Today I am 1 year old. I have learn much, forgotten some, and moved way beyond where I ever thought I would be.

I can’t believe a year ago today I opened my VA doors.  I am done and learned so much I thought I would share with you some of the things I learned.

• Wordpress ~ a year ago I did not really know what Wordpress was much less how to work it.  Today I can do about anything you ask me to do in wordpress.  I can even tweak a theme, install Wordpress and work with css and php codes.  I know I never thought I would be able to say that
• 1Shopping Cart ~ I had no idea what this was or why someone would even want to do anything with it.  But today I can say I am just about an expert at 1shopping cart and if I can not figure it out I know where to go to get the information
•  Article Submission ~ Huh what is that.  LOL no that was me last year.  Now I can honestly say I can submit an article with my eyes closed and in a matter of minutes
• Content Manager ~ I had not idea what this even meant but now I am building my business around this and looking to do more of this and less of the little stuff I have been doing
• Publicity Co0rdinator ~ WHAT!!! I never thought I would be able to say that I helped someone land a spot on TV.  But I did that last year in 2009 as one of my clients Publicity Coordinator.
• And the list goes on.  Last year I was green super green but I had a few good clients that gave me a chance and look at me now.

I have done so much reflecting on my business the last two weeks of the year and have made some great changes for my business.

I just want to thank all my clients for sticking with me this first year of my business.

Most of the clients I work with either have affiliate programs or belong to affiliate programs. It seems that I have started working more and more with affiliates and affiliate programs.  The other day I had a VA just starting out come to me and ask me about some affiliate programs I belong to and wanted to know how to tell if they are Affiliate Marketing Scams.

Really there is no sure fire way to spot a scam on the internet,but there are some ways that you can spot many of them. Below I have listed just a few tips and hints I have learned along the way on how to spot a scam and keep you from falling into their traps.

You want to look for things that are suspicious:

Can not find anything about who owns the website – You should be able to find some sort of information about contacting either the person who owns the site or the person that may run the affiliate center. You will need that information in case you need to contact them of you have questions or a problem. If you do not find any contact information be careful.

Find Testimonials – Affiliate sites sell things, which means that there should be testimonials from past customers tellling how great the business, service, or product is.  If there are no testimonails that could be a bad sign.

Research, Research, Research – You need to find out more about the products, research them. You want a good product or afiliate program that you are comforatable offering to your friends, family or clients.  A quick research could reveal people who have been scammed by this company. Make sure and pay attention to these complaints if you find any.

Promises that are too good to be true – Now I know everyone of us wants to earn huge money, in the shortest time possible, and not using much effort in doing it. There are some programs that pound these promises into your head. These promises sound awesome right/ Well, you probley should not believe them. I can tell you from first and experiance that it takes alot of work and time to make money online, or in an affiliate program.  A little elbow grease will having you making way more money then these empty promise businesses could ever dream about.

I have only mentioned a couple things that you need to watch for. They may seem suspicious, but that does not always mean they are out to scam you. But if you make sure and research before you make that commitment you will be less likely of falling into an scammers traps.

Working with a client the other day we started talking about her sitemap. We had not yet set up a sitemap and started talking about setting one up and why it was so important to set up a sitemap. Here are just a few reason we came up with on why you need a sitemap.

A sitemap is really a map to your site. A sitemap will help a visitor browse through your site without getting lost. And if they do get lost they can just go back to your site map and pick up where they were last.

The site map pretty much conveys your sites theme. Visitors that stop by your sitemap will find out the gist of your whole site in just a few minutes. You are saving your vistors time by allowing them to see your sitemap and go straight to what they want to read.

Creating a sitemap means you are creating just one page that contains a link to every single page on your site. Just think what would happen if a search engine robot ran into that site. Those search engine bots will go to every page on your site and then will be indexed by that search engine. You also need to make sure that you have your sitemap needs to be placed somewhere on the front page of your site.

Once you have your sitemap completely up then you will get the bird’s eye view of your whole site. So when you go to add something new you will be able to look and decided yes it belongs right there.
This all results in you have a beautify organized site with everything in its place.

So after talking with the client we decided her website needed a sitemap. Do you have a sitemap on your site? If not I would be happy to set one up for you. Contact me.

When I first started my Virtual Assistant business I never thought I would be submiting press releases.  When my first client came to me asking if I submitted press releases.  I of course said sure if you write it I will submit it.  And then hurried and and started researching where I could submit press releases.

Of course the first thing I came acrossed was offline Submissions. With offline submissions I had to find out a couple different things. First I had to find out how they would like for me to submit the press release. Do they want it mailed in, emailed to them, or faxed?  If I am emailing it to them would they prefer it directly in the email or do they want it as an attachment? Is there a certain department I should be submitting my clients press releases to? After some research and a couple phone calls I had all the information I

needed.

So on to online submissions I went.  Online Submissions are much easier and I found a very nice handful of free and paid sites to submit my clients press releases to.  I found that free is good but if I wanted to reach a larger audience, quicker, then spending a few extra dollars is well worth it.

Online press release submission is the way I submit for my clients unless they ask otherwise.  Online press release submission is normally just a copy and past, fill in the blank procedure.

Now that I have been doing it for a while I can normally submit a press release for my clients to a good list of sites in less then an hour. If you have a press release that needs submitted contact me.  I can do that tedious job of submitting your press release  and let you do something that makes you money.

An administrative professional who outsources his or her talents and expertise to business whether big or small for either on a small term or perhaps even a long term basis.  Most virtual assistants or VAs as they are know have several years of experience in the corporate world and bring that experience to their business and clients.  Virtual assistants who have left the corporate world often keep up with technology and education to be able to provide their clients with the best and most professional va services available.  Virtual assistants provide expert yet flexible administrative support via the technological advances of today such as email, phone, and instant messaging just to name a few.

Virtual assistants are not employees.  They are small business owners who do business with other business owners to support their business goals and needs.  As small business owners themselves, virtual assistants understand your business needs and provide professionally, timely, reasonable priced services.  Client satisfaction is the key to the succes of a virtual assistant business therefore you can expect solid and reliable service on a continual basis.

Virtual assistants can be hired for a single project if needed but to truely get the most from their services an ongoing business relationship is the optimal option.  Virtual assistants can become more familiar over time, with how your business works and therefore will be able to better support you and your business’ success.

Though “work-at-home secretaries” existed in the 1980s, the technology was not available for the industry to be truly virtual.  The true virtual assistant began to emerge in 1995, after the explosive growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the mid-1990s.  Through the Internet, faxes, and the telephone, these pioneers  proved time and again that they could fully support their clientele virtually, from their home offices.

Today the virtual assistant industry continues to grow.  The many small business owners and entrepreneurs of today’s business world have found virtual assistants to be an invaluable resource to their businesses.  Virtual assistants have come a long way from being “work at home” secretaries.   They can be writers, proofreaders, editors, database creators, researchers, marketers, web designers … The list of possibilities goes on and on.  Business people no longer have to do everything on their own.  They are hiring virtual assistants to take care of tasks they no longer have time for, or that they don’t enjoy doing.

With the current trend in business outsourcing the role of virtual assistants will become more significant.  As technology continues to develop and business needs grow, a virtual assistant may soon become a vital part of every successful business.

As a VA we hear many questions.  We hear great questions and don’t always have time to answer them.  So I figure if I posted them then I would not only answer them for the people who have asked but also for the potential clients that are coming to visit and consider me as their VA.

1.What is a virtual assistant?

A Virtual Assistant, also known as a VA, is an administrative professional who  assists other professionals from a remote location. VAs are contractors, not employees. They can be contracted for small, one-time only projects, or large projects that span several months. VAs save their clients time and money by providing their own equipment, training, and office space.

2.How will a virtual assistant benefit me and my organization?

Contract a VA and you’ll have more time to develop your organization, spend with your family, or to just relax.  Our virtual assistant services help you reclaim the time you lose each day on administrative tasks.  You free up your valuable time to focus on more important things – like running your business!

When you contact a virtual assistant, you’ll save money.  Virtual assistance saves you money because VAs work only when you need them. You pay only for what you need done and only when you need it done.  You do not pay for benefits, holiday time, overtime or sick days.  They supply their own office, equipment, software and expertise.

You can develop your organization while we take care of your administrative tasks.

3.Who uses virtual assistants?

All kinds of busy people use virtual assistants.  Small and medium businesses, nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurs, speakers, coaches, teachers, traveling business people, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, and busy individuals use virtual assistants to get more time out of their days.

4. How do I know a VA will do a good job of my projects?

When you hire a virtual assistant, our job is to make your day better.  Your satisfaction is key to the success our business, so you can expect solid and reliable performance on a continuing basis.  You can trust a virtual assistant will take care of your business needs as if they were our own because our business is helping YOUR business succeed.

5.How will my virtual assistant communicate with me?

Communication is vital to developing and maintaining an effective relationship with your virtual assistant.  We communicate via telephone, fax, or email.  All of your communication with us will be answered within one business day.   If everything is going well, communicating once a week is usually sufficient.

You may also communicate with your Virtual Assistant via:
- instant messenger programs
- text messaging
- conference calls and webcams
- online chat rooms
- virtual help and remote assist programs

6. Can I afford a virtual assistant?

Visit our Virtual Assistant Rates and Retainers page to find out how affordable and flexible we really are.

The real question is, can you afford not to have a virtual assistant?  Time is a valuable commodity, and in short supply.   When you hire a VA to handle time-consuming tasks, you’re literally buying back your own time.  Think of what you could accomplish if you had just a few more hours in your day!

7. How do I pay my virtual assistant?

We accept PayPal

If you are interested in our monthly retainers, the full monthly payment is due at the beginning of each month.  Visit our Virtual Assistant Rates and package pages to find out more.

8. What does contracting a virtual assistant commit me to?

You are committed only to the project or time period for which you contract our services.

Your virtual assistant’s potential is best realized in an ongoing business relationship.  However, we also understand that your organization’s needs will change and develop over time.  You may need us one month and not another, or you may require our help for one project and never need our services again.

We are flexible and can easily accommodate your changing needs.

I officially opened my doors for business on January 1st, 2008.  Although I did have one client before that.  Who I must stay is still with me today.  I was so scared when I launched my business.  I was nervous and worried that I would not get any customers.  I was afraid that I would not get the word of mouth out there about myself and I would just be sitting on the computer all day hoping, wishing, and praying for customers.  But that is not what happened.

The one client I had told another person about my business, and that person told another person about my business and what a good job I did and pretty soon I was full of clients.  I have a nice handful of retainer clients that I love to death.  My clients keep me busy and I have to say that for once in my life I truly love what I do and who I work for (because I am the boss).

6 months.  That is half a year that my business has been going strong and I continue to grow.  I have some projects I am personally working on to grow my business in 2008.  I work with two wonderful coaches.  Aurelia from Real Life Coaching is my Life Coach and Cara from The Household Helper is my organization coach.  They keep me on my toes and keep me pointed in the right directions.  Thank you both so much.  You have helped me grow personal and in my business.

SO here is to another 6 months of wonderful business.

We have sold our house and are moving to a new home. SO that means that I will have to move my home office. Have you ever thought of what you need to do if you have to move your home office?

Here are some questions I will leave you to think about until next week when I answer them?

1.Are you able to pack up your home office weeks before the move?
2.Do you take time off work to move?
3.What company’s do I need to Call?
4.Are you going to have the same amount of space in your new home office?
5.What Can I pack before hand?
6.What Do I have to have left out until last minute?

So what are your thoughts on it?

Alice Seba is an amazing person and I have to admit I tend to follow her around and keep tabs on her. I do this because she does amazing things and is just a great resourse all the way around.  Anyways what I wanted to say was Alice is holding a Spring Cleaning and you just have to go and check it out.  Internet Marketing Spring Cleaning.

I am still a new VA but wow my business is booming.  When first starting out I was not sure if I would get any clients.  Not sure how I would handle failure.  Not sure how much money I would need to put into my business before I started making money.  I had so many questions running through my head and not sure where I would get my answers.

I found a couple of places with great answers.  First I went to  Telecommuting Answer Lady, Nell.  She rocks.  Nell was great at giving me advice, answering all my questions, and motivating me each step I took.  That would be my first place I would suggest.

The second place I would tell you to go is Mom Masterminds Main Page , or you could go to their blog, Mom Masterminds Blog. Either way I suggest you join Mom Masterminds. Since the day I joined Mom Mastermind I have been doing better and better and learning more and more.

And last but not least I would suggest Outsourcing Sweetie.  I have received more training tips and worksheets here then anywhere else.  There is so much there and as a client or a VA you have to join.  Yes it is worth it.

 Those are my three suggestion take them or leave them.  But if you leave them.  You are going to be missing out.