I have a confession to make. I am notorious for meeting people, liking them, and then when they realize what I do and that I could help them, I end up giving away my services…for free. I have this uncontrollable urge to help people, especially when I know it’s something that I am good at and enjoy doing.
Now I don’t do this all the time, but occasionally I will, and I will tell you why. It comes back to me tenfold.
For example, we just adopted a Great Dane. In my search for information on this mini-horse breed, I came across a Yahoo! Group for local Great Dane owners. I joined, sent my welcome message introducing myself and Napoleon, and the owner of the group noticed my signature line and contacted me for possible help with my services. We were on the phone for at least two hours. I liked her.
So when we finally got around to talking business and she told me she needed a sales letter written to send out locally, I told her I would do it for free.
I didn’t think twice about it.
We have chatted a few times on the phone, and we have met at our Great Dane get-togethers, and I did her sales letter. It was pretty good if I do say so myself. But here is what happened that I was not expecting.
She’s telling people about me.
That’s right. I’ve gotten new clients by referral from her, and all I did was spend two hours on her sales letter. Not a bad trade, eh?
I didn’t do this letter for her with the expectation of something in return. I honestly didn’t. My boyfriend, my coach, and my colleagues love to get on me about giving my services away, and I can see where they are coming from. However, I’m a firm believer that what goes around comes around.
This is just one example. I also had a colleague that wanted her blog template to look just like her website. I was almost sure that I could do it, and before I knew it, she sent me the information and hired me to do it.
So I did it. It was a lot of trial and error, since I was dealing with a programming code that I was not an expert in writing. I worked with it until it was just right. When it came time to bill her, I simply dropped her a note and said, “It’s on me. I’m just tickled that I could actually do it.” And I was. I didn’t expect anything from her.
Yesterday, the FedEx man came, and I now have 12 brownies from Fairytale Brownies. (Well, I HAD 12...) But again, I wasn’t expecting anything. I was just pleasantly surprised when I got a package in the mail and it wasn’t my birthday or Christmas.
And I’m sure when the conversation comes up and people ask her how she got her blog to look like her website she’ll say, “Heather at Valley Virtual Assistants did that for me.” Even if she doesn’t, that’s okay with me. I felt good helping someone out, the brownies are delicious (and hidden where no one can find them), and I’m content with how I do business.
Let’s be honest. We’re not non-profit organizations, and many of us rely on our customers and clients to put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and clothes on our backs. We cannot afford to give the farm away, but we can give a few bales of hay, and we can choose who should get them.
Until next time…
**Please feel free to publish this article in your eZine or on your site. Permission is granted to do so as long as you include this resource box.
Heather Jacobson is the owner of Valley Virtual Assistants, providing marketing support and services to entrepreneurs and small businesses. She is also a business coach with VATraining.com, speaker, and author of "Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer". Heather has over 12 years of sales and marketing experience from multiple industries and uses this expertise to custom tailor the perfect marketing avenue for each client. For more information visit www.valleyva.net or www.inexpensivemarketingideas.com.
How To Broadcast Your
Teleseminar Audio Online
By: Lynette Chandler
Teleseminars cost money for you and others to attend. One way to
help bring more people into a teleseminar is to create a streaming
audio of your teleseminar over the Internet. Unfortunately, most
methods of streaming audio over the Internet can be expensive,
difficult to setup for the average user or both.
The good news is, you can now broadcast a streaming audio of
your teleseminar very affordably, in a secure and private manner
so you won't find any gate crashers if you sold access to the call.
Here's how.
First, get a web conference room.
Web conference rooms vary a lot
from company to company but to broadcast your teleseminar you'd
want to look for:
Good streaming audio quality. This is a given. While every
technology is not perfect -- even telephones have a lot of annoying
beeps and static -- many web conferencing services today have
little problem with streaming audio. Often, issues with audio come
from user inexperience or computer settings but this can easily be
remedied with a little bit of help documentation and education.
The next biggest consideration is a room that'll give you flexible or
good number of number of seats. You'll want this because it's
often difficult to anticipate number or attendees. You can ask
people to confirm and send reminders but there will always be a
certain percentage of no shows.
This will be a little challenging because most web conference
rooms sell by number of seats or per minute or both. Look for flat
rate options instead.
Don't get distracted with the rest of the services like video if you're
only looking for streaming audio. These usually bog down the
system because of the huge amounts of bandwidth required to
transmit video. Most web conferencing systems will have video
conferencing capabilities already built in. Does that mean you
shouldn't go with them even if everything else is right? No,
because often you can 'turn off' the video or simply not use it and
performance won't be affected. The point is it shouldn't be a major
factor in your consideration unless you plan to transition to web
conferencing and reduce the use of the telephone bridge.
Once you've nailed down the web conferencing service provider of
choice, you'll need a key piece of equipment that'll pipe your
telephone audio into the computer and vice versa. One of the best
we've seen is the Dynametric TMP 636 or TMP 636S. Once you
have this, hook it up and you're ready to broadcast streaming
audio of your teleseminar online.
Now, you may ask why go through all that trouble when you can
simply look for a web conferencing service who has built in
telephone and streaming audio capabilities. That's a good question
and can only be answered by you. What is the cost for these
integrated phone and streaming audio solutions? They will
naturally cost more but beyond dollar amount, are there any
limitations? Compare them with the cost of your existing
teleconference call line, your (preferably fixed rate) web
conferencing plan and the one time telephone patch.
So there you have it. One last pointer, consider how often you
conduct teleseminars and the number of people attending as
these are the biggest variables affecting cost. As a rule of thumb, if
you don't conduct that many teleseminars or you have less people
calling in, it'll work out better to have an integrated solution. After
all, why buy a piece of equipment for streaming audio that you'll
use infrequently. Given this information, you'll be able to easily
figure out which is best for you.
Lynette Chandler helps entrepreneurs recognize and apply the power of technology and its trends to their marketing. Learn to leverage web conferencing in your business www.meetingonnow.com/web-conferencing-course.html
Hi, my name is Heather and I’m a domain addict!
I am. I have too many, some, well, most were spur of the moment purchases and I’ve not done anything with them. But, be careful when choosing your domain name. These below look innocent enough, but when you really look at them, they could be seen as something entirely different.
Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous: www.whorepresents.com
Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views: www.expertsexchange.com
Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island: www.penisland.net
Need a therapist? www.therapistfinder.com
Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales: www.molestationnursery.com
New to Milan and you need electric light? Why not sign up on-line with Power-Gen? www.powergenitalia.com
(courtesy of the Online Sun) |
We have
our next Winner!!
Congratulations to Arva Butler who won this month’s SuperCertificate from GiftCertificates.com. Arva, please email info@valleyva.net to claim your prize!
The next drawing will be on February 28th and the lucky winner takes home a copy of Paul and Sarah Edwards’ Getting Business to Come to You (2nd Ed.)
All you need to do to be entered is remain a subscriber. We’ll announce the next winner in the March 7th edition of Marketing Made Simple! |
VALENTINE'S DAY SALE!
Now through February 14th get your Internet Marketing Sweetie Course OR Press Release Profits Course for just $19.95 each!
One of the biggest things that I recommend to people is to find ways to make passive and residual income, even if it’s in addition to your service or product based business. Earning money while you sleep isn’t a bad thing.
You may have heard about affiliate marketing but not know how to break into it. There are simple ways to incorporate affiliate products into your current site or simply writing product reviews.
I started affiliate income to offset the business costs that I had. For example, I subscribe to BYOAudio.com for my audio. I knew that if I could refer three more people, my subscription fees would be waived. So I started promoting it. I did the same thing for Aweber.com.
Now, I’ve gotten to the point where my affiliate income ranks right up there with the money I receive from my clients! (I absolutely LOVE waking up in the morning and seeing how much money I made while I was sleeping.)
If you’re interested in learning more about affiliate marketing, a group of affiliate marketers, myself included, have put together a free 7-day ecourse on the subject and I’d love to share it with you!
If you’re interested send a blank email to newaffiliates@aweber.com. Now I will mention that this is a double opt-in list, you will need to check your email for a confirmation from me. As with any of my lists you’re free to unsubscribe at anytime. |
 |
 Smart To Finish Office Solutions was founded by Amber Miller in 2004 to help aleviate the overwhelming administrative burdens associated with operating a small business. Smart To Finish Office Solutions specializes in providing virtual assistance to accountants, coaches, consultants and other small businesses that need help but do not want to pay the overhead costs associated with hiring an employee.
Amber Miller, owner of operator of Smart To Finish, has over 10 years of experience in the legal and accounting industries. Her educational background includes extense networking and computer software and hardware training.
Why wait to get the help you need. Contact Amber at Smart To Finish Office Solutions to find out, how working together, your business can reach the finish line!
If you would like to be
a featured business owner in Marketing Made Simple, please
send a 150 word bio, picture and logo to
info@valleyva.net. We will notify you if you are
selected and let you know when your information will run.
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Q:
“I’ve heard you talk a lot about article marketing and I just don’t have anything to write about. How can I get over this so I can start using the power of article marketing to my advantage?"
A: I think you’re wrong when you say you don’t have anything to write about. I’m willing to bet you have more topics to write about than you have time. But, here are a few suggestions to help you get over that writers block.
First, don’t stare at a blank computer screen waiting for an idea to come to you. You’re probably putting too much pressure on yourself. What I want you to do is first think of your target market. What do they want to know? Take a blank piece of paper or that blank Word document and just start brainstorming. List topics that you think your target market wants to know about. Just keep writing them down.
Here are some examples for you:
If you are a dog trainer, you’re going to want to talk about how to housebreak a dog, how to teach a dog to sit, stay, fetch, etc. There are at least four article topics.
If you’re a virtual assistant, your target market probably wants to know how a VA will benefit them, the cost savings of a virtual assistant or the various tasks that a business owner can delegate to a VA. There are at least three topics for a virtual assistant.
Now I want you to think of business related books that you’ve read, services you’ve subscribed to, or informational products you’ve bought. Were they beneficial to you? Yes? Write a review! Do you use Stamps.com? How does it work for you? What are the benefits? Is it worth the monthly fees?
On a separate sheet of paper I want you to list all of the products that have helped you succeed in business, either by increasing your knowledge or helping you to run an effective and efficient business. Keep writing until you’re all out of ideas, but keep the sheet handy, because I guarantee you that you’re going to think of another one while you’re trying to go to sleep tonight.
There are many more ideas on how to come up with article content and then how to recycle your content so that you get the most out of it!
If you haven’t signed up already I highly recommend the 5 day free course on article marketing. Send a blank email to easyarticles@aweber.com and we’ll get started. If you want answers right now, then visit Easy Article Marketing.
Heather
PS. Amazing how I was just answering one simple question for my newsletter and guess what? This will be fleshed out into a more formal article and be submitted tonight! See how easy that is?
If you have a marketing
question send it to
info@valleyva.net and we'll answer it in future
publications!
|
We want to hear from you!
Do you have a marketing
article that you'd like to share? Are you struggling with
aspects of your marketing plan and just want some advice?
To submit your article,
email me and make sure you include a bio with a link
back to your site. (After all, this is free and simple
marketing!) |
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