Welcome back to VA Helper! Thank you so much for bearing with me during my little blogging hiatus and for the great little notes I got in my email asking if everything was okay. I’m back again and ready to dive right back in and get things moving here.

So, where have I been? I’d like to tell you that I’ve just been super busy. And I have been pretty busy, but that’s not all that’s kept me from the blog. Well, the hard truth is that I’ve been really sick, whether I wanted to admit it or not I was sick for several months. Any time I was upright and not in bed feeling miserable I spent working on transcription and scratching things off the to-do list. Unfortunately, I was spending more time feeling miserable than working or spending time with my family. I’m finally feeling quite a bit better and ready to work hard and get things back to the way I like them again. Read the rest of this entry

If you’re a Virtual Assistant (substitute ghostwriter, designer, copywriter, service provider, freelancer), you know that the one thing that keeps your income steady, is a finding clients. Luckily, there are several ways to keep a steady stream of clients coming in through your door.

Here are just a few:

1. Advertise in Ezines.

There are online newsletters everywhere that accept advertising. The key is to purchase advertising in publications that reach your target market and to create your ad to showcase your expertise. Don’t try to be everything to everyone or you won’t attract clients.

Ad Example of what Not to Write: “Hire me to lighten your workload. I can do everything that you don’t want to do. Let’s talk!”

Ad Example of what works: “Are you ready to get more leads to your business? I will handle your ezine advertising campaign for you. No more searching for targeted ezines, no more writing and tracking your ads. I’ll handle it all it all. My clients experience a boost in subscribers after I complete my ezine advertising campaigns that will pay for my services. Check out my website for testimonials and free tips.”

2. Write and Submit Articles.

The key is to stay on topic. Don’t write and submit articles about health or pet care. Present a problem in your article and solve it. Make sure your author bio is very compelling to attract potential clients.

Recommended Resource: If you’ve never tried article marketing, I’d suggest this course to get started – www.EasyArticleMarketing.com

3. Network where *successful* people hang out.

A huge mistake that VA’s make is to hand out on forums where there are other people struggling to make money. Instead, join a membership site for your target market and you’ll find yourself in the "inner circle"

Recommended Resource: My favorite forum for masterminding and brainstorming is Lynn Terry’s SSWT Private Masterming Forum.

4. Advertise at Shelancers.com.

One of the easiest ways to get your name in front of business owners looking for help is to join Shelancers.com.

Again, it is crucial that you list your specialty in order to stand out from the other service providers. But, if you can find a problem that business owners face, and offer to handle it for them, you’ll attract loyal clients who will continue to work with you.

These are just a few of the ways you can boost your client base quickly. What are some of your favorite methods? Please share them below.

Have a great weekend!

Kind Regards,

Do you find yourself explaining the same things over and over again to new clients or people who are inquiring about your services? I bet you do. Of course you do! That’s just the nature of virtual business, it’s part of the conversation, part of the process, and something we all deal with. So, why not make it EASY!?

I personally use Gmail as my email client and have everything imported or forwarded there. It’s easy, I can access it from anywhere any computer and it has lots of time saving features that I can use. One of those being the “canned responses” feature.

The next time you find yourself explaining one of those frequently asked questions I encourage you to save it as a “canned response” so you can just click on it and insert it the next time someone emails and asks the same question. It will save you a ton of time in the future and make your email answering time much more efficient in the long term.

I hope you found this helpful, if you have any questions about this or you find yourself stuck just let me know and I’ll help you get it set up.

Have a great weekend,