Hi everyone!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday! I'm just now getting into the habit of blogging on a business level - I think.

When I was in my teenage years, Xanga.com was the best way to go and that was mostly my personal life - college struggles, starting the virtual assistant business, going through pregnancy, etc.

Is it a bad thing to include your personal and business blogs together? I haven't really blogged much on the VA business all together, but wasn't sure if I could do some type of mixture?

What are your thoughts?

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Aspiring VA - Jean
http://network.govirtualwithjean.com

I don't blog on a personal level. My blogs are for my business. There may be some personal information there. But for the main part it's for business. I don't believe it's in your best interests to mix the two if you want to put forth a professional image.

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Sue L Canfield
AwesomeAssistant.info
My Blog

I have always kept my business and personal blogs on different domains for the same reason Sue mentions. If you think about the companies you're aware of that do publish company blogs - how often do you find articles of a personal nature?

I know that because we're small business, often working with other small businesses, the tendency is to create and maintain very personal relationships - and that's great, but only really appropriate once the initial working relationship has been establshed.

I'd suggest that personal blog topics, while endearing in their own right, might actually put off potential clients looking for a serious, professional, and business-minded VA. (But congrats on the pregnancy!! )

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I'm going to be the oddball here and admit that my blog is a combination of both personal and professional. The reasons are:
#1) I stink at formal writing. It literally gives me a headache. I am in the process of writing my second article and it's week 2 since the beginning of production. Urghhh! I find it very trying. I can't wait until I can afford to outsource this aspect of my business.
#2) Not to sound conceited, but I think the best quality about my business is me. I am what I want to sell. I love (most) people and helping others is the fruit of my existence. “Me” includes all of me, dreams, experiences, hardships and so forth. I'm far from perfect, but I never give up. I'm not afraid to splatter that all over cyberspace. I am who I am, love it or hate it. I am a good person who bleeds love into the universe. If that's not what my potential clients are looking for, then they can look elsewhere. Others may feel judgment against my perspective; I can live with that. I attract what I put out there and that is my intention.
Dawn

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Dawn Lawson | At Your Service
http://freelanceadminsupport.com

I am just starting out and do not have a website or blog as yet. But I have been going to as many as I can be connected to through this forum. They are all very interesting and I have learned so much. Thank you all. Dawn, I particularly enjoyed your blog. It had that personal touch, as you said it did. I like the fact that you are comfortable enough with yourself to put yourself out there for everyone to see. Like you said, you are what you are trying to sell, so why not market that. I will continue to go to as many websites and blogs so that when I actually start mine, I have many great examples of what they should look like. Thanks.

Thanks Pam! I appreciate your kind words!

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Dawn Lawson | At Your Service
http://freelanceadminsupport.com

Dawn,

I appreciate that you gave another point of view here, because my blog wasn't originally meant to be for business, but I find as I go along that it's not exactly personal, either. It's just me, my voice dealing with life ... and my business is a part of that. 'Course, it's not really personal - no what-I-had-for-lunch or takes on the latest flick - but it's the writing I do naturally when free of other constraints.

Now I'm tempted to make my blog a part of my business website, for the very reason that it shows pretty realistically who I am, and I'm guessing it could attract the right kind of clientele for me.

BUT, in the end, it's harder than that - i.e., I really should keep my current blog as is and create a new (additional) one for my site, focused on VA-dom. Or, better yet, do some synthesis of the two, with my personal perspectives informing VA issues .... hmmmmm.

I think this is a process of becoming who you are ... ? Or maybe at least recognizing your perfect niche.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Thank you Mary. I appreciate the support. Mine isn't really personal either. I'm not discussing arguments I have with my other half or anything. But if I write as though I was writing an e-mail (or forum post ), the words flow more naturally.

Dawn

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Dawn Lawson | At Your Service
http://freelanceadminsupport.com

I don't blog on a personal level as such, but I do sometimes incorporate some homelife into it if it's relevant to what I'm writing. I guess it's my way of letting my personality shine through, something my website doesn't really do because it's pretty static.

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Kels

www.kellycairns.co.uk

I don't have a blog as yet, but I have found while surfing and looking at others blogs, (not just in the VA industry), that the ones that I read more often, are more personalised. It gives a glimpse of the person rather than just a business and that is the type of blog that I would like to have.
The same goes with newsletters, again I find that the ones I continue with, are ones where the personality of the writer comes through.

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Vicky
www.c-vas.eu