I’m sure you all remember the article that my virtual assistant mom wrote previously, Don’t Call ME Uncommon to Arizona. If you haven’t read it, go check it out so you get the background for this article and then see below why I say that a certain so and so should get off my feeder.

You have to be a hummingbird to LAND on a hummingbird feeder

This bird is not even a hummingbird! As a matter of fact, I have TWO Gila Woodpeckers that are brash enough to drink out of my feeder. Yes, I guess you could say that they really are beautiful with their little red dot on the top of their head; and they’re even kind of cute in their own way; however, they are big oafs compared to me and should not be on my feeder.

by .Larry Page

Creative Common License

According to Whatbird.com, Gila Woodpeckers can be a resident of southeastern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. They are supposed to prefer low desert scrub with saguaro or mesquite trees for nesting. So what are they doing at my adopted mom’s house slurping all my food?

The hummingbird feeder is for a small — hummingbird!

Remember how big I am? I’m a mere 3.50 inches, and I’m a little bit bigger than some of my other friends. This big oaf that my mom calls Rufus is a gigantic 8-10 inches. Yikes! At 2.5 oz, when he lands upside down on the feeder and then tries to right himself so he can drink, he almost spills the nectar. My mom can see all this when she’s gazing out the window when she’s working and doing virtual assistant tasks like writing, transcription, and other things.

Gila Woodpeckers are supposed to eat — not drink — food.

Gilas are known to eat insects, bird eggs, fruits, and berries — blech. Do you see there anywhere where they are supposed to drink nectar specifically made for me? I just can’t, for the life of me, see why they want what’s rightfully mine. Can you? I mean, gee, just because they have a sweet tooth, and quite the sweet tooth.

Gila Woodpeckers are just plain bullies.

I get so mad at Rufus. When I go to drink out of the feeder, he actually chases me. That’s not fair. I’ve seen where he and his friend actually park in the tree in the front yard and guard the feeder so that I or my best friend can’t even get in a drink edgewise. So my mom hung another feeder thinking I and my friend could get some food and now they guard BOTH feeders. Yesterday, my mom saw both of them on the SAME feeder. Where’s the justice in that?

In conclusion, I repeat — Rufus, get off my feeder, you big oaf!
—–
Borlok Virtual Assistants has the global expert services with quality, on-time delivery that you require. We have been freelancing since 2006 and are based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Get more tips on increasing your knowledge in the world of VA and come see us at Borlok Transcription or at our blog Borlok VA.

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.