vAssistant Services » Recommendations http://www.vassistantsvcs.com Presenting you to the world via WordPress sites and blogs. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:00:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 en An Invitation and a Recommendation For You http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/an-invitation-and-a-recommendation-for-you/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/an-invitation-and-a-recommendation-for-you/#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:44:14 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=170

The Setup

When I made the leap (or got dumped, however you want to look at it… LOL) into self-employment back on Friday, December 6, 2002, I was scared shitless, to say the least. And in the years since, I have struggled, floundered, and put a brave face on pursuing success - but a lot of that time, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

Ok, I take that back - I knew what I was doing. What I didn’t know was whether what I was doing was what I SHOULD have been doing, as in, “Is this the right business for me?” The last six years have been an evolutionary journey for me, with a bit of a “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” flavor thrown in for good measure.

Enter Tom

Tom who? Tom Volkar of Delightful Work, that’s who. Tom coaches people who want to make the leap from employee to self-employment, as well as those of us already self-employed who are still asking, “Is this the right business for me?”

Yeah, Tom’s my coach. He’s also my friend. He’s also a client. (Hint: When you come across good people, get them involved in your life as many ways as you can! Your life will love you for it.) But because he’s my coach, I know whereof I speak with what I’m about to say next.

Tom’s good. He gives me a headache on a regular basis…melts my brain with those simple questions he asks, like, “Suzanne…what do you most love to do that a lot of people in the world might need?” Yes, folks, I’ve almost had to resort to getting ear plugs to keep my brain from running out my ears and down my neck. But that’s my problem, not Tom’s. You see, until I met Tom, I was doing things the hard way… guessing… hoping… praying… doing a lot of stabbing in the dark… working a LOT harder than necessary to make a great living doing what I love.

Anyway, the point is this: since I met Tom and let him start melting my brain, this business has grown by over 300%. I kid you not. He cuts through the crap like nobody’s business and gets to the heart of the matter without making me feel beat up or stupid. Quite the opposite, in fact. Like I said, he’s good - real good.

The Invitation

So Tom’s doing this community building experiment this week and you’re invited to participate.

What’s in it for you?

  • exposure for your blog
  • hang time with some great people
  • free coaching on a business challenge you have

How much? Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So go on over and expand your online community a little, get some help on something that’s confounding you in your business (or keeping you from starting your business) and get your stuff seen by a whole group of people who’d never come across it any other way (cuz the Internet’s pretty big, you know…)

The Recommendation

Do yourself and your future a favor and check out Tom’s 5 Days of Authentic Business Discovery program. It starts Monday and ends Friday, and I can promise you this: come Friday you’ll have a plan. Even if you’ve already made the leap to self-employment, you’ll get a LOT out of this program. Check out what these folks have to say. They know what they’re talking about - they just finished the program.

Oh, The Irony

Turns out, that warm trickle I’ve been feeling down my neck this year has not been my brain melting. It’s been all those doubts, all those fears, all those self-imposed limits I’ve been operating with these last six years - THEY are what have been melting away.

So, go get your Authentic Business groove on next week, and get ready to feel that warm trickle down YOUR neck. Trust me, it feels good.

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/an-invitation-and-a-recommendation-for-you/feed/ Link to Your Own Content Without Mucking Up Your Comments http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-to-your-own-content-without-mucking-up-your-comments/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-to-your-own-content-without-mucking-up-your-comments/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:16:13 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=62

When someone links to your WordPress blog, a pingback/trackback type of comment shows up in your comment list for that post. The same type of pingback comment is created when you link to your own content. I like my comment streams to be clean and clear, so I’m constantly deleting the pingbacks as soon as they’re created. Not only is that ‘extra work’ I could do without, but I it makes me think twice before I link to content elsewhere on my blog. Finally, a pair of plugins that make linking to your own content super easy and eliminate the ‘extra work’ of the unwanted pingbacks!

SEO Smart Links - can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog, allow you to set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs, set the nofollow attribute and open links in new window.

Woo-hoo! Now linking will happen automatically as I type! Hot-diggity!

But uh-oh - that’ll create a truckload of pingbacks for me to delete. Oh no, it won’t!

No Self Ping - disables pingbacks created by linking to content on your own site, helping to keep your comments clean and tidy.

With this pair of plugins, I can have an incredibly well-linked blog - automatically - without mucking up my comments!

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-to-your-own-content-without-mucking-up-your-comments/feed/ Why Keep 25% Free Space On Your Hard Drive? http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-keep-25-free-space-on-your-hard-drive/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-keep-25-free-space-on-your-hard-drive/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 03:39:46 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=32
Hard Drive Free Space

First, let me say up front, 25% free space is a fairly arbitrary rule of thumb. But let’s talk about the why behind it before we worry too much about the number, ok?

Keeping a good chunk of space free on your hard drive is particularly important if your computer is low on RAM (memory). You see, your computer needs elbow room to do its work, and lots of it. It wants to keep you moving, so it claims a chunk of your hard drive to use as “virtual memory”. It then writes information from RAM (memory) to disk when it’s not using that piece of information that instant, but is not ready to ‘put it away’, either, because it knows you’re still in that program and might need it again soon. So there’s a LOT of swapping of information from RAM to the hard drive and back again going on behind the scenes.

This is one reason to max out your computer’s RAM, if you can. The more RAM a computer has, the less writing to and from disk it has to do. In other words, it doesn’t have to work as hard to do what you ask of it.

If your hard drive is too full, you’ll notice your computer poking along at a snail’s pace, and may even see warning messages about being too low on virtual memory. That’s your clue it’s time to do some major house cleaning on your hard drive. Delete old programs and files you’re not using anymore, or burn them to CD or DVD, but get them off that hard drive! If you don’t keep ample free space on your hard drive, you’re creating a bottleneck you don’t need or want.

Now, about the 25% number. That’s the number I use, but you may be able to get away with less or you may need more. Bottom line, if your computer is clunking along and making you wait, freeing up space for it to use on your hard drive should improve things somewhat.

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-keep-25-free-space-on-your-hard-drive/feed/ 3 Tips for Faster Computing http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/3-tips-for-faster-computing/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/3-tips-for-faster-computing/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 03:22:19 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=31

Few things get under my skin more quickly than having to wait on my computer. So, here are my favorite 3 tricks to speed things up, only one of which costs any money:

  1. Maintain at least 25% free space on your hard drive. This is particularly important if your computer is low on RAM (memory). Delete files you don’t need any longer, uninstall programs you don’t use and burn to CD/DVD files you want to keep but don’t have to have on your hard drive.
  2. De-frag your hard drive(s) on a regular basis. Defragging your hard drive is one of the best things you can do to speed up your computing experience without spending any money. It’s like cleaning out your closet - it makes everything easier to find on your hard drive, so your computer doesn’t have to hunt all over the place for what you need.
  3. Max out your RAM (memory). RAM is fairly cheap - a whole lot cheaper than buying a new computer, so find out how much RAM your computer can handle, and max it out as soon as possible.

Bonus tip: Don’t pay for faster Internet access than your computer can handle. Lord knows I’m the last one to recommend dial-up to anyone these days, but you’re throwing money out the window if you’ve got a faster connection than your computer can make use of. It’s like getting a drink from a fire hose.

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/3-tips-for-faster-computing/feed/ Would You Like to Join My Team? http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/join-my-30-day-challenge-team/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/join-my-30-day-challenge-team/#comments Thu, 15 May 2008 03:14:01 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=30

What team, you ask?

My Thirty Day Challenge team, of course! It’s that time again, already!

Imagine learning the latest, cutting-edge methods of earning income online - for FREE. Yeah - seriously, for FREE. Make your first $10 online in 30 days or less - even if you don’t know diddly about making money on the Internet. For FREE. As in no cost to join, no cost to participate, no credit card required - at all.

No, I haven’t lost my mind, and I’m not pulling your leg, either. Go take a look at the Thirty Day Challenge - watch the short video here - decide for yourself if you want to participate.

You don’t need any money to do this, but here’s what you DO need:

  • DESIRE
  • COMMITMENT
  • TIME
  • FOCUSED ATTENTION

Got those? Then you have what it takes to do this.

If you decide to participate, I cordially invite you to be a part of my team. Sign up, then leave a comment here and I’ll be in touch!

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/join-my-30-day-challenge-team/feed/ 6 Reasons I Use FireFox Instead of Internet Explorer http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/6-reasons-i-use-firefox-instead-of-internet-explorer/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/6-reasons-i-use-firefox-instead-of-internet-explorer/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 15:21:11 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=27

Well, for starters, the 3 reasons on the FireFox homepage have been true for me:

  1. it’s faster
  2. it’s more secure
  3. it’s fully customizable

Given that I spend hours and hours online every day, all three of those reasons are extremely important to me.

Other reasons are:

  1. It’s a smaller download (5.7MB) compared to IE (14.7MB). That’s significant for people who are using older machines with less hard drive space (and probably slower Internet connections, too.)
  2. Tabbed browsing (something IE7 copied from FireFox, ironically.) As someone who tends to have a lot of applications open at one time, it’s lovely to see just one instance of FireFox in my taskbar instead of one for each web page I’ve got open at the moment. I also (no surpise) tend to have a lot of web pages open at once, and with FireFox they’re all neat and tidy, available via tabs within the same window.
  3. The integrated pop-up blocker keeps annoying pop-ups out of my face. I used to have to have a separate pop-up blocker program running in the background, but I’ve since uninstalled it, because FireFox handles pop-ups for me.

There are many other reasons I prefer FireFox to IE, but these are the main ones. And, if I’m honest, I just don’t like the stranglehold that Microsoft has on the PC software market. So if I can find an OpenSource alternative that works for me, I’m all over it.

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/6-reasons-i-use-firefox-instead-of-internet-explorer/feed/ Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-love/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-love/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 05:30:07 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=24

As we discussed, link love is a term used to describe linking to someone else’s site or blog. When you do this, you are potentially sending traffic their way, hence the ‘love’ part of the term - we all love traffic. Just like in real life, the best way to get love is to give love, and the same is true here online.

WordPress has a handy little plug-in available to help you give extra link love (automatically!) to those who comment on your blog and it’s called, no surprise, CommentLuv. The author, Andy Bailey, explains:

Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog, adding the dofollow plugin is one way to reward but why not place a link to their last post under their comment, with CommentLuv, you can do that automatically! This is an excellent way to promote comments from your readers.

The CommentLuv Wordpress Plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and attempt to scrape the last post they made and display it under their comment, this way you can encourage people to join in the discussion of your posts and give something back straight away.

Note:The plugin starts to add peoples last post AFTER it has been installed. Comments that were made before the plugin was installed will not show the author’s last post.

CommentLuv currently works with WordPress, blogspot, typepad and blogs that have a feed link in the head section of their page.

So how does using this plug-in help you if you’re potentially sending your visitors away to someone else’s site?

  1. Your visitors - particularly the other bloggers among them (myself included) - will be more inclined to leave a comment at your blog because they know they’re going be rewarded with not only a link back to their own site, but a link back to their latest post, too.

    I comment on blogs that don’t use this plug-in if the content is great and I have something to add, but when I come across a blog that I like that does use this plug-in I might be inclined to think a little harder to come up with a relevant comment I can add to the conversation. Your visitors will probably do the same.

  2. As long as you’re providing good content, your visitors will come back. The fact that you’re providing links to other great content out there elevates your reputation as a blogger. You and your blog are perceived as an even better resource.
  3. It’s an easy way to give back to the online community at large. Unless you operate solely on the “what’s in it for me” principle, ’nuff said, eh?

I use CommentLuv on this blog, and I install it on all of my client’s blogs (unless they specifically request otherwise.) If you want to test it out, leave a comment on this post. When you fill in the website field, make sure you use your blog’s URL. That’s how the plug-in knows where to look for your last post.

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-love/feed/ Jing Project http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/jing-project/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/jing-project/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:01:02 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=19

Jing is an always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video from your computer to anywhere. Version 1.4.7331 adds output to FTP and Flickr in addition to the Screencast.com and File outputs. For Mac or Windows.

I was introduced to Jing through The 30 Day Challenge last summer. As a web developer, I use it often to “take pictures” of what I’m seeing on my screen to discuss with my clients.

It’s spyware free and available as a free download. Try it out!

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/jing-project/feed/ StatCounter Gives Real-time Stats http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/statcounter-gives-real-time-stats/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/statcounter-gives-real-time-stats/#comments Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:50:11 +0000 Suzanne http://localhost/wordpress/?p=23

There are many statistics programs and services available to us these days, and I have to admit, I use several - some even on the same site! Each program or service presents your stats in varying ways, and some include data that others don’t. I have yet to find the ‘perfect’ stats solution.

However…

I can recommend StatCounter - it’s fast, it’s friendly and it gives you REAL time numbers (unlike the big G’s analytics.)

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