Virtual Events are all the hype today, especially for the entrepreneurs among us who want to build their list of prospective clients and fill their database with valuable “warm” contact details of people who already show on interest in our services and products!

Have you ever wondered if a virtual event is something that you could benefit from?

A virtual event

• can help you reach out further than your own town or city because you can invite people from all over the world with your message
• a virtual can help you build a list of “warm” prospects who already love what you may have to offer, so conversion into active purchases of your services and goods may be a bit easier
• virtual events can give you credibility because prospects hear first hand what you know about your chosen topics
• this also adds to your expert status
• you get your name out quickly for quality content
• it’s a great tool for market research: you see how many people attend and hear their most pressing questions making it much easier for you to create the right services for your clients
• it’s cheaper to organize than a live event where you have to book a room or hall, provide seating, nibbles, drinks, etc.
• the virtual event can actually become a passive income product in no time: simply record the event and offer it on your website!
• people who get to know on the event start bonding with you, the all important “I know, like and trust you” effect can happen much easier than only reading an ebook written by you
• it’s very convenient for people to learn from you without having to travel or interrupt their daily activities
• prospects can decide just at the last minute if they want to attend, great for those busy people you want to attract
• virtual events can be profitable if you charge for them, even with only a few people attending because the set up costs can be quite low
• the event helps you get more and more confident with speaking and “entertaining” prospects; you learn to keep people interested because a lot of virtual event software shows you when people get distracted, when they are most engaged, etc.
• it’s a great training to later organize big live events and a whole lot easier to fill your seats in the live seminar because people know the immense value you offer

What counts as a virtual event?

Virtual events can be

• Teleseminars
• Webinars
• Live radio shows
• Live video shows
• any live presentation that uses the computer, phone or video

Why would you do a live event, rather than offer a recorded audio or video?

I know it’s more convenient and easier for the shy ones among us to simply record an audio and post if on our website, but virtual events with you on LIVE are very powerful because

• people bond easier with you because they feel you are there for them, they can talk to you and you answer their questions
• they are interactive, at least the Questions and Answers section, usually at the end of the presentation
• people love being part of a group event (when using a chat function as some software offers)
• you really come across as the expert in your niche
• you can experiment with topics and finetune them before you may attempt to organize a more expensive live event or create a high cost program

You see virtual events have many advantages. Virtual events are great to give yourself the status of the expert, you can interview someone else or even a group of people to make it interesting or get started in the whole game, you can offer live trainings or coaching without having to book a seminar room, you can do virtual events to launch a new product or service with a high possibility of prospects signing up with you.

Now the all important question most entrepreneurs new to virtual events ask: how do I organize a virtual event?

Your virtual marketing support can help you organize a virtual event easily and make it all run smoothly. Your virtual assistant (VA) discusses what you have in mind with you and can make suggestions of what kind or virtual event would be most suitable for the topic and which software is best to use for it. If you want to hold a virtual event, but are not quite sure on which topic, your VA can also brainstorm with you as she often knows of successful topics in the industry, so you can benefit from her experience.

After getting to a topic that would be most useful for your prospects and matches your products and services, the VA will start to draft a project plan. You will give her the content about you want to talk and she organizes everything that needs to be done to organize this special event. She will research different software and come up with costings for services, if you wish, or she already knows what service is best for your unique situation.

Organizing a virtual does not only rerquire technical and content creating tasks, it also involves the marketing part

Organizing a virtual event is not only about the technical and content parts, it’s all about marketing, otherwise you will have no one on the call (Which by the way is actually not the worst that can happen as you still have a great recording that you can re-run or sell as a product!). But you want to have people on the call to be most interactive and answer prospects questions to show them how you can help them.

The VA knows how to launch a virtual event, create the timeline, and work back from the date of event to the preparation pieces. She will give you advice on where to promote it, how to promote it and how often. The VA can also help you release bits of information and snippets you will talk about in the virtual events to create curiosity among your target market.

The VA then organizes all call in information, supports prospects who sign up with their questions and test the software with you. She will have some test calls with you so you feel comfortable. Most of the time she will actually be part of the virtual event to help you get it done properly, watch the chat panel, moderate and record (and make sure it actually IS recorded).

After the event the VA works on the recording, might even edit parts of it and transforms it into a product that you can offer straight away to get more enrollments in your promoted product or service than only the people that were on the call. She also can do customer services and screen calls and emails in regards to the offered product or service, answering those herself (with the information you provide her with) and sort out enrollments.

If your head is spinning right now you can actually relax as most VAs do know the nitty gritty on virtual events pretty well and run through most of the steps herself easily. All you need to do is to create the content and show up at the date of the event!

If you’ve heard your  Virtual Assistant (VA) saying that she is changing her business model and going away from the hourly rate, you may be surprised and hit with some shock.You feel the hourly rate worked, at least more or less, and you knew exactly what you could afford monthly or weekly and now you feel the jitters of uncertainty. Will you be able to afford to pay for those packages and get the same amount of work done as before?

If you wonder why many VAs are changing to service packages, here are some reasons:

• Because VAs often experience their clients rushing them with tasks to pay less, feeling they can’t achieve a good enough result in a short timeframe 
• Because VAs feel bad when a task takes longer than expected and they know that the business owner will scrutinize their time sheets in a way that doesn’t establish trust and understanding
• Because some VAs are amazingly fast workers, some are very slow and most VAs are in the middle, meaning that it’s really hard to estimate how long a task will take, espcially when you hire a multi VA firm with different people working on the team
• Because every VA has extraordinary skills in one or two areas and is a bit weaker in others, so the weaker ones may take a bit more time, but overall she is an amazing worker, very reliable and does her best to help building her clients’ businesses
• Because sometimes out of the ordinary circumstances happen and technology breaks down (such as teleseminars or video recording troubles) and things take much longer than expected, causing upset by the paying client, who needs to pay more on an hourly rate
• VAs are always keen to make their clients happy, there is not one VA that doesn’t want to satisfy the clients’ business needs so she feels bad when doing a task is time-oriented and not result-oriented
• Because VAs often have one or two cash strapped clients who constantly pressure them into working faster, so these VAs give hours for free to make the client happy and consequently get worn out and dissatisfied with their work conditions
• Because sometimes a VA has to rush a job because the client has set a strict budget and ends up with a less then great result
• Because an hourly rate can actually create disharmony and exhaustion in both VA and client
• Because a package can be easier to manage when the VA has more than one client, the tasks are usually set and entered into the project management software and due to the outlined steps that get ticked off, nothing gets forgotten, which makes the client very happy

These are just some of the reasons. The reasons come from both sides and make it hard to develop an harmonious and equal relationship.  VA coaches have observed and heard these concerns from many exhausted VAs who work an enormous amount of hours for little reward and get more and more dissatisfied. Some even drop out of the industry because they can’t cope with the struggle anymore and their skillsets are lost, which is a real loss as there are still not enough VAs out there to serve all clients who need what they have on offer. Remember, the online industry is also growing, so demand for skilled support staff is rising.

The solution?

VAs are starting to create packages, either standard packages or customized packages, instead of offering hourly rates. Most VAs will develop standard packages with all tasks outlined for a great result for the client, estimate the time and work out the price for the package.  At first glance this package may look more expensive than the hourly rate because a number of tasks are bundled together, but realistically the client gets so much more value from a set package.

The value of VA service packages for the client

• The client gets the assurance the task will be finished, regardless of how long it takes, and no half-done things stay in the “to do list”
• The client can see what is included in the package and knows the outcome
• There is no uncertainty what a project will cost client, so the client knows exactly how to calculate their own fees for their clients, products and services to make a profit (after all we have a business to earn money, aren’t we?)
• The client knows costs upfront and can actually set their own budget much easier with less surprises (eg. the client wants to hold a teleseminar to a VIP coaching package. Looking at the VA’s package price for preparing, moderating, recording and transcribing and setting a target, the business owner can confidently set a price for the VIP coaching package to earn a decent profit, so no out of pocket virtual events for you anymore!)
• The client knows that the result of the task will be excellent and not a rushed mess
• There is so much great transparency
• Client and VA meet in the middle and as equal business partners and the relationship can nurtured without looking at the hourly rate all the time, after all results for your business will be better with a VA that knows your business well, so keeping on the same team or support person for a long time is vital to your business success

When you look at these reasons you have to admit that calculating your own profit will become so much easier for you with packages. You know what services you require per month, how much the service packages will cost you, what you will achieve with the end result and calculate the fees you need to charge to your own clients.

If you need help with determining what services you ideally require or planning out your marketing calendar, your VA, online marketing coordinator or online business manager can sit down with you and create a plan and a calendar of marketing activities that are customized to your business.

Entrepreneurs often want to get tips and advice on how to build a virtual team. Questions high on the agenda are how to interview people to check out their skillsets, speed of working (when they are paid hourly), reliability and so on. Something that is often missing, though, is the question about the personality factor.

To have a successful team you need to be very precise on what sort of personality you have, what kind of person is good to support you best and how many team members you have with different personalities. Personality typing involves psychological classifications of different types of individuals.

This is done to help people for self development, to see how they fit into a team, what their best learning style is, to determine what approach in life they usually take and what jobs are actually right for them. I  know stereotyping or “pigeonholing” people is not PC or “in”, but it can be a powerful tool for understanding people.

This also applies to relationship troubles where people of different personalities come together who may not understand why the other half is behaving in the way they do and sometimes get upset and angry by the other person’s actions. Personality-typing can help these people to understand the other person better, not to see actions as a personal affront, but to see how the other person actually views the world.

The impatient Driver/Director type personality

It’s great to be able to see the world with the eyes of your partner because then you are more understanding and maybe can bridge the gaps and find ways to communicate with each other without blame and fights. It is also beneficial for individuals to determine what sort of job would be great for them and see in which area they would find most fulfillment and use their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

I still remember that my dad wanted me to become an IT professional and study computer science with a lot of mathematical content in the courses, while I was actually  better at learning languages, writing and the arts. It was a big disappointment for my parents and they felt I was just being difficult. I genuinely didn’t really grasp maths at school, trying hard, but never really “getting” it. My elder brother did get maths, he was exceptional at it and became a computer specialist.

He was quite a quiet person, didn’t like the limelight and worked well by himself. He was detailed and the thought of making a speech terrified him. In contrary, I always volunteered when speaking up or even giving speeches or announcements to large groups and never got nervous at all. I just acted naturally and found it enjoyable.  I loved being around people and working with them, brainstorming with them and working in a team environment. My brother didn’t.

Coincidence? No. Personality typing helps us understand why my brother wasn’t good at public speaking and I wasn’t good at maths or working in a lab examining specimens.

For me learning about personality typing was a big relief. Finally I understood why I wasn’t patient when it came to endless data checking, working alone in a closed room until a solution was found or fiddling with number doing accounting. When I found out what type I was it meant for me, that actually I was a person with a lot of value to give to society, but not in the way my parents wanted me to do. I was good and bad at some things, but exceptional at others.

I remember in the past, mostly at school, people/teachers always advised to overcome your weaknesses, work on your mistakes and get to become good at what you dislike. Strangely, though, many top achievers rather nurture their talents and discard their weaknesses. They don’t even try to overcome their weaknesses, they just ask other people to deal with the areas they are not good at.

The 4 personality types

An example is Richard Branson, who is an excellent and charismatic visionary who loves big picture thinking. He is a person who comes up with amazing ideas and lets other people implement and finance his ventures. He isn’t working on becoming a detailed implementor or financial whizz who sits for hours in his office analyzing figures and checking balances, he rather utilizes his biggest strength of big picture thinking and innovating, and asks the people who are good at what he’s not, to do what they do best.

A person like him would become impatient at longwinded reviews and “boring” data collection, whereas other people love data collection and checking things and would never want to invent anything new as it’s way too scary for them.

Giving people the tasks they do best gives them the  biggest satisfaction and they also offer the fruits of their labour and strength to society.

The same sort of thinking is necessary when you are an entrepreneur and want to build a team of supporters around you. You first need to determine who and what type you are, what you are good at, what kind of person brings out the best in you (when you work with them) and what kind of person is the right for the tasks you want them to do. This sounds complicated, but is not as complicated as it sounds right now.

Click here to read more about the 4 types or here. Once you familiarize yourself with the different types you will recognize them, regardless of what the author calls them. A, B, C, D or Driver, Expressive, Amiable and Analytical or Powerful, Playful, Peaceloving and Problemsolving. Once you familiarize yourself with the types, you know exactly which one is meant by its description.

Copyblogger, an amazing blog for entrepreneurs who want to find out more about copywriting on the net and Internet marketing, also has a take on the personality-types on here. Don’t forget to sign up for the blog updates, they are really good!

I bet by now you have fun playing with the personality types and start thinking what types your family members and friends are. It’s really useful to know and don’t forget to type your clients because it will save you from misunderstandings and troubles. When you clients feel understood and supported appropriately you will gain the benefits!

After you have found your own type that feels right to you,  look at your business and what the role in your business is that you like most. I understand you may call yourself CEO (chief executive officer) or head coach or consultant, but which tasks or services dp you like and use most. Be honest. If there are things you just find a drag, admit it and be ok with it. It’s not a problem, it’s a good thing because now you know you can find a support person or assistant who is good at what you are not good at.

If you are a person who is very artistic, full of big picture ideas, but doesn’t like to sit down and put it all on paper or research it, then you need someone with these complimentary skills. Find an assistant who loves to sit down and check things, researches in books and online, is a bit introverted and has a strong attention to detail. This person is probably the opposite of you and you may find her/him a bit boring, but don’t look for a carbon copy of yourself even if you click with someone like you on the phone.

Be careful: if you are excited about interviewing someone and you feel they are so much like you and consequently so much fun to chat to, you should take note. You may just be talking to a perso who has the same personality style as you, which is not a problem when this person is a client, but might cause you headaches when this person has to work for you, because she or he is not complimentary to your own strengths.  If you hire this person you hire a mini me. This person will possibly be have the same strengths and weaknesses as you. Do you need someone like you or do you need someone who loves what you hate to do? Chances are you need someone who is rather complimentary to you.

Also think about the tasks you want your virtual assistant/VA to do for you. If you look for a website coder, chances are the best choice for the job is a detailed person, usually quiet, introverted, patient and works best when you tell them exactly and precisely what you want from it. Don’t expect her or him to give you lots of creative flair or any surprises. Don’t think this person wants to come up with the ideas and you can do something else, you need to take a lead with this type of person and enjoy that they will do exactly what you tell them to do. How good is that?

If you hire a graphic designer, chances are this person is artistic and creative. He or she may not like it when you are too strict and narrow minded with your ideas. They will want to create a logo or graphic and show it to you as a kind of surprise, full of pride and easily offended when you don’t like their draft. Be careful not to upset them with blunt criticism, give them some positive feedback and tell them the mood you want to create rather than the exact image that you have in your head. These type of people often think in pictures, so describe your wishes in pictures, too. And be open, they may actually come up with a fantastic new approach that is better than yours!

If you hire a customer service person, this person is probably bubbly, friendly and likes to make friends. He or she is outgoing, fun and easygoing. They often create a good feeling within you you after talking with them. They are patient and thrive in the helping industries. If you get a VA who applies for a customer service role in your company, such as first point of contact or complaints department, this is the right one to choose. If the person you hire has a cold voice, an abrasive personality, is either shy or introverted, stay away! She or he won’t be warmer or friendlier with your clients either.

These are examples of classical personality traits people should ideally display show if they are in the right job.  Many times, though, a quirky creative artist may apply for your bookkeeping tasks because he/she can’t find another job right now or doesn’t know yet what they really are good at, because you would probably end up with a mess in your Quickbooks. Ideally your bookkeeper is a detailed person, not a creative person, with a lot of attention to detail. You get the gist?

The Analytical Type

Similarly, when you look for an infusionsoft or shoppingcart specialist you need to write down the qualities you think  a person needs to have to be successful in this role. This would be similar to the bookkeeper and the web coder: attention to detail, patience, focuse, doesn’t get impatient when testing autoresponders or links for hours, etc. Don’t make the mistake and hire someone who is impatient and gets sloppy after a few hours, simply because their personality doesn’t match the job description.

Create job descriptions for the tasks you need done and come up with the personality that fits the description. When you write an ad, mention these traits so that everybody who applies knows what you are looking for. This will make your job of hiring easier  and you may get more applicants with the right attitude, skillset and personality type.

Photo: http://catholicquarter.com/blog/2010/06/03/fighting-words/

Like a messy divorce, the breakdown of a business partnership can cause stress, anxiety, law suits and, often, the destruction of the business. But when you in the throes of giving birth to your business idea, many people don’t want to go it alone.

I have conversations with would-be business owners all the time who want to go into business with their best friends “because they think it will be fun”, or with their mate “because he’s great with numbers and I’m more creative”, or with family members “because I have no money and they can fund the start-up”.

In some cases, this works out. In many cases, it doesn’t. Or it’s fraught with angst, disagreements and problems.

If you are considering going into a business partnership, stop! Before you plunge headlong into a joint commitment from which it could be hard to extract yourself, think long and hard about why you want to do this.

“I need the funding”

If the only reason you are going into a business partnership is so you can access funds, consider whether you can find the money another way. While a cash injection from a business partner may seem quick and easy – especially if they are ready to hand over the money – it may not be the best idea in the long run.

Investigate if you can find the money another way, perhaps as a loan that you can repay with interest, instead of a cash payment for part of the company.

“I hate doing the books”

Going into business with someone just so you can avoid doing the accounts is not a good reason. Plus, handing over the financial reins of your business to your business partner is not the best good idea in the world. Even if you “hate doing the books”, you still need an understanding of your accounts, cash flow, debt levels, profit and so on.

It doesn’t mean you have to go into business with someone. Hire an accountant.

“It would be fun”

I often hear this from besties or acquaintances who usually have a great time together socially. They have a common interest and think that it will be the great basis for a business idea. Yes, it’s great to have a business that you are passionate about. But this “fun” can quickly dissipate when you realise that you both also have to shoulder hours of hard work, administration, planning, marketing, stock control…the list goes on.

The idea may be fun, but the execution often isn’t. Stick to having fun socially.

“My partner has connections”

Usually, this isn’t a good enough reason to go into partnership with someone. It may be true that this person is incredibly well connected. The first thing to consider is whether they are connected to the right people. That is, can those connections really lead to lucrative contracts for your business?

If the answer is “yes”, consider whether they would be open to a “finder’s fee” – or some sort of commission for every contract that has resulted from their connections. This could be a flat fee or a percentage of the contract.

That way, you don’t have to give away the farm by going into a partnership. But you can both still benefit from working together.

“I have a great idea but I don’t know how to market it”

Get a marketing or PR consultant. Again, this is not a good reason to go into business with someone. Sure, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and, in some business partnerships, one person looks after the marketing while the other looks after administration.

However, if you have a great business idea and you really have no idea how to market it, then I would suggest that you are not ready to go into business yet. This means that you have not thought through a business plan which should include a clear strategy on how to market, sell and distribute your product/service.

It can be worthwhile to engage a marketing consultant to help you determine this strategy.

Talk to a business coach

If you are considering going into partnership with someone, talk to a business coach. Most good business coaches will be able to throw questions at you to determine the real reasons why you want to go into partnership. And they will be able to help you understand what the other person is going to bring to the party.

Importantly, if you do decide to go down this path, talk to both a coach and a lawyer. Think of it as pre-marriage counselling. You want to plan your divorce at the start.

Then you will be clear about your roles and be able clarify what will happen if things go sour from the outset.

– Sydney Morning Herald, found in the NZ Herald

Heike’s opinion:

I understand the desire to work with a business partner as it can be lonely in business by yourself and the ideas in the article above are those that come up in most people’s minds, especially entrepreneurs who often are specialists in one area, such as coaching, writing books or advising on health, business or finances.

If we are a marketing expert, we often don’t like numbers, if we are a finance geek we often can’t create an inspirational marketing strategy. There are the creatives on one side and the numbers people on the other side and we often feel when we lack the other skills, a partner would be the answer.

A less risky solution: hiring support people

This is where outsourcing comes in. If you feel you need support in your online business do consider hiring a virtual assist (VA) as it is a very cost effective solution – especially if you can’t afford an employee yet.

The VA needs to have complimentary skills to yourself, eg. there are bookkeeping VAs and marketing VAs out there who are specialists in their field. Don’t let yourself fool by the term “assistant”, it’s an old fashioned term that nowadays is often replaced by “specialist” or “consultant”. The field of virtual assistant becomes more and more competitive and many highly educated people enter this new niche of virtual work to be able to work from home, work at their own hours or earn more than a typical employee in the same profession.

For entrepreneurs with a business that already has crossed over to 6 figures an online business manager (OBM) can be the ideal solution to help you brainstorming, assist with strategy planning and managing a team of virtual assistants who are specialised in finance, marketing, Social Media, websites etc. The OBM will keep you out of the operations and you have your hands free to come up with new ideas, programs, books, or coaching a larger clientele.

The above mentioned risks of jumping into a partnership are much more costly when things go wrong than hiring people who only charge you per hour of what they work and without the risks of getting on your case or fighting with you about who gets what and who does what, like a business partner may do.

Different people, different directions

Another risk with a partner is that sometimes people develop differently. One person grows, the other doesn’t. One partner likes to market the business, the other person may be shy and feel marketing too “out there” or don’t agree with the brand direction.

I’ve witnessed a situation like this and it’s hindering one person from progressing and earning more money. The other person digs their heels in and tries to hinder any progress by behaving like a donkey.  Those partnerships are heading into big problems that affect the bottomline of the business. If one is happy with a lower profit and the other is ambitious and wants to move ahead, then both get frustrated and fights can destroy the business. In the case I am thinking of another problem was the confusing messages to staff members. They were confused as to what marketing message to convey to clients and felt torn as to what tasks to do as both partners were pulling into another direction.

Photo: http://www.rpmgo.com

Another situation I remember is a former business my brother and his former business partner founded. My brother is a more frugal person who wants to earn money first and then spend it while his business partner was the opposite. The first tasks of the former study friend and new business partner was to buy a new BMW and a big leather chair for the office while my brother rather spent his time persuing new clients and finding new business. Needless to say that the partner was too busy impressing other people with his flash car, which didn’t help him find new leads. He spent all his time showing off and sitting in his big leather chair flirting with women and not enough time focusing on the business. For him the idea of “being a businessman” was more about image and not much about work.

Rest assured that the relationship became very messy and broke up with quite a loss for my brother. Strangely, the same happened to my father many years before my brother made the same mistake of going into a business partnership. The only difference was that my father’s former friend and business partner bought himself a Porsche and not a BMW.

If you are starting to reflect a bit more about the risks, why don’t you try to hire some outsite help first to see how you are going with hired help. You can still decide later if you want your friend, relative or partner with you in the business.

This article is by our team member, Eleanor Marks Prior:

No business man would stop thinking about great innovations for their business. Whether you are in  a small business or a big one, you are looking for advice on how to make more profits, or you’ve never stopped researching how other successful businesses are taking advantage of their success. We could never deny that the new online marketing techniques have a great role. There has been a lot of craze and hype in the media recently about the impact of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. While some of it is overstated much of what is going on could be called a revolution in the way people do business around the world.

Many people are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, for example, and are opening up accounts, but few have any real idea of what to do once they get into the Twitter world–and the same with Facebook. Especially when it comes to business many business owners simply get an online presence and hope for the best. Even fewer take any real advantage of YouTube as a free advertising vehicle, or even know about what article marketing is.

All these social media sites can help you drive masses of traffic to your website. This is much like people coming in off the street in a busy business district to browse in your store. Once they are in the door the chances that they will buy something are pretty good. The same thing can be done to attract people to your small business online. You just have to learn the ways of the social media and social networking world.

Many small business owners think social media is only useful for large brands, like Dell or Southwest Airlines. The truth is any small business that effectively invests time in social media marketing can improve customer loyalty and increase the best kind of marketing there is: word of mouth.

Social media makes businesses more accessible and personable to customers and potential customers. It enables small businesses to maintain long term relationships and connections, increase referrals and increase trust. Used correctly, social media is extremely powerful for establishing and growing an online reputation.

A guest post from our Social Media and WordPress guru, Eleanor Marks Prior:

We usually ask ourselves “how do we make our company, product or services more popular”? Without the right exposure, nothing will come out of a potential business opportunity since we could reach our right audience. There are many ways to market your product but only few ways to make a name, one of the easiest ways  do this is through the help of social media marketing strategies. A social media marketing strategy will always be easier to Social Media Marketing Specialists. So most people prefer them to do the work in finding the strategies.

See the advantages of Having a Social Media Specialist:

•  A Social Media Specialist will help you find the right strategies on the basis of your goals and objectives.  (Since they know what to focus on, their focus will be to the appropriate social sites to reach your business objectives.  No irrelevant work will be done)
• They will make  sure that the social marketing sites  they have set up for your company are all connected, this will help brand awareness.
• Provide reports showing Return On Influence and Return On Investment showing you the results of your social media efforts.
• Give you assurance that goals will be achieved since they’re aware of your primary objectives.
• Allow you to have more time to improve on the other aspects of your business since someone does your work
• Gives great source to divert loads of traffic to your website which will make it popular and your services will be recognized easily. This can be controlled through strategic planning which will be easier if you’ll work hand and hand with a specialist.
• It is cost and time effective .  It is known to be one of the most low cost methods of promoting your business.

As Internet usage continues to grow in other parts of the world and social networks, there will be no reason why you should be hesitant in doing what’s best for your company.  Any business owner will think what’s more efficient and what’s best for their company to be reached by their target clients.  Moreover, every business needs a successful and effective social media marketing strategy. 

A social marketing specialist may help you in understanding the subject and find available tools, organize a well thought-out plan, and their experience in driving traffic through the use of the content. If all of these are achieved, your business is bound to succeed.

Eleanor is a Social Media expert, WordPress guru and is currently getting ready to attend the Traffic Geyser Summit in San Diego next month. After finishing her training in supporting clients with their Traffic Geyser video and social media tools, she is set to meet the Traffic Geyser team and fellow Traffic Geyser Virtual Assistants.

Affiliate marketing is like ‘word of mouth’. If you like a product or service you tell your friends about it. Affiliate programs were invented to give people an incentive to tell other people about their positive experience with a product or services. Affiliates receive a portion or percentage of the sales price of an item as a reward.

It is recommended to only recommend products or services that you either personally use or you know the person well who offers the product and you know they always offer a good service. You need to be familiar with what you promote and happily endorse it. If you promote lower level products, your own reputation will suffer and people won’t easily believe your recommendations anymore.

I consider affiliate programs as essential online, especially when the affiliates are familiar with the product. One excellent example of a well functioning program is that of www.vaclassroom.com. Craig Cannings, the co founder, has created a large following with his quality training programs for virtual assistants and other online professionals. Craig’s customers happily spread the word about the training and earn a reward when someone signs up through their affiliate link. I would go as far as saying that VA Classroom wouldn’t be what it is today if there wasn’t an affiliate program and so many happy customers.

When you have a great program, service or product, why not ask your satisfied clients to spread the word for you? As any promotion always costs an effort, a little (or bigger) reward can work wonders in the willingness of people to refer you. Setting up an affiliate program needs some thought and shouldn’t be taken lightly, otherwise you might as well do nothing.

First of all, you need to be sure that there are happy customers who love your product or service. If you get lots of complaints you better forget it! Finetune your offerings and find happy customers first.

Once you get positive feedback, you can set up an affiliate program in a system such as 1shoppingcart. This process can be a bit difficult, so it might be advised to ask a skilled virtual assistant to help you with the set up as there is also some work on the website required. You need to create ‘thank you’ pages and affiliate centers with information for your new affiliates. Many people sign up for an affiliate program, but don’t know how to promote your services, where to promote them and how to go about it. Then they simply give up and don’t promote you.

A dedicated affiliate center will help them with these initial worries. You can give your affiliates advice on where to promote you, to which target market, which medium to use and even supply them with copy for their Twitter tweets and blog posts.  Additionally, you may wish to create attractive banners that your affiliates can use in their email signature and on their blog.

Often affiliates start strong and promote a service and then forget all about it. They are just as busy just as you are. It helps when you regularly contact your affiliates, encourage them and help them with any queries. Different promotions can also reactivate the interest of your affiliates. Craig Cannings, for example, frequently runs special promotions and offers additional prizes for his best affiliates. It works a charm and people get a renewed motivation to get the word out.

Managing the contact to your affiliates doesn’t need to be hard. You can set up autoresponders in the shoppingcart program so that your affiliates receive regular updates and reminders without you actually doing anything. All you need to do is have it all set up well right from the start.

Affiliates are valuable when you are launching bigger programs. Many entrepreneurs wouldn’t be able to fill their training classes without affiliates. When you start planning a bigger launch, make sure you set up the affiliate program early on and recruit a little army of likeminded people who mix and mingle with your target market. Social Media is a great realm to recruit affiliates because people like to sign up for programs from people they know, like and trust. Don’t forget your existing clients: send out a broadcast and ask them to sign up for your affiliate program.

Don’t be shy when it comes to affiliate programs. If you have services or products that are of good quality, ask your happy customers to help you spread the word. Many people love helping out and earn a bit of pocket money while doing it.

If you are interested about affiliate programs, talk to us. We are able to help you setting it up.

Seth Godin, marketing genius and famous blogger, says in his recent blog post:

“As a bootstrapping entrepreneur, my instinct has always been to work before spend. If there was a way to spread the word virally instead of buying ads, I would. If there was a way to change the project so I could do it myself, I would. If I could trade or whittle my way into getting an asset on the come, I would. That’s the mantra of the bootstrapper.

It turns out that paying for stuff works too.

Ads that pay for themselves are worth buying. Employees and freelancers that produce more than they cost are worth hiring. Office rents that generate productivity, foot traffic or revenue are probably worth paying.

In the free media world in which we’re living now, it’s so easy to get stuck on not investing, on avoiding outlays at all cost. Frugal is an admirable trait, but being a miser is dumb.”

I fully agree with Seth. We all try to do things ourselves if possible because first of all, it’s fun and secondly, we like to feel we do the right thing and save us money.

The trouble is the tasks we often do ourselves are not expensive to outsource and cost us actually quite a lot: our time. The time of a coach or consultant is often well over $150 per hour, yet the same person sits faithfully in front of their computer trying to set up the shoppingcart while they could be serving a paying client who pays way more than it would cost to outsource this task to a virtual assistant.

Why do we do that? Why do we value our time so little? Many entrepreneurs get caughed up in feeling they need to do everything on their own to be a real success. That’s what they feel an entrepreneur is all about. The lone rider image comes up, he or she did it all by him or herself.  We think about our online marketing heroes and want to be like them. But if you talk to them, did they actually do it all by themselves? Most will tell you they started outsourcing early on because they realized it’s wasting them valuable time to work out how to set up an ezine in Aweber.

Most entrepreneurs have become entrepreneurs because they are visionary and have the ability to think big. They feel caged in when they can’t come up with some idea or creative business approach. That’s what distinguishes the entrepreneur from the typical employee, yet the entrepreneur feels he or she needs to do all the tasks an employee would do PLUS the tasks an entrepreneur does.

Reality is that no entrepreneur who wants to grow the business big enough to live from the profit can do it all by him or herself. It’s simply not possible because the entrepreneurs spends highly valuable time on tasks that cost about $40 an hour while he or she could be earning three or four times as much offering  coaching or consulting services.

This is not clever saving, this is stalling your business growth. If you want to stay where you are, continue doing it all by yourself. If you want major growth, then ask for help.

Virtual Assistant services help you save money by giving you time to spend on money making activities, like coming up with new programs, writing a book, holding teleseminars or webinars, talking to your clients, building joint ventures, etc. Virtual Assistants do the nitty gritty work and they can even help you with ideas on how to implement your big ideas.

Any of you who is a bit unsure about the shoppingcart and its uses can learn the ropes with this upcoming class from the Hotskills team, Cindy Greenway and Tina Forsyth.

The goal of this course is to help you set up the shopping cart and using it to be able to sell products, keep in touch with clients with autoresponders and send out broadcasts and reports.

This course is designed for Virtual Assistants, but if you are an entrepreneur and really want to master the shoppingcart all by yourself, this might be a good option for you, too.

Check it out, I’ve done it and recommend it. Great teachers and lovely community: click here to find out more.