We had a great call with Amy Taggart of DesignFORMARE about the top mistakes Virtual Assistants are making when providing website and blog support to their clients.

For those of you who don`t know Amy … she`s someone to listen to. She`s walked in the shoes of providing general Virtual Assistant and web design support, but because of non-stop clients looking for help with web and blog services, she now specializes exclusively in this VA specialty area.

Here are top 7 Mistakes we discussed …. can you relate to even some of them? I know I can!

1. Training taken years ago doesn’t cut it anymore
If you took web design training a few years ago, you likely need updated training. Setting up a simple webpage using tables isn’t ‘correct’ anymore … there’s new advancements in code and other areas related to design that are critical to understand. It’s not as simple as viewing the webpage source and making changes anymore!

2. Using FrontPage or on-server tools makes things messy
We’ve all heard about how various programs add extra coding to the source of a webpage - it makes things messy, confusing and ultimately very difficult to update. It’s important to keep webpage code clean of unnecessary tags. This is especially dangerous with on-server or WYSIWYG “what you see is what you get” tools. Key point - avoid these programs. Stick to using Dreamweaver or even Notepad to update web files.

3. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) … taking a nicely designed CSS page and apply non CSS updates
I somewhat smile when I think of this mistake because I can relate! If you are not familiar with CSS, then you’re likely smiling with me. Anyone who attempts to update a webpage that has a CSS file attached to it is making a big mistake. And if you try to update a CSS file without really knowing what you’re doing, you can mess up the entire website! This is a common mistake Virtual Assistants make because they haven’t updated their skillset to fully understand how to use a CSS file.

4. Not saving a copy of a webpage before editing it
Ahh .. another smile just crossed my face. If you can relate to this mistake, you understand the horror felt when you realize your webpage update doesn’t look like it should and you don’t have the original file to go back to. Always save your new updated webpage with a different name before you upload it. Check it out, make sure everything is working properly before you replace an original webpage.

4a. Not taking a few minutes to test and confirm - **Bonus Mistake
This mistake wasn’t originally on our list of 7 but it’s a critical one to point out. How many times have you updated any kind of file and assumed it was perfect …. without testing or reviewing it first. Take just a few minutes to re-re-review and test your changes to make sure they reflect what they should be. Make sure that sign-up form is working, that the autoresponder is connected properly, that the thank you page is linking and that all details are correct. Spending these few minutes now will save you frustration and time to fix it later.

We switched our focus now to blogs …. here are some of the common mistakes Amy shared with us that Virtual Assistants are making with blogs.

5. Creating a page instead of a post
This is a relatively simply mistake but it is a common one. Here’s an easy way to remember whether you should create a post instead of a page. When it comes to posting a typical article, piece of information etc., use a post. If your client wants to promote an upcoming teleclass, or an event then you will want to create a page instead of a post.

6. Playing with the blog template when you don’t really know what you’re doing
Blog templates can be relatively easy to update IF you know what you’re doing. Knowing a little bit of html isn’t enough when it comes to updating the back-end template of the blog. Likely issues that you may experience including erasing critical code and messing up the blog template completely …. not worth it.

7. Not requesting the support of a professional blog/website designer
There are some basic things that are okay for a general Virtual Assistant to do when it comes to website and blog support BUT the key is knowing when a task may be outside of your expertise. If you’re asked to do anything more than revising a link or some text, or setting up a new sign up form etc. (the ‘basics’) and you’re not trained or experienced in this area, seek the support of a specialist. Remember, your client would rather hear you say “I need help with this … let’s connect with someone that knows what they’re doing” instead of taking on the task yourself, spending way too much time on it and messing it up in the end.

There you have …. 8 common mistakes Virtual Assistants Make with blog and website support. The link to the call with Cindy Greenway and Amy Taggart is below.

I super excited about interviewing Amy Taggart, Wordpress and web design specialist about the “7 biggest mistakes virtual assistants make when providing blog and website support”.

If you currently offer blog and website support to your clients and wish you understood it better … or don’t offer it at all but would like to learn how… you’ll want to attend this call.

Blog and website support is an essential need for the majority of online based business owners. Whether it be as simple as adding a page to an existing website or going a bit further and setting up a blog from scratch - your current level of skill may not cut it anymore. You need to truly understand blogging systems, css and other website design ‘best practices’ to support the needs of clients today.

We’ve spoken with hundreds of business owners over the years and we know what kind of support they need. We also know, unfortunately, the top mistakes Virtual Assistants are making when it comes to providing blog and website support to their clients. (And this is an area that you really don’t want to mess up in!)

So .. if you’re interested, join us on Tuesday, February 17th at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern and learn about these mistakes from a professional web and blog designer.

Visit www.HotSkillsVATraining.com/teleclass to register.

We will also give you a preview of the ‘Website and Blog Specialist Training for Virtual Assistants’ course starting on March 2nd.

And, as always, we’ll be recording the call and sending out the download link shortly after the live call.

Hope to “see” you there!

~ Cindy

Virtual Assistants, what is your biggest mistake?

Tina and I were talking the other day about our ‘big mistakes’. You know when you do something wrong, realize what happened and get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Every VA has had a big mistake, it almost seems like a rite of passage!

So we thought it would be fun to make a big old list of our ‘big mistakes’. Partially to get a chuckle out of it, and also so that we all know that everyone does make mistakes (and thankfully most mistakes are easily fixed in the online world, phew!)

I’ll go first… I’ve made my fair share of mistakes over the last few years. The one that comes first to mind is when I scheduled a teleclass bridge line for one of my clients. Unfortunately for me, I seem to have a natural talent at mixing up numbers. So I reserved the bridge line and then proceeded to set up a thank you page and autoresponder - which all included the bridge line of course. While I thought I was being super efficient, it turned out that I reversed some of the numbers and so both the autoresponder and thank you page included the incorrect number. To top it off, the teleclass summary I sent to my client with all the details for the call, also included the incorrect number.

On the day of the teleclass - disaster struck. My client called me in a panic and another VA on the team was also calling as the teleclass registrants were calling her about the problem. Luckily I was in the office and able to get the correct numbers quickly so all parties could connect and start the teleclass.

It was a very stressful few minutes but I learned my lesson (even though I still feel a bit of panic every time I set up a teleclass!).

I’d love to hear from you … What’s your “Big Mistake”?