New DIrection for my Business

[adavant]

I am a ghostwriter with a "writing busines" A Writer for Hire http://awriterforhire.com. I am hoping to expand my business and was thinking of calling it virtual assistance but since talking with some VA's they encouraged me to call myself a "virtual professional".

I plan to specialize in the following in addition to my current article marketing and blog management services:

Specialties:

Wordpress installs and customizations
Setting up affiliate centers
Setting up items in Clickbank
Writing Sales Copy
Creating Sales Pages & Opt IN pages
Setting up Newsletters
Setting up Autoresponders

I am in need of a tagline and thoughts on how to promote this. Do I just add it to my current A Writer for Hire site?

Thoughts??

[David Jackson]

I am hoping to expand my business and was thinking of calling it virtual assistance but since talking with some VA's they encouraged me to call myself a "virtual professional".

I am in need of a tagline and thoughts on how to promote this. Do I just add it to my current A Writer for Hire site?

Alyssa, first of all, I disagree with the advice those VA's gave you. You are in essence "virtually assisting" small businesses, and individuals. As a consequence, I think you should call yourself a Virtual Assistant. The name "virtual assistant" took awhile to catch on, but now it's a universally accepted and commonly searched phrase in the search engines. You should use that to your advantage.

Also, instead of introducing your new VA specialties into your writer business (which could be confusing to prospects, and also dilute your writer brand), I would create an entirely new website and identity for your VA business - and link to it from your writer website.

Regarding how you should promote your new VA business, I highly recommend you join Tawnya Sutherland's Virtual Assistant Networking Association. (http://www.vanetworking.com/) Since the VA industry is their specialty, they can tell you better than anyone the type of promotional methods that have worked best for VA's over the years.

One last thing, when you come up with a name for your new VA business, announce it in this thread, and I'll write a great new tagline for you - absolutely free of charge! :)

David Jackson

[kdbbiz]

Alyssa,

I too am a writer who has become a Virtual Assistant. I have 2 websites also, although on my VA site, I have my writing service listed as well for those who do not want to have to go to another website link.

I am a member of Tawnya's VA association, and for those just getting set up, she offers great tips and ideas as well as some free resources in your emails once you join her list.

VAs are becoming quite popular these days and although many new people are starting up their own biz services, having your own specialties to offer still allows you to be competitive.

Don't try to offer too much or start out too big though or you may end up feeling overwhelmed or discouraged.

Good luck!

Melanie

[adavant]

Alyssa, first of all, I disagree with the advice those VA's gave you. You are in essence "virtually assisting" small businesses, and individuals. As a consequence, I think you should call yourself a Virtual Assistant. The name "virtual assistant" took awhile to catch on, but now it's a universally accepted and commonly searched phrase in the search engines. You should use that to your advantage.

Also, instead of introducing your new VA specialties into your writer business (which could be confusing to prospects, and also dilute your writer brand), I would create an entirely new website and identity for your VA business - and link to it from your writer website.

Regarding how you should promote your new VA business, I highly recommend you join Tawnya Sutherland's Virtual Assistant Networking Association. (http://www.vanetworking.com/) Since the VA industry is their specialty, they can tell you better than anyone the type of promotional methods that have worked best for VA's over the years.

One last thing, when you come up with a name for your new VA business, announce it in this thread, and I'll write a great new tagline for you - absolutely free of charge! :)

David Jackson

David,

Its funny that you say that and then refer me to Tawnya's group, because that's exactly where I got "said" advice. So...now i"m a bit confused as to what I should do.

I have an idea for a domain name and business name. Let me do some checking on it and I"ll get back to you, I'd love some help on the tag line.

Thanks,

Alyssa

[Sheakay]

Alyssa,
As a former ghostwriter who also provides other services, I have encountered the same problem you are debating right now. And at the time, the "VA" term wasn't as well known as it is now. But I did try to do it all on one site, and it wasn't a good idea. Thankfully most of my work comes from referrals, so I never did get around to separating it out.

If I were going to do it over again, I would have a separate site for my writing business and a separate site for my Niche VA services. And possibly do some cross-promotion between the two. But I found, people are looking for specific services and seem to have better faith in those who specialize than a "everything under one roof by one person" (everything under one roof by a team is different).

In your case, your writing services are geared towards bloggers (and others), so having an additional services page might not be a problem, but I would definitely set up a Virtual Assistant site as well and promote as a Virtual Assistant as well.

It's a matter of branding, in my opinion. You are already branded as a writer. Now let's do another brand as a VA. You can run both, and they are complimentary.

Hope that helps

[David Jackson]

Instead of introducing your new VA specialties into your writer business (which could be confusing to prospects, and also dilute your writer brand), I would create an entirely new website and identity for your VA business - and link to it from your writer website.

Alyssa, the reason you need to keep the two businesses separate is because of what I said in my first post about diluting your brand. You're already branded as a writer. Now you need to brand yourself as a VA.

I don't know why a virtual assistant organization would advise you not to call yourself a VA. It really makes no sense from a marketing standpoint. But with all due respect to Tawnya's organization, they're dead wrong in this instance.

Alyssa, if you'd like, I'd be happy come up with a great name for your VA business, as well as a great tagline. No charge, and absolutely no strings! Just let me know.

I've been blessed with plenty of good fortune in my life. This is just my way of giving back.

David Jackson

[adavant]

Alyssa, the reason you need to keep the two businesses separate is because of what I said in my first post about diluting your brand. You're already branded as a writer. Now you need to brand yourself as a VA.

I don't know why a virtual assistant organization would advise you not to call yourself a VA. It really makes no sense from a marketing standpoint. But with all due respect to Tawnya's organization, they're dead wrong in this instance.

Alyssa, if you'd like, I'd be happy come up with a great name for your VA business, as well as a great tagline. No charge, and absolutely no strings! Just let me know.

I've been blessed with plenty of good fortune in my life. This is just my way of giving back.

David Jackson

Thanks David, I have Private messaged you here in the forum. I want to Clarify that Tawnya didn't give me this advice herself, rather someone on the forum so it would be unfair to say that "her" or "her forums" gave me the advice. Just wanted to clarify that.

Thanks,

Alyssa

[David Jackson]

Thanks David, I have Private messaged you here in the forum. I want to Clarify that Tawnya didn't give me this advice herself, rather someone on the forum so it would be unfair to say that "her" or "her forums" gave me the advice. Just wanted to clarify that.

Okay, that explains a lot. I just couldn't believe that Tawnya would say something like that. Thanks for clarifying that!

David Jackson