ANNOUNCING...THE GREAT FACEBOOK FAN PAGE MAKEOVER CONTEST!

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As you may already know, the official launch of our “Fantastic Facebook Fan Pages” course is officially underway. There has been an overwhelming response to this program, and we’re excited about the next two weeks of learning that are about to begin. As an opportunity to apply some of the skills learned in the course, we will be running a contest – “The Great Facebook Fan Page Makeover Contest,” open to all “fans” of our VAClassroom Facebook Fan Page.

If you would like some practice applying the content learned in VAClassroom’s live Fan Page Course PLUS an opportunity to win a full makeover of your own Fan Page, here’s your chance! All you need to do is submit either a video or audio clip explaining “why a Fantastic Facebook Fan Page would impact your business.” The winner will receive a full makeover of his or her Fan Page, including custom landing page, page formatting, applications and some tips on how to better engage his or her audience. The winner will also receive either a free one-year VAClassroom membership or a one-year credit towards his or her current membership.

Deadline for submission is November 7^th, 2009.

Please post your entry on our VAClassroom Facebook Fan Page wall.
(You must first add yourself as a fan.)

http://www.facebook.com/VAClassroom

For more information, check out our Contest Kickoff video:

Best of luck in the contest!

View our current submissions Fan Page Video Submissions

Connexions Group

Title: Connexions Group

Link out: Click here
Description: The "Connexions" group will provide you with an opportunity to connect, dialogue and discuss the training courses and other pertinent Internet marketing topics with VAClassroom Staff and other members. Connexions will offer a casual,non-structured atmosphere that will be directed by your questions, comments and perspectives. Of course, we will add our own 2 cents for what it\'s worth, but we ultimately want the content of these sessions to be dictated by you! Our hope is that these times will help to further stretch your Internet Marketing learning and knowledge to the next level.
Start Time: 13:00 PST
Date: 2009-09-24

The Fast Growing Business of Blogging!

Just the other day, I was reading some stats on the WordPress site and was blown away by the massive growth of  WordPress Blogs over the last 24 months!

Here are some 2008 stats shared by the WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg:

• Page Views grew from 1.5 million to 6.5 million per month
• 2 million new blogs created for the year
• 35 million new blog posts in 2008

In January 2009 alone there were 372,519 WP blogs created!

It is clear that not only is blogging growing at a rapid rate, but it is also evolving in some new and exciting ways.  This excerpt from WordPress.com puts it best:

Blogging is growing both in the US and especially internationally. Tens of thousands of new WordPress blogs are created every day – by regular bloggers, companies, large media publishers, and many others. In addition, we seeing a trend that’s potentially even bigger than blogging: Publishers are starting to use WordPress as a platform to create all kinds of sites beyond blogs – large and small company sites, online magazines, social networks, travel sites, scrapbooking sites, contact managers, startups, multimedia archives, video sites, sports sites.

Isn't this cool? Ten of thousands of blogs being created DAILY! Businesses are using blogging technology to create company websites, social networks, video sites, membership sites and so much more.

The sad reality is that a good portion of these blog sites won't last more than a year as they are lacking some key success strategies and tools for optimizing and marketing their blogs.

This is ONE of the key reasons we have created our newest mini-course called, Blog Marketing Tips, Tools & Tactics.  We want to provide blogsite owners as well as Virtual Assistants (who operate and manage blog sites) with some advanced marketing and optimization strategies for increasing blog traffic and visibility.

There are excellent opportunities right now for Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals to offer "in-demand" blog marketing services to this fast growing base of blogsite owners.

Our newest blog marketing training program starts on August 10th. Check it out!

Adopting a Social Media Marketing Mindset

One of the key first steps to becoming a successful Social Marketing Specialist or Consultant is to understand and adopt a "Social Marketing Mindset". As many of you know, Social media is really all about building relationships, adding value to the community and being real and authentic. I had an opportunity to dialogue this week with three team members from one of the fastest rising Web 2.0 companies on the Net, Freshbooks.com. Some of you may use their Invoicing and Time Tracking system, which is ultra cool. But, they are SUPER innovative when it comes to social media and have fully adopted this Social Marketing Mindset. They were recently listed #2 for the Top Web 2.0 companies in Canada (Backbone Magazine). Check out this out the very insightful 22 minute informal discussion between myself and Saul, Rayanne and Gregg from Freshbooks by signing up at our Social Marketing Page. You will see that they are very passionate as I am about Social Media and share some great prespectives on this fast growing industry. For our upcoming Social Marketing Specialist Coaching Series, I am fully hoping to recruit Saul Colt and/or Rayanne Langdon (Social Media Gurus at Freshbooks) to join our Expert Panel. More on that later...

Recording of VAClassroom Webinar with Freshbooks CEO

Hey, I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! If you didn't have an opportunity to listen "live" to last week's VAClassroom Webinar event with Freshbooks CEO, Mike McDerment, I have included the 77 minute MP3 recording below. Mike provided some excellent insights into overcoming many of the obstacles and challenges we face as solopreneurs or Virual business owners who work alone. Virtual Nivana: How To Remain Inspired and Productive When You Work Alone Enjoy!