E Marketing Essentials For VS

E-Marketing Essentials for Virtual Assistants
E-Marketing Essentials for

Virtual Assistants
HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE IN

LESS TIME AND WITH LESS EFFORT
BY
LISA WELLS
Copyright 2016 Lisa Wells, all rights reserved. No content may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form without express written
permission from author. Note that some links contained herein are
affiliate-tagged and I may receive compensation should you
purchase products or programs.
http://VirtualAssistantTrainer.com
Lisa Wells | Page 1

A note from Lisa

Hi, I'm Lisa Wells, and as soon as I stumbled upon the virtual
assistance industry, I could see it was something unique. While
so-called gurus are chanting, "You must dominate the market"
and selling secrets designed to "beat the competition," this is not
the prevailing sentiment among virtual assistants. They all seem
to have the same quiet confidence that there is more than
enough work and clients to go around.
I'm still not sure if I found the virtual work world or if it found me. Other virtual
assistants have told me the same thing. The early pioneers, just a few short years ago,
were leading a huge new trend and they didn't even know it.
The International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) defines a virtual assistant as "an
independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services.
Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a
professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a
contractual basis."
Most virtual assistant businesses are born in the home office, out of a computer,
knowledge of a particular market, and a burning desire to help that market while
working from home. People are sometimes surprised to hear that prior to my VA
business I really enjoyed my career as an information technology specialist and my
children were very happy going to their daycare center for stories, arts and crafts, and
playtime. I had no intention of leaving my job to work at home.
Lisa Wells | Page 2

From Southern California to North Carolina
No, instead something happened to us that happens to most military families; we got
orders to move. We were living in Southern California, where I had lived my entire life,
when my husband got orders to North Carolina. My research quickly revealed that even
though I had a bachelor’s degree in business and 20 years of experience, there simply
were no well-paying jobs in my new hometown. Sadly, this is the plight of many military
spouses. I checked into telecommuting, transcribing, freelance web design, and other
work-at-home options, but nothing seemed to fit.
Find a need, fill a need
That summer, the movie "Robots" came out; a cute family movie about Rodney
Copperbottom, an idealistic robot inventor. To foil the plans of an evil inventor, Rodney
applies the philosophy of "find a need and fill a need," and succeeds in bringing his robot
friends together to save Robot City.
More than being one of the basic principles of business, this phrase goes right to the
heart of what a virtual assistant does and how I came to be one. Before my career as an
information technology specialist, I was a secretary and a word processor. While most of
my colleagues lived and breathed computers, my passion and expertise for paperwork,
data entry, and report formatting brought in excellent money and rewards. Rather than
doing what everyone else did, I carved out a specialty and filled that need.
Lisa Wells | Page 3

Humble beginnings
I imagine that most virtual assistants start out like I did - by researching and asking lots
of questions. I even sent emails to other virtual assistants asking if they had any job
openings, obviously not understanding that they were small business owners themselves.
I finally understood that if I wanted to succeed, I needed to get out there on my own,
find my own clients, build my own website, and be my own boss. I needed to take the
lead to develop my own business. Now I get those same types of “are you hiring?” emails
and I reply as best as I can, pointing these new entrepreneurs in the right direction.
Success didn't come overnight, and starting a virtual assistant business is certainly no
get-rich-quick scheme. After my first six months of working 12-hour days and nearly
every weekend, I had made exactly $200. I had no clients, no niche, and no direction. I
was signing up for one business-building program after another, each promising me
more clients, more money - you know the deal. I have seen many virtual assistants (and
other entrepreneurs) fall into this trap.
Eventually, after another six months or so, I did get my act together. And within two
years, I was completely replacing the income that I had been making at my previous job.
Since e-marketing has been the key to my success, I only thought it natural that I share
my e-marketing expertise with you. Whether you're still hanging on to that day job or
you're already at home and looking for a way to stay there, I want you to be successful in
your business. And that's why I wrote this book. Wishing you success!
Lisa Wells | Page 4

Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................... 7
What is e-marketing and why do I have to do it? ..................................................... 7
Chapter 1 Marketing Strategies and Marketing Plans .................................... 9
Niche Marketing: Making the case for specialization ............................................... 9
Getting to know your target market .......................................................................... 12
Common myths about marketing ............................................................................. 15
Field of dreams? Not exactly… ................................................................................... 17
Chapter 2 Marketing Funnels and Building Your Credibility ...................... 20
The marketing funnel ................................................................................................ 20
Behind the scenes ...................................................................................................... 22
Is your virtual assistance business lacking credibility? ........................................... 25
An online business is a great photo opp .................................................................. 29
No more bios! Use a profile instead .......................................................................... 31
You can do this! ......................................................................................................... 32
Chapter 3 Autoresponders & List Managers................................................... 34
Having a list manager is a must ................................................................................ 34
Designing the sign-up process .................................................................................. 38
10 ways to integrate autoresponders ........................................................................ 43
Chapter 4 List-Building Basics........................................................................ 46
The money is in the list ............................................................................................. 46
More list-building techniques................................................................................... 50
What am I doing wrong?........................................................................................... 52
Chapter 5 Article Marketing ........................................................................... 54
Be seen as the “go-to” expert..................................................................................... 54
Article writing dos and don’ts ................................................................................... 55
Create a killer resource box....................................................................................... 56
Article submission ..................................................................................................... 57
Chapter 6 Teleseminars and Webinars .......................................................... 63
Lisa Wells | Page 5

Programs and tools .................................................................................................... 63

List-building with teleseminars & webinars ............................................................ 69
Chapter 7 E-mail Marketing & Newsletters .....................................................75
Newsletters: Do it right! ............................................................................................ 75
Best practices and helpful hints ................................................................................ 82
Want more opens and clicks? Pay attention to your subject lines ......................... 86
Chapter 8 Websites .......................................................................................... 91
Covering the basics .....................................................................................................91
Do’s and don’ts .......................................................................................................... 95
Pet peeves .................................................................................................................. 101
Optimizing your website ......................................................................................... 106
Chapter 9 Blogs .............................................................................................. 108
What is a blog and why do you need one? ..............................................................108
Are you ready for a blog? ........................................................................................ 109
Types of blog platforms ............................................................................................. 111
What do I post?......................................................................................................... 114
Blogging terms ........................................................................................................... 115
Chapter 10 Videos and Podcasting ................................................................ 118
Building your brand with video ............................................................................... 118
Video ideas ................................................................................................................ 119
Audio and podcasting............................................................................................... 122
Chapter 11 Leveraging Social Media .............................................................. 126
What is social media and what can (and can’t) it do for me? ................................ 127
The “Big 4” ................................................................................................................. 129
‘Getting started’ tips and etiquette .......................................................................... 130
Chapter 12 Analytics and Metrics .................................................................. 135
Understanding Google Analytics ............................................................................. 136
What is Google Analytics? ....................................................................................... 142
How to set up Google Analytics e-mail reports ...................................................... 147
Analyzing e-mail statistics ....................................................................................... 161
About Lisa Wells ............................................................................................ 168
Lisa Wells | Page 6

Introduction
What is e-marketing and why do I have to do it?

People may hear the word "marketing" and think, "Ugh, not another book telling me I
have to sell, sell, sell! I don't want to sell. I don't want to network. I just want to sit here
at my desk and get clients and work."
Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but unless you market your virtual assistant
business, you will not likely be very successful. By successful, I mean making a
comfortable income, working with the type of clients that you want to work with,
earning passive revenue (from a product or service that you sell online 24/7 without
having to actually be there), having a flexible schedule, and having more time with your
family. Creating a successful business with that kind of money, clientele, time off, and
flexibility all begins with how you market your business.
There is so much information, knowledge, and expertise out there that can help with
marketing a virtual business. Just as you probably heard a thousand times from your
parents, I’d like to save you from making many of the mistakes I did. And I want to give
you a solid foundation so you know exactly what you need in order to market a
successful business from the start.
You will never get a second chance to make a first impression. One of the biggest
mistakes an entrepreneur makes is not having a clear marketing message. You never
know where, when, or how a new prospect (prospective client) is going to hear of your
business. If you have mixed messages out there, prospects will have an unclear or
incorrect expectation of what you offer. So you must present a consistent and clear
Lisa Wells | Page 7

message in all forums, so that no matter where a new prospect sees your business for the
first time, he or she receives the same consistent message.
The Internet has changed the way we buy, sell, and access products, information,
services, and even music. Because consumers access products and services differently,
different tools are necessary to get your product or service noticed. I think we may all
have been under the impression that "If I build it, they will come." And I think we have
all learned the hard way that this just doesn't happen.
And that is where the e-marketing tools come in. Even though some of the bells and
whistles may change, these items have firmly found their place in an effective e-
marketing toolbox and aren't going anywhere for a while.
This book will cover many topics that are important for growing your business with e-
marketing: selecting a target market, filling your marketing funnel, email marketing,
article marketing, and filling your e-marketing toolbox with the most essential tools. As a
bonus, we'll look at marketing your credibility online.
Lisa Wells | Page 8

Chapter 1
Marketing Strategies and
Marketing Plans
Before you even put up your website, I think it's important that you first create a
marketing plan. But before you even start working your marketing plan, you need to
think about your target market (WHO are the clients you want to work with), what
specific problems your target market needs help with (WHAT solutions do you want to
offer), and your marketing strategy (HOW will you tell your target market about these
solutions).
Niche Marketing: Making the case for

specialization
Throughout this e-book, I'm going to tell you about my experience starting up and
marketing my business, but more importantly, I'm going to tell you about the mistakes I
made. And not choosing a target market or a niche early on was the first mistake I made!
Choosing a specialty, or "niche," in your area of expertise is perhaps one of the most
important decisions you will need to make as it will drive many of your other business
decisions.
First, I want to start off by making the distinction between your target market and your
niche. If you’ve done other research or reading on the subject of building an online
Lisa Wells | Page 9

business, you may have heard both of these terms before, and you may have heard them
used interchangeably. However, as Michael Port explains in the Book Yourself Solid
system, they are not synonymous. There’s an important distinction between the two:
Your target market is the group of people you serve, and your niche is the service
you specialize in offering to your target market.
Now, many of my peers defend the "generalist" strategy because 1) they find it hard to say
no to clients when first starting out, 2) they don’t have a particular preference for one
particular area over another, or 3) they don’t know what a target market is or how to
reach one.
I started out as a generalist, advertising every possible service and task that I could
perform, from desktop publishing to database design, from website design to word
processing.
Because I had previous experience and contacts in the real estate industry, I attracted
real estate professionals as clients and
claimed them as my first target market.
Eventually, I realized that this wasn’t the type
of work I enjoyed doing. My clients called me
at odd hours and work often stretched into
the weekend. I didn't complain – I didn't
have any other clients – but I wasn't happy.
Luckily, I had a business coach to talk it over

with and finally decided that I was serving the wrong target market. It was at this time I
recognized that I felt a much stronger connection with the coaches and consultant
Lisa Wells | Page 10

clients whom I was working with. That weekend I changed my website, changed my
newsletter, and declared my new market of coaches and consultants. Guess who I started
getting inquiries from? I believe this is what they refer to as the Law of Attraction and I
saw first-hand how it worked in my business. By taking the risk to change where I put my
energies and focus, I naturally attracted the group of clients that I am best suited for.
Why is choosing a target market so important? First, the prospective clients in your
target market all share the same problems, use the same types of programs, and provide
the same types of products or services to their clients. This means you can streamline
your marketing message to speak directly to them. Once you get clear with that message,
things will fall into place a lot quicker. You will know exactly who your market is, what
they need, and how you can help them.
And don't do what I did. On my first attempt at a website, I listed all of the
administrative services I could provide, including word processing, desktop publishing,
data entry, and scanning. Yes, scanning! If a real estate professional happened to visit my
site, he or she wouldn't have seen anything related to what they needed help with. Likely,
they moved right on to the next website and I never even knew they'd been there.
Unless you speak directly to your target market, you are not going to accurately
communicate what you can offer. For example, if you provide administrative services to
real estate professionals, instead of just listing your services, try listing the specific
solutions you can provide. For example, instead of listing "data entry" as a service,
instead put "MLS data entry." And instead of, "desktop publishing," you could say "create
brochures and listing packets for homes that are for sale."

In my case, I didn’t particularly change my ‘niche’ as I was still doing marketing support,
but once I changed the lingo from real estate speak to the words that coaches and
consultants use, it made it all the more easier to market to them.
Just by changing your offerings to reflect your target market, you will catch the attention
of your prospective client. Also, by adding specific words about the types of solutions you
provide, you will get traffic to your website from those using search engines to find
information about those key words or key phrases.
Take care in choosing a target market. I thought that since I had a background in real
estate, my target market should be real estate professionals. I couldn't have been more
wrong. Instead, think about who you like to work with. Have you met a prospective
client with whom you felt an instant connection? Are there more people out there like
him or her? What group or industry are they part of? Does that group align with your
goals and objectives? Or is there an area of interest that you are passionate about and
that you feel you can share your expertise?
Once you've picked your target market, are confident about the specialized area of
expertise that you provide (your niche), and you know what specific support services you
can provide to them, it's time to get clear about exactly what problems this group needs
help with. So now it's time for some research.
Getting to know your target market
I understand that sometimes deciding what niche to focus on for your virtual assistant
business can be quite difficult. If you are just starting out, how do you choose when there
are so many possibilities? Other times, the answer quickly becomes as clear as day,

especially if your niche happens to be in an industry of which you are quite familiar with
already and want to continue working with those folks.
Whether you have a concrete idea and are ready to roll, or need to spend a little time
deciding just what market is right for you, you will need to do some research.
For example, if you want to focus on social media service offerings, then you should be
doing tasks that you enjoy but that also allows for you to fill a void in your target market.
If you enjoy posting links and interacting with people, then your target market should be
people who are looking to building their list, maintain brand recognition and brand
management, and need someone to manage their online presence. Keeping up with the
various social media sites is a real pain point for some business owners. They view it as
being overwhelming and worth every penny to outsource the task - that is where you
come in.
Once you have chosen your niche, you will then want to ask yourself the following
questions: (All may not apply.)
 What is the formal definition of this target market?
 Who is typically interested in the services you offer?
 Who is/are your target market(s)?
 Is there a broad target market? Or a narrow target market?
 Are there many others already catering to this market?
 How can you stand out from others in your niche?
 How will your business/offering be different/better/valuable?

All of these questions and more are critical to answer before getting to work. Why?
Because it is absolutely critical to understand what you are doing before you begin doing
it!
You will also most likely need to differentiate yourself because, unless you have hit the
jackpot with having just one client or customer, you will most likely be joining a market
that already has others marketing to them.
How do you stand out? Well, you begin by offering quality services. Don’t just say you
know what you are talking about. Actually do the research, put together valuable
information, and provide your clients with something your competition doesn’t -
Expertise!
You should treat your prospective clients as you would treat your customers if you owned
a store as there are many similarities. Your target market (and ideal client) will soon
realize that your services are better than the rest and that your commitment to customer
service is what truly sets you apart. Respond to requests in a timely manner, act on calls
to action like increased functionality or service improvements, and pay attention to
feedback. What your clients are saying to others is often just as important (if not
arguably more) than what they are saying directly to you.
Remember, being a virtual assistant isn’t about you. It’s about “them.” Your clients are
the very essence of your business. They are who you are selling to and providing for. If
you put them at the top of your list, you will soon be at the top of theirs!

Common myths about marketing
No matter how much I sing the praises of targeted marketing, there are those who still
are naysayers and perpetuate myths. There are those who continue to question the
possibility of great success (and good money) by marketing to a particular target market;
it can and will be profitable if you do it right. I just want to drive home the point of how
you can benefit from targeted marketing and how you can separate fact from fiction.
Here are the top 2 most common myths that surround targeted marketing and the truth
behind them.
Myth #1: Small Market, Small Client List
A small target market does not dictate a small client list. Sure this can be true, but it is a
blanket statement to say the least. Take for example the coaching market. This is
arguably a “small” market compared to the majority of business owners who use virtual
assistants. But coaches are a VERY chatty bunch and whenever they find something or
someone of value, they want to shout it from the rooftops and before you know it, you
have gained three paying clients from just one referral. And, because coaches usually
charge based on their value to their clientele, they already understand your value and are
willing to pay for it. Therefore, just because you are focusing on a particular segment of a
larger market does not make your earning potential small. It makes your target more
focused.
Myth #2: You need to expand your offerings
Are you familiar with the old adage, “less is more”? Well, it’s a phrase that carries on in
its infinite wisdom for a reason. It’s true! And it is especially true for marketing.

You’ll never hear of a carpenter who manufactures hand-crafted rocking chairs begin to
offer leather sofas. Why? Because he has a specialty and knows there is a very specific
group of people who enjoy and appreciate his work. Just the same, you may never hear of
a fast food restaurant offering five course meals. Again, they know their market, they
understand what their market wants, and they stick to it.
You should do the same! Remember, you can’t serve everything to everyone. You should
focus your efforts and continually work on perfecting them. That is how you will set
yourself apart and gain the trust and respect of your clients.
We’ve covered a lot about who virtual assistants are, what they do, and you should now
have a good understanding of the industry, how it works, and the importance of targeted
marketing. Now let’s talk about your individual business and what you need to do to get
started.
QUICK START ASSIGNMENT:
 Hang out in forums, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, or other online groups
where your target market hangs out and notice what they're talking about and
asking each other for help with.
 Search for another virtual assistant who services this market and ask what
problems they are helping their clients/customers with.
 Contact a few people who are in your target market and ask them about their
biggest challenges.
Now that you understand targeted marketing, choosing a niche, and the difference
between the two, let’s talk about your marketing strategy.

Field of dreams? Not exactly…
Forget what they say about “marketing like a big company.” (And I may have even said
that in the past, my bad.) Because the thing is, you are not Apple. You are not Nike. And
you are not Wal-Mart. You aren’t going to have a huge advertising budget and forget
about buying Facebook or Google ads because that’s not where your clients hang out. If
you are just starting up your online business, you should know the least expensive yet
most effective search engine optimization methods… In short, you need a marketing
strategy and a marketing plan.
A marketing strategy will help you in defining business goals and develop activities to
achieve them. This entire e-book will cover marketing programs, techniques, tools,
resources – everything you need to market your virtual assistant business in the shortest
amount of time possible. But there are three things you can only do for yourself:
1. Get clear about your target market

2. Make a plan and execute
3. Monitor results
Anyone who has started an online business knows the importance of marketing - because
I can tell you from firsthand experience that, just because you built a great website, this
doesn’t necessarily equate to lots of traffic or clients. You can have a fantastic
service/price/idea (fill in blank), but getting people to partner with you (or invest in you)
is another thing. One of the most important things you can do for your business before
you do anything else is to sit down and think about your overall marketing strategy
(where you want to go) and a marketing plan (how you’re going to get there).

Let’s first talk about the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan. A
marketing strategy often integrates your business’ marketing goals and tactics into a
cohesive whole. A good working marketing strategy should be detailed, specific, and
contain measurable goals that you should not have to change often. It should not be
revised until your business objectives (financial, marketing, and overall business goals)
have been achieved or if your personal situation has changed significantly. For example,
if your marketing strategy specifies your target market as financial planners but you find
that you resonate more with authors, you would revise your strategy to redefine your
target market and perhaps your services. And don’t be afraid to make a change - as you
grow and your clients grow, your target market can change.
Your marketing strategy will be shaped by your

overall business goals. This could include a
description of your services, a profile of your target
clients, pricing strategy, or perhaps descriptions and
characteristics of your services that distinguish you
from the competition. Though this is way more than
you’ll ever need, you can find more information and
a comprehensive checklist here: Small Business Owner’s Toolkit.
Here is a brief example to illustrate what I mean by “A good working marketing strategy
should be detailed, specific, and contain measurable goals”:
Let’s say that one of your marketing objectives is to drive traffic to your site to increase
visitors to an average of 100 unique visitors a day.
The marketing strategy could include article marketing to drive traffic to your website.

The marketing plan would then include specific actions to support your strategy and
ultimately your goal.
 Write at least one article per week
 Submit at least one article per week to four article banks
 Contact other complementary newsletter providers and/or blog sites and submit
articles
 Setup Google Analytics to measure website traffic (we go over Google Analytics in a
later chapter)
 Create a marketing strategy and marketing plan. Here are some questions to get
you thinking…
 What are your specific objectives? For example, do you want x number of
clients, specific amount in revenue, certain percentage of profit?
Remember to be specific!
 What is your business and what services do you provide? What made you
start this business? What specifically is your niche?
 Who is your target market? (Who are you marketing to? What are their
problems? What keeps them up at night?)
 Define your marketing methods. Will you advertise, use Internet

marketing, direct marketing, or public relations? If you are strictly online,
what online methods will you use? Blogs, websites, PPC (pay per click)?
 What are the similarities and differences between the services you offer
and what your competition offers?

Chapter 2
Marketing Funnels and
Building Your Credibility
Many times virtual assistants spend the majority of their time looking for clients. You
will try, or may have already tried, all sorts of tactics: trolling freelance sites such as
guru.com or elance.com, answering Craigslist ads, responding to Request for Proposals
from your membership association, e-mailing old friends who may be business owners,
or networking at local events. These are all ways to get clients. But let’s face it, casting
such a wide net makes it pretty hard to find a good client that fits into your target market
and, in the end, you are trading time for money. But there is an easier way – the
marketing funnel.
The marketing funnel
A marketing funnel (also known as a pipeline) is a collection of services that get

progressively more expensive. Typically, you offer something free (a "pink spoon," which
we'll get to in a moment) at the top of the marketing funnel, then a mid-priced option in
the middle, and finally your highest priced services at the bottom of the funnel. The
concept is that, as your prospective clients progress through your funnel, they get to
know, like, and trust you. They'll be much more likely to invest in one of your higher-end
services at that point versus when they have just stumbled upon your website for the first
time.

So at the top, or widest part of the funnel, you can have your pink spoon (named for the
ice cream chain that offers a free taste of their 31 flavors by giving customers a little pink
spoonful). A pink spoon is a chance for customers to try out the goods before they buy
anything. In your case, the pink spoon is a small taste of who you are and what you offer
and entices the visitor to join your mailing list (“the list”). I’ll be mentioning the “list” a
lot because the list is golden!
You've probably already noticed pink spoons on

other people's websites – commonly an opt-in
form on the upper right-hand corner of the page
offering a free e-book or report when you sign-
up. When you submit your name and e-mail
address, you receive the e-book via an
autoresponder program and you're most likely
added to that business's mailing or prospect list.
Offering a pink spoon is a great way to showcase

yourself. When a visitor or prospective
client/customer signs up to your list, it accomplishes three goals: (1) it captures the
prospect's contact information, allowing you to communicate with that person over and
over, (2) it offers the prospect more insight into who you are, what you offer, and how
you work and (3) it highlights your unique expertise.
There are many examples of pink spoons: a free mini e-book or special report, a free CD
(you could just charge for shipping), top-10 list, a free recording or audio download, an
excerpt of an e-book or published book, or a tip sheet. The possibilities are many! Once

the person receives the free taste, no matter what it is, you then can launch your e-mail
marketing system.
Next, fill out your marketing funnel with mid-level products such as e-books for sale,
single “ask the expert” sessions, “how to” documents, done-for-you services, or a package
of several of these put together.
At the bottom of your funnel are your premium services, such as your one-on-one virtual
assistant service or support packages.
Many VAs don't have anything in their marketing funnel except at the bottom, their one-
on-one services. Yes, I was guilty of that too until I read “Multiple Streams of Coaching
Income” by Andrea J. Lee and learned that by simply communicating to a list of
interested prospects every so often, I could create, market, and sell a vast array of
products and services that were just what my target market was looking for.
 What is the number one problem that your target market is talking about? Make
that the topic of an article, report, or e-course and brainstorm an outline of your
very own pink spoon.
Behind the scenes
I think it’s important that you have an overview of how the specific programs, such as
autoresponders, work so you can keep it in mind when creating products. So let’s talk
more about the technical aspects of how the marketing funnel would actually work and
what programs are needed to bring it all together. Let’s take it one step at a time…

Even if you don’t yet have a website or blog up, you can create a one-page mini-site that
could serve as a squeeze page, which is a one-page site with a sole purpose of capturing
the subscriber’s e-mail address and adding the subscriber to the “list.” These pages are
also called opt-in pages – but as long as their purpose is to get the subscribers’ e-mail
address, it’s all the same thing. Here is an example of one of my squeeze pages:
http://www.virtualassistantforms.com
On this page you are going to add your free report, free audio, or something of value
along with an opt-in box. Using my example, I am offering free forms in exchange for
your name and e-mail. Note: I would not add an opt-in box that just announces that the
person is signing up to your “newsletter list” – the goal is to provide something that will
entice the person to WANT to sign up and you can also showcase your expertise at the
same time.
How do you add a sign-up box and make it so that an e-mail is generated automatically?
You do this by programming a list manager/autoresponder program, such as AWeber or
iContact. The autoresponders all have their intricacies, but they all basically work the
same. First, you create an opt-in box and attach it to a specific list within the
autoresponder. Then, when someone submits their name and e-mail address, the free
report, audio, e-course, or whatever you have set up, is automatically sent via the
autoresponder. (I will go more in-depth about autoresponders and how they work in later
chapters.)
You have now launched the power of your e-mail marketing system and the beauty of it
is that once it is setup, you do not have to manually touch it. Pretty much a ‘set it and
forget it’ type system.

There is so much you can do with your autoresponder! For example, you can program the
autoresponder so that three days following the day the subscriber opted in for the free
pink spoon, he gets an e-mail from you thanking him for subscribing to your e-mail list
and also to let him know that you have an e-book for sale (the e-book would be a mid-
level product in your marketing funnel) that he might be interested in.
Also, this prospective client will have the benefit of hearing from you whenever your
launch a new program, service offering, product, or otherwise want to communicate with
your subscriber list.
Need more examples?
 How about gathering a collection of your free articles and creating an e-book to
sell?
 Remember that free teleseminar that you recorded last week? Get it transcribed,
create CDs, and sell as a higher-value packaged product.
 You could also repurpose existing content – provide an audio version of your e-
book or add short videos instead of screen shots. People love having information
in different mediums!
I mentioned two example autoresponder programs but you may be wondering “what
about 1ShoppingCart or Constant Contact?” There is a lot of information about the
different delivery programs and I go into greater detail during the next chapter. What I
want you to do for this chapter is focus on your free offering. When I created my first e-
course, I went all out and created five lessons, hired a copywriter to help fine tune each
one, created a PDF file, created an e-cover graphic – I was hung up on perfection. But
there is really no need for perfection, just get it up there and you can tweak or fine tune
later.

As you get started creating your reports, e-courses, and pink spoons, don’t forget about
one of the most important things that can seriously hurt online business owners if not
done right or taken for granted – credibility!
Is your virtual assistance business lacking

credibility?
Why am I talking about credibility? Because I think it is one topic that most virtual
assistants don’t address and I think that is a big mistake. If your website isn’t seen as
being credible then you aren’t credible either. As an online business owner, my goal is to
establish a trusting relationship with my clients, prospects, and customers, and being
credible is the starting point.
Those doing business purely online are at a somewhat disadvantage because you have to
work a little harder to gain credibility and trust, especially if someone is going to give you
money or hire you. And let’s face it, the general public is more than a little wary of
handing over information—whether an e-mail address, credit card numbers, or
passwords—in this climate of viruses, identify theft, malware, and phishing attacks.
Seriously, it’s a wonder we get any business at all.
But like any service business, trust is imperative, which is why marketing your credibility
is paramount. Moreover, you will most likely be handling client passwords, bank account
details, and other key components of your client’s business operations. So in all of your
marketing communications, online and offline, you need to communicate your
professionalism, your expertise, and a consistent marketing message.

What message are you sending?
We can use so many different tools to reach out to prospective clients these days, things
like websites, blogs, social marketing sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook,
autoresponders, and newsletters.
You might be doing all the right things with your sign-up box placement, your website
optimization, and dozens of clever subject lines for your newsletter. You're following up
and getting your message out about all of your services, events, and maybe even affiliate
opportunities.
However, if you want that prospective client to take the next step, whether it's to join
your mailing list, attend a free teleseminar, download an e-book, or sign a contract for
your services, it takes more than just a message, it takes credibility.
The first time a potential client sees your message, they must immediately see you as
credible. You need to create enough trust to motivate them to take the next step in your
marketing funnel. Once they're in there, you need to reinforce that message of credibility
to help them make the decision to partner with you.
While you can't read their minds, your website statistics and e-mail open rates will speak
volumes about the impression that you're making.

According to Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed, Communication Expert,

Consultant, Speaker & Coach, "Credibility is the most important factor in
determining whether a client will begin a dialog with you by providing you
with their e-mail address or contacting you with questions about your
services. If your ideal client does not see you as credible, you'll miss the
opportunity to work with that person."
To build credibility, work on these three things: a good first impression, creating trust,
and being consistent.
First impressions
Do your marketing materials look professional? Proofread for typos, replace any fuzzy,
pixilated, or amateurish graphics, and check for broken links. Has anything changed in
your business that needs to be updated, like your phone number, services, or the details
of your biography or profile?
Use an e-mail address that reinforces your business brand (yourbusinessname.com) - no

Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo accounts, please!
Creating trust
People want to do business with people whom they know, like, and trust. This is why it is
important to get prospects onto your mailing list so that you can build a rapport, provide
valuable information over time, and show them that you're a real person. So reveal some
personal details once in a while – let them see pictures of your dog or tell a story about a

vacation adventure with the family. For example, I put

this picture into my newsletter (right) and oh my
gosh! I had no idea I had so many pug lovers on my
list! By taking the time to create this trust, you're
setting the stage for a mutually beneficial long-term
relationship.
Treat all prospects as existing clients. Answer

questions and take care of any customer service issues
promptly. Be appreciative when people take the time
to contact you – thank them and create a dialogue. A
little bit of politeness can go a long way.
Consistency MY TWO EMPLOYEES HARD AT WORK ; )
A while back, I signed up for an e-mail newsletter. I was impressed by the welcome e-
mail. It arrived immediately after I submitted my e-mail address and spoke of all the
wonderful things I'd be getting: a monthly e-zine, announcements, products, discounts
for current subscribers - sounds great, doesn't it?
But weeks and months went by without so much as a peep, only a generic "you are
subscribed" message every month. After a few months, I unsubscribed. It's a shame
because I was looking forward to what this person had to offer and I may have become a
customer.
By the way, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. When you promise something to your
clients, customers, or even potential clients, you had better deliver. Being inconsistent

shows a lack of organization and follow-through; not good if you are a service
professional trying to land a client who needs help with these very things.
Credibility just might be a missing link between you and a successful business.
 Review all of your marketing materials objectively and notice the kind of first
impression you might be making. Also, if you offer specific services such as
website design, make sure your own website is top-notch. If you design logos,
make sure your own logo is creative and professional. Believe me - prospects take
great notice of this.
An online business is a great photo opp
I've seen some photos and thought, "Ugh they should have just stayed physically
anonymous." This is the last thing I'd want someone to think of when they view my
website, but believe it or not, this was an actual response to a survey posted by Excess
Voice about key credibility factors when viewing websites.
A sure-fire way to avoid this kind of response to your photo is to book a session with a
professional photographer. Find out who your friends, family, and colleagues have
enjoyed working with. Or search your local listings for a few choices and get references
from their previous clients.
When it’s time to update my photos, I get excited but dread it at the same time. Those
who know me know that I absolutely hate (with a capital "H") having my picture taken. It
ranks right up there with eating peas. As you might have guessed, I hate them too. When
I need motivation to go through with it, I remember why I called the photographer in the

first place - because it is important for my business. So I put on my big girl panties, chant
my "Just do it" mantra, and forge ahead.
To get the most out of my new photos, I plaster them all over my websites, newsletter,
business cards, article bank profiles, social media profiles, and other promotional
materials. Just think of all your current marketing materials that could benefit from
having a fresh new picture of you!
Besides refreshing your marketing materials,

there are a number of other benefits to adding a
professional photo:
1) Credibility. Displaying a photo creates a

sense of legitimacy and transparency, by
the simple fact that you're not trying to hide.
2) Connection. People will relate and connect to you more easily if they know what
you look like. For those of us who work purely in a virtual world, putting a name to
a face really makes a difference.
3) Public Relations. Having professional photos in downloadable format (at least

150 dpi) is a must, especially if your picture will be printed, such as in a book,
quoted in the press, or promoted as a speaker. Remember that your current web
photo is most likely at 72 dpi for fast viewing. If you try to stretch or reconfigure
that photo for print purposes or even for a larger version on another web page, you
could end up with is a fuzzy distorted caricature. Definitely not the impression you
want to make, so make sure to have a “high resolution” photo ready.

Hire the best photographer you can afford and put in the time and effort needed for this
essential marketing tool. You will increase your credibility, create a better impression,
and provide that personal connection with your audience.
 Ask friends, family and local business associates for photographer

recommendations. Call at least three in order to find one who you feel
comfortable with and who fits your budget.
 Check out http://www.lookbetteronline.com – an inexpensive service that

matches you up with local photographers. Its primary purpose is to enhance
those who submit photos for online dating, but it will do the job.
No more bios! Use a profile instead
Many virtual assistants start their business after coming from other more traditional jobs
or careers. But an effective ‘About’ or ‘Bio’ page needs more than just pasting in your
traditional resume information.
One of the obstacles we face as virtual assistants is standing apart from the competition.
So, how do you accomplish the branding and positioning you need to become recognized
as the ‘go to’ person for your niche? You may want to write and use a professional profile.
A professional profile can:
 Promote your business products or services
 Portray you as reputable trustworthy, knowledgeable, credible, and reliable
 Clearly communicate your message to your target audience

 Let your reader know who you are and why they should do business with you
 Help your potential clients get to know, like, and trust you
 Provide you with a powerful reusable marketing and networking tool
There are a few resources out there that can help you write your professional profile but
basically it’s different from a resume in that it’s telling the prospect of what you are doing
NOW - not a chronological listing of the jobs that you held in the past.
There are no hard and fast rules about profiles; you can write a story of how you came to
be where you are, or write about the market that you serve, why, and how.
Not only can you use this profile on your website, but can also repurpose it for your
social media profiles, blogs, author resource box, and more.
You can do this!
One final message – and this is from my heart: No matter what group you are marketing
to or what your specialty is, you ARE an expert.
I want to illustrate my point with a story. A few years ago, I attended a live event in
which the speaker was conducting a laser coaching/hot seat session with an online
business owner. As they were up on stage, the speaker asked the woman what her niche
was and she replied, “I help legal immigrants save time and money when dealing with
U.S. Immigration.” The speaker then asked her if she was an expert in this area to which
she replied, “No, not really.”
“Are you a legal immigrant?”

“Yes.”
“Are you in the process of getting your US citizenship?”
“Yes.”
“Haven’t you dealt directly with U.S. Immigration for a number of years and know how to
help other people with the same issues?”
“Yes.”
The speaker then asked if any of us had that same type of experience in that particular
niche. No one raised their hand. She then asked how many of us thought this person an
expert and would seek out her assistance. Everyone raised their hands.
And this is my point. If you have special knowledge or skills about your area of
expertise because of training or experience then you are by definition an expert. Go
ahead, look it up, I’ll wait.
You may have a hard time thinking of yourself as an expert, at first. I know I did.
Honestly, sometimes I felt like a fraud. I asked “why would someone ask for my advice?”
It took some time for me to overcome this obstacle and acknowledge my expert status,
but I worked at it and I did it. Now I can say with confidence that I am an expert and that
I provide expert services to my clients. And I will tell you that if you don’t see yourself as
an expert then no one else will. So get over it and let’s move on.

Chapter 3
Autoresponders & List Managers
Maybe you were planning to keep in touch with your clients, customers, affiliates,
prospects, and other contacts with your own e-mail program. That's fine if you're sending
a personal note to a specific person, but if you're going to send bulk e-mails to a group of
people or launch an e-mail marketing system, you need a list manager service, commonly
called “autoresponders.”
Having a list manager is a must
I can't stress enough that joining a list manager service is a must. Here are just three of
the reasons why sending bulk e-mails from your own e-mail program can be
troublesome:
 If something happens to your computer, there goes your mailing list
 You have to manually subscribe and unsubscribe people and that creates a barrier
and complicates the process; you want this to be super easy
 Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may flag you as a spammer and/or may
prohibit you from sending a certain amount of e-mails at any given time

Aren't all list managers basically the same?
As with many online marketing tools, there are differences among the list manager
service providers, and your individual needs will dictate which service you ultimately go
with. Do your research and consider factors such as deliverability, technical support,
pricing, and features. Just to clarify, a ‘list manager’ and ‘autoresponder’ is basically the
same thing, but some programs can be said to be a list manager but not have
autoresponder functions. And other types of programs, such as shopping carts, contain
autoresponder programs but are considered to be shopping carts. Clear as mud?
For example, Constant Contact is great for delivering newsletters and announcements
and for managing subscription lists, but it is not known for their autoresponder
capabilities. For this reason, you might want to consider an all-in-one provider that can
handle both broadcasts (to send out newsletters and other communication) and
autoresponders, such as AWeber or iContact.
Both AWeber and iContact are autoresponder programs. They

both contain sign-up/opt-in forms, both have the ability to
create multiple lists, both can send “welcome” and/or
autoresponder messages, both are priced comparably by number of subscribers, and both
can deliver broadcast messages and newsletters. However, to illustrate why it is
important that you ask a lot of questions before purchasing, I will show you some
differences between the two programs.
AWeber has the ability to attach documents to broadcasts and autoresponders, iContact
does not. AWeber has the ability to integrate with third-party e-commerce merchants
and membership sites, such as PayPal, e-Junkie, and Membergate; iContact does not.

AWeber has ability to have a subscriber sign up for more than one list at a time, so if you
want to have the person sign up for the free teleseminar list AND your mailing list, this
process is automated. iContact does not allow redirect URLs, such as tinyurl or bit.ly in
the body of its messages, but most all other services do. This cuts down on spam
complaints and helps with deliverability I’m sure, but many people like having the
shortened URLs.
On the other hand, iContact allows you to import e-mails without requiring a
confirmation process, whereas AWeber requires the opt-in confirmation whether you are
signing up from a web form1, importing a list, or using direct-subscribe. This is known as
“double opt-in.” iContact also has a “forward to a friend” feature that you will not see in
AWeber. As you can see, the differences are few but can make a huge impact on your
decision.
If you want to sell products or services online, then AWeber may be a better choice since
it has a better integration with third-party payment systems. However, if you want to do
away with confirmation links when importing lists, then iContact may work better for
you.
Shopping cart programs as a total solution
You can also look at a shopping cart solution such as Infusionsoft, 1ShoppingCart (or any
of the designer label carts such as Kick Start Cart, Marketer’s Choice, etc.). Both programs
offer a comprehensive solution if you want something that will handle e-mail broadcasts,
1
When initially starting up AWeber, you can turn ON confirmed opt-in for web form submissions and this will
remain the default for all future lists. If you leave the Status “OFF” you can choose to have confirmed opt-in for web
form submissions per list. This does not apply to direct-subscribe or imports – only to web forms.

autoresponders, shopping cart, affiliate programs, digital delivery, and more. It may seem
like more than you need at the moment, but if your 1- or 2-year plan includes selling a lot
of e-books or other digital delivery items, and/or offering an affiliate program to help
promote your products and programs (which autoresponder-only programs cannot do)
you may as well invest in the system now on the low end of the scale and add on services
as you go.
There is a reason why I am placing such a big emphasis on choosing the right program
from the beginning. Keep in mind that a majority of these list manager AND shopping
cart services, in order to conform to anti-spam laws and ensure a permission-based list,
will require your prospects to complete an opt-in process by confirming their
subscription. And should you decide that a year or two down the road you want to
switch services, these same prospects will need to opt in again. This is not as easy as it
sounds and you can expect to lose a very big chunk of subscribers!
Imagine if you've spent a year or two building your list and you depend on your
relationship with your subscribers to make sales and then overnight your list shrinks by
80%. So, make sure to put a lot of thought into this at the very beginning and save
yourself a lot of grief.
 Visit the websites of the list manager services I've mentioned, as well as others
recommended by your peers, and get a feel for which one might be a good fit for
you.
 Test out their customer service by asking some questions.
 Survey your peers who have a business model that you like and ask which list
manager they use.

 Take your time, and then make your choice.
Designing the sign-up process
Once you've chosen your service, expect to spend an hour or two on the initial set-up in
your list manager. You'll have to create your account, add opt-in and confirmation
messages, designate a "thank you" page (optional but adds a nice touch and a chance for
up-sells, cross-sells, and one-time-offers), and add a sign-up box to your website.
Form placement
Place your sign-up form on every page of your website. The reason for this is because you
never know from which page the potential prospect is going to enter your site. Users
rarely get to your site by typing your URL and starting from your home page—they will
most likely land on a page of your site after searching through a browser using specific
words or phrases.

As well, display the web form somewhere near the top of the screen so that the person
does not have to scroll down to find it (or "above the fold," a term borrowed from the
newspaper world). Feel free to add a second box near the bottom. Here is an example
from my website.
On another note, at times you will want to use your own judgment if you think that a
sign-up form may not be needed on a web page as it may detract from the message of the
page. For example, I have a client who likes to add articles as HTML pages. The main
goal for these pages is to have the visitor read her article and having a sign-up form may
take the visitor away from the page. Same reasoning with a sales page, probably not a
good idea to add an opt-in there either because too many choices makes for a confused
mind…

In these cases, you may want to leave off the sign-up form or put it at the bottom next to
the author resource area. Again, use your judgment if you think the sign-up form may
not be needed.
Required fields
List service managers give you the option of personalizing your messages based on the
data you collect in your form (we'll talk more about personalization in the lesson on
newsletters). Keep in mind, though, that people really don't like to work too hard to fill
in a form and many are concerned about privacy. For those reasons, consider limiting
your required fields to only First Name and E-mail. If you do include other fields, make
them optional to fill in. But just know that people will get turned off by multiple fields, so
try to keep it brief if you can. The key here is that the less barriers and less ‘friction,’ the
more sign ups you’ll get.
Pop-ups
When you hear "pop-ups," you probably think of pop-up ads or pop-up banners, both
considered to be annoying and intrusive marketing tactics. But you have to admit that
pop-ups do grab the reader's attention, if only for a short time.
Many list manager services provide various ways to incorporate your sign-up form into a
pop-up, including:
 Pop-up – Pops up in a new window
 Pop-under – Opens up in a new window underneath the current window (less

obtrusive than the regular pop-ups but still may be blocked by pop-up
blockers)

 Exit pop-up – Like a pop-up but opens when the visitor leaves the page. Though
it may be blocked by pop-up blockers, having a creative and stylish exit pop-up
window is way to catch the person before they leave your page or site. Use
these sparingly, maybe on a sales page in which you may catch the person who
doesn't want to make a purchase but may just sign up for your pink spoon. You
never know what may work!
 Pop-over/hover – Appears to hover within the web page and normally are not
blocked by pop-up blockers
Not sure which one to use? Think about your target market and how they might respond
to these tactics and then experiment with different forms on different pages. Use your list
manager service's tracking features to judge your results. Also, there are WordPress
plugins that also do pop-ups, so even if it isn’t offered in your list manager program, you
can purchase separately if you have a WordPress site.
What's in it for me?
That's what your subscribers will ask before they turn over their precious contact
information. After all, who needs more e-mail these days? So include some details right
in your sign-up box about what benefits the subscriber will get when he or she signs up.
For example, you may want to include “sign up now for a free report and you’ll
automatically receive weekly expert tips in the areas of bookkeeping.” As well, be clear
about how often you'll contact the subscriber.
Privacy policy
Include a link to a detailed privacy policy on a separate page of your site. At the very
least, print a brief privacy statement such as, "We will never give away your e-mail

address." You can put this link right next to the Submit button if you would like. As a
side note, whenever I see the sentence “We hate spam too! We will keep your address
private” or something along those lines, I instantly get a little defensive though I don’t
know why. I feel it’s better to use positive language, for example “We value your privacy
and your information is safe with us.”
Thank you message
I cannot emphasize this enough; thank these people for taking the time to sign up and
mean it! Set up your list manager service to redirect people to a thank you page once
they've submitted their form. (This can also be referred to as the “confirmation message”
since it comes right before they confirm their e-mail, it’s easy to get the two confused.)
On that page, thank them and let them know what is coming next. This is also a great
place for details about the confirmation/opt-in process (usually your list manager will
send an automatic confirmation request by e-mail). You can add a screenshot of what the
confirmation e-mail will look like, add a video, audio… AWeber has built-in audios and
videos that you can use so you really don’t have to do anything, but know that you can
personalize if you want.
Welcome them and deliver the goods
If your list manager includes autoresponders, a welcome e-mail is a nice touch. It's
another opportunity to thank your subscriber and remind her of when she'll be hearing
from you again. This is also how you'll deliver your pink spoon, by sharing a link to a
download page or by attachment. Your welcome e-mail also helps to build trust and
establish a rapport with your prospects.

 However you choose to design the sign-up process, the most important thing is
to get it in place. It doesn't have to be perfect and you don't even have to have
anything to give away or send yet. Just start building that list! Use your list
manager's tech support or FAQs for assistance.
10 ways to integrate autoresponders
All this talk about autoresponders, what they are, how they work, now let’s talk about
what you can do with them. Here are ways to integrate autoresponders into your
marketing plan:
1. Publish a newsletter. Your newsletter can keep your website visitors informed about
your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your
particular niche.
2. Stay in touch with clients and prospects. Notify your clients and prospects of
special offers or discounts in the future.
3. Invite affiliates. Provide exclusive information about your affiliate program via an
autoresponder. You can include links to “hidden” pages that aren’t linked from anywhere
on your website. So the only way “in” is to request the autoresponder. These pages may
contain graphics, promotional articles, and text links that affiliates can use to earn
commissions by referring you.
4. Offer a freebie. A special report or article about your area of specialty will give your
visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your service.

You can include some subtle promotion, just keep it toned down as you are trying to
showcase yourself here - not overwhelm the person.
5. Promotions. Send a follow-up message to let these subscribers know more about the
services that are available and perhaps how working with you can help their problems.
This will increase the possibility of hearing from prospects who may have taken your
course (downloaded your tip sheet, etc.) but are dragging their feet about actually
contacting you to work with you.
6. Distribute an e-mail course. Set up your autoresponder to send out a follow-up

lesson at set intervals, e.g. every day, every other day, only on weekends. Just be sure that
each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for
you and will do it much more effectively. Write tips about a different topic for each
lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. A tip I learned from Andrea
J. Lee’s “Multiple Streams of Income” book is that you can incorporate your affiliate links
within these e-courses but I suggest that, to comply with FTC regulations, you inform
readers that you may be compensated should they make a purchase. For example, I note
this in the disclaimer section at the beginning of the e-book.
7. Offer a pink spoon. Remember that people who are exposed to a little taste often end
up wanting the whole pie. So in order to get prospects into your marketing funnel, offer
an e-book, special report, book chapter, or a trial membership if you happen to offer a
coaching or membership program. Provide a download link, instructions, or attachment
in your autoresponder message.
8. Create targeted mailing lists. For example, invite people who enjoy reading your
articles to sign-up for a list, and then send out a notice to that list when you’ve published
a new article.

9. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool
to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales
potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is
known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description
of your service or product.
10. Keep your affiliates working for you. Publish an affiliates-only newsletter. Inform
them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that they can use to
increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can
use to successfully go out and promote your business.
 Compose a set of frequently asked questions and set them up as an

autoresponder. Post a subscription form on your website or blog.
Autoresponders are an invaluable list-building tool and can automate many of your
online functions while at the same time offering real benefit and value to your prospects
and clients.

Chapter 4
List-Building Basics
Now we come to one my favorite marketing subjects, list-building.
One of my first pink spoons was an e-course, and when someone signed up for my e-
course, I would immediately thank them and asked “What is your biggest problem? Hit
reply and tell me!” And one of the “biggest problems” that I read most often is “how do I
get more people to subscribe to my list?”
I can tell you that list-building is not something that one can do overnight and attracting
subscribers is a deliberate process as well as a work in progress. You can have milestones
of course, but I’ve never heard “Well, I’ve reached 500 subscribers, I’m done.”
List-building is the action of building a subscriber list for the purpose of

marketing and providing information, expertise, or advice. The main reason for
building your “list” is that this group of people will become your clients or customers
(you hope). Capturing these e-mail addresses will allow you to market to these people
over and over again. This is why the list is golden.
The money is in the list
The ultimate goal of your e-marketing efforts is to build a mailing list of prospective
clients and customers who are specifically interested in the solutions you provide.

We have all heard the saying that it takes multiple times – or touch points – for someone
to trust you enough to purchase from you. In our case, having a client experience us
through multiple online communications is way more effective than meeting them once
or twice in person. Let’s be realistic, most of the time someone may not need your
services right at that moment, but they may need you at a later date or may refer you to
someone else. Staying in touch via e-mail keeps your name in front of them – so when
the time does come, they think of you.
And as you'll learn as you keep reading, there are tools you can use to automate this
process and boost its effectiveness even more. Growing your list takes time but the
investment is well worth it as you begin your relationship with your subscribers. And if
you’ve been building your list for a while and feel like you’ve hit a plateau, this lesson
should give you some new areas to concentrate on. There is ALWAYS more you can do to
build your list.
Getting started
Building your list is an ongoing process, and here are just a few ways to get started
building your list:
 Provide a free gift, such as an e-course, a special report, an e-book, or a tip

sheet (pink spoon, there’s that word again). Nowadays people aren’t going to
hand over their e-mail without getting something else valuable in return. You can
set up your autoresponder or shopping cart program to deliver this gift once a
visitor has submitted their name and e-mail.
 Create a separate landing page at your website that’s dedicated to your

newsletter or free gift. Include a description, testimonials, a sample issue or
archives and of course your sign-up box.

 Make sure you have an opt-in box on each page of your website; you never
know which page people will land on. Also, make sure the sign-up box is “above
the fold” so that visitors don’t have to scroll all around to find it.
 Make your opt-in box INTERESTING. If you have an offer to sign up for your
newsletter in the side menu of your page (this is what I call an opt-in box as
opposed to an entire opt-in page as mentioned above), include a compelling
reason to subscribe. Give your readers a valuable, relevant, and free gift for doing
so.
 Try a pop-up or exit window. Experiment with different windows and offers.
Sometimes a window that offers a free gift as a visitor is about to leave your site
can be very effective. (We went over all of these types of pop-ups, hovers, etc. in the
last chapter.)
 Promote your free gift and newsletter on your blog, in your e-mail signature,
and on the business cards and flyers that you hand to people in person.
 Have a sign-up sheet or basket to collect cards when you’re speaking or when
you man a booth at a conference or a trade show. A nice touch is to send a
personal e-mail to each name on the list with a personal invitation to sign up for
your free offer. This may get a better response rate than someone receiving an
“opt-in confirmation e-mail” a few days or a week after the event took place.
 Submit your newsletter to sites such as http://emailuniverse.com/. Use the

URL of your newsletter page (see second point above) versus your home page.
 Submit your individual newsletter articles to free article directories such as

EzineArticles.com, SelfGrowth.com, and ArticleDashboard.com. You can also try
an automated online service like SubmitYourArticle.com. When you submit
articles to these sites, you’ll increase traffic to your website, attract new
subscribers for your mailing list and prove your website’s ranking with the search
engines. (We will go over article marketing in the next chapter.)
 Include a call to action at the end of your blog posts. Let your visitors know
that if they like your blog posts, they’ll love your newsletter content. That’s
because you save some of your best tips, tricks, and secrets for subscribers. To get
more subscribers, include a link to your landing page at the bottom of your posts,

along with a reason to click on that link. Example: Discover 11 more real estate
marketing tricks for free – click here!
 Encourage a viral effect. You can get more subscribers simply by including a
note at the bottom of every newsletter where you encourage your existing
subscribers to forward your e-mail to their friends, family and colleagues who
could benefit from the information. Example: “Do you know someone else who
could benefit from these tax saving secrets? Please forward this e-mail to them –
they’ll thank you for it!”
 Use your forum signature file to get new subscribers. If you’re visiting busy
niche forums, include an ad and a call to action in your forum signature.
Example: “Free report reveals outsourcing secrets! Click here to claim your copy
now…”
 Point your Twitter followers to a free report. Simply point your fans and
followers towards your squeeze page to pick up a free report. Include this link on
your profile page as well as in some of your posts (“tweets”).
 Embed your links in your products. Sometimes people share your digital
products with their friends. Sometimes they give away or sell pirated copies of
your product. Either way, you can benefit from this if you include links to your
squeeze page in your paid products.
 Drive traffic to your landing page using videos. You can create YouTube
videos for the sole purpose of driving traffic to your newsletter sign up page. To
get the best results, include a call to action at the end of your video where you
promise viewers they can get the second part of the video – for free – when they
join your list.
 Make a more in-depth video that you’ll use as an incentive / ethical bribe
to get people to sign up for your list. In other words, they only get to see the
video when they opt-in. Create a new opt-in page for this targeted offer.
 Co-promote with others in your niche. Here you can swap endorsements with
your partners. You can post your endorsements on your respective blogs as well
as in your newsletters. I've also very successfully done ad swaps where I swap ads
with other marketers.

 Unleash the power of content marketing. First, create a multi-part article

series around a niche topic. Then upload Part 1 to an article directory and upload
the rest of the series to your autoresponder. Use your article byline to encourage
people to get the rest of the series (starting with Part 2) by clicking through to
your squeeze page.
 Form a newsletter co-op. Do a co-registration deal with one or more people in

your niche. That is, when a prospect joins your partner’s newsletter, they also get
the option of joining your newsletter at the same time (simply by checking a
checkbox). Also, you can cross-promote with others in complementary niches
using your ‘thank you’ pages (more about these pages in upcoming lessons).
More list-building techniques
So what else can you do to build your list?
 Hold teleseminars or webinars and make attendees sign up for access to the call-in
details
 Public speaking venues are great for obtaining e-mail addresses, just pass around a
clipboard with a sheet for sign-ups
 Interview others or be interviewed; ask your interviewee to share the interview with
their readers and customers as well
 Live networking
 Participate in joint ventures
 Network on other social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn
 Create an affiliate program and provide links to your opt-in pages and free offers

Joint ventures
Let’s look at one tactic more closely – participating in a joint venture is a great way to
grow your list quickly in a short time.
Here’s how it works…
Say you have a colleague or client with a large list (500+ subscribers) and she knows
a few other people with large lists. Collaborate to contact about 10-15 other people who
have a free product to offer and want to grow their lists. Have each of them send a brief
product description, link to free product page, and a graphic representing the bonus or
just their picture. Now, create a one-page site listing the products each with a link to the
opt-in page.
Note: A pink spoon would work fine; however, you might want to offer
something that cannot be downloaded elsewhere for free. One idea is to
repurpose your normally “free” product into another format and make that
product only available for these types of offers. For example, say your
normal pink spoon is a 5-part e-course. You could take the course lessons
and create an e-book in PDF format as your bonus offering. Also, don’t
give away a product as a bonus that is ‘for sale’ elsewhere – you’re bound
to make those who actually purchased it not happy with you and it will
ultimately devalue your product.
First, choose a theme that would fit your client or customer base. You can check
http://www.epromos.com/education/calendars/ for some ideas. Here is one example:
February is National Time Management Month. You are a virtual assistant who
serves professional organizers and your clients also have many friends who are also
organizers as well as productivity specialists, e-mail management gurus, filing mavens,

etc. You ask your circle of colleagues to be participants in the promotional giveaway and
all they need to do is send you a bonus product for the giveaway. Those participants
would then send an e-mail to their lists promoting the event and directing everyone to
the free giveaway page. You should provide the suggested copy for everyone as well as
letting them tweak as necessary (called a “swipe file” – you want to make it as easy as
possible). Your readers get free bonuses and everyone gets to build their list.
Many years ago I was part of a joint venture that followed this basic format. The result? I
went from 132 subscribers to over 200 in one day. Each participant promoted the event in
their newsletters, blogs, broadcasting to their ‘lists’, posting on listservs, social media... it
was viral marketing at its best!
Not only was it a great list-building tactic to add subscribers to my main newsletter list,
but I created a separate list in my autoresponder and created a one-time-offer just for
those people who opted in for that product and was able to generate some passive
income right away.
What am I doing wrong?
Ok, I can hear some of you saying, “Yeah right, I write and submit tons of articles but I
don’t get any traffic to my website.” Well, let’s take a look at your resource box (that
short paragraph that follows the article). Does the resource box make you want to click
on the link to find out more about YOU or what you have to offer? Does the landing page
that the resource box links to display a prominent opt-in box? Do you offer something
compelling for free, such as an e-course, e-book, or audio? Or do you offer a ho-hum
“free newsletter”?

You can use each of the previous list-building methods to get dozens, hundreds or even
thousands of new subscribers. The important thing is to choose one and do it over and
over again. Then, try another.
Whatever list-building tactic you use, make sure it is part of a consistent marketing
strategy. For example, don’t just write a short article once in a while. Instead, write
articles and feature them in your newsletter, post them to your blog, and submit them to
free and/or paid article directories on a regular basis. Consistency is the key!
 Pick ONE list-building tactic and try it this week.

Chapter 5
Article Marketing
I am a huge fan of article marketing! I know it’s lost its luster lately but it’s definitely not
dead. Writing articles relevant to your niche or industry can attract new clients and build
your list. Submitting articles to article “banks” or article “directories” not only brings
incoming links to your website and/or blog which, in theory, should increase your search
engine ranking, but authoring articles also increases your credibility.
Be seen as the “go-to” expert
Don’t you want to be seen as the “go to” expert in your industry? And, writing and
submitting articles is free.
Writing an article doesn’t have to be painful. There are many resources out
there to help you get started. Check out Jeff Herring (used to be known as
“The Article Marketing Guy”), E-zine Articles blog, and Yaro Starak’s blog. These guys are
real-life online marketers and I love reading their sites as I always find helpful tips,
templates, and advice.
Need more ideas or inspiration?
 Visit forums and blogs and look for relevant topics, hot-button issues

 Read past e-mails that contained questions—great for ‘how to’ articles and
problem solving
 Own experience: ‘what to do’ and ‘what not to do’
If you're already writing articles for a newsletter, you can easily repurpose them. If you're
blogging, expand your posts a bit and you've got another source of articles. For example,
a simple Top 10 list is a popular format for an article. There are many great resources on
Linda Dessau's http://www.contentmasteryguide.com/resources website to help you.
Article writing dos and don’ts
 Do write an article that is about 500 words in length
 Do proof your article for grammar and typos
 Don’t blatantly SELL or be too hype-y, nothing turns readers off more than that
 Do put a lot of thought into your article headline and read some articles about
effective article titles
o Bad  Top 10 best tips to create an awesome article
o Good  Article Creation – Article Writing Success in 10 Steps
 Do learn basic HTML
o Bold, italics, bullet list, line break
 Example: bold the letter <b>B</b>
 Do track submissions using a spreadsheet

 Do use EzineArticles’ author tools to track popularity
 Do use Google Analytics to track which sites traffic is coming from
Create a killer resource box
Before submitting your article, there is one very important element that needs to be
completed first, the author resource box. The resource box is the brief paragraph that
follows your article and is shorter than a biography but longer than your signature. This
resource box SHOULD contain your name, website address, and your call to action. This
resource box should NOT contain your phone number, e-mail address (or you’ll get
spammed to death), your full resume containing every award you’ve ever received, or a
bunch of URLs to your other websites.
The purpose of the resource box is to make the reader want to continue learning more
about you and what you have to offer, so take some time to craft an inviting and effective
resource box.
Here is an example of a resource box which contains four essential items: your name,
description of the essence of who you are or what you do, URL, and call to action:
Jane Doe shows webmasters how to Tap into the Power of Ezines.
Discover the #1 secret of web marketing and download her free report
now: www.powerfulezines.com.
You can add this resource box and variations of it to your e-mail signatures, blog posts,

and forum posts, all for the purpose of attracting attention and traffic to your pink spoon
offer. In the example above, the URL leads to specific page about this marketer’s pink
spoon, not to the marketer's business website. If you don't have a specific page set up,
there is nothing wrong with using your main URL as long as there is a sign-up box for
your pink spoon there.
Article submission
Now that you have a fancy article with a resource box, you can submit your articles to
free article sites, such as EzineArticles, Self Growth, and Article Dashboard. These article
directories are great for publishers because of two reasons: 1) others who need good
content for their newsletters or blogs can use your articles on their sites (giving you
credit of course), and 2) you are providing information for someone looking for
information on a particular topic. Both ways, you are getting incoming links to your site
and building your credibility.
Now I’ll talk more about the technical part of submitting articles. If you have submitted
an article to any of these popular directories you know they are all different and each has
its own set of categories, “fields” that differ from one site to the next, as well as different
submission guidelines and terms of service. Trying to keep track of all of these things can
get really hairy! Since one of my favorite things to do is create checklists, forms, and
worksheets, I created an article submission sheet to simplify the process. You can pick it
the forms up for free here: tracking sheet and worksheet. I have found that targeting a
few quality directories nets better results than submitting to dozens of mediocre sites,
not to mention leveraging your time and money. I’ve included “how to” videos below on
how to submit your article to three popular directories.

How to submit an article to EzineArticles.com
One of the most popular and well-respected article directories, EzineArticles.com serves
millions of unique visitors monthly, has over 100,000+ RSS feeds plus 600+ e-mail alert
lists designed to announce every new article posted to over 100,000 permission-based
members and publishers. Ezine Articles uses proprietary management software to
manage articles so you can submit an article, edit an existing article, save a draft article,
create your biography page, and create multiple resource boxes. There is also a robust
Author Tools section in which you can track feeds, view reports, promote articles, and
BONUS it even has a press release submission service accessible right there as a link.
Way cool!

How to submit an article to SelfGrowth.com
Watch the video below as I walk you through submitting an article to another popular
article directory, Self Growth.
SelfGrowth.com is an article site focusing on topics such as success skills, mental health,
spirituality, health & fitness, relationships, money & careers - which is great if you are a
virtual assistant who services coaches in any of these areas or to other professionals in
these categories.
On the surface, you may think that your article may not be a fit, but make sure to browse
around because most likely you will find an appropriate category. For example, the
article that I will use in my video example is about “perfection paralysis,” which you may
think may not seem to fit any of the topic areas; however, under money & careers is a
sub-category for marketing
strategy which I think fits
nicely.
What I like about Self

Growth is that you can
upgrade to a Professional
membership for more ways
to advertise you and your
business. Not only can you promote your website(s), submit articles, and create your own
“Expert Page,” but you can also add events to Self Growth’s calendar! It is more than just
an article bank, it is a great site to share your knowledge, philosophy, and expertise.

Simplify the process
As I mentioned earlier, I created a worksheet to aid in the article submission process.

This is especially handy if you are submitting articles on behalf of your client or
submitting your own. You would be surprised how much time is wasted trying to
navigate the different sites - each with their own categories, terms and guidelines, field
character limits, rules about number of links – and filling out the worksheet beforehand
will speed up the process.
Another time sucker is if you have to ‘wing it’ for your clients and guess at what he or she
wants to include for each article, or worse, going back and forth via e-mail to clarify the
annotation, keywords, category selection, and so on.
After you download the

forms, watch this quick “how
to” video 
You may also want to check

out an article submission
service such as
SubmitYourArticle.com
which simplifies the
submission process by
sending an article to a lot of directories all at once. You sign up for the service for a
monthly fee. Basically once you login, you then paste the text of your article and hit a
submit button, which then sends your article to many other article banks, including
EzineArticles.com, etc.

With SubmitYourArticle.com there are a few drawbacks, such as the inability to format
the articles manually (such as adding bolds, italics, or numbered lists) and the articles
must fit into a few specific categories. If your niche is highly specialized and you like to
have control over the look of your articles, then this service may not be for you. But if
you are prolific, submit a few articles per month, and want to leverage your articles the
simplest way possible, then using a service may be the way to go.
 Choose one article site (for now) and create an account, profile, and author
resource box.
 Download the article submission form and edit for your own use.
Article marketing is a great way to leverage your marketing efforts as it: 1) increases your
credibility, 2) conveys your expertise, 3) helps with list-building, 4) provides incoming
links to your blog or website, and 5) brands you as an expert.
One of the first things you can do now, before you even write your first article, is to
create an author resource box. You will need a resource box for each of the article
submission sites as well as to include at the end of articles that you post in your
newsletter, or if you are a guest for another site, etc. You can use one of my old resource
boxes as an example (directly below), or read Christopher Knight’s article: Article
Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box. You can also follow Christopher Knight
on Twitter -he has loads of article marketing expertise.


Chapter 6
Teleseminars and Webinars
In this chapter, we will take a look at a popular online marketing strategy especially for
those who love to talk and enjoy putting themselves out in front of an audience:
teleseminars and webinars. Using the phone and/or the Internet, you can use
teleseminars/webinars to teach, train, inform, advise, sell, build your list, just to name a
few. You can have a one-time phone call to promote a new service or product or you can
conduct a multi-part telesummit. There are many programs to choose from depending
on your strategy, your goal, and your budget.
I love the concept of teleseminars as an alternative to live training. There are huge cost
savings because no one has to travel and there are new websites cropping up all the time
that provide free and paid bridge lines and recording services. You can lead or participate
in a teleseminar from your living room or no matter where you are around the globe.
Programs and tools
I thought I’d start off by listing the various tools and programs since I’ll be referencing
them later in the chapter. Please note that I’ll only be listing the ones I’ve personally
used; there may be others that would fit your needs or budget, so be sure to research.

Teleseminars
When talking about teleclasses and teleseminars, you can mostly use these terms
interchangeably. Sometimes there will be a determination of which term you will be
using if you are conducting an open call with fewer participants in which all of the
participants can hear each other (teleclass). But if you are going to conduct a call with
hundreds or thousands of people on the call, of course you’ll want to mute everyone on
the call besides yourself and perhaps another guest or presenter. This would be called a
“teleseminar.” What both of these have in common is that they 1) are always audio and 2)
use a bridge line. Some of the programs can be delivered via the telephone and
sometimes the computer via web streaming – but again they are using audio only.
Free Conference Call and Simple Event
When conducting a teleclass/teleseminar via the telephone, all you will need is a bridge
line and a phone so that multiple people can call in at once. There are free services, such
as freeconferencecall.com and simpleevent.com, which will accommodate up to 100 or
1,000 people respectively, and both provide free recording. Once you sign up for a free
account, you are provided with a telephone
number and access code or PIN number.
This telephone number that is provided to
you is actually the bridge line number. Just keep in mind that the phone number will be a
toll call for most people so you may want to include that note in the advertisement or
follow-up message and call reminder.
Normally the moderator (you) are provided with a

separate access code which has access to moderator tools such as “mute participants” and

the ability to record. All other callers calling in will use a separate access code or PIN
number and have limited controls, such as the ability to mute their own phone. I have
used both services over the years and they both work well; however, remember that these
free services are using call banks and there are certain times that are busy, especially
Tuesdays and Thursdays between 5 pm and 8pm ET (which are the most popular times
to conduct calls) so you may want to have a backup plan in place just in case the line
fails to work.
Also, because you are using a free service, most of the process will be manual. For
example, Freeconferencecall provides a link to the file download once the call is over, so
in order to send a link to the replay to the participants, you will need to download the file
(you will get the playback and download link automatically via e-mail after the call is
complete), convert from WAV to MP3 as the file is pretty large, upload to your server,
then send a broadcast message to the autoresponder list with a link to the replay. The
callers can then listen to the file via streaming audio or they can download to their
computer and listen via their default player, like iTunes or Windows Media Player. Most
of these services also come with a playback number so you can also include that in your
e-mail so people can listen to the replay using their phone.
Audio Acrobat
If you want to upgrade to a paid service and want the ability to create players and/or
drag-bars with your website colors, record testimonials
on the fly, edit files to create a podcast, or want more
control over the deliverability of the audio, then you
may want to look at AudioAcrobat.com. This type of service comes in handy when you
not only want to conduct a teleclass, but also if you want to add audio to your website or

blog and have it displayed as a Flash player, create podcasts, and AudioAcrobat.com even
has the ability to add video. You can conduct the teleclass using three-way calling or
integrate your own bridge line service, even the free ones, and record using Audio
Acrobat. One problem I’ve discovered is that if your cable provider does not allow three-
way calling or conference calls, then you won’t be able to record since you need the
ability to use both numbers at once. So make sure you check this beforehand if you will
be doing a lot of call recording. For $19.95 per month, it is a great program.
Instant Teleseminar
Another popular pay-per-month program is Xiosoft’s InstantTeleseminar.com. This

program is pretty cool because the callers can either call in using a telephone or they can
listen via the web. How it works is that you set up the call in the control panel, called an
“event.” Each event has its own “page” with a link that you can send out to participants.
You can customize this page with your own header,
colors, a picture, short write-up of the call, and there is
a “Big Button” that you can have display which can link to another URL (for downloads,
promotions, etc) as well as space for other web link URLs. Say you want the callers to
download an outline or “follow me guide” or you want to promote your sales page, this
can be displayed right there on the page using the ‘Big Button.’
There is also a place for questions and answers submission. Callers can submit questions
before the call and you can answer live during the call. Also, they can also submit
questions during the call which you can moderate from the control panel.
For each event, there are three separate pages: one that will display before the call,
during the call, and a replay page for after the call. Once the event is set up, you don’t

have to administer anything manually since the event is programmed with a date and
start time with a countdown displayed until the call starts.
You can control what participants see on these pages throughout the process. For
example, if you want people to be able to submit questions before the call but not during
the call, you can do that. If you do not want to allow a replay but instead want to
manually record the call to sell later, you can do that too.
A big plus is that because the replay link is the same link as the pre-call page and during-
call page, you can program all of the reminders and post-call messages in your
autoresponder ahead of time—no manual editing, converting, uploading, etc. before
sending out the replay link.
Another cool feature is that it has an autopilot automated event feature in which you can
record beforehand and do the teleseminar as though it were live. You can also upload a
PowerPoint presentation to do a basic screenshare presentation.
The service has a $1 21-day trial and then costs $47 per month for the basic and goes all
the way up to the guru version for $197 per month. Chances are you will only need
something like the “pro” version that features a “Who's On" control panel that lets you
see who's on your call (including number and name), lets attendees "raise hands," and
lets you "dial-out" to get missing people on the call, plus backup numbers. Each account
varies in bridge line capability from 100 up to 10,000 phone callers. It also allows for
additional phone book entries, so if you have a different bridge line service that you like,
you can pipe in that number no problem. This may seem like a lot of money on a
monthly basis, but if you are conducting multiple teleseminars per month which results
in thousands of dollars in sales, this is fairly inexpensive.

Webinars
Conducting a webinar is basically the same as holding a teleseminar but with the added
introduction of video. Many of these programs have the ability to show the moderator
(you) on a webcam, display a PowerPoint presentation, and even share the moderator’s
desktop with the audience. The main differences among each of the webinar programs
are cost and features. Here are a couple of examples:
GoToWebinar
GoToWebinar.com is considered the standard for online webinars. After the participants
install a software application on their computer, they will be able to see you teach and
train as viewers can see your desktop or just give a basic
“how to” class using a PowerPoint slide show. It is easy to
use, reliable, and integrates voice conferencing for those who want to communicate
using their phone as well as those who just want to listen via their computer speakers.
The basic plan starts at $89 per month for up to 100 participants and features recording,
polling, surveys, and other tools to track audience interest as well as reporting features.
Zoom
There are dozens of other programs but Zoom is one of the most popular. It features
integrated scheduling, easy to start and join, cloud recording, and is perfect for 1:1
meetings with clients and small team meetings. The Basic plan is free and the Pro version
starts at $14.99 per month for up to 50 participants.

Hangouts on Air with YouTube Live
If you want to go the quick and dirty route, you can always use Hangouts on Air for free.
All you need is a YouTube account and you can set up an event for live streaming, or an
event that will occur in the future. Many programs, such as WebinarJam, use this
technology for the back-end so it’s a solid alternative to the paid programs already
mentioned, the only complaint I’ve heard is that it’s not always the most reliable.
List-building with teleseminars & webinars
Leading a teleseminar is a very effective way to attract new prospects and provide them
with valuable, relevant information. Normally you would not hold a free call just for the
purposes of building your list but rather you are holding the call as a way to promote a
new product or service, upcoming event, or just want to re-connect with your
subscribers. But there is no reason why you cannot use this opportunity to grow your list!
All you need to do is create a new “list” in your autoresponder program (AWeber,
iContact, etc), create a sign-up form, and then program the autoresponder so that people
must opt-in before they get the call information. You can have the call information
display on the ‘thank you’ page as well as have it contained in the first follow-up or
‘welcome’ message.
Also, if you use a program such as AWeber or 1ShoppingCart, you can program it so that
these new subscribers are automatically added to your main mailing or newsletter list.
(With iContact, you can have a checkbox on the sign-up form with multiple lists
displayed; so it isn’t automatic per se, but it is possible to have a subscriber subscribe to
multiple lists at once.) A simple note saying “thank you for signing up (or thank you for

confirming your e-mail), you will also be subscribed to my valuable newsletter where I’ll
share weekly tips and resources. This is at no cost to you and you can unsubscribe at any
time.” You can view this as a courtesy or as a requirement, but I always like to tell people
what is happening and how I am using their information. Nowadays, no one likes to be
surprised with more items cluttering up their inbox or feel that they are being subscribed
to publications they did not sign up for.
Now that you have an idea of what kinds of programs are out there, you can now start to
plan your call!
Planning your call
Planning the call is as easy as doing three things:
1. Pick a topic
2. Choose a format
3. Schedule the call
Once you choose your topic, you’ll need to decide the format. Are you going to conduct a
short teleclass via the phone or an interactive webinar? Depending on the format, you’ll
then need to secure the tools you need from the programs listed above. Make sure to sign
up for the service and get the phone number, access codes, and PIN numbers.

Prepare the marketing materials
Depending on the focus of the call and your goal, you may have a page on your website
devoted to the sign-up or you can create a one-page mini site with a dedicated domain
name. You will need to write copy for the sign up page, thank you page, reminder e-mails
for the autoresponders, and if you want affiliates to promote the call as well, you may
want to also provide “swipe file” (pre-written copy) for them to send to their lists. Of
course, you’ll also need to add all the information to your affiliate center if you have an
affiliate program (banners, graphics, copy, links, etc).
Next, you’ll want to promote the call in your newsletter, website, blog, social media, and
send announcements to your list. If you unsure whether you can promote on your
individual listservs, you can always ask the moderator. If in doubt, don’t advertise or
promote as you don’t want to abuse the list and get banned. Facebook ads are also an
inexpensive option, just make sure they are targeted or else the cost can run up pretty
fast.
During the call there isn’t much to do except relax, breathe, and, most importantly, don’t
forget to record! I have seen this happen more than a few times - all that preparation and
hard work and the call is a huge success but the moderator forgot to record. Yikes! So
don’t forget to do this most important and necessary step.
And if you are turning this call into a product, you may want to have a backup to the
recording. Most of the previously mentioned services can do this, such as AudioAcrobat,
InstantTeleseminar, FreeConference Call, etc. One of the cool features of
InstantTeleseminar is Autopilot which comes in handy if you want to pre-record a call
with a guest expert and have it played back as though it was a live call. A client of mine

used this strategy as part of a week-long teleseminar series and it worked great! We both
happened to be traveling part of that week and couldn’t attend a few calls so the
playback service went off without a hitch.
After the call
Once the call is done, you just need to edit the audio and upload to your website (if
needed), send a replay link out to the autoresponder list (if offered), and have the call
transcribed (if needed). One other thing you can do is change the follow-up message so
that if people happen to sign up late, they can still get the link to the replay.
You can also create a digital product with the audio and transcription!
Teleseminar tips:
1. Minimize your um's and ah's and focus on making a professional impression.
2. Choose a topic that is important to your target market and speak with
enthusiasm about it.
3. Follow-up! These are people who were interested enough to hear what you
have to say about your area of expertise. That makes them great prospects for
your products and services.
4. Mention your other products and services, but save it for the end. Product-
pushing will only turn off your audience. Rather, let the audience know that
you will be offering a “2-minute advertisement” at the half-way point during the
teleseminar or that you’ll be making an offer at the end for those interested in
an upcoming program. What a breath of fresh air to be told up front what to
expect!

Having led or been a part of teleclasses and webinars for a few years I can tell you that it’s
one of the most nerve-wracking yet exciting things you can do as you begin to actively
engage with your subscribers and audience. Things will invariably go wrong; static will
happen, dogs will bark in the background, lines may be dropped… One time my teenager
got on the other line and started pressing buttons! Trust me it happens to everyone.
If the idea of talking to a group of people scares the you-know-what out of you, I suggest
you join a public speaking organization for real-world practice. Toastmasters is an
international organization that provides public speaking training, practice, and support.
Check for a local chapter in your area; the dues are very reasonable.
 Sign up for a free bridge-line account at freeconferencecall.com, get a friend to

call in, and do a practice recording. Half of the anxiety has to do with the
technology end of things, so the more you practice, the less anxious you will be
when it comes time for the real thing!
 Use the Teleclass Checklist on the next page to get you started and keep track!


Chapter 7
E-mail Marketing & Newsletters
Newsletters are one of the most important ingredients in your e-marketing mix. When
they're done right, newsletters provide your readers with information, resources,
answers, and announcements that are specifically tied to the problem they have and the
solutions they're looking for. When they're ready to get help for that problem, you're the
one your readers will think of and trust to provide that solution. Why else are you in
business?
Newsletters: Do it right!
Writing a newsletter is a source of joy for some and a source of pain for others. If writing
a newsletter isn't your thing, get creative! The challenge is to come up with something
that will be of benefit to your audience but is still relatively easy for you to produce,
deliver, and manage.
If just the word newsletter is intimidating, forget about it! I’ve seen so many different
examples of things other than a monthly newsletter so think outside the box if sending a
regularly scheduled ezine. As an example, a nutritionist sends a "Weekly Refreshment" e-
mail every Monday morning to start her readers off on the right track, while an author,
speaker, writer, and coach uses her blog posts to automatically generate her newsletter. If
you enjoy being on camera, then sending a quick video may be your thing.

Each of their newsletters or e-zines are no longer than a couple of paragraphs and not
only are these approaches creative, but are great examples of how you can also reinforce
your brand in your e-mail marketing.
More than just a way to send information to your readers, newsletters are a great
relationship builder and you should treat your subscribers with the utmost care. A
surefire way to lose subscribers is to send e-mails for every joint-venture program that
you are a part of or send a small amount of relevant content and a whole lot of sales
pitches. It’s not that hard to cross the line from legitimate newsletter sender to slimy
spammer.
Here are some things to consider when you're starting a newsletter:
Content
What will you send in your newsletter? Usually a newsletter consists of one feature
article and then your choice of smaller sections. Just like with anything else written by
you, relevant content that will be interesting and beneficial to your readers is the key to
demonstrating your credibility and authenticity. And while there's nothing wrong with
announcing your newest product or service, focus on quality content that will keep your
readers coming back for more. That way you can (subtly) market to them over and over
again.
You can always visit article directories, such as EzineArticles.com and SelfGrowth.com,
and use an article, giving proper credit to the author.
There is no right or wrong way to do a newsletter. I have seen some newsletters that
contain an introduction and a few paragraphs that link to the writer’s blog. I’ve seen

others that include enough information to write a small book. It all depends on what
your target audience wants and what works. If your list only wants to hear from you once
per month, then a lengthy monthly newsletter may work. If you send a short
inspirational message, then weekly ezines would be fine. It really depends on your time
and how often your list prefers to hear from you.
Well-known coach Andrea J. Lee doesn’t really have a set time schedule and sends her
newsletters whenever she has something to say. Again, nothing wrong with that and it
really works for her audience.
Here are some ideas for content:
 Comment on a recent online news article
 Describe a recent webinar you attended
 Review a new book that you read
 Post an article – your own or someone else's – about a relevant topic
 Recommend resources such as books, products, audios or e-books
 Share news, success stories, and links of your colleagues, partners, or

clients (they would LOVE the exposure)
 Promote products or e-books for sale – your own or someone else's, but use
sparingly, too much product pushing is a turn-off
 Announce your upcoming teleseminars and other events
 Survey your readers for their opinions
 Answer a question in a Q&A format


 Create a site map for your newsletter and outline the different sections you'll
want to include and how often you will send.
Design
Most e-mail broadcast services, such as Constant Contact, iContact, 1ShoppingCart,

Infusionsoft, and AWeber, provide templates that are very stylish and easy-to-use. In
AWeber, for example, designing a newsletter is relatively simple. AWeber provides two
areas for newsletters; you can either use basic text or you can use pre-loaded templates
wherein you just add your text, drop in some graphics, and then you can broadcast to
your newsletter list. You can also copy and paste the HTML code from a web editor
program (eg, programs such as Dreamweaver or this site lists a bunch of free ones
http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/htmleditors.shtml) if you don’t want to use
AWeber’s templates.
Here is a fun AWeber article debating "text vs. HTML" -

http://blog.aweber.com/email-template-design/should-i-use-text-or-
html.htm.
HTML newsletters are far more common these days, likely because they're fancier, more
colorful, and can contain graphics, logos, pictures, and clickable links (that you
absolutely should be tracking, but that's a whole other topic!).

When you're ready to have a more personalized look, perhaps integrated with the design
of your website, you can find free customizable templates to get you started but you will
need to know how to use a web editor program, graphics program such as Adobe
Photoshop, as well as how to code in basic HTML, and finally, how to use a FTP site in
order to upload files. You could always hire a designer to design the newsletter and you
can just fill in the content. But again, you’ll need to at least know how to work with
HTML code, resize graphics, and FTP the files to your web host. E-mail newsletter
designs should be no wider than 600 pixels in order to fit within most e-mail programs.
QUICK START ASSIGNMENT :
 Choose one of your list manager's pre-made HTML templates for your newsletter
or customize one from the bonus. If you haven’t yet signed up for a list
manager/autoresponder program, most of them have a free trial period.
Promotion
Apply for an ISSN (International Standards Serial Number) at

http://www.loc.gov/issn/issnbro.html (or http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/isn/041011-
2020-e.html for Canadian Serial Publications). This is the eight-digit number which
identifies all periodical publications, including electronic serials. It is free and adds
legitimacy to your periodical.
Submit your e-mail newsletter to sites such as http://emailuniverse.com. It also helps if

you have a single page on your website dedicated to your newsletter that displays an
overview of your newsletter, a sample newsletter, or a list of archives - and don't forget
that all-important sign-up box!

 Take care of these simple tasks now, and they'll be done!
Personalization
When it comes to personalization, there are multiple ways to think about it. First,
personalizing your e-marketing items, such as adding the subscriber’s names to emails, is
very common as most people who use e-mail regularly are used to seeing their first
names in e-mail subject lines or within an e-mail newsletter.
But you may be wondering, "What is the effectiveness of personalizing my e-mails, does
it really work?"
First, let’s talk about the numbers.
 Personalized promotional emails had 29% higher unique open rates and 41% more
unique click-through rates in 2013. (Experian)
 Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
(Campaign Monitor)
 Personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and
conversions by 10%. (Aberdeen)
Stats do not lie and personalizing e-mails does have an impact. If you do decide to
personalize, just make sure you do it correctly.
Here are some key points about personalization:

1. Always check and double-check the merge code that you use to represent the
name or other piece of information about your reader. Have you ever received an
e-mail with a subject line like this? "For {FIRST_NAME}, free e-book covers this
weekend only." Um, not the impression they were trying to make, I'm sure.
2. In order to personalize your e-mails, you must include a "Name" field on your
subscription form (created within the autoresponder program) AND make it a
required field. If your only field on your sign-up form is for e-mail addresses, then
you cannot personalize using a name.
3. If you already have a long subject line, adding a name might push it past the
56-character limit that I recommend (that's letters plus spaces). If so, leave out the
name or shorten your subject line.
4. Feel like getting fancy? Search your list manager's FAQ or support pages for
more information about the different data you can collect in your subscription
form (try the search terms "personalization" or "merge fields"). You'll find that you
can collect other data such as city, last name, or sign-up date and personalize your
message even more.
One of my clients asked that I attach a subscription management reminder at the bottom
of her newsletter. Basically it reads something like, "[name], you subscribed to this
publication on [this date] using [e-mail address]." This was a great idea – it lends
credibility and reminds your readers that you aren't spamming them.
Personalization can also mean that you are sending information so that it’s being sent to
the right people at the right time. And this is where segmentation comes in because
generalized one-size-fits-all messaging is not as effective or profitable in comparison.
One study found that 74% of consumers get frustrated when they receive content that
has nothing to do with their interests, (Janrain Online Personal Experience study, 2013). I

know that I get frustrated when I receive an email that asks me to purchase something
I’ve already purchased – and for a discount that wasn’t offered before!
Segmenting your subscribers from customers lets you tailor your message. Yes, you can
do this with only using autoresponders and PayPal, but once you start selling items
online, moving to a more robust system that lets you automate as much as possible, such
as 1ShoppingCart or Infusionsoft, is best.
 In your next newsletter, try inserting your subscriber's name into the subject line
or the body of the e-mail.
 Go to Linda Puig’s site and sign up for her “75 Best Newsletter Success Strategies.”
You’ll notice that I did not include any mention of using Outlook to send an HTML
newsletter. This was on purpose because of the same reasons why you want to use an
autoresponder for list management. If, for no other reason than to use a centrally-hosted
service, you’ll want to give your subscribers an easy way to unsubscribe and your Internet
service provider may just tag you as a spammer should you send a large amount of e-
mails from your personal e-mail account. It’s just not a smart thing to do so I recommend
that you invest in a list manager program before you start sending your newsletters.
Best practices and helpful hints
I’ve designed numerous newsletters and have sent out literally hundreds of them and
there are certain points that I wanted to go over. Of course I learned these lessons the
hard way, usually by trial and error .

1. Provide a link to a web-based version of your e-mail near the top of your
message. This is because not everyone may be using a program that can read your
HTML newsletter and more and more people are reading email on their mobile
devices. Believe it or not, not all e-mail clients view the newsletter the same way.
(E-mail clients are the e-mail programs used by the subscribers, such as AOL,
Yahoo, Gmail, or a software-based client such as Outlook.) For example, Gmail
simply ignores the overwhelming majority of cascading style sheets (CSS). Thus, if
you code a newsletter mostly using style sheets (rather than tables, paragraphs and
in-line style fonts, etc), then your Gmail users will see a very messed-up piece of e-
mail. If you are using AWeber, then you can put this same link in the “text only”
box so that folks using text e-mail will be able to view your web version also.
2. Do not embed the sign-up box directly in the newsletter. About half of your
subscribers will not be able to view an opt-in form/sign-up box—again depending
on which e-mail program they are using to view the newsletter. But what they will
see is a section with jumbled text and lines and the subscriber will either notify
you of the “error” or assume you don’t know what you are doing. It’s best to just
provide a link to the sign-up page.
3. Test newsletter in different e-mail programs, devices, AND browsers. Your e-

zine may look great on a desktop but jumped on your iPhone. It may look perfect
in Internet Explorer but horrid in Firefox, so it’s a good idea to check the browser
when testing different e-mail programs. Create accounts and test in Gmail, Yahoo,
and Hotmail and test in Outlook as well if you have it. And then view using
Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. If you have a Mac, then you can also check

there too. Just understand that trying to make your newsletter look absolutely
perfect in ALL browsers is nearly impossible. There will be small intricacies that
you’ll just need to overlook or re-code if necessary. For example, if your bulleted
listed looks jumbled in Firefox, just use asterisks or dashes instead.
4. If your newsletter is lengthy, consider adding hyperlinks at the top or a

table of contents in a box. Your readers will appreciate this as they can jump to
their area of interest. Another option is breaking up the newsletter or adding links
to “continue reading” on your blog. A lengthy newsletter, though tempting to write
for some, may be just too lengthy for readers with short attention spans.
5. Follow the 80-20 rule. Keep it 80% relevant content, advice, information and 20%
sales or promotions. Some even say it’s ok to have it 70-30 and even 60-40, but I’m
a bit conservative and I model my own newsletter after the newsletters I like,
which are 80-20. Either way, make sure you do not forget that your list will NOT
appreciate never-ending sales pitches and will unsubscribe or report as spam.
6. Test “broadcast” times. Most likely your subscribers will read your newsletter
during the week and if you send too early in the morning, your e-mail will be
lumped in with all the overnight junk mail. Also, sending on the weekends and
you’ll be jumbled with the weekend mail on Monday morning. This is why most
online marketers suggest sending Tuesday through Thursday between 11:30 am and
5 pm ET. This way, people have had a chance to go through their e-mails, delete
the spam messages, and settle in to work. This is not set it in stone and is
something that is easy to test – try sending half of your newsletter mailing at 8 am

and the other at 2 pm and check the open rates. You can also test to see if your
audience are weekend readers. If you partner with corporate types, they may like to
read their email on their phone before heading to work, so sending at 6 am is best
– it’s all about YOUR particular audience. Believe it or not, my open rates are WAY
higher when I send emails on the weekend because my audience is made up of
others who work virtually like me, and the only time we have time to catch up on
things is the, you got it, weekends.
7. Don’t use spammy subject lines. I talk about this more below, but you want to
stay away from using CAPS and words like “Must Read.” People are very wary of
phishing e-mails and, more importantly, it will most likely fail the spam heuristics
and go right to junk mail.
8. Don’t embed videos, javascript, PayPal buttons, etc. Simply put, e-mail
programs cannot read them. Instead, use a graphic with a “play” button that links
to the actual video. Same with PayPal buttons or cart items that use scripts. Or you
could have each of them link to your web version of your e-zine for ease of use.
9. General likes and dislikes. People like lots of good useful content, white space,
and good use of color. People don’t like too much information, clutter, small print,
and loud colors (or too many colors, keep it to 2-3 max).
10. What to measure? Make sure to check the statistics in your list manager program
to track deliverability (how many e-mails were delivered vs. undelivered and why),
open rate (how many of the delivered e-mails were opened), and click-thru rate

(which links in the newsletter were clicked and how many times). I will talk more
about what to measure in Chapter 12.
Want more opens and clicks? Pay attention to

your subject lines
In e-mail marketing, the use of subject lines is probably one of

the most important aspects of an e-mail campaign and plays a
big part in whether or not the e-mail broadcast is a success.
However, sometimes it seems that many of the e-mails I receive,
the sender treats the subject line as more of an afterthought than
a chance to engage the reader (me!).
In fact, according to Convince&Convert, 33% of email recipients

open e-mail based on subject line alone and 69% of e-mail recipients report e-mail as
spam based solely on the subject line.
Here are some more facts regarding subject lines:
 Emails that contain the word "you" in the subject line are opened 5% less
often than those without. (Hubspot)
 Emails that contain the word "tomorrow" in the subject line are opened
10% more often than those without. (Hubspot)
 Emails with subject lines containing 30 or fewer characters have the best
open rates. (Hubspot) Not only that, but 40% of e-mails are opened on

mobile first – where the average mobile screen can only fit 407 words max.
(ContactMonkey)
 Symbols in subject lines can provide up to a 15 percent lift in open rates.

(Experian)
 Email subject lines that create a sense of urgency and exclusivity can give a
22% higher open rate. (Chief Marketer)
 Subject line personalization lowered click rates to 1.1%, and .5% if the
message was personalized as well. (MailerMailer)
 E-mails with “Free” in the subject line were opened 10% more than those
without. (GetSideKick.com)
 E-mails with “fw:” in the subject line were opened 17% less than those
without. (GetSideKick.com)
 18.7% decrease in open rates when the word “newsletter” is used in subject
lines. (Adestra)

 61.8% increase in opens when using the word “alert” in the subject line.
(Adestra)
 These words boost open rates: “Sale,” “New,” or “Video.” (Adestra)
 Using “Daily” or “Weekly” in subject lines boosts open rates whereas

“Monthly” hurts them. (Adestra)
Because the subject lines are as important as the messages contained within the e-mail,
you should give them as much, if not more, attention. Going back through e-mails that I
received and deleted or that ended up in my
junk folder, I notice the same mistakes being
made over and over again.
While these stats provide valuable insight

into what impacts open rates – nothing beats
your own testing.
Uninspiring subject lines
Which one would you rather open?
“Trusty Traveler Newsletter: September 2014″
Or
“The Trusty Traveler: Insider tips on Machu Picchu”
Monthly newsletter blah — Machu Picchu, heck yeah!

Think about how many e-mails you get in the course of a day or a week. If the subject of
the newsletter doesn’t pique your interest, it will most likely be deleted. Also, don’t think
about what would interest YOU, but what would interest your readers.
Unrecognizable ‘From’ addresses
After being a chamber of commerce member for about six months, I called the main
office to ask if I was on their mailing list because I had not been receiving any e-mails
about upcoming events. The woman told me that indeed I was on the mailing list and to
check my junk folder. I soon figured out why I had not been getting the e-mails: the
“From” address was the office manager’s name and that the Subject line read “Tourism
News.” Well, no wonder I deleted them.
Most of the list manager programs will let you customize the “From” section so that you
can add a “display name” which can include your name, the company name, or the
publication name. Take a little time to make sure these are set up correctly for each of
your publications.
Hypey subject lines
Hypey, salesy, or the e-mails that promise untold wealth, tons of traffic, you know the
drill, have lost favor and sometimes border on spam. “Open NOW” “Must Read!”… there’s
a fine line between a “hypey” e-mail and a legitimate one when it comes to creating a
sense of urgency.
Of course everyone’s subscriber list is different and people respond differently depending
on many variables, but the goal should be to engage the reader, create a connection,

communicate a message… and a bad subject line can result in lost subscribers and, in
turn, lost profits. You should know your subscribers and what is acceptable and what
isn’t. (Hint: When people start unsubscribing in droves, you should pay attention.) And if
you don’t know what your readers want, you can always ask them using a free survey
program such as SurveyMonkey.
If you want to test your e-mail campaigns to see how different subject lines compare, try
running a split-test if your autoresponder offers this feature (I know that AWeber does).
Instructions on how to run a split-test can be found within your list manager’s
‘frequently asked questions’ section.
Newsletters are perhaps one of my favorite e-marketing tools. While they're usually
short, sweet, and to the point, taken to an extreme, publishing a newsletter can almost
become like a science. You can test what increases your open rates, conduct split tests to
see which subject line does a better job, and analyze your deliverability reports.
For now, though, just focus on the simple fact that newsletters are a great way to interact
with your customers and provide them with valuable information they can use.
They may not need your services today or tomorrow, but when they do need someone for
data entry, social media management, coaching, bookkeeping, event planning, website
maintenance, or whatever your specialty is, they will think of you first because your
name is in front of them on a regular basis.

Chapter 8
Websites
In the preceding chapters, I’ve included lessons that will help you build your list,
establish a relationship with subscribers, conduct a teleseminar, create and send a
newsletter, and in general, grow your business. I’ve mentioned a “website” but it’s not
completely essential to have one. You may need a squeeze page, landing page, sales page,
sign-up page, etc. but you don’t really NEED a website to do any of the previous lessons.
I understand that a website is a very large undertaking. There is content to write, pages
to design, hosting company to pay… aside from the time is the expense. BUT there is no
question that having a website is the most important ingredient in your marketing
strategy. Your website is the online face of your business; it is where people get to see
your brand, view your offerings, read about the company, view your privacy policy, see
your photo, and learn more about you. This lesson will cover web basics, some key do’s
and don'ts, and basic search engine optimization.
Covering the basics
You know you need a website, but where do you begin? You heard in a Facebook group
that you can get a free site from some new startup web design company. Or this other
company will design it for you and will only charge $40 / month for hosting and includes
two hours of updates. And yet another company says the only way to go is to just have a
blog on Wordpress.com instead.

Now all of these are good points… you can probably save some money on startup costs,
save the hassle of hiring a web developer to maintain your website when you have
updates, and blogs are just so darn popular nowadays, everyone has one! But there are
downsides too.
The startup company that will design your site for free will most likely have their
company branding all over it and you will have no control. Or the $40/month hosting
and update deal – little good this will do when you cannot add sign-up forms or unable
to access your site and have to wait on the company for weeks to get simple updates
done. And yes, a blog is a great idea! But blog themes can be very inflexible in design and
you may be restricted to that columnar format as well as not being able to add
commercial items to your free blog site (eg, you cannot add a PayPal button to your site).
All of these are real-life examples and I’ve had clients come to me at their wit’s end
because they need help with their website. They tried to save money at the outset, but
after experiencing bad customer service, site downtime, or they are growing and their
current company can’t keep up with all that they want to do, they then decide to bring
on someone to help.
My first recommendation is to move away from any type of “proprietary” company that is
holding your website hostage. You only need a hosting company to host your website
files and provide e-mail capability, and register your name with a domain registrar. This
can be the same company if you’d like, such as Hostgator. Or, you can have one company
that hosts the files and another for domain registration. Do a little research based on
what you are looking for. Here is a short story about my own experience…
When I first started my online business in 2005, I did a search on highest-rated hosting
companies and signed up with IXWebHosting and also registered my domain name with

them. The monthly cost for hosting was about $4 for the basic plan. I then wanted to add
a WordPress blog and found that I would need to upgrade to another hosting package to
accommodate this. More research revealed that GoDaddy’s basic package, for about the
same price, allowed for up to 10 MySQL accounts (needed for a blog site), so I moved
over to them.
I started adding more domain names and instead of just forwarding these names to
individual pages on my site, I wanted to add more “sites.” This required an upgrade to
GoDaddy’s Deluxe account. But since I wasn’t crazy about their inflexible control panel, I
moved to a different company, HostGator, for my hosting. I still use GoDaddy for domain
registrations because, frankly, it would have cost more money than I wanted to spend in
order to move the domain names.
It doesn’t really cost any money to move from one

hosting company to another, just the downtime as you
reset your DNS settings, copy files, and wait for
everything to propagate. If you pre-pay, you may be able
to recoup the time not used, but be prepared to take the
financial hit as some companies may not offer
reimbursement.
If you cancel early, you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of moving before your current
contract ends. When moving domain names, you’ll incur some type of “transfer” fee
which is usually a little less money than the annual registration. But if you have a lot of
names, factor in this cost if you plan to move them all at one time.

What’s next?
You have decided on a hosting company, chosen your domain name, now what? Start
writing! Unless you are going to outsource this component, which I don’t think is a good
idea, then you’ll need to provide the text. So the first thing is to write the content. Once
you’ve written the content, start dividing up the content into the different navigation
areas (logical groupings of web pages in an area). You may only have four areas that you
came up with, that’s ok, there’s no right or wrong way to do this.
Now that you have your content ready and your navigation areas, you can look at the
layout. If you chose an HTML website and want to go the inexpensive route, take a look
at the different website templates, find a suitable template, then either build out your
website or send your content and template to a freelancer who will build out the pages
using your content. If you installed WordPress, then you can use a free theme, a
Premium (paid) theme, or you can hire a designer to create a custom theme. I highly
recommend that you stay away from free themes because they can be full of security
issues and easily hackable. I’ve purchased themes from Woothemes and Themeforest,
both are great options!
When looking at the templates, what you are looking for is something that will “fit”
about 70% of your vision. Most likely the colors can be changed, a section can be added
or deleted, and graphics can all be changed. But there are also a few things that cannot
be changed. For example, don’t pick a template with left hand side navigation when you
want the navigation menu to be on the top, this will entail too much re-design. Also,
don’t pick a Flash site and try to turn it into a static HTML site and add large graphics
that don’t move. If you only have four top-navigation sections (main categories) now but

want to add about 13 more very soon, then don’t find a template with a top-side
navigation menu because it will look very cluttered, stick with left-side navigation that
will allow for scrolling.
A good designer will then lay out the website so that it is coded properly, validates
properly with W3C (World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community
where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop
Web standards), optimize graphics, and make sure the links work. They may or may
NOT optimize each page for search engines (SEO), so you need to make sure this is
talked about up front.
Having a site coded properly and validated will ensure that the pages load as fast as
possible, are accessible by those with disabilities, and can be seen in multiple browsers
with no problems. SEO encompasses coding the pages so that people find your site via
search engines and includes tasks such as adding meta descriptions, keyword-rich title
tags, optimizing ALT tags, to name a few.
Do’s and don’ts
Here are some things to think about when writing your content or outlining your
navigation menu.
DO: Provide your contact information.
Make it seamless and easy for potential clients to get more information about you or
contact you. Include a postal address (use a P.O. Box if you work from home and you're
concerned about privacy), phone number, and an e-mail address or contact form. This

also immediately positions you as a credible business. Nothing is more frustrating or says
"fraud" like a website that does not have any contact information available.
What you can do is create one “Contact” page that includes all of the information as well
as your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media site links. Submission forms
are still used by many, though not very reliable and some may be easy to hack, so it’s
much easier to just provide e-mail links.
If you are worried about spam-bots harvesting your e-mail address, you can hide it with a
simple tool. Go to http://javascript.about.com/library/ble-mail1.htm, input your e-mail
address and click either HTML or Javascript and then click “Conceal e-mail.” It will
generate an encrypted e-mail address which you can replace in your HTML code.
Here is what it will look like:
The web page will display E-mail me
But the html code looks like this:
<a href="mailto:lisawe&#108
;ls@coast2coastbu
siness.com">E-mail me</a>
1. Create a Contact page (eg. http://yourwebsite.com/contact or contact.html)

2. Add e-mail, phone number, and social media links to this Contact page.
3. On other pages of your site, make all “contact us” or “e-mail me” links go to your
Contact page.

This way if you need to change your contact information, you only need to change the
one page. Another option is to write out your e-mail address like this: name {at}
company.com so it’s not linked and harder to harvest.
DO: Include a privacy policy.
Having a clear and understandable privacy policy is another absolute must. Today's
consumers are still somewhat concerned about Internet safety. Between the threat of
identity theft and the practices of unscrupulous marketers selling private information or
putting online customers at risk on insecure e-commerce sites, potential clients will
appreciate knowing they can trust you.
DO: Consider displaying your rates and prices.
Should you post prices or rates on your website? The answer is, "it depends." Definitely
list the rates for your flat-fee services, such as e-book or logo design, and provide the
price of any products that you sell.
When it comes to posting rates for services, the

answer for virtual professionals may not be so clear
cut. In arguing FOR posting your rates, I'll share that
my experience has been that people who are
unfamiliar with technology or with a particular
industry (such as virtual assistance) like to see the
prices up front. Otherwise it just all feels foreign to them and like someone may be trying
to "pull the wool over their eyes."

Not only that, but virtual assistant rates run the gamut these days, everything from
$3/hour to $100/hour.
The biggest argument I've heard against posting your rates is that people will window
shop on your site and then leave before they've gotten the chance to get to know you.
And because many of you may provide a personal service, it's really imperative that your
prospective clients get the chance to know you before they make up their mind.
I have to say, though, that when I'm surfing the Web to find a service I do like to have a
general sense of the price before I contact someone. I don't want to waste my time or
theirs if the price is too far outside of my budget. Also, you can always remove “per hour”
pricing and add packages so it’s harder for those window shoppers to pin you down on an
hourly rate ;)
DO: Have a sign-up box for your mailing list on every page of
your website.
In order to build your e-mail list, it must be easy for every website visitor to join that list.
Whether it's a simple sign-up box or an offer of your pink spoon, make sure it's on every
page. It may seem like overkill, but remember that every page is a potential entry point
to your site. Your home page is not always the first page on which people arrive. It's
simple math; having a sign-up box on every page increases your chances of capturing e-
mail addresses.

DON'T: Use free hosting sites or free e-mail for your

professional website.
You are a professional business person; don't let a big blinking banner advertising
someone else's business be the first thing your prospective clients see. Enough said.
It is easy and inexpensive to purchase a domain name (www.yourbusinessname.com)

along with one or more e-mail addresses (you@yourbusinessname.com). Reinforce your
credibility and brand by taking this simple step.
DON'T: Lift images from other sites, copy to your site, and
then call them your own.
This is copyright infringement and it is stealing, plain and simple. There are image sites
such as depositphotos.com, istockphoto.com, and other royalty-free image sites; the
images are as cheap as a couple of bucks.
DON'T: Let your teenage nephew design your site.
You may be surprised how many times I am asked if I could spend a couple of hours to
train someone's son/daughter/niece/nephew to "do up a website." I'm glad I've made it
look so easy, but then the people who installed my carpet made it look easy too! It's
pretty funny to imagine asking one of those men to spend an afternoon to train my son
to "do up some carpet."

Website design is not something one can learn in an afternoon or weekend; it requires a
certain expertise and skill set. Trust me on this – or you may end up as a target on
WebPagesThatSuck.com
DON'T: Invest in a "state of the art" website at the beginning.
You don't need a custom-designed $5,000 website. Having a site built from a template
will do just fine. If you can use Photoshop and know HTML, you are ahead of the game.
But plan on spending about $500 to $1,000 for a 10-page website. Or, outsource to a
freelancer on one of many freelancer sites such as elance.com and guru.com – I have
hired freelancers from these sites often and have had great luck with them. All you need
to provide is the template (which come with the editable Photoshop files), graphics,
navigation outline, and copy and they will do the rest. Just make sure the images are
clear, there is logical navigation, and the copy is well-written and free of errors before
you launch.
Your site is a living document and will undergo many changes when you will want to
update, re-invent, or refresh. Don’t go for “state of the art,” go for "state of the market"
instead.
DON'T: Ask anyone or everyone for their opinion.
I struggled a lot with what to put on my first website. Family, friends, colleagues, and
other "helpful" folks told me I had too little content, then too much content; use less
colors, then use more colors; change the font, no, keep it the same, just make it bigger. It
was all very confusing!

When I stepped back and remembered my goal was to encourage my potential clients
and customers to enter my marketing funnel, I started to think about what they would
want to see on my website. Would my clients want to know my prices up front? Would
my clients want to know which software programs I am familiar with? Would my clients
want packages or à la carte services? Would they prefer a 9 pt font or something bigger?
Looking at your website from the perspective of your clientele, you can never go wrong.
Address the problems that keep them up at night (their pain points), and speak
authentically and confidently about how you can solve them.
 Create a simple site map of the pages you want to include on your website. Look
at some of your favorite sites for ideas.
 Learn from the worst and what NOT to do – check out Web Pages That Suck.
Pet peeves
Here are some things to think about when finalizing your site and uploading it for the
public... my top five web design pet peeves.
Page Overboard
Your web designer might enjoy showing off his or her mastery of the latest techniques,
but that doesn’t mean they belong on your site.
Going overboard, either by adding animation, large photos, or just too many links, not
only adds to the page loading time, but it can really irritate visitors who just want to see
the information they came for. Irritated visitors equal lost revenue and lost

opportunities, so keep your web site clean, simple, and easy to navigate. The trend
nowadays is to be ‘minimal.’
Irrelevant Content
Content Is King when designing your website, and is equally important to both of the
major groups who will determine the success of your web site. The first group is your
web site visitors. They’ve come in search of specific, current and relevant information,
and they want it now. If they can’t find it, then poof, they’re gone!
The second group is the search engines. If the search engines find relevant information
on your site, then they’ll pass along your site as a source of that information. To keep
your visitors and the search engines happy, a web site requires your ongoing attention.
Outdated information sends a message to your visitor that you’re not taking care of
business. They can easily assume that you also won’t take care of them as a client.
Graphic Takeovers
A few years ago, I said that “Don’t let your web site be taken hostage by your graphics.
Whenever you introduce non-text elements to your web design, you reduce the
accessibility of your pages, and this creates problems for visitors with special needs. You
may have visitors who are visually impaired and rely on screen readers, or who are still
relying on dial-up connections (perhaps about 30% of Internet users).”
But this isn’t the case nowadays. Only about 10% of the internet users are using dial-up to
connect to the Internet and chances are, they aren’t your target market. And video is
HOT!

So now I recommend that you still make your web page accessible, limit the number of
graphics, displaying only those that truly complement your page because you now have
to think about how it looks on mobile devices. Then, make the graphics web-ready by
taking these steps:
1. Compress the file to either JPG (for photos) or GIF (for icons, buttons, etc.) format.
2. Crop out any dead space.
3. Resave the image with a resolution of 72 dpi, which is the ideal resolution for web
sites.
4. Add appropriate “alt” tags to all graphics so that screen readers can properly “read”
the graphics, menus, buttons and text.
As well as making sure your videos are accessible on all types of browsers and devices. In
other words, check to make sure you can see your videos on an iPad or mobile phone.
Many times they must be in a particular format in order to be seen on these other
devices.
Graphic Monstrosities
Having large graphics that slow down your page is bad enough. Blinking, scrolling, or
animated text is even worse. But using fuzzy, distorted, or unprofessional graphics is the
absolute worst offense you can commit on a web site. This will immediately create the
impression that your work is of a low quality – remember, your web site is the online face
of your business. As I’ve stated a few times, adding professional graphics doesn’t have to
be expensive.

And my NUMBER 1 WEB DESIGN PET PEEVE is – Hiding Who You

Are
My #1 pet peeve used to be keyword stuffing, but now that Google’s algorithms have
come a long way to discount those pages, I had to find a new pet peeve! And you know
what really bugs me? And this goes particularly for virtual assistants….Visiting a website
and not having any idea who the VA is, where she is from, what services she provides etc.
When I visit the “About” page, I am faced with a resume of old job positions that are
totally irrelevant. I don’t see a picture and the text reads that this is a large company,
when in reality the VA is a solopreneur. Be totally transparent! Don’t be afraid to show
who you are and if you are a multi-VA firm, then say it. If you work alone, say that too! I
really think that authenticity and being unique is a rare find these days and I’d like to see
more of it.
Web design is really quite simple. People visit web sites because they need something –
information, a product, or a service. When they get to your site, they want quick access
to accurate, relevant and up-to-date content that’s easy to see and not cluttered by
advertisements. Your web site doesn’t have to be the prettiest or have the latest gizmos
and cool tricks to get your point across and serve your visitors.
More pet peeves from different forums and polls:
 Sites that use popups, popunders, or any advertising that scrolls / blocks the
actual content
 Requiring registration to get information
 Websites that have no design
 Long, scrolling pages of text
 Music or audio that auto-starts and isn’t easy to turn off

 Dead links
 Flash that has no value besides to be “flashy”
 Sites that fall apart in Mozilla, Firefox, or Opera browsers
 Sites that are built for the PC user and not the Mac user in mind
 Sites that make you search all over to figure out how to contact someone for
the answer to a simple question
 Websites that are one big image
 Typos and bad grammar
 Neon colors
 Websites with nothing on the home page to identify itself
 Excessive drop down menus
 Too many moving parts
 Totally invalid search results
 Websites that look like they were shot out of a shotgun
 Text size that is too small or too large
 Content is hard to read because of text and/or background colors
Whew, a lot to keep in mind!

Optimizing your website
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the art of improving the chances of your site
showing up when someone searches for your type of business. In the early days of the
Internet, it used to be easy to trick the search engines to have a page show up as high in
the ranking scale when it wasn’t really relevant to the
user’s search terms. Nowadays, the search engines are
a lot smarter and with the use of WordPress plugins,
there’s not a lot of optimizing to be had. Here are just
a few of the SEO basics I want you to know.
First, do not assume that if you hire someone to design your website they will also
optimize it for the search engines (adding alt tags, optimizing the photos for viewing,
creating a style sheet, etc.) This is usually a separate service and an additional cost. For
example, when I used to do web development, I would offer optimization at an increased
price and explain to my clients what was included. Before you pay for SEO, find out
exactly what the person is going to do and if they've had specific experience and results
with SEO.
Second, don't write your website copy for the search engines, write for your audience. A
genuine message from your heart is going to go a lot further than a page that's stuffed
with keywords but not much else. Plus, search engines will catch onto this anyway.
Third, keep in mind that optimization works best when each page is optimized
individually. So if you have a page that lists all of your services, also create separate pages
where you describe each different service.

Include as many details as you can about the problems this service will solve, how you
deliver the service, who might be the best client for this service, etc. Try to use the exact
wording that someone in your target market might use, e.g., "Do you ever wake up in the
middle of the night and think, 'How am I going to finish my newsletter article, answer all
of those client e-mails, and still have time to actually do my coaching work? I need some
help with my newsletter!'"
That way, when your prospective client types something like, "Help with newsletters," in
to a search engine, this specific page is more likely to show up in the results, and higher
up.
 Download Hubspot’s 18 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind.

Chapter 9
Blogs
Blog, blogger, blogosphere. I thought these were the strangest sounding words when I
first heard them. And I admit it took me a while to warm up to the whole "blogging" idea.
I actually imagined the whole blog scene akin to a supernova that would take the
Internet by storm but die out as fast as it came in. But one just has to hear the words
“Twitter” and “Facebook” to know this has not been the case.
What is a blog and why do you need one?
A blog (contraction for web log) is a website where entries are made and displayed in a
reverse chronological order. Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject
such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more of a personal online diary.
A typical blog combines text and images with links to other blogs, web pages, and other
media related to its topic. The ability for readers to interact with the blogger and other
readers by leaving comments or participating in polls is an important part of this
medium. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs
(photoblogs), illustration or other artwork (sketchblogs), videos (vlogs) or audio
(podcasts), and are part of a wider network of social media.
Aside from the social aspect of blogging, online marketers have also discovered what a
great marketing tool the blog can be. For instance, it may take Google a few days to index

a traditional website, but a blog is indexed almost immediately. Readers can also
subscribe to your blog by e-mail or through an RSS reader, so they receive instant
notification when you post something new.
Some business owners are even bypassing the traditional website altogether and making
a blog their main website, and that's certainly something to consider.
You can also get super fancy with adding internal links (connecting one page of a website
to a different page on the same website). Doing this has three main purposes: aids in
website navigation, defines the architecture
and hierarchy of a site, and distributes page
authority and ranking power throughout the
site.
The biggest plus, however, is the opportunity

to interact with your clients, customers, and
prospects.
I realize that you've got a lot to focus on as you're starting up your business and the idea
of adding a separate blog to the mix might feel a little overwhelming. So I will just share a
few ideas with you now, and you can come back to them when you're ready.
Are you ready for a blog?

There are a lot of pros to having a blog: interaction with your community, a place for
discussion, enhancing your credibility with your posts and articles, etc. But there are also
some things to think about when asking if you are ready for a blog.
First, blogs require updates. If you are going to build a relationship with your readers
and are posting, then you should be consistent with your writing and answer comments
as they are posted. Ask yourself if you have the time to do this.
Second, do you have anything to say? This may be a dumb question, but believe me a
lot of people think they have something worthwhile to say but they don’t. Or they have
trouble communicating what it is that they want to communicate.
Third, if you think it’s easy to maintain a blog, think again. If you just want to point
and click and type your post, then you’re fine. But if you want to add widgets, plug-ins,
feeds, then you should invest some time in learning how these things work. For example,
if you want to install a plug-in, it can be as easy as searching for the plug-in and clicking
a button to install. While other plug-ins require downloading the file, unzipping the file
to a directory, uploading to your server, installing the plug-in, then tweaking the plug-in
to fit your needs.
This isn’t as easy as it sounds and you can seriously mess up your blog site if you start
editing files and code you aren’t familiar with. Blogs use PHP language and the blog site
is actually made up of different PHP files (one for the header, another for left sidebar, yet
another for the footer – and then there are separate stylesheets for the design elements,
fonts, etc.)
Also, adding a text widget may require that you know HTML code—not using a web
editor like Dreamweaver—but knowing how to hand-code.

Lastly, remember that everyone can read your blog and the Internet is full of stories
where someone has lost clients, subscribers, even a job, by posting something that
shouldn’t have been posted because the person ranted about something that bothered
him that day. What seems like a good idea at the time can backfire, so if you do not have
a built-in self-editor, you may want to hold off. I’m just sayin’.
There are so many pros to blogging, so I’ll stop here with the cons. Let’s move on to the
types of blogging platforms.
Types of blog platforms
Regardless of whether it's your main site or an extension of your online presence, you're
going to need some way of putting your blog together and publishing it to the Internet.
The most common question I hear is, "Should I get a free blog or use a paid service?"
Free blogs
WordPress.com and Blogger are

examples of free blog sites. The blogs
on this site are quick to set up and
easy to maintain. Now that Google
owns Blogger, you can even assign a
unique domain name (www.yourbusinessname.com) to your free blog.
The drawbacks of free blog sites are many. The templates are pretty plain and there are
limits to the amount of customization that you can do to these templates. Also, by

having your blog on a WordPress or Blogger sub-domain, you are basically depriving
your primary website of any real search engine optimization. In reality, you’re kind of
benefiting Google instead. And I don’t think they need the help : )
Hosted services
The next level up from a free blog is using a paid hosted service,
such as Typepad. Built for the small business owner, this is a great
service for those who want a little more control over the look and feel of their blog,
additional features (widgets), as well as the service and support that comes with using a
paid service. Prices at the basic level start at $8.95 per month.
WordPress
If you are a "techy" guy or gal, then I recommend that you purchase a website hosting
package and domain name and install WordPress. It may sound a little daunting, but
hey, look at it as a challenge.
Note: WordPress.com also provides free, hosted blogs. You can practice on these, but
WordPress.com prohibits the use of these free blogs for commercial purposes so this is not
an option for your business blog.

When you install WordPress on your website it uses a MySQL database as the engine to
run the program. Not all hosts provide MySQL databases by default, so make sure that
your hosting company provides this (you may have to upgrade or pay an additional fee).
Also make sure your hosting company can accommodate the other software needed,
PHP. Some hosting
companies, such as
GoDaddy and HostGator,
provide MySQL databases
as part of their basic plans
and installation as easy as
clicking a button by using
Fantastico Deluxe.
Once WordPress is set up and ready to go, you can choose and upload a template
(referred to as a "theme"). Free themes can be found on the Internet, just do a search for
"wordpress templates" or "wordpress themes” or you can purchase themes that are pretty
marketer friendly from other websites. I recommend WooThemes, Themeforest and
Socrates. WooThemes features a few free themes that are awesome!
The pro of WordPress is that you have total control over your theme. You can customize
it by adding your picture, sign-up boxes, categories, widgets (add-ons), colors, etc. The
con is that you have to know how to edit PHP source code or cascading style sheets (CSS)
in order to customize the theme, but you can always outsource this part.
Once you've chosen your free or hosted blog service, or you've installed and customized
WordPress, it's time to start blogging (writing and publishing blog posts).

 Choose a name that you definitely won't want to use for your business blog and
create an account with a free blog service. Try things out and experiment for a
while.
What do I post?
Not sure what to write about? The most important thing is that your blog content is
relevant, interesting, and beneficial to your clients, community, and prospects. Here are
some suggestions to get you started:
 Comment on a recent online news article
 Describe a recent webinar you attended
 Review a new book that you read
 Post an article – your own or someone else's – about a relevant topic
 Recommend resources such as books, products, audios or e-books
 Share news, success stories and links of your colleagues, partners, or clients (they
would LOVE the exposure)
 Invite readers to sign-up for your newsletter or request your pink spoon
 Promote products or e-books for sale – your own or someone else's, but use
sparingly, too much product pushing is a turn-off
 Announce your upcoming teleseminars and other events
 Survey your readers for their opinions
 Answer a question in a Q&A format
 Wow your readers with an audio or video post (moving videos are HOT right
now!)

You don’t have to post every day and your posts don’t have to be a novel. If you are
stretched for time, a paragraph a week should suffice. Remember, your overall marketing
goals are to build that relationship with your subscribers and build your list. Having a
blog incorporated into your marketing strategy helps make that happen. In addition to
increasing your prospect's interest in you and providing more opportunities for him or
her to sign-up for your pink spoon and enter your marketing funnel, a blog also improves
your search engine page rank by providing incoming links back to your website.
 Using the above list, jot down some ideas for blog posts you could write right
now. I bet you'll surprise yourself!
 Create a category on your blog for your articles and post them on your blog.
Don’t forget that you should also add your author resource box to your articles if
you want others to syndicate.
Blogging terms
There is a lot of blog lingo that you should know… here are some terms from Wikipedia
to get you started:
 Blogroll - A list of blogs on a blog (usually placed in the sidebar of a blog) that
reads as a list of recommendations by the blogger of other blogs.
 Blogosphere - All blogs, or the blogging community. Also called blogistan or,
more rarely, blogspace.

 Permalink - Permanent link. The unique URL of a single post. Use this when you
want to link to a post somewhere.
 Pingback - The alert in the TrackBack system that notifies

the original poster of a blog post when someone else writes an
entry concerning the original post.
 Podcasting - Contraction of “iPod” and “broadcasting” (but not for iPods only).
Posting audio and video material on a blog and its RSS feed, for digital players.
 Post - An entry written and published to a blog.
 RSS - Really Simple Syndication is a family of Web feed formats used to publish
frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.
 RSS feed - The file containing a blog’s latest posts. It is read by an RSS
aggregator/reader and shows at once when a blog has been updated. It may
contain only the title of the post, the title plus the first few lines of a post, or the
entire post.
 Subscribe - The term used when a blogs feed is added to a feed reader like
Bloglines or Google. Some blogging platforms have internal subscriptions, this
allows readers to receive notification when there are new posts in a blog.
 Theme - CSS based code that when applied to the templates will result in visual
element changes to the blog. The theme, as a whole, is also referred to as a blog
design.

 TrackBack - A system that allows a blogger to see who has seen the original post
and has written another entry concerning it. The system works by sending a 'ping'
between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.
 Vlog - A video blog; a vlogger is a video blogger (e.g. someone who records himself
interviewing people of a certain field).

Chapter 10
Videos and Podcasting

Now that you have the marketing basics down – autoresponders, websites, blogs,
newsletters, and articles – I thought we’d start looking at more advanced marketing
methods. Incorporating movement and sound to your websites, blogs, and newsletters by
adding videos, audios, and podcasts will add a whole new dimension to your brand.
Building your brand with video
I’m sure that it’s no coincidence that web videos are exploding as more and more people
hook-up to DSL and cable and leave
dial-up behind. Also, as far as the
hardware, people just record using
their cameras nowadays so there
really aren’t any excuses left.
Online Marketing Expert Vanessa

Summers says, “There are 1.5 billion
plus users on the internet today and
video is a great tool to help
entrepreneurs achieve rapid revenue
growth!”

Here is a quick video from Vanessa in which she explains step by step how to create
powerful online videos to create leads, develop trust and rapport more quickly and easily.
Look at how watching her in a video enhances her appeal, establishes her credibility, and
differentiates her from the competition.
Video ideas
Lately I’ve seen some very creative uses for integrating video. I think we have all seen the
sales page or the squeeze page with the video at the top of the page announcing the
content of the program or perhaps giving you a short introduction. And you’ve probably
seen testimonial videos sprinkled throughout a sales page. And then there’s the videos
embedded into blog posts… Since those have been around awhile I won’t go into that.
Now… You may be thinking that you couldn't possibly have anything to talk about that
people would be interested in. But you would be surprised.
Here is a true story...

At a dinner party, my husband was talking about the different methods he uses to brew
beer and wine and answering questions such as "Where does the beer get its color?"
“What do you need to get started?” “How do you make wine labels?” Finally, someone
said, "I wish there was a website that showed how to do these things that you're talking
about," and a light bulb went on in my head.
Using my marketing mindset, I came up with the idea of starting a blog that featured
snippets of videos showing tips on beer making and home brewing, e.g., the correct way
to bottle beer, how to store beer while it's fermenting, how to choose and use bottle caps,

and other step-by-step instructions. Too bad the husband didn’t want to take part in my
idea lol.
My husband went on to build an actual bar (with a bar-back, taps, the whole enchilada)
inside our house and while he was building it, I again asked if I could follow him around
with a video camera and he told me in no uncertain times NO! I’ll just have to keep my
ideas coming and eventually one will stick – someday. 
I’m not going to tell you how great and awesome video is and how it’s quadrupled my
business because, as you can probably see, I don’t have a lot of videos on my websites.
BUT if you think your business would benefit by engaging with your clients or customers
via video, I CAN tell you what you need as far as hardware, programs, and the process.
In the video coaching example above, here is the basic process:
1. Use a web cam, phone, or video camera to record.

2. Upload the file(s) to a storage service such as Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
or YouTube.
3. If you don’t use YouTube, then you’ll need to create a video player using a program
such as EZS3 or Audio Acrobat. (You may even have an integrated player in your
website theme, so be sure check that out.)
4. Grab the code and embed into an HTML page or blog.
5. Create a sales page to provide a sign-up form so that someone can sign up to your
autoresponder (either free or integrate as a paid product).
6. Send the e-mails via the autoresponder that point to that HTML page.

There is the nominal expense for the web cam or video camera and you will have to pay
for the subscription to a program so that you can
upload/download files and create players.
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is an online

service provided by Amazon.com that allows users to store large amounts of data online.
S3 is free to join, and is a pay-as-you-go service, meaning you only ever pay for any of the
hosting and bandwidth costs that you use, making it very attractive for start-up
companies looking to minimize costs. You can see pricing here.
EZS3 provides a service that works with Amazon in which you can upload
and store files and create players for files in various including MP3,
(Flash) FLV, (Windows Media Player) WMV, etc. formats. EZS3 provides a
trial at $1 for 14 days then it is $20/month afterwards. The single user plan
provides access to standard eZs3 features and your Amazon S3 account for only 1 user as
there is a 24-hour lock-out automatic protection for dual log-ins. If you have a team, such
as virtual assistants or contractors, you will need the business plan, which starts at $30
per month for three users.
Audio Acrobat offers a free 30-day trial and then it is regularly $19.95 per month.
You will need some type of autoresponder service to automate the sign-up and delivery
process, such as iContact, AWeber, or 1ShoppingCart.
Going back to my “reluctant brewer” example, don’t get caught up so much in the
content because, and trust me on this, if you know something that other people want to
know, then you can make money creating video tutorials and selling them online. Also, if

you’re just getting started, there is nothing wrong with using a free program, such as
YouTube, to upload your videos.
In this other fun example, I surprised a friend of mine with a video testimonial. It didn’t
take long for me to record and my friend added the music and titles.
Lights! Camera! Action!
 Record a testimonial for a

product that you recently
purchased and could provide a
positive testimonial. The
recipient will love you for it!
CLICK TO PLAY
Audio and podcasting
If you're someone who finds it easier to talk than to write, podcasting is going to be an
essential tool for you. Go with your strengths instead of trying to squeeze all of your
marketing efforts into a box that's not right for you. You can podcast to boost your
business, promote your passion, share your opinions, or just have fun.
There is such a wide range of information when it comes to podcasting. You can record
an audio using your computer microphone, upload
it to your server, create a link, and call it a podcast if
you want. Or, your clients, customers, and

prospects can go to your blog to find the newest recordings (episodes) or they can
subscribe via an RSS feed to get instant notification. Then, they can either listen or
download the episodes into a portable device and take them on the road.
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, a podcast is "a digital recording of a
radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a
personal audio player," but the generally accepted definition has expanded to include
video as well as audio. So whether you are downloading from a link or subscribing to a
feed, they are both technically a podcast, except one is sitting on the server while the
other one is pushed out through a service.
Since we already talked about video, I wanted to focus on podcasting using audio. Here
are just a few podcasting applications you can use in your marketing efforts:
 Talk Shows
 Music Shows
 Interviews
 Story Telling
 Tutorials
 Directions
 Commentaries
 Sportscasts

Audio podcasting tools
If you are ready to do a simple podcast and want to “go it alone,” there are very few tools
that you will need. Basically you will need a microphone, audio card, headphones, and
audio editing software. You can get free audio editing and recording software from
Audacity. Add some intro/outro music (also known as bumper music, tips ‘n tails) from
Music Bakery and you are all set.
If you think about it, podcasting can become a full-time job and if you are inclined to this
type of work and want to get into the advanced podcasting functions, you can start a
business offering podcasting administration to include:
 Promoting podcasts on the web, online discussion groups, and social

networking sites
 Seeking out sponsors, advertising, and subscriptions to monetize the podcast

(make it pay)
 Creating podcasts designed to promote a business
 Advanced recording (including understanding dB (decibel levels), capturing or

minimizing ambient noise, etc.)
 Advanced editing with GarageBand or Audacity, adding bed music (music that
is used behind a speaker while they are on-air), and including intros and outros
for a signature finishing touch
 Downsize the audio files with MP3 compression
 Change bit rates and sample rates in Audacity and iTunes

 Create and edit ID3 tags in Audacity or iTunes
 Post the show notes
 Simplify the RSS 2.0 feed by using blogging software or a podcast-hosting

company such as Audioblog.com, Podcastamatic, and Feeder
 Ping for publicity
 Communicate with listeners on client’s blog through online discussion groups

such Facebook, Yahoo! Groups, or other online forums
The interactivity of these podcasting tools creates an automatic, dynamic dialogue with
your website visitors and subscribers, and helps you to build and cement your
relationships with them, whether you use pure audio or combine it with video.
 Go to iTunes and BlogTalkRadio and listen to some podcasts.
 Download Audacity software and record a simple audio.
 Challenge yourself: Download the lame mp3 encoder, install, and use with
Audacity to convert your files as MP3s.

Chapter 11
Leveraging Social Media

If there is one thing I learned is that when there is a down economy, relationships
become more important than ever to a small business owner. Throughout these
chapters, I keep going back to relationship-building as the key to a successful business
and I’ve seen how using social media
sites can enhance the relationship-
building process.
In this chapter I’m going to talk about

the “big 4” and how to leverage your
efforts so that you’re not running in a
million different directions. Trust me it
can be overwhelming, especially when
SEOMOZ.ORG
a colleague tells you that to be
successful you need to create an Instagram page and another respected blogger says that
anyone who isn’t on Twitter is predestined to fail.
And remember, just because it works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for
you too.

What is social media and what can (and can’t) it

do for me?
In an article called "Lessons Learned" (Lieberman, 2009), the author states,
"Anyone who has used social networks for business or personal use knows there's a
lot of noise in social media. The sites are great for making and keeping loose
connections with scores of people you may or may not know, but they do not allow
for that one-to-one, more personal communication that you as a small business or
organization are looking for with your customers and prospects. E-mail marketing
helps take those relationships to the next level."
And I do agree with what he is saying since I don't see Twitter or Facebook taking over e-
mail as the main method of communication. E-mail will continue to be the main tool for
personal and individual communication.
Social media has its place; however, I want to urge people not to go overboard and go out
and sign up for every social media site there is because someone told you “You HAVE to
get on Twitter!”
Back to marketing basics
Let’s get back to the basics of marketing: 1) identify your target audience, 2) identify their
needs, and 3) communicate with them in the places they want to be communicated to.
If your target audience is mainly on Twitter, then by all means use Twitter and use it as a
tool to reach that audience. (Just don’t tweet a lie because that would be a “Litter.” Lol)

But if your target audience has no interest in Twitter, then your social media efforts
aren’t going to produce desired results. So it’s important that you gain a clear
understanding of your audience before you jump into the social media arena. Because if
you don’t know where your potential clients and customers are, how are you going to
know where to leverage your efforts?
First, let’s go back to chapter 1 in which I talked about creating a marketing strategy and
a marketing plan. Write down in your marketing plan how integrating social media will
help you achieve your goals and make sure to specify those goals. Remember, a
marketing plan is where you want to go and a marketing strategy is how you will get
there. For example, if your goal is to increase traffic to your blog by a certain percentage,
you can add ‘posting on Twitter’ as a tactic to achieve that goal. (And don’t forget to
track that traffic, which we’ll talk about in the next chapter!)
Note: Don’t try to sign up and learn how to use all the sites at once. Pick
one site, find out more about it, learn how to use it, get good at that ONE,
then move on to another media site. This is the best advice I’ve received
from hearing many speakers talk on this subject.
Like I mentioned earlier, social media sites aren’t going to replace the traditional
marketing tools. Rather, they should be thought of as part of an overall marketing
strategy to reach people where they want to be reached. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,
and LinkedIn are simply more touch points through which businesses and organizations
can connect with customers and members.
E-mail marketing, social media networks, and other marketing strategies each make the
others more valuable, particularly for businesses and organizations working with limited

resources. For instance, a blog post can act as content for a newsletter, while links from
Twitter and Facebook can drive newsletter signups and provide website traffic. Content
can and should be shared across all your marketing efforts to reach as many customers,
members, and prospects as possible; give people as many ways to connect with you as
they would like.
In short, social media is rooted in relationships, the dynamic interaction and

collaboration between real people.
The “Big 4”
Now you know what social media can (and can’t) do and decide to get in on the action.
Where do you start? The top social media sites are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn - also known as “the Big 4.” Each of these sites is free to join and here is a brief
description of each:
 YouTube is the video sharing site on which users can upload and
share videos. It is the world's most popular online video
community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch, and
share originally-created videos.
 With over 1 billion (with a B) active members Facebook is a

tremendously popular social networking site. Its massive reach provides compelling
opportunities to connect with customers, both current and future, through pages,
news feeds, groups, and throughout the site. It started out strictly for college students
and used to be available by invitation only. Now, it is a cultural phenomenon having
overtaken many other popular sites (anyone remember MySpace?).

 Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to
send and read messages real-time known as tweets. Tweets are text-
based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile
page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as
followers. Twitter has quickly become a popular platform for consumers and
advertisers alike.
 LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 460

million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your
trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and
opportunities with a broader network of professionals. You can also join groups that
closely follow your interests.
 Choose ONE - LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook - and create a profile, add a link
back to your blog or website, upload a photo, and complete a profile.
‘Getting started’ tips and etiquette
Because each business is different and you will have to figure out which social media site
is best for you in your overall marketing strategy, I can’t possibly tell you what you
should do, what will work, what won’t, because it all depends on you and your audience.
So this section will go over what you can do today to get started.
1. Create your profile, add your photo, add URLs pointing to your website and/or
blog.

2. If it makes sense, create an automated feed from your blog to your social media
account (Facebook or Twitter) so that every time you create a new post, its
headline is fed to them. Just be aware that both of these platforms are very
different and attract different people, so your blog posts may not make sense to be
shared on one or the other. And please don’t make it so that Facebook posts are
shared on Twitter and vice versa, it just looks weird.
3. Brand the social sites with your photos and colors as much as possible.
4. Engage, interact and encourage feedback by commenting on other blogs that
discuss relevant subjects. Be active on your Twitter page by discussing your news
and relevant topics. Allow people to comment on your own blog entries.
There are a few things to remember about social media etiquette – not to tell you what
you SHOULD do, but things to think about in order to be more successful…
Twitter tips
Make it about your audience, not about you.
 Consistently using your Twitter stream for nothing but self-promotion and ego is a
huge turn-off.
 When signing up for a Twitter automation program (which sends a direct message
automatically when someone follows you in Twitter), I came across the following
warning:
“If you really want folks to unfollow you, then try and sell them something
with this first welcome message. Very few people like that. Be careful even if
you're giving away something for free. The purpose of this message is to say

hello and welcome. Most people take a dim view of you when you do any
kind of self-promotion with this message. If your message smells remotely
like, "Hi, thanks for the follow, now buy my stuff or do something that will
benefit me or check out how cool I am," then you really are misusing this
welcome message. Don't send what you wouldn't like to receive from
others.”
After reading this, I promptly changed my account setting from sending Twitter
subscribers a link to my free special report to not sending anything at all. I
contemplated changing it to a simple “Hello and thanks for following,” but in the
end, I decided that I didn’t want any misconceptions or negativity. I’ve seen it
done both ways and it is acceptable either way, just remember to think about the
subscriber first and don’t try to SELL right off the bat.
 Requesting that your friends re-tweet your Tweets on a constant basis is

bothersome. If you have a good tip or link to share, it will get re-tweeted on its
own.
 The debate of “auto-follow” or not (in which you edit your settings so that when
someone “follows” you, you automatically “follow” them) rages on. This was
actually a topic during a dinner at a conference I attended. I personally don’t auto-
follow people and do not care if people auto-follow me because I think it should be
a personal choice not a “rule” to follow. Also, if you do decide to “auto-follow” you
may end up following a spammer or other unsavory character.
 Using Twitter to repeat personal and confidential correspondence could cast you
in a bad light so keep it as a private conversation. Also, people tend to get annoyed
if you carry on a private conversation to the exclusion of everyone else. Twitter is a
broadcast medium, so keep private conversations private.

Facebook tips
It’s about relationships, not about business.
 Resist the urge to invite everyone to the latest game or app (Farmville anyone?). A
good idea is to perhaps create a personal Facebook account for your friends and
family and a professional account for your business or have a “business” page for
your business and not invite personal friends.
 As with Twitter, don’t publicize a private conversation on someone’s wall. Writing
on someone’s wall is public to everyone, so think twice before writing something
you will later regret.
 Facebook allows you to post pictures and videos and “tag” individuals. This is a fun
way to share your photos and, in turn, you receive an alert when you are tagged.
This is a great thing unless of course you post an unflattering picture of someone
and tag it. If in doubt, don’t post it. Also, don’t post a picture or video about
yourself and “tag” it with a bunch of your friends’, colleagues’, or affiliates’ names
in order to get them to look at it.
LinkedIn tips
Professional connections...
 It is ok to ask for an endorsement, but not ok to ask for endorsements from

individuals you don’t know or that didn’t do a good job in your employ.
 Don’t gather up all of your LinkedIn connections and spam them with your service
offerings.

A lot of these tips are common sense, but when first starting out it may not seem so
obvious. For example, I had no idea that my habit of inconsistent tweeting is considered
to be one of the 7 deadly Twitter sins.
But seriously, don’t get too hung up on the “rules.” Everyone was a newbie at one time
and there are many sites and books out there to help if you feel stuck or want to learn
more.
People can tell pretty quickly if you are genuine or not and like to be connected to
genuine people. Just be yourself, be open minded, don’t get overwhelmed, and have fun!
 Check out these links to free resources:
 "How to Really Used Linked In"
 Social Media Etiquette Handbook
 Social Oomph
 Hootsuite

Chapter 12
Analytics and Metrics

In this final chapter, I want to go over something that is extremely important to do in
order to further the success of your business, yet a lot of people are not doing…tracking
website statistics, measuring conversion rates, and analyzing e-mail open rates and click-
throughs.
Using analytical tools is important because how else are you going to know if you are on
track and meeting your marketing goals? How are you supposed to know if your e-mail
campaign is working? What do you tell someone who asks ‘what are your conversion
rates?’ How do you know which web site sales pages are doing well and which ones need
attention?
Now, I don’t think the average small business owner intentionally overlooks this
necessary part of his or her business on purpose. I think the owner understands that it
has to be done but perhaps he or she is unsure of what it is that is to be measured. Or
perhaps he or she is measuring statistics but doesn’t know what is considered to be a
“good” statistic. For example, do you know what is an acceptable e-mail broadcast open
rate and what is an exceptional open rate?
This lesson will show you how to use Google Analytics and an autoresponder’s reporting
feature to measure what matters.

Understanding Google Analytics
Just a short disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Google Inc. in any way, nor does Google
Inc. sponsor or approve any of my products.
What is website analytics?
Whenever I write an article, an e-course, a report or anything intended to instruct others

on a topic, I always like to start from the very beginning, with the very core basics. That
way, I can be sure to address beginner questions. And if you think you already know all
about website analytics already, I still might be able to add a little nugget of information
to help things become just a little clearer for you.
So if you're an analytics beginner, never fear! We'll be starting from Square One. And if
you think you're pretty well-versed on the whole website analytics landscape, stick with
me. You might just learn something to make it work even better for you.

When I said we were starting from Square One, I meant it. So before we hit the topic of
website analytics, let's start with what a website is, at its very core (just in case you
skipped to the end ).
What is a website?
A website is a collection of information that is often put together in 'pages'. A good

website for a virtual assistant has a central driving theme: who you are and what you
provide.
Each page within that site is a single collection of content, typically focused on a single
topic as well. Each of those individual pages is based around the driving theme of the
overall site. For instance, if you want to promote your business, your pages might be:
 Your profile
 What services you provide (one page per service)
 How to contact you
 Your rates
Notice that while all these topics are different, they all relate back to that overall theme
of helping your client get to know you.
Once your website is populated with a number of interrelated topics, how do you know if
anybody is reading your pages? And if people are reading, how do you know where
they're coming from?
The answer can be found in your website analytics.

What does website analytics mean?
When people visit your website they leave a trail. Remember Hansel and Gretel? As they
wandered through the forest they left a trail of pebbles so they could find their way back
home. Well, it's possible to track your site visitors and get detailed information about
what they're doing, where they're going, and where they came from, through the use of
computer 'cookies'.
When used by the “good guys” (like you and me), a computer cookie is a small, harmless
file that is automatically downloaded to a visitor's computer when they come to your
website. This file then allows website analytics software to track all sorts of data about
your visitor, such as where they go on your site, what kind of Internet browser they're
using, how they arrived at your site, what page they entered on, where they leave, and so
on.
In the old days, this data was only available at great cost and effort, and then website
owners had to manually make sense of it. Enter the 21st century. Now, website analytical
programs gather and compile all the data automatically, and then spits it back out as
understandable and useful reports that you can then apply to your business.
Let's review:
 Your website has lots of pages, as many as you've created.
 Your visitors arrive, and they get tracked using cookies.
 Those cookies are used by website analytics software to record important

information about your visitors' activities as they arrive and while they are cruising
around your website.

 The website analytics program sends you back statistical data about your visitors
that is useful and can ultimately help grow your business.
Here's what analytics can tell you:
 Keywords – what words and phrases people actually type in to Internet search
engines like Yahoo and Google to find your site.
 Search Engines – what search engines were used to find your site.
 Internet Browsers – which internet browser was used to view your site.
 Visitor Count – how many people visit your site per day, week, year.
 Referring Sites – what other sites sent you traffic.
 Popular Pages – what people were reading on your site and how many visited each
page.
 Time on Site – how long people spent on your website.
 Entry Pages – which pages people entered your site from.
 Exit Pages – which pages people left your site from.
 Conversions – which pages resulted in sales, which resulted in email sign ups.
 Demographics – what countries visitors live in.
 Time – What days and times are busiest on your site.

Who needs website analytics?
So now that you know what data you can track, you may be wondering why you even
need this very detailed information. Does it really matter that 45 percent of your traffic
arrived through Google, and 90 percent of your visitors come between 12 and 1 PM on
Thursdays?
Put simply, anyone who is interested in growing their traffic on their website needs
website analytics. There is no one single more valuable tool that can provide this level of
detailed information about your visitors. And the more you know about your audience,
the better you can meet their needs.
Not using website analytics for your business is like opening a restaurant and then never
trying to figure out whether your customers prefer chicken or veal, how the new drink
special sold, whether they're families with young children or couples on their first date,
and what hours are busiest. Are they stopping by at 10 PM for coffee and dessert, or are
they coming in before a night on the town for a cocktail and an appetizer? If you don't
know that information, how can you plan your menus, order stock, hire and schedule
workers, and devise marketing plans to entice your customers if you don't know who
they are and where they're coming from?
With a website it's a little more complex, but basically the same principle. You need to
know if visitors are coming through your virtual doors, then what they're doing while
they stay, and then which page they leave from. A website doesn't have one 'door' in and
out like a restaurant. There could be ten, twenty or even a hundred or more entrances
and exits. It's your job to monitor them and see what people are doing – THEN you can
decide how you'll best make money with that information. Website analytics are your

key to making important business decisions. We will be spending the rest of this
section discussing all you need to know to set up, monitor, maintain and profit from your
website statistics.
So we've touched on who can benefit from analytics and why they should use them, but
let's go deeper with some solid examples.
Who should use website analytics?
 Product Sellers – If you sell a product on your website then statistics can tell
you a lot about your target market. You can learn: what words people are using
to find you in the search engines, what products are most popular, what articles
people are reading, and what websites are linking to you and bringing you
traffic. Once armed with this information you can do more of what works and
increase your sales.
 Bloggers – If you have a blog, you need to understand your analytics. Knowing
which pages are viewed the most can help you to monetize them better – and
make more money from your web traffic.
 Service Providers (you!) – A website designed to highlight and promote your

services is great, but do you know what your clients really want? Analytics can
tell you: pain points potential clients have that you may not be aware of
through the search words they use, what services are in greatest demand, where
your visitors and potential clients are coming from online, and if you're
capturing their attention based on how long they stay on your site.

 Advertisers – If you make money through advertisements on your website, you

already attract visitors and you know how to make money with them. But have
you optimized what's working? Analytics can help you: attract more visitors
who respond to your ads by targeting more of the keywords that are already
working to draw traffic, find out what visitors are having issues with based on
the keywords they use, find out what pages are keeping visitors attention, find
out what pages are converting to sales.
So, now that you know the Who (you!) and the Why, let's go forward with the How. In
the next section we'll jump right into an overview of Google Analytics, one of the easiest
and most powerful website analytics you can use. And here's the best part: It's free!
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered through Google. It tracks,
compiles, and generates the exact type of statistics we talked about in the first part of this
report. I love Google Analytics because it's robust, easy, and free!
How to set up Google Analytics
Start by going to http://www.google.com/analytics/
Click on “Access Analytics.”

You'll see this screen:

If you already have a Google account (for any Google service, including Gmail or
Adsense), just log in. If you don't have a Google account then click on “Create an
Account now.” You'll need to sign up for one before you continue.
Once you've gone through the log in or sign-up process then you'll be asked to create a
new profile. The screen will look like this:
Since you're just starting out you'll want to choose 'Add a Profile for a new domain'. Then
you'll enter in the website URL you want to track through Google Analytics, the country
and time zone. Click Finish to get your tracking code.

The tracking code
The code you get on the next page needs to be put on every page of your website. Where
you place this code is going to vary greatly depending on how your website was designed.
If your Website is NOT a WordPress blog...
Google Analytics gives you clear directions that the code needs to be placed immediately
before the closing </head> tag.
If this doesn't make sense to you, then you'll probably want to get some support for this
part of the setup. Depending on how and where your website is set up you may be able to
ask your website designer, website host, website builder customer support, or other
sources for help to find the location where you need to place the tracking code.

If you're a do-it-yourself type, you need to find your source HTML site files. You will then
place this tracking code on every page of your site that you want to track. In some cases,
you'll only have to add it in one spot and it will automatically propagate through your
entire site (yet another reason to recommend a WordPress blog).
If your website IS a WordPress blog...
Many WordPress themes are set up for you to simply add the tracking code to the
site/theme setup. You can also get a number of WordPress plug-ins that allow you to just
pop the tracking code in an easy to find section so that it can be added throughout the
site.) In fact, doing a quick search
for plug-ins in WordPress today
and found several that are rated
highly.
See image to the right 

Check that you installed it correctly.
Before you install your code you'll see this message in your Analytics account:
Check back after you've installed the tracking code. If everything is set up properly that
message will change to this message:
Once Google starts receiving data, it will start collecting the data that is going to help
you make future decisions on the marketing and messages you set forth in your business.
Exciting stuff, right?!
How to set up Google Analytics e-mail reports
Once we understand what analytics are and how to start collecting them, it's easy to
understand how important they are in terms of researching and understanding our
market. One beautiful aspect of Google Analytics (hereinafter referred to as GA) is that
you can “order” reports on a regular basis. You simply schedule email reports to be sent
to you at the interval you determine.
I recommend setting your reports to monthly. Here's why: Weekly is too often and can
lead to overwhelm that causes you to do nothing as you are lost, swimming in a sea of
data you aren't sure how to interpret. Also, you could see variations during a single week

that even out over a month or more. So, a small dip over a holiday could send you into an
unnecessary panic when over the course of the month, your traffic may have grown. You
need a longer perspective to see if some blip is an aberration or a permanent state of
affairs (does the entire country of Sri Lanka suddenly love your blog?). Quarterly, on the
other hand, is too long because by the time you actually look at data and trends it might
be too late to do anything about them. Monthly is just right because a new month gives
you the opportunity to visit your stats, income and activities to make sure you are driving
your business in the right direction.
It's fairly easy to set up your custom reports. Follow along right now so you're instantly
putting this information to great use!
The Dashboard
If you set up your site correctly you'll see a list of your monitored website(s) when you
log into your GA account. Click on whichever website in your list you'd like to receive
reports for first.
Within the Dashboard you can customize the information that you want to view. You
can now create a customized dashboard, add widgets, etc.
Email your reports
After you've clicked on “View Report,” you can now see that there is a little button on top
of each section that says Email:

Clicking on that Email button will allow you to either email the report directly to you
immediately, or schedule it for later. Click on the Frequency setting to set the recurring
schedule and you can even select the day of the week.
You'll notice that you can also send the report to others. You might want to use this
feature to send a monthly keyword report to your writer or guest bloggers who can then
use it to create new monthly content. Or you might want to schedule a monthly report
on traffic sources to use the information to track metrics as well as to ping the same sites
or find new, similar ones to promote you on.
The subject and description are fairly straightforward. This is what will appear in the
email.
Schedule and be worry-free.
Something to note before you set up your schedule:
The email report shows exactly the parameters that you have on your screen at the time
you hit the Email button. So be sure you are in the right section of your reports and that
you can see on the screen all the information you need.
For example, I get a “keywords” report sent to me for my own site which is very helpful
for me to plan my blog posts for the next month. I get well over 500 keyword searches
per month, but the default screen in Google Analytics only shows the first 10 results. So

when I created my email report I had to scroll down to the very bottom of my page and
make sure it is set to show 500 rows. Otherwise the report will send me only the first 10
results, which isn't very helpful to me.
The next thing you might be wondering is what kind of reports you should send yourself.
There are many sections to GA, and you don't want to send yourself everything because it
will be too overwhelming. I’m going to recommend these following reports. But first, go
to these sections and once there, click on the upper left corner where it says “Email,” and
change frequency to “Monthly” and they’ll be delivered to you?
1. Audience Overview – This includes information on how many visitors you

received, page views, pages per visit, bounce rate, average time on site and
percentage of new visits. The dashboard also contains a few other summaries such
as a Map Overlay, Traffic Sources Overview and a Content Overview. This can also
be customized.
2. Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Referrals – Knowing what sites are actually sending
you traffic right now is golden information. You want to use this feature to see how
much MORE traffic you can get from the same sites and what other similar or
related sites you can get traffic from as well. For this report, I set the number of
rows to view at 50.
3. Acquisition -> Search Console -> Queries – Real humans are typing words into
the search engines to find your site. Knowing exactly what these words are helps
you write more useful content along the same lines and allows you to see where
gaps in your content might exist.
4. Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages – This tells you the most popular pages on
your website. Use this feature to make sure the popular pages are optimized and to
create new pages on the topics your visitors like the most.

You'll be amazed at how much time you save by taking the time now to set these reports
up. Months zoom by quickly and before you know it you've forgotten to check your stats
for six months. But – with this automated setup there are absolutely no excuses for not
looking at your stats every month.
Website statistic terms to learn
GA uses certain terms to identify traffic and give you the information you need to make
informed decisions, and they’ve changed up their terminology in recent years. Let's go
over these terms as you will use them often while analyzing your statistical data.
New User – People that visit your site for the first time in the selected date range. (This
used to be called ‘unique visitor’).
Session – A single visit to your website, consisting of one or more pageviews, along with
events, ecommerce transactions, and other interactions. (This used to be called ‘visit’).
Pages Per Session – The average number of pages per visit. (This used to be called
“pages/visit”).
Average Session Duration – Top-level view of how long users are spending on your site.
(This used to be called “Avg. Time on Site”).
Metric - One of two types of data that Google Analytics collects, a metric is typically a
number, like a count or a percentage. (This used to be called ‘% New Visits’).
Bounce Rate – The rate at which people leave your site from the page they landed on,
without ever going anywhere else. If you have 100% bounce rate it means that every
person who lands on a particular page of your site leaves without clicking through to

another page. Obviously, the LOWER your bounce rate is, the better. If sites are sending
you tons of traffic but your bounce rate is very high, that means the traffic is likely
untargeted. Consider this rate carefully when looking for more traffic from certain sites.
Referral - Sites that send you traffic are friends indeed. With an online business, traffic
is lifeblood – and the referring sites are your veins. They pump life into your business and
allow you to make more money. Don't underestimate the power of your referring sites
and the inbound links they use to send traffic your way. As you'll see below, you should
adjust regularly to optimize the opportunities already in front of you. (This used to be
called ‘Referring Sites’).
Here are some tips about what you can do with your referring site report:
Visit the Sites – Go visit the site and make sure you are using the traffic and
exposure you are currently getting to your maximum advantage. If the site is a
blog, comment to further solidify your presence there. If the site published an
article of yours, contact the owner to see if you can post more or become a regular
contributor. If the site is an article directory, add more articles.
Look for Patterns – Is there a certain type of site that you get more traffic from?
Are you getting a lot of people coming from your social media marketing? Look at
what efforts you're currently making to see if they're paying off. For example, if you
contribute weekly to a blog in your niche but you're getting little or no traffic, then
it may be time to trim non-productive activities.
Look for Additional Opportunities – While you're visiting referring sites, take
note of any opportunities for additional traffic from related sites. See who else

they're linking to and check them out. You never know when you'll find another
great source of traffic.
Contact the Site Owners – If you have not yet been in contact with the owners of
the sites that are sending you traffic, send an introductory message. Introduce
yourself and let them know they're a top referrer for you. Say thank you and leave
the discussion open. Ask what you can do to help them achieve their site goals; by
extending a helping hand, you're making contact and opening up for a business
relationship. (I once contacted my top referrer in Clickbank and he told me it was
the first time someone had contacted him and thanked him. A little ‘thank you’
really goes a long way!)
There are sites on the internet with tons of traffic. Why not take advantage of a win-win
situation by getting yourself found on these sites? Tracking with Google Analytics will
help you successfully do so!
Keywords and the search engines
So now that you know how to look at your reports, let's discuss some ways you can use
them. One of the first topics to look at is your keywords: The main words or phrases you
are using to target traffic from search engines (this process is known as search engine
optimization, or SEO). The keyword report shows terms that your visitors searched for
which led them to your site.
How many keywords are listed in your report depends on how much your site is
currently loved by the search engines. If you have a new website, then you'll most likely

have a low number of keyword terms to analyze. If you have a very large site that is well
established you may have hundreds or even thousands of keyword terms in your report.
Now that you've got your keyword report, now what do you do with the data on it?
Top Keywords – Study your top five keywords. Basically, these are the keywords
that are giving you the most traffic. Are these the words you want to be known for,
or are visitors just randomly finding you through some old page you put up
without a second thought?
Website Navigation – Is your site navigation in line with the words that people
are using to find your website? Can you reword some of your links in order to
make them more attractive to the visitors who are finding your site?
Look for “Information” Words – There are some keyword phrases that clearly
indicate someone looking for information, rather than looking to make a purchase
or hire you. They are not in a buying state of mind while searching, and are clearly
telling you so, so there's no sense in trying to sell them something directly. Two
examples: “free outsourcing ideas,” or “types of virtual assistants.” It's not likely
you're going to convince either searcher to buy anything from you immediately.
Look for “Potential” Words – Some words are “information” words on the
surface, but they express an underlying need or potential need to make a purchase.
An example might be “how to work with a virtual assistant?” Unlike the example
above we could potentially give the searcher high-quality advice and information
on working with a virtual assistant.
Look for “Money” Words – Some words on your keyword list will be “money”
words, meaning that the people searching are looking to make a purchase or are in

hiring mode. Examples might be “Where to find a virtual assistant” or “social

media virtual assistant recommendation.” These searchers are telling you they're
ready to make a buying or hiring decision.
Look for Potential Articles – Can you use some of the keyword phrases to turn
straight into articles? Do it! Even “information” words make great blog posts; they
provide a way to develop a relationship with your target market. Giving them high-
quality info gives them a reason to come back again.
Reuse Them – Is there anywhere else you can use these keywords that are
working to drive people to your website? Maybe you can create a report, a product,
videos or other marketing materials that will continue to boost your business.
Over time you'll develop other ideas for what you should do with your keywords. In the
meantime, keep pulling those reports and looking for patterns. A final tip for you on the
keywords is to make sure you don't put too much pressure on yourself. Use what you can
and leave the rest. You won't be able to implement every idea or suggestion immediately.
That's why I suggest starting with your top five keywords, so you can target your efforts
where they'll have your biggest payoff.
Content by title
Another section of analytics I recommend you check out every month is your content by
title (Behavior -> Site Content). This part of the report will show you the most popular
pages/posts on your website listed by title.
Let's see what we can do with this information:

Improve your content – When you know which of your pages are visited most
often, it's easy to prioritize which pages of your website to optimize and improve!
You should constantly be working on your website to make it better, but we all
have limited time. Start with the pages you know people are reading; see if you can
improve on the quality of the content, the additional resources, the internal
linking and the overall message.
Optimize your content – Sometimes we just write a page purely to add to our
site without optimizing it to make money. By optimizing content, I mean it has a
purpose! If you've written a page to get people to sign up to your newsletter, invite
them to do so. If you've written a page to share your expertise, point them to
additional content. If you've written a page to lead a prospect towards a sale, tell
them how to get there. If there's a way to make your existing content work better
for you – your highest-traffic pages are the place to start!
Taking good inventory of the content your visitors are looking for is a smart move. You'll
then know what your visitors love and what to create more of – potentially bringing in
clients.
Goals
First, you may wonder why you need to create a goal. Creating goals are important to
track your conversion rates. “Conversion rates” applies to the ratio at which visitors are
taking the desired action you want them to take on that page. For example, on a single
opt-in page where you have your free pink spoon, the desired action is for the person to
fill in the submission form with their name and e-mail address. Basically, you are

tracking how many people who land on that page are filling in the form—that ratio is
your conversion rate.
What is a good conversion rate for a squeeze page or opt-in page? When I asked that
question to Eric Graham, The Conversion Doctor, he told me “though it depends a bit on
traffic source, I like to see 25% minimum conversion rate with 40% to 50%+ as the sweet
spot.”
If your pages aren’t converting well at all, there are MANY things you can do to increase
that rate. The problem can be anything from the page design, the price point, color
scheme, words, layout… Watch Eric Graham’s free videos and follow him on Twitter, he
shares a ton of great information on how to increase conversion rates. Learn all that you
can, apply what you have learned, and test, test, test!
Let’s set up a simple goal in which we are going to track the conversion rate of an opt-in
page. First, make sure the pages have the pasted code so they are being tracked. Second,
write down the filenames of the page where the opt-in box resides and the redirect page
(where the visitor is taken to once the submit button is clicked which denotes a
successful opt-in or “conversion”).
Click on the Goals link from the Administration section and click on New Goal.
On the next screen titled Goal setup, choose Custom and click Continue.
Fill in the fields by giving your Goal a name. For Goal Type, choose Destination. This is
because we are measuring how many people opt-in to your page and we measure that by
dividing the number of people who land on the page by those who make it to the
‘confirmation’ or ‘thank you’ page.

Click on Continue.
For the Destination, choose Equals

to and enter in the URL.
The URL is the redirect page,

which you wrote down in the
previous step. For example, once
the visitor enters their name and e-
mail address and clicks on submit,
they are redirected to a “thank you” page. This is where you will enter the filename of
that page. Be sure to only add the forward slash and the filename, not the entire domain.
(Example just type /thankyou.html and not http://www.yoursite.com/thankyou.html).
You can add a Goal Value if you

want to assign a price for each
completed goal, which is useful
when tracking sales pages. And you
can also define a Goal Funnel
wherein you add the specific path
of filenames to visually see the
funnel leading up to the goal. This
would come in handy if you had a series of pages leading up to a purchase and you
wanted to see exactly where people are abandoning the purchase for example. Click on
Save.

I recommend setting up goals for each opt-in page and each sales page. Here are the
comprehensive instructions on how to create, edit, and share goals if you need more
detailed instructions.
Using the Google Analytics website overlay
Another very useful and important feature in Google Analytics is the In-Page Analytics.
First, download the Page-Analytics Chrome Extension from the Chrome Web Store.
The website overlay will show you a screenshot of your own website, and then you'll be
able to see exactly where people are clicking.
This is a visual form of testing your site. Here are a few suggestions of how you can use
this information:
Website Navigation: Are you using the right wording in your website navigation?
Are you linking to pages people are interested in viewing? Use the site overlay to
see where people are actually clicking. This will help you determine if your current
navigation is working or if you need to test out some changes.
Sales Pages: Test out the links in your site's sales pages. Are people clicking away
from your testimonials more than they're buying? Are they clicking a “buy now”
link in the P.S. and not on your actual “buy now” graphic? That's useful
information for the future.
Shopping Cart: Do you have a number of products for sale but not many sales
happening? See if people are clicking to order but then abandoning the cart by
comparing your clicks to your actual sales.

Blog Posts or Articles: Is some content getting more attention than other
content? The site overlay will tell you exactly what people are clicking and reading
even when they're not buying.
Don't be too hasty when you're doing testing with the site overlay or anywhere. Make
sure you give enough time to get meaningful statistics that you can make solid business
decisions on.
Summary
This chapter has been an overview of the tools you can use to get started with Google
Analytics. It is by no means a full instruction booklet or manual on the program. Once
you get the basics down, you can move on to more advanced features such as income
tracking and conversion statistics. If you need more help, dig in to the detailed resources
available within your Google Analytics Dashboard by clicking on the Help link in the top
right corner.
It's also important to remember that statistics can only get you so far. Producing a high
quality website that real people love to read, return to and share with others is one of the
best ways to guarantee your traffic will grow consistently.
Once you've got a flow of quality content, then statistics can help you make what's
already great into something amazing!
 Sign up for Google Analytics
 Set up a goal for one of your opt-in pages

Analyzing e-mail statistics
Whether it’s a newsletter or a simple broadcast e-mail, most of the autoresponder

programs have a tracking feature so that you can see statistics of your e-mail campaigns.
For this example, I’m going to show you how to do this using AWeber.
In AWeber, click on the Messages tab, then click on Broadcast. You will see all of the sent
broadcasts:
This one screen can tell you many things. First, you can see if your e-mails are bouncing
(unable to be delivered due to software and/or hardware issues of the receiver),
complaints, percentage of “Opens,” and number of “Clicks.”
Bounces
Bounces (and unsubscribes for that matter) are part and parcel of e-mail marketing and
will occur even with the cleanest and most targeted lists. If the rate is too high, it is good
to understand why these bounces are happening and to take steps to minimize the
percentage rate.

There are two types of bounces: soft bounce and hard bounce. A soft bounce means that
the address was found but the delivery attempt failed due to other factors. A soft bounce
may include: inactive account, temporary domain failure, out of office reply, mailbox full,
and e-mail limit has been exceeded.
A hard bounce is an attempt to send an e-mail to an address that has failed typically
because of bad address syntax (missing the “@” or period), unknown user, unknown
domain, or invalid address.
Just realize that soft bounces can occur for a variety of reasons: people move, change
jobs, graduate college, change e-mail addresses, try out a new free e-mail service, change
their ISPs, etc. and they don't always remember to update their account information with
their newsletter providers. In fact, statistics from the research marketing firm NFO
WorldGroups show that there is a 31% turnover rate in e-mail addresses over a 12-month
period.
To guard against a high bounce rate, you can change your list manager settings to require
a confirmed opt-in, which means that a person must subscribe to the list as well as
confirm their e-mail. So if a person submits a faulty e-mail address, say she mistypes her
e-mail, she will never be on the list to begin with.
An average bounce back rate for a list that is mailed regularly (at least once per month)
can range from 2% - 5%. An average bounce back rate to a list that is mailed less
regularly can range from 5% - 13%. My advice is to just monitor this statistic to make sure
your e-mails are being delivered.

Opens
“Opens” refer to the percentage of people who were sent the e-mail actually opened the
e-mail. Also, an open rate is only valid for people who receive HTML e-mails.
It is not as easy to provide “average” statistics for open rates because industry averages
vary and because each list has its unique characteristics.
However, industry metrics at least let you see if you're way off with your numbers. If the
average open rate in your sector is 40% and you're getting 10%, you know you have a
problem. If you're getting 70%, you know you're doing quite well.
According to stats from Constant Contact, the average open rate for the consultant
business type is 14.48%. (Usually the term “VA” or “freelancer” isn’t included in these
types of lists, so I just find something that’s close.)
If your open rates are pretty low for your industry average, then there are some things
you can look at.

1. Subject lines – In AWeber, you can do a “split test” using different subject lines to
see how one performs against the other. It could be that your subscribers prefer
personalization (adding a first name in the subject line), the subject lines are not
motivating them to open the e-mail, or they may be too spammy.
In the graphic above, you can see where I did a split test by changing the subject
lines. I was promoting a teleseminar and (mistakenly) thought that the subject line
that contained the words “teleseminar” and the presenter’s name would get a
better open rate. But I was wrong; the subject line that only contained the
teleseminar topic without the words “teleseminar” had twice the open rate. Glad I
tested!
2. Timing – I wouldn’t suggest that you all of a sudden change your newsletter
delivery day as you may throw off subscribers, but you can always do a split test
with the time of day you are sending your newsletters or e-mails. I see that my own
statistics show that sending e-mails later in the afternoon, around 2-3 pm Eastern
Time, enjoy a higher open rate for the simple fact that I am not competing with
the morning “spam” mails.
3. Try adding images – Try adding a little color or images if you are just sending out
HTML e-mails that contain only texts and hyperlinks. Try adding your picture!
AWeber has a lot of good blog posts and articles about this topic, so just check your list
manager’s knowledgebase for more tips. Or, you can Google “e-mail open rates” and find
a lot of helpful information. I just don’t want you to follow every single suggestion or you
may break your readers’ expectations by changing a lot at once.

Clicks
One e-mail marketing metric that is used often to determine the success of an e-mail
campaign is the “click rate.” If recipients are clicking on the links in your message, it
means that they are interested in learning more about your offers, and it means that your
content and calls-to-action were clearly stated and enticing.
You can also click on the number and it will display which links in the e-mail were
clicked and how many times. This is a good way to see where you can focus your efforts;
which links are performing well and why.
Stats from Constant Contact show that the average click-through rate for consultants is
7.77%.
Here are some tips to increase your click-through rate:
 Put your most important links or offers above the fold or at the top of your e-mail.
 Targeted, relevant messages not only receive higher open rates, they also receive
much higher click-through rates. Target your messages based upon your
subscriber's demographics, preferences, and interests.

 Don't clutter your e-mail with too many offers or links. This can confuse and
overwhelm your recipients and possibly have a negative effect on your campaign
performance and even sales.
 Use graphics or pictures to explain your product, and make the graphic clickable
to direct readers to a web page providing more information.
 Check your open and click-through rates in your list manager program
 Set up a split test for your next e-mail campaign

We’ve come to the end my friend. In this jam-packed e-book, I have tried to provide you
with a solid foundation to grow your business with e-marketing. Wherever you plan to
start with your e-marketing plan, keep in mind that the most successful virtual assistants
aren’t those with the best plan, but those who are consistently taking action.
"D ESIRE TO DO MORE WITH YOUR LIFE , DO WHAT YOU LOVE , AND MAKE
YOUR OWN DESTINY ." - LISA WELLS

About Lisa Wells

Hi there! I'm Lisa Wells and I hope you enjoyed this
ebook, E-Marketing Essentials for Virtual Assistants.
Don’t forget to check out all of the resources at

VirtualAssistantTrainer.com! I offer free training
presentations, forms and templates, free resources,
and training programs.
Let’s connect!
Visit http://facebook.com/VATrainer and click Like -

I’d appreciate it! – and follow me on Twitter
@lisawells!
Warmly,

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HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE IN

Copyright 2016 Lisa Wells, all rights reserved. No content may be

Lisa Wells | Page 1

A note from Lisa

Lisa Wells | Page 2

From Southern California to North Carolina

Find a need, fill a need

Lisa Wells | Page 3

Lisa Wells | Page 4

Lisa Wells | Page 5

Programs and tools .................................................................................................... 63

Lisa Wells | Page 6

What is e-marketing and why do I have to do it?

Lisa Wells | Page 7

Lisa Wells | Page 8

Niche Marketing: Making the case for

Lisa Wells | Page 9

Luckily, I had a business coach to talk it over

Lisa Wells | Page 10

Lisa Wells | Page 11

Getting to know your target market

Lisa Wells | Page 12

 What is the formal definition of this target market?

 Who is typically interested in the services you offer?

 Who is/are your target market(s)?

 Is there a broad target market? Or a narrow target market?

 Are there many others already catering to this market?

 How can you stand out from others in your niche?

 How will your business/offering be different/better/valuable?

Lisa Wells | Page 13

Lisa Wells | Page 14

Common myths about marketing

Myth #1: Small Market, Small Client List

Myth #2: You need to expand your offerings

Lisa Wells | Page 15

QUICK START ASSIGNMENT:

Lisa Wells | Page 16

Field of dreams? Not exactly…

1. Get clear about your target market

Lisa Wells | Page 17

Your marketing strategy will be shaped by your

Lisa Wells | Page 18

 Write at least one article per week

 Submit at least one article per week to four article banks

QUICK START ASSIGNMENT:

 Define your marketing methods. Will you advertise, use Internet

Lisa Wells | Page 19

The marketing funnel

A marketing funnel (also known as a pipeline) is a collection of services that get

Lisa Wells | Page 20

You've probably already noticed pink spoons on

Offering a pink spoon is a great way to showcase

Lisa Wells | Page 21

QUICK START ASSIGNMENT:

Behind the scenes

Lisa Wells | Page 22

Lisa Wells | Page 23

Need more examples?

Lisa Wells | Page 24

Is your virtual assistance business lacking

Lisa Wells | Page 25