Having a blog is certainly a wise decision. Now everyone seems to have a blog, it's a good way for people to express what they think.

Ivette

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Ivette Matos, Excel Virtual Services
http://www.excelvirtualservices.com

Hello,

You don't have to wait to start posting, but perhaps may not make it "public" until your business is ready to receive clients. For example, you could set up a blog on Wordpress.com, start posting, and just "hide" the blog entries. This way you'll have time to craft your posts, and when you do make the blog public, it will have lots of content already there for viewing. I have a blog for my VA business. I don't write a new post every day, but instead, I write several posts, and schedule them to be posted once a week. So it looks like I'm writing once per week, but instead, I'm actually writing in short bursts once a month, and then scheduling the posts to show up when I want them to be visible.

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Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke

Well, i tried to click on the checklist that Janine mentioned...I was denied. Not enough posts. I guess I'm just not legitimate. What a downer.
How am I supposed to post intelligently without support...but I can't get support because I don't post. Frustrating loop. But i suppose you are trying to keep out the "unsavory characters".
<sad>
~Susan

Just go for it, it's always the right thing to do to get something done rather than thinking it through too much and getting nothing done. Good luck.

Originally Posted by geeksontap

Hello, You don't have to wait to start posting, but perhaps may not make it "public" until your business is ready to receive clients. For example, you could set up a blog on Wordpress.com, start posting, and just "hide" the blog entries. This way you'll have time to craft your posts, and when you do make the blog public, it will have lots of content already there for viewing. I have a blog for my VA business. I don't write a new post every day, but instead, I write several posts, and schedule them to be posted once a week. So it looks like I'm writing once per week, but instead, I'm actually writing in short bursts once a month, and then scheduling the posts to show up when I want them to be visible.

I really like this idea. I've just had some ideas for posts and would like to jump on them before I lose the "passion". This is a great way to get it done without making it for all to see. I would just have to make sure that it's timely. Another thing I could do is just create the posts in word and then I can just transfer them to my blog after I get it up, which will allow me to tweak them to make them more timely before I make them public.

I agree with Janine, but if you have something to say, blog, blog and more blog. You don't have to publish but the articles will be ready in you pocket when that door opens. I wish the words flowed out of me in an easier matter, but I realize it takes practice and that's what I am doing.

Keep doing what you enjoy, then it 's not like work at all.

Cheers!!

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Bernice
Energy Virtual Assistant

I say why not. You could blog about business planning and the steps you are taking in starting your VA business. This can attract readers to you blog who may even become clients. You never know.

I like the idea of writting the blog posts and then adding them to the website once you get it up and running. Then, you already look "established" as soon as open! I'm actually going to do that myself, since I'm just in the setup part of my company!

Go with Wordpress as your blog & website. My opinion you can start with a blog, keep it on topic to the type of clients you'd like to attract. With using wordpress you can add pages as you need to, but you could start your blog off as a resource and then build from there.

Having the blog will help build interest in who you are and then when you are ready to launch your business you've already built in a readership to help with marketing.

So go for it, even if you do have someone showing interest in hiring you, you can either let them know that you're in start phase and you aren't taking any clients on then recommend them to someone. Or you never know they might be ready to have you as their VA even if you aren't completely ready.....

I like to use the mantra - Better to have it 90% done and out there than 100% and it's never known....

Renee Shupe
Redhead Business Management

I like Wordpress. I have a couple of blogs on Wordpress.com and I use it to run my hosted blog as well. I haven't used a lot of other blogging platforms, but it is quite easy to 'tweak.' I also like the option to move a .com blog to a hosted blog with very little effort.

GeeksonTap - I love the idea of scheduling the posts - it is nice to be able to give the impression that the blog is a bit more active than it may be in reality. =) And, if you're anything like me, it's good to have that 'cool down' period where you get the blogs out of your head, think about them for a little bit, and edit as needed.

BackstageVA - I'm with you, there. I would love to get to the 50 post mark so that I can see some of the more important things on the site, but there isn't a whole lot to post on. Not that there aren't a lot of threads, but we're not able to see them because of the post minimum. hehe.. It's going to take a while to get where we need to be - but I think it will be worth it in the end. =)