August Referral Contest

Help us spread the word about all the great things going on at http://www.buildyourvaskills.com! For the month of August, we will be having a referral contest where one of our members can win a great prize.

Here's how it works:
1. Tell all your VA friends (or VA wannabe friends) about us, and encourage them to visit our website at http://www.buildyourvaskills.com!

2. Make sure you tell them to sign up and receive our free report on "Top 10 VA Skills Requested by Clients" and enter YOUR NAME as the code. This will entitle you to one entry in the contest.

3. If your referral signs up for one of our Summer School Classes, you will get 2 additional entries.

4. If your referral signs up for our Inner Circle Program, you will earn 10 additional entries.

5. The person with the most entries WINS!

6. Contest runs 8/1 - 8/31/2009 (Winner announced September 1)

Prize:

Winner gets their choice of the following prizes:

• Excel 1 training E-Course. 4 weeks of video, assignments, feedback ($50 value) or

• One Month of the Inner Circle membership FREE($37 value) or

• 30 minute consultation with Susan! You can pick any topic and pick her brain. She's all yours for a whole 30 minutes! (priceless ;-))

Special Note: Once your referral signs up for the free report, they will also be eligible for this contest. So make sure you tell everyone you know to have the best chances to win!

Any questions? Please email me: ivette@buildyourvaskills.com

GOOD LUCK!

Twitter Use For Small Business Owners - 3 Ways to Get More Leads From This Site

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Yuwanda_Black]Yuwanda Black

Twitter use is proliferating among small business owners. However, most don't fully capitalize on it, for a number of reasons. Following are three specific things all small business owners should keep in mind to fully harness the power of this popular social media marketing site.

Twitter Marketing Tips and Strategies for Small Business Owners

Twitter Use Rule No. 1: Create a Plan. Many small business owners err in the initial stages of using this site because they don't put together a plan of how they're going to maximize their time there.

Think about it in these terms: would you spend $100,000 on an ad in a national magazine without first knowing who your target market is, the offer you're going to make them, how much it's going to cost, how you're going to deliver, etc.?

Of course you wouldn't. Then why would you tweet without knowing these specifics? It's a waste of time, money and energy.

You need a specific Twitter marketing plan before creating your account in order to capitalize on the time you're going to spend tweeting.

Twitter Use Rule No. 2: Stay on Topic. Once you start on the site, you'll notice that many of the message sent out are personal. Someone may tweet about their dinner plans, how ill their child was the night before, a hysterical (to them) phrase their pet parrot just learned, etc.

All of this is perfectly okay -- if you're speaking to your target market and this is what they expect to be hearing from you. HOWEVER, this is not the case for the vast majority of small business owners.

Remember, most prospects will follow you (your business) because they expect to receive useful tweets from you that have something to do with your area of expertise. They could care less about your [http://TwitterProductReports.com]Twitter use relaying dinner plans, info on your sick child or the babblings of your pet parrot.

Create a personal account if you must relay this type of information. But, keep your businesses' tweets about business. Specifically, relay information from your area of expertise that helps your customers achieve their goals.

Twitter Use Rule No. 3: Actively Seek Followers. Many new users of the site fail to do this. They send out tweets and wait for followers to come to them. But using Twitter is no different from any other type of marketing in that in order to make money (sales, generate leads, etc.), you must be proactive.

This means actively seeking out followers. This is the quickest and easiest way to increase your Twitter following.
Want to get more Twitter followers quickly and easily? Learn how in the article, [http://www.twitterproductreports.com/twitter-use-for-small-biz-owners.htm]Twitter Use - 3 Lead-Generating Tips for Small Business Owners, on TwitterProductReports.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yuwanda_Black http://EzineArticles.com/?Twitter-Use-For-Small-Business-Owners---3-Ways-to-Get-More-Leads-From-This-Site&id=2604304

If you found this helpful and you want more great tips sign up for our free report on "Top 10 VA Skills Most Requested by Employers" at http://www.buildyourvaskills.com
or sign up for our Super Summer School Series to learn more skills to build your Virtual Assisting business. Join us on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 10 a.m. CST for a great overview on Twitter. We'll walk you through how to set up an account, how to start following people, and getting others to follow you back. Plus, we'll show you some quick tips to find potential clients!

Go to now to sign up for this course. Only $20 to attend. Can't make it in person? Don't worry! We'll have the call recorded for you to review any time!

Plus, just announced, our Inner Circle program!

Visit our main website at www.pcstraining.net for a full range of our services.

Susan Snyder
Practical Computing Solutions, LLC

Why You Should Always Use Autoresponders Online

By Darcy John

Autoresponders are huge time and effort savers. Which ultimately leads to you making more money as a business entrepreneur. They are at your 'front line' in internet marketing and often the first point of contact. They have many benefits for you apart from saving time and effort. I'll discuss them below.

Create Less Work & Effort For Yourself

Email marketing would be a real pain without autoresponders to drastically cut the work involved! They are the first point of contact with new subscribers. These are people who come to your site and like what you have to offer enough to 'want more.' So you want your response to be professional. This happens with these services. A new subscriber will immediately get a 'confirmation email' when they opt-in to your newsletter. They are then added to your list and will receive a sequence of emails depending on their specific time-frame. You initially set-up this up and it just keeps ticking over. You aim is that in return for the quality information you provide--they will one day become business partners or customers.

Your Full-Time Employee

Since you can't sit at your computer twenty-fours hours a day and keep track of everyone who comes and goes, it's important to utilize these autoresponders in your business. This way when you wake up each morning, you could have received some new subscribers overnight. Obviously getting them while you sleep is only one huge benefit, but the same applies while you are at work, at church or just out and about!This powerful workaholic service gets more interesting and profitable as your online business grows. Because as you increase the number of web-pages or website or blogs you have--so too, you increase the number of opportunities for subscribers to opt-in to your newsletter information.

Autoresponders Have Powerful Benefits

Many newbie marketers stay away from autoresponders because of either the price or failing to understand how they work. I understand only you know your financial situation, but in regard to how they work--actually using autoresponders is a simple process. It's as easy as creating an account, then add your messages, and then the service sends them to all of your faithful readers in the way and time-frame you select.

Granted there are other uses that come along such as setting up messages throughout the month. Then of course you have to think about what type of information you're actually going to be sending everyone. Will your autoresponders be plain and simple? Will you add a little "attention getter?" All things to consider and possibly use to your advantage.

Gain More Subscribers & Keep Them

You've probably seen videos or read about the "correct way" to utilize autoresponders. Unfortunately, if you see more than one it can send you into a state of confusion. So to end all of the dismay you select a service that will deliver your requirements by delivering more subscribers, more conversion rates, and enough money to more than justify using the service. It's something only you can decide to do yourself; look at what others have done and the available information.

Use the resources available at article directories to find good articles for your newsletters. Article directories are good at letting you know when new category articles are available. You need to satisfy your subscribers with quality information. In this way you ensure that your emails get opened and read. Also it helps your subscriber retention rate. You have to 'hold' them as long as you can--if you want to make money through your list.

Just remember, you don't want to send out too many throughout the month because they will be quick to unsubscribe. All you need is a healthy and safe 1-2 messages a month to get started. You'll find the right number that you can deliver--without sharply boosting the unsubscribe rate. My experience is to under do it--don't push too hard! However the main goal is to help you take advantage of autoresponders and make money online. Then again, you have to take the first step in understanding it all.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darcy_John
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-You-Should-Always-Use-Autoresponders-Online&id=2568267

If you found this helpful and you want more great tips sign up for our free report on "Top 10 VA Skills Most Requested by Employers" at http://www.buildyourvaskills.com
or sign up for our Super Summer School Series to learn more skills to build your Virtual Assisting business. Join us on Thursday, July 30 at 10 a.m. CST for a review of AWeber - one of the leading autoresponding solutions available!

Plus, just announced, our Inner Circle program!

Visit our main website at www.pcstraining.net for a full range of our services.

Susan Snyder
Practical Computing Solutions, LLC

Paste Function Button

Thanks for joining us this week to continue our discussion on Excel Functions. This week we are reviewing the Paste Function button.

The Paste Function button is really the easiest way to enter unfamiliar formulas into a cell. All you need to do is answer some basic questions and the Wizard puts the values in the correct parts of the function. This is a great tool to use for basic formula calculations.

To use the Paste Function button in Excel 2007:

• Enter a brief description of what you want to do, and then click on the "Go" button to the right of the description box. This will narrow down the possibilities allowing you to find the specific function you want.
• A drop down box of functions will display for you to make your selection
• You can also select a category of functions or the name of the function itself
  
• Click OK when done
• A window will pop up for you to enter the values for each argument in the function by either typing in the appropriate cell addresses or by using the mouse to click on the cells
  
• Press OK to display the results of the function

You can also type the function directly into the cell you want the results to appear. You can type in all lowercase or uppercase. (Tip: you will need some experience in using the formula to write the formula correctly and avoid calculation errors.)

• Click th ecell you want the function in
• Type "=" to begin the formula
• Type the function name in either uppercase or lowercase
• Open parenthesis "("
• Enter the appropriate arguments using the keyboard or mouse
• When the argument is complete, close parenthesis")"
• Press Enter to display the results of the function

We hope you have found these tips helpful. If you need additional help writing formulas or need any other Excel expertise please contact us! We can help you become more proficient in Excel and all other Microsoft Office applications. We specialize in virtual training for small or large groups. We would be happy to talk to you about all your training needs!


If you found this helpful and you want more great tips sign up for our free report on "Top 10 VA Skills Most Requested by Employers" at http://www.buildyourvaskills.com
or sign up for our Super Summer School Series to learn more skills to build your Virtual Assisting business. Plus, just announced this week, our Inner Circle program!

Visit our main website at www.pcstraining.net for a full range of our services.

Susan Snyder
Practical Computing Solutions, LLC