How to attract clients with 'obscure' Virtual Assistant Marketing

A Recipe Each Day is Just What Your Blog Ordered

by Arika Lewis

If you're like many Virtual Assistants, you may run out of things to talk about on occasion. Or maybe you just get tired and don't feel like chatting some days, but you know you need an active blog if you're going to make money -- and many bloggers rely on their blog income to feed their Virtual Assistant Business. So, how do you attract more readers and the search engines to your blog on a daily basis? Easy! Add a recipe of the day to keep your blog fresh and tasty. But, where do you find recipes that you can use? Before I tell you the answer, let's get the legal stuff out of the way.

To keep from violating any copyright laws, you can not just take recipes out of cookbooks or magazines and type them into your blog. You'll absolutely want to be sure that any recipe you use does not contain the original directions word for word. Both recipe instructions and recipe collections may be copyright protected. Therefore, you have to use other options.

So, what are the other ways to find recipes that you can use?

Your Recipes

Do you have recipes that you cook at home? These might be recipes that have been passed down to you, that you've created on your own, or that you've adapted to your family's tastes.

If so, get them on your computer and use them on your blog.

Friends & Family

Does your family have a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation? How about something your favorite Aunt brings to Christmas dinner every year that everyone loves?

Look around the Thanksgiving dinner table and ask everyone to share their recipes. Then, start asking your friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Hire a Writer

The second method that I'd like to share is to hire a ghostwriter to write articles for you. Now, many people don't think about using a ghostwriter in this way, but it can certainly save you much time -- that you could spend in other ways.

Private Label Rights Recipes

I've saved the best for last. My favorite way to get recipes for your blog is to buy PLR or private label rights recipes for your use. Why do I love PLR so much?

You don't have to stress your brain trying to come up with all the recipes yourself.

You don't have to pay someone else to write them for you.

You can edit the recipes as you wish or leave them just like they are.

You can split them up and add them to multiple blogs. You can pretty much do whatever you'd like with them to create a product, freebie or something else.

You can get a lot of PLR recipes for cheap. Some PLR sites sell them for less than a dollar each.

Of course, every PLR site has its own rules so be sure to read them before you buy.

A final tip: I recommend that you edit your PLR recipes so they are unique. Some ways to do this are:

Modify the directions.

Change the title.

Add a little something to it - i.e. suggestion of foods or drinks that would go well with the recipe.

Now that you know how easy it is to add recipes to your blog, you can get started right away. Your blog will go from bare to bountiful.

Get yummy (http://www.YummyPLR.com) PLR recipes every month. Simply compile them and Viola! You've got a ready made cookbook that you can sell from your blog. Need a way to make more with your blog? Check out the (http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/affiliates.html) Menu Planning Affiliate Program

Marketing – how to crack the Marketing code

Enjoy Marketing - Crack the Marketing Code

Everyone hates marketing. Selling sends shivers down their spine. How do you cope with it, how do you even start. Well I have a system that has managed to crack the marketing code

It is even a ‘warm marketing method’

The first week you are only allowed to contact people you know and like and you must try to attend at least one networking meeting – even if it is only to eat the nibbles.

It goes something like this.

Monday – The tip here is to make it Monday afternoon as Monday morning is normally busy.

Mail your three favourite clients and make sure that everything is OK. If you are not doing anything for them, ask if there is anything they need and end the conversation by hoping they have a good week. Now I am sure you know who the socialisers are so choose them. Quick chat, remind them you exist and off you go.

Total time – 30 minutes max. Now how scary was that?

Tuesday

I normally collect items from the Internet or articles from magazines that relate to my clients business if I see them. E-mail or post the articles,

If you e-mail the article, just add a note saying you saw this and thought of them. If you are posting an article, just put a ‘sticky’ on it with a hand written note in the same vein. Again only 30 minutes.

Wednesday

If you have not joined a business breakfast club look out for networking meetings and try to get to one at least twice a month. Have a bit of lunch and a chat. Spend time listening to what people say if you are new and try to get as much information out of them as you can.

Get their business card and before you leave the car park, write on the back, date, where met and what they do. You can now add them to the Tuesday pile to look out for interesting articles or anything that will interest them. People love being remembered. Put their need before yours as you need the work.

Thursday

Weekly e-mails to regular clients asking if they have anything they may want you to do as you are updating your diary. I only have to announce that I am going on holiday to be overwhelmed with work.

Friday

Get your diary and write down what you are going to do next week. Write up the details of this week’s endeavours in a contacts system such as Outlook.

This set of actions repeated week after week will flood you with new contacts and work. You are building a reverse pyramid of contacts. Contacts know people – their contacts and that is where I get most of my work from.

Half an hour a day is all it takes to crack the Marketing Code

What is on YOUR Business Card?

How do we make Business Cards ‘sticky’?

Well not cover them in food obviously but lets think about the blank side. It does not cost very much to get the blank side of the card printed and this on its own can make the card useful to its recipient.

When I think back to the cards that I have kept the following comes to mind:

• Appointment cards from hairdressers or anyone else you make an appointment with on a regular basis. A simple calendar that they can just tick the date.
Now when we think about this, you have a handy little calendar in your pocket or purse. No need to take out your electronic or paper diary when you need to check the day of the week.

• Important dates in your clients relationship to you. If you do accounts you can list the dates to ensure that the legal deadlines are met. You can also put a note in your diary to contact them a good time before these deadlines.

• A special offer. Now I used a hairdresser for years. Suddenly she gave me a card that said on the back I would get a 25% discount if I visited on certain days. I changed my normal appointment to one where I would get a discount. These were obviously times when she was not busy.

Get Inventive, Get Known for YOUR Cards

When the time comes to empty out your briefcase, purse or just a pocket full of business cards that you got at a networking meeting, if you are like me you give them the once over before deciding what to do with them. They all go into my CRM database BUT the ones with the interesting information then go into my card book and not the bin. The calendar goes into my purse etc.

Make the back of your card stand out as much if not more than the front. Buy in small quantities and start a trend where clients and prospective clients automatically turn your card over to see what gem you have come up with this time.

Virtual Assistant – start a ‘Business Babysitting Service’

Many small business owners dread holidays. What will happen if a client needs help and support, who will answer the phone, check their mails, keep their clients happy? The fact that they need a holiday, that it will refresh them, is something that is forgotten.

Having worked with many of my clients for years we have always offered holiday cover to them. One of them described it as ‘Business Babysitting’ which seemed to us the perfect title.

If you want to offer this service, the basics are:

Answering the phone, handling e-mails and faxes and dealing with clients directly. Your client can enjoy their holiday with complete peace of mind knowing you are in charge.

If you are wondering how to charge for this, this is what we did:

A weekly standing charge for the duration of the holiday if you are expected to be in the office at all times to take their calls, (a week being any 7 day period).

A per item charge if there is no telephone answering to cope with but just other administrative tasks. Also ancillary charges such as phone calls, postage etc are charged at cost.

How one article and a bit of advice pulled in $2000

$2000 from one article - and I have the testimonial to prove it...

Writing clear informative articles is a well known and underused method of marketing your website. It can also work for direct marketing from the article.

I am known for my ‘off the cuff’ marketing techniques. If a colleague says she has very little work I normally come up with a gem of an idea. It goes along the lines of ‘Why don’t you write an article?’ One of my colleagues got so fed up with this constant reply she did. The result was a $2000 contract direct from the first article.

She is now writing articles on a regular basis, getting work in on a regular basis and so grateful that she gave me a testimonial – but better than that she is now a Platinum writer for Ezinearticles.

To me this is not shameless advertising, this is explaining what you do and how you do it in a simple and well written way. If your work depends on something being completed correctly, what better than to write an article. A search by client who is ‘lost’ in the technicalities, finding an article which explains what they do and how they do it in plain English will probably get you that client as they know you have the knowledge.