Standing Out

Hi everyone,

this is the last post for this blog until January 2009! My business model has changed completely - so I’m taking a short break from blogging and newsletters until then. In the meantime, catch up with me at my new blog, Intuitively Speaking.

I’m splitting my business into two parts: my portion which is website & blog maintenance, and All American Admin, which when it is re-launched, will be a free directory of US-based virtual assistants. In this way, I’ll be keeping the page rankings for All American Admin (which for now is temporary re-directed to my new website).

If you’re interested in getting listed as a US-based virtual assistant, please send me an email at tia[at]allamericanadmin.com so I can update you when it is ready!

The site may actually be launched sooner than January; if so, there will be a way for you to go and submit your listing and upload a photo. There will also be a groups feature and a forum. All of this will be free to you.

Looking forward to January!

Warmly,

Tia

This is totally not related to VA success at all - that is my disclaimer. But it’s good to have non-work-related fun every now and again, right?

I am always patrolling the web, looking for great new Wordpress themes. I always find neat ones, and if they’re free I download them and if they’re not, sometimes I purchase them.

Anyway, one of my favorite new blog designers is holding a contest (and I do apologize for the girly-ness of this post in advance :)) and I want to win so, here goes. I have to post this text and links, and then the winner is selected at random. And guess what? There are already over 250 entries. Looks like someone’s doing something right with their blog, huh!?

“Teresa is giving away a cupcake scented gift set by Embrace Bath & Body, over at her personal blog. The contest is for USA and Canada only.”

Wish me luck! OR, go and enter yourself!

*Tia*

This is the 2nd post in my VA site review series. It wasn’t that easy deciding which site to post here - I’m very particular, I suppose!

I am particularly interested in good blogs to review, so if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment with the URL to the blog so I can go review it!

Virtual Assistant Site Review #2: Vadirectory.net/blog/

This VA blog, authored by Kathie M. Thomas, is called Virtual Assistant - THE Blog About Our Industry.

I’ve been to this blog on several other occasions, but I think it’s important to note that I found the blog through Technorati. That’s a great place to go when sourcing websites or blogs or news.

What I Like About It: Kathie’s style of writing is unpretentious, informative and entertaining. She also has some very interesting series - my favorite being “Has Anyone Worked with a Virtual Assistant?” where she profiles people who’ve worked with her or other VAs and writes about their experiences. If you’re new to the industry, those are great reads for you. (Maybe Kathie will turn that series into a book…)

Why You Should Visit: Kathie tries hard to make sure she’s offering her visitors something of value, which is essential when you’re blogging for business. I find her material easy to digest and interesting. My suggestions are: VA Networking, her trackback to A Tale of Two Assistants, and one of my very favorites is her post about supporting the client and its interesting take on when to push back (those are my words, not hers)

Tips We Can Learn From This Site: Categorization! Kathie’s done an excellent job of categorizing her posts effectively - something we can all learn (in fact, I have plans to re-categorize everything very soon!) Categorizing your posts effectively is important so that people can find what they are looking for. Sometimes, blog design makes that difficult.

How to Get There: Visit http://vadirectory.net/blog/

Great job, Kathie!

Thanks for the heads up, Stacey!

My blog was chosen as the VA Networking Blog of the Week!

Thought I’d pass on the news!

I was inspired to write this after I read and commented on VagabondetteVA’s 6 Things That Will Make Me Leave Your Blog post on May 23. Rather than talk about the things you shouldn’t do (she’s covered them), I figured I would give you some great blogging tips - what you should do - to increase visitors and rank.

There are so many ways a blog can help you create awareness about your cause, service offering or product but it’s important to pay attention to the mechanics - the ins and outs of your blog - otherwise you won’t reach your target market and ultimately your time will be wasted. A blog is not a diary; it’s meant to be shared with someone other than yourself!

Yesterday was this blog’s best day ever with the “Ning.com” post. I already had in mind some great blogging tips I liked to follow, but yesterday’s stats reaction sparked a couple more. So here are some blogging tips you can use to increase visitors and rank.

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