I just read that it has been decided that BlogHer 2009 will be held in late July in Chicago – now just to figure out if I can go or not! They are combining the BlogHer Business Conference with the BlogHer Annual Conference, which is a great idea! I think attending the conference will be a great way to network for my virtual assistant business, as well as to meet some fellow mom bloggers.  Oooh, gonna have to do some searching now to see who else is going to try and attend!

My husband would love to go to Chicago, and we could make a family trip out of it, although at the same time I’d love to go just by myself so I’m not torn between family and work as I often seem to be. Do you prefer to combine work and pleasure when traveling for conferences or do you keep everything very separate? I’d love to hear from you!

Are blogs really last year, last decade, pointless? That was the message I got when I read a recent article in Wired magazine entitled Kill Your Blog. Paul Boutin seems to have been reaching a bit too far in the article though, at least in my opinion.  And I’m a huge Twitter fan, which is one of the platforms Boutin advocated as a replacement for blogging.

I had picked up Wired last week while on a grocery run and the article really surprised me.  But Halloween and sick kids made life a little hectic these past few days and I didn’t have a chance to blog until now, when I was reminded by a post on the subject over at Real Lawyers Have Blogs. I totally agree with Kevin, as useful of a networking tool as Twitter is or sites like Facebook, they do not offer one the chance to truly establish oneself as an expert in a particular niche.

For example, I am working on setting up a Facebook page for my business and I think it is an interesting tool, and a place to connect with either other virtual assistants or potential clients. I think it works best though in conjunction with my blog, not as a substitute for it!

I think blogs offer a great hub for a business.  They are a place to communicate, provide important news and information about your business, and to provide proof that you are still operating not some business that doesn’t even exist anymore.  I also think they are a place to establish your expertise in your niche, which as Kevin had pointed out in his blog, is a significant benefit for a lawyer who chooses to blog. So I do not agree that you should “Kill Your Blog”, there is a lot of life left in it!!

This week I read some great blog entries by some of my fellow virtual assistants, and I just had to share them all with you.  I love the virtual assistant community, and am so glad I can network with these great people!

Over at VANetworking’s new blog, was a great post by Jaime Lee Mann.  Jaime said she originally posted it on her own blog, but didn’t get any comments.  Too bad, it’s a great article!! Glad I found it now.

Tina of Clerical Advantage shares an interesting spin on virtual assistant services in her post Here Comes the Bride’s Virtual Assistant.

April, someone I am happy to work with on the NAVLA site, had a great post this week, which included reference to the list of 50 most powerful and influential women in social media. She delved into the topic of focus, something I need to work on too!

Another must-read post of the week comes courtesy of one of those top 50 women, Alyssa Gregory, from her VA Secrets Revealed book blog.

Finally I’d like to share an incredible post from Stacy Brice of the Virtual Moxie Blog, an industry leader in the world of virtual assistance. This post will be immensely helpful to any VA getting her practice up and running right now. For that matter, if you’ve been a virtual assistant for a while but are struggling, this post could really help you out.

Stacy’s post was part of the Blog Action Day event this week. I posted my own poverty related post over on my mom blog.

Have a great weekend everyone, and happy reading!

Thanks to @moanderlawfirm I read this interesting article in the Wisconsin Law Journal (written by a new Twitterer @janepribek).  It’s got a nice description of setting yourself up on Twitter and shares info from Chris Moander about how using Twitter has helped his solo law practice. He’s gained clients and done plenty of networking.  I’ve also gained clients from Twitter and have to say Twitter is a fabulous networking tool in my opinion.

I also need to point out though that I don’t agree with Chris’s suggestion in the article that you weed out people who “discuss weeding their gardens”. I like to hear the personal and business stuff. Actually, the only people I unfollow are ones who are TOO business oriented and clearly only there to self-market.  Twitter really is a conversation.  I want to hear about your kids, terrible traffic and even your garden!! I like a real mix – and I get it on Twitter!  Otherwise I’d say stick to regular blogging, then you don’t have to interact if you prefer not to, just spout your own message. The best networking contacts for me have been ones I can establish something in common with (maybe even a love of gardening).

I’d love to hear from any of you? Do you use Twitter for marketing, networking, just personally? Which types of Twitter people do you follow or unfollow?

That’s it for now, tweet you later!! Oh and make sure you follow me @halosecretarial!

I was pleased to be asked a little while back to provide a guest post for Kris over at Fresh Focus.  My guest post on Backup Plans went up yesterday and I hope you go over there to check it out.  Not to mention check out some of the other good stuff featured at Fresh Focus – it’s a great blog!

This morning (courtesy of a tweet from @DToddSmith) I read a Law.Com article by C.C. Holland called Where Are All The Female Law Bloggers?  It was a great article and while the stats are a little discouraging, that doesn’t mean women law bloggers aren’t out there! I personally follow several wonderful female law bloggers, and I know there are many more out there!

If you look at the ABA Journal’s Blawg Directory you will often see a woman’s law blog in the most popular category – in fact one of my favorites often holds one of the top spots in that category – Susan Cartier Liebel’s Build a Solo Practice LLC. And today at least there were a couple of other women in the top ten: Ann Bartow’s Feminist Law Professors and Althouse by Ann Althouse. Daily Kos is on the list and it has a female executive editor and several women who are contributing editors.

If you want to read some wonderful posts by female law bloggers check out this list from Law.Com.  Maybe they aren’t 50% of law bloggers – but they are out there and they are well worth reading!

Virtual Assistants received plenty of buzz in the blogosphere this week. Check out these great posts from people who use and recommend virtual assistance as a business solution.  Then go to my main site and see the virtual services I can provide you to improve your business!

Ed Gandia posting on Freelance Switch has a great post about Outsourcing, specifically mentioning tasks that a virtual assistant can help you with.  I love the note that having a virtual assistant can help your business seem bigger and more professional than some people would expect of a solo enterprise.

Viralblog shares how hiring talented people has improved his business and suggests you hire an assistant to improve yours.

Melanie Benson Strick on the Team Double-Click blog shares 9 Simple virtual Team Outsourcing Tips

Meryl Evans on the BBP blog shares that a virtual assistant can help with transcription

On Infogle there is an interesting article called Virtual Assistant Business about the trend of hiring a VA

And on Twitter @DrMommy said

I have to tell you that VA’s are terrific!! My VA is also a
social media VA so she is fantastic!, Don’t have one?? What r u waiting for?

So, what are you waiting for?!

This weekend one of the main themes in my twitter account was BlogWorld Expo 2008. I enjoyed all the information that was shared by BlogWorld attendees, via Twitter and of course on the many blog entries that have already been posted – and I’m sure there will be many more this week! My faves so far:

• All the coverage from Sparkplugging!
• This from Freelance Writing Jobs
• Missy Ward’s post incl the joys of BWE on crutches
• Rick Moran from Pajamas Media has a really detailed discussion on the changes in blogging, based on his experiences from BWE

I have only been seriously blogging since this summer, so I wasn’t aware of how exciting this conference would be – I sure hope to attend BWE 2009 though!

On the subject of conferences, I really believe they are a great way to do some in person networking, as well of course as learn some great information during actual sessions.  What do you think are THE conferences to attend during the year?  Do you prefer regional ones or ones like Blogworld that attract attendees and speakers from all over the world? Do you stick to your niche only or mix it up a little?

I think ideally I’d attend a couple of big conferences a year – one for virtual assistants maybe, or something with a legal focus, plus something like BlogWorld or BlogHer.  I also need to get out and do some networking locally, and fortunately that is easily affordable!!

This post from Kevin (Lexblog) at Real Lawyers Have Blogs is a great read about how Twitter can improve customer reaction to business.  And using Twitter for customer service as discussed by Kevin is exactly the kind of thing a virtual legal assistant can help you with. And let me tell you, fixing customer service issues quickly is key in the fast-paced world of the internet.  If you make a mistake, it can be tweeted, blogged and commented on before an hour is even up.  If you respond quickly, you may not only keep your customer but gain some new ones who appreciate your attention to their needs and see you as keeping up with current technology.

Want an example of poor customer service hitting the internet and spreading?  Read this post over at Mommy Needs a Cocktail – and be assured that the hotel not only lost her business, but the word is being spread out all over.  Her fellow Tweeters know about the problems she experienced, then it was blogged and then that blog was Stumbled.  Guess how many people have heard about the poor experience?

I used to hear the saying “Give a customer a good experience and they’ll tell a friend.  Give poor service and they’ll tell 10″.  Well those numbers have multiplied now – by a LOT.  So keep your customers happy whenever you can, and stay tuned in to the social networks for word being spread about your company.

Get a twitter account and follow people who mention your company. Interact with them, ask them what they want to see happening with your business.  What do they need or want?  If you know the answer you can provide it before they jump ship.  Show you appreciate them just by saying hello and letting them know you are there for them.

Another suggestion is to make sure you have several good google alerts in place that you monitor regularly.  It’s a great way to pick up on mentions of your company, your twitter name, keywords that are important in your business, and even mentions of clients or colleagues that you want to monitor.

Of course the monitoring of twitter and google alerts could arguably take up a good chunk of your time, and you still have a business to run don’t you?  That’s where a virtual assistant comes in – they can easily monitor everything and contact you when urgent things appear, and otherwise give you a summary of everything that’s going on on a regular basis. Depending on the issues you need to stay current on this may take 1-5 hours per week, but the peace of mind you are going to have is worth it, isn’t it? Not to mention the financial costs relating to negative publicity.

Take care (and hey if you are on Twitter – feel free to follow me @halosecretarial)!

I know many of you lawyers out there are realizing the advantages of blogging, every day it seems I find a new (at least new to me!) law blog out there.  Just this week I discovered Lindsey Krolik and MamaLaw.

I bet many of you are inspired by law bloggers like Grant Griffiths, Carolyn Elefant or Susan Cartier Liebel. Looking at someone else’s blog is a great starting point, but after that you still need to actually get your own blog set up, start posting and try and attract some readers. I was reading a great post today over at Chris Brogan’s blog, 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level.  It’s great for current bloggers, but actually even better for prospective bloggers, as it is best to start out on the right foot in your blogging attempt.  You will make mistakes, we all do, but at least you can avoid some of the pitfalls.

I think all of Chris’s tips are helpful, but if you are just starting out I really, really recommend that you look at tips #4, 6, 11 and 12:

If you’re going to be a professional about your blog, carve out the time to do it right. Never, ever, ever post a “sorry I haven’t posted lately” blog post again. Ever.

It’s okay to use a personal voice. In fact, there’s no point blogging if you’re going to write like a cold robot. But keep personal and useful in balance.

Get your own unique URL. It matters in the long run, especially should you choose to change hosts. For instance, if you move off a blogger account at *.blogspot.com , you lose all link equity and page rank for that domain. This means you’d have to start again from scratch.

Consider moving to a hosted blog

I regularly search for new law blogs to follow in my google reader and I can say that irregular posting and lack of personal voice are two things I notice far too often.  Not much point in subscribing to your blog if you only post 4 times per year or you only post reprints of decisions.  Add some commentary, add your opinion, post at least once a week if you can – and more is better!

As for the unique url/hosted blog – really it’s important people.  There are options that aren’t quite the same but pretty good, but if you go with them (ie a site like typepad) you can find yourself stuck there because you don’t want to lose your traffic later.   And while I think Typepad has a lot of benefits, it’s not cheap, especially if you decide to go with something past their “basic” offering.  If you find a reasonable host and do your own wordpress, moveable type or something newer like Habari it can cost you around $100 to $150 a year, including your domain name! And there are some beautiful free themes available (I love these ones!) Currently I use wordpress and LOVE it – I had no html/css type of knowledge before and yet in a very short time I learned to manage and update my wordpress and even alter my themes a little!

Good luck in your blogging journey!