"When things go wrong as they sometimes will;

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;

When the funds are low, and the debts are high;

And you want to smile, but have to sigh;

When care is pressing you down a bit

Rest if you must, but do not quit

Success is failure turned inside out;

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;

And you can never tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re the hardest hit

It’s when things go wrong that you must not quit"

Author Unknown

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Number Five is to have a professional and usable website to promote your VA business. It makes sense that potential clients find a Virtual Assistant on the Internet because our industry is virtual, and as such we need to make sure we have a  website that not only promotes our own Virtual Assistance practice but the VA industry as a whole. VA’s are still a relatively new concept in some sectors of the market and the onus is on us to establish the difference between an offshore VA and a professional partnering VA, and demonstrate value for money. Most importantly, learn all you can about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and use it to full advantage on your website and blog. SEO is a continual process of tweaking keywords and keeping your web and blog content current and fresh. There are many fantastic books on SEO out there but my favourite is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google by Dave Taylor. Don’t let the title put you off – it is a great, easy to understand book and Dave Taylor really knows his stuff. I also subscribe to his newsletter which is full of geek-friendly tips and discussion on the latest technologies.

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Number 8 of the Top Ten Things I’ve Learned Being a VA is especially appropriate for this time of year, being the last day of the financial year in Australia. It probably applies to every small business and that is, to invest in a good bookkeeping programme and to keep one’s own books up to date. I use Quickbooks and find it intuitive, powerful and easy to use.  I once let my books slip behind by a couple of months and it was a nightmare and time consuming to catch up. Never again. I always make sure I set aside time once a week (usually on Friday) to do my books and make sure everything is up to date. This little bit of regular maintenance is huge peace of mind and my business and I are thankful every day!

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I’ve had my blog site redesigned to look like Net Secretary’s website so visitors don’t think they’ve left the site (which they haven’t!). What do you think? I am thrilled with it. It is much easier to use, write and post blogs plus I have lots of new widgets and existing features from the website in the sidebars. There is even a handy Skype widget in the right hand column (you might need to scroll down) which tells visitors whether I’m online or not and they can Skype me.

It’s good to refresh the look of one’s website every once in a while and the blog was something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, so I’m glad I got around to it!

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I got tagged by Kathie Thomas at VA Directory – thanks Kathie!

Before I get started, here are the rules:

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Now for the fun stuff …

Weird fact #1: I am an Ebay addict! I now have two accounts on Ebay, one for personal and one for business transactions (funnily enough called “NetAuction” in keeping with the “Net” theme I have going in businesses!). I always check Ebay for goods before I go to a bricks and mortar shop, no matter what it is. I’m not sure if it’s the thrill of receiving parcels in the mail or the generally cheaper prices and better variety on Ebay – probably a bit of both.

Weird fact #2: I always warm the milk in the microwave before pouring it on my Weetbix.

Weird fact #3: I really, really would like to live in New York, at least for a year or two.

Weird fact #4: I have contemplated moving to London to live and work, again at least for a year or two, as my grandfather was born in Manchester and I am able to get an ancestry visa. I would also like to explore my heritage in Manchester.

Weird fact #5: As you can see by Facts 3 and 4, I am a travel nut and have taken my young son on lots of adventures with me, so he too is addicted.

Weird fact #6: When I was 6 years old, the Adelaide News did a story on gifted children and featured a large photo of me in the newspaper playing a quiz game and with a pencil stuck in my mouth, looking thoughtful!

Weird fact #7: I have hyperextensible knees (my legs bow out at the back in an arc when I am standing up if I don’t check myself).

Now that I’ve told you 7 weird things about me, you’ll probably see me in a different light – sorry. I’ll tag 7 others and ask them to do the same. So ladies and gent … tag, you’re it!

Ingrid Cliff

Erin Blaskie

Danielle Keister

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After some frustration and mucking around, I finally successfully installed Wordpress on my website and now it is time to play with this new software. I must admit that although I am not a complete novice at blogging, I am pretty much clueless when it comes to Wordpress and I will be doing a lot of reading and practicing over the coming weeks. I understand it is a very powerful program, so I look forward to learning about all it is capable of and hopefully using many of the features.

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