Are you a virtual assistant? Do you want to get more clients for your virtual assistance business? I have helped many VAs promote their business online and get clients and here is what I recommend:

– Define a target market for your business. Be extremely clear on who your target market is, and how you help it.

– Create an effective marketing message for your business. You want your target market to hear your message and say to themselves: “This is exactly who I want to work with!”

– Create a web site that attracts your target market to your business.

– Use marketing techniques to bring your target market to your web site. There are many online marketing techniques you can use – search engine optimization, networking, article marketing, blogging. Just make sure that the people you bring to your web site are in your target market.

I have created a free special report, “Top Strategies To Get Clients Online” that will give you some ideas about using the Internet to get clients for your virtual assistant business. You can get the report at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/free_report.html.

Biana Babinsky

Recently someone asked me what I think is the most annoying thing that people do online and that prevents them from getting more sales.

This was an interesting question, and here is my take on it.

One of the most annoying thing that happens to me online is when people don’t link directly to the product they are talking about in their message. Some time ago I was reading someone’s newsletter, and there was an ad for an e-book for coaches. It sounded interesting, so I clicked on the link, only to be taken to the main page on the newsletter publisher’s web site.

The main page did not have any information about the e-book. After clicking on a few links, and not finding any e-book information, I got discouraged and left the web site. The newsletter publisher lost a customer.

This newsletter publisher lost many customers who wanted to learn about the e-book, but were taken to the main page of the web site instead.

Remember, linking directly to the product you are marketing can dramatically increase your sales. This is just one of the tips I have discussed on the Article Marketing for Profits Audio Recording that you can get at https://www.marketingsalad.com/article_marketing.html

Biana Babinsky

Today February 1st, which means one month of 2008 is gone. How are your 2008 goals? Are you on target today? Here are three tips to help you keep up with your goals and resolutions:

– Be clear about what you are trying to achieve. It is much easier to do something when you know exactly what needs to be done.

– Break your goals into smaller, manageable tasks. It is really daunting if you are trying to achieve the task of writing a book. However, if you break the task of writing a book into much smaller and manageable tasks, such as creating an outline, writing Chapter 1, editing Chapter 1, writing Chapter 2, &&., it will become much easier to schedule and complete these smaller tasks.

– Have someone to hold you accountable. Having to report to someone else whether you have completed your tasks really helps you stay on track and actually complete your tasks.

Want to achieve more of your goals faster? Want to get feedback on your marketing ideas from a group of business owners? Join MarketingSalad.com at https://www.MarketingSalad.com

Biana Babinsky

When I cook, I like to be creative. There are times when I take a recipe and make many modifications to it – use different spices, substitute ingredients, etc. However, I follow one rule in my cooking – when I receive a recipe from a trusted source, I try it exactly the way it is written the first time. I use the exact amounts, as well as the same techniques and methods described in the recipe. If I like the resulting dish, I continue using the same recipe. If I do not like the result, I make changes to the recipe the next time I make the same dish.

A few weeks ago I tried a spinach lasagna recipe from a trusted source. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfectly – a nice blend of noodles, cheeses and spinach. It was flavorful and there were just the right amounts of sauce and cheeses. Given how much everyone liked it, I am going to make it again and I will not make any changes to the recipe.

I recommend that you use the same approach when you implement a new marketing technique for your business. Get a recipe for applying the technique from a trusted source and try doing exactly what the recipe says the first time you are working with it. As you learn the technique, you will see where you can modify it for yourself for best results.

Need a recipe for growing your list fast? Get the Grow Your List Home Study Guide at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

Is web 2.0 a good technique to promote your coaching business online? With so many online networking sites and blogs out there, how can you find time to participate and still have enough time left for your business and your coaching clients?

I find it to be a great tool to promote a business, BUT I also find that it can take up a lot of your time if you are not careful about organizing your time. I have had clients who have spent 4-5 hours a day, every day on social networks, but could not show enough results to justify this much time spent.

Here is what I recommend that you do to maximize your web 2.0 results:

– Define your goals for networking online ahead of time. Your goals should always be building your list, increasing awareness for your expertise and getting more clients.

– Only network in groups that can help you reach your goals. This means that you should only network in groups where your target market networks. If you network in groups that are fun and social, but don’t consist of your target market, you will have fun, but will not get clients.

– Pick a few networking forums/groups/web sites and use them for a while. There are thousands of networking forums/groups/web sites available for you to network in. There is no way to participate in all of them.

Pick a few that are the most appropriate for your business and spend some time networking in them.

I don’t recommend jumping between groups all the time, as your goal is to become known in a group and be considered an expert. Every time you join a new group, you will need to spend time on establishing your expertise from the very beginning.

– Evaluate your results on a regular basis. Every month take a look at what you have accomplished by networking online and evaluate them. If after a while you are not getting results you want, you should re-evaluate how you network, where you network and what you do while networking.

Members of my online mentoring program, MarketingSalad.com learn how to use online networking to get clients. Join us now at www.MarketingSalad.com and discover how to use online networking effectively!

Biana Babinsky

Can you get more newsletter subscribers by using pay per click search engines?

Pay per click advertising can help you build your list, but it can also help you spend a lot of money fast :)

If you are just starting with a pay per click campaign, here is what I recommend:

– Learn about pay per click advertising and how it works before actually starting to use it. If you are not sure what you are doing, it gets expensive really fast. So learn before you jump in with your money.

– Spend time on finding good keywords that your target customers would use searching for what you have to offer. Good keywords are key to reaching your target market and
getting them on your list.

– Write effective ads. If your ad doesn’t speak to your target customers they will not click on your ad and you will not get them on your list.

– Test! Compare different keywords, different ads and see which ones produce the best results for you.

Also, I would not rely just on pay per click to get subscribers. There are lots of other techniques that do not cost anything to apply, such as article marketing, search engine optimization, blogging and more. I recommend using pay per click as one of your list building techniques, but definitely not as the only one.

I will be discussing how to use pay per click advertising during the Grow Your List Teleseminar Series. There is just one more seat left, so register now at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

In order to build your list you need to:

1) Have a great offer on your web site for new subscribers

2) Drive your target market to your web site in large numbers in order for it to take advantage of your offer and subscribe to your newsletter

You can achieve #1 by promoting your free report all over your web site. I recommend having your free offer front and center on each and every page of your web site.

And to achieve #2 you need to start working on using online marketing techniques to drive targeted traffic to your web site every single day.

There are many different marketing techniques you can use – search engine optimization, article marketing, blogging, networking, etc. The idea is to drive your target market to your web site, so that they can see your free gift offer and subscribe to your newsletter.

It is also a numbers game – the more traffic you can drive to your web site, the more people are going to subscribe to your newsletter.

Discover how to build your list faster during the Grow Your List Teleseminar Series. There are just a few seats left, so register quickly at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

So you are invited to speak in front of your target market. How do you maximize the results you can get out of this speaking engagement?

You can do that by inviting the people who are attending the presentation to subscribe to your newsletter.

During your presentation, I recommend passing around a sign-up sheet for your newsletter, asking participants for their name/e-mail address and permission to send them your newsletter. To make your offer more valuable, the sign-up sheet should have the information about the gift they will receive when they subscribe to your newsletter.

Don’t have a gift for your new newsletter subscribers? I recommend creating one, as this is one of the best techniques to get more subscribers for your list.

When you get their email addresses, you will be able to keep in touch with them and let them know about your upcoming events, seminars, and products. Doing this is extremely valuable to you as a business owner.

Want to learn more about free methods to build your list fast? Join me for the Grow Your List Teleseminar Series at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

How do you feel when someone unsubscribes from your newsletter? Do you feel a bit upset? Do you want to know why they have unsubscribed?

People unsubscribe for many different reasons. But since they do not want to receive your newsletter, they are not your ideal subscribers/potential clients.

Don’t spend your time thinking about why people unsubscribe. Instead, concentrate on making your newsletter the best it can be for people who are still your subscribers. These are the people who you will be able to share information with and also will be able to turn into clients later on.

There will always be people unsubscribing from your newsletter. This is because not everyone
is your ideal potential customers and not everyone is going to resonate with your message. This is exactly what you want to happen – you want them to self-select, so that you are communicating with the people who really want to hear from you. The more targeted your list is, the better conversion rates you are going to get from it.

There are two things that I recommend to my clients to concentrate on for their newsletters:

#1 is growing their list fast and getting as many subscribers as possible.

#2 is experimenting with their newsletter to find content/format that will benefit both you and your subscribers.

Discover how to build your list fast, register for the Grow Your List Teleseminar Series. During the Series I will share with you many effective techniques for building your list, and 95% of these techniques are FREE to apply.

Biana Babinsky

Many people have asked me how to price their ebooks. Should you price them high? Should you price them low? Should you price them somewhere in the middle?

I have seen ebooks priced as low as $7 and as high as $297. It is all about three factors – how much value your ebook offers, how well you can sell it (your sales copy + marketing) and how many people you can reach with your marketing.

Pricing is never exact and it is all you, your expertise, your market and your marketing abilities. Sometimes I advise my clients to have an introductory ebook offer and then raise prices afterwards. Sometimes you want to price it higher as soon as you release it and keep marketing at that price.

If you under price your product, your potential customers will be suspicious since you are offering a deal that seems too good to be true. If you overprice your product, you will not get many sales.

There are many factors that go into pricing of your product:

– The purpose of the ebook and the value of the ebook

– The topic of the ebook – is it very specialized or very general?

– Market and competition research. How do you distinguish yourself from others? Do you have a unique twist on the concept that makes the ebook/ideas/methodology uniquely yours?

Here are a few more ebook pricing resources for you:

– Free article, Are You Pricing Your Products Wrong?

– A step-by-step guide for creating, publishing, pricing and marketing ebooks, Make Thousands Of Dollars With Ebooks Home Study Guide

– Online business mentoring program, MarketingSalad.com. There I teach members everything about creating ebooks and marketing them online (and much more!). As a member you can ask me for recommendations for pricing your own ebooks and other products.

Biana Babinsky