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I am listed in the Top 100 Australian blogs list with my Virtual Assistant blog so hopefully that means I’ve learnt a thing or two. Perhaps the following might help you.

When I first started blogging I had to set my Outlook calendar to remind me to write a blogpost on a weekly basis and even then, I didn’t know what about. That was 2 years ago. I began reading through other people’s blogs, leaving comments on their’s and then adding posts on mine that would further or complement a post on someone else’s and link back to them – it brought me more traffic. I always looked for blogs on the same theme or topic as mine. But one of the best things I did was use Google Alerts – it’s free and you can get it to email you ‘as it happens’, daily or weekly a list of blog posts and websites that publish the keyword or phrases you want monitored. That brings me heaps of material to write about.

And just today I’ve written two posts for my VA blog (one is published and the other is pre-set for 2 days’ time) because of things that have happened here this morning. These days I have little trouble finding things to write about – it’s just getting into that mode.

To find blogs on similar topics to your’s just go to www.technorati.com and use the search feature – and then click on the links that come up – that should get you started. KMT

Tags: About Blogging, Having Fun by Kathie Thomas
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As a Virtual Assistant, I love exploring new programs but am sometimes skeptical towards some until I hear from others of their own personal experiences. Free programs I do view warily until proven otherwise, I don’t want to get caught with something I wished I hadn’t downloaded.

However, recently my team were discussing a photo storing program called Picasa which is a free download from Google and it is worth checking out. It does a full scan of your computer or will only scan the sections you specify. So, if you have photos you don’t want suddenly exposed using this program, it would be best if they were not in your My Documents folder or any of the folders you want the program to go through.

Once it’s collated all that information you can view them in year order or alphabetical order and sort them into categories, or whatever. It has this great facility for collecting your chosen pictures for emailing them, or create an html file which you can upload to a webspace (your own webspace that is) for sending out to anyone. It has 3 different background colours (grey, black and white) and 2 different layouts. I expect since it converts them into html you could fiddle with them afterwards and make changes – I haven’t done that yet, but I like how easily it creates the thumbnails with a viewing screen.

This program could save you a lot of time if you work with images for clients and need to quickly upload images in a suitable format for viewing. If you also work with photo blogs or other sites that have a lot of images in it, this would be a worthwhile tool to work with. I had a bit of fun with it as you’ll see if you click on this link. KMT

Picasa, images album, photo blog, free download

Tags: Author's Thoughts, Technology by Kathie Thomas
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If you’re like me then the subject for this post would sound like a dream! And it does to me. I love to write and get nowhere near enough time to write as much as I like. And frequently I come across items I’d like to write for the Virtual Assistant industry and if I don’t quickly write it down, the idea is lost again as I concentrate on my work throughout the day.

So, I’ve entered this competition and invite you to vote for my VA blog. If I were fortunate enough to win it would allow me to spend time promoting our industry even more and I could pass on many of my existing clients to VAs to service so my time was freed up for writing – sounds like a win/win doesn’t it? For both the VA industry and for other VAs to gain more clients. So make sure you click on the Vote button to the left of this post or if receiving this post by email, click here! Thanks in advance. KMT

blog for a year, vote for this blog

Tags: About Blogging by Kathie Thomas
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In a recent coaching session with a new VA we talked about developing niche areas in which to operate and promote her business. In passing she mentioned her family background which also had a connection with her husband – they all experience the same physical challenge and she was thinking that since she had experience of this particular thing, she could service business people who experience the same. I thought it a great idea and encouraged her with this thinking and then remembered I know someone else via a list forum outside of my industry who also suffers from this same physical challenge and is having problems getting work.

I asked the VA if she knew anyone else working in the same field with this challenge and she said that yes, she does, and mentioned they were in Chicago. The lady I know is also in the US and apparently on the other side of the country. I immediately asked if I could pass on the VA’s contact details to this lady and she was happy for that to happen – she will work on connecting the two people to see if it will assist this lady to obtain work.

I reflected on this later on and found it incredible. Here I am in Australia, connecting a lady in Kentucky with a VA in Wisconsin who knows someone working in the same field with the same challenges in Chicago. I have no personal experience of the geographical distance between these people but the common denominators that will help link them was my knowledge of these people and the Internet. Networking via the Internet can be very powerful and help connect people who would otherwise never have known about each other. Belonging to networking groups, both professional and social online is a good thing to do. Worth thinking about, isn’t it? KMT

networking, doing business online

Tags: Networking by Kathie Thomas
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