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If you’re anything like me, you have multiple gadgets — desktops, laptops, smart phone, tablet, etc. — that you use to work from. Now, I LOVE Outlook — it does everything I need it to and it helps keep me organized. I have my email set up using IMAP, so that my mail is synchorinized. In other words, if I delete it on my phone, it’s also deleted from my laptop and desktop. But what about the task list in Outlook? This has been a minor annoyance for me, so I decided to look into a little bit.

I stumbled across a blog post, Sync Outlook Tasks Between Two or More Computers. Don’t let the 2008 date fool you, this method works, and it works great. I’m not going to provide the step-by-step for you, as it’s provided for you on that post, but essentially what you do is create a free account at Toodledo and install the sync application on each computer you’re using.

I was a bit hesitant about the sync application, as it’s no longer supported or updated, but let me tell you, it works. I’ve tested it successfully in both Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 and it has worked flawlessly. Furthermore, since you’re syncing with Toodledo, you can access your task list from any machine that has an Internet connection.

If you sync your Outlook tasks in another way, please feel free to share in the comment section below.

Tags: How to Sync Outlooks Tasks Between Computers, Syncing Outlook Tasks, Toodledo, Toodledo Sync Application

Guest post by Dee Mason.

Artists have a tendency to wear many hats at once.  The process of becoming an artist whether you are striving to become a dancer, actor, filmmaker, or painter, is quite expensive.  Money must be spent on classes, supplies, special equipment like pointe shoes, brushes, lenses, etc., and for many artists, the way to keep overhead at a minimum is to create their art alone.  Choreographers also function as their own costume designers, grant writers, and tour directors.  Filmmakers write, cast, hire, light, shoot, and distribute their own work.  Rarely do artists consider outsourcing the minutiae of arts administration that takes them away from the act of creation.  However, it is a practice that all artists should consider, and is a hugely helpful in freeing up creative energy that is otherwise used up on logistics.

Arts administration requires wearing many hats, and can include everything from grant writing, to visa paperwork, to scheduling hotel and plane travel, to booking gigs and lectures, to hiring cast and crew, to cutting promotional trailers or videos, to advertising shows, and the list goes on.  Many artistic directors try to do all of this on their own, while simultaneously creating new works.  The practice of “doing it all”, is often a train wreck, and something gets shortchanged.  However, taking the time to find someone outside of your own head to handle projects that are not directly related to creation can vastly improve the kind of creative work you put out.  If you are an artist considering hiring a virtual assistant to help you with your artistic endeavors, there are a few things to look for that will help make your assistant search, and subsequent working relationship, more successful.

Decide What You Need Done

While it may not give you the chance to finally sit down in your favorite comfy chair for a half a minute, it will most definitely help you retain your sanity.

Don’t go looking for an assistant helter-skelter.  Take the time to sit and choose what portion of your arts responsibilities you can comfortably assign to someone else, and what you must keep on your own docket.  The success of your virtual assistant will be partially based upon how well you can delegate, so be sure to adhere to the work-related boundaries you create, or you run the risk of micro-managing.

Who to Hire

A lot of the work that you will be outsourcing will be time-sensitive.  Grants must be turned in by particular hours and dates.  Producers and presenters need documents in time to go to press.  Able crew must be hired before someone else contracts them.  Consequently, unlike large corporations or businesses that outsource work that is less pressing, the virtual assistant you hire would ideally be in the same time zone.  They also must have a firm grasp of the native tongue of the region in which you are working.  Remember, your virtual assistant will become the first point of contact for your film, dance, or theater company, so their ability to communicate eloquently is vital to the success of your arts entity.

Their History

Finding someone who lives in your general area and has linguistic skills that will be an asset to you is the first step.  Next, their work history must be examined closely.  In arts administration, years of experience in the workplace are far less important than what the years of experience were focused upon.  For example, someone who has a 15 year experience in phone sales, may not be as useful to you as someone who interned for three major theater companies while in college, but then spent the next two years working as a waitress.  Arts organizations, sponsors, presenters, and producers of arts events, have their own language, practices, and codes of behavior.  It is a very different field from the worlds of finance, advertising, or sales, though it does combine elements of all of these.  Master’s Degree programs in Arts Administration exist for a reason, and that is because it is a difficult, multi-faceted job.  When seeking someone to take over a portion of those duties for you, actively seek out those candidates who have at least some prior experience in an arts related office position.  If their time was very short, make sure to ask them why they left.

Samples

If you know that your virtual assistant is going to need to write grant proposals, press releases, advertising copy, or web content, ask for writing samples.  If they are going to be spending time speaking with potential funders or the press, spend some time on the phone with them to get a sense of their phone manner.  If they are going to need to book multiple travel dates and accommodations, ask them to create a mock itinerary for you within a particular budget.  Get to know how they work.  This also allows them to get to know how you work.  If it is not a comfortable working situation for one or the other of you, than it will most likely not work out in the long run.

Hiring a virtual assistant is not an exact science, but if you are an artist looking for some help, these guidelines will hopefully give you a jumping off point.  Having some support when creating a new work of art is also incredibly helpful.

Tags: artists, virtual assistant, virtual assistant for artists

The default Google+ profile URLs are U-G-L-Y. There’s just no getting around that. Here’s mine, for example:

https://plus.google.com/104751726946258140372

It’s easy to see these are not sexy URLs, like those on facebook, twitter, or LinkedIn.

Fear not, there is a solution. Check out Google Plus Nick, http://gplus.to/. You can enter in what you want your nickname to be, add your Google+ ID, and viola! A custom, pretty, sexy Google+ URL. So now, I can be found on Google+ at gplus.to/HilaryBrooks.

Tags: Google+ custom url, Google+ vanity url

Being a guest blogger can be a huge asset for your business. There are numerous benefits to guest blogging, which include:

• A boost in exposure for your business. When you are highlighted as a guest blogger, you’re also tapping in to the following of that particular blog. And this exposure isn’t just limited to the number of people on their list or who are subscribed to their feed — since blog posts are usually broadcast to their various social media channels as well. The reach can be immense.
• Being recognized as the “expert” in your industry. When you’re highlighted as a guest blogger, you’re immediately seen as the expert in your industry. It’s an instant credibility booster, since the blog owner is essentially giving you their endorsement by allowing you to post on their blog.
• Getting a link to your site. The hands down, number one way — without question or argument — to getting better rankings in Google and other search engines is by having more links to your site from other sites (aka “backlinks”). It doesn’t matter how good you’ve optimized your pages, if you have no backlinks, you’re not going to be found by people looking for the solutions you provide. When you do a guest blog, it is customary for the site owner to allow you some sort of bio box section where you can provide a brief bio and link back to your site.

Now time to get to the real reason you’re reading… How do you find guest blogging opportunities for your business? The answer is surprisingly simple Ask.

Yup, that’s it. Just ask. You’re doing a favor for the blog owner, too, by providing them with additional content that they didn’t have to write themselves. The hard part to all of this is determining who to ask. Generally, your competitors aren’t going to be the people to ask So start by writing down a list of vertical industries, and/or those industries that share your same target markets. For example, a lot of coaches (business and personal) use virtual assistants. I’ve worked with numerous coaching professionals. So this would be a good start for me. After you know who you want to target, you develop a list of those businesses that also have blogs… it doesn’t work out so well if you reach out for guest blogging opportunities to places that don’t have a blog. And from there it’s pretty simple — keep your email brief and to the point, include a brief introduction of yourself, inquire on guest blogging opportunities, include some sample topics you could blog about (and of course, make this relevant to their audience), and if you have guest blogged before, include a couple of links as samples. And that’s it.

Now, not everyone is going to be banging down your door to accept your guest blog request. But to improve your chances, don’t send a generic form email when inquiring. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their blog, the things they write about, and keep their target audience in mind and what benefit you will provide to them.

We’ve done guest blogging campaigns for a number of our clients with great results. It does take some time and research, but the rewards are worth it!

Have you done any guest blogging? What do you find works for you, and what doesn’t? I would love to hear your feedback!

Tags: becoming a guest blogger, guest blogging opportunities, how to find guest blogging opportunities

I’m currently reading Inbound Marketing, by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, and in it they highlight a free service offered by their company — Website Grader. It’s a very simple report to run, you just plug your URL in, your competitors URL (optional), enter your email, and then generate the report.


For my report, I got a 95 out of 100. Not too shabby! There were some important things about my website I discovered by running this free report:

• Many of my images don’t have alt text/tags. This is helpful for the search engines as they can’t “see” images, only text. So after this post I’ll be fixing that
• My domain is set to expire in less than a year (yikes!). I know Google likes sites that will be around for awhile, so it’s time for me to renew my domain so Google knows I’m here to stay

Those were the two biggest takeaways I got from running the report on my website. You might have more, and that’s OK, the main thing is that you’re able to now see where the weaknesses are in your website and get them fixed!

Did you run the Website Grader report, or have you in the past? What do you think of it? What actions did you take after seeing your results?

Tags: health of your website, hubspot, inbound marketing, website grader

Dana White, President of the UFC, announced yesterday that they will be giving quarterly twitter bonuses out to fighters who have the most followers, the largest percent of increase in followers, and the most creative tweets.

To make it fair, they will be placing the fighters into four different categories (can we call them Twitter weight classes?) depending on the number of twitter followers they currently have.

So what does this all mean? Why is this important news?

Dana White is a marketing genius. Although UFC has been around since 1993, almost 20 years, it’s really only been until the last few years that UFC (and the sport of mixed martial arts, aka MMA) has become mainstream. White had to not only market the sport effectively, but also override the negative preconceived notions that used to exist about the sport.

With well over one million followers, Dana himself already knows the importance and effect twitter has on building awareness of their brand. With the fighters already being competitive by nature, Dana’s new bonus structure for fighter’s twitter activity is a win.

What can small biz owners take away from this? Simply put, if you’re not on twitter — you should be. Engage and interact with your audience and not just shove sales pitches down their throats. Use twitter to create awareness and buzz about your brand, while building your community and following. If you don’t have enough time in a day, or don’t know where to start, we can help with social media management services.

Fighters, get ready to impose your will on twitter!!!

Shout outs to some of my favorite fighters on twitter:

@GeorgesStPierre	@KennyFlorian	@followace	@UrijahFaber

Tags: dana white, mixed martial arts, MMA, social media, twitter, UFC

I know this post is probably going to cause some controversy and difference of opinion, but even so, most virtual assistants ARE doing it all wrong… at least in my honest opinion. And I’ll warn you, it’s a little ranty.

With the recent Virtual Assistant industry event hosted by IVAA and all the buzz on twitter from the VAs in attendance, I just had to put my head down. As a VA with a sales and marketing background, the idea of spending money (registration, airfare, lodging, etc.) and time to network with those working (and also competing) in my industry is simply not desirable. The thought of it is almost ridiculous to me. If I’m going to invest in an event, I’m going to attend an event where my ideal clients are going to be — whether it be an event for the speaking and coaching industry, like those held by the National Speakers Association, or for those involved with Social Media, such as the New Media Expo held by BlogWorld. But I tell you what I’m not going to do — and that is spend multiple days networking with hundreds or thousands in the same industry — instead, I’ll be the one out there mingling and getting to know my potential clients.

Also, unless you’re a Virtual Assistant coach, there are very few reasons to ever use the #VAtip twitter tag. Every day I see “A VA can check your email while you’re on vacation” or “A VA can draft and schedule your newsletter”… another example of how so many VAs are doing it all wrong. My ideal clients are those that already know what a virtual assistant is. I don’t want to first have to sell a potential client on the idea of what a virtual assistant is and can do, to then have to sell them on why I’m the best one to meet their needs. My ideal clients are those that are looking for a Virtual Assistant because they have a problem or don’t have enough time in a day — and I provide solutions. I’m out there networking, connecting, and engaging with my potential clients, not trying to talk about myself and what I can do. I’m learning more about the things that are pain points for them — not throwing ten different #VATips aimlessly out on twitter and hopping one of them sticks to something.

Those are just two examples of why I think most VAs are doing it all wrong. I’m currently writing a book to show VAs how to do it right and if you’re interested, you can sign up to be notified on launch (and you’ll receive a special discount code at launch) at Becoming a Virtual Assistant.

Tags: becoming a virtual assistant, marketing a virtual assistant business, virtual assistants

I’m watching Denise Wakeman’s (of The Blog Squad) free Business Blog Mastery mini-course and I just had to share this free resource with all of you. Denise is fantastic at helping small businesses make the most of their blog. In the first video, she reminds us that people are on the Internet for two main reasons: to either provide solutions or to be entertained — and that if you can do both of these things you’ve hit a home run. I couldn’t agree more. In addition to building your community, a blog is also a fantastic way to generate additional traffic to your site. If you’re thinking of getting started with a blog, or if you have a blog and you’re just not sure what to do with it, sign up for Denise’s free video series and get your blog working for your business!

Also, check out her recent post (which may not be too recent, depending on when you’re reading this), 7 Ways to Use Amazon.com to Boost Your Online Visibility. The post has some fantastic ideas on utilizing Amazon.com that you may not have thought of before.

And of course, if you need a blog I hope you’ll check out my sister company, Small Biz Web Whiz. SBWW specializes in WordPress site and blog designs.

Tags: blogging, blogging for business, Business Blog Mastery, Denise Wakeman

There has been a lot of buzz lately about overseas virtual assistants (specifically those in India and the Philippines). Although I do not necessarily consider these VA companies my competition, it does still strike a nerve. There are so many people still unemployed (my husband included) and looking for jobs. To see any U.S. business promoting the use of overseas workers just because they are cheap makes me a little disgusted. I know this practice won’t stop because some companies are just looking at their bottoms lines, but I was interested in hearing from companies who specifically chose to hire a U.S. based virtual assistant and learning why they did so and what their experiences were. Please pay particular attention to what Deborah Bailey has to say, because she is exactly right.

Here’s what they had to say:

Deborah Bailey, DBC Communications

My name is Deborah A. Bailey and I’m a writer, entrepreneur and author of “Think Like an Entrepreneur: Transforming Your Career and Taking Charge of Your Life” available on Amazon.com. I’m also the host of a talk radio show called Women Entrepreneurs Radio on blog talk radio.

I first used a VA when I started my radio show and I needed help scheduling guests. The VA I hired was based in St. Louis and she was a great help in my getting the radio show on the air and assisting me with blog posts, twitter, Facebook and setting up webinars and teleclasses. She also helped me later when I started using an online cart to sell my information products. It was a very successful partnership because she took on the tasks that helped me to focus more on my business. I feel that women entrepreneurs tend to take on too much and think we must do it all. But we can’t grow (or accomplish very much) if we don’t delegate.

I would only work with VA’s in the US because I believe in hiring people here first. As an entrepreneur I’m well aware of how important it is to have clients to sell my services to. If my potential clients don’t have money to spend because they don’t have jobs, then that impacts me as well. If we can circulate money here, then that can help someone else to be able to pay their bills and help put money into their community as well. I’d rather pay the money to have the job done the way I want it, and to be able to communicate with the person during my business hours. If I’ve invested time and money into my business, then I ‘d rather invest in support staff that have the knowledge, experience and expertise. It’s not about hiring the cheapest choice, but about hiring the best person for my business.

Marjorie Asturias, Blue Volcano Media

My name is Marjorie R. Asturias, and I’m president and founder of Blue Volcano Media, a Dallas-based boutique Internet marketing, SEO and content firm that specializes in helping small and medium-size businesses enhance and convert their website traffic. Ive been using an Arizona-based virtual assistant since February, and I couldn’t be happier. I found Tawny on oDesk.com and have since found her to be indispensable in the success and continued growth of my business. She started out doing basic administrative tasks, including creating spreadsheets and doing Internet research, but shes slowly learning more and more about the business and has really helped keep me organized and on top of all the different aspects of running my company. Shes so extremely organized, its scary.
Some of the things she has accomplished for me in the relatively brief period of time shes been working here:
* organized our company’s participation in a small business expo/trade show in March, including locating printers for the
* banners
* located a graphic designer
* found the perfect person to be our SEO specialist
* organized all of our company-wide meetings and conferences
* spearheaded the organization of our complex pricing schedule (no longer complex, thanks to Tawny!)
…and so much more. I’ve hired overseas VAs before, and although they were also quite professional and relatively inexpensive, the time difference was just difficult to overcome (most of them didn’t or wouldn’t work all US hours). Also, as a growing business, I really need someone who can jump in and start taking ownership almost immediately of some of the more critical projects, and the learning curve was just a little too steep for the foreign VAs. I’m not much of a micro-manager, especially since were technically a startup, so I found it frustrating to have to check and double-check my foreign VAs work all the time. Tawny quickly understood my personal work style and knows exactly how I want certain things done, which is a huge blessing for someone like me who can sometimes live a little too much in my head. She and I are still adjusting a bit to how the whole VA thing works, but I’m quite happy with her performance thus far and am looking forward to expanding her responsibilities and hours as our company grows.

Eric Anderson, Private Tutor, I Tutor English

I hired a US-based VA to write titles and descriptions for about 100 posts on a blog that I run after it was moved to WordPress. I hired through Odesk and specifically looked for a US-based VA because of how poorly a non-US-based WordPress expert had done moving the blog from Go Daddy’s blog platform to WordPress. With no language barrier, the work went much more smoothly. The blog traffic has doubled, and the blog is producing twice as many inquiries as it did before the tags were redone. The blog that was redone is I-Tutor-English.com. I’m a private tutor in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Dreama Lee, Intern Profits

How has your life changed when using your virtual assistant?
Our life has changed immensely. When we finally decided to hire our first stateside VA 3 years ago we were drowning under daily repetitive tasks like customer service, tracking sales and invoicing (to name a few). Once we got our VA up and running we were no longer bogged down by mundane daily tasks but able to work on our business, not in it.

Did business improve?
Yes, our business greatly approved. We were able to not only launch new products and even a new business but our customers were happier because they were being gotten back to sooner and more efficiently. We also implemented
a ticketing system so that all customer service requests could be handled in
that matter and tracked for follow-up later. Our VA was key in setting this system up.

If so, by how much?
As mentioned above, greatly. We were able to grow our business and launch new products but we also were able to start new businesses and ventures. As working parents it also provided us more free time to be parents.

Why did you decide to go with a US-based virtual assistant, as opposed to an overseas assistant?
We have used and on occasion use offshore virtual assistants for certain tasks. However, we needed a stateside speaking virtual assistant who not only could speak English well but also understand the American mentality/etc. We also wanted someone who would be working in a similar timezone. Our current VA is 3 hours ahead of us on the East coast which
works out perfectly as she often has tasks completed before we even start our day but is also working during our own business hours for the most part so we can interact daily as needed.

What type of tasks do you find the best to outsource to your virtual assistant?
We outsource most of our daily repetitive tasks to our VA. Things like: customer service, sales tracking and customer follow-up, scheduling and some assistance with bookkeeping from an auditing perspective. She also pays some of our bills and tracks progress on some projects. We have also utilized her as a second set of eyes for new content, new products, and new websites.  We don’t believe that VA’s are a good fit for “large project based” tasks or major implementation plans that are meant to “grow” your business. VA’s are great for maintaining your business. We actually utilize interns to grow our business and put them on project based tasks.

Angela Nielsen, One Lily Inc.

I have owned a small web design company (200 clients) for a little over 10 years. Most of my clients are in the professional services industry (coaches, authors, speakers, attorneys, financial advisors). In 2004 I had my first opportunity to work with a VA through one of my clients. She happened to be in Canada but after working with her a few months through our mutual client, I quickly realized how valuable a VA can be. In the years since, I have worked with at least a dozen VAs, in the US, Canada and a few other countries. I have found that US (or Canadian) VAs are best for the majority of my clients. The time zone issue is probably the biggest problem with working with VAs from other countries, not to mention the language barrier.

We have worked with VAs for simple administrative assistant tasks, event planning/coordination, sales and marketing, even hiring/firing for companies. Most often the VAs we work with help our clients with their technology needs (sending newsletters, setting up shopping carts, helping with blogging and social media, etc). Our clients find that VAs take less time to get up to speed than hiring an actual employee. With a VA you pay for only what you use (not stuck with someone on the clock even if there is no work to do), and VAs seem to “get” the challenge of running a small business better.

We continue to work with about half a dozen VAs with our current clients, and also have our own VA on staff to support our own company (as well as help our clients).

Tags: angela Nielsen, blue volcano media, deborah bailey, dreama lee, eric anderson, i tutor english, intern profits, marjorie asturias, One Lily, virtual assistant, virtual assistant industry

I’m happy to announce that my ebook, Becoming a Virtual Assistant, will be hitting the e-shelves soon! Over the years I’ve had thousands people contact me to inquire about available opportunities. Unfortunately, when there are that many emails there’s no way I can respond to each person individually. But it was pretty clear that there are so many people trying to become a virtual assistant, and honestly, many of them are not doing it right. It’s not because they don’t care, but it’s because they just don’t know what’s involved in starting up their own virtual assistant business.

All of this and more prompted me to set off to write Becoming a Virtual Assistant. And this is going to be the real deal. I will guide you not only in creating your virtual assistant business, but also how to grow your business and create an reasonable income.

I’ve created a landing page over at www.BecomingAVirtualAssistant.com where you can sign up to be notified when we the book officially launches. Those of you who sign up to be notified will also receive an discount code when the book is available for purchase.

Thanks to all of you who inspired me to write this. It will not let you down!

Tags: be a virtual assistant, becoming a virtual assistant, how to beccome a virtual assistant