Let's face it, it's probably the most time consuming thing most of us do...but it doesn't have to be that way.

Spare yourself a few hours a week by letting your Virtual Assistant help you get control of your inbox.

There are several ways to do this but here are the basics...

• Set up a 'private' email account that you won't share with anyone but your team (and maybe close friends and family)
• Give your Virtual Assistant access to all of your other email accounts
• Spend a few days copying your Virtual Assistant on the emails that you answer so that they can get a feel for your 'voice' and how you'd like the day to day things to be handled
• Once you let your VA start handling the emails, have them bcc you for a time so that you can be reassured that everything will be taken care of to your standards
• Let it go... and more importantly, take your newly acquired time and re-invest it doing things that are in line with your values (ie. content creation, or taking more time off)

Want to cut out a couple of those steps and make your email even more efficient?  Use Google Mail from Google Apps and view your email online.  It's a great, inexpensive web-based solution for you and your team to manage your inboxes.

If you'd like to learn more about how a Virtual Assistant can help you take back your time and grow your business, use my online scheduler to set up a time for a complimentary strategy session.

Sandra Martini is constantly churning out great tips and thought provoking articles. Here is the latest from her.

There are times in your business when you need to make the tough decision to do what’s best for you, your business in the long term.

Some of those decisions can include letting go of:

• a client who doesn’t take action and so sees no results

• a team member you’ve had “the chat” with and who still doesn’t perform as needed

• a client you love to work with who never pays on time

• a coach whose program doesn’t live up to its sales page

• a program, product or service which no longer serves you and what you’re now doing

And some of those decisions can include adding:

• a budget so that you get and stay profitable – not always an easy thing to do

• creating a plan and sticking to it to see the results you dream of

• self-care, even when you feel you don’t have time for “you”, to ensure that you’re operating at your best every day

• a mentor who can drastically shorten your learning curve and show you how to avoid the mistakes commonly made

The tough decisions aren’t always “negative” or “no mores” – they can just as simply be about making a change which adds something to the business or to how you structure your day.

My Request To You

When something comes up that either doesn’t feel right, nags at you or your intuition says “do it” (or “don’t do it”) – stop what you’re doing, walk away, clear your head and check in with yourself.

Forget what anyone else would say and. . .

Keeping your “why” (WHY are you in business, what’s your ultimate goal/reason for what you do) in mind, what’s the best decision you could make for the long term success of your business?

Make the decision and then act on it.

A Strategic Marketing & Profitability Mentor, Sandra Martini (www.SandraMartini.com), creator of Escalator Marketing™, shows creative heart-based entrepreneurs how to build sustainable businesses without losing their integrity or their minds. You can catch up with Sandra on her blog at www.FromTheDeskOfSandraMartini.com or Twitter at www.Twitter.com/SandraMartini

Click on the image below to learn more.

It's the latest rage in Internet Marketing--Part Shopping Cart, Part Affiliate Program, Part CRM, Part all things magical that will make you the big bucks...at least that's what I've heard so far.

I won't go into all of the great features, etc, they do a pretty good job of it themselves and the video tutorials are great.  Click here to learn  more about SwimCart.

If you want to jump into this new Internet Marketing marvel but don't have the time or inclination to learn a new program or jump through all of the hoops it takes to  move your products, clients, lists, affiliates, etc to a whole new program, let's talk.  We can handle it all for you.

Email me at info@va-4-hire.com and we can discuss whether or not this is a viable option for you and what it would take to get your business set up.

Wow! With so many people searching for virtual events to attend, it's no wonder that hosting one has become so seductive.

Yet, despite it attractiveness, when done poorly, a virtual event can do more to damage your reputation than help it.

Ask my friend Leesa Barnes...

When she first started hosting her own virtual events, she could only attract 2 people and she made every mistake in the book...

- She didn't record her session

- She didn't provide an invitation to her guests on how to follow up with her for more info

- She focused more on getting the technology right than on the marketing

- And she tried to do it all by herself

So, why am I mentioning Leesa?

Since 2006, Leesa has hosted a variety of profitable virtual events that easily net her between 5 and 6 figures in extra income.

Not just that, but she also produces virtual events for people who don't want to do it themselves.

Leesa is on a mission to help as many people as possible learn how to host virtual events successfully.

That's why she's hosting a **FREE** preview call series to share with you best practices in virtual events.

These calls take place weekly beginning on Wed Apr 14, 2010 and ending on Wed May 5, 2010. Each call is 75-minutes and will give you the tools and tactics to host your next virtual event with success.

These complimentary calls are a SNEAK PEEK of all the great content Leesa and her faculty of speakers will be sharing at the 2010 VIRTUAL EVENT BOOM, a 5-day virtual event taking place May 10-15, 2010.

Head on over to http://bit.ly/cR6fgg  to get the call-in details for this **FREE** preview call series.

There are many things you can do with email marketing, but first you need to really understand it and use it properly.  Email marketing is basically a form of communication that goes out through an auto-responder.  It is not meant to spam or hassle your readers…ever.  You set up an auto-responder to send out messages to your list of subscribers periodically.  Once it is set up, it is all done automatically.  

There following are several options for email marketing and how to use them. 

1.  Service Emails

This is probably the most common type of email and primarily used to encourage repeat business by contacting your subscribed readers.  Service emails typically include some sort of promotional item, e-newsletter distribution or offering email courses.  If you are discounting products or services for a certain amount of time, created an eBook or new service beneficial to your readers, be sure to let them know by using this highly effective marketing tactic.  

2.  E-newsletters

A newsletter is a great marketing technique and typically is distributed once a month or more frequently depending on your readers.  This is usually the most viewed email due to people have subscribed to it and are more likely to read it.  Most newsletters contain company information, latest products or services, helpful articles, latest news of your industry and recent offers or freebies for your readers.  In order to get the best results from using this email strategy, you will need to keep your newsletter full of valuable and interesting content, easy to scan font and format, and enticing subject lines to encourage your readers to open your newsletter.

 3.  Press Releases

You’ll use this type of marketing tactic to distribute your latest company information.  You may choose to add a new service or product to your business, announce approaching events, teleseminars or classes, whatever you choose this is one effective strategy to blast it out there for the internet world.  You can always add your latest press release to your newsletter as well. 

4.  Surveys

Surveys are a great way to find out exactly what challenges or problems your readers are facing.  Send the occasional survey to your list and then create a solution for that particular problem.  It shows your readers that you are listening and that you genuinely care about them and helping them find a solution to their problem. 

5.  Invitations

This would be focused on a special event you have coming up or something similar.  Most often they are short and sweet and get right to the point, inviting your readers to a teleseminar, online class or to check out improvements to your website.  They can be used for a variety of promotions and won’t take up too much time from your reader.

6.  Thank You

This is very important to build a good rapport with your customers and readers.  Send a “thank you” email once they have purchased something from you.  You may even want to consider adding related products to this email as well.  If your readers thought your content was worth purchasing, most often they will purchase again. 

Remember to consider which types of email you will promote to each of your readers and customers.  There is not a one-size-fits-all approach as some customers will be more apt to read your newsletter than an invitation or survey per se.  You can ask your subscribers to choose their preferred content and what they are most interested in reading when they join your list. 

In addition, you can always track your results and see what works best for you and your customers and make changes as necessary.  Most importantly, have fun, change it up a bit from time to time, keep it interesting, and provide useful content and personal success stories.  Keep testing and measuring your results until you find the right fit and you’ll be on your way to a successful email marketing campaign that increases sales effortlessly.

As someone who has 'been there and done that' for far longer than I have, I find that Tina has a real sense of what's going in our industry for both the client and service provider's prospective. 

This is what she has to say about the 'Fatal Flaw' in How We Work with Virtual Support Professionals.  Let me know what you think or what your experience has been.

I've been working in the virtual support industry for over 10 years now, as an OBM for much of that time (of course) and also in coaching/supporting the business owners who are hiring their own virtual teams.

And there is one thing that can very easily go wrong when it comes to business owners hiring their virtual team members. In fact, i've seen this go wrong time and time again in working relationships.

What it comes down to is the answer to this question:

"Who is managing this show?"

Most business owners start their business because they have a vision of something big that they want to create - a passion, a service, a talent. They love what they do and want to give it to the world.

What they don't love is managing the day-to-day activities of their business. They hate being bogged down in the 'details' of their business and quite honestly many business owners simply aren't good at it.

But the fact of the matter is that someone needs to be in charge - there needs to be someone who is managing the day-to-day activities of your business.

And yet the traditional virtual support model doesn't always accomodate this need. Most virtual support professionals (VAs, web designers, etc.) either aren't interested in managing your business or don't have the skills to do so.

So one of two things generally happens:

1. The business owner assumes that the VA (or whomever) will fulfill this role and they become frustrated/annoyed when they don't. I've seen MANY working relationships fall apart for this very reason.
2. The business owner takes on the responsibility of managing the day-to-day activities of their business. Not only is this a drag for most business owners, it can also seriously stunt your business growth - if you are stuck in the day-to-day stuff who is growing the business?

It's a fatal flaw in the model, and yet it is also the reality of how many of us are working today. And I know that many of you are sick and tired of it.

What to do? Hire an Online Business Manager.

The official definition of an Online Business Manager (OBM) is:

A virtually based support professional who manages online based businesses, including the day-to-day management of projects, operations, team members and metrics.

However I like to look at the role from a bit of a different angle - what is the purpose of an Online Business Manager beyond ‘what they do’?

The role of the OBM boils down to one simple thing:

To free up the business owner so that they can focus their time and energy on the things that only THEY can do in their business.

Did I just hear a sigh of relief?

I just love this comment from Alicia, which I think illustrates this perfectly.

“After cycling through more virtual assistants than I’d like to admit, I was completely frustrated with the whole industry. And then this blessed little book ended up in my hands, and not by accident, I’m sure. What I learned was that yes, I did need and want virtual assistants to help me run my business (I knew I couldn’t do it without them, but the how to do it effectively had eluded me), but what I ALSO needed was an OBM. When that realization struck, a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. My VAs were doing a fine job – it was ME who was unhappy managing them. The solution? An OBM! I’m indebted to you, Tina - thank you for writing this book so I can go back to enjoying my business again!”

- Alicia M Forest, ClientAbundance.com

Tina Forsyth is the author of Becoming an Online Business Manager: Playing a Bigger Game with Your Clients and Yourself. She writes and consults in advanced online marketing and business systems for business owners and their support teams. www.OnlineBusinessManager.com

The physical act of removing clutter from my workspace left me free to focus on what remained. Much of what's left is not physical, however. Like me, many online business owners have more electronic items in their business than physical ones. This is the point where many independent service professionals get stuck -- trying to organize and take inventory of all those electronic assets and determine how to best utilize them in the coming year.

How can you track these electronic pieces of your business?  By taking an inventory. You can take this inventory on paper, on a white board, on your computer, or wherever works for you. Or, you can add it all to your procedures manual like my Online Business Dashboard where you can keep all the info streamlined.

Here are 17 points to include in your online business inventory:

1. Target Market.  Describe the market(s) you serve and how you serve it/them.  This will help you streamline other assets you find in your business to help you evaluate whether certain projects are right for your business.

2. Domains and hosting. Track down all the domains you own and where they are registered and where they are hosted. Note which domains are attached to web sites or are in use some way (even those that are forwarded to other sites). Which ones are not being used at all? What fees are you paying annually to renew these domains and hosting accounts?

3. Web sites. List all the web sites that you are currently using, including where they are hosted, the username and password to access the hosting control panel, FTP information, and emails associated with the site. Note how much traffic each web site has received over the past few months and estimate how much revenue the site is producing. Then, make a second list of all the web sites you own that are currently under development or are currently working on.

4. Blogs.  List all the blogs you use, separating those that are inactive from the ones that are active. Note where they are hosted or the service hosting them, the username and password to access the hosting control panel, and login information.  Note how much traffic each blog has received over the past few months, the number of subscribers you have to the blog, and estimate how much revenue the blog is producing, if you can.

5. Email marketing. List every mailing list, including your newsletters, autoresponders, customer lists, affiliate lists, prospect lists, etc. Note the purpose of the list, number of subscribers for each, and estimate how much revenue that list is producing.

6. Products.  If you sell information products, make a note of both those that have been completed and are for sale and those in development. Also note any products that you give away for bonuses or give away on your site. If you sell physical products for which you keep an inventory, write them all down.  Record how many you’ve sold of each product in the past year.

7.  Paid Memberships. Inventory all the paid memberships you have in paid forums, PLR sites, professional associations, membership sites, and other memberships you pay for that are directly related to your business, along with their URLs, usernames and passwords. Take note of how much you pay for this membership and how often and how you use it.

8. Free Memberships.  Note all the free memberships you have in various groups, forums, social networks, etc.  Outline why these memberships are valuable to you and how much time you spend on each of them on a daily/weekly basis.

9. Software. Record all the software you have on your computer that is related to your business, including license/registration info, purchase price, and date purchased. Make a note of how frequently you use this software.

10. Outsourcing Team. Write down who works with you, what they do, how much you pay them per hour or per job, and their average monthly payment.

11.  Affiliate links.  Regularly recommending products and services for which you are an affiliate is a great way to add another stream of income in your business. Make a list of the products and services for which you are an affiliate, including your affiliate URL, affiliate account URL and username and password, and how much you have made in sales from each affiliate relationship.

12.  Master password list. Incorporate all the passwords you have collected thus far into a master list, along with others you use regularly.

13. Speaking topics. Note the title, description, learning points, and interview questions of talks that you give regularly both face-to-face or virtually as a presentation or an interview.

14. Articles. Note the titles of all of the articles you have authored, along with a summary description of each. If you use an article distribution service (http://www.getmoreclientsarticles.com), you may find your article index there. Move all of your articles under one folder on your computer so that you can easily access them in the future.

15. Recordings. Note the titles of all of the audio and video recordings you have made, including those where you were someone else's guest, along with a summary description of each.  Write down how the recordings are being used -- for sale as an info product, as a bonus for one of your products or someone else's product, or as a free giveaway.

16. Services. Note the nature of all services you currently provide, and those you plan to offer in the coming year, as well as your current pricing plans, future pricing plans, and how much money you made from each service in the past year.

17.  Clean it up.  Now it’s time for serious evaluation and to make some difficult choices.  Remember, these will be some of the most important business decisions you'll make to help you refocus for a highly productive and profitable business.  There are just two rules to follow here:

• If it doesn't fit in with your chosen target market and business plan – GET RID OF IT!
• If you still decide to hang on to it anyway, but it weighs on you in any way – GET RID OF IT!

This business inventory and cleanup may take a week or more, but once it's completed, you'll have a visual accounting of all of your business assets, which will help you plan for a profitable year in your business.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Automation is all about leveraging your time and energy, but often you will hear people say that this goes against the whole idea of social media being about building and nurturing relationships. However, there are ways to automate some of your social media efforts that do not detract from cultivating your authentic personality and voice when it comes to your online presence.

Identifying valuable resources, like websites, blog posts or quotes that you believe would be helpful or valuable to your Twitter followers and pre-scheduling sharing this content would be one example.  The nature of tweets like these is that they are essentially one-way communication posts and do not depend on you being available when they are posted in order to field some kind of "real time" response.  Therefore, this kind of content is ideal for identifying and pre-scheduling in advance.  A tool like Hootsuite.com is great for setting these types of updates up.

The most common way to delegate in social media is via a virtual assistant, but it's important to note that it is not recommended that you delegate anything that contains your voice or personality.  A specific example of an ideal delegation task would be having someone track and monitor your reputation and brand via search.twitter.com or the search feature on Facebook.

When thinking about delegation, stick to administrative, housekeeping or organizational tasks not related to the conversation--for example, approving Facebook friend requests with an established criteria or using criteria to find more people to follow on Twitter. Other tasks would be to do the initial research on ideal people in Facebook to send friend requests to, pre-scheduling tweets as mentioned earlier, researching quality sites, links, and blogs that contain good content for you to share via tweets and Facebook updates, creating events in Facebook, managing your Facebook inbox, adding new business-related applications to your Fan Page and more.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make (especially those new to social media) is that they start to get stuck in a cycle of automating, broadcasting and automating--over and over.  It's very difficult to generate positive results this way.  However, automating and delegating appropriate activities while still taking the time to engage in regular conversation can be the perfect blend in order to leverage your time--and still maximize your success.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.

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Tweet Cloud - Do you know what you REALLY tweet about?

Are you ever curious to know what exactly you're tweeting about? Sometimes it's fun to check out the silly applications that are constantly being developed for twitter. When I saw a link for tweet cloud, I was curious.

Tweet cloud analyzes the text in your tweets for up to one year and renders a visual cloud of the words you use most...with the most being in the biggest fonts. I realized this can be instructive too.

My top 3 words are: blog, tips and video (though it seem like the word "online" is bigger than video). That sounds about right. I like to stay fairly focused on twitter and do tweet a lot of blogging tips. I also get a lot of excellent feedback from people who appreciate the tips so I'm glad I'm on track.

Here's my cloud:

The one slightly annoying this about tweet cloud is that they automatically send a tweet to your twitter stream without your permission. This could be construed as spam by some. I'd prefer the option to tweet or not to tweet.

Nonetheless, it's a fun way to visually see what you're tweeting about the most.

Let's connect on twitter!

Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad on Sunday, November 29, 2009 in Internet Trends | Permalink

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Tweet Cloud - Do you know what you REALLY tweet about?

Are you ever curious to know what exactly you're tweeting about? Sometimes it's fun to check out the silly applications that are constantly being developed for twitter. When I saw a link for tweet cloud, I was curious.

Tweet cloud analyzes the text in your tweets for up to one year and renders a visual cloud of the words you use most...with the most being in the biggest fonts. I realized this can be instructive too.

My top 3 words are: blog, tips and video (though it seem like the word "online" is bigger than video). That sounds about right. I like to stay fairly focused on twitter and do tweet a lot of blogging tips. I also get a lot of excellent feedback from people who appreciate the tips so I'm glad I'm on track.

Here's my cloud:

The one slightly annoying this about tweet cloud is that they automatically send a tweet to your twitter stream without your permission. This could be construed as spam by some. I'd prefer the option to tweet or not to tweet.

Nonetheless, it's a fun way to visually see what you're tweeting about the most.

Let's connect on twitter!

View the entire comment thread.

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