Skill number five is something that may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you - the ability to setup and post to a blog.

Blogs are fast becoming an invaluable online business tool that your clients may want to consider if they don’t have one already.

A blog is a great ‘environment’ to collect the most important asset that our clients have - their thoughts and expertise. With a blog your clients are able to capture their thoughts ‘on the fly’ in the form of posts to the blog. And blog posts are meant to be super simple and conversational, just write down what you have to say and done.

If your client has a blog it can also make the newsletter writing process much easier. For example, whenever I need to send out a newsletter I first check my recent postings at my blog www.onlinebusinessmanager.com/blog. I’ll pick one that I like, maybe expand on it a bit and send it out to my list.

Much easier than trying to come up with a topic from scratch for each newsletter issue.

Also, with a blog your clients can get better positioning in the search engines for their websites. One of the things that search engines consider in ranking websites is how often a site is updated with new information. With regular posts to a blog your clients’ websites are being updated on a regular basis, which makes their site look super appealing to the search engines! Gotta love that.

Blogs are also wonderful tools to create online membership/client areas for your clients. In fact, we use blogs to manage all of our member sites at MultipleStreamsofCoachingIncome.com and with other clients. This type of blog does require some technical expertise to setup (we hire a blog programmer for this) but once it is setup it is easy to use and a great way to share resources with clients.

And hey, you know what? Any of the stuff we have been talking about to date can also apply to your own VA business. But of course!

So this week I invite you to take a step for yourself.

Start a blog for your business and make at least 2 posts this week.

You can sign up for a reasonably priced blog at www.typepad.com or www.blogger.com.

The fourth skill for a thriving VA practice is newsletter publishing. This includes everything from designing the newsletter template, researching topics, basic editing/proofreading and actually sending the newsletter out.

There are a couple of ways that you can really support the publishing of your clients’ newsletters, above and beyond the ‘to do’s’ mentioned above.

First is to help set a publishing schedule for your client’s newsletter, and keep them on track with this schedule. A newsletter can be sent as often as fits the client and their market, although we do recommend sending a newsletter at least once a month.

It is easy for people to put off creating their newsletters as they get busy with other stuff. Big mistake! A newsletter is one of the best ways to build a relationship with readers, giving them the opportunity to know, like and trust the writer (your client) with each issue.

When your client delays sending their newsletter they are missing a great marketing opportunity, and it is our job to give them a friendly ‘nudge’ to get the issue done. As I like to joke with one of my clients, it’s my job to ‘nag’ them to get each issue ready.

You can also make it super easy for your client by preparing each newsletter issue so it is ready to go, with space for an article that can just be popped in when ready.

The second thing to do with your client’s newsletter is to put on your ‘marketing mindset’ goggles and take a look at what is being offered in each issue.

Is there a ‘call to action’ in each issue, engaging the reader to take some kind of step? It is good practice to include an offer/invitation of some kind in each issue. This could be a paid product of some kind, but can also be something as simple as asking a question and inviting the readers to respond.

The third skill is something you probably already know how to do… the ability to do online research.

From a ‘marketing mindset’ perspective online research takes on a different spin. Rather than searching for information online, you are searching for marketing opportunities online.

Let’s look at an example… say your client offers a program for acupuncturists to build their businesses. You could search online for opportunities for your client to expand his business… find organizations that cater to acupuncturists, discussion groups on topics of interest to acupuncturists, other people/companies that provide a complimentary service that your client could potentially partner with.

The key here is to ask yourself “who/what can I find online, that could possibly help market my clients business?”. And with the internet the possibilities are almost endless.

Another great online research tactic is to offer a survey. Using a tool such as the ASK Database, you could set up a simple survey webpage for your client. For an example of this go to http://www.eggville.com/.

And if you are interested in trying ASK Database out, just click here http://growyourvabiz.com/ask

So let me ask you…

Do you have basic website maintenance skills? If not, are you willing to take the time to learn them?

Could you setup a simple ‘list building’ website for any of your current clients?

What kind of online research could you do to come up with some marketing opportunities for your clients?

On that note, let me issue you a challenge for this week… pick one of your clients and commit to finding them 5 potential marketing opportunities online. This could be a list of organizations related to their niche, a list of publication, discussion groups, etc.

Then craft an email to the client with a note that says “I thought of you and you business and thought you might like to know of these opportunities to perhaps sell more of your services.” Watch what happens and see if it isn’t true - you can literally change your client’s perception of your value, with a single email.