Texas Virtual Assistance League VA News & Articles

5 Easy Ways To Get Your Creative Juices Going

Rebecca Thompson — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:47:58 GMT

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.

5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.

Quality Content Brings in Links

Rebecca Thompson — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:46:51 GMT

As mentioned everywhere on the net nowadays, "content is king". No matter how hard you work, if you do not have good quality, relevant content on your site you will not get large numbers of backlinks. Sites that have excessive sales pitches, poorly written content or no content will not receive backlinks no matter how hard you try.

Fortunately quality content is easy to come by! Quality content doesn't have to be originalundefinedit just has to be good. Fresh articles, guest blog posts, links to online resources, free downloads, etc. can all be considered quality content if they offer good value to your site visitors. And these can all bring links to your site.

Here are a few successful strategies for providing your visitors with excellent content and increasing your backlinks:

· Write your own original articles. If you are utilizing article marketing, simply post your articles on your site and encourage visitors to link to them or post them on their own sites/blogs with a link to your website.

· Hire a writer. If you have a very specific niche you can hire a writer (who knows your language well) and who will write original articles for you. The cost can be minimal and well worth it to get the backlinks to your site.

· Create free forms that your visitors can use. Ask them to link to the forms rather than reposting them, which will create backlinks and draw visitors who may be interested in what you have to offer. Do the same with puzzles, games or software. Anything that your target audience may be interested in can attract visitors and links.

· Proofread your site. Check for proper grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc. It doesn't have to be perfect because everyone makes mistakes, but it shouldn't be filled with glaring or abundant errors either. Quality content that attracts links is as error-free as possible.

· Offer to review products on your site. This is a growing trend among bloggers, in particular. (Be sure to check disclosure laws!) You don't have to be harsh, but don't write a glowing review for a product you don't likeundefinedeven if you received if free. Become known as the reviewer everyone can trust and you'll quickly build links to your site by others in your niche.

· Submit your best content to authority sites. You can submit your best content to sites such as About.com or contact an Examiner in your niche and ask them to link to relevant pages on your site. Such authority sites will only continue to grow and having them link to you is a coup if you can pull it off.

· Continue to add new content. Often online marketers get caught up in the day-to-day operations of Internet Marketing and after a while they neglect adding new articles or new resources to their sites, thereby letting the site become old and dated. Don't let that be you!

Work continually to add new quality content to your website and the backlinks that keep your site growing will continue as long as your site is online. There are a many ways to get others to link to your site, but creating quality content can bring in links quicker than almost anything else you can do for your link building efforts.

Manage Your Time, Don’t Let it Manage You!!

Kimberly Ball — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:34:08 GMT

World-renowned Stephen Covey proclaims "Time management" is really a misnomer - the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.” This compelling statement is a break in reality especially for those of us transitioning from corporate America where time management is part of the standard curriculum for any professional. As a virtual assistant (VA), we are Project Managers juggling multiple clients. If we include ourselves (and our time) as a project to manage, will we be more productive? I argue the answer is a resounding YES! In the SmartEntrepreneur article at http://www.smartentrepreneur.net/articles-on-time-management.html, the author suggests that business owners should break out work orders into smaller, manageable tasks. If VA’s use the model suggested, the effort to produce work products is predictable, and thus, our time, will be more manageable and managed better.

Kimberly Ball

GOGO Virtual Assistant | Owner

http://www.gogovirtualasst.com

Reaching Your Target Audience

Paula Belyeu — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:17:47 GMT

When you're writing articles, do you ever wonder if anyone is going to read them? More importantly, do you wonder if it's even going to get to your target audience? Article marketing has the potential of increasing your business' credibility as well as attracting new clients.

One of the most popular article submission sites is, EzineArticles.com. Granted, EzineArticles.com is a beast, but posting your articles there is great for receiving incoming links to tell Google and other search engines that you're important. On the flip side, you have to be constantly sending people to eZineArticles.com to check out your content to get the visibility or it needs to be one of the top articles in a category, which can be easier said than done.

Here are three proven ways to help you get your articles directly in front of target audience today:

   1.   Raving Fans - Include your reprint articles on your site and gladly invite your readers to publish them with your bio. There's no one more perfect to spread the word about you and your services than your already "raving" fans!
   2.   Referrals - Give your articles to your affiliates and referral resources that want to earn your referral bonuses. Help them convert your prospects into profits for all parties involved. VAClassroom does this very well! Anytime they are announcing a new class or some type of "special", they provide a template article so that the affiliates can add this to their site with their very own affiliate code and link. Take the hard work out of it for affiliates and referral resources!
   3.   Guest Blog - Partner with someone credible that already has access to your target audience. For example, if your target audience are small to medium-sized business owners, partner with a business coach by offering them excellent, relevant content to put on their site. Place your content directly in front of your target audience! If your content is good enough and you offer what they need, you'll start to get some calls from your "target" audience.

As Virtual Assistants, implement these steps, tweak and do it again, then, suggest these steps to your clients to help them grow their business and get in front of their target audience.

Whether you choose to use these steps or stick with simple article marketing, the most important thing is to remain consistent in creating relevant and compelling content often if you're planning to move forward.

About the Author: Paula Belyeu is the owner of Integrity Virtual Solutions primarily offering web design maintenance and management. She is currently studying Web Design and Development at Full Sail University.

"goofing off isn’t the enemy"

Dy Larson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:33:53 GMT

I shamelessly stole this post title from the article you need to go read at Wired.com. Mostly because it's my favorite line from the whole article.

For the last few years people have been buzzing about how much social media costs businesses in lost productivity. Wired is, based on new research, making a case for how much money social media can make businesses.

Social media offers a constantly-updating stream of inspirational tidbits and momentary distractions. The latter is how social media got its bad rap, but research indicates creative types need the distraction to help them think in new ways.

Check it out here.

Proud to be an Affiliate

Dy Larson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:18 GMT

After a lot of trial and error with different products, tools, books, and software every VA finds a few favorites. You know, products or services that you consider essential and tell everyone about when they ask what you use...

You decide it can't hurt to make a little money since you'd endorse them either way, right? You sign up for an affiliate link.

Now what?

If you're an active blogger, or read people who are, you know there's been an ethical debate going on amongst bloggers for years regarding affiliate links, sponsored blog posts, reviews , etc. The debate got hotter than ever when the FTC announced new disclosure rules last year.

Not sure how to be an affiliate or offer an honest review without running afoul of the rules or people's sensibilities?

Check out Brian Clark's article at Copyblogger, "How to Turn Affiliate Marketing Disclosure Into a Selling Point."

He's got a lot of great points and ideas for how to make your affiliate disclsure WORK for you as well as some history on the issue.

Social Media and the Sales Cycle

Dy Larson — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:07:11 GMT

I own my own business, which means one of the (many) hats I wear is that of salesperson. If I don't go out there and sell my services, who will? Which, for me, kind of sucks because I've never been a salesy kinda gal. I'm pretty good at inside sales--when the leads come to me I can close, but hunting down people and convincing them they need me is not my bag.

Which was my long-winded way of explaining why I had NO CLUE that there are nine steps in the sales cycle. Or what they were. I'm still fuzzy on the details and might even have to do some independent research on the *shudder* science of sales, but this article at accountingweb has at least introduced me to the process.

And, from my non-salesy perspective, made it seem a little easier. I'm already active in social media personally, and plan to get more active on behalf of my business in 2010. (You are planning for next year while it's slow, right?!) The article above talks about how businesses can use social media to shorten the sales cycle, meaning more time spent working. Anything that reduces the time I have to spend selling myself to the world makes me happy. Maybe it'll help you, too.

About The Author: Dyanna Larson is the woman behind the pen at Ink Think, a freelance editorial firm that specializes in writing (and ghostwriting) for businesses.

Walk Away for a While

Dy Larson — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:07:41 GMT

I want you to take a moment to look around you. See what you've accomplished with your business, how it has grown and changed since you first set your feet on the path to entrepreneurship.Be excited and proud.

Now turn around and walk away for a while. If you can't do it now because the holidays are not a slow time for you or your clients, make plans now to get way when you can. Yes, it's hard to walk away. Yes, you will probably lose some money while you're gone, but you'll lose more if you work yourself to death.

Don't take my word for it though. The Wall Street Journal agrees. As an added bonus, the article even mentions that business owners can hire a VA to cover for them so they can take off.

About the Author: Dy Larson is the writer-editor behind the pen at Ink Think.

Short and Sweet

Dy Larson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:31:35 GMT

What a virtual assistant does and why we're a smart choice is often a pain to explain to people unfamiliar with the concept. Good news!

Joann Yates at the Sun Microsystems' blog, "News, Advice, Case Studies for Startups" wrote a tidy, succinct, and user friendly article you can point people toward called, "Virtual Assistants Save Entrepreneurs Time and Money." The information is good and it might even help you think up a simpler way to explain the benefits of hiring a VA to prospective clients.

About the Author: Dy Larson is the writer-editor behind the pen at Ink Think.

Hello, Have You Heard of Scott?

Dy Larson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:13:07 GMT

If you are a web savvy business owner and don't know who Scott Ginsberg is then you may not be as savvy as you think. Scott Ginsberg, aka The Nametag Guy, is well known for, well, for being The Nametag Guy.

His blog is always full of interesting advice for business owners and people who dream of starting their own business. Tuesday he posted a thought-provoking aritcle called Don’t Start a Business Until You Read These Nine Facts. It's a little esoteric at times and a bit in your face at times--that means he uses the occasional bad word :-) -- and not for everyone, but the underlying points he's making are solid.

About the Author: Dy Larson is the writer-editor behind the pen at Ink Think.

Tweet, Tweet! VAs Make It Easier to Manage Your Business' Online Presence

Dy Larson — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:37:51 GMT

Lots of business owners are great at what they do, whether it's coaching, construction, or even conjugation for writerly types like me. A lot of them, though, are NOT good at using the Internet as a lower-cost marketing venue for their business, especially in today's fast-changing Web 2.0 environment.

Social media is particularly sticky. Good social media is delicately balanced on the line between professional and personal, between too much interaction (or information!) and not enough. That's where a professional, social media savvy VA can help.

Lawrence Perry of the UK's CatchFriday Virtual Personal Assistant service agrees, and is trying to let others know how a VA can help with his article, "Twitter Has No Instruction Manual" at OfficialWire.com. Check it out!

About the Author: Dy Larson is the writer-editor behind the pen at Ink Think.

Interested in helping with this blog?

Candy Beauchamp — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:36:49 GMT

We are looking for some members who are willing to blog from time to time about interesting articles, news, etc. pertaining to the VA industry. Must be a TexVAL member and you can add on a 2 sentence blurb about yourself at the end. Interested? Email candy@texval.com