TEN easy steps you can follow to get yourself set up online with no $$ investment, no knowledge of websites, and just a little bit of time! 
Many new and emerging Virtual Assistant's are either too busy or too muddled by the idea and possible expense of design and code to go about setting up a full-on website. But that doesn't mean you have to go without a web presence and forego all the excitement over getting indexed by the search engines and having a place to point potential clients who want to see your 'portfolio' or learn more about your services.
For
ZERO money, nada, zilch, none - and just a little bit of time invested you can set yourself up online with a professional looking, easy to update and maintain web presence. Follow these easy step-by-step instructions and you're all set -
1. Go to www.phpblogmanager.com and sign up for a free blog account by clicking 'Create a blog'
(Yes, there are a zillion good free blogging programs out there, if you want to try one of those that's OK too, but PHP Blog Manager is our own in-house program - it's the one *we* use to keep our clients blogging as well as for our own personal blogs - we think it's the best 
and suggest you give it a shot. These instructions are specifically for that program, but you can apply the general idea to any blog program to be sure!)
2. Now you're going to create a few settings in your account and select a template - this is the design of your blog.
While logged in to your new account go to 'Settings' in your control panel.
IGNORE everything in that section except the 'links list title' - give this a name like 'Resources' or 'Links'. You will add your favorite links later.
Then choose your template style (Don't worry too much about it you can change these *any* time)!
Then, on the same page, way down at the bottom you can set the number of posts to show on the front page. Set this to whatever works for you, we recommend 30 (better for
SEO!)
Click 'Save'
3. Now you're going to make your 'About', 'Services', 'Rates', and 'Contact' pages.
Select 'Categories' in your control panel.
Create one category each as follows:
About
Services
Rates
Contact
4. Select 'New post' in your control panel.
Create a post entitled 'XXX Virtual Assistant Company Services' [whatever your company name is] select the 'Services' category.
Write up all your good stuff, your talents, your service info, etc.
Save this post once you've added all the info you want, added any images you'd like to include, etc.
5. Select 'New post' again
Create a post entitled 'About XXX Company' select the 'About' category.
Write up your bio, experience, hours - whatever you want to include that will tell potential clients about your company.
Save this post.
6. Select 'New post' again.
Create a post entitled 'XXX Company Rates'
Select the 'rates' category.
Write up your rate info. See how easy it is!
Save this post.
7. Select 'New post' again.
Create a post entitled 'Contact XXX Company'
Select the 'contact' category.
Write up all your contact info.
Save this post.
Now you've got FOUR pages, just like that, detailing all of your most important company info and you can edit, update, or add to it ANYTIME, without paying a designer or coder to come in and do it for you. You can just as easily add a 'Client testimonials' page, or a 'Company news' page.
Now, when your clients and potential clients come to your website they'll easily be able to find the info they're looking for by selecting the links in your category section.
8. Now you're going to add some links to your links list.
Select 'Links list' in your control panel.
This is easy to manage as well - just add the URL's for any resources you want to link to from your website, give them good titles that will tell people what they are. If you're listing resources for your small business clients you might want to go back to 'Settings' and rename your links list to something like 'Business Resources' etc. You can edit this anytime, on your own, in a matter of seconds.
9. Don't forget to write up your profile for the account.
Select 'Edit profile' and fill in the fields, upload an image, and you're all squared away.
10. In order for all of your new additions to show up on the web you'll want to hit 'Republish' in your control panel.
Select 'republish all' and let the blog program do it's thing.
Then, VOILA - you're online, all set, and ready to go. You can add to, edit, and play around with your new blog anytime you feel like you have new info to add, or just have something to say.
More tips for creating and maintaining your blog/website:
Don't forget to add categories for things related to your industry - this is a blog, after all, and the intention is that you maintain it by writing new posts at least every once in a while - best practice would be at least twice a week!
Give your post titles interesting, keyword rich titles because this is what the search engines, and people looking for your niche, are looking for and responding to.
Encourage comments on your blog by inviting people to respond and/or writing on controversial and otherwise interesting, conversational topics. Encourage even more comments by responding to the comments you do get.
Now, go put to all the Blog Directories you can find and submit your blog for inclusion.
Announce it here on the forums and add it to your username (instructions for how to do this are
here.) This will help your website/blog get indexed by the search engines right away!
(Because the engine spiders come here at least a gazillion times a day and snap up any new links, this guarantees that your site will be picked up ASAP!)
Spend time regularly going back over your main informational pages. Keep them current and updated!
If you have *any* questions at all just reply to this thread - we've been using PHP Blog Manager for over two years and can help you out with all kinds of tips and tricks to make YOURS even better!
No website? No problem! 10 steps to an online presence for FREE.
Stuck in startup? Stop dreaming. Start DOING! 
Re: No website? No problem! 10 steps to an online presence for FREE.
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
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