Virtual Assistance – Make Your Business Stand Out

Becoming a virtual assistant is a great way to use your skills, and earn money working from home.   You have additional freedom and if you manage your business well, you can make a decent living working from home.

One of the ways you can make your practice even more successful is to add some additional sources of revenue to your income stream.  One of the easiest and most logical ways to to this is through affiliate marketing.  Internet marketers are willing to pay handsome commissions in exchange for sales generated through your recommendation.   The person buying does not end up paying any more for the product and you can get commissions ranging from 5 to 75%.  Most commissions for lower priced products tend to be in the higher percentage range.  Some marketers will even pay 100% percent commission on an inexpensive product just to get additional members on their list.

You can start by promoting products you already recommend.  Do clients ask you to recommend an autoresponder?  a shopping cart program?  an audio program? web hosting?  You should have affiliate links set up for all of the programs and products that you routinely recommend to your clients.  I make a few hundred dollars a month on affiliate commissions for the tools that I have recommended for my clients. Because these commissions come from products and services I would recommend anyway, there is no extra work required on my part to make this extra money.

You can also learn a lot about online marketing and affiliate management by becoming an affiliate.  You can learn first hand what works and what doesn’t work as far as motivating affiliates to get out there and promote products.  You can see the set up of different affiliate programs and the different styles of the affiliate managers.  Additionally some affiliate programs (Bob the Teacher, Jimmy Brown, Nancy Marmolejo) , provide excellent step by step training in online marketing.

One of the best things you can do starting out is to become an affiliate for your clients.  That way, you can test the materials and see what works and what doesn’t work.  I, personally, don’t take commissions on the sales I generate for clients — I consider it to be part of being on their team — but it doesn’t hurt for your client to know that you are directly impacting their bottom line beyond the work yo do for them as part of your retainer or hourly rate.

As you get the hang of promoting affiliate products, you can add more products to your portfolio and promote them through your e-mail sigature, newsletter or blog.  You never know when you will make a sale.  Eventually, with a little work, you can add a nice additional stream of income to your practice without limiting the time working with your clients.

The mistake the most Virtual Assistants make starting out is casting out a wide, wide net for clients.  They put up a very general website and hope that their clients will come to them.  This is how I started out.  I knew that I wanted to work with people who help other people — but beyond that any client was my target audience.  But, it was hard to get clients and pretty soon I saw that I had unique skills to bring to the table and that the VAs who were super successful either had huge teams or they were specialized.  The easiest place to start is to be specialized and to take some time and care in coming up with your target audience.

Here are some steps to finding your ideal target audience.  Don’t worry,  this won’t take a of time (less than an hour) and you’ll end up with a much stronger and focused practice for the effort.

What problems do you know how to solve?

Everyone as a gift (or several gifts) – what is is that people ask you do to for them?  Is there something that seems obvious, yet people ask you to help all the time?  What problems have you solved for people.  Take 10 minutes and make a mindmap of all the problems large and small that you have helped solve for people.   Don’t edit — just write.

Who needs help solving the problem?

Who can you help solve these problems? People need your help as a virtual assistant and they are willing to pay handsomely for someone who understands (or can learn about their business) and who can solve the problem.  Much resistance to fees evaporates when clients know that they can expect concrete results from you.

Spend 15 minutes brainstorming about who needs your help.  Coaches?, Stressed Out Professionals?, Work At Home Moms?, Real Estate Agents?
Who are you attracting right now?

Even if you aren’t sure of your target market — you are probably attracting a certain type of person to your business.  This is how I fell into my niche — all of my clients have ended up being very smart, female, over 40 and in the business of helping others.  Write down your current prospective clients.

Sort, Prioritize and Look for Overlaps

At this point, you should have two lists — one of people whose problems you solve and another of people who are attracted to you — is there any overlap?  Go through your potential client lists and ask yourself these questions:

1.  Do I like them?  If not, cross them off your list quickly!

2.. Do these people spend money to solve their problems?  – If not, cross them off the list – you are in business you need to make money.   Be honest with this one…

3.   Are there any groups who I’m attracted to who I can also solve problems for?  (put a star next to this group)
4.   Do these people share my values and world view?  It is important that you get your clients and that they get you.  If this is true, put a star next to this group.

5.   Can I get to this market?  Do you live where they live?  Can you attend conferences or hang out in forums to meet them?  If so, put a star by that market.

Step 5 – Pick Your Top  3 Ideal Clients

Time to count those stars.  Circle the types of clients who got the most stars.  These are your top three potential target markets.

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Step 6 – Research Each Potential Client Type

Dig deep here.  Do some research on each of your ideal client target markets and find out as much as you can about each.  Go to their websites and forums and hang out.  What questions are are they asking?  Are they ones you can answer?  If possible, research offline too, go find some potential clients and talk with them about their needs — are they needs that you can fulfill?
Ready, Aim, Choose..

Given the information above, choose only one target market.  It is tempting to choose more than one — but doing that scatters your efforts.  You want your clients to read your marketing material and just know that you are the perfect virtual assistant for them – for that to happen, your site and your marketing materials needs to be finely tailored to the problems your potential client needs to have solved.  If you want to change or an an additional focus later — that’s fine — but master your first market first.

Your goal is to be a big fish is a small pond of willing clients.  In other words, you want to become the “go to” VA for your particular niche.  Clients will pay handsomely for the expertise — and you will become an expert because you will be able to apply what you learn from one client to everyone.

Information is the currency of the internet.  It comes in many forms,  e-books, articles, podcasts, videos even tiny tweets.  Although multimedia is growing online,  if you are going to be successful at online marketing, you still need to product written content.  Quality content drives people to your site,  and then it convinces them to trust you.

But, writing all that content (especially at first) takes some effort.  Here are 6 quick tips for easily producing the content you need.

1. Find Out What’s Out There.

The first step in creating content is to read what is already out there.  Go ahead and do a search for your article topic and read what people have to say.  Do you have a slightly different take on the situation?  That’s good.  Include it in your content.  Read and and read some more.  Some good places to start are article marketing websites like ezinearticles.com or technorati – the blog catalog.   Once you are satisfied that you have a decent grasp of your subject matter and a unique twist to add to the discussion, proceed to the next step.

2. Brainstorm/Outline

I am a big fan of mindmapping.  A great free program available is FreeMind.  As you think of ideas for your article, jot them down in a mind map program .  Once all the ideas are out  — arrange them so that they make sense.   Spending time on the structure without worrying about the specific words will make the words flow more easily and will make your writing more powerful.
3. Tell A Story

People learn best through stories.  Talk about your personal experiences with the topic — or even make up stories to illustrate the points you are trying to make.  It is much easier to learn a concept (especially a dry or complicated one)  with examples of how the theory works in real life.

4. Write…. and Then Edit

You will never get past your first sentence if you let the “editor” out early.  Yes, you can and should revise, spell check, and edit — but you need to wait until after you’ve gotten a first draft before you do.  If you start editing before you are through writing, you’ll get stuck on the revisions rather than letting the text flow.
5.  Now, Edit… Read

The best way to edit your own work is to read it aloud.  You’ll catch all sorts of mistakes that you never would just reading off the screen or relying on spell check.   While you are at it — make a recording of your article — you can offer it on your blog or website as an audio extra .

6.  If you really don’t like to write… then, talk…

One of the easiest ways to create a series of articles (or even a whole e-book) is to hold a teleseminar.  Even if nobody comes, you can record yourself talking passionately about your subject.  Then, transcribe and you’ll have both an audio and be well on your way to your first e-book.

Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to feeding the internet content beast — even if you don’t like to write.

The number one task my clients ask me to do for them is to help them take their ideas and turn them into online products.  It is fairly easy to do and it is a great way to monetize their knowledge.  My clients are coaches with hard drives full of articles, handouts, etc.   But, before a product goes online, a few things must be in place.   Here is a list of what is needed to put a product online.

1. WEBSITE

Obviously, if you are going to sell a product online — you need a place to sell it from.  The first step is to sign up for web hosting and to purchase a domain name.  When choosing a name for your site, try to choose something that clearly conveys what your product is about and/or the problem it solves (i.e. loseweightquickly.com)
2. SALESLETTER (Website Sales Copy)

Think of the salesletter as your sales pitch.  Why should somebody buy your product?  What problem do you solve for them.  When you’ve written the copy, you need to attach it to a payment button – and then you are ready to sell.

3. GRAPHICS

A picture is worth a 1,000 words and quality graphics make a huge difference.  The good news is – there are many competent designers out there who don’t charge a fortune.  To start with, you’ll need a banner and an e-book cover.  Don’t overlook this step.  It is worth paying for something eye-catching and professional.

4. PDF Creation Software

Most e-books are sold as PDFs.  Saving your document as a PDF ensures that everyone can read it no matter their computer set up and that people can’t edit the file.  To get started, you need to have access to either Adobe Acrobat or some other PDF making software (note: there are many good free pdf options online — just google).

5. PAYMENT PROCESSOR

You need to have a way for the money to get from your customer’s bank account to yours.  This is called a payment processor.  The easiest one to use when you are just getting started is Pay Pal.  But, be sure to check out other options such as Google Checkout or Amazon Payments.  You can also get a merchant account to process credit card payments.  Eventually, you may want to look into a shopping cart program which will allow you to set up products, take payments through both Pay Pal and your merchant account and automatically enter your customers into your autoresponder system.

6. SALESPEOPLE (AFFILIATES)

One of the things that makes online marketing work is affiliate marketing.  Although you may not start out with a product with a high enough price point to justify an affiliate program — you should work toward getting there.  Good affiliates can drive tons of traffic and sales to your site.

7. PROMOTION

You can build it — but without an effective promotional strategy — they won’t come.   And, you need to promote in more than one way since people need to see you many times before actually checking out the site.  Article marketing, joint ventures, social networking, press releases and teleseminars can all be part of an effective online marketing strategy.
Take the seven ingredients above and mix with your outstanding product — and you have a recipe for success.

Need more information?  Jimmy Brown has an excellent product - Small Report Fortune that goes through this process step-by-step in more detail.

My almost 70 year old father recently had a health scare.  He thought it might be having a heart attack.  He didn’t call 911 but instead walked to the hospital, ended up being admitted, found out it wasn’t all that serious and walked home.  I think that in his panic, he wasn’t thinking straight.  Since he lives by himself and is a virtual worker (he grades ESL tests),  he didn’t have anyone locally to call to help him (and to make sure that he was OK, to advocate for him at the hospital, etc.  Because he lives alone and works virtually, he could get really hurt and nobody would know since he lives alone.

The incident got me thinking about how important it is not to live entirely on the grid.  Although it is possible to make a living (and I feel very blessed that I do) and even have a sort of faux social life online — it is also critical (for your health, for your mental well-being and even for your safety) that you put down your computer from time to time and get a life.  I understand how easy it is to get sucked in — I spend a lot of time online.   If it weren’t for the fact that I’m a mom with a school aged daughter — I might not go anywhere.  But, my father’s health care made me think about my virtual habits a little bit and convinced me that I need to live in my hometown a little bit more.

Here are my suggestions for getting out from behind your computer and getting more involved in your community.  In addition to just being healthier — you can also make new contacts for your business.

1.  Volunteer – Volunteering is a terrific way to not only be in your community but to help out.  As someone who really understands the Internet, you have a valuable skill set that can be used to help non-profits publicize and organize their events and fundraisers.

2.  Take (or Teach) A Class — Learn something new preferably something that does not involve the computer.  You local university should have a huge selection of classes – from pottery to the history of French film.  You can also teach businesses in your area how to use social networking or how to put together a blog.

3.  Exercise – Get outside,  train for an event,  take a class and learn something new.  If you can find a group that meets regularly, all the better.  I’ve met some of my best friends in exercise class.

4.  Get Spiritual — Get involved in your faith community if that calls to you.  It is a great way to meet people and make sure that your spiritual needs are taken care of.

5.  Go to Local Events — be part of your city and enjoy what is has to offer.

Balance is key — but having a rich life offline will make you a more interesting person online and that can only help your business.

Google is releasing a new version of its search engine called Caffeine. Caffeine changes the algorithm and apparently will even the playing field between the big fish and the small fries. The search engine is in alpha and it could be a good while before it is rolled out officially. Still, it doesn’t hurt to pay some basic attention to the words on your website and how they are read by the search engines. Yes, you can spend a lot of time and effort on search engine optimization for your site — and get some great results. But, you can get some good results and see some improvement in your page ranking by paying more attention to the basics.

1.  Define Your Audience – The more narrowly you can define your audience – the easier it will be for them to find you.  If your potential customers are local — be sure that your location is in your keywords.(Your keywords are in the html code at the top of your document).  Also, make sure that your location and phone number are on most of the pages of your site.  That way, people looking for businesses in your area will find you.  If you work with coaches, or real estate agents, make sure that you mention that in your copy.

2. Use Your Customer’s Vocabulary – What do people type in to google when looking for you?  You can find this by using Google’s free keyword tracker software.   Also,  find where your audience hangs out online,  follow them on twitter, what words are they using to describe the problem you solve.  Write your website in terms of describing the problem (and your solution) rather than just writing about what you do.

3.  Headlines Count – Use headline tags <h1><h2> in your code to break up your text — but also to highlight important ideas.  Use the keywords your customers use to find you in your headlines if it makes sense.  Your number one priority should always be the content of your site — these tips should make your content better too.

4. Tag Your Images Always include descriptive alt tags in the html code for your images.  Not only do you help people who are visually impaired navigate your site — you also help the images from your site show up in search engines.

Just by using some of these tips, you can help ensure that your website does well — no matter which search engine your readers use.

The other day I was listening to a very interesting interview between Bob The Teacher and Mike Filsaime (the creator of Butterfly Marketing).  The interview was about the basics of Butterfly Marketing.   But, the most valuable part of the interview for me was Mike Filsaime talking about what he learned about business managing the frozen foods section fo a grocery store.

The lesson was…your bottom line is more than just your revenue.  It is all well and good to bring in six figures — but a little less impressive if you spend more than half of that money on “expenses”.  Training and tools are good, but so is investing in your business or actually bringing in more money.  But the effect of the “waste” goes beyond just not having the money, the opportunity costs multiply the loss.  Over years, that $10 a month subscription could end up being very expensive.

Here are some places where most online workers could plug up some holes in their business budgets.

• Subscriptions and Monthly Continuity Programs – There are many tempting offers out there for masterminds, monthly support groups, newsletters, web-based tools  etc.  Some bill monthly, but some of the trickier ones bill yearly or every six months.  I try to pay for most of my subscriptions through paypal so that I can easily discontinue the subscriptions I no longer need.  I also do a quarterly audit of all my subscriptions to ensure that I am still using the ones I am paying for.

• Payment Gateway Fees Online fee processing fees can really add up.  Once you have an established online business, it pays to shop around for the best deal on payment processing.  This often ends up being a standard merchant account rather than paypal.  As part of a quarterly review, you should look at the fees you are paying and make sure they are as low as they can be.

• Web Tools Many web tools (such as shopping carts, article submission services, audio services, etc.) charge a subscription fee for you to use them.  Many are worth their fee many times over.  But, you should review all tools every couple of months to make sure that you are not paying for tools you are not using.

• Not Giving Yourself A Raise Even in tough times, small business owners  (especially virtual assistants) need to raise their prices to keep up with increased cost of living.  The key is to give advance notice to clients and to raise rates in small amounts on a regular basis.

• Affiliate Income Virtual Assistant and other home business owners are constantly recommending tools for their clients.  Many of these tools come with affiliate programs where you can earn some extra money for referral. The client doesn’t pay any more for the tool and you can earn a (sometimes hefty) percentage just for passing on a heartfelt recommendation.

• Time Tracking It is also very easy to lose money by not billing your clients for your actual hours worked.  One of the easiest holes to plug is to start tracking all those “quick favors” and “quick replys” that sometimes turn into real projects.

By taking the time to plug the holes in your budget, you will create a stronger business that will bring in more revenue in the future.  Unlike many investments in these troubled economic times, this one is a sure bet.

Wow.this has been quite a week n the internet marketing world.   Mike Filsaime offered the deal of a lifetime to 5,000 lucky people (well, actually he offered it to 40,000 lucky people — so the servers crashed….)  He offered his $1997 Butterfly Marketing Class  and Course for Free (well, sort of  for $30 S&H and a subscription to his newsletter…). The servers crashed and so Mike had $10,000 more copie made.  Many gurus use his system to make good money.  If you are reading this today, you can probably still get a copy here.  But, my guess is that most people won’t and here is why…

1.  About half of the people won’t ever unwrap the package.  Sad but true.  I can admit to being one of these people about 50% of the time.  I still have  a shrink wrapped version of John Reese’s Traffic Secrets on my self (my bad…) The bigger the package, the bigger the chance of it just taking space on someone’s bookshelf.

2. People will get lost in all the training materials.  There is a lot “there” there in Butterfly Marketing.  Most people will not take the time to listen to the 10 CDs and go through the process maps and videos.

3. There is more to butterfly marketing than just setting up the scripts on a website.  To launch a product, you need to create a product (write, format), prmote your site, manage affiliates, etc.   To succeed, you need coaching and help.

4. Nothing happens overnight.  You need to create a system and stick with the system in order to succeed.

My guess is that the people who *will * succeed with Butterfly Marketing are the people who take the time to learn the software, network with other product owners, and create a team in their business  to help keep them on track.

To get the training and the system — I suggest you take Bob The Teacher’s Discover Butterfly Marketing class.  Bob is the best technical trainer out there (he taught high school and can simplify the obscure) – he will take you step by step.  Also, Bob has created 30 butterfly marketing sites that steadily earn him a solid six figure income each year. The class also includes a solid networking component.

A good VA can not only help you install the scripts (which is not difficult, but becomes less daunting with practice for sure), but she can help you develop systems to manage the whole process from product creation, to product launch to customer service.  Installing the scripts is just the beginning of a fabulous partnership.  If you are a VA and want to add this to your skillset — check out http://butterflymarketingva.com

Don’t be one of those people who pays the $30, but doesn’t take action.