Okay ladies... brace yourselves for info overload! haha
(1) Referral Program
I actually use 1ShoppingCart (my shopping cart / email marketing system) and through that cart, I have an affiliate program that people can sign up to for free and promote my products and services. This is the service I use:
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/?pr=6&id=96539. My account level is the $79 per month one and you need this account to setup the affiliate program.
If you want, you can also signup to the affiliate program for free to find out what it's all about. You can do it here:
http://bsetc.ca/blog/bsetc-affiliates/. You don't need to do any promotion afterward but at least you can see from beginning to end what it looks like and how it works.
My clients who promote my products receive 30% of the total purchase price when one of their referrals purchase. When they promote services, they get 10% of the total purchase price per month for the LIFE of the client. These are great incentives and because of that, we get a lot of clients from referrals.
I do this on the products/services for BSETC (
www.bsetc.ca) and The VA Coach (
www.thevacoach.com) through one affiliate program.
(2) Basecamp
I used to use Sharepoint but switched to
Basecamp because it's just SO much better (no offense - I've used them all).
Basecamp allows me to effectively manage all of my clients and my team of sub-contractors. It does messages (like e-mail), to-dos, milestones (like deadlines), writeboards (like notepad) and files.
What's good about it is that I don't have to worry about going on vacation or being sick. My assistants can see everything that is posted by my clients and can jump in where needed.
I don't charge my clients for it. I pay $99 a month but that allows me to have 100 projects open. It's totally worth it for me!
Whew! Hope this helps!