Amazing Line-Up of 42 Speakers in 1 Month… Are You Registered?
July 21, 2008
I HAD to blog this today because starting August 1, 2008, we’re featuring an amazing line-up of 42 speakers in one month (well, technically less than 1 month as we’re not including weekends!)
The Summer Speaker Series features speakers such as James Roche, Viki Viertel, Christina Merkley, Sheri McConnell, MaryPat Kavanagh, Amber Miller, Tara Kachaturoff, Pam Ivey, Lou Bortone, Lynn Scheurell, Allana Pratt, Kristi Pavlik, Alexis Neely, and SO many more.
Find out more and sign-up NOW (we start August 1!) at www.summerspeakerseries.com!
We’ve got two tracks… One for entrepreneurs and one for virtual assistants. You can also sign-up for both tracks and get the best of both worlds! We have seats only or seats and audio downloads so you don’t have to attend each call to learn all of the tips and tactics!
So, here’s the deal… Simply read through the Summer Speaker Series webpage and view the speaker line-up. If it interests you, scroll to the bottom where the big yellow box is and choose your package. Then, register your seat and prepare for an AMAZING month!
Find out more and sign-up NOW (we start August 1!) at www.summerspeakerseries.com!
You can get each event for $3.50 (at one of our package deals!)… You can’t beat that! We’re also giving away door prizes to those people who sign up so register NOW! Oh, and the first 100 people who register also get access to our special bonus track!
Find out more and sign-up NOW (we start August 1!) at www.summerspeakerseries.com!
So join me and my guests in the month of August. You will NOT be disappointed!
(P.S. - Don’t want to attend? Why not consider promoting the event? You can earn up to $60 per sign-up. See the page above, scroll to the bottom and click on ‘Affiliates’ for full details…)
Technorati Tags: Erin Blaskie, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, VA, virtual assistants, Summer Speaker Series, James Roche, Christina Merkley, Sheri McConnell, Viki Viertel, Carla Young, Amber Miller, Pam Ivey, Kristi Pavlik, MaryPat Kavanagh, Lou Bortone, Tara Kachaturoff, Lynn Scheurell, Charly Leetham, Allana Pratt, Kathie Thomas, Debbie LaChusa, Wendy Weiss, Jody Gabourie, Janet Foust, Rebecca Zwar, Julie Maloney, Alexis Neely, Terri Z, Allison Nazarian, Donna Gunter, Diana Ennen, Michele PW, Alicia Smith, Carol Deckert, Mari Smith, Erik S. Olson, Blog Squad, The Blog Squad, Patsi Krakoff, Denise Wakeman, Dr. Sally Witt, Sally Witt, Mary-Lou Ashton, Kristen Beireis, speaker summit, speaker series
Stop the Flow of E-mail People!
July 16, 2008
This is a short post but an important reminder. With the influx of e-mail in everyone’s inboxes, it’s super difficult to manage it all. So, here are some short reminders regarding e-mail.
- Not everything requires a response. If you’re just writing back to say ‘Thanks!’, don’t bother. :) I mean that in the nicest way possible! It’s not required and just causes the person on the other end to go into e-mail overwhelm.
- When setting appointments, be concise and clear. If someone is trying to schedule something with you, tell them an exact time, exact date and say, “If this works, just write back ‘confirmed’ and I’ll call you. Otherwise, please let me know two or three times that you have open and I’ll match that up with my schedule.” Or, use a self-scheduling system like mine at http://www.bsetc.ca/schedule/
- If you’ve e-mailed someone once and they haven’t replied, don’t e-mail them a thousand times. Instead, look up their assistant’s e-mail address, an alternate address on their website, a phone number and use another means of communication.
Help me stop the flow of e-mail. There is far too much of it floating around cyber-space!
Technorati Tags: The VA Coach, The Virtual Assistant Coach, Erin Blaskie, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, VA Coach, VA, e-mail, e-mail management, email
Teleseminar with Allison Nazarian - Get Blogging (Or Jump-Start Your Existing Blog) Today
May 26, 2008
On May 28, 2008 at 1PM Eastern (Noon Central, 11 AM Mountain, 10 AM Pacific), I’ll be hosting a call with Allison Nazarian - Copywriter/Marketing Consultant/Author/DIY Guru.
This call is part of our amazing speaker series line-up at Virtual Assistant Mastermind:
http://virtualassistantmastermind.com/speakerseries.html
Allison Nazarian is the President & Founder of Get It In Writing, Inc., a leader in providing copywriting and marketing services, consulting and instruction to businesses throughout the world.
To learn more, visit www.GetItInWriting.biz and sign up for Allison’s free e-zine, copywriting secrets e-book and weekly tips.
Our Teleseminar Topic is “Get Blogging (Or Jump-Start Your Existing Blog) Today.”
In this jam-packed teleseminar, you will:
- Discover what blogs are (and aren’t!) and how they work.
- Determine the purpose and unique vision of your blog.
- Gain insight into how to use your blog to market your services.
- Learn how and where to find interesting, newsworthy and intriguing topics, issues and trends that will appeal to your readers and target market.
Hear Allison’s Top 5 tips for getting started… today!
This event is a free event for members (speaker series members, platinum and gold - see website for details). Non-members can purchase a seat in this exciting teleseminar for only $24.95!
http://virtualassistantmastermind.com/speakerseries.html
Register today! Even if you can’t make it, you’ll still receive a recording of the call that you can save and have for as long as you need the information!
Hope to ’see’ you on the call!
Technorati Tags: Virtual Assistant Mastermind, VAM, VA Mastermind, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, virtual assisting, Erin Blaskie, Amber Miller, BSETC, blogging, blogging teleseminar, Allison Nazarian, Get It In Writing Inc., Get It In Writing, blogging teleclass
Any Virtual Assistants Out There on a Mac?
January 22, 2008
I bought a new iMac a few months back and I haven’t really used it exclusively for business. I’ve pretty much stuck to my PC laptop and used my iMac for things like creating videos and creating audios (primarily of me singing to instrumental backing tracks!)
It got me thinking, how many VAs out there are on a Mac? Are you?
There are a lot of differences of course between the two but I must say, I really, really do love my Mac. I love that I can pop on over to it and it feels like a brand new start. Not slowed down by my thousand PC applications and my hundreds of folders of client work. Instead, my Mac feels pristine and fun. My media computer.
I’m going to try something. I’m going to use my iMac exclusively for all things related to The VA Coach. I am not going to do anything for The VA Coach on my PC. I’ll see how easy that is and what challenges I encounter. Of course, I’ll blog about those challenges (if any) and I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.
Also - let me know if you’re on a Mac and if you find it hard to work with PC based clients.
Technorati Tags: Virtual assistant, virtual assistance, Erin Blaskie, The VA Coach, iMac, Mac, Mac virtual assistant, VAs
Contact Forms & Contact Info Virtual Assistant Websites
January 20, 2008
I was doing some research tonight to find Savvy Virtual Assistants on the web to consider for my new SVA Award (Savvy Virtual Assistant). While doing this research, I couldn’t help but notice that there were so many websites that made their contact information really hard to find.Here are a few tips I have to ensure that you aren’t losing business due to obscurely placed e-mail addresses:
- Create a page called ‘Contact’ on both your website and blog. Don’t call it anything but ‘Contact’ or ‘Contact Us’. People visit websites expecting the same thing from every site. Easy to find information and most people associate contact information with the word Contact.
- Don’t use contact forms exclusively. They can be used but make sure to at least have an e-mail address somewhere on your website that people can use. Contact forms annoy me to no end - especially if I have an attachment I want to send someone. I very well can’t do that through a contact form so either trash the contact form or add your e-mail address.
- Make sure to have a phone number visible somewhere on your site. Why? It gives people a sense of security and trust in your business. Without it, you don’t necessarily look like a legitimate business.
What else am I missing?
What do you feel are some ‘rules’ around contact information on a website? Also, check your own site. Is your contact information easily found in five seconds or less - especially to someone who has never seen your website before?
Technorati Tags: virtual assistant, virtual assistance, VA, VA website, virtual assistant website, virtual assistance website, Erin Blaskie, The VA Coach, website contact information, contact information, website standards
Be Your Own Virtual Assistant: 100 Tools to Keep Yourself Accountable and Organized
December 23, 2007
I was sent this link recently and thought it would be very helpful to all of my fellow virtual assistants and business owners out there. Enjoy!
By Christina Laun
Having your own personal assistant can be great. With an assistant, you don’t have to handle your filing, mail, errands or all of the other little tasks that eat up your day and keep you from getting to more important projects. Of course, not everyone can afford to have their own personal assistant, real or virtual. But with the right tools, you can make your life easier without outsourcing your work to anyone else. Follow this list of tools and resources to make being your own assistant easy.
To Do
While it would be nice to leave the day-to-day tasks to someone else, managing them yourself doesn’t have to be a headache. Keep track of everything you need to do with these simple tools.
- Backpack: Backpack can help even the most unorganized business owners get their tasks in order. Not only can you create to-do lists, but there are also features for notes, calendars and reminders.
- Stikkit: Leave yourself virtual sticky notes with Stikkit. Whether you’re planning a meeting, organizing your day, or just trying to remember what to get at the grocery store, leave yourself a memo with this program.
- Webnote: Never lose your notes from a meeting again with this useful program. Users can take notes on any computer and save them to the Web for easy access later.
- The Online CEO: Organize and prioritize like the business owner that you are with this nifty program. Users can assign point values to tasks, with more points for more important tasks, and get the tally at the end of the day.
- Ta-Da List: Ta-Da List will allow you to make to-do lists for yourself or anyone else on your staff, making it easier to manage your own tasks as well as those of others.
- Remember the Milk: While you can use Remember the Milk to actually help you remember the milk, it can also be used for managing a variety of other work related tasks as well.
- Swift To-Do List: This to-do list program allows you to create hierarchical lists, attach email and web addresses to tasks, send reminders, and even create to-do databases to keep track of your tasks long term.
- Todoist: This simple to-do list has a built-in calendar and task ranking system to help you stay on top of your tasks. You can even use the keyboard shortcuts to make your work go faster, no assistant needed.
- Voo2Do: Voo2Do makes it easy to manage and use your to-do lists. You can organize tasks by project, track the time you’ve spent on them, and even add new tasks by email.
- Toodledo: Improve your productivity with the to-do list system on Toodledo. You can even bring it with you on your mobile phone so you can work on the go.
- Orchestrate: Simply register on Orchestrate’s website and start creating easy-to-use to-do lists right away.
Accounting
Dont’ make balancing your business’ checkbook more of a chore than it needs to be. Keep your finances in order with these great accounting tools.
- Wesabe: Keep track of your money with this great online financial tool. Set financial goals or track incoming and outgoing money with ease.
- Instacalc: Chances are pretty good that in the course of your bookkeeping you’ll need to do a few calculations. Use this online calendar to make it easy to get figures, make spreadsheets, or even generate graphs you can embed on a webpage.
- Dimewise: Maintain a handle on your finances no matter where you are with this online tool which allows you to manage multiple accounts, generate reports, and log all of your purchases.
- LessAccounting: Since you’ve got tons of other things to do, use LessAccounting to manage your finances. Great for small businesses, you’ll be able to keep track of expenses and send out invoices.
- Saasu: Saasu will help you speed up your accounting tasks with automated payments, purchasing, billing and even payroll. A computer that does work for you is almost as good as a real assistant!
- Xero: Online accounting with Xero allows you to track your finances from anywhere and seamlessly integrate your banking statements to make it much less work for you!
- Mint: Take managing your finances to another level with Mint. Not only can you track and record your expenses, but Mint will give you recommendations on how to save or make more money.
- QuickBooks: One of the most popular accounting programs, QuickBooks is as fully featured as it gets. Get your finances in order, send invoices, create reports and much more.
- Freshbooks: Freshbooks promises “painless billing” to help reduce the amount of time you have to spend sending out invoices by making it easy to send out reports and manage invoices.
- Vebio: Freelancers and small business owners will find Vebio to be an especially useful accounting tool. It gives users an easy way to invoice clients and track client billing.
- Billing Orchard: Send online bills to clients with Billing Orchard. Whether you’re billing by hour, flat fee, or on a recurring basis, this program can help make it easier.
- BillMyClients: Make billing hassle free by using BillMyClients. Send out invoices via the post office or your email with just a click of a button.
- Cashboard: This free program will help make logging time and getting paid simple and easy so you’ll have more time to dedicate to other tasks. Design attractive invoices and even integrate Cashboard with Basecamp to keep clients in the loop.
- Fluttervoice: Looks matter when it comes to representing your business, so make attractive invoices with Fluttervoice.
- Invoice Genie: Invoice Genie gives you an easy way to create invoices, track time, schedule meetings, and manage all of your fiances within one program.
- Invoices Made Easy: Designed for small, service-based businesses, this program allows users to print, email, track and even get paid right from the office.
- Invoice Place: Save time preparing invoices with Invoice Place. You’ll be able to manage invoices on the run, get overseas currency support, and send and receive billing on everything.
- Invotrak: Don’t miss out on payments. Use Invotrak to keep your invoices in order. Track, bill, and manage all of your billing information in one easy-to-use program.
- SimplyBill: SimplyBill lives up to its name by making billing extremely simple. Create new invoices, track old ones, and do so much more.
- The Invoice Machine: Send out PDF invoices with this easy-to-use online program.
Phone
These tools will help you keep track of your messages and incoming calls.
- FaxZERO: While sending things via email is often easier and faster, sometimes you just need to send a fax. Don’t buy an expensive fax machine for this, just use this online program to send a fax anywhere in the United States or Canada for free.
- eBuddy: Keep in touch when you’re out of the office with ebuddy. It allows users to sign on to various instant messenger services from a mobile phone, meaning no important contact with clients will be sacrificed if you need to run some errands on your lunch hour.
- Gaboogie: You won’t need an assistant to remind you of your conference calls with Gaboogie. This web-based program will make the calls for you and eliminate the need for long passwords and PIN numbers.
- AbbyMe: Send phone messages over the Internet with AbbyMe. It can be a great way to send out meeting reminders ahead of time. Simply type in your message and the phone number you want it sent to and the program will read the message to the recipient, acting like your personal assistant without the paycheck.
- K7: FaxZERO lets you send out faxes, but you can receive them without an actual fax machine with K7. K7 will assign you a phone number for faxes which will be directed to your inbox.
- GrandCentral: Make managing multiple phone lines easy with GrandCentral. The program gives you one number that rings all your phones, goes to one voicemail box, plus lots of extra features.
Make sorting through your inbox easier with these email tools.
- Viapoint: Don’t waste time hunting through your inbox for important emails. Viapoint will help you organize emails by contact, company, project or date range without you having to do a thing.
- Thunderbird: If you’re looking to an alternative to Outlook, give Thunderbird a try. It’s free, and allows you to customize your email experience.
- Plaxo: This online address book service allows you to automatically update your contacts as you or others change them in Plaxo, Outlook or Thunderbird.
- Breeze: Don’t spend hours creating and mailing email campaigns to customers. Just use Breeze to easily send out mailings to hundreds of customers at once.
- DropSend: Don’t bog down your servers sending out huge emails. Instead, use the service from DropSend to send files of up to 1GB.
- iContact: Make email marketing easy with iContact. Send out email campaigns, and track and organize them easily with this program.
- Sproutit Mailroom: Overwhelmed by your website email but can’t afford to hire an assistant? Sproutit Mailroom can help by allowing everyone on your team to manage and respond to the emails.
- 9cays: Save time reading through email with the great features on 9cays. Instead of paging through tons of responses to group emails, 9cays allows you to create a webpage with all the messages in one easy to read place.
- MailWasher: If your email doesn’t already have a spam filter, MailWasher offers a great free solution that will help make navigating through your email easier.
- BlueTie: For the small business owner looking for a hosted email solution, BlueTie can be a great choice. You’ll get email as well as tons of other business boosting features.
- Contact Grabber: Make collecting contact information easy with Contact Grabber. Simply highlight an email address and the program will save it for you easily and quickly.
- Skemma: Save time by automating communications between your coworkers, clients, vendors and more with Skemma.
Scheduling
Plan your day with as little hassle as possible using these great tools.
- Acuity Scheduling: Let clients do the scheduling for you with this online tool. Simply set your availability, types of appointments you accept, and clients will choose the appointment they want.
- Calendar Hub: This online calendar can be a great place to keep track of appointments and company goals and you can access it from anywhere.
- epointment: Create an online agenda as epointment. You’ll find tools to schedule meetings, keep track of important dates, and even get reminders sent to your phone if you’re not on the Internet.
- Schedulebook: Schedulebook will make it easy to schedule meeting rooms, supplies, and appointments depending on your needs.
- SmartCal: SmartCal is a great way to keep yourself organized and schedule appointments online. You can also get reminders, organize groups and much more when you sign up.
- ScheduleAnywhere: Need to schedule your employees for hours, meetings or conferences? Try out ScheduleAnywhere to make scheduling easy and quick.
- EZAgenda: This web-based scheduler is integrated with your email, allowing you to add appointments and share them easily.
- MyMRM: Have trouble with scheduling space in your office? Don’t fight over the conference room, try using MyMRM to let everyone know and share scheduled time.
- OrgScheduler: If you don’t have a personal assistant or secretary, OrgScheduler can make it easy to share an organization-wide calendar that lets employees know about important meetings, company holidays and more.
- Memo to Me: Get a friendly reminder sent to you with the Memo to Me service. Remind yourself or others of meetings, deadlines, projects and anything else you can think of.
Presentations and Meetings
Use these tools to get ready for your next big meeting with clients or investors.
- Campfire: If you need to have a quick online meeting, Campfire can be a great tool. Private, password-protected chatrooms can be set up quickly and easily.
- GoToMeeting: Web conference with ease using GoToMeeting. You’ll be able to share files, give presentations, and more with a subscription to the service.
- Demofuse: Create tours of your website, or a client’s site, and send or embed them in a webpage with Demofuse. It’s a great way to show off your work!
- Dimdim: This open source meeting web conferencing tool will make setting up and attending online meetings easy as pie. You’ll also be able to share presentations, applications and even your desktop through the program.
- PreZentit: PreZentit will allow you to create wonderful presentations online and share them with clients or anyone you’d like.
- Screencast-o-Matic: Make showing clients how to use software or websites a snap with this program. It creates a video recording of your screen and the site hosts it for free.
- SlideBurner: Create slideshows of your work or business and share them with clients all over the world.
- Spresent: If you’re looking for an alternative to PowerPoint, give Spresent a try. This web-based program is flash based and easy-to-use.
- Thumbstacks: Make presentations and share them with coworkers and clients online with Thumbstacks.
- Viewbook: Viewbook is a great place to store your presentations, slideshows and portfolios online so they can easily be mailed to others or retrieved later for use.
Information Management
Keep track of important information, files, and anything else with these organizational tools.
- Basecamp: Store and share information online with Basecamp. Collaborate with coworkers or just keep your files in a secure place online.
- Project Stat.us: Don’t keep your clients in the dark about information on your projects. Keep your status online so you won’t have to field constant calls.
- iOrganize: Keep all your important information like contacts, notes, and bookmarks in one place with iOrganize so you won’t be left wishing you could call someone else to find them.
- Bubbl.us: Get your ideas out there with Bubbl.us’ online brainstorming tools. Create mind maps, write down ideas, share them with others and more.
- Cebase: Cebase is an impressive online database program. A simple point and click interface lets you enter data and quickly share it with anyone you’d like.
- DabbleDB:Get tons of great features with this database program. Users can enter data, share it, change views and more.
- Domain Log Book: Own multiple domains for your business? Keep track of them and view their page rank with this program.
- Fluxiom: Manage your digital media with this online tool. Host your pictures, marketing materials, contracts and more on Fluxiom.
- iOutliner: Organize your thoughts, ideas, projects and anything else you can think of into structured outlines with iOutliner.
- Lazybase: Would you like to create an online database but want it to be easy? Try out Lazybase. You can upload any kind of information you want by using a secret URL.
- Quickbase: This web-based database from Intuit is great for project management, sales management and much more.
Project and Time Management
Your time is valuable, so don’t waste it on tasks you don’t need to. Instead, use these tools to help you make the most of it and keep your projects running smoothly without any outside assistance.
- Harvest: Track your time with this simple web-based program. You can even generate reports to let clients know the status of your projects or just keep track of time for your own purposes.
- Dot Project: This open-source project management tool can help you get your next project organized and on task.
- FunctionFox: If you’re in a creative line of business, give FunctionFox a try for tracking your projects and making sure everything progresses smoothly.
- 88 Miles: Keep track of how much time you’re spending on all of your projects for easy billing. 88 Miles lets you easily punch in and out of projects and has an on-screen timer to let you know how much time has elapsed.
- ActionThis: ActionThis is a web-based team management program with great centralized project management as well as systems to track client information and individual assignments.
- Clocking IT: Track your task progress and time at once with Clocking IT. Features include tagging, search, milestones and integrated wikis.
- Emergent Task Timer: This timer from the Printable CEO can help you break tasks down into 15 minute intervals.
- PunchyTime: Keep track of the time you spend on every project as you work, rather than after the fact. PunchyTime is a great solution for creative companies working by the hour.
- Project Insight: Project Insight is one of the leading online project management systems. It’s intuitive and easy to use and will allow you to collaborate easily with coworkers.
- Timepost: This project timer will automatically get all your projects and to-dos from different web project managers, saving you the hassle of having to re-enter things from each program.
Client Relations
You won’t need an assistant to bring up customer contact information with these programs. It will already be at your fingertips from just about anywhere.
- DocuSign: Need something signed right away? Dont’ bother sending it over, get a signature online with DocuSign. Get legally binding signatures that allow you to seal the deal quickly, shutting out the competition.
- HoneyPitch: Put together proposals, presentations, contracts and estimates with this great CRM tool.
- ClientScribe: Keep track of all your client contacts using ClientScribe. You can keep your emails, phone records, faxes and proposals in one place, organized by client.
- Entellium: This CRM tool has award-winning design, free support and great features to help you treat your customers like they deserve.
- Highrise: Keep in touch with your customers with the online contact management system in Highrise.
- Heap: This is a simple CRM system that allows you to instant message, keep track of a calendar, and organize contacts.
- Pipeline Deals: Make CRM easy with Pipeline Deals’ simple notebook format that allows you to organize files, emails, notes and documents.
- Relenta CRM: Relenta CRM makes keeping track of customer data easy with systems to manage contact info, documents and much more.
- Sugar CRM: This CRM program focuses on improving your sales performance and marketing effectiveness.
- vtiger: vtiger is a great open-source CRM designed for small businesses. Users will get access to features for automation, customer support, sales, marketing, inventory management and more.
Shopping Cart Training for Virtual Assistants
October 7, 2007
Hello fellow virtual assistants, web entrepreneurs and business owners alike!
My good friend, Amber Miller of Smart to Finish, is offering a new shopping cart training program alongside Practice Pay Solutions. If you’ve ever wondered about shopping cart software, check this out!
I’m pleased to announce that the next generation of the Practice Pay Solutions Shopping Cart Certification program is back… and BETTER than ever
I am thrilled to have joined the Practice Pay Solutions Team and will be leading the training sessions. The training will provide in-depth training and step-by-step guidance. Students will learn by detailed assignments and graded homework - not by just listening to a teleclass or staring at a computer screen. By the end of the Basic Program, participants will be proficient in implementing the cart’s basic features to automate a wide variety of business and marketing tasks.
Early bird pricing is available until October 12th - hurry! Don’t wait! Learn more or sign up here: http://www.practicepaysolutions.com/vatraining/index101507.php
Technorati Tags: Practice Pay Solutions, PPS, shopping cart, shopping cart tutorials, shopping cart training, PPS training, Amber Miller, Smart to Finish, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, VA, virtual assistant training, virtual assistance training, VA training
Five Business Resources I Can’t Live Without
May 25, 2007
There are many resources that I use on a daily or weekly basis that are online-based. I wanted to share these with you and get feedback from you on what your favorite resources are. I think we can all benefit from knowing what it is that helps make our businesses efficient and cost-effective.
(1) WordPress
WordPress is a valuable one for me since it powers my website / blog, powers the websites and blogs of my clients and allows me to openly communicate with my website visitors and with my clients. It also allows me to communicate with my friends and family easily and efficiently through my personal blogs. Speaking to the business side of things however, it becomes my main portal for all things related to my business and industry.
(2) MyHours
Each day, I log the hours that I put in for my clients. It is one of the most important tools for me because it solely determines my invoicing and billing for my clients. On the 15th and the 30th of each month, I pull a report from MyHours and invoice my clients according to what appears on that report. The program is great because it is web-based which means that from any PC, any location, I can log the hours I am working for my clients.
(3) Cartville / 1ShoppingCart
In terms of list building and tracking contacts, I use Cartville. I don’t use the software yet for the shopping cart or the affiliate program but I do plan on taking advantage of those items once I get to a point in my business where I have more products than services or at least an equal amount of each. Cartville is a great business tool and 90% of my clients also use it for their business.
(4) PayPal
In addition to MyHours, PayPal is the other most important resource in terms of invoicing and billing. PayPal is the website that I use to invoice my clients and because it is free (except for a few small fees on transactions) it keeps my costs low. The other benefit is that I receive payments quickly rather than waiting on checks from other countries. My clients in Australia can easily submit payment for their invoices just as quickly as a client in Canada or the US could.
(5) Feed Demon
Feed Demon is a feed reader that I use to track other blogs on the internet. I subscribe to the blog’s feed and I track them in my software program so that I can stay current. What is great about Feed Demon is that it keeps the posts organized by subject (I specify what subject I want them to fall under) and also by individual blog. This is great because it allows me to stay connected to the bloggers that I enjoy with minimal effort. Time is something we, as entrepreneurs, highly value and this cuts down my time spent on blogs.
Technorati Tags: Feed Demon, PayPal, MyHours, Cartville, 1ShoppingCart, WordPress, business resources, online business resources, internet resources
Zaadz… What Is It & How to Register
May 21, 2007
I’m setting up my Zaadz account and I thought I’d share the process so that you can ALL get started! My good friend and client, Viki Viertel, The Business Buddha, is on Zaadz (as well as a few of my other clients) and I figured it was a great time to get on there and learn my way around! The way I learn is by doing it and this process helps me provide the best service to my clients… So, hopefully this helps you in some way!
Signing Up for a Zaadz Account
1. Go to the Zaadz sign up page. Fill out the details to setup your account.
2. Wait for Zaadz approval of your account. This generally takes a few hours - sometimes up to a few days. (It also may appear in your inbox from Zaady instead of Zaadz. I think this is an error. Wonder if they know about that?)
3. Login to your account. Once Zaadz approves your account, go to the login page. Enter your user name and password.
4. Choose your Zaadz site name. Choose a URL and a title that best suits what you want to convey to your network on Zaadz. I chose Erin Blaskie ~ Business Services, ETC ~ Virtual Assistant and the URL of http://bsetc.zaadz.com/.
5. Invite friends or go to your home page. Once your URL and name is accepted, you can either invite friends to join Zaadz or you can go directly to your homepage.
Setting Up Your Zaadz Profile
1. Upload a photo. On the left-hand side, click on “Want Your Own Icon” and then Upload a Photo of choice.
2. Update your profile. Click on “Edit My Profile” under the photo you just uploaded and then fill out the details within.
3. Add some blog entries. Click on the ‘blog’ tab in your Zaadz profile and insert a few different blog entries. This will allow people to get to know you and your expertise through your Zaadz profile.
4. Add additional photos if you wish. Under the ‘photos’ tab, you can add individual photos or add a new album. You can upload photos related to your business, yourself or whatever else you’d like to share!
5. Add goals. Under the ‘goals’ tab, you can add a goal and a description that will let people know what it is you want to achieve.
6. Add to your books. Your Zaadz profile has a section devoted to books. You can list books that are on your bookshelf, books you are currently reading or planning to read and a whole array of other fun, book related things.
7. Add some quotes. On your profile, there is a tab called ‘quotes’ in which you can list your favorite quotes. I love this section of Zaadz because to me, quotes are so incredibly moving!
As I learn more about Zaadz, I’ll post future blog entries on the subject. For now - get started and look me up at http://bsetc.zaadz.com/.
Technorati Tags: Zaadz, setting up your Zaadz account, opening a Zaadz account
Newsgator Coupon! Save Some $
May 19, 2007
Just got an e-mail from Newsgator… Wanted to share this special coupon code they gave me:
From now until May 31, 2007, you can take $10 off any client software purchase just by typing LikeIt in the promo code field in the shopping cart. This is a great chance to try out our latest versions of NetNewsWire, FeedDemon and NewsGator Inbox. And maybe you hadn’t heard, but we have three great mobile clients that synchronize with your other NewsGator readers. Take $10 off your purchase of NewsGator Go! for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, or Java phones and you’ll learn to love checkout lines, meeting delays, and anything else that gives you an excuse to catch up on your news.
Technorati Tags: Newsgator, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, NewsGator Inbox, NewsGator Go!, coupon, free coupon, coupon code