What is the most effective way to deal with the anxiety that a home-based business entrepreneur experiences? The quick answer is to realize that this is part of being a business owner and to learn to live with it. The anxiety will not go away over night and you may be experiencing it for many […]

When you work with the “perfect” client, life is wonderful and business is simple. The perfect client pays on time, is thrilled with your work, tells all of her friends about you, and makes doing what you do easy. If you could replicate the perfect client, then business wouldn’t be difficult, right? Let’s discuss how […]

My favorite writing tips experts at DailyWritingTips.com sent the latest “tip” to my inbox and I had to literally chuckle out loud – at myself. I was an honor roll and straight A student through grade and high school, excelling most especially in spelling and grammar – BUT – I still stop and recite that […]

This question, along with using a comma before AND are two that seem to come up the most during proofreading and editing assignments. I often lose the argument over the “oxford” comma debate so am moving on. I, personally, use a comma when two complete thoughts or even sentences can be made from the statement, […]

As I see more and more instances of writers obviously using whatever spell check and/or auto-correct applications suggest, I felt a need to update this former blog post. The its and it’s and they’re, their, there issue seems to be out of control – even more so than I have ever seen before! Obviously, programs […]

Well, I know this well from total hard drive crashes, viruses wiping out all of my files and almost any other catastrophe you can imagine … … but I got lax and BOOM! It happened again! I babysit my 2 and 4 year old grandsons between 10 1/2 and 11 hours a day. Meanwhile I […]

Do you find yourself relying on Word’s spell check or the one in your email client? I don’t and here is the reason why … As was pointed out by my favorite “go to” authority on spelling and grammar questions, Daily Writing Tips: Writers need to keep two things in mind about spell checkers: 1. […]

One of my favorites duties as a Virtual Assistant is setting up article and blog submission sites for my clients, proofreading the posts as they send them to me and then submitting them to the various sites we work with. I can even do research to find blog and article sites that fit in the […]

You understand that article marketing works, and we’ve talked about why you should do it. Before you sit down and start pumping out as much content as your fingers can type, you need to really understand how to attract and capture targeted traffic from your article marketing. This all starts with a good plan and […]

A client and I were just discussing this very subject yesterday. I admit I am from the “old school” and although I was a straight A student in spelling, grammar and English, times and things HAVE changed a lot since the 70′s and even the 90s when I went back to school to learn how […]

Article marketing is so simple a concept that anyone can do it – but not everyone does it well. Here are the top mistakes article marketers make, and how to avoid them: 1. Failing to proofread your work. As a Virtual Assistant, you want to demonstrate your attention to detail and professionalism. Not thoroughly editing […]

I was happy to see this mention from my favorite go-to authority for grammar and word usage rules in my inbox today – this is one of those questions I have luckily not had to struggle with, although I know a LOT of writers and speakers do. This example is perfect: Child: Mother, can I […]

One of the biggest challenges for new article marketers is coming up with topics to write about. The key to developing great article topics is to ask yourself the right questions. Pull out a sheet of paper and a pen, set aside 15 minutes to brainstorm, and jot down answers to the following questions: 1. […]

One of my all time pet peeves was mentioned in my favorite go-to source for proofreading and editing tips, Daily Writing Tips. The senior vice president of a marketing and crisis-communications company in Florida interrupted an employee at a staff meeting to correct her failure to make subject and verb agree. She’d said, “There’s new […]

As a virtual assistant, you may be wondering how article marketing can help you and your career. Isn’t article marketing just for experts and authors? The short answer is that article marketing is for all business owners who want to establish themselves as leaders in their fields and drive more traffic to their websites. So, […]

It is easy not to fully comprehend the amount of work your “at home” business is going to create for you. You need to sit down and assess the many tasks you will be performing, either for yourself or for your clients, or as in my case and that of other Virtual Assistants, both. We […]

One of the attractions of working at home is the vision of freedom it invokes — no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account to for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside — you are likely […]

So, you’ve decided to start a home-based business. Congratulations! Welcome to the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship. While there is a lot to learn, your efforts will be worth it. The thrill of growing your business, the freedom and flexibility to set your own hours, and the possibilities of ever-increasing financial rewards are all wonderful reasons […]

Now that you know how simple and effective article marketing can be, you are in a great position to help your clients with their own article marketing. Here are seven ways you can help your clients with article marketing: 1.Tell them how article marketing can help them achieve their goals. What does your client want? […]

There was a time when people would never consider partnering with their ‘competition’; that was just crazy-speak! With the ability of the internet to interconnect people and create so many opportunities, some people now refer to people who do similar business to you as ‘co-opetition’. Funny, I never saw the others in my profession as […]

It should come as no surprise to you that referrals are one of the top ways that most virtual assistants and service providers get new clients. Just thinking about how we live our daily lives gives us real examples of this in action. If you want to have Chinese food but are new in town, […]

I have another eBay selling tip to share with you today. I have tested this theory for over 8 years and have come to the conclusion that it must be the “implied value” that makes the following true … You have several books, movies or whatever else it is that you have an abundance of […]

I am listing more books and movies on eBay today. It dawned on me that after years or trial and error I have what, for me, are time savers that I can share. One of them is that when you are listing items, for example books, if you use the “sell an item” option you […]

Search engines use several methods to identify which sites meet the users’ searches in the best way. Search engine optimization (SEO)involves looking at these areas and improving the search engine rankings. The most important thing the search engines look at is the keywords on the website. The keyword density is the number of times the […]

Domain names are quite important in business. To have a successful online business, you would ideally like to have a very marketable domain name. To get the best domain name, your domain name needs to be as short as possible, easy to remember, and easy to spell. If it is difficult to spell, you could [...]