1. Look For Ways To Add Passive Income. Spend the time to create that ebook or program that runs without you. Another way to create passive income is to get more involved in affiliate programs. Find programs that fit your audience and then offer these great products to them. They’ll thank you for it and you’ll make a little extra cash.

2. Enjoy Your Freedom. In this day and age you can work almost anywhere. So, this summer don’t stay inside – hit the park and bring your laptop. Head to the beach and write or proof documents there. Be sure to keep a running list of documents that you’ll need access to or take advantage of an online document service such as Google Docs so that your files can be reached from wherever you are.

3. Keep Marketing. The summertime can make you want to kick your feet up and relax, but don’t get lazy – and don’t believe the hype. Yes, it can be slower in the summer, but it doesn’t have to be. You can be out there marketing and growing your business while others lose ground.

4. Prepare for Summer Storms. Make sure you have back-ups of everything. Consider an online back-up system such as Carbonite or Mozy in addition to flash drives. If you live in a state that is prone to storms (such as Florida), consider a generator in case you are without power. Make sure you print out important contact information such as client information, passwords, etc.

5. Balance Your Schedule And Rely On Your To-do List. Prioritize the work that needs to be done. Keep in mind as many work-at-home moms, your kids will be around more and even if they are older kids, this can difficult and you can lose your focus. But proper planning can help. So, start the summer off right by scheduling out your days – allowing some flexibility – and getting things done.

6. Treat Yourself To Training. Summer is a great time to get the jump on extra training or attending networking events to grow your business. Since many businesses do slow down in the summer, many offer incentives and discounts. Find a program that fits your budget and schedule and go for it!

These tips will help you enjoy your summer and get things done.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Jill Hart and Diana Ennen are the co-authors of So You Want To Be a Work-at-Home Mom. Jill is the founder of Christian Work at Home Moms www.CWAHM.com and loves to help women find success from home. Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com. Diana has worked from home for over 25 years and is passionate about PR, Publicity and Marketing & helping others start their own virtual assistant business. Article is free to be reprinted as long as bio remains.

• how to find a good virtual assistant,
• what some of their duties are, and
• how to know who would be a good fit for you and your business.

I will also be sharing some important information everyone needs to know about disaster preparedness when it comes to  your information, data, and systems.

May 29th @ 10:00 P.M. EST!

Do you want to ask me a question? It’s a LIVE show; call (888) 342-1274!

These tips will help you master article marketing:

Research

One of the most important items to remember is do your research. A VA will have researched some of the following in advance:

• Your client’s product/service. Is there something different, relevant is it uniquely marketable?
• Your target audience, their needs including solutions, enabling their business to run better/smoother?
• What are cost effective, specific avenues for releasing articles, press releases, PR Campaigns generating exposure?
• Ranking, your clients Google Status including their Amazon Page Ranking for the articles you are submitting for them.

Writing

The success of any PR Campaign is in highly relevant, fresh, insightful content. Know and collaborate with your client. Ensure that your writing is:

• Thought provoking, ask questions, peak your readers curiosity.
• Includes how/why this product/service is a valuable asset.
• Valuable information – what are the benefits of the products or services they are giving and how can you connect that with the target audience.

Keywords

Inserting keywords into your articles further promotes success, generating additional exposure and publicity. Incorporate the content below before you send out that release:

• Correct keywords. Do a keyword search and analysis.
• An SEO search including Google, Adwords, Word Tracker, etc.
• Add keywords to image links when possible.

See why you should be adding article marketing to your services as a VA. You benefit, the clients benefit, and most importantly you are getting valuable information out there on topics of interest.

Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and co-author of So You Want To Be a Work-At-Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business with Jill Hart and also VA the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA (Kelly Poelker). Follow her on Twitter @dianaennen

But to be successful, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Here are my tips for a successful radio interview:

• Listen to the radio show if you aren’t familiar with it. They normally have archived shows. You don’t need to listen for hours and hours of it, but it will help you become familiar with them and be able to be a more informed guest. For example, I was interviewed on a business radio show recently. By listening in earlier I discovered that they joke around a lot and it’s more light and fun. The guest on there that day I happened to listen in didn’t do his homework so he sounded cold and rehearsed. In preparing, I tried to come up with some light and fun comments and it worked.
• During the interview – allow the host to speak and direct the call. You’ve heard those interviews where you hear the guest just ramble on and on (and on and on and on) and the host can’t to get a word in.  BAD FORM!
• Create soundbytes.  Just brief statements of what you want to make sure you get out. Especially pay attention to the part where you get a minute to tell about your books, or products and services. By preparing the soundbyte in advance, you can talk about your products and give the benefits without sounding so promotional.
• Prepare for the show and have a checklist that you run down right before the show. This is especially helpful if you don’t do these often and even more so if it is LIVE! A few examples on your checklist might include:  1) Dog out of room;  2) Note on door – do not knock; 3) Cell phone or phone ringer off; 4) Log out of Skype (before the show) as it will distract you if you get an instant message and you can actually hear that ping you get when a message comes in;  5) Water to drink; and 6) All the notes you need on the desk (and only those notes.)
• Announce that you are going to be on the show to your list, tweeter followers, Facebook, etc. Also announce it approximately an hour before the show or closer to the show. Don’t think just because you told them yesterday they will remember (they won’t, believe me!)
• Be prepared but flexible. Take your cue from the host and follow suit.  Also, make sure you know their name and a little about them. Makes a big difference.
• Always address the host or producer by name if you have it.
• Prepare a bio for the host and make sure it’s not just on and on about how great you are.  BORING!!
• Shows will often ask you to send in questions. These are so helpful for you while you are on the air.  It’s like a test at school when you get a cheat sheet … you already know the answers. (Now that’s what I’m talking about!)

Now make sure you also put those interviews up on your site.  If you are like me and don’t know how, hire someone to do it for you.

See how easy it can be to be on the air.  I highly recommend you use this as a marketing tool for your business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and co-author of So You Want To Be a Work-At-Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business with Jill Hart and also VA the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA (Kelly Poelker).  Follow her on Twitter @dianaennen.

http://naiwe.com/experts/teleclass.php

The topic will be ..

How to Get Most Out of Everything You Do: A Teleclass with PR & Entrepreneur Expert, Diana Ennen

3:30 pm EST on Wednesday April 4, 2012
with Public Relations Expert Diana Ennen

You’ll learn:
■How to write a great how to article on topics specific to your expertise.
■How to get the most exposure for that article by adding it to your blog, newsletter, etc., and submitting it to the top ranking article submission sites as well as industry-specific places.
■How to take it a step further and get even more exposure with your social media by creating tweets, facebook postings, etc., right from that article.
■How you can review your website stats and online search stats to see what keywords brought the visitors to your site and with that knowledge create a Google Adword campaign.
■And as a bonus, we show you how to create a video of your article and add it to your YouTube channel.

Thanks!
Diana Ennen

Perhaps the best (and the real money maker) reason to offer these teleseminars is to promote a paid event. (Bingo, that’s what you wanted to hear!) It’s a perfect way to share your expertise to your audience and show them why they should sign up for your upcoming paid event. Additional benefits include adding to your marketing list and the potential to find new clients who will listen to your talk and know that you have what they are looking for.

But for a teleseminar to be successful you need to do it right. Here are some great tips to help you get there:

• Don’t bore the audience. Keep it fun and engaging while offering solid, relevant content. No one wants to attend a teleseminar where the entire time is spent promoting your event and not giving any useful tips or information.
• Think about your audience. What would interest them most? Make sure to talk to them on those topics.
• Keep in mind people are busy, so keep your teleseminar within a reasonable time limit. Thirty minutes to an hour is plenty. Those five-hour teleseminars just put people to sleep. It’s hard to engage your audience for that long.
• Focus around HOT topics – Nothing can get more people to your teleseminars than to have one on a topic that is HOT HOT HOT. (Think how often Facebook changes the rules; that alone is a year’s worth of material.)
• Provide your top 5 to 10 secrets – People love to hear your secrets, your best stuff, what makes you a success, what they don’t know and you do. Be sure to include those in your talk.
• Provide content for all levels. You might have some who are new and know little, some who know enough to be dangerous, but need more detailed information on specific topics, and then some whose knowledge is more advanced and they just want some top tips. Be mindful of that and touch on content that will help those at all levels. Now, you can have additional teleseminars focusing more on each level, but keep this in mind for your initial talk.
• Do promote your product or upcoming event. You can mention it throughout the talk and at the end provide more detail, but make sure you don’t oversell. Your audience will be interested in what you have after they hear your expertise, but if you push too hard, they will be turned off and lose their trust.

But wait, you aren’t done yet. It’s important after your call to send out an email with the recording and additional information. This is best done the same day while it is still fresh on everyone’s mind, In that email, you should include a nice note about how you enjoyed the teleseminar and thanking those who attended. Then share your promotion outlining clearly how they can purchase it. (Double and triple-check the link to the sales page. You don’t want your hard work to go unrewarded because you don’t have the right information.) And finally, give them a special to the event you described, and make it worthwhile for them, not just $2.00 off. You want them to feel good about attending your event so they will want to attend the next one you host, as well.

See how easy it is to do. Go ahead, start planning a teleseminar series now. Also, remember if you need help developing a series, look for an online support specialist to assist. They can be instrumental in getting it done

Hope you enjoy these tips. Until next time. Diana Ennen

About the Author: Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and co-author of So You Want To Be a Work-At-Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business with Jill Hart and also VA the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After Virtual Assistant (Kelly Poelker). Email her for her free PR Informational Package atDiana@virtualwordpublishing.com.

Introducing PR Bursts – PR Training in Bite-Size Pieces

We all know we need to market, but so many just don’t know how to do it right. That changes March 1st when best-selling author and publicist Diana Ennen of Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com introduces PR Bursts, bite-size PR Training packing powerful punches. This new concept in topic-specific training is designed to teach the ins and outs of all things marketing. These 60-minute training sessions provide a solid base of knowledge on numerous publicity-related topics ranging from writing and distributing articles and press releases to pitching the media, establishing and managing blogs and social media, as well as starting, managing and marketing a virtual assistant business.

Ennen has over 26 years of experience specializing in publicity and marketing and has appeared or gotten her clients mentioned in such major media as USA Today, Woman’s World, Fox News, CNN Radio, Reader’s Digest, Entrepreneur, Forbes, just to name a few.

When asked about her motivation for creating the PR Bursts, Ennen stated “So many want to do PR and marketing and just don’t know how. By breaking down the many facets of PR into concise, individual sessions, the instruction and advice is focused and can greatly help those trying to learn. We all know that behind every successful business is a great marketing plan. And behind every solid marketing strategy is an experienced professional who knows how to executive that plan to garner the best possible results. That’s exactly what we offer. Knowledge in how to do it right.”

If you want to improve your own marketing efforts, or are thinking of offering publicity and marketing as a niche, then these PR Bursts can help you get there. Visit http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com to learn more about these informative classes and sign up for one today. It may just give you the burst of knowledge you need to boost your marketing exposure.

Speakers and Coaches – A Perfect Niche for Virtual Assistants

Ask a virtual assistant (VA) to name one of their greatest challenges as they began their business and many acknowledge it is finding their niche—if, they even have one. First, they had to identify their skills and talents, match those with their interests and experiences, and then find the market that would allow them to best utilize those talents in an area of interest to them. Many have trouble doing this and so they just target anyone and everyone, something definitely not recommended.

So what exactly is a niche? A niche is a target market or industry whose needs fit well with a particular skill set. The great thing about the virtual assistant industry is that the opportunities for matching the right talents with the right niche are tremendous. Many VAs will base their niche market on their past work experiences, say for instance, real estate or executive assistance. Others may transfer their skills to a completely new area of focus, such as providing assistance to speakers and coaches. There truly is something for everyone.

Working with speakers and coaches is a perfect fit for virtual assistants. From routine tasks such as email and calendar maintenance to higher-level support like marketing and booking speaking engagements, the versatile VA can handle a multitude of support tasks for these clients. It usually doesn’t take the client long to realize that they can make more money and be more successful when they get the assistance they need and not try to do everything themselves. It’s a perfect match.

The range of services for this popular niche is endless, really. Many VAs are managing entire businesses for their coaching clients. Aside from email and calendar management, here are several other services that can be offered to these busy professionals:
• PR – article and press release marketing, building a brand, promoting events, list building
• Teleseminars – scheduling, promoting, recording, transcribing
• Shopping carts – maintenance, product additions, autoresponders, broadcasts, affiliate programs
• Websites design and maintenance, blogs, membership sites
• Developing courses, homework assignments, e-books, presentations
• SEO / web analysis
• Social networking – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups
• Research – target audience, information for teleseminars, statistics
• Brainstorming ideas – products, markets, alliances, JV partners

You can see the potential and how targeting speakers and coaches is a perfect opportunity for a virtual assistant. Want to know more? Look for books on starting a virtual assistant business including the best-selling book Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA.
Diana Ennen and Kelly Poelker are the co-authors of numerous books including Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA and accompanying Virtual Assistant – The Series Workbook. Stop by their site for complete information on starting your own VA business http://www.vatheseries.com. Article is free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact.

The Entrepreneur’s New Year – Tips to Having the Best Year Ever in 2012

Goals, dreams, to do’s, follow-up, connecting with old and new clients, coming up with a new plan, working, working, working … AAAHHH, it all seems to be too much at the beginning of a New Year. It’s just too much to even think about and so much easier just to not do it.

You know you need to make those changes, but often get stuck in just how to do it. And everybody else you know is doing it, and doing it so successfully. Why can’t you? Well, honestly I believe most are struggling just like you and feeling the overwhelm of getting it all done. However, they are doing something right. They are talking about it, sharing their ideas, and getting it out there so that when you don’t see it happen, you go back to them and ask why. It’s kind-of a security blanket.

But what can you do to make it work? What steps can you take to really grow your business in 2012. Here are some tips I think will help.

Tips to grow your business in 2012:

1) Get Organized – Clean out the old and bring on the new. It’s so important to put away last year’s work and start with a clean start for not only you, but your clients too. I do try my best every year to do this and many years I just fail miserably. Just don’t have the time between the holidays and enjoying time with the family and work. This year I gave myself this week to do it. As I reached for the client’s folders, I simply went through them and grabbed anything I knew we might need this year and put them in the brand sparkly new folder and everything else stayed in their old worn out folder. I put all the old folders together, put a rubber band around them, and put them away in my closet marking them 2011. Now I do have a larger filing cabinet that I will eventually put the most important ones in, but this allowed me to get er’ done. In just a few short days the files by my desk are mainly empty with only the most important items in there. I also make sure that everything is in alphabetical order. Never know how by the end of the year that totally slips and the z’s are by the e’s, but it just happens. How awesome to see a-z once again. Now continue this throughout your office. Done!

2) Get a new planner. (Yes, I know you have one already – but don’t skip to the next step just yet.) This planner doesn’t have client work in it. It doesn’t have school functions and times to pick up the kids. This planner is your business growth planner. (Make sure to mark it accordingly.) The planner needs to have each day on a new sheet, divided by hours.

3) Get Planning – Set out time to work your business. In your new planner, for the next month shade in time you plan on working on YOUR business. For me it’s in the morning from 6:30 to 7:30 and then at lunch. I will probably work other times on my business, but this is the time that I have scheduled just for it. I am a morning person and this is when I do my best work. Take that into consideration for your plan. When are you at your best? For just one week write down what you are going to do in that time. Each Friday or over the weekend you are going to take that one step and plan out your next week.

4) Get writing. (You knew as a marketer, I’d say that didn’t you!) You are going to write one article a month. No excuses. With that article you are also going to send it out, add it to your blog, create a couple of tweets from it, and also add it to your newsletter. Can you see the traction you can get with just one article? And don’t forget you can hire a publicity virtual assistant to do this for you.

5) Get Social – Okay, I know you are already on Facebook and Twitter- I see you there. But this year you are actually going to get more involved. In your planner, you need to schedule time (at least several times a day) to get active on Twitter and Facebook. (Or whatever social media you use.) I am more active on Twitter with over 5,500 followers. Now I know that not all 5,550 are my target audience, but what I have discovered is when I send out #PRTips or #VATips , I start seeing other PR folks and virtual assistants want to follow me. That’s how it works. You so can do this. Schedule the time and then send great quality tweets and tips.

6) Get Help – You just don’t have to do it alone. Hire a virtual assistant or someone who can help you accomplish all these goals. If you have a virtual assistant already, start sending things over to them to do. It’s all about the action steps of getting it done.

7) Get Happy – Remember you own your business for a reason. Enjoy it! Don’t get so caught up in the to do’s and client work to not remember why you are doing this in the first place. Take some time to reflect where you are and just be grateful for being there. Commit to enjoying your business more this year and the rest of all this (the to-dos’, the client work, etc.) will just seem to fall into place.

Can you see how you can do this? You can grow your business. Yes, it will require that you make a commitment to it, but don’t NOT take advantage of that new year feeling. You will be amazed that after a short time, this will be so routine, you won’t even realize that you haven’t been doing it forever.

Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com, offering PR and marketing services as well as the author of numerous books including VA the Series and So You Want to be a Work at Home Mom. Article is free to be reprinted as long as bio remains.