<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/atom10full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" gd:etag="W/&quot;D0AGR3c4cSp7ImA9WhRRFE4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296</id><updated>2011-11-27T16:15:26.939-07:00</updated><category term="Business" /><category term="Social Media" /><category term="Web Development" /><category term="Twitter" /><category term="Economy" /><category term="Technology" /><category term="Award" /><category term="contests" /><category term="Networking" /><category term="Fun Stuff" /><category term="blogging" /><category term="Facebook" /><category term="VA" /><category term="computers" /><category term="Virtual Assistants" /><title>Navigating the Virtual Waters</title><subtitle type="html">A Virtual Assistant explores technology, creativity and all things business!</subtitle><link rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/" /><link rel="next" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25&amp;redirect=false&amp;v=2" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><generator version="7.00" uri="http://www.blogger.com">Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>100</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/cassts" /><feedburner:info uri="blogspot/cassts" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><link rel="license" type="text/html" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/" /><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CEYARXc-fip7ImA9WxNXGEU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-8075930351230493977</id><published>2009-10-06T19:18:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-10-06T19:22:24.956-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-10-06T19:22:24.956-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Virtual Assistants" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="VA" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><title>What's Your Secret Business Weapon?</title><content type="html">Do you have a secret weapon for your business? Speaker Felicia Slattery says her secret weapon is a Virtual Assistant. See why &lt;a href="http://tinyurl.com/ycs43gg"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-8075930351230493977?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/ir3Xvx1QzzY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://tinyurl.com/ycs43gg" title="What's Your Secret Business Weapon?" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/8075930351230493977/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=8075930351230493977" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8075930351230493977?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8075930351230493977?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/ir3Xvx1QzzY/whats-your-secret-business-weapon.html" title="What's Your Secret Business Weapon?" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/10/whats-your-secret-business-weapon.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DE8CQXszfSp7ImA9WxJbF00.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-7609912498610647202</id><published>2009-07-27T08:01:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-07-27T08:01:00.585-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-07-27T08:01:00.585-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Virtual Assistants" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="VA" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><title>Quoted in recent article</title><content type="html">One of the perks of being President of the &lt;a href="http://www.ivaa.org"&gt;International Virtual Assistant Association&lt;/a&gt; this year is that I periodically have the opportunity to speak with reporters from around the country. I recently spoke with Luara Raines of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and am pleased with this &lt;a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-job-blog/2009/07/25/a-real-demand-for-virtual-assistants/"&gt;latest article&lt;/a&gt; about the Virtual Assistant industry. &lt;a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-job-blog/2009/07/25/a-real-demand-for-virtual-assistants/"&gt;Check it out&lt;/a&gt; and let me know what you think!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-7609912498610647202?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:dnMXMwOfBR0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?i=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?i=1wP8ORqeFzI:Y4co1bMzoP0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/1wP8ORqeFzI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-job-blog/2009/07/25/a-real-demand-for-virtual-assistants/" title="Quoted in recent article" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/7609912498610647202/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=7609912498610647202" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/7609912498610647202?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/7609912498610647202?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/1wP8ORqeFzI/quoted-in-recent-article.html" title="Quoted in recent article" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/07/quoted-in-recent-article.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUcBSXg9cSp7ImA9WxJVGU8.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-172859396085708507</id><published>2009-07-06T17:35:00.002-07:00</published><updated>2009-07-06T17:37:38.669-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-07-06T17:37:38.669-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Facebook" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="blogging" /><title>Why Blog When You Have Facebook?</title><content type="html">This is a great post by blog guru Denise Wakeman on why you should have a blog even if you're an avid Facebook user. Great food for thought and a reminder that you need to back up your content, regardless of where it resides!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.buildabetterblog.com/2009/07/why-blog-when-youve-got-facebook.html"&gt;http://www.buildabetterblog.com/2009/07/why-blog-when-youve-got-facebook.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-172859396085708507?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:dnMXMwOfBR0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?i=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?i=AxlauzuZFzE:YBrnoOl-M4I:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/AxlauzuZFzE" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.buildabetterblog.com/2009/07/why-blog-when-youve-got-facebook.html" title="Why Blog When You Have Facebook?" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/172859396085708507/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=172859396085708507" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/172859396085708507?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/172859396085708507?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/AxlauzuZFzE/why-blog-when-you-have-facebook.html" title="Why Blog When You Have Facebook?" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-blog-when-you-have-facebook.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0YEQ3w_eip7ImA9WxJVFUU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-621325364278425474</id><published>2009-07-02T17:29:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-07-02T17:31:42.242-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-07-02T17:31:42.242-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Twitter" /><title>The Value of your Twitter Followers</title><content type="html">Web Worker Daily has a great blog post on the value of Twitter followers - do numbers mean more than quality?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/02/the-value-of-twitter-followers-quality-over-quantity/"&gt;http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/02/the-value-of-twitter-followers-quality-over-quantity/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-621325364278425474?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:yIl2AUoC8zA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:dnMXMwOfBR0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:7Q72WNTAKBA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:V_sGLiPBpWU"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?i=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:qj6IDK7rITs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?a=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/cassts?i=Q6rcKJeet1M:OIQOlDsSCMk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/Q6rcKJeet1M" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/02/the-value-of-twitter-followers-quality-over-quantity/" title="The Value of your Twitter Followers" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/621325364278425474/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=621325364278425474" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/621325364278425474?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/621325364278425474?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/Q6rcKJeet1M/value-of-your-twitter-followers.html" title="The Value of your Twitter Followers" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/07/value-of-your-twitter-followers.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CEMEQXg6eCp7ImA9WxVRFEQ.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-4657301416294152666</id><published>2009-01-20T16:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-01-20T16:00:00.610-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-01-20T16:00:00.610-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Economy" /><title>Don't Give Away the Farm!</title><content type="html">Speaker and blogger &lt;a href="http://asklizryan.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-yes-i-do-blame-you-for-trying.html"&gt;Liz Ryan&lt;/a&gt; reminds us not to give in to those asking for freebies just because "the economy is bad". An important reminder to all business owners, no matter how long we've been around! Check out her article &lt;a href="http://asklizryan.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-yes-i-do-blame-you-for-trying.html"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-4657301416294152666?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=a7Rvcdil"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=683HHMwf"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=t4f7sKxR"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=SBldklIP"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=SBldklIP" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=cSXwTrLy"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=xrjeiymQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=xrjeiymQ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/b128mILo910" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://asklizryan.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-yes-i-do-blame-you-for-trying.html" title="Don't Give Away the Farm!" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/4657301416294152666/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=4657301416294152666" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/4657301416294152666?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/4657301416294152666?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/b128mILo910/dont-give-away-farm.html" title="Don't Give Away the Farm!" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/01/dont-give-away-farm.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DEYHQ3o_eyp7ImA9WxVRFE0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-7850737501296267902</id><published>2009-01-19T15:37:00.008-07:00</published><updated>2009-01-19T16:02:12.443-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-01-19T16:02:12.443-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="computers" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Twitter" /><title>Getting Started on Twitter</title><content type="html">If you're new to &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;, you may be a bit perplexed about how it works and why you should bother using it.  It looks deceptively simple on the surface, but quickly becomes very complex when you start digging into it. I gave a &lt;a href="http://www.creativeassistants.com/socialmediaseminar.htm"&gt;class &lt;/a&gt;last week on Twitter to local business owners and I’ve never seen so many deer-in-the-headlights looks! &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;You’re not alone if you don’t “get” it yet.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SXUCe3ZHygI/AAAAAAAAAEo/-hwyenrVsVI/s1600-h/twitter_bubble_logo.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 108px; height: 51px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SXUCe3ZHygI/AAAAAAAAAEo/-hwyenrVsVI/s320/twitter_bubble_logo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293139666332535298" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The good news is that you can learn it and get up to speed pretty quickly. A lot of this will come by way of following and watching what others are doing. Here are some tips to get you started:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com"&gt;Sign up&lt;/a&gt; with a user name that will build your brand, use part of your real name, or tell others something about you. Make sure the name isn’t too long as it counts towards the 140 character limit when others want to connect with you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Next, start following as many people as you can. (&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/copong"&gt;Follow me here.) &lt;/a&gt;Business colleagues are a good place to start – follow them and then &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/copong/followers"&gt;browse through their followers&lt;/a&gt;/following lists to see who you know or want to connect with. You can also find top Twitterers on sites like &lt;a href="http://twinfluence.com/index.php"&gt;Twinfluence.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://twitterholic.com/."&gt;Twitterholic.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember that you don’t need to know them to connect – in fact, it’s useful not to know them yet! Also look under Twinfluence for people in your town and connect with them. You’ll soon find that those you follow will start following you back and as you’re numbers get up there, you’ll build more and more momentum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Start posting regularly (1-2 times/day is good) about what you’re doing in your life and in your business. Use keywords. Pique curiosity. Link to articles &amp;amp; webpages you find interesting or would benefit your target market. Reply to those you’re following and start meaningful conversations. &lt;a href="http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Twitter+Glossary"&gt;Retweet&lt;/a&gt; posts from others that you find valuable or interesting (or your target market would). This is where paying attention to what others are doing is beneficial. Do what they do!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Use Twitter search engines to find those who are talking about your keywords, locality, areas of interest, etc. These includes sites such as &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/"&gt;Twitter Search&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.tweetscan.com/"&gt;TweetScan&lt;/a&gt;,  &lt;span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="%C3%AF%C2%83%C2%BC%09http://www.monitter.com/"&gt;Monitter&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="http://www.twitscoop.com/"&gt;TwitScoop&lt;/a&gt;. I also use &lt;a href="http://www.twilert.com"&gt;Twilert &lt;/a&gt;to have my favorite searches sent to me via email every day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;On Twitter, it pays to be active, follow tons of people, and post useful information with a smattering of personal insight thrown in.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are 2 great free ebooks that will help you get started on Twitter:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitterhandbook.com/"&gt;http://www.twitterhandbook.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.geekpreneur.com/twitter-ebook"&gt;http://www.geekpreneur.com/twitter-ebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And here’s a &lt;a href="http://twitter.pbwiki.com"&gt;Wiki &lt;/a&gt;on Twitter – this section is about Etiquette:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Twitter+Etiquette"&gt;http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Twitter+Etiquette&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally, don't be afraid to ask for help in Twitterland. We've all been there and stand ready to help show you the way! See you in the Twitterverse!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-7850737501296267902?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=VPHDRML5"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=yQ8V23zu"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=t9meGvfD"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=C8ulIV2E"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=C8ulIV2E" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=pxp3PK4b"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=so9dFN10"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=so9dFN10" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/t4h_zDKUFA0" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.twitter.com" title="Getting Started on Twitter" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/7850737501296267902/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=7850737501296267902" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/7850737501296267902?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/7850737501296267902?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/t4h_zDKUFA0/getting-started-on-twitter.html" title="Getting Started on Twitter" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SXUCe3ZHygI/AAAAAAAAAEo/-hwyenrVsVI/s72-c/twitter_bubble_logo.gif" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/01/getting-started-on-twitter.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0YNQXY4cSp7ImA9WxVREEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-9129014503540156207</id><published>2009-01-15T18:16:00.003-07:00</published><updated>2009-01-15T18:26:30.839-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-01-15T18:26:30.839-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="computers" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><title>Your 7-Point Annual Website Tune-up</title><content type="html">&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" &gt;by Donna Gunter, The Boomer Biz Queen (TM)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every time you take your car in for an oil change, most shops give you a 15- or 30-point checkup when they change your oil to alert you to any other potential problems you might experience in the future. In the same way that your mechanic conducts a regular inspection of your automobile, you need to conduct an annual checkup of your website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are 7 critical areas that need to be checked yearly on your site:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Copyright notice.&lt;/span&gt; In years past it would take me until March or April to update my copyright notices primarily because I had to go in and update every single page of my site. More recently, however, I've used an includes file, which is one file that can be inserted in many pages to hold my copyright and contact info. Consequently, when I need to update the copyright info, I open this one file in my HTML editor, update that file, save and upload it. Once it's revised, the new information miraculously appears on all the pages in which it's included, updating them all at once.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Opt-in forms.&lt;/span&gt; The beginning of each year is a great time to ensure that all of the opt-in forms are working on your site. Do you need to add additional fields to the opt-in form to collect mailing addresses, for example, or to ask how visitors found your site? Is the information contained on your confirmation page (the page to which a visitor is sent upon her initial request to opt into your list) still current and relevant? How about the thank you page (the page to which your visitor is sent when she has confirmed her desire to join your list)?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Autoresponder followup.&lt;/span&gt; Next, review the content of the autoresponders that you've set to follow up the opt-in. Are they still current? Do they mention offers or upsells that are still available? Do you need to update any copyright or contact information contained within them? Are they making it through spam filters? Use this tool to ensure that every email gets into your contact's inbox: &lt;a href="http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/"&gt;SpamCheck from SiteSell&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Signature files.&lt;/span&gt; Does your email signature file contain a call to action that's still working for you, or does it need to be updated? Have you changed any portion of your contact information? After you review your signature files in your email client, do the same check of your email signature file in your shopping cart program or autoresponder program.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Client attraction device&lt;/span&gt;. Take a look at the free giveaway you provide to your visitors in return for them opting into your list. Whether it's a document or an audio or video file, update the copyright and content information in it and review any biographical/profile information that you list about yourself or your business. Is the content you provide in this giveaway still valid and current? Do you want to keep the current call to action, or does it need to be updated to better fit with your current business model?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Missing images and dead link check.&lt;/span&gt; When your website fails to properly display images, your business appears unprofessional. Tour your website to ensure that all images are displaying as they should. If you link to or make reference to many resources on your site, run a dead link check annually to weed out or update those that no longer work. You may be able to do this with your HTML editor. If not, try the free weekly link checking service offered by &lt;a href="http://www.inetdog.com/link_checking.php"&gt;iNetDog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Order forms.&lt;/span&gt; Be sure that your order form works all the way through. Most online business owners, when checking order forms, stop at the point where they need to enter credit card information. If your merchant account agreement prohibits you from using your credit card to order from your company, ask if they have a test card number you can use, or have a reciprocal agreement with a colleague to check each other's forms. Check your followup autoresponders that are set to go out after someone makes a purchase, as well, to ensure that they are still up-to-date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Websites that are obviously out-of-date or aren't working properly are a huge deterrent to doing business with you. Check these 7 key areas yearly on your site to convey to your visitors that your site is regularly updated and maintained.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Internet Marketing Strategist and Boomer Biz Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses that they love by demystifying and simplifying the tools and strategies needed to market and grow their businesses online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at &lt;a href="http://www.onlinebizu.com/"&gt;OnlineBizU.com&lt;/a&gt;. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at  &lt;a href="http://www.askdonnagunter.com/"&gt;AskDonnaGunter.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-9129014503540156207?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=b6wPPPzr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=KJYMBDgn"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=JqtyfxZ1"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=G16xDwsX"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=G16xDwsX" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=YKSxhvAy"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=o0F7Af6y"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=o0F7Af6y" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/qL7LZh8odgc" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.onlinebizu.com" title="Your 7-Point Annual Website Tune-up" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/9129014503540156207/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=9129014503540156207" title="3 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/9129014503540156207?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/9129014503540156207?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/qL7LZh8odgc/your-7-point-annual-website-tune-up.html" title="Your 7-Point Annual Website Tune-up" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>3</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/01/your-7-point-annual-website-tune-up.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;AkMMQ30zcCp7ImA9WxVSEUo.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-8376769957458852977</id><published>2009-01-05T11:00:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-01-05T11:01:22.388-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2009-01-05T11:01:22.388-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Virtual Assistants" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="VA" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Award" /><title>Cindy Opong wins VAccolade Award</title><content type="html">Wow. I am totally speechless this morning. I woke up to the announcement that I was nominated for and chosen to be the recipient for January 2009 of &lt;a href="http://vanetworking.com/"&gt;VANetworking's &lt;/a&gt;distinguished &lt;a href="http://vanetworking.com/blog/vaccolade/cindy-opong-of-creative-assistants/"&gt;VAccolade award&lt;/a&gt;. This is a huge honor as it means I've been recognized by my peers for outstanding service in our industry. I am so appreciative and feel undeserving. When you love the work you do and enjoy volunteering to make an organization (or multiple orgs!) better, you certainly don't expect to be recognized in this manner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can see more information about the award &lt;a href="http://vanetworking.com/blog/vaccolade/cindy-opong-of-creative-assistants/"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and also &lt;a href="http://www.vanetworking.com/vaccolade.htm"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And you'll want to also check out &lt;a href="http://vanetworking.com/"&gt;VANetworking's homepage&lt;/a&gt;. An awesome forum for Virtual Assistants and businesses looking to find a VA.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks to Tawnya and everyone behind the scenes at VANetworking - you rock!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-8376769957458852977?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=6ATRJyIt"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=YlIxmQ9X"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=yOvpnhQD"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=FLXGy7Qn"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=FLXGy7Qn" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=6NqD4XOy"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=YjmC6OAg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=YjmC6OAg" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/PheS1Sgc78k" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://vanetworking.com/blog/vaccolade/cindy-opong-of-creative-assistants/" title="Cindy Opong wins VAccolade Award" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/8376769957458852977/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=8376769957458852977" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8376769957458852977?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8376769957458852977?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/PheS1Sgc78k/cindy-opong-wins-vaccolade-award.html" title="Cindy Opong wins VAccolade Award" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2009/01/cindy-opong-wins-vaccolade-award.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0AFQ3Yzeip7ImA9WxRaFUg.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-2627509517004202864</id><published>2008-12-17T15:08:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-12-17T15:08:32.882-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-12-17T15:08:32.882-07:00</app:edited><title>Not sure which Social Media sites to Focus on?</title><content type="html">Are you trying to decide which Social Networking sites you should focus your time and attention on? This report from &lt;a href="http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com"&gt;Ignitesocialmedia.com&lt;/a&gt; will help you decide. Their report outlines demographics of the top Social Media sites including age, income, education &amp;amp; geography. Find out where your customers are spending their time!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2008-social-network-analysis-report/"&gt;The 2008 Social Network Analysis Report - Geographic - Demographic and Traffic Data Revealed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-2627509517004202864?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=h2ckUkK7"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=wDHESTFN"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=qZTbKZuG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=aEhp7wXr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=aEhp7wXr" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=EWWxY8uR"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=eKcYRCZv"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=eKcYRCZv" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/-mfzrONTBzI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2008-social-network-analysis-report/" title="Not sure which Social Media sites to Focus on?" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/2627509517004202864/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=2627509517004202864" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/2627509517004202864?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/2627509517004202864?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/-mfzrONTBzI/not-sure-which-social-media-sites-to.html" title="Not sure which Social Media sites to Focus on?" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-sure-which-social-media-sites-to.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;AkcHQXY4eSp7ImA9WxRbGUs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-5080255602177315374</id><published>2008-12-10T19:59:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-12-10T21:00:30.831-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-12-10T21:00:30.831-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="computers" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="contests" /><title>What would I do with $6000 from HP?</title><content type="html">If you haven't heard yet, &lt;a href="http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/blogger-magic/"&gt;HP has a program&lt;/a&gt; going on this month that allows 50 different bloggers to each give away $6000 worth of computers and software. Way cool, right? Each blogger has different rules and most of them have asked winners to give away a majority of the prize to others. And several of them have asked entrants to put the entry on their own blog. So, here's mine for the site http:&lt;a href="http://www.livingintheory.blogspot.com/"&gt; www.livingintheory.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the laptops I would keep for myself to replace my current one which has a super-&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SUCIMCQ9f-I/AAAAAAAAADQ/ccjGWo0vN94/s1600-h/computer+screen+crack.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SUCIMCQ9f-I/AAAAAAAAADQ/ccjGWo0vN94/s320/computer+screen+crack.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278368503626039266" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;cracked screen that is getting worse every day. That will be a big help financially and also for my business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The other computers I am super excited to give away! As I pondered who they would go to, it came to me that it would make sense to give them to aspiring Virtual Assistants - especially those who are financially struggling and can't afford to buy the computer that is so integral to this type of work. To choose these people, I will reach out to the VA organizations I volunteer for and ask for nominations. I will give the computers to aspiring VAs (small business owners) who volunteer for these professional organizations selflessly and give of themselves without expectation of reward or thanks. I have met so many Virtual Assistants who have awesome potential and are doing everything right to grow their business - they just don't have adequate tools to get them to the ultimate level they are capable of. Making a small difference in several people's lives would be such a great Christmas present to myself. When you give, you get in so many intangible ways! Many thanks to HP and all the bloggers for being so generous!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-5080255602177315374?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=uczx2EyH"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=ri9Q2z66"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=DlIMCLwA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=w6hamDMG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=w6hamDMG" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=6qxuGqPP"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=t32IiIrT"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=t32IiIrT" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/CNFtNswZx9Y" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/blogger-magic/" title="What would I do with $6000 from HP?" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/5080255602177315374/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=5080255602177315374" title="16 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/5080255602177315374?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/5080255602177315374?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/CNFtNswZx9Y/what-would-i-do-with-6000-from-hp.html" title="What would I do with $6000 from HP?" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SUCIMCQ9f-I/AAAAAAAAADQ/ccjGWo0vN94/s72-c/computer+screen+crack.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>16</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-would-i-do-with-6000-from-hp.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUcMQHk-cCp7ImA9WxRbFU0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-4713587594644464209</id><published>2008-12-05T12:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-12-05T12:58:01.758-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-12-05T12:58:01.758-07:00</app:edited><title>10 Twitter Tips For Traditional Media</title><content type="html">Attention, those in charge of online marketing for Media! You need to read this blog post from Steve Pratt:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.stevepratt.com/index.php/2008/12/01/10-twitter-tips-for-traditional-media/"&gt;10 Twitter Tips For Traditional Media&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Steve's first tip hit home - this is exactly what most of the media folks I follow on &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/copong"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt; are doing! They are using it as an &lt;a href="http://socialtnt.com/2007/11/13/rss-for-success-a-primer/"&gt;RSS Feed&lt;/a&gt; and not as an interaction tool. While there is some value in that, I can easily get that from the traditional RSS feed on their webpage. What I want from the media on Twitter is:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Some true breaking news (traffic accident on the Interstate, terroist attack, criminal loose in my area, etc.) - but not every news item that comes across their desk&lt;br /&gt;2. Personal interaction! Ask about our thoughts &amp;amp; ideas, what's newsworthy to us, what leads we might have for a story you're doing (like HARO but more locally focused). Slow news day? We'll have ideas for you! Need a witness to that accident? Bet they're online.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn"&gt;Rick Sanchez at CNN&lt;/a&gt; gets it - he lets us know what stories he's working on, asks for feedback and opinions, even reads some of the responses on air. There are others that get it too, but they're few and far between. So, if you're in media and are in the department responsible for your online presence on &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/copong"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=857245173"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;, etc. - please move away from just listing what's on your website already and start interacting with your readers &amp;amp; listeners. I promise you won't regret it!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-4713587594644464209?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=ADsNrlXA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=5AEGlEv8"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=QDyaQWnr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=BRxO22Hw"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=BRxO22Hw" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=4Iuhg4Pa"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=WcdrfYJ5"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=WcdrfYJ5" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/Q274TYSWyiA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.stevepratt.com/index.php/2008/12/01/10-twitter-tips-for-traditional-media/" title="10 Twitter Tips For Traditional Media" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/4713587594644464209/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=4713587594644464209" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/4713587594644464209?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/4713587594644464209?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/Q274TYSWyiA/10-twitter-tips-for-traditional-media.html" title="10 Twitter Tips For Traditional Media" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/12/10-twitter-tips-for-traditional-media.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CkEHR344eCp7ImA9WxRbEEw.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-584514390881803180</id><published>2008-11-29T18:59:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-11-29T19:03:56.030-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-11-29T19:03:56.030-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="contests" /><title>HP's Giveaway!</title><content type="html">HP has 50 bloggers participating in a &lt;a href="http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/blogger-magic/blogs.html"&gt;contest&lt;/a&gt; to win $6000 in computers &amp;amp; software. Each blogger sets their own rules to pick their winner and only a few start their contest each day. Today, I entered the contest at &lt;a href="http://www.liz-henry.blogspot.com/"&gt;http://www.liz-henry.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt; and later tonight I'll enter at &lt;a href="http://morningsidemom.wordpress.com/"&gt;http://morningsidemom.wordpress.com/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Join in the fun and I'll keep you posted!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-584514390881803180?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=pxki9QhJ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=PI9QL1Si"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=qK3srQAP"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=Bm4sqMIE"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=Bm4sqMIE" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=MwWZ8cQ9"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=eMXtefRE"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=eMXtefRE" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/5I09LYgLo9w" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/blogger-magic/blogs.html" title="HP's Giveaway!" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/584514390881803180/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=584514390881803180" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/584514390881803180?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/584514390881803180?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/5I09LYgLo9w/hps-giveaway.html" title="HP's Giveaway!" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/11/hps-giveaway.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CkMNRn8zcCp7ImA9WxRVFUQ.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-8553680512599018559</id><published>2008-11-13T08:34:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-11-13T08:34:57.188-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-11-13T08:34:57.188-07:00</app:edited><title>Social Networking: 7 Steps to More Traffic by Connecting and Repurposing Your Social Marketing</title><content type="html">A very &lt;a href="http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com/2008/11/social-networking-7-steps-to-more-traffic-by-connecting-and-repurposing-your-social-marketing.html"&gt;timely article&lt;/a&gt; from Online Marketing guru Donna Gunter. I'll be talking about this very subject today in a local seminar for business owners. Stay tuned for information on a series of Social Media seminars in the Colorado Springs area!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="entry-body"&gt;    &lt;p style="margin-top: 9px; margin-bottom: 9px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"&gt;I'm  lazy by nature and like to do as little work as possible.  Therefore, when I  have the opportunity to automate tasks, I jump at it.  As I started getting  heavily involved in social networking, I quickly became frustrated with having  to update my status at several sites, as well as trying to figure out how to  introduce my blog, my articles, and my ezine to my social networking audiences.   &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin-top: 9px; margin-bottom: 9px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"&gt;After  much trial and error, here's how I connect and repurpose all of my social  marketing strategies:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1.  &lt;strong&gt;Set up accounts&lt;/strong&gt;.  Make sure  that you have current accounts with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, and  any other social networking platforms you regularly use.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. &lt;strong&gt;Open  an account at Ping.fm&lt;/strong&gt;.  The &lt;a href="http://www.ping.fm/" target="_blank"&gt;Ping.fm&lt;/a&gt; service automatically updates your status on all of  your social networking sites, 21 of them at the current count. Depending on the  number of networks you use, it will take you 10-50 minutes to connect your  Ping.fm account to your various social network accounts.  However, once  everything is set up, you simply log into your Ping account, post your status  update (no more than 140 characters), and your status is automatically updated  on all of your social networking profiles.  Rather than posting updates directly  on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace, I instead use Ping.fm as the starting place  for my daily status updates.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. &lt;strong&gt;Display Twitters on other  accounts&lt;/strong&gt;.  If you go to your Setting tab in your Twitter account and  then down to "More Info URL", you will see a link to "Add Twitter to Your  Site."  By clicking on this link, you'll be taken to a page where you can add  your tweets in a separate box (not the Status updates area) in your MySpace and  Facebook profiles, on your blogger or Typepad blogs, or get the Flash or HTML  widgets to add to other sites like Squidoo lenses or to your website.  Just  follow the instructions connected to each application.  If you use Typepad for  your blog, you can also do this through the Widget gallery by finding Twitter  widget in the "Publishing Tools" section.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4.  &lt;strong&gt;Connect your  blogposts to Twitter&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href="http://www.twitterfeed.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Twitter Feed&lt;/a&gt; enables you to feed your blog posts to your  Twitter account. Simply create an account, go to "Create New Twitter Feed", and  enter the RSS feed of your blog.   You can control the frequency with which  Twitter displays your blog post, as well as the text used to preface your blog  feed.  I use "Blog update" to preface my posts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5.  &lt;strong&gt;Connect your  blogposts to Facebook&lt;/strong&gt;.  I use &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.typepad.com/"&gt;Typepad  &lt;/a&gt;for my blogs, so if you use a Wordpress blog, there are probably plugins  that handle this, as well.  When you create a new blog post, you can choose to  send a link to that post into Facebook. These links will appear in your  Mini-Feed on your Facebook profile, and may appear in your friends' News Feeds.   &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin-top: 9px; margin-bottom: 9px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"&gt;In your  Typepad account, go to Weblogs &gt; Configure &gt; Publicity, select "Prompt me  to share new posts on Facebook." When this item is selected, TypePad will  automatically display a prompt from Facebook when you create and publish a new  post on TypePad.  The Facebook prompt will only appear if you have selected the  option in your weblog's publicity settings, and only when you create and publish  a new post. The prompt will not appear when you save a post as draft, when you  edit a post, or when you change the status of a post from Draft to  Published.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6.  &lt;strong&gt;Update your EzineArticles.com account&lt;/strong&gt;.   Article marketing is a smart and easy way to drive traffic to your site.  If  you're submitting articles online to article directories, you definitely want to  be using &lt;a href="http://www.ezinearticles.com/" target="_blank"&gt;EzineArticles.com&lt;/a&gt;, the biggest and most popular article  directory online. To connect to Twitter, click on "Profile Manager" in your  account, then "Edit Author Bio" in your Author's Area. Add your Twitter account  information here. Each time a new article is accepted and published at  EzineArticles, a post is automatically made to your Twitter account.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7.   &lt;strong&gt;Update your aWeber account&lt;/strong&gt;:  I use &lt;a href="http://www.getmoreclientsautoresponder.com/" target="_blank"&gt;aWeber&lt;/a&gt; as my  email marketing service.  You can now send an automatic Twitter post to all your  followers on Twitter with a link to the HTML version of your ezine.  When you  create a broadcast in aWeber, select the option to publish a broadcast via RSS  feed or to an archive, and then enter your Twitter account info, When your ezine  is published, all of your Twitter followers will be notified.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are  probably others ways to connect the social networks and to repurpose content on  social networks, but these 7 steps are all I need at the moment.  Take 30  minutes out of your day to connect and repurpose your social networking, and  watch your traffic and list begin to grow!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt; Online  Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps  independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses,  leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim  your FR*EE gift, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="font-style: italic;"&gt;TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;, visit her  site at &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" href="http://www.onlinebizu.com/"&gt;OnlineBizU.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;. Ask Donna an  Internet Marketing question at  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" href="http://www.askdonnagunter.com/"&gt;AskDonnaGunter.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com/2008/11/social-networking-7-steps-to-more-traffic-by-connecting-and-repurposing-your-social-marketing.html"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-8553680512599018559?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=us8zG0Hv"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=qCGJxHbC"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=1iOkNrXc"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=AtSHOEAF"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=AtSHOEAF" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=lspGCkBO"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=20S3xo8I"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=20S3xo8I" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/dO73Ag1WARs" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com/2008/11/social-networking-7-steps-to-more-traffic-by-connecting-and-repurposing-your-social-marketing.html" title="Social Networking: 7 Steps to More Traffic by Connecting and Repurposing Your Social Marketing" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/8553680512599018559/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=8553680512599018559" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8553680512599018559?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8553680512599018559?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/dO73Ag1WARs/social-networking-7-steps-to-more.html" title="Social Networking: 7 Steps to More Traffic by Connecting and Repurposing Your Social Marketing" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/11/social-networking-7-steps-to-more.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;Ak8CR38zeip7ImA9WxRXEkw.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-2142771860291653924</id><published>2008-10-16T21:39:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-10-16T21:47:46.182-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-10-16T21:47:46.182-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Networking" /><title>So You Want To Be My Friend?</title><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;You're on &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;. You're on &lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;. You're on &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;. Now it seems like everyone wants to be your "Friend". Should you accept them all? Deny them? Aliza Sherman at &lt;a href="http://webworkerdaily.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Web Worker Daily&lt;/a&gt; recently posted a great article to help you navigate the waters:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;"Like anyone using social networks for my work, I struggle with the friend feature. There are a number of theories of how and why to friend other people and when to accept friend requests. Clearly, having more “friends” on your social networks has its benefits, but if friending is done randomly, how much value are those very random “friends” for your business goals?"&lt;span class="zemanta-reblog-cite" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: right; display: block; width: 100%;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/10/13/building-friends-lists-and-influencing-people/" target="_blank"&gt;Web Worker Daily&lt;/a&gt;, Oct 2008&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;span class="zemanta-reblog-cite" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: right; display: block; width: 100%;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Check out the rest of the article &lt;a href="http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/10/13/building-friends-lists-and-influencing-people/" target="_blank"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Personally, my policy depends on the platform. On Twitter I do exactly what Aliza suggests in her article. On Facebook, I limit it to those I actually know &lt;em&gt;of&lt;/em&gt; or have some sort of existing relationship with. On LinkedIn, I'll accept most anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What's your policy? How are you friending?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="font-style: italic;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;Want to be my "Friend"? Follow me on &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=857245173" target="_blank"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/copong" target="_blank"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt; and&lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/cassts" target="_blank"&gt; LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-2142771860291653924?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=LC4kDSs8"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=yHDpJcef"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=jpDAN3Q9"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=O5JjR7EX"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=O5JjR7EX" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=1RN3wGE0"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=ZN63Cbho"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=ZN63Cbho" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/N_NIhTA_COY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/10/13/building-friends-lists-and-influencing-people/" title="So You Want To Be My Friend?" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/2142771860291653924/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=2142771860291653924" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/2142771860291653924?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/2142771860291653924?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/N_NIhTA_COY/so-you-want-to-be-my-friend.html" title="So You Want To Be My Friend?" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/10/so-you-want-to-be-my-friend.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0UGSXo4eyp7ImA9WxRTFk8.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-1845460005268587924</id><published>2008-09-05T08:40:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-09-05T08:40:28.433-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-09-05T08:40:28.433-07:00</app:edited><title>What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups</title><content type="html">Fellow Virtual Assistant Kathie Thomas (from Australia) posted this fantastic article today about etiquette on Yahoo Groups. When participating in any email list or group, these tips are important reminders to us all:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- Use full sentences, not jargon that you would use on IM or while texting.&lt;br /&gt;- Don't assume someone meant to offend - ask them offlist.&lt;br /&gt;- Re-read your message before posting.&lt;br /&gt;- When replying, delete anything not pertaining to your reply.&lt;br /&gt;- If you change the topic, change the subject line.&lt;br /&gt;- Avoid using wallpaper backgrounds.&lt;br /&gt;- Check your grammar!&lt;br /&gt;- Include a signature line&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Read her full article here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://soho-life.com/blog/2008/09/05/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-at-yahoogroups/"&gt;soho-life.com » What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-1845460005268587924?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=no4wF3X8"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=tkc3X0kV"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=jS5DMK7D"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=Cwzw5DC4"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=Cwzw5DC4" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=gayzsWH3"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=17E0YwIA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=17E0YwIA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/zWRv0ogRlfY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://soho-life.com/blog/2008/09/05/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-at-yahoogroups/" title="What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/1845460005268587924/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=1845460005268587924" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/1845460005268587924?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/1845460005268587924?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/zWRv0ogRlfY/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-at.html" title="What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-at.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CUMEQHs4eCp7ImA9WxRTEk4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-7322185328719467846</id><published>2008-08-31T18:40:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-31T18:43:21.530-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-08-31T18:43:21.530-07:00</app:edited><title>Employee vs. Virtual Assistant</title><content type="html">&lt;span family="Arial"  style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;div class="Article"&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;div class="Article"&gt;&lt;div class="Article"&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:130%;color:#990000;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span family="Arial"  style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:130%;color:#990000;"&gt;&lt;b&gt; Employee vs. Virtual Assistant&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;Now that you've decided you need some help for the administrative and day-to-day aspects of your business, you have a decision to make: &lt;span style="color:#000099;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;Hire an employee or use a Virtual Assistant?&lt;/i&gt; &lt;/span&gt;Here are some things to consider when making your decision:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;Employee (or a "Temp")&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px;" src="http://app.icontact.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/143669/21933a11b9a55c9a9e21bbf3f4287a79/image/jpeg" alt="" title="" align="right" width="135" height="168" /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;b&gt;Pros: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › You can set their schedule and how they do certain tasks.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › Low(er) hourly rate&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › Often able to come into your office to answer phones, file paperwork, etc.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;Cons:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › Must pay payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, liability insurance, possibly benefits, bonuses, etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › Might need to provide equipment (computer, desk, software, etc.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › Must provide and pay for training&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › You will be paying for break times and other non-productive time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › How long will they stay? Are there advancement opportunities?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;You will likely need to promise a certain number of hours per week.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;Virtual Assistant&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;b&gt;Pros: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › They have advanced skills and experience in a variety of software and programs. If you find a VA specializing in your industry they will already know industry-specific software, trends, and lingo.&lt;br /&gt; › No benefits, taxes, or insurance to pay.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › No equipment needed - they provide their own!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › They are invested in your business and want to work with you long-term.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"&gt;You can commit to a lower number of hours (or maybe not commit at all).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › You only pay for actual time spent on your project(s).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;Cons:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › They won't come into your office to file or answer the phone (although some offer remote phone answering).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt; › Higher hourly rate (offset by not paying overhead &amp;amp; taxes).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"&gt;A Virtual Assistant isn't for everyone. Certain industries need employees and some use both employees and Virtual Assistants. To successfully use a Virtual Assistant be prepared to work virtually (more on that in the next issue!), build a long-term relationship, and be open to new ideas. Now that you're informed, the choice is up to you!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-7322185328719467846?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/C02joCG5ZFc" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://community.icontact.com/p/creativeassistants/newsletters/news/posts/creative-assistants-newsletter-july-24-2008" title="Employee vs. Virtual Assistant" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/7322185328719467846/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=7322185328719467846" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/7322185328719467846?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/7322185328719467846?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/C02joCG5ZFc/employee-vs-virtual-assistant.html" title="Employee vs. Virtual Assistant" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/08/employee-vs-virtual-assistant.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;D04HQH8zfCp7ImA9WxRTEEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-8974805059229757585</id><published>2008-08-29T20:12:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-29T20:12:11.184-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-08-29T20:12:11.184-07:00</app:edited><title>Join The Blog Boost Giveaway!</title><content type="html">Novel idea and a way to get subscribers to their newsletter, friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and get their content out there online. Well, a chance to win a bunch of cool stuff is enough for me! :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.marketingfactor.com/blogmarketing/blog-boost/"&gt;Join The Blog Boost Giveaway! | MarketingFactor.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-8974805059229757585?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/pNG-wujRpaM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.marketingfactor.com/blogmarketing/blog-boost/" title="Join The Blog Boost Giveaway!" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/8974805059229757585/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=8974805059229757585" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8974805059229757585?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8974805059229757585?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/pNG-wujRpaM/join-blog-boost-giveaway.html" title="Join The Blog Boost Giveaway!" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/08/join-blog-boost-giveaway.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DU4BSHs6eyp7ImA9WxdaGUo.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-1816755672927642637</id><published>2008-08-28T19:45:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-28T19:45:59.513-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-08-28T19:45:59.513-07:00</app:edited><title>3rd Annual Online Virtual Assistants Summit</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-1816755672927642637?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=E5NSHmDQ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=xVhpcgat"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=of2REfiW"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=PgJoMSCA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=PgJoMSCA" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=nIoyxIG9"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=nUWLHNok"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=nUWLHNok" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/0kSSnsxMMfI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://online.vasummit.org/index.html" title="3rd Annual Online Virtual Assistants Summit" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/1816755672927642637/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=1816755672927642637" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/1816755672927642637?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/1816755672927642637?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/0kSSnsxMMfI/3rd-annual-online-virtual-assistants.html" title="3rd Annual Online Virtual Assistants Summit" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/08/3rd-annual-online-virtual-assistants.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CUYFRXw6fip7ImA9WxdaF0U.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-3442473963463501973</id><published>2008-08-26T13:38:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-26T13:38:34.216-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-08-26T13:38:34.216-07:00</app:edited><title>  Why does ROI in social media suck?</title><content type="html">A great article by Charles Heflin on the ever increasing social media/networking craze. While many businesses are skeptical about the value of spending time on &lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.myspace.com"&gt;MySpace&lt;/a&gt;, and a myriad of other sites, Charles says:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;"The level of success in social media (as determined by ROI) is directly proportional to the speed at which you gain trust among your audience, the social nature of your products/services, and the nature of your social network traffic conversion funnel (sales funnel). Don’t confuse a social network traffic conversion funnel with traditional Internet marketing tactics."&lt;/blockquote&gt;Check out the full article here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.charlesheflin.com/roi-in-social-media/"&gt; Why does ROI in social media suck? by Charles Heflin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And if you're on any of these sites, come follow me!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Twitter: &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/copong"&gt;www.twitter.com/copong&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Facebook: &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=857245173"&gt;www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=857245173&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cassts&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-3442473963463501973?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=knjidhep"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=jqcqCnU2"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=7A7xqAop"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=waTFoEtN"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=waTFoEtN" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=Jupiya5P"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=AwkmbUGS"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=AwkmbUGS" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/63jwKbfqd1w" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.charlesheflin.com/roi-in-social-media/" title="  Why does ROI in social media suck?" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/3442473963463501973/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=3442473963463501973" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/3442473963463501973?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/3442473963463501973?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/63jwKbfqd1w/why-does-roi-in-social-media-suck.html" title="  Why does ROI in social media suck?" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-does-roi-in-social-media-suck.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkINQH87fCp7ImA9WxdbGU0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-649456868668752570</id><published>2008-08-16T09:33:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-16T09:36:31.104-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-08-16T09:36:31.104-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Web Development" /><title>5 Critical Questions To Ask BEFORE You Hire a Web Designer</title><content type="html">&lt;h3 class="entry-header"&gt;5 Critical Questions To Ask BEFORE You Hire a Web Designer&lt;/h3&gt;           &lt;p&gt;         &lt;span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"&gt;Whether you're  building a website or a blogsite, the investment in a designer can be fairly  significant.  It's at this point that many service business owners decide to cut  costs and have their 16-year old nephew design their site.  This works out well  until something breaks (with technology, it's never a question of IF it will  break, only WHEN) and your nephew is out of touch because he just started his  first year of college and can't be bothered.  What are you going to do?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To run an online business, your website is your key to success.  People arrive  on your doorstep (site) like they might in a retail establishment, and decide  within 5 seconds if they're going to stay and look around or if they're going to  leave.  It pays to invest some money in your site, as your site is the first  stop on the like, know and trust journey that prospects experience with you.   You need to be perceived as legitimate, as a "real" business, and as the  solution to the problems that ail your prospective clients. If you're not able  to design your own site, an experienced website designer can help finesse this  relationship with your visitors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How can you determine if your designer will create a site that you like and is  useful?  I've heard many horror stories over the years about the experiences  that services business owners have had regarding the creation and maintenance of  their websites.  Here are 5 critical questions that you should have answered  before hiring a web designer:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1.  &lt;strong&gt;Site Ownership&lt;/strong&gt;. First and foremost, you should ask if you own the  final version of your site and the graphic source files. I've discovered that  many web designers do NOT work on a work-for-hire basis.  Instead, they maintain  the copyright to the design of your site, so if you don't want to use that same  company for site updates and maintenance, for example, they will not release any  source files to another designer.  Consequently, you will have to pay to have  your site redesigned all over again. At the very least you should obtain a  license to use the files in perpetuity and be able to make revisions to them in  the future.  This same rule applies to any special fonts or special applications  developed for the site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A second key issue in site ownership is ownership of your domain name.  If your  site design includes purchasing the domain name for your site, be sure that your  domain's purchase is credited to you and registered to you as the administrative  and technical contact.  Many times the web design company registers your domain  name and lists themselves as the contact, or actually purchases the domain and  is considered the owner. At that point it becomes almost impossible to get your  username and password for the account should you need to make any changes to  your domain registration or to even prove ownership.  Purchase your domain  BEFORE beginning any work on a website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2.  &lt;strong&gt;Ongoing maintenance and hosting&lt;/strong&gt;.  Secondly, determine if you will be  locked into a maintenance contract or hosting contract with the designer.  Are  they using any special software or application that will tie you to a particular  type of hosting service? This may not be problematic for you initially, but  ensure that you've got the flexibility to change your mind in case the design  company is sold, for example, and dramatically increases their prices. Once the  site is up, can you buy a program, like Adobe Contribute, for example, and do  simple site updates yourself or must you use their company for any updates?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3.  &lt;strong&gt;Experience with similar companies&lt;/strong&gt;. Thirdly, take a look at their  portfolio and be sure you like their previous work and that they have experience  in web design for companies like yours. Call 1-2 of their clients (from the  portfolios) and ask the client how easy the design company was to work with and  how satisfied they are with the final product.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4.  &lt;strong&gt;Marketing experience&lt;/strong&gt;.  Many web designers are simply that -- great  web designers.  They can make your site sit up and bark and run around in  circles, if you like.  However, the newest, coolest, showiest and flashiest  technology is oftentimes NOT what you need to bring you the most traffic, get  your site found in search engines, and convert prospects to customers.  Don't  fall for the glitz and glam that you see in a designer's portfolio.  The best  sites are simpler sites with a clean design and distinct marketing elements,  like a clear call to action as seen in an email list signup box.  If you can  find a designer who excels at both design and marketing, you have found a gem  whom you need to hold onto.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5.  &lt;strong&gt;Return on investment (ROI)&lt;/strong&gt;.  Asking a designer about the ROI for  their clients is somewhat sneaky.  In essence, what you're doing is determining  their longevity (will they still be in business tomorrow), as well as their  followup strategy in terms of staying in touch with clients to see how their  businesses are doing.  A web designer who stays in touch is one who's concerned  about your success and is one that is much more likely to create a website that  will produce profitable results for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The creation of your online presence can be a very expensive failure that takes  much longer than anticipated.  Don't let yourself be the next victim! Before  hiring a website designer, make sure s/he answers these questions to your  satisfaction, and you'll be on the path to a profitable relationship with a  talented professional who can help your online business grow.  &lt;/span&gt;         &lt;/p&gt;          &lt;span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Online Business Resource  Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent         service professionals  learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the  Internet, and get more clients online. To         claim your FR*EE gift,  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="font-style: italic;"&gt;TurboCharge Your Online         Marketing Toolkit&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;, visit her site at         &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" href="http://www.onlinebizu.com/"&gt;         OnlineBizU.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;. Ask Donna an Internet         Marketing question at           &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" href="http://www.askdonnagunter.com/"&gt;AskDonnaGunter.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-649456868668752570?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=6QGRrxps"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=W9IxGgZ4"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=nnCkvkxX"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=0xvvmj1G"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=0xvvmj1G" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=lqOmoigp"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=O6h9r3k1"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=O6h9r3k1" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/RQo0KqiMZ4g" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com/2008/07/5-critical-questions-to-ask-before-you-hire-a-web-designer.html" title="5 Critical Questions To Ask BEFORE You Hire a Web Designer" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/649456868668752570/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=649456868668752570" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/649456868668752570?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/649456868668752570?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/RQo0KqiMZ4g/5-critical-questions-to-ask-before-you.html" title="5 Critical Questions To Ask BEFORE You Hire a Web Designer" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/08/5-critical-questions-to-ask-before-you.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0QEQXc5eSp7ImA9WxdVGUw.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-1496012487964866831</id><published>2008-07-24T07:48:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-07-24T07:55:00.921-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-07-24T07:55:00.921-07:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Virtual Assistants" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Business" /><title>Summer Speaker Series: Forty-Two Speakers in One Month</title><content type="html">&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=813836&amp;amp;u=www.summerspeakerseries.com"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SIiXhA7j6MI/AAAAAAAAADE/wV8p8gSGzg0/s320/summerspeakerseries.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5226593961004755138" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;My colleague, Erin Blaskie, is hosting the first annual &lt;a href="http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=813836&amp;amp;u=www.summerspeakerseries.com"&gt;Summer Speaker Series&lt;/a&gt; featuring an amazing line-up of speakers including James Roche, Christina Merkley, Sheri McConnell, Alexis Neely, Allana Pratt, Lou Bortone, Viki Viertel, Lynn Scheurell, Kathie Thomas, Debbie LaChusa, Wendy Weiss, Terri Z, Donna Gunter, Diana Ennen and so, so, so many more.&lt;/span&gt;       &lt;p class="style1" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;Here’s the deal... She’s featuring TWO speakers PER DAY for the entire month of August (not including weekends because really, who likes working weekends?)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;p class="style1" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;The best part is that this amazing series of speakers is priced VERY affordably.  It’s going to be one of the hottest events of the summer and you’ve got an invitation from me!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;p class="style1" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;Simply click through this &lt;a href="http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=813836&amp;amp;u=www.summerspeakerseries.com"&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; and register today.  You won’t be disappointed and I’ll be there participating as well!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;p class="style1" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;You can purchase a seat in one track, two tracks or get audio downloads included too (along with your live seat) so what are you waiting for!  I’ve heard there is a cap of 200 people due to the bridge line and with the speakers involved, that won’t last long!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;p class="style1" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;Visit the &lt;a href="http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=813836&amp;amp;u=www.summerspeakerseries.com"&gt;Speaker Series page&lt;/a&gt; and  register now... ‘see’ you on the calls!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;p class="style1" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;Cindy &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-1496012487964866831?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=7MDfvFUB"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=ADb8F2iT"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=psBdzXm7"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=eijcJ0FJ"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=eijcJ0FJ" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=yzqNWM08"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=zMHBH231"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=zMHBH231" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/wvmoWt5OoWE" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=813836&amp;u=www.summerspeakerseries.com" title="Summer Speaker Series: Forty-Two Speakers in One Month" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/1496012487964866831/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=1496012487964866831" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/1496012487964866831?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/1496012487964866831?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/wvmoWt5OoWE/summer-speaker-series-forty-two.html" title="Summer Speaker Series: Forty-Two Speakers in One Month" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SIiXhA7j6MI/AAAAAAAAADE/wV8p8gSGzg0/s72-c/summerspeakerseries.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-speaker-series-forty-two.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkMMRH8-fSp7ImA9WxdVFk0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-9219362174349349323</id><published>2008-07-20T18:41:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-07-20T18:41:25.155-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-07-20T18:41:25.155-07:00</app:edited><title>Generational Tension The Facebook Generation? - BusinessWeek</title><content type="html">Liz Ryan explores the fear that upcoming workers (i.e. today's teenagers and college kids) will spend their work days whiling away on Facebook and other social sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.businessweek.com/business_at_work/generation_gap/archives/2008/07/the_facebook_ge.html"&gt;Generational Tension The Facebook Generation? - BusinessWeek&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-9219362174349349323?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=nzrXOrXL"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=V0snu65t"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=mJV2RWB5"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=Xhbcv827"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=Xhbcv827" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=DleQC0nA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=ugvgw507"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=ugvgw507" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/hzj78xbFkRY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.businessweek.com/business_at_work/generation_gap/archives/2008/07/the_facebook_ge.html" title="Generational Tension The Facebook Generation? - BusinessWeek" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/9219362174349349323/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=9219362174349349323" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/9219362174349349323?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/9219362174349349323?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/hzj78xbFkRY/generational-tension-facebook.html" title="Generational Tension The Facebook Generation? - BusinessWeek" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/07/generational-tension-facebook.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0IGQXg5fip7ImA9WxdWGE4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-8896545276947689862</id><published>2008-07-11T19:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-07-11T19:58:40.626-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-07-11T19:58:40.626-07:00</app:edited><title>The Digital Vanishing Act</title><content type="html">George Colony muses on things vanished as a result of today's digital technology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"My CDs made my records go away...&lt;br /&gt;...my iPod made my CDs go away. All of my music (and I love music) is now held in my hand. "&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Read the entire blog post at &lt;a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/colony/2008/07/digital-making.html"&gt;George F. Colony: The Digital Vanishing Act.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-8896545276947689862?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/uybRYhdCniM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://blogs.forrester.com/colony/2008/07/digital-making.html" title="The Digital Vanishing Act" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/8896545276947689862/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=8896545276947689862" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8896545276947689862?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/8896545276947689862?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/uybRYhdCniM/digital-vanishing-act.html" title="The Digital Vanishing Act" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/07/digital-vanishing-act.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkIHSH4zfip7ImA9WxdWF0Q.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-5282767593928954356</id><published>2008-07-11T09:42:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-07-11T09:42:19.086-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-07-11T09:42:19.086-07:00</app:edited><title>Creative Assistants Newsletter - July 11, 2008 - iContact Community</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://community.icontact.com/p/creativeassistants/newsletters/news/posts/creative-assistants-newsletter-july-11-2008"&gt;Creative Assistants Newsletter - July 11, 2008&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In This Issue:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do You Need Help? How to Know!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Twitter on the Brain&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Xobni: Take Back Your Inbox!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-5282767593928954356?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=EYEsaqbA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=u7uo5WIq"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=xrwme1Pi"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=8rY5kHrm"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=8rY5kHrm" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=5Xi2FsPN"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=zigRkz4m"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=zigRkz4m" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/lIKyivPQniw" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://community.icontact.com/p/creativeassistants/newsletters/news/posts/creative-assistants-newsletter-july-11-2008" title="Creative Assistants Newsletter - July 11, 2008 - iContact Community" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/5282767593928954356/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=5282767593928954356" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/5282767593928954356?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/5282767593928954356?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/lIKyivPQniw/creative-assistants-newsletter-july-11.html" title="Creative Assistants Newsletter - July 11, 2008 - iContact Community" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/07/creative-assistants-newsletter-july-11.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkMBQH45fCp7ImA9WxdXGU8.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14379296.post-6571452633872155764</id><published>2008-07-01T08:00:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-07-01T08:00:51.024-07:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2008-07-01T08:00:51.024-07:00</app:edited><title>Writing Email That Gets Answered</title><content type="html">Chris Brogan has some excellent tips to follow when you want an answer for emails you send!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/writing-email-that-gets-answered/"&gt;Writing Email That Gets Answered | chrisbrogan.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14379296-6571452633872155764?l=creativeassistants.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="feedflare"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=KRZNKpkP"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=41" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=DOigt0nh"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=43" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=buLjIc98"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=50" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=a56TUECL"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=a56TUECL" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=eycq44Kp"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?d=52" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?a=gTFMtAN8"&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/blogspot/cassts?i=gTFMtAN8" border="0"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~4/yBJqZf_ZYvg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="related" href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/writing-email-that-gets-answered/" title="Writing Email That Gets Answered" /><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/feeds/6571452633872155764/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14379296&amp;postID=6571452633872155764" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/6571452633872155764?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/14379296/posts/default/6571452633872155764?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/cassts/~3/yBJqZf_ZYvg/writing-email-that-gets-answered.html" title="Writing Email That Gets Answered" /><author><name>Cindy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/17489210164862366862</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="21" height="32" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K8GGrpz6Q9I/SDorZs27k8I/AAAAAAAAAB8/IktEe6lpI_I/S220/Opong-C333-Web.jpg" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/2008/07/writing-email-that-gets-answered.html</feedburner:origLink></entry></feed>

