No one likes it when bad things happen. That is true for me as well.

I recently lost a client due to a “perfect storm”. And to say that it was not my fault would be an untruth. It was a comedy of errors, so to speak. It was not “my fault” but a series of them.

Let me start at the beginning.

I left for a convention in Orlando, Fl., Be the Change Event with Suzanne Evans. I left confident that I had informed all of my clients that I would be out of the loop for a few days, but staying in touch via email.

What I did not know, was that a new client was doing a launch and had a number of technical items that needed to be done while I was gone. I did not find this out until I was in FL. So, I put my husband on task. He is my business partner and his area of expertise is exactly what the client needed.

BUT wait, not exactly……to make a long story short, there was formatting, testing, etc. that needed to get done that he was not familiar with and although I did try to talk him through it via phone and online, it just didn’t work. At this point, what I should have done, was put on the brakes, contacted the client and stopped the whole process until I returned and could really dive into it.

To add insult to injury, I got delayed in FL. due to the tornadoes that rampaged through Dallas and that is where I was flying through on my way home.

Needless to say, it was a disaster. Client very unhappy, husband very unhappy and me, well, extremely unhappy.

So, what to do about it. 

At this point, there really is nothing we can do. The mistake happened, the client was embarrassed as were we.

This is what I did. When I spoke with the client, I expressed my apologies and offered to “fix” whatever I could. I also emailed my apologies and send an Amazon gift card. The client felt that I “got it”. She felt validated and of course, the gift card went a long way in helping that as well. 

You know, when you make a mistake, own it. That is the most important part. Owning what is yours and letting the rest go.

Yes, I felt bad. I have clients that have been with me for over 10 years and yes, I have made mistakes along the way. I have also learned from those mistakes.

I stand behind our services 100%. No doubt about it. She may come back and again, she may not. I did everything I could to make it better and although the mistake could not be fixed, the relationship was.

I am all about making things easy and systematic. It not only makes my life easier, but also, the life of my clients (at least I hope so.)

So, I was working with a client, Joyce Dillon, on her new website and we were chatting about changing the background on her WordPress site.

I started Googling and found this really cool, and easy tool. Even better, it’s free.

Now, it’s not fancy, but for us non-graphic designers, this is an easy or even temporary way to change your background without going to a lot of expense.

Here it is: BGPatterns

As you can see by the image below, you can change around color, image, canvas and the rotation of the image as well. Again, this tool has it’s limitations, but for a quick and easy change to your site’s background, give this a try.

You’ve got your ducks in a row, developed a new dazzling product and conduct a screaming product launch that is well received. Now how do I reach my audience and more important what must I do to hold onto my reader’s attention long enough to get my message across. 

Rich Schefren of Strategic Profits  shares some interesting thoughts and presents some suggestions to increase your engagements.

In today’s ever-hectic world, getting your prospect’s attention is harder than ever.

But it gets worse – because once you get attention, your job has just started.

Well-known copywriter and blogger John Carlton says:

“The most common blunder rookie copywriters make is to assume the reader will ‘hang in there’… Your reader will not hang in there. At the very moment you bore him, confuse him, or ask him to ‘bear with you’…he’s out of there.”

Does this sound familiar? Has it happened to you?: Doesn’t your own experience confirm it?

The truth is, readers don’t bail on your blog post, email, or newsletter and then come back to it again later. Just check your website’s bounce rate.  Nope. Once you lose them – chances are they’re gone for good.

Now don’t get bent out of shape about this just yet.  Because here’s something for you that’ll instantly make it easier for you to hold on to your readers attention. And today it’s my gift to you.

Have you ever heard of the Bucket Brigade?

You’ve been reading it, all through this blog post.

Phrases like: “But it gets worse”, “You see”, “Think about it:”, “The truth is”, “However”, “First” and “Frankly” are phrases that are referred to as the “Bucket Brigade”.  They are phrases and words that keep the reader moving forward, providing a constant momentum.  When done right, they make your writing seem more conversational. Even better they’ll turn your writing into a greased slide, making it almost impossible to stop reading until the end.

John Carlton said one of the easiest ways to come up with them is to “use the old journalism trick of ‘who, what, where, when, why and how’. For example: ‘Who else uses this secret?’ ‘What does this mean for you?’ ‘Why would I share such a valuable tactic with a stranger?’ ‘Where did I find this information?’ ‘How would you like to see it for yourself?’ “

Rich Schefren of Strategic Profits has put together a list of phrases that will help hold your readers’ attention. 

You can grab your copy of the 

Phrases That Keep Attention swipe file right here.

The value of recommendations and testimonials cannot be underestimated or taken for granted. Recommendations are similar to testimonials of your good name, good product(s), or expertise. Recommendations enhance your credibility as an expert similar to how quality content, quality presentation of that content and frequency of content enhances your page rank and authority status for your website. Recommendations also raise your credibility.

Recommendations in LinkedIn are social proof. They tell a LinkedIn candidate that the person is qualified or recognized as a valued colleague that has or will add value to your business. As you interact with connections, you become more familiar with their areas of expertise and perhaps are able to use this knowledge in your business execution. Once you can recommend a connection, you proceed with some expectation that they will reciprocate. However, do not expect that all people that you recommend will in turn write a recommendation for you. As you proceed in building your connections, keep in mind that your connections are the source for your recommendation and focus on those contacts that have the potential for directly (or indirectly) enhance your business or expertise. After all, one of your goals in LinkedIn is becoming a recognized expert in your field. A good place to find contacts that will give you outstanding recommendations are your satisfied customers. Go through your customer base and connect with everyone who has purchased your products; multiple sales recipients are better.

The best way to ask for recommendations is not to ask, i.e., the best recommendations most often come from a good recommendation that you have written for someone. Recommendations are the next step of engagement after you connect with someone on LinkedIn. It is a quid pro quo of sorts, but don’t write a recommendation for someone just to get a reciprocal recommendation. Be sure that you can personally vouch for them. As such, be very clear about what you’re recommending. Don’t forget your keywords when you are writing recommendations!! Search engines love keywords!

As you evaluate your LinkedIn strategy, make sure you include a profile of your ideal connection and how you can get a recommendation from them. Make sure that your have clear goals and objectives. A good review for being successful using LinkedIn can be found in Wayne Breitbarth’s best seller, The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success or by purchasing the replay of Joan Stewart’s webinar, Your LinkedIn Power Formula

1. What is your specialty?

You now know what your potential virtual assistant can do. What about what they like to do? These questions are important for opening up the conversation and getting to know your interviewee. They’ll also help you to determine whether you can call on this person in the future to do tasks that may need to be done months down the line. A great virtual assistant truly enjoys their work and shares nuances about the Internet with you as you continue to build a relationship with them. Do you see this person as someone you’ll want to call upon again and again?

2. Can you accomplish my tasks?

Share your list of projects with your virtual assistant candidate. Can they do them all? Are they are willing to share some examples of their past work. Listen to how confident your potential virtual assistant sounds when answering your questions. If they sound unsure or give you a flat-out “no”, do you really want to hire them? Is it acceptable to you if they are willing to learn how to do tasks that they haven’t done before? (This may mean that they’ll take more hours working on your project than a more experienced virtual assistant would need).

3. What is your experience?

For each task that your potential virtual assistant can do, ask them about their experiences doing it. In what field of business did they do this work? If your interviewee has absolutely no experience in your business field, is that important to you? How long did it take them to complete past projects? This may make a difference for you if you are on a deadline to get some items on your list completed quickly. Which leads us to the next question…

4. How quickly can you get to my tasks and complete them?

Are they overloaded with work and cannot get to your jobs for three weeks? Or maybe they can complete some quickly and others will take more time to finish. Your potential virtual assistant may give you different answers for each task that you’ve discussed. That’s okay, because it will give you a good idea of how much time they’ll need to devote to your projects.

5. What is your communication style?

When can they be reached? How quickly can you expect a response from them? Do they exclusively communicate via email, or will they be available to meet with you by phone, in person, or via web conference? How often will they update you on the progress of your projects? Are they willing to answer technical questions for you, or are they only available to accomplish specific tasks? The answer to this final question is very telling, because a virtual assistant who wants to build an ongoing relationship with you is a keeper.

6. What kind of software and office equipment do you use?

On the surface, this question may seem mundane and of little importance. However, if for example, you use Macs and run Apple-compatible software, but your potential virtual assistant only sees things from a Windows point of view, there may be issues. The kind of answer you’ll want to hear is something like, “I can run things on all browsers and can interpret what you send me from screen shots, if there are any issues.” You’ll want your virtual assistant to be willing to get around potential obstacles.

7. What security measures do you have in place?

Let your virtual assistant candidate speak openly about this. A great virtual assistant will talk about password protection, data backups, and a confidentiality policy for your intellectual property. Are they a member of associations like the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) and the Better Business Bureau? Do they subscribe to a Code of Ethics? If you are particularly concerned, you can ask if they are willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement of your creation, a contract to protect your property and trade secrets? It is especially important to vet out your interviewees when a friend or colleague has not referred them to you. Note: Security issues are the most important reason not to entrust virtual assistant tasks to college interns.

8. Do you have a back up?

I don’t mean a security back-up here—This is about making sure you are covered when the virtual assistant goes on vacation or has other things coming up in their life. Who do you call upon if you hire them and they are not available? Just like any webmaster, a virtual assistant should not leave you in the lurch when they have a personal commitment and are unavailable to respond to you.

9. How much do you charge?

Your potential virtual assistant may charge per job and will itemize each task on the list you provided. Or they may quote for the entire list of jobs you have presented. Regardless, they will probably want to get back to you with quotes, because they may need time to research the number of hours each task will take to complete. Ask about which form of payment they accept, when you will be billed, and how often you will be billed. Some companies expect a deposit before work is started, others will bill you in full upon completion, and still others have billing cycles and bill as different tasks are completed according to their own internal billing schedule. If you need some “creative” financing, for instance spreading out payments over a period of time, it never hurts to ask.

And the most important question to ask, and this is a question to ask of yourself:

10. Do I like you?

Sounds a bit odd, but this is the best way to test the “chemistry” between you and the virtual assistant candidate in question. If you feel in your gut that you have found the perfect virtual assistant, you may have found a winner. But if you hear a certain catch in their voice, a less-than enthusiastic tone, or something off, honor your intuition.

Ask yourself this question when interviewing all potential contractors, not just virtual assistants. The answer may foretell how much they’ll contribute to the success of your products and services.

I was recently interviewed by Lisa Girard, writer at Entrepreneur.com. The article focused on the fear associated with selling your product or services.

Here are my five tips:

1. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself.
You are your most valuable commodity. Whether you are selling a product or service, you first have to sell yourself.

2. Sell to those you have already sold to.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you already have clients in your sales funnel, you have ready-made sales leads.

3. Ask your existing clients for a testimonial.
Your best sales team are you clients. Ask them for testimonials. If you have openings, ask your clients for referrals. Proudly display them on your website.

4. Don’t be afraid to consistently improve your products or services.
Take classes or sign up for webinars to learn new software, programs and ways to improve your skill set.

5. Be confident in your abilities and your products.
You can be your worst enemy. The only one afraid of your price is you! Test the market. If it doesn’t sell, try a new approach. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!

For me, training is the key. If I’m not confident in myself and my abilities, I can’t expect new or existing clients to have confidence in my abilities to provide optimal service.

The Internet is constantly changing, with new and innovative ways for marketing and selling your products and services always looming over the horizon. If you are looking to hire a great virtual assistant or an online business manager, you’ve got to find one who keeps up with the ever-changing online technology and your ever-changing business needs. You can hire a virtual assistant to handle just one or two short-term tasks, or you can create a long-term business relationship with them where they are “on call” for any internet business need that arises.

Therefore, before you can begin interviewing prospective virtual assistants, you need to define the perfect virtual assistant for you. Get out a piece of paper and answer this question for yourself: What tasks do you want your assistant to take over? It can be the mundane, such as posting videos to your sites and social network profiles. Or it can be the advanced, such as building social networking profiles for you, from the ground up.

Start shopping for potential virtual assistants by obtaining referrals. Ask your business colleagues and friends if they have recommendations. Then check them out online. The best candidates may not necessarily have huge corporate-looking websites. Look for clean, uncluttered websites and profiles with clear information.

Whether potential candidates are referred to you or you just found them while surfing the ‘net, check out their reputation. Google that individual’s name and company. Do they have a solid online presence and have they received positive feedback from past clients? Do they look good online? Look at the testimonials, services they offer, etc. This will give you some basic info, such as how long a prospective virtual assistant has been at it and their education and training.

Also request some client recommendations. It’s okay though, if they cannot supply you with names of past clients, because some past clients may have requested that their names remain private. This is especially true in industries where business marketing and new product news is held under lock and key.

Be aware that some virtual assistant companies act more like agencies. They outsource talent to do the work for you. The danger in this is that the person you interview over the phone may not be the person doing the work for you. Could they be asking someone in a foreign county to do your precious work for pennies on the dollar? If so, that’s ok as long as the work is being done to your precise specifications. This is where a virtual assistant acts as your project manager or online business manager.

Therefore, when you’re interviewing for your virtual assistant, it’s important to be talking with the person who is directly responsible for completing your tasks, regardless of whether you are going through a large virtual assistant company or not.

The entire point of hiring a virtual assistant is to take care of those pesky online tasks for you. Sure, you could spend time contacting tech support for your websites, looking up FAQs on social networking sites, watching how-to YouTube videos, taking webinars, and even enrolling in community college classes to keep your presence known on the Internet, but this learning curve takes a lot of time.

An expert virtual assistant, like Christine Buffaloe, keeps up with the ever-changing online nuances for you. It doesn’t matter what business you are in. The right virtual assistant will make it their business to know how to market your business.

How can she help you? What’s your next project? I’ll use a general example: You’ve got to get the word out about your newest product or service. This product could be a new recording, a new book, or a new business venture. Or perhaps it is a grand opening, a special event, or a discount on your services. Of course, you want to announce it to the world, and what better way than via the Internet? But where do you start? You start with an expert virtual assistant.

Here is just a sampling of 10 ways your expert virtual assistant or online business manager can help you manage that new project:

1. They can handle online research for you.

Don’t know where to start? If you need to find the best places to post an ad, choices for a great name for your new website, and the hottest spots to post a social networking profile, Chris will do the legwork for you. She’ll tell you how long your project will take, and inform you of the technical know-how involved. You can decide if you want to take it from there or let her run with the ball.

2. They can create an online presence for you.

Give your expert virtual assistant the info they need—bio, photos, media—And they will be your online “agent”, creating profiles for you where you need them, using your favorite colors and fonts, like at my blog. Christine can upload this kind of stuff to your website for you, too! If you want to make changes, your virtual assistant will safely keep your online passwords under lock and key and will only share them with you, so you can go into your new profiles and tweak them to your heart’s content.

3. They can do your online and offline “housekeeping” jobs.

They can set up and maintain your email lists, categorizing them so you can target particular email blasts to specific people on your list. They can categorize your Facebook friends and tweeters, too. Need to dump a bunch of inactive friends? Need to clean up your existing email list? Your expert virtual assistant can handle database management tasks with finesse.

4. They can help you compose and send off email blasts and e-newsletters using online email programs.

Your expert virtual assistant knows how to make your messages look good for email. And if you want them to deal with getting the message about your new product or service to your email list, they can handle sending it out, managing subscribers and unsubscribers, report who is reading and responding to your newsletter, and more. Hand it all over to them and you won’t need to deal with email management again.

4. They can proofread and write for you.

I like to think of the Internet as a big billboard. Make sure you look as good as you can by allowing your expert virtual assistant to proof your next email blast, your next blog post, your next advertisement, and your updated bio. They can even send an email on your behalf, saying, “Hello, I’m Chris, Anne’s virtual assistant…” This will certainly impress your friends. Your expert virtual assistant will make you look mahvelous, dahling, on the World Wide Web!

5. They can do the stuff you know how to do but don’t want to do.

An excellent virtual assistant doesn’t mind checking through a long list of possibly dead links, uploading a lot of media—mp3s, video, photos—to various websites and social network profiles. There’s no shame in admitting that you don’t want to do those tasks. You’ve got better things to do.

6. They can flag you to posts that need your personal attention.

No time to deal with social networking? If you haven’t the time or inclination to post to Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, and other social network platforms about your new product or service, and you have timely info to convey, let your expert virtual assistant do it for you. They can interact with your fan base for you. Send them your 140-character message and they’ll get it out online. Send them your new product links, and they’ll tell the world about them.

7. Virtual Assistants can do all kinds of personal things for you if you wish.

They can sift through all the junk messages and send you the gold, the real business sales and inquiries. They can even handle product fulfillment for your online store. They can check for phone messages from online services like Grasshopper, transcribe podcasts and webinars for you, and act as your headhunter or recruiter to help you find excellent job candidates for your expanding business. A virtual assistant can even help you find the best travel deals for your speaking engagements (but they don’t do windows, and they don’t pick up your laundry for you).

8. They can be your personal techie.

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services partner’s with her husband who heads up SEO (search engine optimization). They can write in code for your website and other online profiles. And if they can’t do something for you, they can contact tech support on your behalf so that they can do it for you.

9. They can be your online secret agent.

They can subscribe to Google Alerts on your behalf to find out where your products and services are being mentioned online. They can track comments on your blog and monitor feedback about your newest postings.

10. They can handle damage control.

Did you spend a lot of time posting something to your WordPress website, but it looks terrible and you can’t fix it? I often contact Chris and she is able to help me fix the problem. Did someone hack into one of your online profiles? Call on your virtual assistant for help. They can back up your online info, keep track of your passwords in case things go awry and you can’t get in to fix it yourself. And they can preserve your online reputation by spreading the best about you, your products, and your services.

You’re never really “done “with your virtual assistant, keep in touch with them. Chris often alerts me to news about the ever-changing landscape of the Internet. They’ll let you know of the newest places to get the word out and how to do it. They’ll teach you about ways to improve your online presence. And if you ever find that you need help with tasks that are outside of their scope, they’ll refer you to other experts to continue to grow your business. And like Chris, they continue to be your online friend.

Anne Roos is a professional writer and author of two published non-fiction books. Anne has over twenty-five years of owning her own business as a professional musician. Words and music are my loves and marketing is my thing. Therefore, I’m comfy adding interesting tidbits and morsels to blogs and social media pages to whet readers’ appetites.

When Sandy Rees of Get Fully Funded worked as marketing director for the Knoxville Second Harvest food bank in Tennessee, her most successful strategy was creating a profile of the ideal donor, and then marketing to that niche.

The food bank did its research and discovered that the vast majority of donors were women over age 50, who attended church regularly.

“We needed to be speaking in front of every woman’s group in every church in town,” she said. “We did. We knocked their socks off with the presentation and we had a special call to action at the end. It worked like a charm.”

Rees says nonprofits that don’t take the time to research, study and market to their ideal donors are leaving money on the table. They’re also missing numerous publicity opportunities because if you don’t know your donors’ profile, you can’t target the media that are reaching them.

She will team up with Joan Stewart this Thursday, Oct. 27, to present her best tips for nonprofit PR during the webinar “Failproof Publicity Tips for Cash-strapped Nonprofits to Raise Money, Recruit Volunteers & Promote a Worthy Cause.”

We’ll share dozens of tips, tricks and tools that will help you save time and money communicating your story to the masses–and achieve the results you need.

Read more about what we’ll be discussing, and register here.