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.

How many times have you heard people say – “the money is in the list”.  The more potential clients who get your e-mails, facebook postings and tweets — the more sales you’ll make.   So, the trick is, how do you get people to sign up to receive (read, and take action) on your messages when their e-mail boxes are full to the bursting point?  The trick is a well designed opt-in box.  The opt in box is the little box usually at the top (or on the right side) of a website asking people to leave their name and address. In many ways, this is the most important part of your website.

Mistake #1 Location is Everything

The opt-in box is not your whole site — but it needs to be accessible and visible “on top of the fold” (in the area of your website that people can see without scrolling).   Conventional wisdom says that the opt-in box is most effective at the top or on the top right of your site.  You can also have more than one opt-in box.   You can also consider putting the opt-in box at the bottom of each blog post.

Mistake #2 Not Solving A Problem for Your Client

Your clients will hire you to solve problems for them. They will gladly give their e-mail address to you in exchange for a solution (or even a good diagnosis) of their problem.  I see many e-mail boxes asking people to “sign up for my news updates” — well, that isn’t very enticing to someone who doesn’t know you yet.  A little better is sign up and get a free audio or e-book — at least there is a little bit of honey to draw in the reader.  The very best opt-in boxes offer information that can instantly make a difference in your clients business.  For example, “Increase your e-mail list by 25%  – sign up here for your free audio (Value $25).   You want your “bribe” to be short, easily digestible and useful.  You also want to give them a taste of your best advice – so they’ll want more.

Mistake #3  Not Experimenting Enough

The tiniest tweak can often make the biggest difference.  Small changes in copy can change response rates by up to 250%.   In a copywriting class I took, the teacher gave an example of how the headline “Puts Music In Your Life”  outdrew “Put Music In your Life” by 250%.   How do you know which tiny changes will make a difference.  You test… one small change at a time.   Most mailing list companies offer a way to create simple split tests with your opt-in box.  If your e-mail company doesn’t offer this service, google also has a free service where it serves up different versions of your site to conduct split tests.   Not testing (or making huge changes to opt-in box) is the biggest mistake I see people making with their opt-in boxes.  It is also the one thing I see successful internet marketers doing consistently.

So, where  should you start in creating a more effective opt-in box?  I would go through these three mistakes in order.  First, make sure that your opt-in box is visible (if clients can see it – the other two suggestions won’t help you ).  Then, make sure that your offer is solving a problem for your client.  Finally, test, test and re-test, keep tightening your results to create the most effective opt-in box possible.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I’ve decided to “put my money where my mouth is” and take part in the latest e-zine articles 100 articles in 100 days challenge. I’m going to try to write 100 articles in the next 100 days.

Why am I doing this?  Well,  I am constantly telling my clients to create content for their blogs, for articles, for products.  I am not so consistent in creating content for my own business.  So, this challenge is a bit of experiment for me to try to come up with a system to make content creation easier for my clients while working on my own website.  I’m hoping that this year’s  article marketing adventure will be successful — here are the tools I am using to make it easier.

1. Ezinearticles.com wordpress plug in Ezinearticles.com is constantly coming up with new ways for authors to leverage their system. The latest addition is a WordPress plugin that automatically submits your blog posts to their article marketing system.  You can customize the resource box and the tags.  I plan on writing the articles as blog drafts – submitting them via the plug in and then editing and scheduling them for posting.  This short cut will also allow me to pre-schedule most of my 2011 blog posts before the end of 2010.

2. My mindmap I’ve created an article idea mindmap.  During the day, as I come up with ideas – I’m adding them to the map.  Putting the ideas in visual format – I’m able to create sub-series and see how groups of articles might fit together into bigger publications.

3. My RSS reader – I’ve added about a dozen new blogs to my google reader account.  I am also planning on spending more time scanning twitter, facebook and linked in for people’s questions about online marketing and how I might help them.

4. Notes from client phone calls My clients are a great source of questions that I can answer in article form.  I will be writing out all of my “standard” lectures — that way – next time they ask — I can just point them to the appropriate article.

5. Article writing templates I just bought a bunch of article writing templates from a website called write articles faster.  The templates seem to be very high quality.  They even come in word processor format.  I’m hoping that having pre-made outlines will help me to speed along the article writing process.

That’s what I have in my article writing toolkit.   I hoping that the above tools will turbocharge article writing efforts and help me be able to proudly tell my clients that if I can write 100 articles in 100 days – they can too!

There are 100 days until the end of 2010.  Do you have an end of the year – last push goal?

My goal is to take some time to “put my money where my mouth is” and generate some content around my business. I am constantly “on” my clients to create and distribute content.  To show them what’s possible when you take your article marketing seriously, I’m going take part in the HAHD (100 articles in 100 days challenge) through ezinearticles.com.   The goal of the challenge is to write 100 high-quality articles in 100 days and submit them through the ezine articles site.

By the end of the HAHD challenge I hope to have:

• About a year’s worth of twice weekly blog posts
• A  couple  of e-books to give away or sell (who knows there might be a full length book lurking somewhere inside me too.)
• An easy to use system for my clients to use for content marketing (I’ll be taking notes on what works for me)
• Increased traffic to my site
• Material for podcasts, audio boos and videos.
• Increased credibility as an expert in my field

In addition to the articles, I’ll be posting my progress and tips and tricks I learn along the way.  I would love it if you would join me. I find that article writing ends up being like exercise — I always start with great intentions — but accountability and peer pressure are not only helpful- they are essential!

Sign Up here and then  your comments on this blog so I can support you

I admit I was enthralled with the possibility of being able to get serious client work done from my iphone while waiting for my daughter to finish ice skating, gymnastics, whatever…  Lack of iphone tethering is one of the greatest banes of my existence so morphing my  business to do things that didn’t require a full laptop intrigued me….

I don’t usually buy the products being promoted in these big “so simple a monkey can do it” launches – but I wanted to learn more about social media marketing so I went ahead and purchased Let’s Get Social for a mere $97. (note I am NOT an affiliate — I’m doing this review just to let you know what I think about the course.).

Let’s Get Social is a joint venture between Ryan Deiss (very famous) and Kate Buck (pink haired social media rising star).  Over the past year and a half, Kate has built herself a burgeoning business as a social media virtual assistant (or social media manager – depending on what circles you travel in).  The super-hypey launch materials intimate that if you purchase the course — you too could very quickly be making a full time professional income from your iphone.

Is that true?  Nah… but Kate and Ryan admit that in the first module.  I also suspect that Kate’s phenomenal success is due mostly to Kate’s vivacious personality, ability to teach. business savvy and a good bit of luck.

Is the course worth $97.  Yep.

Let’s get social provides a wealth of information for a very reasonable price.  There are six modules which cover everything from “what the heck is a social media manager” to branding yourself (Kate explains this especially well), finding clients, doing the work and setting up your business.  You also get rights to us the logo — but since self-branding is important – I don’t see this as a huge bonus.  The course also includes a ton of demo videos, checklists, resource links, etc.

To me, the biggest value is the client checklist and suggested packages.  Having a value-added social media package with specific tasks was worth the course price to me.  The demo videos on how to create profiles on the different platforms (twitter, facebook, linked in, and youtube)  were also very helpful.   I am going to incorporate much of this into my service offerings.

I get the feeling though that it might be tough for a beginner to take this course and immediately start a successful social media management business. For someone already doing something similar, this course is a bargain.  I am going to start using the checklists with my current clients tomorrow  – and will make back the $97 this week.

If this were my course — I might split it up even more and do an in depth video module on each platform and then one on how to link them all together.  There are 8 or 9 how to videos within the “doing the work” module — but they seem sort of hidden.  I expected the main focus of the course to be “how to” rather than promotion.

Also, I would include a forum in the membership site section of the course.  It would be great to brainstorm and connect with other soon-to-be social media managers.

I feel lucky to have “met” Kate  signed up for this class in the beginning — I am sure it will be offered again at a higher price point.  I would recommend it to virtual assistants who want to expand their service offerings or to people who are already a little tech savvy.

Has anyone else signed up for Let’s Get Social?  What did you think of it?  What is your favorite training class for aspiring social media assistants?