Podcast & Blog Hopping Virtual Assistant Publishes Account of 45 Day Tour

Entrepreneur travels Internet educating bloggers and podcast listeners about the virtual assistant industry and advantages of partnering with members of the fastest growing work-from-home industry of the 21st century.

Baltimore, MD ― The 2007 Virtual Assistant Blog Hopping and Podcast Tour hits the virtual shelves this week. Last spring, Sharon Williams, also known as the Podcast and Blog Hopping Virtual Assistant, embarked on a 45 Day Virtual Tour designed to promote the Virtual Assistant Industry. “It was a lot of work” says Williams, “but the knowledge shared and the friendships gained were well worth it.”

The new eBook recounts Williams’ virtual 45-day trip around the Internet as she visited different blogs and podcasts, responding to 200+ questions about the Virtual Assistant Industry and its annual online convention. She stopped in Australia, Canada, the US, England and other countries, virtually, providing insight regarding the industry's history, technology trends, benefits of working with VAs – anything blog readers and podcast listeners wanted to know about one of the fastest growing home-based businesses of the 21st century.

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an entrepreneur providing administrative and other business support services to business owners, remotely. "Savvy small business owners as well as overworked and overwhelmed solopreneurs can now delegate back office, mundane and non-income generating tasks to more than 20,000 work-from-home admin specialists, while they concentrate on responsibilities that fuel their passion."

Many participants were interested in learning how to build a successful VA practice. Others wanted answers to questions such as “isn’t working with a VA more expensive than hiring an employee”; and, “how can I be confident that a VA who specializes in my industry won't share my business ideas with other clients?” Ms. Williams used the tour to respond to these and similar inquiries from emerging, aspiring and veteran VAs as well as Web-based business owners.

The tour was, and will continue to be an opportunity to educate executives and entrepreneurs about the advantages of working with VAs," states Ms. Williams. It covers many topics including pricing, promotion, marketing, networking, niches, branding – just about any topic a small business owner and/or VA would be interested in exploring about the virtual assistance industry.

For more information about the Virtual Assistant Blog Hopping and Podcast Tour, visit the Alliance for Virtual Businesses at http://tinyurl.com/2uylcr.

About the Alliance
The Alliance for Virtual Businesses (A4VB) represents more than 20,000 Professional Virtual Assistants, worldwide. As the leading advocacy, education and publicity organization for administrative virtual professional entrepreneurs, the Alliance is dedicated to the growth of the Virtual Assistance industry through networking, information sharing and proactive interaction between the global business community and the industry.

About Sharon Williams
Ms. Williams is president of The 24 Hour Secretary, an administrative, secretarial and marketing support services company which supports busy and often overwhelmed executives, entrepreneurs and their assistants. She is the Chairperson of the Alliance for Virtual Businesses and President of Virtual BusinessU, an online e-leaning environment providing virtual business training in an interactive environment, for students ready to step toward their greatness.

Very cool Sharon
I remember when this tour was going on - I'd love to know more about how you decided to do this and what you learned along the way?

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on a truly successful 'global' internet event!

__________________
Stuck in startup? Stop dreaming. Start DOING!
Get the Become a Virtual Assistant eBook for just $29

Hi Tess,

Thanks for the congrats!

I'm not sure how to respond to your question -- how I decided to do it, so forgive me if I don't provide the correct response. Basically, I solicited the support of other VAs and business owners, asking them to submit questions for me to respond to about the industry -- basically anything and everything they wanted to know. Then I visited their sites and answered their questions -- providing, hopefully, detailed and insightful information about the industry. To make it interesting and a win/win for everyone, a puzzle contest was included, where individuals had to visit all the stops to get a clue; and prizes were given to those who correctly solved the puzzle (correct answer unveiled at the International Virtual Assistant Day celebration during the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention). That's it in a nutshell -- and I must say, the tour stops are still receiving hits, and showing up via google at least on a weekly basis.

What did I learn -- first, and this isn't something I learned, but something that was reinforced by people's generosity -- when you give willingly of your time and knowledge, you reap much in return.

The individuals who opened their blogs and podcasts to the tour did so because they believe in my sincerity to promote the industry. They also work to spread the word about virtual assisting -- to potential VAs as well as other business owners. By the way, 13 non-VA businesses also participated.

I humbly appreciate these individuals' willingness to allow me to use their platform and communicate with their audience of readers/listeners. Since they didn't know in advance how I would respond to their questions -- I could have (in theory) represented the industry poorly, which would have then been a negative reflection on them. So in essence, they stepped up, on faith, and due to their generous contribution of allowing me to visit their blog/podcasts, the tour was a success.

So, I say this tour was another example of how the industry consists of a group of giving/caring business owners willing to share and support each other.

I highly encourage individuals to ask for what you want/need and you may be pleasantly surprised at the outcome and the level of support you will receive.

You answered my question perfectly, thank you so much
We are so blessed to be part of this community of virtual assistants - I think we'd be hard pressed to find another industry with such comraderie, generous sharing of information and knowledge, and good old fashioned friendship.

Great thread Sharon

__________________
Stuck in startup? Stop dreaming. Start DOING!
Get the Become a Virtual Assistant eBook for just $29