The eighth skill is a very practical yet necessary skill for working online - the ability to manage shopping cart systems.

As a VA, you need to have the ability to setup a new product in the shopping cart, complete with a ‘welcome’ autoresponder, thank you page and the buy button link.

However a shopping cart can also be a very important marketing tool in any online business. Most shopping carts these days come with added features that are a must in any marketing toolbelt, such as affiliate modules and ad tracking systems. We use and recommend Web Contact Pro, which has all these features and more (www.growyourvabiz.com/webcontact.html).

The key to a successful affiliate program is to ‘keep it alive’, making an effort to keep in touch with affiliates, updating them on new products/services and perhaps even sharing how much money your affiliates are making (always a nice little incentive to see the real dollars that can be made).

Many people setup an affiliate program through their shopping carts, and then never make any effort to contact their affiliates again.

As a VA this is something that we can quite easily manage for our clients. Take on the role of Affiliate Manager for your clients, contact the affiliates at least once a month, and your clients will see added sales and revenue as a result. The increase in sales can be tracked through the affiliate module in the shopping cart.

Now ad tracking systems are a WONDERFUL but woefully under-utilized tool. With an ad tracking system you set-up a special url that will track how many times a particular link is clicked.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of tracking all links on the websites and in the broadcasts of your clients. By tracking the number of times a link is clicked, you can track conversion rates to the sale (ie: 50 people clicked a link and 5 people bought the product, that is a 10% conversion).

You can also gauge the interests of your readers based on the number of clicks for a certain topic. This can actually be quite surprising at times, as you may expect people to click a link to buy an ebook on ‘managing your time’ only to find out that 5 times as many people clicked on a link to see a picture of your cat.

Go figure.

To be honest we just started doing this ourselves earlier this year, and it has already proven to be an invaluable marketing strategy. By tracking our clicks we have been able to create new products/services based on what people have proven to be of most interest to them.

If your client is new to shopping carts and has asked for your help in setting one up, you will also want to know a bit about merchant accounts. Unfortunately you cannot setup a merchant account for your clients, as they need to apply for one based on their own financial needs and background.

However you may be able to help them research their options and move the process along. Merchant Accounts can be somewhat tricky, so be sure to read this article on ‘What to know when getting a merchant account’: http://growyourvabiz.com/merchantaccounts

Skill number 7 is about creating *audio* products for your client.

Most audio products are created over the phone, in the form of a class or an interview. A professional recording studio is expensive, and is really not necessary to create a quality product these days.

The first thing you need to do is setup the recording for the call.

There are a few simple options available for recording on the phone.

First, we highly recommend the services of Joe Taylor at Record My Teleclass (www.growyourvabiz.com/record.html). Joe has a number of ‘full meal deal’ packages that include recording, editing, hosting and more. He can even help create CD sets if you choose to go that route.

Another one we recommend is Audio Acrobat (http://ajlee.audioacrobat.com). It is extremely easy to use, and for a low monthly fee includes hosting of your audio files as well.

The audio quality is not as good as with Joe and it doesn’t include editing, but is plenty good enough for recording classes and is less expensive.

Once the audio is recorded, you may want to hire an editor to polish it up (again, not something you are expected to do as a VA… www.multiplestreamsteam.com can help with this). Then you can decide how to deliver the audio - be it online as a streaming or downloadable file, or offline in the form of a CD.

We’ve talked specific steps here, but keep in mind the big picture - by creating/launching new products that can be sold, you are helping your clients add new income streams and increase revenue.

Don’t minimize the value of this, as many people find it easy to get stuck somewhere along the way and their written/audio products are left undone. Keep your focus on completion of the products, and your clients will thank you.

Now take a moment to think of a current client of yours. How could you help them create a product?

Do they have any articles from past ezines that could be packaged up and turned into an ebook?

Are they doing any classes that could be recorded and put on CD for sale?

Many of our clients have a ‘goldmine’ of potential stuff that could be turned into profitable products… putting money in their pockets and yours with their continued business.

Skill 6 is specifically about helping your clients to create and launch a *written* product,.

There are a number of formats for written products, anything from a simple text only ‘ecourse’ to ebooks, special reports and more.

As VAs we need to be able to take a written product from our clients and follow the necessary steps to get the product finished and launched.

Note: It is not necessary to have writing skills as a VA, although some of us do specialize in this area. If your client is looking for assistance with the writing itself, I recommend hiring a Writer/Editor to do so. We have a few great writers/editors onboard at www.multiplestreamsteam.com if you ever need to refer anyone.

Let’s say your client is writing an ecourse, and has sent you the first lesson to “make it work”.

The first thing to do is give it a quick read. Same as we discussed in Skill 5, put on your ‘marketing goggles’ and take a look at what is being offered in the lesson. If you have any ideas/suggestions for improvement be sure to talk to your client about them. (This could include hiring an editor if the writing needs some help).

Next, you need to set up the autoresponder for the ecourse. With an autoresponder, people sign up for the ecourse and it is delivered to them on a ‘timely’ basis… once a day or once a week, whatever you like.

We recommend Aweber (http://www.growyourvabiz.com/aweber.html) or the autoresponder feature in the shopping cart Web Contact Pro
(www.growyourvabiz.com/webcontact.html)

Once the lesson is setup in the autoresponder system, you will need to create a signup form for the appropriate website - this will allow people to sign up for the ecourse online. The autoresponder software will generate the appropriate HTML code, and then it is just a matter of plugging the code into the website and you are done.

You may also be asked to help with reports or ebooks. Again, first take a read through and make any suggestions. Then you want to format and “prettify” the report so that it looks good and is easy to read. You may also want to include some graphics, or a nice ebook cover which can be supplied by a graphic designer.

Once the report is finalized put it into PDF format for easy online delivery. There is a great freebie website that will create a PDF for you, its at: http://convert.neevia.com… such a handy little tool, and saves you the cost of buying a more expensive program.