I am all for advertising. It’s a way of life, and it is needed. I know that without advertising, my local broadcast channels would not be free. I know the power of advertising. I have used advertising in various methods, and I place other people’s ads on my blogs, websites, and in my newsletters.

However, there comes a time when it’s too much.

I subscribe to two paid print newsletters every month. They are both put out by well-known marketers, both men I believe are at the “genius” level when it comes to marketing. I admire them, and I aspire to be like them, so I jumped at the chance to subscribe.

In order to avoid publicly bad-mouthing anyone, I’ll call them Marketer A and Marketer B.

Marketer A’s came first – a 16 page newsletter in a booklet format that was nicely formatted. I gobbled up the information in the newsletter, as well as in the CD that accompanied it.

Marketer B’s came later – the envelope was huge and I assumed that it was packed with information. While it did include some great content, the majority of it was information promoting his other products. It took me some time to weed through everything to find the newsletter, and when I finally did, I couldn’t differentiate between the information and the advertisements! I put it away, thinking I would come back later to read it. It’s still sitting there.

This month, Marketer A sent his newsletter, and again I dove right into the information and walked away from it thinking he’s a genius. Marketer B’s newsletter arrived the next day, again filled with advertisements.

I’m confused, and a confused mind says no. I’m sure there must be some wonderful information within those 16 pages, but I can’t get past all the ads. When the CD came, it was only a recording of a free teleclass promoting someone else’s $1200 course!

When I sign up for a free teleclass I expect sales and hype. There’s a reason that it’s free. I can get past it. But when I pay for it, I’m not expecting to pay for another ad.

Not only that, but because I’m a “valued subscriber” I receive at least one fax a week asking me to join something else that costs $197 a month. Even as I wrote this article, I received an email mirroring what the fax said.

This is just my personal opinion. However, I wonder how many others get distracted by all the “noise” in various newsletters. This man is greatly respected in the marketing community, and it bothers me that I’m not able to digest the information.

If the newsletter was free or low cost, I don’t think I would mind as much. However, I pay $40 each month for this information, and right now it is a wasted $40. I have not been able to find anything in this newsletter to apply to my business.

So here are a few guidelines for including ads in your publications:

1. Have a good balance of ads and information. If your ads outweigh the information, people probably are not reading what you have to say. If you offer a paid subscription, your ads should be no more than 20% of your information. They are paying for your knowledge, not your ads.
2. Place your ads where they are seen, but don’t let them distract from your information. Don’t hide the content that your readers are interested in.
3. Make sure your ads compliment the information that you are conveying. If you’re discussing how to build a website, then an ad about a domain name sale or web hosting would be acceptable; a Viagra ad, on the other hand, would not.

The fact is ads are part of our society. For many of us, it’s how we keep our publications or services free. However, when the information gets lost in the ads, the message we are trying to convey gets lost, t. Our credibility has the potential to be diminished, and we may lose readers in the end. So what is the rule of thumb for using ads in a publication? Keep the noise low so you can hear your subscribers sing your praises!

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com

One of the questions I’m repeatedly asked is how to use article marketing when you’re not a writer and don’t have anything to write about. If you say you have nothing to write about, I think you’re wrong. I’m willing to bet you have more topics to write about than you have time. But, here are a few suggestions to help you get over that writers block.

First, don’t stare at a blank computer screen waiting for an idea to come to you. You’re probably putting too much pressure on yourself. What I want you to do is first think of your target market. What do they want to know? Take a blank piece of paper or that blank Word document and just start brainstorming. List topics that you think your target market wants to know about. Just keep writing them down.

Here are some examples for you:

If you are a dog trainer, you’re going to want to talk about how to housebreak a dog, how to teach a dog to sit, stay, fetch, etc. There are at least four article topics.

If you’re a virtual assistant, your target market probably wants to know how a VA will benefit them, the cost savings of a virtual assistant or the various tasks that a business owner can delegate to a VA. There are at least three topics for a virtual assistant.

Next, I want you to think of business related books that you’ve read, services you’ve subscribed to, or informational products you’ve bought. Were they beneficial to you? Yes? Write a review! Do you use Stamps.com? How does it work for you? What are the benefits? Is it worth the monthly fees?

On a separate sheet of paper I want you to list all of the products that have helped you succeed in business, either by increasing your knowledge or helping you to run an effective and efficient business. Keep writing until you’re all out of ideas, but keep the sheet handy, because I guarantee you that you’re going to think of another one while you’re trying to fall asleep tonight.

Do you still feel like you need some more ideas to write articles?

Ok, here we go.

Visit every forum and message board that you are a member of. Yes, every single one of them. Look at the posts that you’ve written. Have you taken time to post a lengthy response to someone else’s question? Great! You now have the start of an article. Flesh it out and use it to market your knowledge and expertise.

Here’s the last idea for you and it’s by far one of my favorites. Interview someone. That’s right, I said interview someone. If you’re a virtual assistant, ask your clients if they would mind taking 15 minutes out of their day so that you can interview them. Ask them about how they use a VA. Ask them how a VA benefits their business. Come up with some additional questions to ask. When you’re done, draft it in to an article and use it!

If you have 10 clients, you’ve got 10 articles! (Even better, you could put it together for potential clients to download from your site as a bonus for signing up for your newsletter.)

There are many more ideas on how to come up with article content and then how to recycle your content so that you get the most out of it!

For the record, this article started out as a response to one of my subscribers. Before you knew it, I had an article. See how simple that was?

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to and uses the power of article marketing to elevate her business. Sign up for the free 5 day eCourse on article marketing at http://www.valleyva.net/article-ecourse.html and discover how you too can market your business with articles!

It’s no secret…I think big. I have more ideas than I have time to implement. And often, it’s easy to get caught up in them.

There are many things in my business that I have thought up and run with only to find out that I didn’t put enough thought into them and that they weren’t planned properly. They didn’t go over well because I was too excited to focus on their proper implementation.

I’ve also been subjected to the hype of new product launches and have fallen for the hype. It’s okay. I know its good marketing when I get suckered into the marketing ploy; when I get to the end of the sales letter and I’ve already got my credit card out and ready to pay.

However, in the past two months, there have been three product launches that I have really looked forward to and when it came time to pay, they weren’t planned very well. I’m a pretty easy going person but here are a few things that happened and how I felt and reacted.

The first was a new membership site by someone whose advice I highly admire. I think he’s a brilliant man and I have learned a great deal from him. In fact, I pay for his newsletter every month. So when he announced his new site, I was there within minutes, credit card in hand ready to get in.

I gave him my information (basically my credit card information and my name) and then I was taken to a login page. They never asked me to create a user name and password and I had no way to get in. I wanted it. They sold me. I wanted the information and I wanted it right then and there. It took me two days to finally get the information. I was so frustrated by then that I canceled my membership and asked for my money back.

A few weeks later I learned of a new product that was coming to the market. I was hooked by the sales letter, the hype, the follow up emails, the sneak peeks; oh I was all over it. I was on the site, counting down to 10am with my credit card in hand. At 10am, nothing happened. There was no where for me to pay. I finally got in at 10:30am and what was promised to me (the bonuses, primarily) weren’t there. A slew of emails came from the owner with incorrect links to get bonuses and to log in and I was frustrated. I cancelled my account shortly there after.

And then this last time just a few weeks ago. I was offered a “pre-launch membership fee” and that the site would go live in just 3 days, March 15th. It’s been pushed back 4 times now, there have been many other emails pushing other people’s products and there is nothing in the membership area. Today, I get an email stating that she is pushing it back to the 31st. She wasn’t ready, and to be quite honest, I’m not impressed with it at all. I’ve cancelled that membership as well.

My point is this. Hype is wonderful. Get people excited about what you have to offer, but make sure that you deliver. If you’re going to launch a product or service, make sure that the site is ready to go and all the major kinks worked out. Check your payment processor, your gateway and that all your links on the inside are correct. It’s okay to have a glitch or two; it wouldn’t be a true launch if there wasn’t something, but make sure all the major issues are resolved.

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com

Saturday was a beautiful, abnormally warm March day in Southwest Virginia. The kids and I decided that we would plant some fruit, vegetables, and flowers. We decided on porch plants because I do not have a green thumb and we wanted to start with something small and idiot proof. I have yet to keep a plant alive, even the ones that people swore I couldn’t kill.

It’s not that I don’t like plants; I do. I think they are beautiful. I love to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. But for whatever reason, this whole watering thing baffles me, and I completely forget to water them.

We repotted Matthew’s third grade project, his over sized cabbage that will grow to be more than 40 pounds. We also planted strawberries, tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and sunflowers. But here is where I struggle. When I woke up this morning, there sat 7 pots that just had dirt in them – no buds, no blooms, and no sign of life.

As a society, we have come to expect things instantaneously. We have microwaves to cook meals faster, online banking to expedite money transfers, and email to eliminate the time it takes for a letter to make it through the Postal Service. As a whole, we want things now.

Our businesses are no different. We send out a direct mail piece and we want something from it immediately. We submit an article and expect the traffic soon thereafter. We submit our press release and expect some kind of coverage within a day or so. We hang out our open sign and become disappointed when we don’t have some sort of bite right away.

Here is what we fail to realize, and I’m just as guilty as the next guy. With our businesses, we must plant our seeds, nurture them, and provide them what they need to flourish before we will see the results – the fruits of our labor.

The next time you feel discouraged because you have put so much time and energy into your business and have nothing to show for it, stop and smell the roses. Then realize that they weren’t planted yesterday.

About the Author:

Are you looking for the Miracle-Gro for your VA business? Join the Revolution to help aid in the growing process and gain additional nutrients needed to thrive. Visit http://www.virtualassistantrevolution.com and claim your free copy of “25 Ways to Revolutionize Your VA Business”

Balanced life…is that an oxymoron? Life is just that…LIFE! You never know what’s going to come your way, but as a business owner, spouse, parent, friend, etc. you must attempt to find that balance.

Running your own business can take a toll on you if you aren’t careful. I like to call it between a rock and a hard place. Why? Answer this question…what’s more important — the kids that want attention or that 5 o’clock deadline for a client? Toughie, isn’t it? That balance is what I couldn’t find and it almost cost me everything.

How to find balance

Set limits

For me, I run a part-time Virtual Assistant (VA) business in addition to a full time career. I decided that I wanted to work no more than fifteen hours a week. Then I scheduled that time on a calendar I created specifically to make sure that I was staying on target. I also decided that I needed time off. Therefore, I set aside Friday nights. I don’t work on Friday night, period. If the kids are with their dad, then I spend time with my boyfriend, and on the Fridays that I have kids, its pizza and a movie night. I now look forward to Friday nights where as before I dreaded them immensely.

Prioritize

What can you give up? I have problems with the word “no”. If I’m asked to join something, I join; if I’m asked to do something, I do it. It doesn’t matter if I know I don’t have the time or not! I went through the “extra curricular” activities that I had and deleted them from my schedule. There were two local organizations that I didn’t particularly enjoy but felt that I needed to attend their meetings and felt guilty when I couldn’t. I determined that I wasn’t getting anything out of going and that attending the meetings were more of a hassle than they were worth, and freed up some time.

Do you have clients that aren’t “meshing” with your ultimate goal? My very first client had work that needed to be done during the week. Everything was honkey dory until something unexpected came up and then I would have to scramble to either do it myself, or find someone else to help me at the last minute. I finally had to re-evaluate the situation. I was able to find another VA that could take on his work, and there was a HUGE part of me that was sorry that I had to do that, but another part of me felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.

Household Chores

If your family is anything like mine, they believe that mom will do it and take care of it – I allowed it to happen. If I was particularly busy with work things, it didn’t get done and no one seemed to care. I CARED!! I didn’t want to live in a pigsty, and I wanted clean clothes, and dishes in the cupboard instead of having to wash something in order to use it! DELEGATE!! Your children can help! Your spouse can help!

Amazing concept, isn’t it?

With my family, I sat them down and explained the situation to them: “I enjoy my business and the money that I receive is for us. I can’t do it alone, so I can either give up my business and the vacation, remodeling, and so on that it will pay for; or, you all can pitch in and help around here.” I can tell you that none of them were happy about this, but they realized that I wasn’t just doing this for me.

Make it fun for your kids to help! I gave my kids checklists of things to do every morning before school and every evening before playing. As a reward, if they help me out with some of the chores, they get some of my time in the evening. (I’d give it to them anyway, but this way, they feel like they are allowing me to have some free time with them. They feel good about helping me.)

Put a set cleaning schedule into place. I’m not a great housekeeper. I went online to find suggestions, advice, ANYTHING that would keep me on track. I found FlyLady and Organized Home. Neither of them worked perfectly for me, but I was able to take some of their ideas and make them work for me. I gotta tell ya, FlyLady’s biggest challenge is to “go shine your sink” and I’ve accepted the challenge, and I now LOVE walking into my kitchen!

Dinners

Darn kids…I just fed them yesterday and they’re hungry again today! Every day, from 5:00pm to 5:30pm I would spend my entire drive trying to figure out what I was going to make for dinner. We need easy meals, and most of ours came from a box. They are okay for awhile, but then….

GET A CROCK POT! My boyfriend got me an awesome crock-pot for Christmas. It’s what I asked for. I used it all of twice and used the frozen crock-pot meals. I then had an epiphany! What if I planned my meals a week in advance and shopped for what I needed, and made them in the crock-pot? (I’m a slow learner, I know!) So, I went online and found recipes that I was pretty sure the kids would eat and that were easy to throw together. I made my list and went shopping. The first night I made a crock-pot meal, we walked in the door (I had set the table when I came home for lunch) and ate! What a concept! No whining about being hungry and the question “when’s dinner?” for 30 minutes while I try to prepare!

Something else I’ve recently implemented is having the kids cook one night a week. You may laugh, but those PB&Js are the best meals, because I don’t have to make them!!

“Me time”

As a full-time employee, girlfriend, mother, friend, and business owner, I rarely got “me time”. For a long time, I saw my VA work my “me time” as it was work that I truly enjoyed. However, work is still work. It wasn’t relaxing, and many nights kept me up until after midnight. There was a time that I read in the evening before I went to bed, or watched TV. I finally realized that I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was “managing” everything else except me.

I started reading again, and I scheduled reading time. I now read almost every night. I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure and decided that I was going to do that at least once a month. I also joined an online class through Barnes and Noble University. The only cost for the class is the book. The class itself is free. I love to learn, so this suits me just fine. I’m taking a forensic science class, and I love it. Some nights, that’s my reading time.

For once, I’m taking care of me, and doing things for me and it feels great!

It takes time….

We still have some kinks to work out in the system, and things still come up out of nowhere and throw us all off, but we regroup and get it all back together. Are there some weeks that I’m working more than 15 hours? Sure! But I make sure that all the things I need and want to get done are done first. I’m not going to pass up that extra money unless I can realistically fit it in.

Am I fully balanced? No, and I never will be. However, in one month’s time, everyone at my house seems to be happier. No one person or thing is being overlooked, or if it is, it’s not for very long. The house is cleaner, we’re eating better, and we’re spending more time together. I still have everything that I want and I’ve really not given up anything that I can’t live without.
About the Author:

Heather Jacobson is the owner of Valley Virtual Assistants, a virtual assistant business catering to solopreneurs who need assistance with their marketing efforts and the author of Making Dollars Out of Cents:101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer. For more information, please visit http://www.heatherjacobson.com