VAs are Instrumental in Running Membership Sites

One thing that I learned about while I was doing my VA training was about a growing niche for Virtual Assistants that involves setup and management of membership sites.

A membership site is one that provides services or products on a regular basis. For example, if you were to visit www.adhdfamilyonline.com you’d find a membership site for adults and children who are working through the challenges created by ADHD in their lives. Most membership sites, such as the ADHD one offer some free content, but the bulk of the information and resources are only available for a monthly subscription.

And the trend seems to be that more and more informational based businesses are heading in the direction of membership sites rather than traditional websites. One reason for this is that besides generating a steady revenue, it also allows them to get to know their clients while providing better content and resources to them.  So, where does a VA come into all of this?

In many cases small business owners might want to create a membership website, but do not have the skills or knowledge necessary to get it up and running. And that’s one way that a VA can be of, well, assistance.  By setting up the membership site and managing it we are able to free up a lot of the business owner’s time to concentrate on doing what they do best — creating products and generating revenue.

Now, the really neat thing about creating a membership website is that it really is dead easy, if you use the right tools.  To be exact, you need three things to create a membership account:

1. A web host such as GoDaddy, HostGator, BlueHost, etc.
2. WordPress (hosted by you)
3. Wishlist

So basically, your virtual boss hosts his Wordpress blog on his own personal server. He then purchase the Wishlist Membership software for $97. You take that software, upload the plug-ins directly into Wordpress and Viola! you now have a membership site.  From that point on your job will be to manage the subscription base, perhaps the billing process and/or answering technical questions (i.e., “How do I access the downloads I paid for?” or “Where can I upgrade/unsubscribe?” etc.).

Wishlist is the key to the transformation process. It’s a WordPress plugin that takes the tech out of techy.  Now, I’m no expert, but from watching the videos it is pretty easy. No code to write or complicated instructions to give you a headache. The best part is, it has all the features you
would want in a membership solution AND it is compatible with all of your other favorite plugins! Plus, they’ve added some very cool features
to make running and managing a membership site a whole lot easier.

Using this plug-in you can manage the unsubscribe/subscribe lists, answer queries, help with billing issues and more. Imagine your virtual boss’ happy face when he realizes that he’s snagged the world’s smartest VA to take these tedious tasks off of his hand. He has a fully functional membership site and he didn’t miss a beat in his business, thanks to you.

So, go familiarize yourself with how the Wishlist Membership works by watching the videos found at http://member.wishlistproducts.com/micro. Not only will it teach you about their software, but you’ll get a good idea of the different tasks you may be asked to handle if you market yourself as a “Membership Management Virtual Assistant.”

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Two Tips to Make the Most of Your Autoresponders

One of the topics that we discussed in my virtual assistant class was about autoresponders. We’re all very familiar with autoresponders because nowadays you can’t sign up for a newsletter of anything else on the web without having to click on an autoresponder email.

One of our potential jobs as virtual assistant is to help our clients build their business. Since many of these businesses are online, knowing how to effectively use an autoresponder is very important. Why? If your clients aren’t using it correctly they’re losing business. And when they lose business we won’t be able to get that raise we richly deserve. J So here are three tips to keep in mind.

Don’t Use the “The List Technique.

“The List Technique”: Having a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about products and services. These prospects had already received an email by the time they requested more information, so you use the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
  
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
  
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. Using the List Technique we’re just writing news bulletins to everyone the client knows! What is really needed (and appreciated) by customers is a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.
  

DO Follow Up With Each Lead Individually

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

• First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!
  
• Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.
  
• The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!
  
• Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)
  

And Remember: Timing Counts

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

• Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!
  
• Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!
  
• Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.
  

Following up effectively seems complicated (I know it did for me at first), but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up - don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

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What is a Virtual Assistant

As I mentioned in an earlier post I was privileged to have taken a great Virtual Assistant class over the course of the last eight weeks.  I will be sharing with you some of the new skills and insights that I got from the class.

But before I do that I thought it would be a good idea to explain what a virtual assistant is for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term.  A virtual assistant is a person who works with businesses that need help with their work flow  . Virtual assistant do not actually go to the person’s place of business. All work is done through email, faxes, and telephone. The small business market usually is a good niche to investigate because the average small business owner is wearing multiple caps and would appreciate (and need) help.

When I first came up with the idea of becoming a virtual assistant I labored under the misinformation that I had to set up my pricing like a secretarial service. If you go to my website you’ll see what I mean. . What I’ve taken away after eight weeks is all I need to do is to walk up to small businesses, let them know what I do and tell them my hourly rate. The main difference between the secretarial service model (that I tried to use) and a virtual assistant model is this:

• Secretarial Models are based upon doing piece meal work. For example, a report is $X.XX.  A database is $XX.XX.  We  don’t need to have a relationship with the person who is requesting the work. We just do the work and get paid. It’s a good business, but these days it can be tough to get work since so many people understand the basics of word processing.
• Virtual Assistant are actually consultants for small businesses. We learn what the person needs doing and, in many cases, where they want to take their businesses in the future. In the hourly rate that we quote we can do a variety of things, answering phones, researching, places ads, etc.

Virtual assistants are needed for a variety of jobs including:

• virtual receptionists
  
• travel arrangements
  
• customer support
  
• website design and set up
  
• appointment reminder calls
  
• article posting
  
• bookkeeping
  
• marketing
  
• executive-level assistant
  
• data entry
  
• cold and warm calling
  
• meeting arrangements
  
• mailing preparation and processing
  
• general administrative assistant
  
• email screening and processing
  
• writing, and
  
• research

Virtual assistants are not employees. We work according to our own schedules and provide services in accordance with our hourly agreement. A virtual assistant becomes the right hand of the people that they work with because they handle the tasks that the business owner does not have the time, and many times, the inclination of handling themselves. And it makes sense. If a business owner is a super salesperson, why should they cut down their time selling goods to customers by going to manage their email accounts?

So that’s the story in a nutshell. Virtual Assistants are the backbone of many businesses these days. We’re the folks in the background that allow the owners to maintain and expand their businesses without having to worry about non-business building tasks.

Pretty cool, huh?

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One Way to Save Some Brain Cells … VA Style

Wow! It’s been a very busy summer so far and I’m way behind on my blog. So, let’s just get this party started. As you may remember I decided to take a Virtual Assistant Education course a couple of months ago. It was an eight week course with a four week apprenticeship with entrepreneurs and small business owners. I took the class primarily as a way to get into the apprenticeship since I was looking for more clients and this seemed like a cool way to do it. It also was my way of seeing if I was keeping up with other virtual assistants (also known as VAs). And although I know a lot about the business, the pearls of wisdom and information that Denise shared with us are very precious to me.

In case you don’t know what a virtual assistant does, let me give you a brief overview. Virtual Assistants handle tasks that are time-consuming and do not generate income for the business owner. For example, if you are a salesperson you only make money while you are selling goods and services. You aren’t making money setting appointments and doing market research. So, you’d hire a VA to set your appointments, manage your calendar and look for more potential customers for you to meet. Or, if you are an author/speaker the best use of your time would be in the creation of your product, not booking venues to speak, setting up teleconferences, wading through email, etc. So you would hire a VA to take care of those things. Virtual Assistants work with doctors, authors, entrepreneurs, internet membership site owners, small businesses, etc. The VAs do the grunt work while you expand your business and your brand.

As a Virtual Assistant, you’ll need to be able to access your client’s email, setup website accounts and other things. And the more clients that you have in place, the more passwords there are for you to remember. I used to just use Firefox’s “Remember” feature, but as that becomes cumbersome after awhile. And that’s where this nifty little gadget comes into play. It’s called Roboform and it is a wonderful addition to my software collection. This isn’t just a password program; it actually is setup to fill in all of your information anytime you are on a registration page. Roboform turns itself on when it detects a page that contains forms and will ask if you want it to fill in the blanks. It’ll even submit the form if that’s your choice.

Not only does it remember and store away your information, it also allows you to setup different accounts. So, you can have your unlimited profiles and passwords. So in practice, each client that you have would get his or her own profile complete that can even include their business credit card that you might use for purchases that they ask you to make. It also will generate its own encrypted passwords to keep your accounts safe. And best of all, since those encrypted passwords are all but impossible to remember, it’ll remember them as well. I haven’t upgraded to the RoboForm2Go yet because I’m usually on my own laptop, but it’s a great feature if you use multiple computers. It allows you to retrieve your passwords from any internet-connected computer.

This will be a great help to me since I already have too many passwords to remember for myself, let alone my new clients. And now that I can free up some brain space that was previously reserved for passwords into something much more productive … like keeping up with this blog!

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