer:

www.melanie-jane.com

Author/Speaker:

www.kathiethomas.com

Webhosting services:

www.acs-webhosting.com

Filed under: Operating a VA Business, Technology | 4 Comments »

Regular readers would have noted not so regular posts here over the past 3 or so weeks and that sometimes posts and comments went missing and then reappeared. We had a hiccup early July with a cpanel crash and have been limping ever since. This weekend my web guy shifted all the sites I manage to a new machine and we hope (and pray) that this will sort the problems out and I can get back to regular blogging.

It has been rather disconcerting to write posts and publish them, only to find they disappeared and I didn’t have a back up copy! I got to the point where I just didn’t want to try most of the time as I didn’t have time to try and redo things. I know I could have written them up and saved them in another program but I often just didn’t think about that till after the event - I’m so used to writing and publishing straight into Wordpress. Perhaps a lesson for me, and my readers, that it might be worth taking that extra step to save posts elsewhere - at least till I can feel confident that all is well again!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Filed under: Author's musings, Blogging | No Comments »