Whew, okay now on to the post!

Nobody likes a bully. Bullying is often defined as an inefficient way of working, resulting in disenchantment, demoralisation, demotivation, disaffection, and alienation. What's more, it's a stupid way to conduct your business. There's a reason that bullies like Biff Tannon from Back to the Future are often represented as dumb or ignorant. Biff has lines like, "Now, make like a tree and get outta here!" It's ''leave,'' Biff. Bullying is ugly, stupid, and it's certainly no way to conduct your business online. So, who's the big bully today? 

The news came out February 25th in an Inman post that the 'real Estate Zebra'' Daniel Rothamel was hit with a Trademark Suit and then the whole REnet lit up like concert goers at a Greatful Dead show. Why the uproar?

Jay Thompson summarized the Inman article best with his post The Lones Group v. Rothamel: A case study in destroying your on-line reputation, so I'm borrowing his:

I have decided that I also refuse to link to this company, not because they're a competitor but because I believe what they're doing is not only wrong but extremely stupid.

I've been supporting real estate agents with marketing and website help for a decade. I've made it a personal mission to help my clients understand how marketing online works, how to build a brand, how to own their own marketing so they're never held hostage by a vendor or a designer and I'm proud to say that the majority of my clients have been working with me for over five years running (or more)! I've also encouraged my clients to use social networking to build their authority and establish themselves as industry experts in their chosen niche. I've personally been voraciously soaking up knowledge and training from successful real estate experts online (like Daniel Rothamel) and putting those concepts and ideas to work for my own business and for those of my clients. That any company would behave in this manner appalls me.

I have never heard of The Lones Group, despite the fact that they're just a short drive away from me here in Tacoma, Washington nor was I aware of any ''Lones Group'' Facebook page, Twitter profile or social network engagement of ANY sort. I hadn't seen their website nor their blog come up on ANY real estate marketing searches of any kind. I have not seen any real estate website design attribution coming from any source, nor have I seen them post comments to any blogs or search engine optimization forums. They are a ghost firm. So, how can they provide decent marketing or website help to their clients if they don't understand first hand how to "practice what they preach?" If they had known anything about social networking, they would have thought twice about bringing this suit.

On the other hand, Daniel Rothamel of The Real Estate Zebra is a pioneer of marketing his real estate firm on the Internet. I remember finding and following him on Twitter in October of 2007, before there were very many any agents on Twitter. I admired his style and how engaging he was. He stuck, I remembered him and I'm sure he was one of several few pioneers that helped me to realize just how beneficial social media could be for small business owners.

Rothamel was also one of the first agents I had seen develop a brand, other than my own client Joe Thyne who had recieved a lot of press for his ''Captain Action'' brand. I had helped develop the ''Captain Action'' brand for Joe, along with a very high ranking website. No other agents were really doing any sort of branding then, and they certainly didn't blog! Daniel did, and he did it well.

I had never heard of The Lones Group.

So, how did Daniel Rothamel come up with the concept behind "The Real Estate Zebra?" Well, as Chris Brogan points out in his post, "Are Zebras Endangered?" Daniel was doing a lot of referree work (read black and white striped shirts) as well as running a real estate business. Does anyone know why the Lones Group chose to use zebras in their marketing? Do they have a brand at all? Does the Lones Group even understand what "branding" is?

Jeff Turner made a brilliant post today, Pay Attention To Your True Brand that illustrates that branding is NOT about your marketing materials, your logo, or your domain name. The true definition of a "brand" is "a commonly held set of beliefs about who you are and what you deliver." If we use this definition (as we most certainly should) then Daniel Rothamel has created a brand that represents excellence, intelligence, integrity, value and volunteerism. What has the Lones Group created? Well, they offer real estate coaching for a fee and they can create some killer stationery for you with pretty colors and maybe even some flowers - they think that is branding.

Other great posts about this situation have touched upon another salient point; that Daniel Rothamels zebra brand is about selling homes and the Lones Group "Zebra Report" is about selling marketing services to real estate agents. These are two different industries! Daniel could have concievably been a client of the Lones Group. In my non-legal opinion, their case against the Real Estate Zebra completely falls apart on this point. Read Mariana Wagner's post The Lones Group Files a Lawsuit Against Strong Team REALTORS® Over a Fricken' Zebra Stripe?

Is there any resemblance between the two brands other than the fact that they both use the word "zebra?" I don't think so. When Daniel began his blog back in about 2006 (?) he used a simple banner of zebra stripes. The Lones Group uses an image of several zebras, where one zebra has had his white stripes painted in rainbow colors. I imagine the concept they're trying to convey is to stand out from the "herd" as an agent. Too bad they decided not to use a herd of cows. If they had, then Seth Godin could have sued them for infringing on his "Purple Cow" concept and book.

If the Lones Group was more well known, if they were a huge company that was visible all over the internet and if Daniel was a tiny fish in that big pond then I could possibly see how a suit might be brought. This is NOT the case, however. If it seemed readily apparant that Daniel directly copied their logo (they don't have one), then I could see grounds for a suit. That's not remotely the case. It seems to me that this is a case of a tiny fish going after a whale in the sad and misguided attempt to piggy-back on the success of the Real Estate Zebra and gain some publicity. Woe for the Lones Group, they're getting their wish and it's backfiring in an enormous way. I feel, as does Matt Stigliano, that if they actually knew Daniel and what he's done for the real estate industry, they would have thought twice. Read Matt Stigliano's post, Lones Group sues Daniel "Real Estate Zebra" Rothamel.

They were practically invisible on the internet prior to this:

• They have a Facebook page with only 85 friends. The Real Estate Zebra's Facebook page has 663 friends.
• Denise Lones has 425 Facebook friends. Daniel Rothamel has 1452 Facebook friends.
• The Lones Group has 183 Twitter followers. The Real Estate Zebra has 6,909 Twitter followers.

Many, many supporters of Daniel feel that this is brand suicide on the part of the Lones Group. I happen to agree. As Drew Meyers says in The Lones Group Trademark Infringement Suit, Lones Group Brand Suicide, and Why SEO Matters, "...[The Lones Group] lost the online fight for the Zebra brand name (if there ever was one) in the real estate space."

Anyone who knows Daniel Rothamel, even if they only know him by reputation, would be fired up over this situation as I am. The Lones Group has unleashed a veritable storm of reputation dwindling proportions. Just ask Todd Waller who today posted A Case Study: Social Media Standing Up for. Drew Meyer's says in the above mentioned post, "A single quote, link, or picture can reach millions of eyeballs within minutes." The REnet is certainly fired up and they're jumping in to support Daniel Rothamel put together funds to fight this battle.

How does all of this apply to you, the Virtual Assistant?

For one, regardless of the industry you serve, you should make a point to become aware of who the industry leaders are and learn from them. Many successful Virtual Assistants and other business leaders blog every day about many topics that can help you grow your business and support your clients. You can learn from their mistakes and avoid making your own. You should also get involved in blogging and social networking (if you aren't already) and be certain to engage with your friends and followers. These relationships bring in referrals if you build your "brand," if you create a strong impression and "a commonly held set of beliefs about who you are and what you deliver."

As a Virtual Assistant, it's your job to stay abreast of every new technology and service so you can advise your clients. You also need to stay on the cutting edge of marketing, not just to generate more business but so you can help clients understand what works and what doesn't work. You're not just providing X services to Client Z. You need to understand and anticipate your clients needs. And by all means, don't call yourself a 'social media guru'' if you don't understand the basics. Just like the Lones Group, you don't want to have 'marketing'' and 'social media'' services listed on your website if you don't know the first thing about it. Think about it. If you list those items as services and you're not visible on the social net, your savvy prospects will realize it and you'll lose credibility.

But don't take it from me, I have little blogging credibility as I just don't do it often enough. Instead, take it from the many, many great experts online like Daniel Rothamel of the Real Estate Zebra. If you''d like to meet Daniel and you'll be in the Seattle area on March 9th, 2011 then join me at Real Estate BarCamp - Agent Reboot for a terrific day of presentations and networking! I''d love to meet you, and I can't wait to meet Daniel for the first time in real life!

If you, like me would like to help Daniel defend himself, you can donate to his defense fund at ZebraDefenseFund.com. All the extra proceeds will go to charity.

Oh, and don't forget to change your Twitter and Facebook avatars to be more Zebra like, a herd sticks together. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Thank you!

There are two ways to minimize or eliminate this situation from happening to your Virtual Assistant business - the first is to ensure you're spending at least one hour per day on your own marketing to ensure you always have clients. The other method is to create a plan to generate passive income to tide you over during those lull periods.

Passive income, as defined by Wikipedia, is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. Usually, it's generated when you sell a product that you create once yet sell over and over again such as an eBook, template, checklist, etc.

In the list below, I'll describe 7 terrific ways to generate passive income as a Virtual Assistant. These are just a few ideas to get you started. If you take some time and examine some of the tasks you've been doing for clients lately, you may be able to come up with some ideas of your own!

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Write and Sell an eBook

Sharing your expertise and experience by creating and selling an eBook is a great place to start when trying to create passive income. You'll get the added benefit of increased visibility as an authority on your given topic. If you've been blogging for any length of time, you may be able to use your library of blog posts as the basis for your book.

Become an Affiliate

There are millions of affiliate programs on the web that can quickly get you generating extra cash simply by recommending certain products to your website visitors. The caveat is to be certain the products you're recommending are truly valuable, as it will be your reputation on the line if they're not.

Create Marketing Templates

If you have a flair for design and own desktop publishing software, you can easily create a wide array of marketing pieces to sell on your website. I've created some postcard and sales letter templates for real estate agents on my VA4RE website that bring in several hundred dollars each month.

Create Website Templates

Are you a web designer who works a lot in Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal? If so, you could easily generate great passive income by creating templates or themes for these platforms. Themeforest is a hugely popular site that will list your templates available for sale for a small fee.

Offer a subscription service

This is one of the most lucrative ways to create passive income because a monthly subscription service means clients will be paying you automatically each and every month. I personally own a drip email subscription service that brings significant passive income. I simply create a new subscribers account - campaigns and email stationery and I'm done. PayPal makes it super easy and handles all of the heavy lifting.

Sell Advertising on Your Website

This tactic is best suited to those Virtual Assistants who have a website that generates a great deal of traffic. You can utilize Google AdSense or sell ad space directly to advertisers. You can also sell advertising in your eBook or in a monthly ezine or newsletter.

Create a Referral Network

We Virtual Assistants usually have a niche or specialty that we excel at or prefer doing. One Virtual Assistant loves writing copy while another is an expert at search engine optimization. You can create a contact list of these experts and collect a commission every time you refer a client.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. What I want you to take away from this post today are all the possibilities that will help you through those rough times we all face occasionally. You can do this! Go ahead and jump in and give some of these a shot and you'll soon see that money start trickling in!

I want to hear your ideas on how Virtual Assistants can generate more passive income. What methods are you utilizing now? What have you tried that just didn't work out for you? Let us know in the comments!

The great American poet, Robert Frost, once said "the world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them." Things have changed a lot since the mid-20^th century when Frost pointed us to the Road Not Taken. Just a decade ago, when sock puppets ruled the airwaves, many little startups that could engaged their employees with the draw of stock options. Stock options would make even the lowest-level employee think about what sweat, blood, and tears they could give to bring the company store closer to the public option trough.

Today, many of us have elegant calligraphies gathering dust in a file drawer as memories of a time when we owned a little bit of a now-extinct company. Options would gives us, well, options. We had a reason to work hard and do everything in our power to make sure that our workplace was successful. We were partners in this enterprise, and we would get rich along with the executives — or even in spite of the executives. We knew that one day we would dance on streets paved with gold.

Many of us discovered that golden streets have gone the way of unicorns and eight-track players. Today, those that have jobs often find themselves stretched like the national deficit. Work is no longer just the curse of the leisure class, but the blight of the working class. Workers of the world now look with silent admiration at a recently famous Jet Blue flight attendant who set the words to "Take This Job and Shove It!" into our internal iPod.

Partnership demands a declaration of dependence. There's more to work than productivity numbers and profit. There's pride in contributing our minds, our resources and our sacred honor, to a job well done. Partners are admired for our minds and our crafts— not the pot luck tuna wiggle we brought to the company picnic. Partners are integrated into the decision process. When corporate policies are framed, partners are a part of the picture. In short, most of us want to be partners in success (or even failure) rather than just another dumb terminal in a network of vapid ether.

Stock options are no longer a huge draw. But an employee as partner relationship remains a road well taken. Partners don't have time to "let" others do the work. More importantly, when good times come again, we won't have to look for that last bottle of beer and an escape hatch.

What blogs can you recommend that really get your motor revved? When was the last time a blog post really impressed you? Let us know in the comments so we can grab those feeds, too! Thanks!

The 5 Business Podcasts I listen to

Starting this Tuesday, just a simple tweet on Twitter could win you a free block of 10 Virtual Assistant hours!

5 Rotten Things No One Else Has Told You About the Clients You’ll Work For

Ever had a rotten client say any of these 5 things to you? Tell us more about it in the comments!

Twitter has planted the magic beans and is growing in massive proportions and for any Virtual Assistant to truly utilize it to the fullest, it will be critical to build your reputation and increase your perceived value with a few simple suggestions. First, go read Mashable's post linked above and then come back.... Go ahead, I'll wait.

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So, Mashable talks about the paralels between Academic and Twitter citation or the RT - re-tweet. RT's are basically your path to opening a dialog between yourself and your followers and potential followers. They not only convey your interests but often your personality.

In my experience at Twitter, I see a great many Virtual Assistants who merely post to Twitter when they spot someone asking about hiring a VA. This could concievably affect ALL Virtual Assistants on Twitter since that prospect would then become inundated with offers. These Virtual Assistants seldom post anything unless it's self-promoting and they rarely speak to anyone unless it's another Virtual Assistant. They're doing it wrong.

A Virtual Assistant regardless of niche or specialty needs to consider that each and every Twitter user could concievably become;

A. A Client
B. A Fan
C. A Source of Referrals
D. A Resource

Thus, it is critical that the savvy Virtual Assistant build their thought capital by retweeting relevant, timely, introspective tweets. You can even find your own tweets of such high value that you become the retweeted expert - use tools such as Google Reader & Feedly to source links and blog posts that you find interesting and informative. Mind your Twitter ratio - the old adage of 90/10 - spend no more than 10% of your tweets on BSP's (Blatant Self Promotion) or you will lose followers and damage your thought capital. It follows that 90% of your tweets should be something of value to your followers, whether it's fun, a RT, a question or a request.

Share with us what methods you use to build your thought capital on Twitter in the comments - we want to hear from you!

A Virtual Assistant provides clients administrative support from their home office, all the services you would expect from an 'in office'' secretary or assistant, plus a whole lot more. With a Virtual Assistant, you never cover payroll taxes, insurance or buy additional equipment or office space, plus most Virtual Assistants bill only for 'time on task,'' saving your bottom line.

With a Virtual Assistant, you get a support professional that can hit the ground running. By taking on several clients, a Virtual Assistant works as an independent entrepreneur partner - they've already grown their skills, thus you don't need to train them. Plus, you can be assured that their success is a direct result of your success - if you're not happy, they're not in business long.And this week is Virtual Assistant week!

In an effort to spread the word about Virtual Assistance and help people understand what we do, we've created a fun and exciting social networking campaign called VA Free Hour or #VAFreeHour (Twitter hashtag).

We're contacting as many Virtual Assistants as we can and asking them to participate in giving away a free hour of their services to the public. Precicesly, the first person to contact them will get one free hour of Virtual Assistant services. Find a Virtual Assistant that's on Twitter at Twellow or at Twitter Grader. We can't guarantee the Virtual Assistant you're interested in will give you a free hour, but we'll strive to help you find the perfect match for your project goals. If we're lucky, our participating Virtual Assistants may offer a free hour to more than the first respondent!

Who's in so far? (Stay tuned here!)
Virtual Assistants: Cheryl Allin @VirtuAllin - Darcee Sellers @YourSavvyVA - Laura Monroe @CreativeAgentVA - Renee Crabtree @ReneeCrabtree - Michelle Mangen @mmangen - Nicole Hammett @NHBS - Crystal Curran @REVAville - Deborah Reynolds @DediKatedVA - Dawn Martinello @MondayMorningVA - Jean Mejia @VirtualJean - Cherie Smith @CherieSmith - Nickey Hollenbach @NickeyH - Doreen DeJesus @Ambicionz - Alexandra Popovic @VIPVirtualSols - Christine Naranjo Clarke @christinenc - Susi Schuele @MVPSusi - Janine Treader @WhistlerVA - Wenda Rogers @virtual24hours - Jade in Lithuania @JadeLT - Lee Drozak @MOALee - Brandy Ellen @BrandyEllen - Cherie Smith @CherieSmith

What do you have to do? Just send a Twitter reply or direct message to @VAFreeHour on Friday, March 20th starting at 8:00AM PST with the text "I'm ready to outsource to a Virtual Assistant for one Free Hour." If you know the Twitter handle of the Virtual Assistant you''d like to work with, include that in the message.

Your information is safe with us, we won't share it with anyone unless you ask us to forward it to a particular Virtual Assistant.

There are literally thousands of Virtual Assistants around the globe and each has their own specialty services and unique offerings. They save their clients time and money by taking the administrative busy work off of their clients hands, helping them grow their business. Why not become one of those smart clients - free for one hour! Discover if working with a Virtual Assistant is right for you and save your bottom line.

What could a Virtual Assistant do for you in just an hour? There are thousands of tasks that fit the bill:

Need more than just one hour? Talk with your new Virtual Assistant. On average, Virtual Assistants charge between $30 - $150 per hour, depending on the type of project and the skill required. We can't guarantee that every Virtual Assistant online will participate in this event, but we'll strive to help you get started in any way we can.

Are you a Virtual Assistant interested in joining the VAFreeHour campaign? Just let us know in the comments! Are you currently working with a terrific Virtual Assistant that you think should get a little more attention? Tell us about them in the comments!

Just one word of advice - don't spam folks about your business. Use the rule of 90/10 and spend 90% of your Twitter time being helpful to others to build relationships and no more than 10% of your time pushing your business.

How has twitter worked for you? Share your story in the comments!