Being self employed is stressful. No question about it. Building up your Virtual Assistance practice can require much more of your time and attention than you ever thought possible when you hung up your VA shingle and opened your virtual doors for business.  One of the things that my business coach told me that REALLY stuck with me is that as a woman entrepreneur it is imperative that I practice what she termed “extreme self care” in order to manage the stress that owning two small businesses brings into my daily life. Once I began monitoring just how much time stress was taking away from my business, I learned to develop some very effective stress busters. Life is MUCH easier when you identify and manage stress!

The good news is that there are easy ways you can relieve stress in just a few minutes, wherever you are.  Let’s take a look:

Breathe

Deep breathing has been shown to reduce the levels of stress hormones in your body, oxygenate your blood, and allow you to clear your mind and focus. Typically, shallow breathing accompanies stressful feelings, so deep breathing counteracts this process. Stand up straight and breathe deep to give your brain the oxygen it needs to operate efficiently.  Experts recommend breathing in deeply through your nose to a count of five, expanding your belly, and exhaling through your mouth to the same count of five. Repeat several times and feel the stress begin to melt away and your brain begin to become clear once again.

Stretch

Stretching your body, whether you perform official yoga movements or just roll your shoulders and neck, and swing your arms wide a few times, helps combat stress much in the same way deep breathing does. It opens up your muscles and lungs, fighting the contraction that can take place when under stress. Stretching also helps address many of the aches and pains associated with stress on your body caused by sitting in front of your computer monitor all day.

Include the muscles around your eyes in your stretching routine.  Just close your eyes, and move your eyeballs back and forth, then up and down.  This relaxes and refreshes those tight muscles around your eyes that can, eventually, cause a headache.  Give your whole body one of those “cat” stretches that feels so good in the morning several times a day and feel the stress melt away.  Have you ever seen a stressed out cat?!

One of my favorite eye exercises also has the added benefit of smoothing out the “crowsfeet” area around your eyes. Try this! BTW, do this in front of a mirror until you have it memorized.

1. Raise your eyebrows and lift upper lids until you see the whites of your eyes above the iris.
2. Slowly begin to bring your upper and lower lids together until you appear slit-eyed. Think about both lids resisting each other as you bring them together. To do this effectively requires concentration so don’t do this at your desk! The upper lids should not move down at a faster rate than the lower lids move up.
3. Slowly open your eyes, again thinking of resisting as you concentrate on moving the upper and lower lids apart at the same slow pace.

Daydream

“Go to your happy place” may make you laugh because it sounds fairly goofy, but it works! In the midst of heart-pounding stress, close your eyes, and picture a calm, serene environment.  In other words, daydream!  Create as much detail as possible – hear the ocean waves, smell the seaweed on the beach, feel the sand beneath your feet.  When your mind drifts, and it will, bring your attention gently back again and again to your scene of choice.  A few minutes is all it takes to slow your body and your mind down, relieving stress in the process.  To be perfectly frank with you, both of my very successful businesses are the direct results of my day dreams. I conceived and built both of them in my mind and once they were fully formed I built them in real time. It didn’t take long either!

Walk

When you’ve got a case of the jittery, nervous, I-can’t-stop-moving-my-body nerves, don’t fight it! Take a five-minute walk outdoors if possible. Working off some of that anxiety can often give your creativity a kick, as well as help calm nerves and burn off calories. While you’re walking, don’t dwell on the source of your stress. Take note of your surroundings, think of a funny movie, or think about someone you love. The idea is to take your mind as far as possible from your anxiety. When you get back, you’ll have new energy and perspective.

If nothing else, go outside in your backyard and walk the perimeter of your yard. Work that fence line! Grab the hose and walk the entire yard and give each tree and shrub a sip of water. There is something very soothing about the simple act of watering. And your yard will appreciate it too!

Quick Bursts of Indoor Exercise

One of my very favorite ways to get in some quick and fun exercise is to turn on some high energy music and spend 15 minutes bouncing around on my rebounder (mini-trampoline) like a little kid. At the end of my ten or fifteen minutes I am giggling like a fool and ready to jump back into whatever issue I walked away from with renewed energy and a much improved attitude.

Laugh

Laughter truly is the best medicine. If you’re stressed, call a funny friend, look at funny pet pictures online, head over to YouTube and find something that makes you smile, or simply recall a time you laughed until your stomach hurt. Funny moments can be found in many places. Dig out your favorite movie and fast forward to the best laugh lines if you don’t have time to watch the whole thing.  Some studies even suggest that you can “fake it till you make it” meaning just start laughing and the funny feelings will follow. You’ll release loads of anxiety-fighting endorphins and enjoy yourself, too.

Play

Small children have the fantastic ability to focus entirely on the matter at hand, whether it’s a game of “Let’s Pretend” or a particularly enthralling picture book. Pick a book to read, build a sandcastle, roll out Play Dough creatures, enjoy the mystery of Silly Putty, cut out snowflake shapes or paper dolls, do somersaults, roll down a hill, slide down a slide, or push your favorite little one on the swings; or swing yourself!  Focus on what kids are saying and doing, and try to put yourself in their shoes, noticing what they’re noticing. It’s the best introduction to living in the moment that you can imagine.

Have pets? Take time several times a day to play with them. Cats do fetch you know. Playing fetch with your cat and a toy mouse can provide some fabulously funny moments. Play with your puppy or dog. Romp around with them and forget everything that is worrying you for the moment.

Talk

Yes, we all love email, Facebook and Twitter. In our industry, we HAVE to love it and be very effective at using it. But, what about a good, old fashioned two-way conversation in which we exchange ideas, banter back and forth, even interrupt each other with an “oh, oh, oh, wait a minute… I just thought about the time…” sort of interchange?  It’s natural, even desirable, for voices to stumble over each other in conversation as thoughts, ideas, even disagreements, take shape.  If you’ve ever watched early black and white movies, you’ll notice the dialog is stilted, one line said at a time. This was changed later to more accurately reflect real conversation, which naturally overlaps.  Electronic conversations do not overlap, and therefore, do not engage the other person in nuances and expression, no matter how many emoticons you use!  Engage in a real, verbal conversation and blow off some stress. Call a colleague, a friend, your spouse or your mother!

Sing

Belt out a show tune, whistle Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, or hum along to the Top 40 radio station. Singing out loud is not only therapeutic, it’s a heck of a lot of fun.  It doesn’t matter if you have a lovely voice or if your voice is the nails-on-a-chalkboard variety, sing loud and sing proud.  You may want to choose a favorite song from your childhood that evokes memories of days around a campfire, a school trip, or church event. Make up a new song, or sing along with a favorite; either way you are lifting your spirits while you lift your voice in song.

Study

Unlike light reading to pass the time, studying a subject will engage the mind as well as challenge it.  Getting lost in a fun short story is a great way to relax, but if you want to seriously relieve stress, you’ll want to focus on something that stretches your imagination and knowledge.  Studies show that learning a foreign language forces your whole thought process to expand and relax as you visualize the objects attached to a new word.  A foreign word to describe something we are familiar with confuses the brain and wakes it up.  It’s similar to exercising your muscles to wake them up and de-stress them, only here we’re exercising the brain.  Challenge your brain for just five minutes to learn something new.

Cook

OK. I freely admit that as an avowed “foodie”, cooking is one of my favorite stress busters. There is nothing better for me than getting in the kitchen and creating a lovely meal for my family.

It may be the aromas, it may be the taste, or it may be the tactile sensations of handling food, but many people release stress by preparing food.  Whether you’re a good cook or not, the physical process of washing, chopping, kneading, stirring, and flipping food seems to take stress out of the body and mind.

The next time stress is taking over your day, give yourself permission to take five minutes and engage in one of these distractions. I guarantee, you will return to your task at hand a refreshed and smiling person.  And, smiling is the beginning of any stress reduction strategy.

How aware are you of how your Virtual Assistance practice is doing? Do you have a strategic plan or are you just winging it? Have you given consideration to creating a SWOT Analysis to identify where you really are in your business?

A SWOT Analysis is a simple but useful framework for analyzing your businesses strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats you need to be aware of to successfully move your practice forward. It is the first stage of planning and helps entrepreneurs to focus on key issues. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

In SWOT Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors.

For example:

In SWOT, opportunities and threats are external factors.

For example:

Be realistic when creating your SWOT Analysis and absolutely be truthful with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses. Identify them and then do something about them. What you are trying to do with this analysis is distinguish between where your VA practice is today, and where it could be in the future.

Click here to grab the full size SWOT Analysis image to get you started.

But, where do you start? Let’s dig a bit deeper to get your mind wheels spinning. If we can get you out from under some of that heavy load of working all the time, life will be a whole lot easier, right? And let’s be very realistic here. There are some tasks that simply fall below your skill level and that you should not be doing. If, as a virtual assistant you are charging $45 – $75 per hour for highly technical tasks and find yourself scrambling to get all of your work done by the end of the day because you spent hours doing work that really should only bill at $15 – $20 per hour, then you have wasted your time, your energy and your skill sets. It is time to look for team members and build your practice. Find team members who will gladly and competently fulfill the more mundane and lower skill level tasks, pay them the agreed-upon rate and pay your business the difference.

What Tasks to Outsource

When you work with clients, there is a strong measure of confidentiality that must be observed. Your clients trust you with their databases, logins and passwords, email correspondence, meeting schedules and legal documents. These can’t fall into the wrong hands. So, as the person who won the client and is responsible for keeping their information safe, you have a decision to make about what you will allow others to do for you.

The first important decision that you made was to hire someone else who can provide the same service that you have for your clients (more about that in a moment). Congratulations on letting go of the reins just a little bit. Now, what tasks will you entrust them with?

The jobs that you will probably be looking to outsource at first are those that don’t involve a lot of contact with confidential information. And, the jobs will be small at first so that you can get an idea of your new assistant’s work style and ethic.

Here’s a short list of tasks to help get your thoughts flowing:

• Article submissions
• Article writing
• Creating reports and presentations (Power Points, Videos, etc.)
• Creating newsletters (Aweber, Constant Contact, Infusionsoft, etc.)
• Graphics
• Internet research
• Social media marketing

Article writing can be used for website content or article submissions. Clients with WordPress websites/blogs must keep their content updated with fresh, pertinent information and if you find someone who can help you whip out that content in a timely and top-quality manner, you’re in business.

Companies use reports to send to their clients and also for internal use. Creating reports involves knowledge of tools such as spreadsheets and databases as well as how to pull information together for presentations using PowerPoint. Depending on the information contained in the reports, this may be the perfect job to let go of and pass on to someone else.

Internet research is used for many things: writing manuscripts, articles, preparing reports and more. It is a unique skill to be able to entice search engines to give up their treasures. If you have someone helping you who revels in internet research and possesses the skills to find what you need quickly, you will quickly free up your time to perform the tasks that you excel at.

Even if you don’t outsource any job that involves confidential material, it is wise to get any subcontracting virtual assistant to sign a confidentiality agreement. This way, as you get more confident and need more in-depth help, you don’t have to worry about anyone selling trade secrets. On that same note, you may want to consider having all your assistants sign and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) depending on the nature of your work. This document can help protect you should your assistant decide to leave and pursue his or her own career and become your competition.

Choosing the Right Team Member

Who you work with all depends on your personality and their level of proficiency with the task or tasks. First of all, no two people will do the same job exactly alike. Let’s get rid of that preconceived notion right now. If not, you will drive yourself crazy and nitpick over everything they do. What you are looking for is someone who knows what they are doing and can demonstrate the skills needed to get the job done correctly and on time. You need to know and trust your assistant and to be able to delight in their skill sets and creativity. If you find yourself angsting over everything that they do, you are wasting your time and theirs. Remember, you are bringing other highly skilled professionals into your team. Certainly you need to give them explicit instructions for each task, and absolutely you should check their work for a period of time, but after you are comfortable with their level of commitment to your work, you should be able to expect that the work is done properly and only have to check in once in a while as a spot test. Virtual Assistants, like everybody else can hit a wall, have problems at home and become a little inattentive. By checking their work every now and again, you can determine if there is a problem that needs to be discussed, or just offer a helping hand until they get back on track. A valuable team member is somebody you need to nurture and care about.

Outsourcing is the perfect way to get the help you need from other competent virtual assisting professionals. Start with small jobs and progress to more confidential and/or technical assignments as you see fit.

Virtual Assistance Industry Best Practices

As a virtual assistant, how do you approach your initial consultation with a potential client? Do you know your services inside and out and are able to clearly and cogently articulate to the client just what the benefits are to them by working with you and/or your VA team? Are you confident in your skill sets and willing and able to interview the client just as carefully as the client is interviewing you? Are you confident enough in your retainer and project fees that you can state them without feeling your stomach drop to the floor in anticipated dread? Are you clear on how to determine whether or not this partnership will be a good fit? Are you willing to make the determination that what the client needs is just not going to be a good match for your current skill sets and offer to refer them to another VA in your network who could do the work required? If you cannot answer each of these questions with a resounding “YES”, it is time to sit down with yourself and have a very important discussion about your business philosophy.

And this is a another very important question. Do you record the initial consultation or early conversations? If not, why not? There is no lack of free teleconference services and please believe me when I tell you that going back and listening to the recording will help both of you move forward seamlessly into your new partnership. For instance, when I interview a potential client, the conversations can often run into 60 minutes or more. That is a lot of talking and a LOT of listening on both sides. Taking notes is helpful, but it does not cover everything that you spoke of, or promised. You need this record!

Free Teleconference Services

I happen to use and like Free Conference Calling.com. It is completely free and you can record fairly lengthy conversations. I recently had a call with one of my cherished mastermind members that lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes! The call never dropped and the recording was flawless. And free!

Simply Google the words “free conference calling services”, do a little research and then choose the one that best suits your needs. You will want to take a look at the most common features when analyzing teleconference services such as:

• Conference Limits. You will want to know what they offer in terms of duration of calls, number of calls per month, and maximum number of participants on the line.
• Reservations or Scheduled Calls: Do you have to schedule these calls, or can you conduct them on the fly?
• Call Recording:Obviously there it not much use in using the service unless you can record and download the call. Be sure to find out if there is a charge to access your recordings.
• Moderator Control: What features are available to you, the moderator? Can you mute participants for presentation based calls such a teleseminar, pause recordings and turn off participant entry chimes?

Some Suggestions

1. Free Conference Calling.com: Host free conference calls with conferencing services equipped for 1000 callers per conference call. (My service of choice)
2. Free Conference Service: Free, unlimited teleconference services available 24-hours a day for up to 50 parties on each call. There are no restrictions on call length.
3. FreeConCall.com: A free conference service for up to 30 participants per call, available 24/7 on a reservationless basis.
4. FreeConference.com: Free web-scheduled or reservationless conference calls with 24-hour automated access, call reporting, conference mute, up to 150 participants and a maximum call length of three hours. They also offer a paid plan, as well as add-ons, such as conference recording.
5. FreeConferenceCall.com: Free, reservationless conference calling that provides a dedicated dial-in number and an access code, 24/7 access, free recording, listen-only mode, call reports, up to 96 callers and maximum of 6-hour conference calls.
6. FreeConferencePro: A free service that provides scheduled or on-demand conference calling for 2 to 200 participants on calls of unlimited duration. The service provides multiple call modes (conversation, Q&A and presentation mode), online account access, reporting and customization options.
7. FreeGreenConferenceCalls.com: A free service that’s available 24/7 365 days a year for reservationless calls including up to 250 participants per call and an unlimited call length. The service provides free call recording and downloading of WAV files for each call, and presentation mode so all callers can be muted by the moderator.
8. No Cost Conference: Free instant, automated conference calls, available 24/7 with no scheduling required. They also provide an unlimited conference time, and free recording and retrieval.

If there is a service that you use that is not listed here and would like to recommend, please let us know by leaving a comment below.

Thanks!

Denise Griffitts

If you use AWeber for your email marketing you will be delighted to know that today they released their AWeber Web Form Widget for WordPress. You can use it to place your Aweber forms on your WordPress site with just a few click. There is no need to copy and paste code any longer.

With the Webform Widget for WordPress, you can easily drag and drop web forms that you have created in your AWeber account into your WordPress blog, without having to log into your AWeber account or copy and paste anything. All you need is an AWeber account and a completed web form.

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1: You can find the AWeber WordPress Web Form Widget on WordPress.org. You can use WordPress to install the widget for you, but if you’re manually installing it, make sure you upload it to “/wp-content/plugins/”. Once installed, activate it on your Plugins page by clicking the Activate link.

Step 2: To connect the widget to your AWeber account, first click AWeber Web Form under the Settings tab on the left of your WordPress control panel.

On this page, click the link next to “Step 1″.

Step 3: You will be taken to a page asking you to authorize the connection between your AWeber account and the widget. Enter your login name and password here and hit the “Allow” button.

You’ll be taken to a page with an authorization code (it will be a long string of characters) – simply highlight it and copy it to your clipboard.

Step 4: Back in your WordPress control panel, just paste the authorization code into the space provided and click the “Make Connection” button.

Step 5: Once you’ve installed this widget and connected it to your AWeber account, head over to the Widgets page under Appearance on the left side of your WordPress dashboard.

Simply drag the widget (it will show up under Available Widgets as “AWeber Web Form”) into the widget area in which you’d like your form to appear.

Sep 6: Once the widget is in place, you can choose which form you would like to appear. Expand the AWeber Web Form widget’s options by clicking the arrow to its right, then use the drop down menus to choose the list you want to work with:

And the web form you’d like to place on your blog:

Then hit “save” to save your changes, and your form will be installed on your blog.

Want to know how many hours you spent last week on the website for your new client? Need to track your team’s hours by function? Want to figure out your hourly wage by project? Or maybe you would like to monitor the time you spend playing solitaire or cruising blogs? Then what you need is a time-tracking software program. You have a bevy of paid and free options to track your time. Here are a few suggestions.

Klok
This desktop application allows you to create a visual representation of your time, track by client or project, and export your time totals to your time sheets for clients. Available as individual licenses for $15.99.  Visit their website here.

Paymo
This system provides free time tracking and three invoices for individuals. You may also use overview and reporting systems for businesses, for $3.99 per user per month. You can sort and track by user, client, project, and task, and track by iPhone or desktop. Visit their website here.

Toggl
One-click tracking on your computer or iPhone with Toggl. Free for up to five users; plans scale up from there. You can also embed Toggl into your favorite Internet application, like iGoogle or Gmail. Visit their website here.

RescueTime
RescueTime doesn’t just let you track your time; it helps you focus by blocking distracting sites (Facebook, anyone?). It also creates time tracking reports and graphs. RescueTime’s Solo Lite is available for free but is limited on features; Solo Pro is available for $6-$9 per month, and the Team Edition is available for $15/month or less. Visit their website here.

Clock My Time
Clock My Time is a desktop widget for Yahoo or Vista. You simply download the widget to your desktop and use it to track your time. You can monitor your or your team’s time from any Internet-enabled computer. $10 per user per year.  Visit their website here.

iPhone apps
If you are on an iPhone, you have a number of low-cost apps for your own tracking time, including ClockedIn, Timely, and Easy TimeSheet. Be careful when shopping for an iPhone app, though, as some require a membership subscription to a more powerful desktop application.

When evaluating your time tracking options, consider:

• How many users you’ll need
• What reports and charts you’ll want to create
• How many tasks you’ll be tracking
• If you need access from other computers
• What kind of storage you’ll need
• If you want to generate invoices from your time sheets, and if so, how many per month you’ll be creating

Once you select a time tracking program, be sure to USE it. Just like a budget, it won’t do any good just sitting on your desktop. Put it to use to increase your productivity and start saving time… and money!

If you have a great time tracking software that you use and recommend, I would love to hear about it.

Keep your mind in one place!

Steno pads. Spiral notebooks. Legal pads. The back of an envelope. A cocktail napkin. Receipts. The corner of a newspaper. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’ve got ideas striking you every hour of the day and night, and you grab the nearest writing implement and snippet of paper to scrawl a few words on. But how often do those pieces of paper make it into something more permanent?

With today’s variety of note-taking and idea-gathering software, there’s no excuse for stealing your kids’ crayons anymore. Take a look at these multimedia opportunities for storing your thoughts, ideas, photos, blog posts, and more… and best yet, they’re all free!

Evernote
Collect, sort, tag, and annotate a variety of notes and other information. Log in online or access it via your iPhone. Store your web clips, text clips, videos, audios, and more in a single file. You can even snap a photo with your mobile phone and save it. Oh yeah, you can share it with others! Find out more at Evernote.com

OneNote
This is Microsoft’s version of a note book that lets you capture text, images, video, and audio notes and take and edit notes with other people in other locations. View and edit your notes from virtually any computer with an Internet connection or your Windows phone. Available with Microsoft Office. Find out more here.

Springnote
This is a free, online notebook based on wiki. You can create pages, keep them in your Personal Notebook or create a Group Notebook to share with friends. Store up to 2GB online. Add photos, comments, and more. Springnote for the iPhone is also available. Find out more at Springnote.com

Tumblr
If you’re the visual type, you might want to take a look at this note book. Billed as “the easiest way to blog,” it’s a fun way to create your own virtual bulletin board with pictures, photos, quotes, audio, video, and more. You can set your privacy level and collaborators, creating a bulletin board just for yourself, or one to share with a team or the public. There’s also a free iPhone app. Find out more at Tumblr.com

Virtual Yellow Stickies
Depending on what browser you are using, you may already have virtual yellow stickies available to you. If not, simply Google the words “virtual sticky notes and you will find many great free tools. One of my favorites before I switched to IE8 was Stickies by Zohrn Software. You can read more about them here on my Internet Mastery Blog. I use yellow stickies on one of my monitors to store often used html code snippets.

After perusing these sites, you’ve probably come up with a dozen or more ideas that you quickly jotted down on a scrap of paper somewhere. Don’t waste them – choose a note-taking solution and get your thoughts and goals down safely and permanently. You can’t act on your ideas if you don’t remember where you put those notes!

This morning I opened my email to find this quite brilliant approach to job hunting. The email is from a gentleman named Richard Cole and the subject line was:

Can you spare just 2 minutes? I could really use your help.

Normally I would send something like this directly to the junk folder, but his opening sentence grabbed my attention and the words “job” and “technology” caught my eye in the second paragraph. From there, I was hooked and read the entire email.

Where Richard really got my attention was in the 7th and 8th paragraphs where he wrote this:

We have all heard of six degrees of separation which says that we are within six connections from one individual to another which is why I am writing.

All that I am asking is that you review my resume and forward it to just six people that you know. By doing such, I feel that I will quickly find a position that can utilize an individual such as me.

Now tell me that is not resourceful! I clicked on the link at the bottom of the email, read his resume and promptly picked up the phone to call Richard. Not to offer him a job, but to make sure that he was indeed a real person and that he was the actual author of this email. Richard told me that he sent this email out yesterday and as of this morning at 7:30 am he has TWO interviews.

I wanted to share this with you so that if you are looking for a job, or know somebody who is, to encourage you to think outside of the box because as Richard so adeptly pointed out, we are in unconventional times requiring unconventional thinking.

Here is the entire email.

Hello Denise,

I have been told that reaching out to individuals contained within my database is highly unconventional, but we are in unconventional times requiring unconventional thinking.

We have all been told that when you are looking for a job, you should let everyone know about it. Having always used technology as one of my primary tools, I thought why not use my database to my advantage?

I am truly a special individual having a uniquely diverse background. As a Business Development Specialist, I have been engaged by corporations at all levels from an Account Executive to President and CEO.

As an Account Executive, I am one of the best at connecting the dots and sniffing out new business. When it comes to hunting and locating new business, I can truly say that I am one of the best.

One of my tools is an Outlook database containing in excess of 30,000 records connected to over 1,500 data points that are used for account targeting with pin-point accuracy. Data points include company information, individual information, individual credentialing, revenues, employee range, partners, vendors, associations, hobbies, etc.

If I worked with a company where further development could take place, it would make their sales force unstoppable and as an application could generate significant revenue for the company.

We have all heard of six degrees of separation which says that we are within six connections from one individual to another which is why I am writing.

All that I am asking is that you review my resume and forward it to just six people that you know. By doing such, I feel that I will quickly find a position that can utilize an individual such as me.

For your network security and in order to ensure your ability to view my resume, I have uploaded the document and it can be viewed and/or downloaded by clicking here. 

Bond, James Bond – sound familiar? As President and COO with one organization, I managed teams of professionals including former Special Forces and Law Enforcement who had provided security to dignitaries including the Pope and the President of the United States and had operated in hostile environments such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The knowledge gained regarding operations from preparation through execution and from dignitary protection through asset reacquisition is unbelievable and invaluable.

Working with former government intelligence officers provides me with the ability to work at much higher levels and within the 3-dimensional world of intelligence. This ability can be extremely valuable to a company on finding new and qualified opportunities.

I have also had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s greatest scientist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and NASA. As the acting CEO of a biomedical company working on adult stem cell research, some of my observations and questioning led to over a dozen patents to be filed some of which are currently in clinical trials. These trials include the expansion and injection of stem cells into damaged tissues for tissue regeneration.

Having been involved with patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries and witnessing breakdowns in the continuum of care led me to work with a team to develop one of the nation’s first telemedicine applications. The model developed went on to be nominated for several prestigious awards at the time. Individuals that worked on this program went on to use many of the methodologies in the development of applications at NASA and the University of Texas Medical Branch Correctional Facilities Managed Care Program which is generating revenues in excess of $300 million annually.

My career began performing operational analysis and implementing optimized operational programs developed by Toyota during the late 70’s and early 80’s. At the time, the new operational model turned the automotive industry on its head and allows Toyota dealers to be some of the most profitable in the industry.

I would like to thank you for your assistance and in forwarding this email to just six of your contacts.

Again, for your security and in order to ensure your ability to view my resume, I have uploaded the document and it can be viewed and/or downloaded by clicking here.

All the very best,

Richard Cole

Email and Video:   richardbcole@live.com

Cell Phone:            832-323-1573

While most virtual assistants associate article marketing strictly with online promotion, you can get even more bang for your article buck by promoting your articles – and your business – offline. Start by thinking local. Yes, the internet has opened up a whole new world of customers to business with websites, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore your local market.

Here’s how you can turn your online articles into offline marketing engines:

Submit articles to local papers and newsletters.
Many local newspapers, neighborhood associations or local organization newsletters will accept contributed articles. By submitting your articles on a hot and timely topic, you can increase your exposure and potentially gain new subscribers or customers.

For instance, I recently rebuilt a flash-animated website that we had built for my dentist a few years ago and moved him over to the WordPress platform. Why? Because his articles on dental proceedures and gum health show up regularly in a couple of local newspapers and it made perfect sense to publish those same articles to his new WordPress website/blog and then to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. His very informative articles are now available both offline and online.

To find local sources for your articles, you can do a simple Google search. Enter “CITY newspaper” or “CITY shopper” (quotes included) with CITY being your location, or nearest major metropolitan city, in the Google search bar. For instance, “Nashville newspaper” or “Seattle shopper”.

You are highly likely to find multiple small publications in your area. Don’t overlook neighborhood associations, as well as schools, day care facilities, gyms, community centers, churches, and clubs and organizations that create newsletters for their members. If their readership matches your target market, getting featured in these is free and can help you to grow your online business.

Make a list of publication names and contact information, and then either email them a link to your articles, or print out a copy and send it to their mailing address.

Share your content with associates and potential clients.
Print one of your favorite articles and mail it to prospective clients, business associates and others who might find the content useful. Include a sticky note that says “Thought you might find this helpful,” and sign your name. Be sure your website address or contact information and a business card are included as well. Then hand-address the envelope, include your name and return address, and drop it in the mail. If you make it a practice to send out a few every week, it can pay off in added readers, website visitors and customers.

Turn an article into a press release.
Newspapers are always looking for interesting news and stories they can use for their broadcast or print media. If your article has a strong news hook related to a recent event or season, you may be able to pitch a story as a press release. First, do some research to find out who your best contact at the newspaper is. For instance, if you’re a landscaping company, identify who covers home and garden, then read several of their past articles to observe what topics they cover. Next, email or call them. Introduce yourself and ask what type of stories and news releases they want to receive and how (via email, fax, phone or mail).

Once you know what the reporters are looking for, you can direct appropriate stories their way. If your article topic fits, format your article as a press release and send it to them as they requested. Keep in mind that reporters and newspapers receive hundreds of releases, many of which were written and sent by people who haven’t taken any time to get to know the reporters or what they are looking for. By doing your homework and developing a relationship with them, you stand a much higher chance of getting your information published.

Click here for a great free online press release tool from Lisa Manyon called the “Write On Creative Press Release Producer”.

Create print booklets of your articles.
Take a few of your favorite articles and compile them into a booklet. Let’s say you bake absolutely gorgeous and delicious cakes in your home and deliver them to customers who have found you by word-of-mouth raving reviews from family and friends. Yes, the happy customer will remember the cake and will undoubtedly take pictures of it, but what if you also include in the delivery your business card, a booklet with photos of some of your most glorious works of art, a recipe or two and a couple of well written and instructional articles about how to work with marzipan or different types of icing?  That booklet will more than likely become a permanent part of their cookbook collection. It would in my house! I would also be going to your website to find more pictures, recipes and ”how-to” tips.

Here’s how:

1. Lay out the articles in a word processing program (OpenOffice.org is free) or your desktop publishing software.
2. Add an “About Us” page and contact information. Include your email address and website URL.
3. Include a free offer inside the book, if the reader joins your email list.
4. Print one sample booklet to make sure the formatting is correct.
5. Copy the booklets at home or at your local print shop.

Here are a couple of excellent places to create your business card online using your own images.

Vista Print

Overnight Prints

Then, it’s time to distribute the booklets.

• Mail them to prospective clients
• Include them with all physical purchases
• Offer them as a free gift to subscribers
• Bring them to networking events and leave at information tables or booths.

There are many ways to use offline article marketing strategies to enhance your results. Be creative and search for new places to display articles and locate readers and subscribers. By offering them your well-written articles, you can establish yourself as a local expert and go-to person when they need your services or products.

But, before you embark on this program, there may be some housekeeping tasks that you need to address before doing everything you can to drive new customers or prospects to your business.

1. Give your website a good spring cleaning. Are there broken links, broken images, or outdated materials? Be sure that it looks professional, welcoming and offers the visitor all the information that they need to make a decision about whether they want to return to your site, read your blog, or visit your physical business location if you have one. That first impression is probably the only one you will get!
2. Make sure your contact form and your newsletter opt-in form is working.
3. If you have social networking icons on your site, be sure they are pointing to the correct URL.

And finally, believe in yourself. Because if you don’t, nobody else will either.

There are limitless topics that you could write about. But to make the biggest positive impact on your business, the articles that work the best are those that match the interests of your niche market.

If your business is selling information products to stay-at-home moms who want to start their own work- from-home virtual assistance practice, then you want to write articles that demonstrate your expertise in that area. When those readers get to your resource box at the end of your article, they’ll click on the link expecting more of the same great content. Writing recipe articles for foodies, for instance, when your target market is aspiring work-from-home Virtual Assistants just doesn’t make sense.

The best explanation I’ve ever heard of this was by Jimmy D. Brown who coined the term “useful but incomplete”. What he meant was that your articles should be “useful” to your target audience, but “incomplete” in that they should lead the reader hungrily to seek more information from you. They’ll turn to your resource box in search of more.

Keep in mind that people will come to your website or blog or read your articles online for one reason and one reason only. How can it help them? What solutions, advice or tips are you offering that will assist your reader in answering questions that they have about your niche or industry? If you consistently offer great, and GOOD content to your readership, they will return and bring friends with them.

Quality Content is Critical

While anyone can throw together a few sentences, combine a few paragraphs, paste on a resource box and call it an article, this slap-dash method is not likely to produce the results you desire. Quite simply, quality content is the key for any kind of success in article marketing.

Online article directories are filled with articles written by non-native language writers who don’t understand grammar or sentence structure, or by those who have simply copied what someone else wrote and plugged it into an article spinner without thought for the value of the finished article. Using such shoddy marketing methods will never help your article marketing efforts, and will likely brand you as unprofessional and harm your reputation as a business owner.

Most editors in search of content would rather find an expert on EzineArticles.com, Self Growth or Evan Carmichael with 10 high-quality articles, than one with 500 junk articles. When editors and readers see junk articles, they assume that everything that person does is junk. Clearly this is not a great way to build a business or a reputation!

When you offer well-written, relevant content that helps your reader answer a question or gain new knowledge and understanding of a subject matter they’re interested in, you’ll establish yourself as an expert and advance your article marketing efforts and, ultimately, your business.

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLRis a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

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