By: Stephen Wright

The methods by which we use to contact each other, especially in internet marketing activities continue to undergo dramatic transformation. In the not to distant past (only a couple of years ago!) we kept in touch with customers – existing or potential new ones, using the telephone, fax machines, direct mail marketing and even in-person meetings. Today, people expect more frequent updates, new information, and the latest of everything. So much so that it is literally impossible to keep up with this dizzying pace and certainly not on a continuing or ongoing basis with any consistency. Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don’t have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.

So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It’s nothing special. There are several methods of writing ‘blogs’, but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a popular blog website. One example is called blogger.com.

However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don’t have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.

Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone’s Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don’t have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don’t face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.

After a small amount of basic research and reading, you will quickly see, there are numerous advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. One of the biggest reasons is that search engines love them. This is because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely the thing that searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. What this means to internet marketers is that if you don’t have a blog for your business, you are potentially reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.

For all the reasons mentioned above (and many, many more), blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. All the marketing research you can find will tell you that regular contact with your customers is a vital component in retaining existing clients, as well as gaining new business. Don’t put it off any longer; it is time to get your blog going—today!

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Stephen Wright is President & CEO of InternetMarketingUSA.com Looking for Internet Marketing Ideas, Tips, and Solutions? Get everything you need to make money online in “Dotcomology: The Science of Making Money Online”. Absolutely Free at:

http://www.InternetMarketingUSA.com/dotcomology.html

By: Ann Williamson

By: Becki Maxson

If I was to come into your office area right now, would you cringe? Don’t feel bad, I’ve been there too! But you know you don’t work at your best when things are a mess, or all the important stuff is swimming around in your head. Here are some great tips to start getting better organized.

Email is your best friend and your worst enemy. If you don’t take charge of it, it will take charge of you! Outlook is a terrific tool to keep track of your emails, your daily schedule, your to-do list, client phone numbers and email addresses and more. I use the folder function to act as an online file cabinet. Really, it’s simple and it works great! I just create a folder by subject and drag pertinent emails into it. Then when I wonder, “What did we talk about last time?” or “Where’s my log-in for that account?” I know right where to go.

Paper, paper everywhere…are you buried? Maybe a computer system isn’t for you, but all is not lost. If you don’t have a planner, get one! There are many kinds of planners to choose from, in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Find one that fits your needs and use it to keep track of doctor appointments, school meetings, your work schedule, etc. Set up a good old-fashioned rolodex or file box to keep track of phone numbers, emails and other information.
I also print out e-books that I buy and put them into report covers with a clear plastic cover so I remember to read them and they don’t go to never-never land on my hard drive.

Now, tax planning. Neglect your record-keeping and you’re asking for a real headache down the road. An easy way to keep track of receipts is to get a hanging file folder and 12 manila envelopes. Have one envelope for January, one for February and so on. During the month, throw all your receipts in the corresponding envelope. When the month is over, tally up your receipts and write it on the outside of the envelope. That way, when tax time comes, most of your work will already be done. Or again, use a simple Excel spreadsheet or just a spiral notebook to keep track of your expenses by category. Remember to track your income too!

Take some time each day to “take care of the little things” and you’ll stay organized, feel less stressed, and get more work done!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Becki Maxson juggles a family and home business in Rocklin, CA. She is the founder of KingdomWork.com an online resource for Christian home based business owners, and is a Marketing Mentor for Advantage Conferences

By: Sandra Fraser

It sounds great, work from home and spend more time with the family and still earn an income. It is great, but it’s hard work.

Remember virtual assistants need to actually work to earn their money, so there’s no lounging around watching TV or saying to yourself I’ll just do the housework and then get on with some work later. Or I’ll play with the kids or go out shopping, just because I work from home. You can certainly do those things, but you must allocate work time throughout your day.

And explain to your partner that just because you work from home it doesn’t mean that the house can be immaculate or a great meal can be served at dinner time; you do work from home remember. This is still something my husband is coming to grips with after 4 years.

You need dedication and a drive to actually work. You no longer have a boss breathing down your neck making sure you actually do any work. You are your only motivator to get on with any paid work. Gone are the days that you turned up to your office, put in minimum effort, got paid to chat to colleagues, had coffee breaks, went out to do your banking, surfed the net, talked on the phone. No those days are over, you no longer get paid to do no work, you only get paid when you actually sit down and do some work.

And remember there is unpaid work as well being a virtual assistant. You have to spend time on your accounting, preparing invoices and billing clients, banking, all sorts of unpaid work and this time adds up.

So if you are not highly motivated, this job is not for you. If you are thinking about working from home as a virtual assistant you have to have the drive to find clients, serve those clients appropriately and to the best of your ability.

I will never forget the secretary sitting next to me in my office job years ago whinging because her boss asked her to type a fax up for him. She said gosh you’d think he could have done that himself. I sat there stunned. She didn’t like being told what to do and she didn’t like doing any work either. Well you know what, as a virtual assistant you will be taking instructions from lots of different clients, not just the one person. And you have to develop a customer service mentality and realize that it’s your job to free up your client from such administrative tasks so he can get on with growing his business.

But you know what I wouldn’t change it for the world. I may work weird hours into the night and grab time during the weekends whenever I can, slip into my office whilst my husband plays with the kids after dinner, etc, but this is the job for me. I now do the school drop offs, see my kids much more and am there for them much more. I can work in my office and can talk to my son in the next room playing on his Playstation and I can grab that glass of milk for him as well.

And the biggest benefit is you no longer have to make coffee for clients and business meetings ever again. That is one job that a virtual assistant simply cannot do!!

About the author:

Sandra Fraser is a virtual assistant and also creator of http://www.virtual-assistant-advice.com which is an information site for WAHMs, prospective and existing virtual assistants and for those wishing to find a VA.

By: Tommy Moore

There are thousands and thousands of message boards on the internet. That’s a lot of potential people who may be interested in your products or services. It also serves as a quick and easy way to get a lot of links pointing back at your site and can help get your pages spidered faster by the search engines.

I use a free tool, Board Tracker to help monitor posts on over 25,000 forums.

You can set up a free account there and then set up alerts. You can set it to alert you to any posts containing any keyword or phrases you like. Some examples would be, your board nicknames, your domain names, affiliate programs you work with, or whatever else you’re interested in..

When someone makes a post and one of your alert keywords is found, you are emailed a link to the thread which you can follow and make a post. So as not to be a blatant board spammer, it is recommended that you register and make an introduction post on that board before responding to the thread. When responding, you should make your post helpful to the person in regards to answering any question they had without spamming your site/program, you are relying on your signature file here to draw their attention.

To make this task easier,I suggest utilizing Roboform. Roboform makes it easy to handle all of your registering and logins.

Now, let’s find some forums in which we can participate. Everyone has some knowledge or interest in something. Perhaps it is cars, interior design or something else. Whatever it is, you can be certain there are forums for that particular niche.

You can use your favorite search engine and search for…
forums
“message board”

or specifically for…
car message boards
interior design message boards

or search by the different types of forum software like…
“powered by PHPBB”
“powered by vbulletin”

Before registering with any message boards I would suggest that you setup a yahoo or gmail account just for this purpose. It would also be a good idea to use this email for your boardtracker alerts as well.
Now you are ready to begin registering. I have created a new identity in Roboform to handle the registration for me. This includes my signature file as well. Before posting, make sure that you read the board rules so you are able to comply with those.

Once registered, make your introduction post. Basically you are just announcing your arrival and maybe saying a little something about yourself (roboform can do that too!), be sure to set your introduction thread to notify you of new posts so that you are able to respond as others welcome you.

Some things to keep in mind…

Who is your target audience and where will you find them? Are stay home moms likely to be found in Family & Parenting forums? Who is most likely to be participating at a car forum? A pet owners forum? etc..

Once you’ve located your target audience, target your signature to meet the needs of that audience. For example, if you were involved in a Family & Parenting forum, a signature aimed towards the mom who would like to earn money while being home for her children may be in order. If it were a Car or Electronics forum, maybe a signature promoting Free Satellite Dishes (these pay $50-$100 per install btw) would be more appropriate. The idea is to determine what the needs of any particular audience would be and finding a way to appeal to that.

Also, notice that the majority of forums offer a place for people to place advertising, usually under a category labeled something like, “opportunities”, “recommendations”, “spam allowed”, etc.. Look for these and make use of those as well. Each of those is a free targeted link to your site or product.
Make sure that you are paying attention to your anchor text. Anchor text, in case you don’t know, is the actual text that is linked. Choose good keywords for your anchor text that you would like to do well for in the search engines. Never link text such as “click here”.

The most important thing is to make this a part of your daily schedule. Do it each and every day and shortly you will have thousands of free advertising links all over the internet!

Disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing blatant spamming! The method I’ve outlined above is more of a suggestion for yet another avenue of free marketing that should be used in a responsible and productive manner which will benefit the board owners, other board members as well as yourself.

Article Source: http://www.article-buzz.com

Information about the Author:

Check out Bricktown Toms site, www.bricktowntom.com and www.bricktowntom.com/ebayers for the best work at home opportunities, free ebooks, tools, etc..