With my interview question “series” that I have been doing in the last couple of weeks, a couple of questions and/or statements have surfaced in regards to the “description” of a virtual assistant.

Last week someone had asked about the difference between a personal assistant and a virtual assistant. They asked if they were basically one in the same except for the virtual part. I agree that for the most part this is true.

But I have an additional point that I would like to add. This question should be asked during the interview process. I wouldn’t say that all virtual assistants will perform these tasks for you. And if these are things that you would like your virtual assistant to do, then ask in the interviewing process. For me, when I think of personal assistant I think of someone who will make travel arrangements, schedules doctors appointments, haircuts and possibly purchase online gifts for others.

And of course, these are not the only tasks but those are added in with the other administrative tasks. Me, personally, I don’t complete these kinds of tasks in my virtual assistant business. Now, that doesn’t mean that their aren’t other virtual assistants out there who may complete these tasks. That again is why it is important to ask questions. And I will add that if I a potential client requested me to complete these tasks, I probably would do them, however, I haven’t been asked yet.

And allow me to reiterate two things. ONE, I think a personal assistant can be considered a virtual assistant and TWO, if these tasks are some you would like completed by a virtual assistant, I would suggest you ask if that is something they do within their business.

The other question that was brought up a couple of weeks ago and I find this a bit fascinating and that is a virtual assistant isn’t a virtual assistant unless their main focus is administrative. Ok, I am not sure I can follow this or agree with this statement. When I worked corporate America and my title was Executive Administrative Assistant, I did many types of tasks and some that were not considered administrative such as putting together layout of print materials, checking on stats for internet programs, and input of voice data files.

Those things COULD be classified as marketing, editing, and website/database maintenance. To me, if you are assisting other business owners in their business virtually whether it is a bit of marketing, technical and some administrative…then you are a virtual assistant.

I would say that it is smarter for any business owner to focus on their strengths and if their strength is doing technical tasks vs. administrative tasks, then they probably would be happier being possible a web designer than a virtual assistant.

The real question is WHY DOES IT REALLY MATTER? As long their business is based on integrity, they do what they say they can do, and their clients are happy, that is what matters. And really isn’t your time better spent building and growing your business.

Now with all of this being stated, there are many variations of virtual assistants out there and that is okay. I feel the importance when looking, researching and interviewing a virtual assistant is that you ask those things you are searching for in a virtual assistant. A thorough interview with your potential virtual assistants based on your goals, your understanding, and the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant is key.

The virtual assistant that fits with what you are looking for may not fit the next business owner. I guess it is like they say….”one size” doesn’t fit all when it comes to virtual assistants.

Teresa Morrow is on Board of Advisors with The WECAI Network ™ (http://www.wecai.org) and Editor at Large at WE Magazine for Women ™ (http://www.wemagazineforwomen). She has over 15 years working with various industries to include property management, landscape architecture and financial planning firms in executive administrative positions. In 2007, Teresa started Key Business Partners, a virtual assistance & online promotional company for coaches, speakers and writers. She cares about her clients and is available for 20 minute free consultation. You can contact her via email at keybusinesspartners@verizon.net or visit her website at http://www.keybusinesspartners.com.

Last year, I ran two Group Research projects - it was a group writing project with a twist. The community around this site had a lot of things they wanted to learn about, and I knew that many readers would be able to help each other with their expertise.

So we put together a big group “Wish List”. I gathered questions that everyone wanted to get answered, and then we split the task of writing How To posts that accomplished some fantastic goals for the participants:

1. Readers were able to showcase their expertise to the rest of the Sparkplugging community
2. The quality of the posts that were submitted was so high that they became ‘Flagship’ content on the participants’ own blogs
3. The final roundup post sent tons of traffic to the participants’ sites (and a year later continues to send traffic their way)
4. Readers who needed help with specific questions about online marketing, blogging and working at home got their questions answered from quality sources of information.
5. (Read :: this is advertising for the ‘cost’ of writing a post!)

So here’s how our crowdsourcing works

I’ve wanted to repeat this project again for a long time - it’s a ton of work but it’s so rewarding, so let’s help each other out!

1. Pick one of the following topics to write about OR suggest a topic
2. Leave a comment saying what number you are choosing or what topic you want to cover
3. Write up a quality How To post, or video blog it (posts must be new, and not previously published)
4. Either trackback or leave a comment with a link to your post by noon CST Wednesday May 21st

Engage in the conversation and get to know each other better!

On Monday I asked readers what they wanted to learn more about. Here are some suggested How To post topics, but feel free to add your own:

1. How to setup a landing page and funnel the information to a autoresponder?
2. How to leverage Twitter to help your business grow?
3. How to manage your time better while working in a home office?
4. How do I get out of the idea stage and to take the leap into getting paid for my work?
5. How do I break out of working too much because I live in my home office?
6. How do I discipline myself to work more because life is so distracting in my home office?
7. How can I drive more traffic to my site?
8. How can I increase the profitability of my business?
9. How do I know when to quit or when to persevere?
10. How do I leverage my blog into more consulting gigs?
11. How do I find the right business to run from home?
12. How do I start an Etsy/Silkfair shop?
13. How do I market myself as a freelancer/consultant?
14. How do I get started with email marketing?
15. How do I choose the best way to sell my products online?
16. How can I market myself online for free?
17. How do I get more RSS subscribers to my blog?
18. How can I build more community around my website?
19. How can I build my audience outside of the blogosphere?
20. How can I pitch mainstream media to get them to cover my business?

So now I turn it over to the crowd. Please pick a topic, suggest an additional topic, submit your articles, and we’ll have a blast learning from each other.

Again, deadline for submissions is noon CST Wednesday May 21st

What’s happenin’ around town…

Want free consulting from the likes of Liz Strauss, Chris Brogan, or our very own Susan Payton from The Marketing Eggspert?

Susan is hitting the pavement to promote her new ebook Eating Cereal With a Fork: Maximize Marketing in a Recession. Make a short video, podcast, or write an essay on why you think you should get a marketing makeover, and you’ll be entered in her contest to win some free consulting. (One of the prizes is some Sparkplugging advertising, too!)

It’s the BlogJolt!

When I first started this blog, I borrowed an idea from Des Walsh and started the (now defunct) BlogJolt. Every week our group of bloggers picked a blog to write about and link to - only organic, original content allowed. It was a great way to get to know each other while also helping each other to build links and traffic.

Two similar projects have come across my desk lately.

• Publicity Wheel is doing something similar but automated with a script you put on your site. As long as they are screening applicants, I think it’s worth taking a look at.
• A more hands-on approach is getting started at Chris Garrett’s Authority Blogger forum. Get to know the people involved and help each other by promoting their best content. Again, only organic, genuine promotion is allowed.

Geekily Pathetic

Are you a Geek? iThinkMedia has put up a hilarious list of 15 signs that you might be a geek.

I came in at a pathetic 13 out of 15.

Should you put your ezine archives on your blog?

The simple answer? Yes!

Think about it, why wouldn’t you? Unless you keep your ezine content private, behind a membership site of some sort, there’s no reason not to archive your ezine (or e-newsletter) articles. And if you’re going to archive them, wouldn’t it make the most sense to archive them on your blog?

After all, your blog gives you tons of advantages over publishing them to a non-social site. For instance:

1. Get Found - Your blog will help you ezine get indexed by search engines more quickly. By publishing your ezine to your blog, you can often get into Google and other search engines in a matter of minutes. Remember, Google loves fresh content. It eats it up like candy.
2. Get Syndicated - There’s a number of ways to increase the reach of your ezine. One excellent way is to write an ezine article (and now blog post) that gets either syndicated on and/or written about and linked too on other blogs.
3. Get Social - Blogging your ezine opens it to all types of social sharing - Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, del.icio.us, Mixx, etc. Social bookmarking and social networking sites offer almost limitless opportunity to increase your audience.
4. Get Paid - If you monetize your blog, often the more traffic the better. So in your ezine link back to your blog. Encourage people to visit the your ezine’s blog post so you can get them on your site. Then deliver ads and affiliates that would most interest your visitors.
5. Get Engaged - Use your blog to change the dynamic of your audience from readers to users. Encourage the conversation in the comment box on your blog. Use it to engage your readers and begin building stronger relationships with them. This has all types of advantages - almost all good.

Do you have an ezine? Are you publishing it to your blog? Why/Why not?

It’s been two weeks since I’ve been able to put up a Monday Motivation post. Between rolling out 9 new blogs, speaking at Unleashed and SOBCon, and having three incredibly sick kids for a week in between, I’ve been stretched to the hilt.

I’ve been productive, yes. But my inbox has seen better days. I have emails in there from over a month ago that I’m embarrassed to answer because I’ve taken so long to respond. And yesterday a couple of you said you missed Monday Motivation too, I’m declaring today Tuesday To-Do Take Down Day.

So what is the Tuesday To-Do Take Down drill?

Step 1 - let us know what you are going to get done today (your to-do list, so to speak).

Step 2 - put it in a comment below or a post on your own site.

Step 3 - let us know what will motivate you to get it done - a reward, consequences, or whatever you need to think that will ensure you do what you say you are going to do. I’ve found that the public announcement and accountability is a particularly great motivator, but throw down consequences if you really need a kick in the pants to get stuff done! Unless, of course, you are working towards a new laptop too, in which case I think the reward is particularly motivating.

(Hmmm…… sounds suspiciously like Monday Motivation…… weird.)

Today before I go to sleep I will:

• Send 100 overdue responses to emails
• Create my To Do List for the rest of the week

And before the end of the day tomorrow I will

• Clean out my inbox completely

And by the end of the week I will

• Research migrating from 1ShoppingCart to iContact
• Update our Advertising page
• Set up all redirects to complete the transfer of content from Shoestring Smarts to SOHO Tools, News & Technology

And by the way, I went without coffee for a week in there (which completely sucked because I was totally deprived at SOBCon when I needed my coffee the most!!). So it’s really been three weeks since I’ve gotten my to-do list completed. So this week I need some serious leverage to ensure I get caught up. So $200 is going to go to a random participant if I don’t get this done by the end of the week.

So What To Do’s are You Going to Take Down Today?

After a whirlwind 4 weeks, we are finally done rolling out all of the new Sparkplugging channels. I am SO proud of everything we have done, and I’m super excited to move forward and start tackling new projects that don’t include setting up WordPress blogs.

But that’s just it, I have so many ideas about what we could do next, I’m not sure which one to go with. Do I finally write that book proposal? Develop a training program? Put together a business coaching/consulting program with our authors? Do a Podcast? Video blog? Forum? Do a Sparkplugging Conference? Put together a tutorial section?

So This is Where You Get to Make a Wish

Everyone around here knows I’m always putting you first. So let’s celebrate the wrap up of a big expansion so you can tell us what we can do for you. Weigh in by Friday, May 17th at 2:00pm CST, and you can win a NEAT Receipts Scanner with organizing software worth $250.

NEAT Receipts’ reads receipts, business cards and documents and places the information in a spreadsheet format. It lets you scan and process multiple documents, and automatically organizes them for you. You can even export to TurboTax®. (Read more about it on the Home Office Organizer blog).

This is like, heaven, to someone so extraordinarily paper-challenged like me. Seriously, give me a little piece of paper and I can lose it faster than your server will crash on the front page of Digg.

Entering the Contest is Surprisingly Easy :: Choose ANY of the Following

Simply leave a comment letting us know what else we can do to help you as you work at home. Need help increasing profits? Driving traffic? Need more technical help? Want more how-to’s? Need specific information or advice that we aren’t providing yet? Need help breaking free from your day job?
Let us know!

-OR-

Subscribe to one of the Sparkplugging RSS feeds Via Email. You can find the link at the top of all of our blogs, and subscribing to any blog on this site qualifies you for an entry. All current Email RSS subscribers are automatically entered!

Here, we’ll make it easy for you

Sparkplug CEO		CraftBoom!		Freelance Parent
Simply Green		WAHM 2.0		Celebrity Business
The Man Page		Believer in Balance		Momsational Contests
Marketing Eggspert		eCommerce & eBay		Ask the Coach
Home Office Organizer		SOHO Tools, News & Tech		Kids Activities

-OR-

Link to us (any which way that works for you) and let us know about it.

We’ll have one winner that will be drawn with the random number integer chooser on Friday afternoon.

The last of our new blogs are rolling out this week - and these are two of my favorites!

Celebrity Business - Celebrity Gossip and News for Entrepreneurs, Geeks & Smart People

I’ve never much been into celebrity gossip. I could care less about Mary Kate’s bad dress or J Lo’s latest divorce. But I have always been fascinated with the entrepreneurial businesses run by celebrities - and I think there’s a lot to be learned from the ventures that celebs start up on the side.

Our own Lorna Doone Brewer from Freelance Parent is heading up Celebrity Business. She’ll be reporting on things like Milla Jovovich’s new clothing line, Gwen Stefani’s partnership with HP and the empire built by Gene Simmons (he’s a flipping brilliant business man).

She’ll also be keeping tabs on some famous entrepreneurs - so look out Guy Kawasaki. We just might say good things about you.

SOHO Tools News & Technology - Products, Services & Tips to Help You Run a More Profitable Business

Long ago I started a blog called Shoestring Smarts - a place where I could share coupons, product recommendations, freebies, and other business tools with small business owners. SOHO Tools News & Technology is like Shoestring Smarts 2.0 - I’ll continue to share great business service and tool finds, but also move my own technology tips, blogging how-to’s, and other nuts & bolts articles from here to that blog.

Some of the most popular posts in the past have been:

Getting Started with Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing

5 Free Meditation Resources for Mind-Clearing Productivity

The Top 5 Free Search Engine Optimization Tools

And don’t miss my post today on two free Firefox extensions that will increase conversation on your WordPress blog!