How to write a blog post with screenshots

by Sarah Santacroce

When writing my last post about Yahoo update changes, I realized that it would be way easier to explain the changes that Yahoo recently implemented by having some kind of visual support for my readers. As the old saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Basically whenever you write a “how to” post, I think a screenshot of the different steps to follow will simplify your instructions and grab your reader’s attention.

The best screen shot tool I found is called Aviary. Aviary is a FREE Firefox extension that is installed in a couple of clicks. It then gives you the choice of either:

- capturing only a certain region of a page
- capturing the visible portion of a page
- or capturing the entire page

Once you made your selection you can easily save it to your desktop as a .png file. Choose a customized title for your image, this will help you with your SEO. 

When using screen shots or any other picture on your blogs, make sure you also take advantage of the ALT attribute, using your main keywords.  One of my favorite bloggers who uses frequent screenshots is Ching Ya and her blog Social @ Blogging Tracker. Check out this post on “How to import Twitter Favorites to Facebook Page” and see for yourself how she engages her readers with a very interactive and colorful article :-)

Now it’s your turn! Do you know about an other great screen capturing tool that you want to share in the comments ?

 

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to my RSS Feed !

Understanding Yahoo!’s recent update changes

by Sarah Santacroce

A friend of mine recently kindly informed me that her Yahoo e-mail homepage was getting swamped with my updates. She didn’t exactly know where all these updates were coming from and neither did I, because I was sure I didn’t send her any e-mails. So I decided to investigate. Here is what I found out:

A couple of weeks ago, Yahoo expanded their “Updates” section and now also acts as a Social Media aggregator. What does that mean? It means that when you login to your Yahoo homepage, you now see your “friends” Yahoo status updates as well as updates on third party services (such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Stumble Upon etc.) that they have added to their Yahoo profile. Before, both parties had to “agree to be friends”, but in the new version the mutual follow is no longer a requirement.

So, to get back to my story: my friend received an update for each single tweet (and I tweet a lot!), each status update on Facebook and every blog post I published! Obviously she was slightly bothered by my invasion of her Yahoo account! And I’m so glad she told me so I could solve this issue! In order to avoid this situation for you, I decided to write this blog post and show you in 3 simple steps what to do:

Step 1 – Update your profile
While you’re at it, you might as well update your profile. Go to http://pulse.yahoo.com/, click on Profile and hit “Edit”

Step 2 – Manage your Settings
Go to http://pulse.yahoo.com/y/settings and you’ll find the following screen. From there you can update your Privacy settings, your Updates, your linked Accounts and your Notifications.

Step 3 – Manage your Updates
If you click on “Updates” you’ll see the following screen:

On this screen you will have to choose, which updates you want to share with your friends. If you are on Twitter, I recommend you don’t share your tweets, because you will end up swamping your friends’ homepage like I did. I decided to share my Blog posts, my Stumble Upon bookmarks and my Yahoo status updates. Up to you, which notifications you want to share…

I hope you found this post useful. Let me know your thoughts on Yahoo’s update changes…

I post other useful tips on my Facebook page. Why not join me ?

2 x 10 things (a personal post)

by Sarah Santacroce

If you read my blog on a regular basis (if you don’t, consider subscribing to my RSS :-) you know that I’m moving back to Europe at the end of the month. In an earlier post I wrote about the professional implications of this big move: what it means to be a Virtual Assistant in Europe. This time I’d like to share some more personal reflections, looking back at those 3.5 years living in California. While waiting to pick up my older son from school (the younger one was sleeping in the back of the car), I came up with this list of 2 x 10 things: the first list summarizes the 10 Top things I’ll miss most about our life in California and in the second list I put down the 10 things I look most forward to when thinking about going back to Europe.

They are not in order of importance!

10 things I’ll miss the most :

1. Sunshine !
2. Avocados
3. The Beach
4. Convenience of shopping whenever I feel like it
5. Friendliness and positive attitude of people
6. Our community pool
7. Eat out without spending a fortune
8. Mexican food
9. Calling people by their first name
10. Did I mention the sun?

10 things I look most forward to:

1. Family and friends
2. Mountains
3. Grocery store and school within walking distance
4. Home made food at dinner parties
5. Clean air
6. Different types of music on the radio, not just English!
7. Weekends in Paris, Florence, Barcelona…
8. Long summer nights (in California it get’s dark at 8 even in July)
9. The feeling of fitting in, being home
10. Good looking guys (sorry, Americans are just not my type :-)

There you have it :-) Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with my list :-)

Getting to know your future Virtual Assistant

by Sarah Santacroce

A couple of weeks ago, Christine Bearse, a fellow VA and champion for the advancement of the Virtual Assistant industry, asked me a couple of questions about myself and my business and posted the interview on her blog, VAProfiles. When choosing an assistant in the “real” world, you get to meet her in person, see her style, hear her voice and discover her hobbies. In the virtual world we have to work a little harder at getting to know the human being behind the gravitar. So Christine decided to start this blog to profile VAs with a bigger focus on their styles and personalities rather than on their rates and services. So in case you are looking for a Virtual Assistant, VAProfiles is a good way to start. Browse away and get to know your future VA.

Here’s an extract of my interview:

When I first “met” Sarah, she was living in California. Since then she has moved back to Switzerland where she has taken her VA business with her! Another great benefit of running a virtual office. Sarah Santacroce is the sole proprietor of Simplicity Admin Solutions. One of her unique talents is her ability to work in three languages (French, German and English). Her niche is multi-lingual assistance such as translations (English to German or French and vice versa) and internet marketing for small businesses or individual entrepreneurs. I asked her some questions about herself and her business, please see what she told me. Also be sure to check out her blog, I found lots of great information there.

Why did you become a VA?

I loved the idea of more flexibility, being able to be available part time for my kids, choosing the people I get to work with and just running my own business.

How do you prefer to communicate with clients? Phone, email, chat, combo?

I like to work with Skype and e-mail.

How do you stay organized? Do you have any organization tips?

I’m all about lists: to-do lists, task lists, priority lists, grocery lists…

How would your friends describe you?

Positive, good listener, usually in a good mood, very Swiss (meaning: on time, reliable, organized, picky about her chocolate)

How would your clients describe you?

Efficient, innovative, always finding better and faster ways

How do you feel about social media?

A must for small businesses! Social media offers small businesses so many free marketing opportunities which didn’t exist before. I’m thinking of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. It would be a pity if a business with a small marketing budget didn’t take advantage of them! Of course Social Media requires quite some time, so sometimes it makes sense to outsource these tasks to a Virtual Assistant.

To read the rest of the interview, click here.

Christine, thanks again for this great opportunity !
If you are a Virtual Assistant and would like to be get a profile on Christine’s website, please contact her through the e-mail on her site.

Related items:
- Find out more about Sarah Santacroce
- Why rocks? - Explaining my logo
- Learn German on Twitter – Find out why I’m posting one German word per day on Twitter
- Subscribe to my RSS Feed

Review of “Internet Marketing Specialist Class” by VAClassroom

by Sarah Santacroce

When I was researching the courses offered by VAClassroom, I was desperately looking for reviews from past class members to find out if this class was worth my money and time. I found some, but not as many as I’d hoped for. So this post is for YOU, who are considering to invest in yourself and attend one of VAClassroom’s high quality, intense content and very interactive classes!

Ok, so the class I’m attending right now (I’m in the 5th week of a 5 week long class) is called “Internet Marketing Specialist”. If you visit VAClassroom’s homepage, you’ll find a very detailed description of the lessons. Each lesson is not just a boring document to read at home, but a video presentation. It feels like you’re attending a private class in which Craig Cannings, co-owner and facilitator, talks to you in his lovely Canadian accent (eh!) and really wants you to understand all the details. You get 4 videos of average 30 – 40 minutes a week, plus 1 – 2 bonus demos of online tools. You can pause the video any time, review it as many times as you want, skip a part etc. On top of that, Craig gives you all the resources you need to implement and offer these Internet Marketing Services at your own business. Spreadsheets, checklists, links to online services, tips on how to charge for the services… you name, he has it. As if that wasn’t enough already, by signing up you also become part of the Internet Marketing Specialist Club, a community where members can connect, share ideas, ask questions and get feedback.

I won’t go over the details of each lesson, you’ll find those on their homepage, but here are just a few of the things that I’ve learned (and will soon be offering to my clients!):

• Develop a Marketing Strategy and Action Plan
• Create a Competitor Analysis Report
• Provide a Website Assessment
• Do keyword research and provide basic SEO on page guidelines
• Offer Link building services
• Article and Press Release Marketing
• E-Mail Marketing

So as you see, it’s very content intense and it will take you a while to not only watch the videos, but fully understand and implement all the services into your own business.

Once again, I’d like to summarize the benefits of this class:

• good value for your money
• high quality content through video lessons
• resources in form of spreadsheets, checklists etc
• demos for Online Tools (Google Analytics, AWeber, 1Shoppingcart, Market Samurai etc.)
• membership of the class community where you can ask questions
• “Internet Marketing Specialist” badge to promote your newly expanded skills on your website (can’t wait to get mine!)

I’m very happy that I decided to attend this class.
This is a very honest review and at the moment of writing it I’m not affiliated in any way with VAClassroom (it’s something I might consider in the future though, because I truly believe in their classes).

Now it’s your turn? Have you attended one of their classes? Please share your feedback in the comments!

Affordable translations provided by a bilingual Virtual Assistant

by Sarah Santacroce

Here’s the situation: you need to translate your website and have requested a couple of quotes from certified translators. But when you saw the prices, you had to sit down and after some thought, decided that it just wouldn’t fit in your budget for the moment. I’ll bet you any money that you haven’t received a quote from a bilingual Virtual Assistant!

Here are 6 facts you need to know about translations provided by bilingual or multilingual Virtual Assistants:

1. Compared to other cheap oversea translators, bilingual Virtual Assistants usually translate in to their native language, or a language they are VERY familiar with.
   
   
2. You get a human translation, not one created by a machine (such as translate.google.com)
   
   
3. You get a translation from somebody who is interested in your business and will be asking you questions about specific words, terms or meanings on your site or document
   
   
4. You get to ask for references of previous clients
   
   
5. Some bilingual Virtual Assistants are also specialized in SEO and internet marketing and won’t just translate the text, but also give you advice on how to market your site to the new target language. What’s the point of translating your site, if the potential clients of the added language don’t find it on Google, right?
   
   
6. Finally translations by bilingual Virtual Assistants are usually more affordable than those done by certified translators. Some VA’s charge by the hour, others by the word, but either way, you most likely get a better deal!

So, did I convince you to give it a try and hand your next translation job to a bilingual Virtual Assistant? Just ask for a quote and the VA will contact you to discuss your needs. Here are some contacts:

- for English to German translations (or German to English)
- for French to English translations
- for English to French translations
- for English to Italian or Spanish translations (or Italian and Spanish to English)

Please remember, most bilingual Virtual Assistants are not certified translators. So if you are looking for a more technical translation or just want perfection, I recommend you contact a certified translator.

Still not convinced about bilingual Virtual Assistants ? Find out more in these related posts:

- What exactly is a Virtual Assistant?
- How can a bilingual Virtual Assistant help you ?
- 5 benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant

1st Swiss Home Office Day: a big day for Virtual Assistants in Switzerland!

by Sarah Santacroce

3A8P8WB4DADQ

Today is a big day for Virtual Assistants and every other home based business owner in Switzerland! It's the 1st National Home Office Day ! The initiative, which is sponsored by Microsoft and other big national sponsors, tries to prove that quality of life, productivity and climate protection are not opposites. On the official website, individuals and businesses can participate by answering a couple of simple questions such as "How many days do you work at home per week?". The website will then calculate how much C02 the participant will save on average for the next year. My result was 163 kg of CO2!

The campaign is also supported by Swiss politicians. Moritz Leuenberger, Federal Council, is convinced that working from home will not only increase worker’s quality of life, but it would also have a big impact on the environment.
The website already counts more then 8000 participants, over 500 days of time savings and over 300 tons of saved CO2!

From my point of view this is a big step toward a new era: Swiss will start to see the benefits of telework and will be more open to outsource their non core business to people who are working from home. So let’s raise a glass and celebrate the 1st Swiss Home Office Day!!

Got you curious about Virtual Assistants? Find out more in the posts below:

- What exactly is a Virtual Assistant?
- Virtual Assistants in Europe
- How can a bilingual Virtual Assistant help you?
- 5 benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant