10 Weeks of Free Tools Every VA Must Have - Week 5

Last week we discussed some great virtual collaboration and communication tools, such as YouSendIt, AllPeers, LogMeIn, Skype, Thinkature, and Writeboard. Now it’s time for…

Week 5: Cleanse & Protect Tools for Virtual Assistants!

I cannot stress enough the importance of protecting your data and content. You think it will never happen to you—until it does. And in today’s technology-driven times, the likelihood of it happening to you is high. It shouldn’t be one of those things you deal with only when it happens, and it shouldn’t be something on your “C” priority list. This is necessary and vital to your business, so if you haven’t taken steps to protect yourself, then stop what you’re doing right now and do it!

CopyscapeCopyscape: I *know* you *know* that plagiarizing someone else’s work is just plain evil and wrong, but unfortunately it happens anyway. Some people are just lazy and don’t want to do the work themselves and would rather take credit for someone else’s hard work. I have absolutely no sympathy for the person doing the plagiarizing. I have personally been a victim of this, so if my feelings come through in my writing, it is rightfully so. Another virtual assistant copied my About page and didn’t even bother to change the wording other than her name, so essentially she copied and pasted my background, capabilities, experience, and heck, even my business model!

How did I find out? Copyscape—a free website plagiarism search tool. Make it a point to check your site periodically, because not everyone has the same morals as the rest of us.

CcleanerCcleaner: If you’re one of those people who never cleans up your computer system, then Ccleaner is for you. A free system optimization tool, it gets rid of unused files and online activities such as your temporary Internet files, history, and cookies, which allows Windows to run faster by freeing up your hard disk space. And it does it quickly and painlessly. Read more

10 Weeks of Free Tools Every VA Must Have - Week 4

Last week we talked about some really handy tools for VAs, including the Lorem Ipsum Generator, Plaxo, Microsoft Office Templates, and Visual Thesaurus. Now on to…

Week 4: Sharing, Collaborating & Communicating Remotely Is What Virtual Assistants Do Best!


File Sharing

YouSendItYouSendIt: YouSendIt just got a whole lot better. Not only can you send files that are up to 100MB for free, but YouSendIt has just released six plug-ins to make it a lot easier to send files right from your favorite software programs like Outlook, Photoshop, and CorelDRAW. If you send and receive lots of files, they offer paid versions from $4.99 per month up to the $29.99 per month business plan, which features your own branded drop-box for clients and associates. Oh, and just for fun, they even provide instructions on how to make the YouSendIt airplane.

AllPeersAllPeers: AllPeers is a Firefox add-on that allows you to share your files privately and securely just by dragging your files to your AllPeers window. You also have the ability to share entire folders, web pages, or images from the Web. You control who has access, and best of all, there are no more uploads, no email attachments, no size limit, and no slow downloads—and it’s all fre*e. Oh, and did I mention you can use it to chat with your friends too? Read more

10 Weeks of Free Tools Every VA Must Have - Week 3

Last week we discussed a variety of tools that Google has to offer virtual assistants, or anyone else who finds them useful. Now on to…

Week 3: Just Plain Handy Tools for Virtual Assistants

Sometimes you come across something so handy that it’s hard to believe you didn’t think of it yourself. I wish I had thought of the following handy-dandy little tools myself, but either way, they have made my life simpler. They may not shed hours off my week, but I cannot live without them.

Lorem IpsumLorem Ipsum Generator: If you design newsletters, websites, templates, or any other type of collateral for your clients, then you’ve probably entered some filler text in the designs to give your clients an idea of how things would look once you began adding the content. You’ve probably used something like “Your text here. Your text here. Your text here…” to simulate paragraphs. Well, the ultimate dummy-text generator, Lorem Ipsum, offers a much smarter way of doing this.

There isn’t any guessing with the Lorem Ipsum Generator. Simply tell it how many paragraphs, words, bytes, or lists you want. It then generates the text, you just copy and paste, and you’re done!

FavIcon by PicsFavIcon from Pics: Have you ever wondered how to create your own favicon that would show up in your visitors’ address bars when they visit or bookmark your site? Well, using FavIcon from Pics, it’s easier than you think! FavIcon from Pics will create a still or an animated favicon from regular images, such as a picture, a logo, or a symbol. The images can be any size and any resolution. The program will provide you with a nice little image file to upload to your web server, along with full instructions. Back in 2006, I wrote a blog article about how to do it. You can check it out here. Read more

10 Weeks of Free Tools Every VA Must Have - Week 2

Last week began a 10-week blog series on my favorite free tools, all of which will help VAs alleviate overhead business costs and boost productivity. Now on to…

Week 2: Virtual Assistant Uses for Everything Google

Google

So, pretty much everything Google has to offer is just too darned cool. From scheduling to sharing to tracking and everything in between, you can’t go wrong with Google—and you can’t beat FREE! The most you have to do is register for your free account and then start using all these wonderful tools. Google has so much more than what is listed here, but these are my favorites, and I use them every day.

Google Alerts: Setting up Google Alerts is like having your own little Internet research team. Want to know when your name or your business name pops up somewhere on the Internet? Google Alerts has it covered. Want to keep track of the latest news on your favorite band? Google Alerts can handle that too. Google Alerts sends you an email with the latest relevant Google results based on the criteria you set up for each alert.

Connie’s Tip: I have several alerts set up, including my name, my business names, and other topics of interest. But don’t forget about your competitors! The only way to stay competitive is to know who your competition is and what they are doing. Keep tabs on them by setting up alerts on them too!

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a great way to track your website statistics. Not only is the format visually appealing (unlike many of the statistics programs offered by web hosts), but everything is really easy to understand. It takes just minutes to set up, and then you simply insert a few lines of code into your web pages, and voila! Instant stats—and you don’t even have to go through a lengthy installation. Another great feature is that you can add as many sites as you need to. For me, I have six sites to track—all my own. If you use Google Adwords, it is also integrated with Google Analytics, so you can view your ROI metrics without doing anything extra.

Google Calendar: Keep everyone organized with Google Calendar by sharing it with your family, friends, colleagues, or clients. Or you can share it with all four separately! Don’t want your clients to see your personal schedule and events? No problem. You can share it with whomever you choose, make it public or private, or even allow clients to view it from your own web page.

Another great feature is that you can subscribe to other people’s calendars and view them simultaneously with yours—and it’s all color-coded. What could be cooler than that? Read more

10 Weeks of Free Tools Every VA Must Have - Week 1

Starting a virtual assistance business doesn’t have to be expensive, but keeping up with the technology you need for your growing practice can add up, unless you know where to look! Working and running your business virtually can be inexpensive—and “virtually” free—thanks to those who believe that you don’t have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars on software and services each year just to keep up with the times.

For the next 10 weeks, I’ll be sharing my all-time favorite must-use and must-have resources for VAs. Many of these favorites will benefit small business owners or solo entrepreneurs as well. These are programs, products, tools, sites, and services that are all free. No 30-day trials, no credit cards required, just plain free.

Week 1: Must-Use Resources Provided by Virtual Assistance Organizations

VANA: VA resources and networking at its best. Simply irresistible!

VANAWhether you’re new to virtual assistance or you’re a seasoned veteran, every VA has a home at VANA. Where else could you collaborate with over 6,000 aspiring, new, and veteran VAs for tips, tricks, advice, networking, idea bouncing, and more? Did I mention more? That’s because VANA is so much more than a forum. Founder of VANA, Tawnya Sutherland, is on a mission to provide an abundance of exciting resources to the VA industry, and VANA’s trusty volunteers help to keep things running smoothly. Read more

12 Pitfalls to Avoid When Building a Website for Your Business

I’m on a mission. My mission is to rid the world of bad websites and educate the do-it-yourselfers on how to build better websites. I know, I know. This may be a far reach, but if I can help just one person make his or her website better, then I’ve made a difference!

Pitfall #1: Music and Sound
The number one thing you can do to turn visitors away is adding music or an automated voice that blasts through their speakers when they reach your website. Instead, give your visitors the option to turn it on rather than having it play automatically.

Pitfall #2: Forgetting Multiple Browsers and Screen Resolutions
Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc. There are several browsers and each one renders your web pages, colors, and fonts differently. If you’re not viewing your finished site in multiple browsers, then expect the unexpected. Why, oh why, can’t the developers just work together so everyone sees the same thing? Well, even if they did, there is also the issue of different sized monitors and different screen resolutions set on every computer.

Pitfall #3: Too Much Content
If you have more content on a web page than one vertical scroll, then put it in a book. In today’s world, we don’t have time to read 20 paragraphs of text and we’re not going to. Unless you’re Wikipedia, you have no business having that much text on a web page. Scale it down, highlight the important stuff with bullet points and move on. Another option is to break it up into separate web pages and let your visitor decide what’s important to them. Read more

← Previous Page — Next Page →