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Virtual Monthly Tips
July 1, 2006
Issue 7
Sponsored by JERPAT
Patty Benton, Editor
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In this issue:
Note from Patty
Article-Why Do I Need SEO
Tips-Outlook Tips by Andrea Kalli
Putting Your VA to Work for You!
Special Offer
Special Offer Reminder
Note from Patty
June flew by. We had a wonderful vacation, and it just proved
to me again what an awesome team I have, as this was the first
vacation I was able to enjoy while all my clients were taken care of
and kept happy. Thanks to my amazing team and my clients who so
willingly worked with them!
This month I decided to focus on marketing, as I am in a huge
marketing push for JERPAT and I am constantly thinking up new
strategies and ways to promote the team. The focus is on SEO
and site rankings, which is a sometimes a scary and confusing topic.
If you are like our team member Dolly, you may need to get out the
Benadryl to get through this topic, but we really break down SEO in
layman's terms and then give you some great tips on how you can
utilize your VA, even if they are not an SEO guru, to help you get
your site rankings up. After all, you paid big money to get you
site up, why not make it work for you!
Remember, I am always just an email
(va@jerpat.org) or phone call (877-506-2637 ext. 702)
away if you have any questions or would like to see us cover
something in the newsletter! Have a blessed month and stay
cool!
God
bless,
Patty Benton
JERPAT
Virtual Assistants and Web Designs
www.moretime4u.org
JERPAT VA Coaching
www.virtualvacoach.com
JERPAT VA Hosting
www.jerpat.org/jerpatHosting.htm
Acknowledging Christ Together at Work
www.actatwork.com
Why Do I Need SEO
You’ve gone through the steps of setting up your business, getting
all your licenses and insurance in place and you’ve designed your
site or hired someone to design it for you…. Now, how do you get
people to your site or to choose your site over one of the millions
of others out there?
An effective working website is the most cost-effective advertising,
marketing, informational and promotional medium available to
businesses of any size. It’s imperative, especially as a small
business competing with larger businesses, to optimize your site for
search engines using keywords or keyword phrases. Most people don’t
look past (at most!) the third page of search engine results when
they’re searching for something online. Using search engine
optimization is the best way to get your site noticed by the search
engines.
By using good search engine optimization techniques for your website,
you can boost your rankings on search engines. There are many steps
to optimizing your site:
-
Knowing your online competition
-
Picking out targeted keywords and phrases
-
Submitting your site to search engines
-
Rewriting and revising your content to make it the best it can be and
using your keywords and phrases in it
-
Making sure you don’t have any “unethical” SEO items on your site
that may “blackball” your site from the search engines
-
Using meta tags properly
-
Making sure your site is properly designed and looking good
-
Keeping on top of your site rankings and freshening your content to
bump your ratings even more
Now, you’ve researched where you want to be on search engines like
Google and Yahoo, but you still have no idea where to start? Look
into hiring an SEO guru to help you through the steps or do this part
for you. Most SEO gurus will ask for a list of keywords that they
will then optimize with keyword tools or help you research to make
sure that those are the best keywords for you to use.
Working with someone to achieve higher search engine rankings may
take up to several months. The initial part of the project will come
in the form of search engine submissions and meta tag keywords, plus
they will work with you for keyword-rich content on your sites. Then,
over the next few weeks/months, they should help you to track your
placement on the search engines and suggest other changes to bump
your ratings higher.
Search engine optimization is not a quick project… It takes research
and work. If your first try doesn’t reap the benefits you were
looking for, keep trying to redefine your niche/target keywords and
phrases. But, optimizing your site does work and is worth it in the
end.
Patty Benton is the owner of JERPAT
Virtual Assistants and JERPAT Web Design,
www.moretime4u.org, which
provides affordable administrative and web design support to coaches,
small businesses, religious organizations, and realtors.
Additionally, Patty is a coach for new entrepreneurs interested in
venturing into the virtual assistance industry that is affordable to
all, and she has also written an e-book that takes virtual assistants
through the process of setting up their business. Visit her coaching
site at
www.virtualvacoach.com for program details and great business
resources. She has also partnered to establish the ministry
Acknowledging Christ Together at Work
www.actatwork.com. If
you would like to receive Patty's articles and other tips in your
mailbox every month, you can sign up at
www.mortime4u.org/home.html.
© 2005 JERPAT
You have permission to reprint this article electronically or in
print, as long as the text and byline remain unedited. A courtesy
copy of your publication would be appreciated.
Outlook Tips
by Andrea Kalli
by Andrea Kalli
akalli@virtualassist.net
Tip #1
Tracking related information using Contact Activities: The ability to
link and review related information to your contacts is a powerful
contact management feature
The ability to link and review related information to your contacts
is a powerful contact management feature. An activity is any Outlook
item that relates to an Outlook contact. Activities can be journal
entries, emails, meetings, notes, or tasks. You choose which folders
contain items that are activities and which activities you want to
view at any one time. This feature enables you to quickly view all
emails exchanged with the contact, all meetings scheduled with the
contact, all journal entries made for the contact (use journal
entries to record notes and conversations), and all tasks related to
the contact. You can see where all of these items are stored and
group by item type (tasks, appointments, email messages, or notes).
Activities are tracked automatically. There is no special setup that
needs to be configured. Automatic Activities are driven by the email
addresses you store in the contact records. Outlook can hold up to 3
different email addresses. You can also use the Actions menu to
create items associated with the contact, such as Tasks you need to
perform related to the contact. To view activities, open any contact
record and click on the Activities tab. After a short delay, all
information related to that contact is displayed. You can then go
directly to any of the items listed for that contact by
double-clicking on it.
Tip #2
Archiving related Contact Activities: Utilize archive folders to
maintain a balance of critical information stored related to your
contacts and a maintainable Mailbox/Personal Folder size.
While the Activities feature in Outlook is powerful, we must be able
to have a balance of critical information storage and a maintainable
Mailbox/Personal Folder size. Utilizing archive folders can be your
answer in attaining both goals. If you have your Archive folder
activated and displayed in the folder list of your Outlook profile,
it’s as simple as using drag and drop, or even the Find feature to
accomplish this. Let’s say you have a contact called Susan Jones. You
have been receiving emails from Susan about a project for the last 2
months. As long as you have the accurate email address in Susan Jones
contact record, the email history is linked and viewable on the
Activities tab of the Susan Jones contact record. Then comes time for
you to clean out your Inbox and your Sent Items folders. Using the
Find feature you can identify and isolate all emails from Susan,
select them all, drag and drop them into a folder in your Archive
folder, either the Inbox folder or a special folder called “Susan
Jones”. Follow the same process for the Sent Items folder. You decide
how you want to organize them in your Archive folder. The beauty of
this is that the links between the emails and the contact record stay
in tact and will still be available via the Susan Jones Activities
tab on her contact record. It just doesn’t get any easier than this,
folks!
Free videos available for the tips at
http://www.virtualassist.net/OutlookProductivityTips.htm.
Videos require Macromedia Flash plugin (you will be instructed to
download it if not already installed).
The Convenience of Virtual Training and
Assistance
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC provides remote,
interactive Outlook 2003 training for small groups and one-on-one
sessions, as well as online support services for all versions of
Outlook, all at the comfort of your own desk or home PC. We offer
Outlook usability support for you or for all your employees. It's
like having an in-house Outlook expert! Empower your employees to use
the powerful collaboration features of Outlook with Exchange Server.
We focus on training users to get the most out of Outlook in the
business world. Onsite group Outlook training is available for the
Denver metro area of Colorado. Think about the immediate benefits to
virtual training...no more time spent driving, using valuable gas,
and looking or paying for parking. All this at a cost that is lower
than most traditional training classes. To learn more about this
unique way of learning please visit
www.virtualassist.net.
Putting Your VA to Work for You!
(adapted from 101 Plus Ways to Use a
Virtual Assistant (VA) from coachville.com)
Since we
are talking about getting your site to work for you, here are some
tips on how you can use your VA to help you get better rankings with
your site even if they aren't SEO gurus.
You need
changes made to your website that your SEO guru recommended.
You can have your VA type up the information and upload it to your
website or send it to your web designer to upload.
Have
your VA do an online marketing campaign for you. They can
submit your URL, keywords and site description to search engines.
They can also submit ads (many free) to online sites. Rebecca
White's, Step by Step Marketing has approx 200 free to low cost
advertising sites
http://moretime4u.org/StepbyStep.html. If you purchase from
the provided link,
email me and I will send you a spreadsheet containing these links
that has the details of each site, cost, and target market.
Increase
your subscriber base and traffic by having your VA submit your
newsletter to online newsletter directories.
Increase
traffic and establish yourself as an expert by having your VA submit
your articles online to major article directories.
As you
can see there are many ways to utilize your VA in helping you promote
your site. Contact your VA and have a consultation about what
they recommend to help you with your specific business.
Special Offer
Get set-up with a search engine guru to get your site going.
Pick one of the below items, or receive a 10% discount if you choose
to have everything listed below done to your site.
Submission to search engines with targeted keywords (keywords
provided by client, optimized by us): $100
Meta Tag keywords and description (Provided by client, optimized by
us): $10/page
Photo & link <alt> tags - $2 per link/photo
Content rewrite & keyword writing to maximize ranking $30/hr.
(estimate will be provided)
4- or 6-week follow-up report on where your standing are on major
search engines (client’s choice on timeline): $50
Contact
us for a free consultation to see if we can help you! We have a
new 800 number. Leave a message and we are notified
immediately! 877-506-2637 ext. 702
(Good only for the month of July
2006)
Special Offer
Reminder
Last month's offer is good through the end of
August!
Are you heading out of town on a vacation?
Let us help you manage your voicemails or emails. Contact us
for a custom tailored package. Mention this newsletter issue,
and get 10% of your package for new clients and 20% for existing
clients. (Please Note: We do not take incoming calls, but can
arrange to check your voicemail. If you would like someone to
answer your calls, please contact us for a reference.)
Contact
us for a free consultation to see if we can help you! We have a
new 800 number. Leave a message and we are notified
immediately! 877-506-2637 ext. 702
(Good only through August 31,
2006)
Contact
Patty Benton
va@jerpat.org
www.moretime4u.org
www.virtualvacoach.com
877-506-2637 ext. 702
(Call anytime, leave a message, and we are notified immediately!)
303.766.3051 9
am-5 pm MST Monday-Friday
© 2005 JERPAT
No part of this
newsletter may be reproduced unless specified in the authors byline.
Please respect all guidelines provided in this newsletter. If there are
no guidelines provided for a section of this newsletter you would
like to reproduce, please send print request to
jerpattips@moretime4u.org.
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