Harnessing the Power of Free Information Products in Your Virtual Assistant Business

Recently we held our fourth Summer Skill Camp session for Virtual Assistants on “Leveraging the Power of Free Information Products to Attract and Win New Clients.” In today’s Web 2.0 world, a revolutionary new business model has developed that uses Free Information Products to build community, brand exposure, and lucrative results in an authentic way. This is in contrast to the old model, where free products had strings attached and were all about generating a sale.

Nowadays, Free Information Products serve to build connections, add value, grow brand influence and thought leadership in a way that can ultimately lead to new clients, all the while increasing the credibility of a business.

A July 2009 Reader’s Digest article, “Chris Anderson on the Meaning of Free,” talks about Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. In his book, Anderson describes how the comedy group Monty Python were frustrated by seeing low-quality pirated versions of their sketches posted on YouTube, so they created their own YouTube channel and posted their own free higher-quality versions, letting fans know that complete DVD versions of the sketches were available for purchase. Amazingly, sales of Monty Python DVDs rose by 23,000 percent.

Anderson explains:

"Free worked, and worked brilliantly … People are making lots of money charging nothing. Not nothing for everything, but nothing for enough that we have essentially created a country-sized economy around the price of $0.00."

But what form do Free Information Products take, and as a Virtual Assistant, how do you know which ones would be suitable to offer on your site?

Here are some examples of products you can offer:

•    White Papers, Special PDF Reports, eBooks

•    MP3 Audio Interview Series

•    Screencast Presentations

•    Pre-recorded Tele-Events (with Transcript)

•    Email tips series

•    Visual Slide Show Presentations

•    Online Newsletters

•    eCourses

And how do you know which ones to choose?

Think carefully about your online business and decide which of these products would provide the most value to your target audience, which ones could serve as a solution to any problems they might be having.

Once you have created your Free Information Product, be sure to position it for mass distribution through multiple social networks so that it gains as much exposure as possible and reaches your target audience through a wide variety of channels.

You’ll see that providing this valuable information for free will help establish you as a thought leader, a mentor, and ultimately build the credibility of your business, potentially leading to the addition of new ideal clients. Remember: the most valuable gift you have to offer your clients is yourself.

What do you think? Has providing Free Information products led to increased sales in your virtual business? As a Virtual Assistant or business owner, how do you maintain a balance between providing free and paid products and services?

Please share your comments below.

Seven Ways to Have an Ultra Productive Summer for Your Virtual Business.

Before we begin, we just want to apologize to our readers “down under” for yet another reference to summer when you are experiencing the cold of winter right now. In many parts of Canada, summer is so short, we just love to talk about it while we can!

One of the things we’re talking about right now is how to stay productive in our online businesses during the summer months. When the weather turns warm and the kids are out of school, it’s tempting to want to sit back, relax and put work on hold for awhile. That’s definitely a healthy thing to do in order to be refreshed and rejuvenated; however, as Virtual Assistants, often we are unable to take a lot of time off from our work and need a way to stay motivated and productive even when the sun is shining and the neighbors are outside barbecuing.

Here are a few simple tips to help you have a productive summer:

1. Try to establish office hours for yourself that will still allow you to participate in fun activities with your friends and family. (Often the anticipation of an event will make you use your time effectively.)

2. Don’t burn the candle at both ends. (While making time for friends and family, do remember to leave yourself enough time to finish your work and get a good night’s sleep – one of the biggest thieves of productivity is lack of sleep.)

3. Get some fresh air. (Take advantage of warm summer weather and go for a walk or take your kids to the playground – refreshing for both the mind and body.)

4. Give your office a makeover. (Clear any clutter that could be distracting you and create a pleasant space to work in – maybe even treat yourself to a vase of fresh flowers.)

5. When you’re feeling distracted or unmotivated, use that time to try out some new reading materials pertaining to your industry (i.e. blogs, eBooks, ezines, or a new book from Amazon.com).

6. Connect with colleagues and fellow Virtual Assistants. (Keep each other inspired by talking via Skype, telephone, Social Networking or even Meetup groups.)

7. Enrol in a training program like the VAClassroom Summer Skill Camp and set a goal to learn some great business-building skills by the end of the summer!

We’re keeping ourselves productive here at VAClassroom by continuing to develop top-notch training opportunities for you during the summer months, and we’re excited that our very first Summer Skill Camp for Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals will be starting in just one week!

How do you keep yourself productive during the summer? We’d love to hear any tips or advice you have!

Mastering the Art of Email List Building.

In keeping with this week’s theme of “Continual Learning,” we wanted to touch on Email List Building, an important Internet Marketing skill that requires Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals to keep up to date and informed of the latest trends and skills.

Despite the fact that other marketing channels like Social Marketing and Video Marketing have gained prominence, Email Marketing is here to stay for the foreseeable future and will continue to thrive because it is still the top converting marketing activity and is very easy to deliver and test.

However, it’s important to take note of how this type of marketing has changed and evolved in 2010 so that you can form an appropriate strategy. It’s now a very different animal from the traditional brand of Email Marketing that was used in the past. Most importantly, the new Email Marketing 2.0 is about adding value and building relationships, loyalty and trust with a niche group of subscribers rather than direct selling and building a huge generalized list of subscribers.

In the blog post “Email Marketing 2.0 Explained,” Tyler Garns from Infusionsoft compares traditional Email Marketing 1.0 with the new Email Marketing 2.0 and says that Email Marketing 1.0 is like a bad sales rep:

“A bad sales rep will typically memorize the spiel and “data dump” on the prospect regardless of what the prospect says, regardless of the person’s body language and regardless of any buying signals. They are robotic and sell much less because of their rigidness and inability to adapt the message for different people.”

On the other hand, he says the new Email Marketing 2.0 is like a good sales rep:

“A good sales rep, on the other hand, will listen (a lot) and adapt the message to the prospect’s needs. Good sales reps sell significantly more because they are always able to share something relevant to the prospect. They listen, adapt, and share the right message for every individual prospect every time.”

So, given those differences, how do you master the art of Email List Building so that you can create a targeted list and start to build relationships and trust? Here are some simple tips to get you started:

•    Brainstorm the type of audience you want on your list.

•    Develop a free offer that would entice that audience to subscribe and make sure your landing page is optimized with the right keywords that are relevant to the offer.

•    Develop valuable follow-up content that would benefit the audience and help build relationships with them (i.e. emails with lists, tips or strategies they can use in their business).

•    Figure out where to promote or display your free offer and opt-in box (i.e. post in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog posts, Squidoo Lenses, Hubpages, targeted forums and industry websites).

•    Promote a free web event using event tools in LinkedIn, Facebook or other Social Networks.

•   Publish relevant articles with a call to action and a link to your free offer in the author resource box.

•    Identify the right email program for your campaign, one that will allow you to adapt autoresponders to suit your subscribers’ needs and responses.

We cover this topic in more detail in our Internet Marketing Specialist 2010 training program because it is such an important skill for Virtual Assistants to know. Remember that the important thing is to speak to the needs of your target audience and share high-quality content so that they benefit from your email communications and become part of a valued community of subscribers.

Developing that trust and relationship will help you build a niche audience that will stay tuned in to your communications and remain loyal customers as time goes by – a mutually beneficial relationship for you both!! In the new Email Marketing 2.0 world, you can even say that Email List Building becomes social too!!

Continual Learning - The Key to Developing a Thriving Virtual Assistant Business in 2010

I (Jena) finally got an iPod this year. What an improvement! Up until then I had been using a Discman, and it was the funny looks people were giving me on the bus that led me to believe I wasn’t carrying the hippest piece of technology.

Then there was my computer operating system. In 2007 I proudly updated it from Windows 98 to Windows XP… then discovered that XP had been released in about 2001 and was soon going to be replaced by Windows Vista.

With my love for science fiction, you’d think I’d be motivated to stay apprised of all the newest developments in technology. I mean how can you watch “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and not be interested in the future?

But without proper education and continual learning, it’s easy to get left behind, and this put me at a disadvantage in my personal life and especially in my business. I had neglected to stay on top of current trends in technology and was missing out on advances in functionality and even computer security. Perhaps it would have been wiser to spend a little more time reading Mashable.com and less time watching Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his crew.

All professionals, from dentists to accountants, need to keep their skills current, but if you are a Virtual Assistant or Online Professional, you need to be an “incurable learner” in order to be successful in this fast-moving Internet Landscape. It is way too easy to get left behind in an online industry that moves at lightning speed.

Here are some of the things savvy Virtual Assistants must pay attention to so that they can develop a thriving business in 2010:

•    Technology trends – e.g. Innovations in SmartPhone technology are creating an irresistible platform for mobile marketing.
•    Internet Marketing trends – e.g. Video marketing is gaining prominence over traditional marketing methods.
•    Social Media trends – e.g. Twitter use for marketing purposes is increasing.
•    Productivity tools – e.g. Tools like Freshbooks and SmartSheet provide cutting-edge functionality that greatly enhances productivity.

Mashable.com is one excellent resource for keeping tabs on what’s happening in the world of Social Media and beyond. For example, a recent article called “We Might All be Watching Videos by 2015 [STATS],” discusses findings from the Pew Internet Project. Interestingly, this research reveals that 52% of the American population is watching videos online, the equivalent of 69% of all Internet-connected American adults. No wonder marketers are starting to leverage the power of video more and more!

Reading reports like this is a good way to stay informed of the latest trends, but it’s also important to receive training in the latest tools and strategies so that you can apply them in your business. We are always thrilled to hear how our VAClassroom students’ businesses start to take off when they acquire in-demand skills and have clients pounding on their doors.

Below are some places where you can search for topics related to your online industry so you can hone your skills:

•    Do a search through Google Blog Search.
•    Browse through eBooks.com.
•    Search through Ezine directories like EzineArticles.com.

•    Keep an open account at Amazon.com.

•    And, of course, new training courses and clinics through VAClassroom!

The Internet you see today can change in a heartbeat, so Virtual Assistants and other online service providers must cultivate an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a commitment to continual learning. This will pave the way for new levels of success in your career so that you can wow your clients with your skills and ability to nimbly ride the next wave in online business. Then they’ll know you’re not “stuck in the ‘80s.”

Well, that’s it for today – time to play Pong on my Atari Flashback game console!

What? An Xbox 360? When did they come out with that? :-D

Is Your Website or Blog Perfectly Optimized?

Do you ever watch those home renovation shows on TV, the ones where someone is having trouble selling their home and needs some help? Often there’s nothing wrong with the house itself, just an important design element missing. A team of experts is called in and, voila, the house gets noticed and sells! The home owners are amazed and anxious to learn the skills those experts used to make such a difference.

In your work, do you wish you could optimize your website or blog so that it attracts more attention? Are your clients anxious to optimize theirs too? The initial SEO work begins in the HTML, and consequently clients are now, more than ever, requiring their Virtual Assistants to have some level of HTML knowledge and skills. For some, that’s exciting… for others, worrisome. ;-)

SEOmoz has put together an excellent blog post that summarizes best practices for “Perfecting Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization.” They provide a diagram of the “perfectly” optimized page and list all the elements that contribute to its ranking. Many of these elements are quite technical and require a good knowledge of HTML.

Below is a list of the important elements to optimize in on your webpage:

•    Keyword Targeted URL
•    Page Title
•    Meta Description
•    H1 Headline
•   Image File Name
•    Webpage Body Content
•    Internal links

Now, if you’re starting to break into a cold sweat at the thought of tackling such technical aspects, you’re not alone. HTML is a very important task and one that requires specialized training in order to do it well. For that reason, we recently offered a special 3-hour HTML Training for Internet Marketing Success Clinic. The Clinic was taught by our very own VAClassroom Faculty Member, Christina Greenway, who helped demystify HTML and unpacked the important skills you need for your business and your clients.

So there’s no need to call in a team of experts to optimize your website or blog! With some HTML training, you can make Google stand up and take notice, and that’s as good as a “Sold “ sign on the front lawn!

A Podcasting Lesson from a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Remember the scene in the movie Star Wars IV: A New Hope where Obi-Wan Kenobi views a holographic recording that was downloaded into a droid named R2-D2?

Princess Leia had used the droid’s recording and downloading software to hide plans for the Galactic Empire’s Death Star (a space station capable of destroying an entire planet) and to create a message begging Obi-Wan to help her by taking the plans to her father so he could analyze them.

This scene seems like the stuff of science fiction, but is it really that far off from what we’re capable of today? With the advent of smartphones and iPods, we too can download and transmit important information at the touch of a button.

Although as a Virtual Assistant you may not be on a mission to save a whole planet from annihilation at the hands of Darth Vader, you might still be looking for new channels to communicate important information to the world about your clients’ businesses. One effective option is podcasting.

Check out this great video, “Podcasting in Plain English,” explaining the convenience and power of this new communication tool:

The implications for marketing are powerful and undeniable. For a low cost, businesses can build their brand and gain more visibility with podcasting than they had before using traditional media and email marketing. With more and more people buying iPhones and iPods, there is great potential to reach a large target audience of customers downloading and subscribing to their favorite podcasts.

To help you gain skills in this area and leverage podcasting as a successful marketing tool, we are offering a brand new mini-course – Podcast Marketing Success Strategies, taught by Andrea Kalli, one of our talented VAClassroom Faculty Members, who specializes in podcasting and video marketing. Grads of this innovative program will be equipped with the most up-to-date skills and tools needed to effectively set up, produce and promote podcasts for businesses.

Move over, George Lucas. You don’t need R2-D2 to get your messages across in this exciting new world of Mobile Media… The right skills and tools are right at your fingertips!

Should Virtual Assistants (Who are WAHMS) Market Themselves as WAHMS?

Last night I was watching a very thought provoking (and potentially controversial) video from the WAHM blog site, YummyMummy! Scott Stratten from un-marketing.com offered a interesting tip and challenge for Work at Home Moms.

He shared that WAHMS should NOT market themselves to their clients as a WAHM, but rather as a skilled and savvy business owner! He felt that promoting your WAHM status on your site would not serve any real purpose in building your business, unless of course your target audience is WAHMS! From a Virtual Assistant perspective, he felt it might not look favorable to a new client to think of kids hanging off of you while you complete his/her pertinent project!!

From my perspective, while I don't think you need to hide the fact that you are a WAHM with your clients, I don't believe it needs to be emphasized on your site or blog. Now your role as a WAHM might come more into play in your interactions with your peers and those moms who aspire to work from home in Twitter and other Social Networks.

Again, this is coming from a WAHD's perspective who understands the freedom and flexbiility of working from home. I can also talk more about it at VAClassroom since a good percentage of my target audience is in fact WAHMs!

The many Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals I know definitely market their skills and experience first and not necessarily their role as a WAHM (or WAHD for that matter).

So, take a watch of this video at the YummyMommy site - I would love to get your thoughts and feedback on this interesting topic!

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!

Do you really need a Virtual Assistant Certification?

Is there really value in having some sort of Virtual Assistant Certification? Would this VA Certification lead to better clients, better work opportunities and better money? At the end of the day, do you really need it?

While I am sure there are some varying opinions and answers to this question, since this is MY BLOG, you have the distinct privilege (or NOT:)) of hearing my 2 cents on the topic of Virtual Assistant Certification.

First of all, I do NOT think anyone NEEDS a VA Certification to build a thriving, profitable Virtual Assistance Business. While there are success stories on both sides of the fence, I do know and work with a number of great Professional Virtual Assistants that are not certified. On the flip side, there are great VAs whose participation in certain training certification programs served as an ideal launching pad for their Virtual Assistant careers.

I think the important element here is not that you have a multitude of certifications (eventhough that can be beneficial), but that you are a "PASSIONATE LEARNER" and committed to continually improving and enhancing your existing skill sets. A couple Virtual Assistants I work with don't have specific VA Certifications, but they have attended a ton of skill-based webinars, conferences, coaching series and read many ebooks, newsletters and blogs to keep their skills sharp and knowledge as current as can be! The key factor here is to NEVER stop learning and to invest time and money into regular Professional Development!

So, do you need a Virtual Assistant Certification to be successful? No, probably not! But, the interesting thing is that MOST people (Not all) still like to get certifications or designations behind their name. While our Virtual Assistant Training Center, VAClassroom, is not an Accredited Training Program with any State Education Board, many of our members still love to get the Internet Marketing VA Certified Logo that they can showcase on their sites and share with prospective clients! It validates the new services they are offering and provides clients whom are looking for these services with more confidence that they can deliver quality work.

Intrinsically speaking... I think Certifications or designations do give us a sense of accomplishment and recognition. I have a number of Virtual Business friends that hang their certifications and degrees on the wall of their home offices. Is it to impress their clients? Well, probably not, considering none come to their office:). Those certifications represents a marker of accomplishment and validates the work they are doing.

My oldest daughter is now in the first grade. When she comes home with a certificate from school, her face is beaming and she is thrilled to show me what she had accomplished. You might be saying.. "But, Craig come on...... This is just a child, we are adults and don't really need certificates to feel accomplished and good about ourselves!" Really - do you think that is true? Again, this is my own "un-tested" theory that most people simply like to receive certifications - I still do:)

The well known Marketing Training Firm, Marketing Sherpa offers three day skill-training workshops in such areas as Email Marketing. At the end of the training time they provide a flashy Certificate of Completion. For those working in this field, this paper represents another accomplishment that further validates the work they do for clients in this area and will likely give them an additional competitive edge.

So, while you likely don't NEED a Virtual Assistant Certification, or a blog design certification, or a Affiliate Manager Certification, or a Web Analytics Certification or whatever type of certification that relates to your field in order to experience good success, I think intrinsically we still like to receive them and do believe that they provide a tangible representation of our own Professional and Personal Development.

I would love to get your feedback on this one. Am I out to lunch? Do you agree with this - please share!

Train to be a Three Dimensional Virtual Assistant

I was recently reflecting on my previous educational pathway. I did 6 years of University education - 4 for my undergrad and two graduate. While those years were "life-transforming" and matured me as a person, I have to say that I did not necessarily acquire those "hard skills" that directly translated well to work! Of course, I did my graduate studies in Counselling and those skills will likely be put to good use when my three girls become teenagers:)

Now, I look at my training regime over the last 5 years (as an Internet Busines Owner) which has included a regular dose of ebooks, webinars, coaching programs, online communities and conferences. I have in-turn been able to hone my "hard skills" at a fairly rapid rate!

Now, in considering your own Virtual Assistant Practice, how are you currently developing your skills and knowledge? Are you investing regular time during the week to train, learn and grow?

The bigger question.... Are you training to be a Three Dimensional Virtual Assistant (or Entrepreneur for that matter)?

Here are three dimensions of learning to consider as you seek to grow your Virtual Business to new heights...

1. Dimension 1: "Hard Skills Training"

There are certain "Hard Skills" that your clients are requiring you to have to help them take their businesses to the next level! These might be skills in:

- Teleclass and Webinar Coordination

- Shopping Cart Set-up

- Email List Management

- Social Networking Set-up and Profile management

- Affiliate Management

The list goes on...... As you blink, there are new skills and services being added to this list - the industry is moving "crazy fast" and it is important to build a plan for continously developing your "Hard Skills" for your business. Of course, our training center, VAClassroom, specializes in "hard skills" training particularly in the area of Internet Marketing. But, there are other great programs out there. I have been really impressed with the Skills Training offered by Cindy Greenway and Tina Forsyth in their Hot Skills VA Training Program. There are lots of great avenues to hone your skills - the important thing is to make room in your schedule for this kind of continual learning.

Dimension #2: Networking / Marketing Training

In this dimension, you learn new techniques for networking with clients, increasing the traffic and exposure to your business website, building relationships with ideal clients in Social networks and other online communities. While you might already have a "Marketing Plan" in place for your Virtual Assistant practice, it is important to continue to incorporate and test out new strategies for better connecting with your clients and making your business known on the web! This kind of training may involve digesting Internet Marketing ebooks and taking webinars and other marketing training through such avenues as MarketingExperiments and of course the VAClassroom Training Program. Wow that is two plugs for our program in one blog post - that is borderline scandalous:)

The bottom line is that "the one who markets the best wins" (most of the time), so you want to be regularly implementing innovative strategies for promoting your Virtual Assistant Business.

Dimension #3: Self Training

Do you know who is the hardest person on the face of the earth to lead and manage? Any guesses?????

YOU!

Self Leadership is one of the most crucial skills to develop for any Entrepreneur! Self Leadership might refer to how you manage crisis, stress, your daily schedule, your prioirities, your commitments, your productivity, your relationships with others,  your LIFE! The reality is that if your life is in chaos, then it will inevitably have an impact on your success as a Virtual Business Owner.

This is an area that I actually allot a fair amount of time for training. I read books on productivity and self leadership to help me to be more effective in my work life and personal life and be able to strike that harmonious balance between the two! For example; I read "Getting Things Done" by Management Consultant, David Allen a while ago to help me further enhance my productivity and reduce my stress levels - it helped!

The three dimensional Virtual Assistant and Entrepreneur for that matter will be highly committed and disciplined in developing their hard skills, marketing know-how, and most importantly learning how to lead themselves in a more effective and healthy way.

This is how I structure my training regime - I am slowly but surely morphing into a three dimensional business owner. How about you?