Rates to Charge as a Virtual Assistant

Internet Business Model Series
Service Business / Charge by Hour or Project

What rates do new virtual assistants charge their clients?

This is a hard question to answer. To charge what is considered a high rate, the virtual assistant must possess the expertise to back-up the rate and if that match is not present, return business will be impossible to get. On the other hand, charging a rate that is too low will not only hamper the VA from making a profit, but it will appear to potential clients that the experience and skills necessary to do the job may not be present.

New virtual assistants need to consult with professionals that are already in the business to learn what the market rates are in their locale or field of specialization. One way to do this is to join a forum for virtual assistants. There are many forums available but those where a membership is required is a better place to find answers to questions such as this. One great membership forum is VA Insider Membership Club. There is a fee for membership but the cost is well offset by the information available. When asking questions that are sensitive to your business such as what rate to charge clients, a “closed” forum will keep your questions and the answers private from your potential client base.

Another option for learning about the appropriate rates to charge your clients is to become a member of a virtual assistant association. Associations are there to help their members and surveys of rates charged in certain locales and for areas of specialization may be made available by the association to its members. Also, other more experienced virtual assistants within your association often volunteer or charge by the hour to provide mentoring and support to those who are just getting started. A few associations within the virtual assistant industry are:

• International Virtual Assistants Association (ivaa.org)
• International Association of Virtual Assistants (iava.org.uk)
• Virtual Professionals (virtual-professionals.com)
• International Association of Virtual Office Assistants (iavoa.com)

Credentials and certifications heavily influence the rate a virtual assistant can charge clients. Most clients will pay more for a virtual assistant who has taken the time to study and test to obtain recognition from notable associations. Certifications can certainly make a huge difference in being able to find new clients and the ability to charge a decent rate, especially when first starting your business. A few credible certifications are:

• VACertification.com
• AssistU.com

Pay rate is also dependent on training and the skills offered. A virtual assistant who can type fifty or sixty words per minute, knows how to transcribe audio files, and can create documents for marketing campaigns is considered to have minimum skills and will only command the minimum hourly rate. By adding skills like website design, internet marketing, graphic design, real estate knowledge and the like, a virtual assistant can increase her hourly or per project rate substantially.

For the most part, depending on expertise, virtual assistant rates vary from twenty to fifty dollars an hour but can go quite higher when more expertise is offered within a specific field. Specialization in a certain field can really help increase the rate a VA charges. For instance, a virtual assistant with real estate experience will command a higher price within that specific group of clients.

In order to get the hourly rate that is deserved, a virtual assistant must start his or her business with as many skills as possible and attempt to specialize as quickly as possible into a field of interest. The more the VA knows, the faster and further the business will go. With this in mind, I’m going to once again talk about Tawnya Sutherland’s Virtual Business Start-Up System.

If you are interested in starting a virtual assistant business and think you have qualities that would make a good virtual assistant, it’s worth your time to get as educated as possible. As discussed in this article the more skills you have the higher the rate you can charge. In addition to your skills, you really need to consider how you’ll market and conduct business as well and Tawnya’s Virtual Business Start-Up System can help you with that.  Tawnya Sutherland not only started her own virtual assistant business from scratch but built it up to the level where she now earns over $100,000 a year. She has assisted numerous corporate administrative workers and mentored various business people who are in career transitions working towards self employment. She also works directly with new and experienced virtual assistants.

If you want help starting your virtual assistant business check out Tawnya’s Virtual Business Start-Up System.

The next article in this series will be the last. We’re going to discuss how to collect money.

Ciao!

Reba

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Marketing a Virtual Assistant Business

Internet Business Model Series
Service Business / Charge by Hour or Project

Start a virtual assistant business and the clients will beat a path to your virtual doorway, right? Yeah, right <<in my most sarcastic voice>>! The biggest part of a business’ startup budget must be allocated to marketing. Here are some ways to market a virtual assistant business.

Advertise – Place ads in the local newspaper’s business section, the Yellow Pages and business trade journals.

Set-up a website – A website is where all the virtual assistant’s services, skills and rates will be listed and where payment processing will be done. All advertising will lead potential clients to a website.  The website address will be used in the VA’s signature line in emails and on articles submitted to article directories and business journals.

Write articles – Writing articles can really help a virtual assistant business by directing potential clients to his or her website. There are many that accept and publish articles on the internet. Websites like eHow, ezinearticles.com, and other content sites will publish an article where the virtual assistant can put a bio at the end. The bio can list the virtual assistant’s skills and specialties along with the VA’s phone number and a link to the VA’s website. Use your virtual assisting skills to create a following by writing great Internet content.

Create business cards – Virtual assistants should always carry business cards with them as they never know who they might meet. Business cards should include the VA’s name, telephone number, and website address. The back of the card is a good place to list a few of the skills that the VA can provide to a potential client.

Social networking – Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube offer huge forums to attract like-minded business professionals. Create social groups with other virtual assistants and business professionals who can utilize your business skills. The social site, Squidoo, allows members to create unique pages, called lenses, that showcase a particular kind of content giving the VA more exposure on the internet and with the search engines.

Email marketing – Email marketing is much like direct mail except it is never a good idea to email those who have not requested your information, in fact, it’s against the law. A sign-up form must be placed on the virtual assistant’s website to collect email addresses of those who visit the site. Once the visitor has given permission to send emails, the VA can send information periodically to that list. There are services that help website owners keep track of the email addresses on the list, one popular site used for email marketing is www.AWeber.com.

Promotional items – Virtual assistants can get involved in the community by volunteering or sponsoring charity events. By sponsoring local charity functions a VA business can get their business name listed on T-shirts, mugs, and other giveaways. Brand recognition is important, magnets, key chains, and other merchandise that carries the business logo can be given away at trade shows.

Marketing a business is not easy but it is a vital part of gaining new clientele. There isn’t just one way to do it, virtual assistants should try one marketing idea and add others as they deem necessary.

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Blog For Profit – A Really Great Site

With so many blogs and websites to choose from you’re bound to come across some bad ones and some goods ones, and then there are a few that are extraordinary. Well…I found one of the extraordinary ones. Blog For Profit at www.blogforprofit.com/blog is exceptionally well written and continuously relevant to topic. It’s informational and insightful. Well worth your time.

The owner of this premium work is Grant Griffiths and it was by accident that I even stumbled upon his site. A couple of weeks ago I posted information about how to use Google Reader. After I made the post I went to Twitter and gave a tweet about the post. Grant must have been following me, which I didn’t even realize, and saw my tweet. He liked the post and had trouble making a comment here on my site. We corresponded on Twitter and subsequently I followed him on Twitter.

I always look at the profile pages of the people I follow and since he was nice to me I decided to look at his website. It looked good so I added it to my feed reader and promptly forgot about it.

Yesterday I decided to get caught up on my blog reading and quickly saw just how good this site really is. Grant must be a writer at heart as he’s making 3-4 posts per day, all with really good information. His post about the 3 Major Components of Building A Successful Blog is just one article that is a must read, and that’s just Part 1, there will be more.

I wish I could do that.

Anyway, I make a lot of recommendations on this site but most are for products, this one’s a little different. But speaking from my experience, if you have a blog and want to learn more about the nuances of marketing that blog and having it help your business make money, add Grant’s site to your feed reader. And while you’re at it, sign-up to the Blog For Profit Newsletter, you’re sure to learn something.

And you know what? There are no affiliate links in this post, it’s that good.

Cheers!

Reba

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Gender Bias In Internet Marketing Industry – StomperNet

Recently I heard some grumbling and insinuations about StomperNet having a gender bias against women. I really didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, however I did remark to Brent when I saw the first Net Effects. I noticed that there were no women in the picture and the first thing I said was what a big PR mistake they had just made. And then today I read the post on Lynn Terry’s blog titled StomperNet Responds.

I guess I was right. For StomperNet it was a PR faux paux extraordinaire but was it anything more than that?

I really don’t think so.

First, let me give you a little background. StomperNet recently did a HUGE give-away of their Stomping The Search Engines 2 program (which is excellent BTW) if you signed up for their new monthly magazine Net Effect. They also gave away the first issue along with something like SIXTEEN bonus items. Well…the picture on the cover of the inaugural issue was a picture of the StomperNet staff…all men. And every bonus that was offered from their circle of “internet marketing guru friends” was from male-owned companies.

So now you can probably imagine the comments on blogs and Twitter, etc. According to a response on Lynn’s blog from Andy Jenkins of StomperNet, people got really nasty and down right mean.

Okay, I can understand, as you can see what some people were thinking.

Call me easy-going, call me naive, call me what you want, but I’ve been around for a long time (I’m a boomer you know) and I don’t think what some people are saying (discrimination, shutting out women, etc.) is what happened at all. I just think men in general are wired differently than women. When it comes business, or anything competitive for that matter, men approach the subject with everything they can muster. They go after the challenge to conquer it. Women tend to examine and approach things on their own terms thus are slower to conquer. Men can give their all to more than one thing, where women tend to divide themselves. And because the internet marketing industry is really rather new, women just haven’t caught up to the men in terms of concurring the industry. And as a woman, I think that’s just fine.

I’ll conquer internet marketing when I’m ready to conquer internet marketing and “the men” won’t hold me back. In fact, if anyone holds me back, it’ll be ME.

On a less general note, I think the guys at StomperNet just got so damn excited about what they were doing, they didn’t even think about the PR ramifications of the “all male” pic on the cover of their inaugural magazine, nor did it even cross their mind that all the bonuses they gave away were from male-owned companies. Was it stupid? Probably. But was it to intentionally “cut out” women? NO WAY.

You don’t have to agree with me on this issue as I know not everyone will, but that’s how I feel and as a woman trying to “make it” in the “male dominated internet marketing world”, I thought it was appropriate to weigh in.

Come on folks, can’t we just get back to business? And damn yes, that’s my affiliate link, I’m trying to make a living in this crazy (but oh so FUN) industry too!

Ciao!

Reba

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Setting Up A Virtual Assistant Office

Internet Business Model Series
Service Business / Charge by Hour or Project

For a virtual assistant, being organized and having the right equipment to do the job is vital to success. Here’s a list of a few of the necessities to set up a successful virtual assistant office.

Computer with Internet Access – A computer is the heart of a virtual assisting business and the one chosen should be powerful. A state of the art computer will cost more than the ones advertised but is an investment in the future of the business and most often can be claimed as a deduction on to following year’s taxes. Even though the bottom of the line or outdated computer will not work for most virtual assistants, the highest end computer is not needed either. Just be sure to purchase plenty of RAM so multiple software programs can be run simultaneously and not cause freeze-ups. The computer with Internet access is the major means of communication with clients so a high-speed internet connection is most often a necessity.

Telephone - A separate phone line for the business prevents personal calls from getting mixed in with business calls. Children should be kept from answering business calls and having a separate line will help in this regard. For the virtual assistant, communication is paramount and quite often a phone call is needed to communicate with a client. An easy and inexpensive way to add a phone line is to set up a separate number with VOIP (voice over internet protocol) through a company like Vonage. VOIP accounts are inexpensive and allow you to add a toll-free number for just a few dollars. Additionally, domestic long distance is usually included at no extra charge.

Fax machine – Some clients will prefer sending documents by fax verses email, sometimes it’s because they don’t have a scanner, other times it’s just their preferred method. Specs for work and documents that need a signature are sometimes easier to deal with when sent this way and this method is always faster than snail mail. It’s not necessary to have a separate fax machine, the all-in-one scanner/printer/fax is quite inexpensive and a scanner is necessary anyway. If the VA office is equipped with a scanner, an online fax service like E-Fax can be used instead of a fax machine.

File cabinet – Most of the information a virtual assistant receives from clients is in the form of virtual documents. For privacy and business purposes, contracts and other documents can be printed and filed. A file cabinet needs a secure lock so all business communication is safe.

Comfortable desk and chair – Most of a virtual assistant’s time is spent working at a desk. The environment must be kept comfortable in order for the body to be able to work for long hours and to prevent physical problems that can occur. The chair must be a proper fit and the desk the proper height. Don’t over look the height of the computer monitor and placing it straight ahead from the chair will help prevent neck pain.

Separate work area – For tax purposes, it is essential that the home office be separate. With so much sensitive data coming in and out of your hands, a virtual assistant needs an area dedicated to the business and nothing else. Use a den, garage, spare bedroom, or construct a small office behind the house (if finances permit).

All-In-One Printer – Simple printers are a thing of the past for virtual assistants. A printer that has the capability of scanning documents, sending faxes, and copying documents is more of value and cheaper than purchasing each separately. A virtual assistant will utilize all of these features. Many printer manufacturers now offer wireless versions of their all-in-one printers, this is convenient if work is done on a laptop from varying locations in the house.

Software – A virtual assistant is nothing without the software to do the job. This includes website design software, desktop publishing software, Microsoft Office, accounting software, and the like. At bare minimum the most recent version of Microsoft Office is necessary but if the VA is considering any specialization, the software to facilitate that specialty is necessary.

The virtual assistant’s office is his or her main workspace. It not only must be functional but comfortable as well. It’s important to purchase quality products that will last and help project a perception of professionalism to the client.

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Internet Marketing Center’s Derek Gehl Is Doing A Four-Hours Webinar

Last week in this post, I told you how Derek Gehl at Internet Marketing Center was taking questions at his website so he could give away some free training based on what people really needed to know. Well, he’s ready to give away that training.

If you didn’t get to read my post last week, Derek asked people to stop by his blog and post their #1 obstacle and if they did that, he would put together some training to help them overcome that obstacle, for FREE.

Well, I just heard from Derek and he’s been REALLY busy reading everybody’s submissions (all 4,596 of them!). Now that he’s finished reading all of the challenges, he’s decided the easiest way to help everyone is with LIVE ONLINE TRAINING.

So here is what he’s doing…

Next Tuesday, October 21st from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Central Daylight Time), Derek’s going to run a LIVE training webinar and it’s going to be FREE!

He’s going to try to address the biggest challenges people are having to making money online and he said it will be packed with hands-on tips and strategies. Derek said he promises to “spill his guts and transfer as much of his knowledge as humanly possible.”

But, as always, there’s a catch. His webinar company only allows 1,000 spaces for the event, so he’ll only be able to host the first 1000 to register. So it’s imperative that if you want to listen in on the webinar you go register before it fills up. I already registered so I know one seat is gone.

To register, just take a minute right now to go to:

http://blog.internetmarketing.com/tellderek

As soon as you register, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Derek (if you’re one of the first 1,000 to register), guaranteeing you a place on the free webinar, along with details of how to access it next Tuesday.

Cheers! And here’s to you finally achieving the success you deserve!

Reba

P.S. Just to confirm, Derek’s LIVE webinar will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 21st… That’s 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 p.m. Central, 5:00 p.m. Mountain, and 4:00 p.m. Pacific. Don’t miss out.

Register for one of the limited number of spaces today at:

http://blog.internetmarketing.com/tellderek

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Jimmy D. Brown – Small Reports Fortune Review

A friend of mine just sent me a review to post for Jimmy D. Brown’s Small Reports Fortune. I have to be honest, I haven’t read this product but I was a member at his subscription site List and Traffic for about a year a few years ago. I loved the manner in which he taught the information and the small price I paid was well worth the money spent.

Somewhere down the line, probably when I went back to work full-time, I decided to cut back on the memberships to which I belonged and parted ways with Jimmy. Now, here I am with a site that teaches internet marketing and a friend sends me information about one of his products, it’s not coincidence, it’s fate. So I decided it would be good information for my readers since my prior experience with Jimmy D. Brown was great and I trust my friend’s opinion implicitly. So, here’s what she sent, and by the way, there’s a free report at the end that contains some fabulous information, so don’t pass up the offer.

Where you can Buy it: http://www.smallreportsfortune.com/

Product Description: A step-by-step manual for creating small reports to sell for profit. This course includes everything you need to get your first small report written and selling on ClickBank.com

The course comes as a 101-page manual in .PDF format with 7 downloadable .MP3 sessions, 4 exclusive bonuses in .PDF format and a set of video tutorials.

For one price, you’ll get a course in market research, a course in copywriting, a course in web creation, a course in marketing your product… the product is very thorough and truly a comprehensive, step-by-step course.

Who this product is intended for: Anyone who wants to make money with info products. It is especially useful for those who want to create ebooks, but are intimidated by creating a large info product.

Uses: This course will teach the steps you need to write short reports that people will want to read and make money doing it.

Pros: Small Reports Fortune is in an easy to understand manner and includes examples so you understand exactly what to do and how.  Not only are you shown how to write the reports, you are also given information on how to best design, price, and sell your small report.  Lastly, you’re given tips on how to use your small reports to build even more income.

Con: None apparent. The only thing that isn’t covered in depth is how to get traffic once you’ve gotten the report written and ready to sell. However, Jimmy does offer several other courses with training to get traffic, especially his www.SalesArmySecrets.com

Personal Opinion: This course made it easy for me to see the HUGE potential in writing small reports.  Additionally, it gave me a system for creating a quality product and a roadmap to follow to get them to market.

When he released a new course on creating small report, I thought, “What in the world could he possibly have to say on the subject that hasn’t already been said?”

I thought that was a fair question.

And I must say that I’m impressed with the answer.

Jimmy has put together a nice course here that teaches how to create small reports…

The case studies he provides at his site are attention-grabbers for sure -

• Over eighteen-thousand dollars in monthly residuals.
• Over thirty-thousand dollars in one day profit.
• Over one million dollars in total profit.

All from writing short reports.

But, as impressive as all that is, what really got my attention – and my endorsement – was the fact that he shows anyone (even beginners!) how to start from scratch and actually make a profit in just 7 days.

That means, if right now you have no list, no web site, no ideas … nothing … you can still actually make money from this system in just 1 week.

(Of course, if you have some of those things, you can see results even quicker!)

Jimmy has even included as one of the bonuses, a 16-page report that offers a systematic checklist broken down into daily activities for you to complete.

Assignments appear in chronological order, completely cover the entire process of creating a small report from start to finish and refer to specific pages of the main manual and bonuses to provide complete, detailed instructions for completing each assignment.

I mean, it’s all broken down into easy-to-do steps!

And, best of all, he shows his exclusive never-before-revealed “Six Phases Of A Six Figure Small Report Business”

In order words, there’s a “small fortune” to be made with these “small reports”!

Well, there you have it. Sounds like a great product and I would buy it but right now, I just have too much going on. This dang full-time job is really getting in my way! LOL Seriously, I have a list as long as my leg that I need to do to get this site off the ground and writing small reports just isn’t anywhere near the top, although, I do need to write one small report. I told you the other day that I’m going to update the report I give away to join my mailing list to be one about using Twitter, so I do need to do that. However, long ago when I was a member at Jimmy D. Brown’s site, he taught how to right a small report so I’m already privy to his info and I’m sure I’ll draw on that from the recesses of my brain when I’m writing the report. Anyway, like I said, I would buy it and review it myself, but I haven’t even gotten through the info I purchased from John Reese and StomperNet, so maybe later I’ll get to Jimmy’s stuff.

Lastly, I don’t want to forget, I have a small report for you written by Jimmy. It’s FREE and you can use it for anything you want. You can give it away, you can reprint the info, you can even sell it, but the copyright stays with Jimmy, so don’t claim it as your own. Here’s the link, remember it’s free, you don’t even have to give me (or Jimmy) your email address, you can download it directly from this page. Here ya go:

5 Steps To A Big Profit – S.M.A.L.L. Report Business
How To Turn 7-15 Page Small Reports Into A Six-Figure Information Empire

And if you’re interested in Jimmy D. Brown’s Small Reports Fortune, just click the link here and you’ll be taken to Jimmy’s website to learn more.

Enjoy!

Reba

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Have You Claimed Internet Marketing Center’s “Bribe” Yet?

The other day I posted about how Derek Gehl from Internet Marketing Center is offering FREE help to overcoming your #1 barrier to making money online. All you needed to do was visit Derek’s live survey and make a post that shared your BIGGEST challenge.

Well, I got an email today with an update on how the survey has been going and Derek is FLOODED with 1,000s of submissions! One of them was mine, was one of them yours?

I hope so. And if not, why not?!

This really is a great opportunity for you to have Derek help you overcome your #1 success-killing obstacle for free! He’s going to review all the submissions, and then provide FREE training and help to as many people as *possible*. He even sent me a free gift of two case studies so I could learn the exact strategies that successful entrepreneurs are using. I haven’t read it them yet because the link he sent didn’t work, so I emailed the company today, I’m sure they’ll send a good link.

Derek said in his email today that if you haven’t responded yet, you’re either…

• *Already* massively successful and don’t NEED any help. (If so, well done, and keep up the good work!)
• Or you’re afraid to face your challenge head-on, and will continue to struggle with poor results.

I think he left off a reason, what if you just don’t have the time? That’s could be a legitimate reason. Many of us work full time jobs and have kids and other responsibilites. Buiding a successful internet business just isn’t the focus of our lives, right?

Well, here’s what I have to say about that…if that’s your excuse then you really aren’t serious and that’s fine. But for those that are serious, Derek’s probably right. Why would you not take advantage of such a generous offer? *Whatever* the reason, if you still want Derek to help you succeed — for FREE — then go to his survey, at:

http://blog.internetmarketing.com/tellderek

When you get there, spend a few minutes reading the other submissions and I think you’ll see you’re not alone. Many OTHER people are facing the SAME challenges you are, so take advantage of Derek’s offer. You don’t have to buy anything, you just have face the obstacles that are stopping you from succeeding.

If you want to read my submission, I posted it on my last post toward the bottom of the page. Here’s the link:

My Last Post – The Internet Marketing Center Wants To Know, “What’s Your Barrier?”

P.S. Oh, Derek mentioned in his email that he was thinking about shutting down the live survey very soon due to the overwhelming number of submissions he’s getting. So if you want his help, you need to submit your #1 barrier to success right away:

http://blog.internetmarketing.com/tellderek

Cheers!

Reba

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What is RSS and How To Use Google Reader

It recently occurred to me that there are a lot of people who don’t know or understand what an RSS feed is and I thought it would be a good idea to write an article to help my readers. I learned about RSS several years ago and remember it being a difficult subject for me to grasp. I just didn’t get it. But then, probably after finding a good article or instructions, the light bulb went off and I was thankful that I finally “got it”, as it can really make following all my “fave” websites a much simpler task.

So here, in this post, I’m going to attempt to give you an overview and then I’m going to show you how to use Google Reader. Google Reader is my favorite free feed reader and I’m sure it will soon become your favorite as well. I’m going to take you through the steps to use Google Reader to bring information to you and make your time on the internet more efficient.

I’m also going to do an article in the next day or two to show you how to use Outlook 2007 as your feed reader. Outlook 2007 is my very favorite feed reader and it’s the one I actually use. I chose to do my first “how to” with Google Reader because it’s free and available to all. Many people either don’t use Outlook or haven’t upgraded to the 2007 version yet, so I wanted to write for the majority today and the rest tomorrow. And just to add a note, any of you who haven’t upgraded your Microsoft Office from 2003 to 2007, in my opinion it’s worth the upgrade (and the learning curve as it’s A LOT different), just to get the feed reader in Outlook 2007. I love it.

Okay, now on with the topic of this post.

What is RSS?

First, in my simplistic way, I want to answer the question, “What is RSS?”. Well, the letters stand for Really Simple Syndication. And believe me it is simple and it will save you a ton of time. Basically, it allows you to bring content, like articles, blog posts, and other information, to one place where you can choose what you want to read. Instead of going to each site everyday, the content is shown in one place and you can read it in one place.

For example, let’s say you read your local newspaper, there are two blogs you absolutely love and try to remember to read everyday (like Internet Marketing Boomer?), and there’s a sports site that gives you all the scores in one place. Without RSS, you would go to each site to read the info you want to read. You probably have all the sites set up in your “Favorites” and just go down the list.

With RSS there would be no need to go to each site. You open your feed reader and all the new content for the sites you choose is listed. If the website owner chooses to have the full article fed to feed readers, you can read the entire article right there in your feed reader. If you prefer to go to the site, you can click the link in the feed reader that will take you directly to the article or post. This is especially helpful when there is no new content as you won’t waste time going to that site to find nothing new has been posted. To me, it’s like having all the news and information that YOU want to read brought to you each day in a nice neat package. You don’t have to fiddle around with the things you don’t care about.

Feed Readers

A feed reader is kind of like your email program, it’s the program that brings all the content to your computer, just like your email program brings you your email (that’s probably why I like to use Outlook 2007 for my feed reader, it not only brings my email but my feeds as well, and they all look the same, one place for everything). There are a lot of feed readers to choose from, some you can even pay for but it’s not necessary. In my opinion Google Reader is the best free feed reader available and actually, other than Outlook 2007, it’s probably the best available period.

Okay, now let’s talk about Google Reader specifically and how to use it.

What’s really great about Google Reader is it gives you the ability to share the content you think is good with your friends. However, your friends will need to know how to use the reader as well and I find that’s not always the case (that’s why I LOVE Outlook 2007 but I digress).

To set up Google Reader go to www.google.com. The link will open in a new window so you can come back here and follow the steps.

Click on the “more…” link at the top of the page and choose “Reader” from the dropdown menu.

If you don’t have a Google Account, you’ll need to create one at this point. I’m not going to explain that other than to tell you to click on the big blue button at the bottom right that says, “Create An Account”. After you’ve created an account and signed-in, you will be taken to the following page.

Next you’ll want to take the “Tour” and then “Get Started”.

Next go to your favorite site and find the feed link, the feed link will normally always have the orange button with the wave type lines on it. Additionally if the site offers a feed, you’ll see that button in the address bar:

On the following page you need to click on the Google button:

Next you’ll have a choice to add the subscription to your Google Homepage or your Google Reader. Choose Google Reader:

You will then be taken to your view or “reading” page.

As you add more websites, they will be listed in the left-hand column. Just click on the site you want to read and the articles show up in the right-hand column.

There are a lot of other features offered by Google Reader and I’m just covering how to get started. Be sure to check out any videos and help featured offered at Google Reader and before long, you’ll be an expert.

In a future post I’ll show you Outlook 2007 and why I love it so much. I’m going to be experimenting with screen capture videos so maybe I’ll come back and add a video to this post later today.

Hope this information helped you to understand RSS and how to use a feed reader, specifically Google Reader. As you can see it’s really simple, so don’t hesitate, go get your own Google Reader set up with your fave websites and don’t forget to include your’s truly, Internet Marketing Boomer. Here’s a link to our feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetMarketingBoomer

Cheers!

Reba

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A Song About Twitter?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but people on the internet are lovin’  Twitter. Everywhere, including here, you have people talking about it and posting what they call a Twitter Badge in the sidebar of their blogs. Check out our sidebar, mine and Brent’s Twitter Badge is there showing you our last post on Twitter. I’m much more active than Brent, but I’m much more active on the internet than Brent as evidenced here on this blog. But even people who aren’t very internet savvy are getting on board at Twitter.

Why do you think that is? Well I suppose many feel it’s a way to socialize with like-minded people (Tweeple or Tweeps in Twitterville). It reminds me of a big party where you can hear other people’s conversations all going on at the same time. But you can’t always here both sides. So you pick up on information here and there, and then you wander around to learn more. You may even say hi to someone because they were having a conversation that interested you. There are people talking with each other, some talking to themselves, and others talking to everyone in the room.

The question that leads every 140 character post is “What are you doing?”. Heck, that phase is almost as iconic now as AOL’s “You’ve got mail” or Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?”. In fact Twitter has been discussed on offline news shows the likes of CNN, ABC and USA Today.

Yesterday I was on Twitter and someone I follow (I don’t remember who) posted a link to a song about Twitter.  Yes, can you believe it, someone wrote a song about Twitter. If you know and love Twitter like I do, and have been on the internet and in social networking for any length of time, you’ll understand and agree and have a good laugh about what the guy talks about in the song. I just think it’s hilarious, so much so, I posted here. Just click where it says PLAY in orange.

Very soon I’m going to change the report I give away when you sign up for my newsletter. And…you…guessed it! It’s going to be a report about Twitter. Everything you need to know to navigate Twitter and use it not only for fun and staying connected, but to market your products as well. I may get that done this weekend, so stay tuned!

Leave a comment ~ wadda you think?

Ciao!

Reba

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