One of most critical strategies to increase your article marketing for your own business, as well as your clients’ businesses is to expand your search engine visibility. Through trial and error, I have found the following techniques to be very beneficial.

Write articles

It’s not hard to write articles. You don’t have to be a certified writer or publisher. As long as you follow good down-to-earth grammar, punctuation, and spelling guidelines, you CAN write your own articles and not have to pay someone else to write them for you.

Have Your Articles Distributed Far and Wide

Choose a good content distribution service where you can submit your articles and let them do all the leg work for you in getting your articles out to the hungry publishers and content site owners. Once such site that I use is Content Crooner. They have over 2,000 sites that they distribute articles to.

Socialize

The advantages of belonging to social networking sites are multiple. Using social media can increase your visibility in search engines. Setting up profiles, commenting, adding friends - this can all contribute to raising your status as an expert in the search engines. By adding links to your comments and profile pages, you will eventually begin to see increased traffic to your website or blog. The increased traffic will, in turn, raise your page rank scores.

Contribute

Contribute what, you might ask. Contribute by commenting on other people’s blogs, commenting in forums, sharing articles on your website, and making helpful comments on other articles you read, if the site owner allows comments. By making positive, helpful comments, you are going to be recognized as an expert in your particular niche.  By doing so, people are going to want to learn more about you. They’re going to search you out in Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines.

Blog

You don’t have to have a blog that a developer creates for you that costs you a lot of money. You can create your own blog on websites such as wordpress.com or blogspot.com. When writing on your blog, you are using a journalistic mind frame - write from the heart while utilizing research material and/or personal experience to keep your reader’s interest up.

Promote

Here’s where a quality content distribution service like Content Crooner comes into play. You will want to take advantage of special features that the service might offer. For example, perhaps you can take advantage of special sharing options that a service might have or special partnerships in order to obtain prominent position on one or several top article marketing directories.

A virtual assistant needs to do multiple article marketing strategies in order to increase search engine visibility — not only for in order to become successful for your own company, but also for your clients. Now is the time to learn the techniques I’ve mentioned above and increase your value and your potential for success. Don’t wait; do it now!

About the author:

Pam Lokker is a skillful writer and proficient virtual assistant. Borlok Virtual Assistants is the place to get global expert VA services with quality and on-time delivery.

Stop! Click Here! to read more about Content Crooner.

By now, you’re reading this post because you are ready to take the giant leap and begin writing your own articles. One of the most critical aspects of writing a good article is to have a good resource box. Before we get into how to write a super resource box, however, we need to spend a few moments learning just what a resource box is and why it is so important to write one.

Another acronym for a resource box is an About the Author box. This is where you include a short bio about you, the author. You have two opportunities to make your resource box shine.

There are two types of resource boxes:

The first type of resource box is your text version. No fancy formatting here — just straight text. You won’t have an opportunity in your text version to use extra frills of formatting like bold text, italics, underlining, etc.

The other type of resource box is the HTML version.

Since some article directories won’t allow HTML in the ATA box, you will want to write your plain text ATA first and then become familiar with your individual article directory site to see if they will allow HTML in your resource box. Each publisher that you submit your article to will have their own requirements as to which version they allow.

By far the one that I like to use the most if the publisher or site owner will allow it is the HTML version. Why? This is where you can hyperlink to anchor text or descriptive text that is hyperlinked. Just make sure, however, that the anchor text you use are your most powerful keywords.

Learn how to create an HTML Resource box

The first thing you want to make sure you do in order to write a super resource box is to include contact information so people can get a hold of you. This will almost always include your website address and sometimes even include a phone number, although I would not recommend the phone number, unless of course, you don’t mind getting spammed.

Now the next thing you want to do to ensure that you have an award-winning resource box is to have your sales pitch. Whether you are selling your services or your products, write about why your service or product fulfills a need for your client. What is it that makes it unique? Spell it out.

Lastly, you want to write in your call to action. What do you want your reader to do? Do you want them to buy from you? Maybe you want them to visit your website? Be clear and be innovative about how you tell them to “click here” or “go here”. See what I mean?

So, let’s just do a quick summary of what we have learned thus far. A resource box (also known as the About the Author box) is a critical part of a good article. The two versions that we have discussed are the text version (most all publishers will allow this type) and the HTML version. There are four essential parts to a resource box that include a quick bio of you or your company, your website address, your sales pitch, and your call to action. Your goal should be to include these elements in your resource box so that you are assured of having a resource box that is super!

A resource box will either improve your rankings or kill them. Taking a closer look into what a resource box is reveals the different types of resource boxes used, as well as what it takes to write a super resource box. Writing a super resource box will encourage people to flock to your site. Now is the time to get started!

A virtual assistant is frequently asked to write or rewrite all kinds of material - anything from a letter on up to a book. Using the right tools can ensure that your material is content rich; one of those tools is a thesaurus. Learn firsthand what a thesaurus is and what it’s used for.

If you are a virtual assistant, undoubtedly you will eventually have a client that wishes you to rewrite something he or she may have penned or typed. It’s not always an easy task to find just the right words to capture the essence of what is being said in an interesting and accurate manner. Now is the time to make your articles rich in content by using a thesaurus.

What is it you might ask? A thesaurus is just the tool you need; it’s a book that has a classified
list of synonyms. You remember what a synonym is from your days in English class at school, right? According to the Encarta English Dictionary (provided in Microsoft Word 2007), a synonym is a word that means the same, or almost the same, as another word in the same language, either in all of its uses or in a specific context. Examples of synonyms in this sense are “environment” and “surroundings” and the verbs “tear” and “rip.”

So why is a thesaurus useful in making your content rich when you write or rewrite articles? For one thing, if you replace words with synonyms, your content might just grab and keep the reader’s interest that much longer. You’ve all heard that you only have thirty seconds to stimulate a reader’s natural curiosity so they dive deeper into your article.

What are some good thesaurus’s out there that I can use online? I will discuss three here. Don’t take my word as gospel, however; do a search in your favorite search engine under “thesaurus.” I want you to have the freedom to make up your own mind as to which one will work the best for you.

Unless I’m working on a laptop, the very first thesaurus that I use all the time is WordWeb. WordWeb is a free English thesaurus and dictionary software download for Windows. Why do I like it? Just check out some of the things it can help you with:

* Definitions and synonyms
* Proper nouns
* Related words
* Pronunciations
* 150 000 root words
* 120 000 synonym sets
* Looks up words in almost any program

What makes Word Web so useful is that you have the ability to use a combination of the Ctrl + Alt + the W keys on your computer keyboard to have the program open on your desktop. This saves immeasurable time and is even faster than the next program I am going to talk about.

Remember I mentioned that I work on a laptop? One of the disadvantages of doing so is that a laptop will not have as much memory as a desktop so I do not tend to download a lot of software. What I have discovered is that Microsoft Office Word 2007 has a built-in thesaurus. How do you kick it into gear? To give you a simple explanation, say I want to change the word gear in my previous sentence to something else. I would right click on the word gear and scroll down to Look Up, left click with your mouse on the words Look Up and voilà! It will automatically default to All Reference Books, but that is easy to change. Just click on the down arrow next to All Reference Books and change it to Thesaurus: English (You can also choose French or Spanish).

A virtual assistant has to be thrifty in their use of time, as well as being the best of the best. Oftentimes, there will be resources available to us that we don’t even know that can save us an immense amount of work. One of those resources is a good thesaurus. A good thesaurus can not only save us time, it can provide us with synonyms that will help us write and rewrite articles, blogs, press releases, eBooks, etc., that are award-winning. Not only that, a thesaurus can help us make our material rich in content.

I’m trying to work, I really am; but my feline child has her own challenges that she demands I take care of immediately.

How do you resist your feline child that lays so blissfully on your desktop helping you work. She rolls back and looks up at you with those pretty little ears, cute face, and reaching paws. No, no, little one - this virtual assistant must get to work. I have clients waiting.

There that paw goes again, reaching for the pen or chasing the cursor on my monitor. Stop that. Leave that alone. Stop being so challenging!

I sigh and return to my work, only to have her grabbing something else on my desk - a paperclip, the phone cord, or reaching into the well where my monitor sits and grabbing the mouse cord.

My challenges today, it seems, are to stop this child from being such a challenge. That’s a challenge in itself.

I evict this challenging feline delinquent to the floor and implore her to go play somewhere else. Oh my gosh, what was that crash. Gotta run! My feline sphinx’s (my pet name for her) challenges have gotten her into more trouble than she can handle.

I pick her up, scolding her the whole time, and place her back on my desk. She sighs and curls up into a peaceful little ball, no doubt dreaming about all the new and exciting challenges that my furry four-legged feline child can get into. What am I to do? I give up and let her continue with her dreams. Maybe now I’ll get some work done.

It was 8:00 o’clock in the morning as I sat down to transcribe. It was a blistery, cold morning in Phoenix, Arizona (Hah! - More like 116 outside as I write this). With my cup of hot steaming coffee on my one side of my desk and my faithful live, white, feline desk ornament on my other, I prepared for the day.

Now, you have to understand that I was new at this game of transcribing; I’d only been doing it for a short time. My topic was Internet marketing, and it was very interesting. It was all about Pay per Click, and AdWords, and various other Internet-related things; and it was an interview between an interviewer and an Internet Guru.

This is going to be a piece of cake, right? I typed all about interesting Internet gurus, Napoleon Hill, and interesting subjects like Google AdWords, Overture, Google Pay Per Click, e-Books, ClickBank, Yahoo! Search, and a whole lot more. Now, be aware that I was fairly new at transcribing for clients regarding the Internet; so I had to do a lot of research. When I started out, I started with a well-known search engine; but you could choose Google, Yahoo, Ask, or a host of others that are out there. What I didn’t know is that even if you use a reputable search engine, it takes an astute transcriptionist to decipher what search results you should use.

For example, suppose you questioned the spelling of an author’s name. Correctly, you go to the Internet to Google, or Yahoo!, MSN, or whatever you use, and you type in the author’s last name Chialdiani because you were looking up Robert Cialdini because he wrote a well-known book that your client had included on the audio that your client provided you. Aha! You found as the first hit a result that one of the major online bookstores had posted. Now, I chose one that has a huge following on the Internet; they should know the correct spelling, right? Not so fast, Charlie or Jenny, or whoever you are. Take care to take it one step further.

You must actually take it one step further and GO to that bookstore online and find the book. How is the author’s name spelled? Oh, oh. It’s Cialdini. Folks, I’ve got to tell you. Internet clients can be absolutely ruthless when providing feedback to Elance, iFreelance, or Guru, or other freelance sites when a transcriptionist does not get spelling right. Do not be lackadaisical here; this is critical!

Let’s look at another example. Say you want to look up the spelling for the group of people that come from the Philippines. How would you spell Filipino? Be careful here. This could be a trick question. Okay, again, we start out on Google, Web Crawler, Ask, or any other search engine you might use. We type in Philippino because we think that because they are from the Philippines, they are probably called Philippinos, right? Hold on. Who are you going to use as a resource to verify that spelling? In many instances you have more than one spelling for a word, and clients can be very, very temperamental if you choose the wrong spelling. My recommendation is to use reputable references that are well-known and have been around for years.

So what have we learned thus far? Be very choosy when using resources to determine spelling of words. Make sure that sites you use are reputable resources. Your clients do not want to see errors when they receive their transcription. Go the extra mile, be diligent, and be accurate. If you have to use multiple resources to get a consensus, that’s great. That is what you clients want. If you do that, you will go far in establishing a sound transcription business that clients will come to you for services over and over again.

You know what? Buyers are not always right. What?! I can’t believe you’re saying this. Well, it’s true. Buyers have a tendency to believe that their virtual assistant is just sitting on his or her laurels with baited breath waiting for that one call indicating that something has to be done right now.

You see, buyers tend to forget that virtual assistants have more than one client to take care of. Depending on the client, they have needs that need to be prioritized too.

So Buyer, beware! You may not get your project done right away. Give your virtual assistant some advance notice or be prepared for a letdown. Work with them by giving clear details about your project.

You mean the world to us; however, we are not afraid to tell you no, I can’t do that right now. I can have it for you in 2-3 days, though. Will that work all right?

Virtual assistants get hungry too, and one client just doesn’t put food on the table.

You’ve all heard the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” right? Well, I’m here to dispute that fact. Of course, you have to realize that the old dog we’re talking about at this time is me, okay? I get so excited sometimes about the things that I learn each and every day - new things on blogging, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, article writing - I can hardly contain myself.

If I were to give any new virtual assistant some benefit of my knowledge that I’ve gained over the years, it would be to definitely look at each day with new eyes. Search for opportunities to learn, and tuck the gold coins of knowledge in your memory library for instant recall later on in life. You will be amazed at how much you have learned over the years.

For me, I’m very glad this old dog can learn new tricks.

So, you’ve taken the bit in your teeth; and you’ve decided to take the leap and start your own virtual assistant business. Have you really thought this through? Do you have the equipment you need for your office? Have you decided on what services you will provide to your clients in your specialized niche? While I have seen it written in reports that most small businesses won’t even begin to turn a profit and start to become successful for two years, don’t let that dissuade you.

There are many reasons to start a new virtual assistance business, even in this downturned economy. Well, as I sit here and think about it, here are a few of my personal favorites. Number one benefit is that you get to see new and sometimes exciting scenery. As I sit here reflecting on the benefits of working out of your home, I gaze out the window and see the birds twittering and singing in the trees. Look! There is a grackle at the bird bath dipping his food in the water to soften it, even in the soft falling rain that is falling on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Usually it’s a piece of dog food that he has stolen from some unsuspecting dog that’s catching forty winks. It’s such a hard job, you know, being a watchdog.

My faithful cat, Yoda, sleeps next to me keeping me company. She’s not too interested in the birds now; she appointed herself as guardian of the birds and has been watching them all morning. She’s tired now. Sshhh, don’t disturb her; it’s time for her catnap.

Second benefit is that you have climate control. Brrr, it’s cold in the house. Hey, Sis. Would you mind turning the air conditioner down? Can you beat that? You can adjust your own thermostat to the temperature YOU like. You don’t have to wait for maintenance where you’re working to say - Well, everyone else is just fine. You’ll just have to put a sweater on or quit your gosh-darned complaining. Put some clothes on!

Now I know you will all like this benefit. You get to take your break when you want to. You can decide what hours you want to work. Got to take your child to the doctor? No problem. It’s up to you what you want to work, as long as you get out what you commit to to your client. Speaking of my sis, she’s sitting next to me playing solitaire. She says “This is my breakfast break.” Shame on her — she should be working! She says “My job is done! You’re the cog in the wheel now.”

Oh, I forgot to tell you. When you work virtual, your faithful canine companion gets to lay by your side helping you work. The benefit? Your dog or cat does not have to be alone all day. If you have children, you are home when your children need you.

Oh, did I mention that the stress level is nearly, totally gone? You don’t have someone breathing down your neck. You don’t have scheduled annual or semi-annual reviews. Your supervisor doesn’t constantly harp that you must be a team member, you must do this job this way, etc. You can even have the radio on or the TV on low.

Working virtual is rewarding. I warn you, however, when you start your business, you will undoubtedly work more hours than if you were working full-time at a company. You know what though? You will enjoy it much more because you will be doing it for yourself.

Your expenses will be lowered. Now wait until you hear this. You won’t have to buy gas, commute, travel long distances, or get stuck in traffic. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

What about the clothes you wear for work? You won’t have to buy an expensive wardrobe. You can work in your pajamas if you want or dress as casually as you want when you work at home. Don’t feel like putting on makeup or slaving over your hair, Ladies? You got it. You can work from your home (as long as you don’t have clients coming to your home) being just the way you want to be. Shed those jackets and ties, Men. Relax and wear your grungiest t-shirt if you want.

Here is the main benefit - it is just wonderful and self-satisfying. So if you are considering delving into the world of creating your own virtual assistance business, let me reassure you that you can do it. With perseverance and drive, you can do anything you set out to do.  Why not take the leap and do it now!