Virtual Buzz Assistant

There are many free resources that you can build that will grow in value if you use them frequently and do not try to cheat the system.  You can get great a great SEO boost from social media, but not by just setting up an account and using it only to link to yourself.

Here are 10 places that you can something up and use it regularly, and occasionally get an SEO boost by linking to something on your website or blog.  Keep in mind, a Virtual Assistant can keep these active for you so that when you are ready, a respected resource is there instead of a vacant building.

1. Blogger Blog
2. WordPress Blog
3. Squidoo
4. Hubpages
5. Gather
6. Facebook
7. Blog Catalog
8. Tumblr.com
9. Del.icio.us
10. Diigo

In all of these places you can publish information or links and in come create bigger audiences.  If you build up your power and visibility on these sites, you can then occasionally link to your own site or blog and get a nice SEO boost.  The important part of this is that you do not do the same thing on all the different sites.

A virtual assitant can grow and maintain these resources for you in a fairly short period of time.  The boost and power it will give you makes it a wise investment.

Your virtual assistant marketing strategy depends on some advanced planning from you. Most virtual assistants I have met are not mind readers and do not know your business better that you do. (There have been some exceptions to that.)

So with that, I thought I would write up a summary of what your virtual assistant marketing strategy should include:

1. Good marketers know that everything either makes you money or does not.  They also know it takes time.  You need to decide exactly what the Virtual Assistant can do to make you more money.  Clearly lay it out to them and measure the results.
2. Your marketing strategy should be written in a marketing plan and should include goals such as increases in website traffic, email subscribers, search engine hits, etc.
3. If you try a tactic for a while and you are not meeting your goals, decide if it is because it is the wrong tactic or the wrong virtual assistant.
4. Do not give broad instructions like create buzz, set up a viral website or I want to double traffic and sales. Virtual Assistants are not usually marketing agencies.  You have to craft your strategy or hire a marketing expert to do it.
5. Agree on a length of time and an outcome.  (Don’t dictate, agree with the VA) Give them that long to get the results unless they are not meeting their obligations.
6. Got someone good?  Try to lock them up in a longer commitment.  Throw in some training if you want to sweeten the deal.  I know someone that found such a good programmer that she paid for two weeks of training for him.

Your virtual assistant marketing strategy is different from hiring a marketing firm.  You have to know what you want and what you can expect for results.  It is a great, low cost marketing solution if you understand that.

Realistic Virtual Assistant Pricing?

This article discusses realistic Virtual Assistant Pricing. In our Virtual Assistant Network, we do training and provide resources to help the Virtual Assistants be better at Internet Marketing. This makes them much more valuable than the average Virtual Assistant.

It is important to note that each virtual assistant sets their own price. You work directly with them and we are not taking a cut of the project, so pricing and services are directly negotiable.

We encourage the Virtual Assistants to set their price based on a number of factors:

Industry Experience – You should be willing to pay more for a virtual assistant with specialized industry knowledge.

Marketing Experience – If your virtual assistant has worked with popular websites, they should charge a higher price.

Training – Our virtual assistants get regular Internet Marketing training that they pay for – this means they might have higher prices but can get you better results.

Technology – Some of our Virtual Assistants have tech skills, such as setting up WordPress Blogs, Joomla, DotNetNuke, etc.

Retainer - Internet marketing is an ongoing effort. To get results you need to build an engine that creates great content and relationships. Your Virtual Buzz Assistant is an important part of that process. If you want a lower hourly rate, consider engaging them on monthly retainer – the price is going to be less.

Search Engine Optimization Skills – You will pay thousands of dollars per month to a good search engine optimization company (SEO). If your site is not constructed with search engines in mind, it is worth it. However, if you have a good site some of our virtual assistants know how to write for search engines. Pricing for this skill is higher than someone just keeping your blog updated.

So with those factors in mind, and remembering that each VA decides what to charge, here are our general recommendations on what Virtual Assistant Pricing should be.

This virtual assistant pricing guide goes for our VA’s and any other virtual assistants. If they are charging less, you have to questions if you are going to get quality work. Sometimes you can find a gem that will work for less, but you have to do a lot of mining.

Image via Wikipedia

We have seen amazing elasticity in Google Ranking for many sites over the last month.  Things seem to bounce up to a top 5 spot, only to fade a few hours later.

Recently when Google changed their algorithm a lot of people lost ranking.  My theory is that some of the top 10 spots of Google for any given popular keyword are available for a Freshness Bounces.

What that means is they are open for new sites that are linked to from credible sites.  So if I get a link to this site with Virtual Assistant as the anchor text and the site is credible, I may jump to the top page for an hour or three – until the next fresh link knocks me off.  (And hopefully I only fall a little, to my usual spot.)

The reason I say “Thank You Google” is because you need a Virtual Buzz Assistant more than every.  By writing good content every day and by encouraging people to link to a site, a Virtual Buzz Assistant might get better results than an SEO specialist.

That said, SEO Specialists are important if your custom built website is terrible at optimization.  But if you are using WordPress with the All in One SEO plugin, you only need a Virtual Buzz Assistant to keep at generating content and inviting people to link.  It does work.

Are you ready to start your content creation engine?  Submit your Virtual Buzz Assistant request today.

I am writing about restaurant Internet Marketing because you can be far more successful with an Virtual Buzz Assistant if you have clear examples of ways that they can help you.

Now lets begin by looking at a simple fact.  Restaurant Managers are busy people.  They also rarely become expert writers and internet programmers on the side, although I am sure there are some out there.

Consequently, Restaurant Internet Marketing is often overlooked.  And the sad thing is that it is not that hard to do.

Here is one example of what a Virtual Buzz Assistant can do to help restaurant internet marketing be effective.

1. The Virtual Buzz Assistant can upload the emails you collect from current customers to your list system.  You can even fax them the list for data entry.
2. The virtual buzz assistant can schedule the specials to go out via email.  Things like buy one get one free this Tuesday.  They can maintain the media, the list and schedule the promotions.
3. A Marketing VA can also help you keep your website updated, add specials and samples from the menu and encourage local groups to link to the restaurant site.
4. The Virtual Buzz Assistant can monitor the web and look for good and bad comments about your restaurant.
5. A virtual buzz assistant could email local businesses encouraging them to have an event at your location.
6. Your VBA can also monitor and improve local search listings, so you are found when people are searching on local search engines, Google Maps, etc.
7. A Virtual Assistant could even maintain a restaurant blog where you write about menu items, specials and solicit customer testimonials.  If you think it is hard to come up with content for a restaurant blog, consider widening the scope by talking about what people can do before or after dinner.  What movies are playing, what bands are in town, etc.  Since these things are rarely talked about online, you could end up with a flood of traffic and patrons.

Restaurant Internet Marketing is not hard to do, but it takes consistent effort.  That is why most restaurants fail at it.  Get affordable virtual assistant help and you can increase your visibility fast.  Did we mention that getting a quote is FREE?

We would love to have you sign up for our Virtual Assistant tips newsletter.  But we know that you may just want to download the eBook Start a Virtual Assistant Business.  Click that link and you can get it directly.  But we really do not bit, sign up for our email tips whether you want to be a virutal assistant or use one to grow your new business.

Small business owners wondering how to make the web work for them need to read the post about having a content marketing strategy on the buzzoodle blog.

You can hire a writer to write a few blog posts per month.

You can hire someone to use social media to generate more traffic.

You can hire a virtual assistant to contact website and blog owners and request links.

You can hire a virtual assistant to to send samples to people for review.

You can hire a virtual assistant to invite people to join your email newsletter.

What about hiring a virtual assistant for managing your adwords?

You can even hire a virtual assistant to set up a blog or help you with your website.  This stuff is just not as technical as it used to be.

You could also hire some virtual assistants to review your blog/website and improve it for SEO.

OK, this list can keep going, but I see you are falling to sleep.  I am trying to make a point here.

All the things I listed above are valuable.  However, they are much more valuable as part of a content marketing strategy that is long term and planned out.  You are more likely to get results is you know exactly what those results look like before you start.

One industry that has been devastated by outsourcing is medical transcription.  Medical transcription jobs have gone overseas, and I talk to people all the time that tell me about how their great work at home job has dried up.

While you could try to come up with other another great work at home job, the truth is that if you can do it from home, you could do it from a home in in India or the Philippines as well.  Personally, I do not see anything wrong with that either – we all want cheaper products and services, so we need to save.

What Home Based Business Cannot Be Sent Overseas?

A medical transcription job can easily be sent overseas because they only require data entry.  Sure, we could argue about accuracy and such, but lets not.  Lets just say that a vast majority of the medical transcription jobs are gone.

What can you do to replace your job that will not be gone in a year as well?

Let me be the first to say that Virtual Assistants are cheap and overseas.  No arguement there.

However, if you are trying to get marketing results, cheap overseas virtual assistants will rarely be able to bring the cultural understanding and English fluency that is required to sell to the American audience, and represent serious businesses if a positive and professional light.

I hear from businesses every week that want to have affordable representatives help them with Internet marketing and they must write well and understand the industry and culture.  Our network gets frequent requests from these kinds of serious businesses that care about their image enough to spend more on writers and virtual buzz assistants with the cultural background that helps them connect with their target audience.

This does require Internet Marketing skills and strong organizational abilities, but this is a service you can offer that will not go away like the medical transcription jobs have.

Joining our network is one option if you want a fast start to build this kind of business for yourself.  If you decide to do something else instead, good luck and just make sure you pick something that will not go the route of the medical transcription business.

One of the ways a Virtual Buzz Assistant can help an organization is to create blog posts on a regular basis.  The fact is, unless you are putting out regular content on your blog, it is not going to be successful.

However, not all blog posts are created equal.  If you need a cheap blog writer, you probably are going to get regular but less buzz-worthy blog posts.

A cheap blog writer will usually do one of the following types of posts.

1. Comment on something newsworthy – A quick post making a comment on another person’s blog post with a link is an easy way to create blog content for a blog writer.
2. Summary of existing info – If you have a  blog writer just summarize news items or other information sources, they can create OK posts.
3. Packaging common sense – Industry specific common sense blog posts help keep up fresh content.

If you are looking for that kind of a blog writer, you should be able to get someone fairly cheap, but keep in mind that you will probably not get much in the way of big results.  It is more a strategy to keep your existing audience informed.

So how do you blog if you want big results?

First, a blog is part of your overall marketing strategy that should include different ways to deliver high value information to an ever growing audience.

A not so cheap blog writer will be able to create great content that people use over and over.  This is called link bait.  It is usually something either very useful, such as a list of great resources, or something very informative or funny, that people want to tell their friends about.   The best blogs are either great information every day, or they are occasional posts that have great detail and useful information.

Too many people get caught up in the idea that a blog will product marketing results.  It is not the blog, but the blog writing strategy, that will produce results.  There is nothing wrong with a cheap blog writer that keeps your blog updated regularly, but if you do not occasionally put up highly infomative and valuable information, you are going to be disappointed with the results.