On one of the VA forums I moderate we periodically have discussions about the use of free software versus paid software. In many cases it makes sense to pay for decent software and after all, we are running businesses aren’t we? Sometimes going cheap means you pay for what you get – something that’s ‘cheap and nasty’. This doesn’t only apply to software but also other products and services.

However, another VA forum was discussing the type of software that VAs use and amongst those items were many free software programs that are very useful and not ‘cheap and nasty’. One of the VAs there posted on her blog about it and I thought it good to share the same here. Because there really are some good free programs out there that people are using the world over. The companies providing them have got a good strategy in place – they make a popular product free and then charge for the other products that complement that one product in many cases – such companies include Adobe and Lavasoft. And then there’s open source software as well – where groups of developers continue to work on the products and allow others to use them and test them.

Crystal tells the reader:

When choosing what programs and software you want, be open minded and check out what is available for f ree. Ask around and find out who you know has tried the f ree programs. See what limitations the f ree programs have. Then decide if f ree meets your needs.

This is the list of what I use. All of it was f ree.

AVG 7.5
Ad-aware SE
Firewall (came with the computer)
Diskeeper Lite
Adobe Reader 7.0
eFax Messenger
Zoho CRM
PDFCreator

For the full post, please go to her blog. If you have more to add to the list, why not let Crystal know? KMT

free software, open source, ‘cheap and nasty’, building a VA business, virtual assistant

Periodically on the VA forums to which I belong, a VA will post a question, asking what is the ‘normal’ rate for a particular service. There are a number of reasons why that question will cause challenges for them and I’ll explain it here.

Firstly, the VA forums have members from all over the world so the cost of living in the areas in which each VA lives and works will be quite different to that of many of the other VA members.

Secondly, the skills and experience of each of the VAs will also be different.

Thirdly, the currencies also differ.

If a VA in Melbourne, Australia for example answers this question for someone who lives in Florida, USA, based on their own skills and experience, the answer will not be the correct one for the VA in Florida. Even if their cost of living were similar, the currencies differ and the typing speed and ability of one VA could vastly differ from the other. Those who are more experienced will often command a higher charge rate than those with less experience and the US dollar and the AU dollar are different in value, not to mention the cost of living in both areas.

When a VA is seeking to find out the ‘normal’ rate for a service they are much better off looking at businesses local to them to find that out. There are also tools that will help a VA work out their base hourly rate for their business. Nina Feldman has a list of tools on her site, and many of the VA networks have tools available for their members.

Sometimes asking at the forum seems the quickest way to get the information but there are times when doing the research is really the right answer.  KMT

virtual assistant, building a VA business, VA, global business, virtual assistant industry

Today is the 13th anniversary of the registration of “A Clayton’s Secretary”. A milestone in small business as we all know and have heard the statistics so many times of the number of businesses that make it to the end of the first year, the second, the fifth and the tenth. So, I just couldn’t let this day go past without letting people know about it.

The simple typing and data entry secretarial service I started all those years ago, just so I could be home for our 5 young daughters, has grown into an international virtual assistant practice and network and it has been an exciting and interesting journey, and a journey I am still very much enjoying. I wish similar success to all those VAs I connect with via my business, the chat forums and other avenues. Here’s to many more years! KMT

virtual assistant, building a VA business, business anniversary, virtual assistant industry

Regular readers will have seen my post a few days ago about website copy being stolen. Several comments were made including one from Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today. I emailed Jonathan and asked him some questions about his suggestion and he has very kindly given back some answers so I’m placing them here for your information. Thanks heaps Jonathan!

Tell us about DMCA notices Jonathan – I must admit I’ve never heard of them. Are they country specific or global?

Kathie,

Your question is actually a bit more broad that you probably realize. The DMCA is a complicated law and it requires a bit of background.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed in 1998. It included many provisions but the one of interest here is the Safe Harbor Provision. Before the DMCA, Web hosts were working in a legal gray area, uncertain if they could be held liable for infringement perpetrated by their users. If Yahoo or Google had to answer for every infringement someone hosting a site with them, even they would be put out of business.

The DMCA provided these hosts with “Safe Harbor” meaning that they were not liable if they met certain standards. The important one being that they would “expeditiously” remove works that were infringing once they were properly notified of the issue. However, to ensure that the notices were not used improperly, the law set up guidelines on the format of the notice and how it should be delivered.

You can read the required elements on my site here: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2005/09/29/how-to-write-an-effective-dmca-notice/ The explanation is much more thorough there than I could ever do in this email.

The DMCA further requires that the notice be sent to a designated agent, chosen by the host. To find the designated agent, either look on the host’s site itself or on the Copyright Office Web site here:

http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/list/a_agents.html

Generally, these notices can be emailed and, if you’re looking for a good template, there’s an excellent one in Word format here: http://www.learnaboutlaw.com/learnaboutDMCA.htm

If you find your work is being stolen and you track down the host, you can use a site like domaintools.com to help with that, and find it to be American, a DMCA notice is almost always the best approach. Nearly every host obeys the DMCA because it is reasonable and it offers them a great deal of protection.

Hi Jonathan, thanks very much for this, but one more question. Does this apply to the US only or does this relate to web hosts in every country? A large number of my visitors are from Australia and the US but I do get a number from other countries too.

Kathie,

Once again, not a straightforward question. But this one is a bit easier.

The DMCA itself applies only to the United States. However, it’s important to note that it applies to hosts within the US, not people. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can use the DMCA on an American host. I’ve seen Australian people use an American law to stop a Chinese infringement because it was hosted somewhere in the US.

That being said, many other countries have instituted DMCA-like laws. The EU has, as has Australia, New Zealand (I believe) and Canada. All of the laws say the same thing more or less. However, the requirements for filing a notice, in all cases, are much lower. For example, the EU requires none of the formalities in the US, you don’t even have to be the copyright holder to file a notice.

What this means is that, in any country that has a DMCA-like law, a US DMCA notice will work. You can always have more, but you can’t have less. Just be sure to remove any mention of the DMCA by name when sending such a notice to a foreign country.

That should about cover that issue. I’m trying to think if there is anything else and seem to be coming up blank at the moment. Once again, if you or any of your readers have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask away, I’ll gladly do what I can.

______________________________________________________________

So, there you have it, more information that should help you protect what’s yours! KMT

virtual assistant, VA website, VA website, plagriarism, content copying, DMCA, website copying, Copyscape

What is all this ridiculous stuff that makes no sense that comes in spam? Is it some kind of secret code that only the exceptional few know and understand? Perhaps there’s some global thing happening where groups of people around the world are planning things and the information is disseminated by the code in the spam? Who knows?

Spam is bad enough at any time but it used to make some sense – it was pretty much trying to promote something or lure you somewhere to suit the sender’s needs. But now I get so much stuff in my spam filters that just seems to have jumbled up words that make no sense, or a series of parts of sentences from stories or other people’s websites – like it all got thrown into a bag, shaken and then tipped out in a jumbled mess.

Perhaps I’m showing my ignorance here and there is a reason for it but it’s beyond me. Searches on Google indicate that the ‘random blather’ is designed to bypass the filters but it seems that the majority does still get caught. Thank goodness I have filters that halts it till I peruse through in case there’s a real email message hidden amongst the jumbled messages somewhere.

Some of the VA forums I belong to have recently had discussions about new VAs who are copying the content of more established VAs and placing it on their website, unchanged. It is plagiarism and as far as I know, that isn’t legal. It certainly isn’t moral and can be very upsetting for the owner of the content.

Why does this happen and what can be done about it?

Well, it happens for a number of reasons. People like what they’ve seen and want to copy it as it will make them look more professional from the start. Whilst copying can be seen as a form of flattery, the reality is that copying content is breaking copyright – the right of the owner who owns that copy. We all know that there are probably only so many ways to explain what a Virtual Assistant is for example, but if someone is going to copy the explanation from another site, they should seek permission to do so and then acknowledge where the content came from.

What about when an entire copy of pages has been done, right down to business name, fees and so on? This is not only upsetting for the owner but is going to cause major problems for the person who did the copying. After all, when someone starts out in business they should be doing all the homework that helps them determine why and how they’re going to operate their business. You know, that business plan thing. So, if someone copies the rates of another VA, how do they know that those rates are going to be right for them? Have they verified that their own experience and skills match those of the person they’ve copied? Is their cost of living in their area the same as that of the person whose site they’ve copied? Not only that, how do they explain to prospective clients the way they operate and provide services? Not to mention the loss of credibility they’re going to experience when people discover that their site is a copy of another site elsewhere – this can often be discovered when the source of the website is viewed and that often reveals that the content has been copied from elsewhere.

When you are new in business thinking about how you’re going to operate, what services you’re going to provide, how you charge rates and so on is all part of the process of the business planning and development. If you copy that information from elsewhere and not put the thought and planning into it, you’re going to come unstuck. Not only that, your ethics will come into question, not just from your clients but also from the VA community in general and you’ll find yourself ostracized. Not a good start to your new career!

For those who believe their site has been copied there are things you can do. Firstly, you should contact the owner of the other site – they might not know that what they have up there has been copied from your site – especially if they’ve engaged someone else to do their site, which is often the case. A well-meaning friend or family member is shown examples of sites by the site owner, and they simply just go in and copy and paste content (and sometimes the design) and purchase a similar sounding domain name, and voila! They have an online presence. In most cases the owner will be suitably embarrassed and apologetic and get it changed quickly.

You could contact the web host and advise that a site they’re hosting has stolen content – they might decide to intervene.

But if the owner of the site doesn’t remove the content you might have to contact a solicitor to send a ‘cease and desist’ letter on your behalf.

Sites you can visit online that might help you protect your content are:

Copyscape – You can use this service to see if anyone has copied your content and then elect to use their service to protect your content.

Plagiarism.org – Worth exploring as you can find out about different technologies to assist you.

WaybackMachine – This will help verify the content of your site and how long ago it was up there. My own site has been growing since April 1996 – the earliest it shows on this website is December 1998 – boy am I glad it doesn’t look like that now!

Google Alert – I use this to alert me when content, key phrases or even my name is published on the web somewhere so I can track any references to my business or myself.

Article Checker – this is new and not yet proven, but if it does what I think it does, it will assist in proving who the first was to post content on line.

Your own web stats will most likely alert you to when your website has been copied and saved on someone’s hard drive. It amuses me to see I’ve had registered hits viewing my site, referencing ‘caroline’s c drive’ or similar. They haven’t removed my counter coding and I immediately know what’s taken place and keep an eye out for any new possible site uploads that might mean my website is about to be copied online elsewhere.

And finally, some advice from ‘Random Lawyer’ about copying. He advises not to do it!

Above all, as a website owner, it means we need to remain vigilant and be aware that some ‘copying’ is an innocent action and not full of malicious intent but there are some out there simply in the race for financial gain and they’ll do anything they can to get it. If you are going to follow up someone who has copied your content, it would be best for you to print a copy of their site so you have that for evidence should you need it. KMT

virtual assistant, building a VA business, website copying, content copying, copyright, Copyscape, plagiarism