Do you struggle to keep finding good quality content for your blog? Are you ok at the beginning of the month but get a few weeks in and you find the ideas dry up and it is an effort to write anything?

Well there is a simple way to generate at least 40 blog post in about 5 minutes!

Grab a sheet of paper, ideally no smaller than A4 but the bigger the better. In the centre of the page write BLOG. Then have four arms coming of it pointing towards the corners of the page but leaving enough room above to write at least 10 lines.

So in the top left corner you need to write the title ME, top right corner KNOWLEDGE, bottom left CLIENTS and bottom right FAQ.

You now have the basis of how to generate your post. What to write under these titles?

ME, this is where you write about you and how you started your VA business. A great way to let your customers know how and why you started your business, who works for you and how you work. You don’t just have to write posts, video’s are also a great way to show people who you are and what you can do for them.

KNOWLEDGE, this is where you let your audience know about how and where you got your knowledge. It is also a great way of showcasing your expertise. Talk about trends, great apps you use, ideas etc and how you can help other businesses through using a VA.

CLIENT, feature a client of the week, ask for guest posts and talk about specific problems you have solved for your clients.

FAQ, feature one a week as most businesses have lots of questions they get asked and being able to direct someone to the answer will save you a lot of time.

So for each heading try to write at least 10 ideas and in turn this will give you 40 blog posts ideas to keep you going!

Image by FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Your blog’s headline is the first thing your reader will see, regardless of whether it is on your blog, through social media or email newsletter. So it is important to get this right and make your reader want to find out more about what your post is telling them.

I must admit I did used to find writing the headline one of the hardest parts of writing posts but the more you do it the easier it does get. Here are some great ideas on how to write attention grabbing headlines to draw your readers in.

Why headline’s are great for explaining something on your blog and is an open loop headline, meaning you are asking a question that the reader will want to find out the answer to, they will do that by reading further into the post. These are great for your VA business as you can use  a question you no doubt get frequently asked and give your expert answer.

How headline’s will make your reader believe they are going to learn something new by reading this type of post. Great again for showcasing your expertise on a certain aspect of your VA business.

List headline’s are always very popular posts as they are easy to read, usually bullet pointing the main content and if used with powerful words such as “…killer ideas” will draw your reader in. Another great list idea is a step by step guide, readers love these types of posts.

Context phrase headline. These are the headlines where you place the name or the statement in front  the headline such as :

“SCAM ALERT: Read this before you do anything else”.

The reader will be intrigued to find out what the post is about and will read on further.

All of these headline types will attract new readers to your blogs but you do need to mix them up and not use the same type of titles constantly else your readers may get bored of the same type of posts. Give them a try and see which ones bring in the most traffic to your blog.

Have you been looking for new ways to attract more visitors to your website? As we have mentioned in the previous posts, a blog is a great way to achieve this. Yet you may still be wondering how will you keep generating great content for your blog as well as delivering high quality service with your clients.

Planning your blog posts is a great way to get ahead. Thinking about the types of articles you want to use is important too. Here are some suggestions on the type of articles you may want to include on your blog to drive more traffic to your VA website.

• Top Lists

A great way to boost traffic as you are expressing your  own opinion which other people may or may not agree with. These types of posts are simple to create, just take 10+ resources that you use to help run your business and think will help your prospective clients and rank them in the order which you think they are best. It is a great way of making your website look like it is an authority on this area and will give readers more confidence in what you have to say.

• 10 Tips/Reasons

As with the above type of post, these posts give your reader concise, clear and easy to read information which they can understand. Visitors very rarely read the whole post so this is a great way to get across information  by bullet pointing the information and with either a photo or short explanation, giving them more to reinforce the point.

• …. Steps To Basics

These types of posts are great to show clients (prospective and existing) how you carry out your tasks such as what software you use or how you set up a business page on a social media site. By running them through what you do and how you do it is a great way to showcase how effective your business is and how it can help solve any problems they are looking to remedy.

• Author’s Insight

Similar to the previous posts, these types of  post take the reader behind the scenes of your business and explain how you work. This will give your reader a greater understanding of you and your business and again how your VA services can help them run their businesses effectively.

Give them a go and see which work for your virtual assistant business.

I am sure you have seen other businesses blogging to bring in new clients and wondered if could do the same for your VA business? Blogging is a great way to find people who are interested in your services, helps you to build relationships and eventually new clients, but you need to know how to do it. Simply writing blog posts that just promote you and your business won’t work … so what will? Here are three key tips to help make your blog successful:

1. Share your expertise. Use your blog is a place to show how you and your business can solve a problem your prospective clients. Use case studies of people who your business has helped and write answers to the FAQ you are constantly getting asked. Use titles such as ‘how do I…’ as these are the types of phrases that prospective clients will be searching for on Google. Through sharing your best advice, people will begin to trust you and respect what you have to say and offer.

2. Accept all the help you can get with your blog. Get your customers involved and give them the chance to share their views on your site. If you are struggling to keep on top of your blogging, as it will only help increase your businesses reach if it is regularly updated, then why not outsource this job. Alternatively advertise that you accept guest posts and let other people, either VA’s or other services that appeal to your niche, write posts that your readers will find informative.

3. You need to have a way to capture people’s email addresses, and also have incentives to get them to share. Links within blog posts to your services and other relevant posts are great but you will also need an email list if you want to really maximise the benefits of having lots of people reading your blog. You need an incentive, such as a free report or eVoucher as a reason for people to sign up. Once they are on your email list you can share further great resources with them, and then every three or four emails make them an un-missable offer which they have to act fast to take advantage of.

You have your website and it is full of keywords and meta tags but you are still not ranking as high as you want to and there is a reason for this. If you are not adding fresh regular content to your site then the search engines will be ranking other sites above yours. The easiest way to do this is to use your blog on your site. But you may still be asking yourself, why blog and what do I write?

A blog is now an essential part of any business, which will help to attract new clients and who doesn’t want that? This is because a blog is updated regularly with relevant information about the business and who runs it. Blog posts need to contain key words that search engines will pick up and then send relevant traffic through to your site.

Blogging is easy once you know how. It is essential that a business blog is used purely for business and not be too personal although putting a person behind a business is a great way to build relationships with clients.

What is written on a business blog is a great way to get across that you are an expert in that niche, being a VA and what you can offer as a VA. Writing interesting posts such as how you got where you are and new projects is a great way to reinforce your expertise.

Posting at least 3 times a week is essential to get the most out of the search engine, but if you can only do one a week, that is still 52 fresh pieces of information being added to your blog.

Once you start it is easier and consistency is the key to making blogging work. Give it a go and see what happens!

You know what an hour of your time is worth to you and travelling to the network meeting and also coming back.  It’s also your fuel costs or fares if you are taking the bus or train.  You need to consider all these factors.

Through conversations with VAs I have noticed that there are three main challenges that come up because they have not really understood how to create a networking strategy.  We are very good at building a business plan or business strategy but for many people networking doesn’t always seem to fall into that plan or strategy.  So the first challenge is about creating a networking strategy.

The next challenge is a lack of confidence and not just when a VA is starting out.  I have also heard this from quite a few VAs who have been in business for a couple of years and have been networking for a while but they still feel that lack of confidence.

The third challenge is not knowing what to say.  Again people are trying to get across the message that “using a VA is a fantastic commodity for your business” but they don’t want to come across as selling.  So it is identifying what is it that you need to say to people so that you are getting that message across and they are referring business to you.

So with these as the three main challenges, let’s start looking at how I can support you to deal with them.  Now please remember that this is the tip of the iceberg but I am going to give you some key tips and as an outcome of reading this book I want you think about what action you are prepared to take.  There is absolutely no reason why you should be reading this book and not take action.  Even one small action could have a considerable positive impact on your business.

First of all let me explain to you what networking is.  The emphasis is on cultivating and nurturing relationships with other professionals who might help you build your business and where you might be able to help their business. It’s very much about building relationships.

Brad Burton has made a quite poignant point: would you do business with someone you don’t know?  NO!  So in turn how can you expect people to do business with you if they don’t know you?

When you want to find a decorator or an electrician or a builder, you tend to go first to people you know and trust for their recommendations.  Of course we use resources like the Yellow Pages and we do Google searches online but I know I prefer to do business with someone who has been recommended to me.  Most people I know prefer to give business to people that they know, like and trust and when you have been given a recommendation that person is at an advantage.  They are benefitting from your relationship with the person who has made the recommendation, the person that you already know, trust and like.  Please put the emphasis on cultivating and nurturing relationships and make it a major part of your networking strategy.

So let’s consider the first challenge – how do you create a networking strategy?

What happens with a lot of people, not only VAs but other business owners, is they will go to a networking meeting and get very upset or de-motivated if someone hasn’t taken an interest in their business or if they haven’t made a sale.  They’re disappointed.  The point is you are not going to a networking meeting with a readymade contract just in case someone wants to become a client!

I have had many a conversation when I have asked VAs: “When you go to your networking meeting what is your intention?” and they respond by saying: “Well I want to come away from that meeting with a new client.”

It just doesn’t happen that quickly!!!

Want to find out more about network and the 7 key tools you need? Pop over to The VA Coaching and Training website for more information on the new ecourse.

In my business I very much believe in the power of three.

There are many different challenges that VAs have experienced but what I want to focus on  in this book is firstly: why networking is important and creating your strategy. So within that I cover: building your community; raising your profile and building the time to network for your business; the positive effects of networking in person and building your Dream Team.

Secondly I cover confidence in networking.  This will include: changing your mindset and beliefs when it comes to networking; the preparation of networking to help with your confidence and the confidence of standing up and giving your one minute presentation or indeed your ten minute presentation.

The third aspect is: the message. This will include what to say when having a conversation with somebody or standing up to give a one minute or forty second presentation about your business or what to say when asked to give a ten minute presentation.

“The key areas that I will be covering within all three main factors will enable you to start getting better results from your networking.

To learn more about these three key areas and the 7 key tools you need to make networking work for your VA business and thrive, join our new Networking eCourse.

When I first started out as a VA I was absolutely terrified by the thought of networking. Nobody ever explained what networking involved. I turned up at my first networking meeting armed with a few business cards and not really knowing what to expect. I walked into a room, full of people I didn’t know and even though I am a confident person, I felt a nervous wreck! I didn’t know who to approach or what to say.

I was told that, as part of the meeting, I had to stand up and give a one minute presentation about my business. I was so tempted just to leave the room and never come back again. But I gave it a go and I am really glad that I did.

It was a great learning experience and I knew the next time I had to be much more prepared. I had to prepare what I wanted to say in my one minute pitch. Maybe find out who was going to be at the networking meeting so that I knew a little bit about that person before I went along and could strike up a more effective and interesting conversation.

From that experience I really started to value the importance of the follow up, not in a sales way but from the point of view of building relationships: having one-to-one meetings or phone calls to fully understand what the other members businesses were about and how I could possibly support them.

At the beginning I was slightly concerned that I had literally just started up my business and I didn’t know how or what I could offer by way of support to my fellow networking members but it soon became apparent that the type of connections they wanted were already in my personal contacts – including people who were my friends or ex-colleagues. Through networking I created huge exposure for my business.

Some of my strategy involved online networking although at the time it was a new concept and there was only basic availability, Ecademy was just starting out and I took part in some online networking forums for coaches.

Are you struggling to network effectively? Find out the 7 essential tools you need to get results and thrive from your networking.

The conversations I have had with many VAs regarding their frustration over networking in person and not understanding why they were not receiving a financial return on their investment has lead to the development of this course.

In addition many VAs have approached me to ask for support around overcoming their lack of confidence when networking.  So, for instance, not having the confidence to walk into a room full of strangers and striking up a conversation but also not knowing what to say – whether it’s in a conversation with somebody or in their one minute, forty second or ten minute presentation.

The other challenges included not really knowing how to form a networking strategy that involved following up with people and having one-to-one meetings that ignited some form of prospective client opportunity.  Many VAs have stressed to me that they don’t like the idea of coming across as selling themselves and so either avoid talking about themselves altogether or they have been quite limited in what they have said to people.

The other challenge is that they didn’t feel they were getting across successfully a clear message so that people would understand the effectiveness of using a VA and the benefits to their business.

Therefore the course is a combination of insights from not only my own experiences but those of other people who have shared their key strategies with me over the years.

I’m fortunate to have got to know and become friends with influential and highly respected people in the networking world: Jacqueline Rogers, the Founder of The Athena Network (one of the most successful women’s networking groups in the UK and now in Singapore and Australia); Brad Burton, Founder of 4Networking, the largest networking group in the UK and Australia; Penny Power, Co-Founder of Ecademy, the first online networking platform for business owners; Julie Hall, the Creator of Women-Unlimited which brings together women in business around the UK; Jane Hopkins MBE, Founder of MumsClub, a nationwide networking organisation and online support for mumpreneurs and in the world of VAs, Jacky Workman of The International Association of VAs, established in the UK in 1999 and the first international online group for VAs.  In the world of PAs this includes Sue France (UK Chairman) and Angela Garry (Regional Director) for EUMA – The European Management Assistants.

These are people whom I consider as part of my “Dream Team”.

To find out more about this must-have course, pop over to The VA Coaching and Training Co and read more about what you will be able to achieve for your VA business through networking effectively.

Networking is an important part of your VA business and believeing in your community is part of this.

WHY?

• It is the cornerstone of your business
• Relationships come first, then business follows
• Each person you meet teaches you something new in some way or another i.e. how to build your confidence, a new school of thought, an idea from a different perspective etc.
• A community is as important to your business as your financial plan or business strategy.
• There is a high cost to your business by having poor relationships with people or no one at all.

Think About… When you are looking to use someone’s services i.e. an accountant, solicitor, and financial advisor…would you take on that supplier just like that, no questions asked?  Or would you like to get to know them and their business a little more before you feel that gut feeling which tells you ‘yes’ this person is good or ‘no run for it’?  Perhaps someone else has done the work for you and referred the supplier/service provider to you based on great testimonials…that always makes you feel reassured.

Building relationships with people is important because, not only do you see whether your first judgements were correct (as often they are not), you grow to like, trust and respect that person and want to support them as well as want that person or business get to know you – so they can support you also.  It all goes hand-in-hand.