The recent economic recession is one of the most serious financial blows our world economy has taken in the last several decades. Its influence ranges from finance to real estate to online businesses to small businesses.

While just about everyone’s affected, there are still many businesses that are thriving, especially those who work mainly online such as virtual assistants. How can you make sure you still do well in these tough economic times?

Here are a few tips.

Offer a Cost-Saving Option

When faced with choosing between either a cheaper option or a higher value option, many consumers today would choose to go with the cheaper option. NOTE: I am not talking about choosing between a VA in the U.S. or Canada and those in India and China because they are NOT your competition. People who use those options aren’t looking for a partner, they are looking for someone to do one-time tasks on the cheap, so stop comparing yourself to them or thinking that you are competing with them.

Instead of just selling your normal product line or retainer package, consider creating a “lite” version for customers who still want to partner with a VA but don’t want to spend all the money. Starbucks is selling their coffee in packets instead of just ground beans for a fraction of the price. Cable companies are offering fewer channels. So on and so forth.

How can you offer cost-saving offers for your customers?

Go International

Have you considered shipping internationally or servicing international customers?

Hardest hit in the recent recession are the United States and the European Union. However, many Western countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand still have very strong economies. In fact, all three countries have higher than USD valuations on their currencies at the time of this writing.

Since your business is online, it can be as simple as changing your targeting, PPC and SEO techniques to target these countries. Just remember, if you ship physical products, you’ll need to explore the various laws and regulations surrounding shipping products internationally.

Consider Outsourcing

Once of the biggest reasons why I don’t have a big team is that because each of my clients is different – some already have teams in place and some are just starting out and don’t need a big team. Some need social media help, while others just need graphic design. This is where outsourcing comes in. I hire workers and outsource graphic design, custom WordPress design, and bookkeeping. For my clients, I outsource article submission, custom tweets, Facebook postings… As we all know, many of these things can be done better and less expensive by someone else. If I had a big team, I would need to keep them busy full-time and sometimes that’s not feasible. So pulling in outsourcers is a perfect model for me and could be a great model for you!

Many of my clients are happy with the work that outsourcers do but don’t want the headache of having to manage them, and that’s a service you can provide – project management.

Niche! Niche! Niche!

I may sound like a broken record, but not specializing in a certain niche and you will be destined to mediocrity.  It can be helping baby boomers get started turning their hobbies to businesses, only working with financial advisers, or specializing in a certain area such as marketing implementation (that’s me!) No matter what the area of expertise or the target market, you need to know WHO you are marketing to in order to have a clear marketing message.

If you are a virtual assistant, check out E-Marketing Essentials for Virtual Assistants: How to grow your business online in less time and with less effort  for more marketing tips and strategies! And if you are an online business owner, I have written Quick Start Guide to Marketing just for you.

You are a busy woman. You run an online business or a business out of your home. But, you are also a mother. Your business allows you to spend time with your children and live the life that you want.

It sounds like a win-win situation and it can be as long as you learn to handle one thing – your time. On some of your busiest days it is easy for work to take a backseat to the needs of your children or emergencies at the house. The same thing can happen on the flip side. Family responsibilities can be encroached on by work commitments.

Every WAHM has dealt with this rollercoaster at some time in their career. It can be a daunting experience at best. At worse, both your business and your family can suffer, leaving you uncertain of how to fix things.

Well, we are here to help. Time management is very important in any business, but especially when you are working from a home office. Keep an open mind and read the following information.

Ask for Help

There is nothing wrong with asking for assistance from your family. Your spouse and your kids can be instrumental in helping you to keep your sanity. You’d be surprised how eager little ones can be to give you a helping hand. Kids can clean their rooms and pick up after themselves in common areas. Your spouse can help with dinner, the kids’ extracurricular activities and putting kids to bed on occasion.

Create a Daily Schedule

Calendars may seem “old school” but they are still the best way to keep up with upcoming events. Keeping a large one in the kitchen, for instance, gives each person in the family opportunity to record their events so that nothing is forgotten and any conflicts can be addressed before the day of the event.

Also, create blocks of time for different activities. The morning can be devoted to work activities on one day and then household chores on the next day. It would be easier to keep the same time each day for these activities, but often schedule changes don’t allow for that. Be flexible but still commit to a certain amount of time each day to run your business and also to spend time with family commitments.

Create Daily Milestones

You don’t have to finish every task each day. Set a list of priorities and then take steps to finish the most important jobs first. First thing in the morning, determine what you will focus on for that day.

You don’t have to schedule every minute of your day, but a level of time management will keep your daily life organized.

Need more time management tips?

I’ve included a free written report plus full audio recording that shows you how to do manage your time so you can work less and earn more.

At only 16 straight-to-the point pages (or listen to the audio if you prefer), it’s easy to read through this no-fluff guide. No sense in reading all day, when you can be building your business instead.

http://www.lisarwells.com/onlinetimemanagement/

For an online business, your website is your storefront. It is the billboard that highlights your business. Put your best foot forward and make a good first impression. Sloppy websites can cost you money.

You see advertisements on TV for easy website set-up. Or you visit a website that promises they can have your website up and running in hours. With ready-made templates and other services, it is a no brainer – right? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There is a lot to be done on your part to turn that cookie cutter website into your branded business.

What Costs You Sales

Have you ever visited a website that you wished you had clicked past? What kinds of things got on your nerves? The same features that annoyed you will also annoy your visitors if you have them on your website.

Here is a list of a few things that can cost sales by making it difficult for people to make head or tail of your website.

* Misspelled words in your articles
* Lots of blank white space
* Hard to read font
* Links that don’t work
* Poorly constructed site that is hard to navigate
* Cluttered pages
* No graphics
* Lack of continuity from page to page
* Lack of contrast between background and text

This seems like a lot, but most of it can be discovered within a couple of minutes of clicking onto the site. Don’t let this be you. With so many websites available, your visitors may not come back to try you again. And if you’re a service provider, the chances of someone hiring you are slim to none.

Rectify the Situation

Many website owners make simple mistakes that can lead to a loss of traffic and ultimately sales. You can avoid costly mistakes with a few tips.

* Proofread all of your content and webpages – Don’t trust spell check. Go through content that you have uploaded line by line. After that, preview each piece as it should appear on your website. Problems with alignment can have your single column article spread across the webpage in incoherent scrambles. The same goes for website headings, pictures and tags. Be sure everything looks right before going live.

* Align your pages – Try to keep one type of alignment going so it is easier to lay out your pages. Aligning left keeps content and ads looking flush and professional. Place spaces between content paragraphs for easier reading, along with keeping paragraphs short.

* Use appropriate contrast – It may seem cool to have a black background with red text but it will be hard to read off of a computer screen. Think of your readers and what will work so they can easily see what you want them to notice.

* Take time to lay out your pages – The eyes gravitate to the top half of a page. Don’t put important links and information on the bottom if you don’t want them to be missed. Keep each page with a continuous theme so your website makes sense to those who view it.

Your website is the base of your business. Sloppy layouts and grammatical errors can repel instead of attract customers.

So… you’ve decided to use affiliates to promote your products or services. Smart move! While you may reduce your initial purchase profits, you’ll also gain more loyal customers and that will add up quickly. Affiliates are a great way to not only boost sales but long-term profits as well. Of course, in order to boost those profits you want to attract a top group of affiliates to promote your business.

Here are the top tips to promote your affiliate programs.

#1 Create a separate membership site or mailing list and a website devoted to promoting your affiliate program. You want to make it as easy as possible for your affiliates to get swipe copy, creatives, and a place to ask questions. This not only attracts visitors via search engines, it gives your current affiliates a place to go for answers.

#2 Give away information on how to be a successful affiliate marketer. When your new affiliate signs up, send them this information – educate them. Also be sure to include links to your own affiliate programs. Consider promoting this giveaway using your traditional marketing methods. For example, social networking and email marketing.

#3 Provide testimonials. Collect testimonials about your affiliate program and display them on your website. Imagine how motivating it would be to see how much someone made selling your products or services. Money, and success, talks.

#4 Promote your affiliate program in your business marketing materials. For example, if you have a newsletter then promote your affiliate program in your newsletter. Often the best affiliates are current customers or subscribers!

#5 List your affiliate program with affiliate program directories. This is where many affiliate marketers gather programs that match their niche.

#6 Write content for affiliate program directories, article directories, and for blogs dedicated to affiliate marketing. Sometimes it can be difficult to gain a position as a guest blogger. Start by commenting on the blogs and offering insight and advice. Earn the right to pitch a blog post idea.

Make sure that you also create a top-notch affiliate program for your affiliates. They’ll spread the good news of your affiliate program. Offer incentives, marketing materials and support. Consider also offering a tier-based system where your affiliates can earn more money by recruiting other affiliates and promoting your program.

A great affiliate program, and a well-promoted affiliate program, can launch your business to a whole new level. Consider starting with the affiliates you do have. Treat them well and motivate them to promote your program. You’ll attract top performing affiliates and earn the success you’re seeking.

One of the biggest problems my clients face is e-mail overload. Not to mention receiving tons of spam in their business e-mail inbox. If this has happened to you, chances are you’ve inadvertently made it easy to spam you. Instead of waking to e-mails that are relevant, you wake to hundreds that are just junk! I’m going to give you some tips to spam-proof your website. And an e-mail inbox full of messages you want to read…
 
Update Your Domain Contact Information
 
When you register your domain you’re required to provide an e-mail address. This e-mail address becomes public information unless you select to keep your registration information private. I understand there are business building reasons to not do this, so you can simply use a separate e-mail address for registration. Free accounts like hotmail, Gmail or yahoo are good for this purpose. You can visit them from time to time to sort through the junk and relevant information. This step eliminates you from receiving tons of spam to the e-mail accounts you use on a daily basis.
 
Update Your Website Text
 
SPAMbots essentially scour the internet seeking identifiable e-mail addresses. Now, you of course want to have your e-mail address on your website; you want visitors to be able to contact you. This also means your e-mail address is susceptible to those SPAMbots.
 
The use of JavaScript helps hide your address from would be spammers. The code essentially changes the appearance of your e-mail address so E-mail harvesters are unable to recognize your e-mail address in the code of your website. However, it still retains 100% functionality on your website.
 
Another quick way to hide your e-mail address is to use an e-mail encoder. The one I use the most is this simple page with clear instructions. Simply type your e-mail address, click on “encode” button, and copy and paste the resulting HTML code to your web page.
 
If you don’t know how to use JavaScript but have done your own HTML coding you can find quick examples of how to change the code online. You can also outsource the task for a few dollars. If you’re in the midst of launching a new business website, ask your designer to take care of this for you as it really does take just a few minutes.
 
Another option is a mod_rewrite. This is a bit more technical in nature and requires you to have it installed and accessible on your server and .htaccess file. Again, if you’re not technically inclined, ask your website developer or a technical virtual assistant to handle this for you.
 
Change Your Contact Forms
 
Many people have opted to using contact forms instead of placing your e-mail address on your website. Personally, I don’t like filling out forms when I need to contact someone. It just feels impersonal and I never know if the person got the e-mail or not. Also, this may reduce the spam you receive though it won’t completely eliminate it. If your e-mail address is still in the html of your website the SPAMbots will still find you.
 
Share Discriminately
 
Finally, when sharing your e-mail address with others, especially on social networking sites, blogs, and forums consider writing it out. Instead of janedoe@email.com write JaneDoe at email dot com. This helps prevent your e-mail address from being picked up and added to a spam list.
 
If you are already buried with spam, it may be time to ditch your current e-mail address, create a new one, and notify your friends, clients, and associates.
 
SPAM is a nuisance; however, there are a few simple things you can do both on and off your website to reduce it: hide your e-mail address using encoders, share your e-mail address carefully, use a contact form, and finally, assign an e-mail address for newsletters and domain registration. The spam will stay out of your primary e-mail inbox.

Tell me your anti-spam tips below!

Warmly,

Lisa Wells

If you can share personal and touching moments with your clients during the holidays it will help connect you to your clients in a way that might not normally occur. There is a fine line between sharing too much personal information with your clients and completely ignoring the traditional holidays that most of your site visitors probably celebrate.
 
Of course, you need to know who your visitors are, who your target market is, and what is important to them before you can know for sure which holidays are important to them. Once you know this information, you can start making certain assumptions which will allow you to spread the spirit of any season important to your target market a few different ways.
 
Get personal

You can share with your customers in the form of a post, or a video, what their business means to you during this special time of year. You can talk about where you were before you started your business and where you are today and how it makes this holiday or special day even better.
 
Create appropriate content
 
If you want to spread the spirit of any season with your clients you will need to focus your content on the specific season’s celebrations. Include the important keywords such as “Christmas gifts,” “Hanukkah gifts,” “gifts for mom,” or “gifts for dad,” or even “tax saving specials.” Any season can have something special about it worth spreading. Your content should reflect whatever it is you’re promoting.
 
Help your visitors help others
 
You can tie in your promotions with helping others. You can create a special campaign just to collect funds for a specific charity. Say you want to collect money for the Salvation Army’s Thanksgiving meal program, you can make sure to start your promotions and specials early so that the charity will get the money soon enough to pay for their needs. Show how much is being collected as you collect the funds and make sales, this will create a pull to your clients to join in with everyone else, thus spreading the spirit of the season.
 
Play a game
 
If you really want to spread the spirit of the season and have some fun in the process without getting too off message you can create a scavenger hunt which encourages your site visitors to find surprises hidden within your posts, ending with them winning something valuable. This will encourage participation on your blogs and message boards and be a lot of fun.
 
Have a contest

Ask your clients to submit a post, or video of how your products or services benefits them in the form of a holiday commercial. Have your customers can vote on the best entry. Have a special prize for the winner and a discount for the participants both submitters and voters.
 
Decorate your website
 
Change up your logo or website background ala Google to reflect a specific holiday or cause. You can even have a contest letting the winner’s design be featured for a specific period of time. This is fun to do and does not change the focus of your site at all. It can be very subtle and non intrusive but fun and a reminder of the season you want to recognize.
 
Connecting with your clients on a fun and personal level can help create a sense of trust between you and your customers thus increasing repeat sales because people like to buy from the people they know and trust. 
 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
 
Copyright 2010, Lisa Wells.

Let me just get this out there as quickly as I can. I don’t like change very much. Never have and probably never will. This may come as a shock since my background includes working for 15 years in the information technology industry and change on a weekly or monthly basis was a given.

Being a virtual assistant, change is common because there are always new programs to learn and upgrades to be done. But I suffer from upgradeaphoebia and seriously, it’s a wonder I ever upgrade anything. Sometimes I have to upgrade in order to accommodate something I need or want and in these cases I don’t really mind. But other times, when I am forced to upgrade for the sake of it or because it’s pushed upon me (Windows Vista anyone?), then the horns start growing, the vein pops out, and my teeth start gnashing. Ok, I guess I am not that bad, but pretty close.

How did I get this bad? I used to be a superstar during my first job as a word processor back in the late 80′s. Using a 286 with MS-DOS, I used to create custom menus in my autoexec.bat file, I learned all the cool tips for ‘Q&A’ and ‘WordPerfect’, and I was the only word processor who downloaded soft fonts to my printer so that my letters beamed with the professionalism of Times Roman while others still used Courier fonts. I was so high speed!

Years later and working as an IT specialist, I couldn’t begin to count the number of upgrades, rollouts, repairs, or patches I’ve done. Technology is exponential; everything from hardware, software, and tech gadgets has a short life because not only do we want the latest and greatest, but one has to keep up or else you are left with an obsolete .

This is especially tough for those of us who work online because we are our own IT department. We have to learn it, use it, support it, and troubleshoot it. Just when I would feel comfortable with a particular piece of hardware or software, I would get the upgrade notice. Argh!

I have learned over the years that it doesn’t have to be painful. Follow these tips to make sure your next upgrade is as pain-free as possible:

1. Do some research. Do not wait until you’ve already upgraded your operating system to find out it is not compatible with your favorite web editing program. Go the manufacturer’s website to check the compatibility list. If there is none listed, contact the manufacturer directly to see if compatible drivers will be available. This also goes for switching web hosts; if you use Frontpage extensions, make sure the new web host supports it as many nowadays do not.
2. Backup. Do not, and I repeat, do not upgrade without first copying anything of value to another storage device. In theory, upgrading software or operating systems are supposed to leave data alone and just upgrade the system files that run the software. But I have witnessed many times where something went wrong and a complete reformat was necessary. There goes all your family vacation pictures! Don’t let this happen to you.
3. Document. Before and after you have upgraded, write down all serial numbers, PIN codes, passwords, license numbers, anything associated with a particular piece of software or hardware, and keep them in a place other than your computer. You may need this information when talking to a customer service rep. It doesn’t do any good to save everything in an Access database or Outlook when you’re on the phone with customer service and you can’t open your files. Well, unless you have nothing else to do and can chat with a tech support rep for a few hours while your account gets straightened out. I speak from experience.

Now that I’m older and wiser, I am trying to overcome my upgradeaphobia. I know that I am improving because now when I upgrade, I find it hard to go back to the old versions. I liken it to continuing to use a word that has gone out of style. And when I do commit that faux pas, my kids laugh and call me a “newb.”  You don’t want to be known as the “newb” in your family do you?

Maybe the word “upgrade” isn’t such a bad word after all!

Do you have any upgrade horror stories?  Leave a comment and tell me about them!

Online, one of the most significant keys to success is getting website traffic for your virtual assistant business. Think about it, the more visitors you have, the better your chances to land clients!

Presumably you have a specialty or a niche and you know your keywords, and regularly conduct keyword research to stay on top of what’s popular. Based on those assumptions here are five quick and easy tips to get website traffic fast!

Tip #1 Make sure you’re actually tagging your keywords

Do you spend a lot of time optimizing your content and then neglect to tag them on your webpage? Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tags they’ll pass right by your web pages. Here’s a quick brief on tags.

There are a number of tag types including,

* Title tags. Title tags are quite possibly the most important place to situate your keywords. Here’s what they look like -

<title>Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant for Hire – YOUR NAME</title>

Your title tag is where you place your primary keyword or keyword phrase. The sentence will describe your business in less than 90 characters.

* Header Tags. Header tags are next in order of importance to search engines. They’re ranked in order of importance and look like this -

<h1>Primary and/or Secondary keywords here</h1>

The “1″ designates this header as the most important header on the page.

* Meta Tags. Meta tags provide the small descriptive text found underneath the title tag on the search engine results page. Like title tags these should be kept brief, informative and up to date.

Example: <meta name=”description” content=”Descriptive content goes here”>

* Alt Tags. Alt tags are used to provide a text description of a graphic. Each graphic on your site should have a description and an alt tag.

Tip #2 Add content to your site consistently

Content is essential for traffic and a top search engine ranking. Content is what search engine spiders look for and index – without it there’s nothing to index or rank. Give visitors and search engines a reason to visit and index your site. Make a commitment to provide daily, optimized content and your traffic will soar.

Tip #3 Procure valuable and relevant incoming links

The more websites which link to your webpages the more valuable search engines perceive you to be, though not all links are created equal. Search engines give more leverage to links from sites which are popular and credible and from sites which are relevant to your website topic.

There are different types of links.

- A direct link looks like a basic website address, for example, www.yourwebsite.com

- A text link occurs when the webpage address is embedded in the text. Readers simply click on the link and are redirected to a new website page.

- If the link is to an internal web page, for example an article published on a website rather than the home page, it is called a “deep link.”

You can encourage linking to your website by:

* Adding content to your site.
* Submitting to article directories.
* Publishing press releases.
* Blogging and participating in social networking forums, chat rooms, and social networking sites.

Tip #4 Be Social!

Now more than ever before, internet marketing is about building a community. Whether you offer a forum on your website or you participate in social networking sites, social networking is a valuable traffic generating tactic. Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools for generating links and traffic to your site – create a profile and then post comments, links to your site, and ideas which generate conversation.

Get involved – many chat rooms and forums are industry specific, find those which cater to your industry, and begin participating. Speak to and connect with a highly targeted audience.

I kid you not, I got a phone call recently (Hi Lilly!) from a potential client, she left me a voice mail and this was the message: “Hi Lisa, I saw so-and-so post about you on Twitter so I visited your site and you are exactly what I need!” Trust me, it works.

Tip #5 Advertise for more exposure and traffic

Advertising, when handled strategically, can be used to promote your content and products or services. PPC advertising is often the tool of choice because you control the advertising budget on a daily basis and have the tools to test and track your advertising efforts. Once you’ve honed your PPC ads the return on investment can be phenomenal in terms of traffic and purchases.

I also think that Facebook advertising is a great alternative. You can really hone in on your target market by selecting a geographic location, gender, age group, Groups and “Likes.”

For maximum results, create a traffic and SEO strategy. Outline your plan and your goals and then take the necessary action. Take advantage of these five traffic and search engine tips to boost your business.

To your marketing success,

Before we get started, you will need to do a few things….

1. If you don’t have the article submission form, go to http://www.virtualassistantforms.com, sign up, and it will be sent to you via email immediately along with a tracking spreadsheet.
    
2. Visit SelfGrowth.com and sign up for a free account.  
    
3. List the possible categories and sub-categories from the article directory and edit the submission form.

If you need a refresher on how to edit the submission form, click video below.

Next, watch the video below as I walk you through submitting an article to another popular article directory, Self Growth.

SelfGrowth.com is an article site focusing on topics such as success skills, mental health, spirituality, health & fitness, relationships, money & careers – which is great if you are a coach who coaches in any of these areas or a service provider to other professionals in these categories.

On the surface, you may think that your article may not be a fit, but make sure to browse around because most likely you will find an appropriate category. For example, the article that I will use in my video example is about “perfection paralysis,” which you may think may not seem to fit any of the topic areas; however, under money & careers is a sub-category for marketing strategy which I think fits nicely.

What I like about Self Growth is that you can upgrade to a Professional membership for more ways to advertise you and your business. Not only can you promote your website(s), submit articles, create your own “Expert Page,” but you can also add events to Self Growth’s calendar! It is more than just an article bank, it is a great site to share your knowledge, philosophy, and expertise.

That concludes my article submission series, I hope you enjoyed it! If you missed any of the other videos, you can get them here:

How to Submit an Article to IdeaMarketers.com
How to Submit an Article to EzineArticles.com

Before we get started, you will need to do a few things….

1. If you don’t have the article submission form, go to http://www.virtualassistantforms.com, sign up, and it will be sent to you via email immediately along with a tracking spreadsheet.
2. Visit Ideamarketers.com, sign up for a free account, and fill out profile, including resource box.  
3. List the possible categories and sub-categories from the article directory and edit the submission form.

If you need a refresher on how to edit the submission form, click video below.

Next, watch the video below as I walk you through submitting an article to another popular article directory, Idea Marketers.

Next month I’ll show you how to submit to Self Growth, a popular article site that focuses on self improvement, personal growth and self-help – very popular if you work with the coaches or write on these topics.

In the meantime, browse around the IdeaMarketers.com website. In addition to articles, you can submit press releases, ebooks, and if you’re so inclined, you can even apply to “become an expert” of a particular niche which could result in loads of exposure for your and your business. Check it out!