I’m sure that a few of you have had times when you realised just how human you are and how easy it is to make such a small mistake in your writing or maybe have an error in judgement in a business decision we make (I know I have)… maybe you sit there pondering what to do.

I find that it is much better to *blush* admit to the mistake straight up.  We are all human and we all make mistakes, even in business.  No point in pondering the what ifs… because we can’t go back when we have already moved forwards.

The funny thing is that sometimes making a mistake or having an error in judgement can work in our favour.  “How would that possibly work in my favour?” you are probably thinking.

• Proof that you are human just like everyone else – which can be a really good thing at times.
• Gives the opportunity to work through a problem and learn new things.
• Encourages for you to feel humility and therefore be sympathetic to others needs.
• Possibility to maybe leverage new business or personal projects on those newly learned skill, the ones that have been learned through their mistakes.

Sure, there are positives and negatives to making mistakes.  I prefer to look at what positive has come from the mistake or error in judgement – and look forwards, rather than looking back.

Would love to hear your thoughts on whether mistakes are a good or a bad thing… or maybe a bit of both.

There are so many things to consider when writing a blog. There is the structure, the content, the feel… plenty to think about.

Same applies to writing a book or report or any other document really.

Authenticity and Personality

I probably overuse the ellipsis (…) but that’s maybe, hopefully, my own personality and character shining through.

Don’t be too quick to get rid of your own little quirks. Your style of writing is what makes you unique and maybe it is what makes you stand out from every other writer on the planet.

Selecting a Topic

Do you write about topics that you are passionate about?

If you have limited knowledge on the topic then you will need to be prepared to either research the topic further, or pay a professional to write the blog post for you.

Have you thought about how your topic ties in with your business goals? Consider whether you can write an article series that might compliment your blog.

I find that the more that I refine my niche area the easier it becomes to think of a topic to write about.

Establish a Niche

Do any of us know it all? Do you think we will ever know it all? Nah, I don’t think so!

Instead of trying to know absolutely everything there is to know you might like to have a look at where you are focusing your business. What is your target audience? If your target audience is too broad then maybe you are not reaching your full potential.

To gain a better understand on niche marketing you might like to have a read of the following article, Have You Chosen a Niche Area Yet?

Try to Avoid Complex or Technical Words

If your target audience are unlikely to use more complex or technical type words and you want to help them, then wouldn’t it be best to use words that they don’t have to look up in the dictionary or on Google?

I prefer to really simplify my text and chat away like I am speaking with another person. For that reason I exclude words that I wouldn’t use in general conversation, eg. ‘therefore’, ‘consequently’, ‘however’.

Go Easy on the Word ‘AND’

Try not to become addicted to the word ‘and’.

Do you find yourself constantly using the word ‘and’ to string your sentences together? If your answer is yes then you might like to try and retrain yourself.

The articles should flow, but not in a way that the words flow together. To know whether the article is flowing you might consider whether the pauses in your article are sufficient – does the reader have opportunity to breath?

Used in the right way full stops and commas can add appropriate emphasis to the message you are trying to get across.

Don’t be afraid (or embarrassed) to read it out loud where there is a need.

If when I write on a particularly sensitive topic I might get worried that the flow of a sentence, paragraph, even article is not quite right. If this is the case, then you will most likely find me sitting in my office reading that part out loud, trying to tweak the sentences to get the flow right.

When editing more sensitive or complex articles, I have found this to really help me.

Consistency

Where possible keep things consistent. Some examples are below:

• Do you tend to put a full stop at the end of your bullet point? Try to do the same always.
• Same with hyphens between words, eg. sub-contractor / subcontractor.
• Try to stick with one Style, eg. US English, UK English or Australian English.

We won’t be able to get everything always 100% right, and quite honestly people won’t expect you to. It is important though to at least try and keep it as consistent as possible.

Don’t be Afraid to Publish!

When blogging or writing to a forum, or in anything that you do…

I agree that it is important to be really careful about the work that is published – especially if it is on a particular sensitive topic, but there comes a point when you really do need to decide whether you should publish or not.

If you have a habit of hardly ever publishing anything because it is simply not good enough then you might like to rethink, because this is likely to be caused by either procrastination or the need to perfect the post. If you constantly hold off from publishing content for either of these two reasons then you could possibly be holding yourself back.

For the majority of my articles I write, edit and schedule / publish them the same day. Occasionally it is necessary for me to delay publishing for a day or two to give me the opportunity to review the article with a clear mind.

Once the article is published or scheduled I go back to it straight away and have one last read just to make sure that I am happy with how it reads. This might not be the solution for everyone but it works for me.

This might be a good opportunity actually to go to your blog, and have a look in your drafts folder to see if there are any articles sitting there waiting.

It probably wasn’t obvious to you as a reader up until now that this blog is destined to become a blog about niche marketing.

Through discussions with other business owners in the last few years I have come to know and understand just how important a niche is to growing ones business.  This comes on a number of different levels.

I have come to realize is that it is much harder to promote your business to ‘the world’, but much easier to promote yourself to a smaller, much more defined group of people.  In addition to this it gives you a really good opportunity to prove to them why you are a cut above the rest; what sets your business apart from all those other businesses in that field of expertise.

I myself have finally decided on a niche area for my parent company Proactive Admin Services, and are already starting to guide my business in that direction.  My niche area will be to provide administrative assistance to Speakers.  We have plenty to do… we will need to look at updating our website, training and development, marketing etc.

What we are hoping is that through Virtual Marketeers we will be able to help you with the following:

1. Provide information about niche ideas and marketing so people who stumble upon this site, who do not yet have a defined niche might realize what an important marketing tool this might be to their business… hopefully earlier rather than later;
2. We would also like to ‘connect’ you and your business with other readers that provide both the same and different services or products. Some… or maybe all of these products or services that are promoted will be innovative and some of them will hopefully really capture your attention; and
3. To provide the opportunity to other readers to endorse products or services which they have had a really positive experience with by providing a product review or comment.  Of course it will need to be obvious that you are completely separate from the business that you are reviewing, or providing the comment for.

Maybe you provide MYOB Training services, or  ‘Unusual’ Party Cakes, or online scrapbooking courses… whatever your niche, I encourage you to contact me via the Contact Us Page.

Publication of articles is at the moment a free service.

Please note, the content in your article will be screened for quality purposes.  Because of this may not be published.  The articles published will only be those of a professional standard.  They are subject to the publishers approval and are, amongst other things, to be free from blatant advertising and explicit materials.  In no way do I endorse these articles, I am simply offering them as an informational base for my readers.  If you wish for me to personally review a product please contact me by visiting the Contact Us page.

Oh, and by the way, if you wish to receive my free newsletter update, which will provide you with some tips, articles, offer coupons, great deals and tools then please do so now… the subscriber form is up the top and to the right of this blog post.

Feel free to check out the following articles on niche marketing if you would like to know and understand more about niche marketing:

What is Niche Marketing?

Virtual Assistant in Niche Areas

Over the last couple of days I have received an influx of inquiries about the format of my blog, so I thought I might write a blog post in response to these queries.  Questions were in regards to whether the template that I use is a standard WordPress template, and also whether I could assist/give ideas on how to improve on the format of other peoples websites.

I am a Virtual Assistant, which means I am an independent business that provides administrative services from my own office to yours.

Plenty of Virtual Assistants have undergone training so that they can provide web design and development services to their clients.  I am not trained in html code, but rather I contract this work to another Virtual Assistant.  Caroline is the designer of my web template.  It is non-standard and created to suit my particular needs and therefore the design is copyrighted.  Caroline provided me with some initial designs based on my thoughts and ideas, and the blog design at Virtual Marketeers developed out of that.  I am so please with this website and also http://www.littletaka.com that I am looking to Caroline to build this parent business website, http://www.proactiveadminservices.com on the WordPress platform also.

Virtual Marketeers is a blog and runs through WordPress.  WordPress is really simple to use and is a great tool for building traffic/SEO.  This is to do with continual updating of content of the blog and partially because you can add plug-ins that assist in building your traffic quickly.

If you would like further assistance with your website or blog then feel free to visit my Contact Us page and drop me a quick email expressing your interest.  Through my business I would be extremely happy to arrange for you for content to be written or edited, for the development and/or maintenance of client blogs or websites.

Alternatively if you would like some really good critique of your website, then your best bet would be to head over to http://www.flyingsolo.com.au or another similar business networking site and sign up to the forum area there.  You can actually ask readers there whether they might assist you by providing some feedback on how you might improve your website.

If you are an internet marketer, or are interested in becoming one and aren’t already subscribed to ‘Eric’s Tips’, then you might like to head over to his blog and check out some of his lessons.  I have linked you to Lesson #59, which is about List Building so that you can get an idea of the quality of information that Eric provides.

Lesson #59: Introduction to List Building

His free newsletters is setup like an e-course, where you receive the video lesson’s through in the order that he originally posted them.  That way you can work through his lessons at your own pace and won’t miss out on any of them.

I really look forward to receiving his lessons through to my email, as I know that I will achieve a more solid understanding of internet marketing from each and every video lesson.

Some of the topics that he covers in his lessons are finding a profitable niche, how to create a website, how to put audio on your website, the legalities of owning an online business, how to write web copy and much much more.  Eric delivers the information in bite sized pieces and provides the information in a really simplified and easy to understand format.

At the moment if you sign up to his free newsletter, you will also receive 5 free e-books!  This really is a great resource without the e-Books.

Maybe it’s just me that finds it to be quite stressful reading some (not all) newsletters and sales pages; or maybe you’ve had some similar experiences… I don’t know?

Both my personal and business experience tells me that [big breath] the “sign up right now, there is never going to be another offer like this, you are going to kick yourself if you do not buy it NOW” type of request that tenses up our shoulders and throws the butterflies around in our tummy are so not worth those feelings.

I have come to learn that when a person uses a sales pitch like this, there is a probability the person on the other end of the computer is trying to make you purchase with your emotions – on a whim!  This person really, really, really doesn’t want you to purchase with your brain, because there is a less likely chance of a sale right now.

With this tactic, these people might capture an instant sale with a good many of their customers, but I question how many customers will be repeat customers and whether there might be a bad taste left in the mouth if I was to knowingly push a sale onto a customer?

Got some thoughts on this?  I would love to hear your thoughts on how to best retain clients, and whether you would consider the “you must buy right now” sales pitch to be moral.

For my own benefit I tend to steer clear from sales people and business entrepreneurs who excessively pull heart strings in order to make their sale.

What type of newsletter / sales letter will I read?  I know for a fact that some of the newsletters I subscribe to are from business entrepreneurs who make a lot of money through their business.  Through reading their newsletters and sales pages I have decided that there is really no need to get a sale by scaring clients into making that next purchase.

I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing is to offer good quality product and services that clients would want to, choose to buy and that the sale built on trust is much superior to the sale built on fear.

A deadline can be a really positive thing.  There have been plenty of items that I have signed up for that had a deadline, but there was definitely good opportunity for me to go away, have a good think about it, then choose to come back and make the purchase on my own terms?

I have always been taught that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.  I was taught to be cautious of get rich schemes and that as a general rule we need to work hard – at least to start with, in order to achieve and sustain success.  So when it comes to the topic of “Making Money Online”, I tend to look for advice that is in line with the much slower paced “You can make money online if you set your business up right ” mentality.

As a customer yourself (and possibly also business entrepreneur, sales person, or marketer) what are your thoughts when it comes to newsletters, sales letters and the like?

Maintaining a good reputation is so important in business; cause and effect.

In reading this article please have a think about whether those people added to your email marketing list have requested and confirmed their continued inclusion in your email marketing list.

If they did not have the opportunity to opt in to receive your emails, then the emails sent may be considered to be, and treated as spam email by the authorities.  I am talking actual authorities and whole police units set up for handling spam, and from what I have heard spam is not handled lightly by these authorities.

So that you and your business is not subject to these types of problems, you might like to now look at whether you have received the appropriate permissions from your readers prior to adding them to your list.  The absolute best way is by using an automated double opt in process through a reputable email communications web program, such as AWeber, iContact etc.

These programs sometimes offer feedback, prior to you even sending the email, as to whether the email content that you are about to send might be considered by readers to contain spam content, allowing for you to further edit it if need be.

An email communication web program will also, very importantly encourage you to make use of additional subscriber options, such as unsubscribe, change email address etc.  Providing the option to your readers to unsubscribe is, as I understand it just as important as making sure that your readers have provided their expressed permission to be added to your email list in the first place.

Wouldn’t you rather set up the process, so that you are encouraging membership from people who have developed a genuine interest in your topic, your content, and maybe also respect for your person…?  I know that I would prefer to have readers to my blog and newsletter who are loyal and actually want to be there and reading my content.

It is most definitely unethical to sign people up without their personal expressed permission, and it could possibly serve to ruin a business if a person was to choose to build their list in this way.  Although some make a living out of spam, how many emails do you think they actually have to send out, and to what lengths do they need to go to actually make money out of this illegal act?

Now, looking to the person who has been subscribed to this list without being asked… would this person choose to stay subscribed, or would they feel that their comfort zone has been breached… their space invaded somewhat?  Would this feeling cause for this person to unsubscribe anyway or to ignore the content of the email?  If this was to be the case, then what are you actually achieving by adding them to the subscriber list without their permission?

Would it be more likely to foster a long-lasting positive or a negative perception on your business if you were to send emails out without the persons expressed permission?  If it was to foster a negative perception, then just as positive news spreads amongst our peers, would their not be a likelihood of this negative news to also spread amongst peers?

If you decide you would like to forward a copy of your business newsletter or copy for a client to have a read through, then go for it; but I would suggest that you put a note to the top of this newsletter or copy to let them know how to subscribe if they are interesting in continuing to receive your newsletter, rather than subscribing and sending the newsletter to them without any prior contact.

So to wrap up, make sure that you receive permission from those you are adding to your email list, be careful about the content in these email, and make sure that you provide the option somewhere in these emails for your members to also unsubscribe.

I wanted to let you know that Intellimon (who you may know as the makers of the award-winning ‘XSitePro’ Web site design software) are launching a training course, a week from now. To kickstart this training course, this Thursday they are having a price draw and its free to enter. More on that in a moment, but if you can’t wait here’s the link

http://www.complete-guide-to-website-building.com

The course, in case you haven’t already heard about it, is MASSIVE. It’s taken twelve months to put together, and is completely unique.

It’s been specially put together for people:

… who have never built a web site in their lives before…

or

… who have tried to get to grips with building websites, only to get confused and de-motivated before eventually giving up out of sheer frustration…

or

… who have previously outsourced and now want to take control of their existing website, and stop relying on costly designers who want paying every time a small change needs making…

In short people who want to move forward with their plans and ideas on-line, but need someone to show them the EXACT steps they need to take.

And that’s *exactly* what this course will do for you.

There’s over THIRTY HOURS of stimulating and professionally delivered content, packed full of:

- over-the-shoulder demonstrations

- full-motion video explanations

- interactive drawings

- pop-quizzes

- homework exercises

… and plenty more besides.

This is the Website Training MOTHERLODE!!

Can you imagine what you could achieve with this invaluable new-found skill? Go on… just picture the possibilities…

Now, I did say at the start of this message that I’d tell you how you could get hold of a copy without parting with a single cent… well, here’s how …

As part of the build up to the launch on Wednesday 21st October, there’s a ‘Grand Prize Draw’ being held – the draw’s taking place this Thursday at 10pm Eastern Time – and all you need to do to enter is fill out your name and e-mail in the Entry Form.

There are a total of TEN free training seats being given away, and the winners will be announced this Friday – so you won’t have long to wait.

I urge you to enter this generous prize draw as soon as possible. It would be a real shame if you were to miss out simply for the sake of thirty seconds of your time.

The link to enter the draw is:

http://www.complete-guide-to-website-building.com

Here’s hoping yours is one of the lucky names drawn out of the hat on Thursday.