Mobile marketing fascinates me.   I have been a true gadget junkie since the first Palm pilot came out (I have a whole museum of used PDAs in my kitchen drawer).

It amazes me how quickly mobile technology has developed and what is now possible with a device that is just a tiny bit larger than a deck of cards…  I probably spend as much time on my Droid as I do on my laptop these days.  As phone prices go down, access will increase… and mobile will become even more important to all businesses (not just local businesses that can take advantage of location based marketing).  Over the next 2 years, more people will access the web via their smartphone than via their computer.  Isn’t it amazing how quickly things change?

Here is a quick video with some tips on how to make your online business more mobile friendly.

Stay tuned, I’ll be posting more tips about this important topic over the next few weeks.

Given that as a online marketing manager (who started out as a virtual assistant and event planner), my business depends on getting it right the first time, people are surprised to hear that I am a bit of a free spirit,  Given an choice between custom and systematic, I would choose custom every time.

Lately though, I’ve come to realize that the system is actually what makes the customization possible.  Last weekend, I attended my client’s first live event Take Action Get Profits on social media marketing.  I was planning on just attending, but due to a last minute scheduling glitch, I ended up working the event (as the audio girl) which gave me a chance to eat lunch with the event planners and get a behind the scenes glimpse into the event.

My first job after college was planning multi-day study courses on local government for  Eastern European mayors visiting the U.S.  We would charter a bus and bring the officials to a few different cities so they could see how U.S. government worked first hand.  After that, as a local government public information manager (as as a volunteer with the Junior Chamber of Commerce), I would plan fairs, festivals, recycling events, etc.  Event planning is exhausting and stressful — especially when you over-customize each event.

I was amazed and surprised at how stress-free my client’s event was.  I credit it to the excellent event planners who had a template and a system for every aspect of the event.  From the nametags to the stage presentation, you could see care and professionalism in every aspect of the event. Yes, things changed and yes, everything was tweaked for (and sometimes by) my client — but underpinning all of that was a solid framework build to make sure that the event host felt taken care of.

I imagine that the event company has simple checklists for every aspect of the event.  In his book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right,  Dr. Atul Gawande explains how instituting simple checklists for complex tasks (like surgery),  reduced medical errors by more than 20%.  Inspired by this book and a desire to make my clients feel as absolutely taken care of as possible, I have been creating and using more checklists in my work.  (I use a free mindmapping program called FreeMind)

So far the results have been:

• Less time spent on tasks (since all the information I need is in the checklist)
• Fewer errors
• The ability to add even more value to the process since I am not having to worry about having the basics covered.

Do you use checklists in your work?

Did you ever want to post something to Facebook that you didn’t want *everyone* to see? Perhaps you are planning a surprise party — or you just want to use Facebook to talk to business colleagues AND friends/family (without too much mixing). This video shows you how to set the privacy settings on your posts to hide them from certain groups of people.

I attended Michele Scism’s Take Action Get Profits Conference this past weekend, and learned this very useful trick.

This video also marks the screencast debut of my daughter Suzanne…

So, to recap… the steps are:

1. Make sure you have put your friends into lists.

• Click on friends on the right hand side of the page.
• Click the edit friends button on top
• A list of your friends will pop up.  You can edit your friends by highlighting the space to the right of their name – a box will come up that says edit lists.
• There is a box at the top of the edit friends page for creating a new list.

2. Once you get the lists done,here’s how you share with certain people:

• Click the lock at the bottom of the page
• Choose “customize”
• Choose to send to (or hide from) specific people — you can choose a person — or type in the name of a list.

That’s it.

Four years ago when I started working online,  I never would have imagined that video would become so important.  Video makes it possible for your audience to get to know you even better (because they can see and hear you).  Video is also treated very well in the search engines (this may be because there is less video content than written content.   Unlike articles, which need to be certain length to be effective, with video, shorter is better.  Videos can also be easily recycled into audio, podcasts, blog posts, etc.

New to video?  Not quite sure where to start?  The good news is that you do not have to have fancy equipment or even an in depth knowledge of video editing to start adding video to your promotional tool kit.   Here are some easy ways to get started with video.

1. Powerpoint/Keynote Both powerpoint and keynote (mac) give you the ability to add either music for voice over to your slide shows.  You can create videos using this method that are extremely impressive if you know a little bit about how to do animations.  The key with these videos is to remember to keep them short.

2.  Animoto Animoto is a cool program for creating photo-montage videos to music.  You don’t get a lot of customization — but you can crate something that is very attention-getting  very quickly.

3.  Mini – video cameras Although many people are a little nervous about putting videos of themselves on the Internet – realize that the purpose is soley for people to see that there is a real person behind the website.  The best way to create a getting to know you video is to to use a small video recorder (flip cameras, Kodak z18, your digital camera or even your iphone).  The production value doesn’t have to be high.  People just need to get a quick snippet of who you are.

4.  Jing The Jing Project – -http://thejingproject.com  is a free screencast service  from the makers of camtasia.  Once you install the program, you can very quickly and easy record screencasts of up to 5 minutes from your computer.  When you are finished, the program processes your video and gives you a choice of either a code to embed the video on your website or a simple share link that you can e-mail

Now that you know some easy ways of creating videos, why not give it a try?  You can submit the videos to You Tube or just put them on your website or Facebook page.  Who knows you might be the next Cecile B. DeMille!

When talking to current clients and potential clients – I am starting to notice a recurring theme.  Clients are complaining because they are paying top dollar for virtual assistant services but not getting the strategic support they think they are paying for.  Rather, their virtual assistants are “order takers” rather than “strategic partners”.  The  client gives assignments and feel they must delineate each step for the VA rather than the VA as the “systems expert” helping design the best possible implementation process.

Many virtual assistants are more than willing to step up and become strategic partners who add value to your business by sharing their expertise.   They just need the proper environment and encouragement from their clients.  Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if you are creating a culture in your business that encourages your virtual assistant (and other team members) to  give you their very best.

Do you ask your support staff for ideas and opinions?

I know this one seems very obvious.  But, many virtual assistants will take the lead from their clients and not offer up opinions unless specifically asked for them.  Let your VA know very early in the relationship that you are not only open to feedback but that you respect it.

Do you give very explicit instructions?

For those of you who are more analytical, there may be a temptation to give your support staff very detailed instructions for each task, every time you assign it. A better solution (time saving for you) is to assign the task and have the VA document the steps she takes to implement it. You can work together to refine these documents into systems and procedures that  will serve you both in the future.

Do you acknowledge the VA’s expertise?

When your virtual assistant offers and opinion or gives a suggestion, do you acknowledge it, even if you don’t agree with it or do you just brush it aside.  A simple “thank you for your feedback” can go a long way toward getting a virtual assistant to take a stronger partnership role in your business.

Cultivating your virtual assistant can pay great dividends for your business.  After all, good virtual assistants are implementation experts who are on an accelerated learning path (they work for multiple clients and are learning form all of them constantly.  You can put all that knowledge to work for your business — often it is just a matter of asking.

I guess I’m an ice cream daredevil.  When I go to the ice cream parlor, I never ask for a pink spoon taste.  I just go ahead and order what seems good — if it isn’t absolutely scrumptious — it is a risk I’m willing to take (besides I don’t really need to be eating ice cream anyway!!)

Buying an ice cream cone don’t require a huge upfront investment of time or money.  Investing in your business is usually a bigger commitment.  How do you know which product or service is the right fit for you?  On the flip side, how to you convince your customers that you are a wise investment.  Enter the pink spoon.  The pink spoon is a simply delicious taste of your services that you give away for free to potential customers.

The concept of the pink spoon is not new in the online marketing community.  Most websites with a mailing list offer you a “free report and newsletter cock full of invaluable tips (worth $97!).    That’s great — and sometimes enough to give people a taste.   But, people have widely differing learning styles and preferences for taking in information.  For example, I actually hate videos — I usually have them play in a different tab in my computer and just listen.  Some people really hate to read.  What if you offered your pink spoon in a variety of flavors (like video and transcript)  to allow you to connect with potential clients with differing learning styles.   My pink spoon  - a video on coming up with your USP offers a video and worksheet exercises.  The exercises can be used by themselves and you can get a lot from the video without working through the exercises.

Some other easy ways of increasing the number of flavors available to your “taste testers”:

Add interactivity.  In my experience, one of the best ways to build up a strong list is to hold a monthly free teleseminar and promote it like crazy.  My clients hesitate on this because they believe that having free teleseminars devalues their paid events. I have found the opposite is true.  Clients with regular free event build up an engaged following that is willing to pay more for their offerings.  Other ways to add interactivity are specifically continuing conversation from your teleseminars using social media  (see this video on how one guru uses his facebook wall to build community).

Record your content These days it is very easy to create audio content. know you better. Potential clients love to hear your voice and get to  One of the easiest ways is to just record your blog posts into audio segments.  AudioAcrobat makes recording audio as simple as picking up the phone and talking (you can also record your teleseminars to use as a freebie later).  If you have an iphone AudioBoo makes it dead simple to make quick recordings and distribute them via Twitter.  Video recording is also easy enough.  You can record your webinar or use Jing to record quick videos from your computer screen or a Kodak zi8 to record quick “talking head” videos”.

Have something to read Sometimes, when I am in stealth mode (watching TV with my family while working on the computer) – I don’t really appreciate audio and video.  It is easy enough to create something to read. You can have your last teleseminar transcribed (not as expensive as you would think), or you can create companion worksheets that give much of the same information – possibly with the addition of some do at home exercises.

What is your current pink spoon?  How can you increase the number of “flavors” it comes in?  Chime in below and let me know.

“Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think” – John Paul Sartre

I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a Harry Potter fan.  One of my favorite parts of story are the silly faux-Latin spells that the young wizards use to work their magic.

Blogus Postus Writus…

Is the post done?  no?  Too bad Harry Potter spells don’t work for Muggle bloggers…

Spells may not work to magically complete blog posts– but word choice is a very powerful internet marketing tool indeed.

Using the “right” keywords in your posts and on your site can help get your information in front of more of your ideal clients. The more people who see what you are up to – -the better chance you have of making a connection.

When I talk to my clients about keywords, the reaction I usually get is either –”what I do is so unique – I wouldn’t even know where to begin to find keywords”  or “I know I should be paying more attention to keywords – but using them seems too complicated to me”.  There is almost an aura of magic and mystery surrounding the whole keyword concept.

It really isn’t magic — and using keywords doesn’t have to be complicated.

The quickest path to keyword success is to use the words in your content that your potential client types into google to find the solution to their problem.

The trouble is… if you’ve been “doing your thing” for quite a while– it is sometimes hard to know (or remember) how someone who isn’t immersed in your topic would describe what you do.

Here are some tips for finding those magic keywords:

1.  Ask A Question One of the most effective ways I have found to elicit keywords from clients is to include a short “ask me a question survey” as part of my opt-in process.  I put the survey either on the “you need to confirm your e-mail address” page or on the thank you page after they’ve confirmed their address.

2.  Get Social Spend some time on social media (reading people’s blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.) – how are people talking about your subject area?  Those are the same words they will use to find you.

3. Use Internet Marketing Ninja Tricks Since keywords are so important – there are tools to help you find what people are actually searching for.   A very good place to start is google’s free keyword tool.  This tool analyzes your website (or a competitors website) and suggests keywords.  It also gives you an idea of how many people are searching for that particular keyword AND how many people are buying pay per click advertising around the term.

Another great tool is Market Samurai.  Market Samurai can give you a bounty of keyword ideas, tell you which words actually translate to more sales, give you a sense of who your competitors are for given keywords, find affiliate programs for you based on specific keywords and more.  I have used Market Samurai for about 6 months.  I find it to be really helpful – even though I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of all of its features.  Market Samurai offers a 2 week free trial.

In the end, there is no real magic in keywords.  Listen to your customers and use their language to describe your offerings.

Is Headway really a better and easier way to put together a Word Press-based website? I recently put the   Headway Theme through its paces constructing a site for one of my clients – India Think Consulting.

India Think is a cross-cultural communication consulting firm that helps Americans navigate the often very muddy cultural waters of doing business in India.  IndiaThinks clients are managers from larger corporations who have a lot at stake in making sure that their projects are successful.

Because of the audience, my client wanted the site to look very professional and to be very SEO friendly.  She basically came up with the layout and asked me to implement it for her.  While I can customize themes on a basic level (changing fonts, colors, getting rid of boxes on themes) – I wouldn’t call myself an “advanced” CSS and PHP coder.  Headway allowed me to easily move boxes around and customize different types of pages.

The theme is SEO friendly out of the box – which made my client happy.   We were also able to easily change the layout based on the feedback my client was getting from friends and potential customers.  We moved the site over and saw an immediate spike in traffic.  So far so good…

But… is Headway – really drag and drop simple?  Unfortunately, no.

Designing a site in Headway is a bit like taking up a new hobby with a whole new vocabulary.  You manage “leafs” and “content boxes.  With the IndiaThink site, I did a lot of CSS customizations.  The inspector feature makes it easy enough to do but learning how to call the different classes takes practice.  The controls aren’t exactly intuitive.  But, on the plus side the support in the Headway forum is very good.

There is one quirk that could make Headway a no-go for users of Mailchimp.  In its current incarnation, the Mailchimp subscription box code conflicts with Headway’s visual editor.  There is a MailChimp subscription box widget – but it only allows you to have a subscription box for one list on your blog at a time.

Overall though,  I enjoyed using Headway and my client and I were both happy with the end result.

What have your experiences with Headway been?  Do you like it?  Does it feel easy for you or dumbed down and clunky?

You have a strong but steady virtual assistant practice with a stable client base on retainer.  Why bother keeping statistics for your business? Because you attract what you focus on and keeping metrics allows you to set and see yourself move toward your business goals. Since I’ve started tracking statistics for my business, I have nearly doubled my monthly business income (of course, a lot of that is also marketing and taking on new clients, but without my magic spreadsheet, I wouldn’t have known how much room I actually had in my practice.

Until recently, I was a dyed in the wool member of the non-spreadsheet brigade.  I had a solid virtual assistance practice filled with ideal clients who had me on retainer. Yes, I did lose a few solid clients due to the economy, but my practice was generally humming along. One day though, I noticed that I just wasn’t bringing in as much as I used to.  I decided to track a few key metrics in my practice – hours committed, hours billed, affiliate income and billed income.  Just for kicks, I also added in lines for Send Out Cards, size of my lists, twitter followers and facebook followers.

That is when the magic started to happen. By taking a snapshot of my business and putting it all down in black and white, I could make some strategic decisions about how to grow.  I learned that I had a few clients who had room in their budgets for more virtual assistant hours, so I added new services.  I also discovered that I had room for a few more clients — so I added them.  As a result, my business income has nearly doubled in the past few months.  I like to see the numbers on the spreadsheet going up each month and it is a basic law that empty spaces get filled — by making spaces on my sheet for what I wanted, I was also making room in my business and in my life.

So, to get started, all you need is a simple spreadsheet (or just a piece of paper will work too).  In the first column put the things you would like to track (# of clients, hours billed, etc.), then put your baseline numbers in the next column.  Each month, add a column with the new information for that month.  Here are some things you can track:

* Number of Clients
* Retainer Hours (or committed hours per client)
* Hours actually billed
* Affiliate income (I include Send Out Cards in This)
* Hours subcontracted (if you have an assistant VA)
* Mailing list size
* Twitter followers
* Facebook followers

Add whatever else makes sense for your and your business.  Add new columns each month, track your results and watch your business. grow.