After seeing all of these great blogs on the VAF, I'm really pushing to start my own VA blog. I'm in the planning stage of my business--I don't even have capital OR a trademarked logo, or all of the other stuff VAs have--however I do feel that I can have something to contribute to those who are in my shoes. I've learned so much about taxes, location, what a virtual assistant is and isn't, and I've found some great resources that I love sharing with newbies and the more seasoned peas in our little VA pot!

Stay tuned...

Nadia,

I think that is a great idea. i am a newbie too and am very impressed with all of your posts. I am working a "day" job while I am starting my VA business so I am on a slower pace. It seems like you are doing a lot of research and sharing your finds. A blog is a great way to get your name out there in a much broader forum. I say go for it!

__________________
Vivian

Nadia,

VAF does have a member blog section at /blogs/. If you have something to say and nowhere to post you might want to check out this section.

Julie

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Julie | Virtual Resource Services, Inc (VRSI)
http://www.vrsioffice.com

All I can say ladies is jump in and get started. You'll learn by doing and enjoy the process I'm sure.

Something to think about. When you have written quite a number of blog posts will you want them to be somewhere that you have control of for backups? Will you be wanting to refer back to them? I ask this because I first began writing at a free blogging service back in 2004 or 2005. After I'd written about 100 posts I realised that the service I was using could disappear overnight and all my posts with them. What would I do if I lost them all? Does it matter? I decided it did, so purchased a domain and had wordpress installed onto the webhosting I was using and imported all my posts there. The blog now has over 800 posts since that time and they're backed up regularly. Also, for the sake of search engine listings, it means they show up under my domain too.

So, certainly use free services and get some practice, but if you feel it's something you will want to do for a long time, consider purchasing hosting and a domain so you have them stored in the one place and backed up.

Originally Posted by kathiemt

All I can say ladies is jump in and get started. You'll learn by doing and enjoy the process I'm sure. Something to think about. When you have written quite a number of blog posts will you want them to be somewhere that you have control of for backups? Will you be wanting to refer back to them? I ask this because I first began writing at a free blogging service back in 2004 or 2005. After I'd written about 100 posts I realised that the service I was using could disappear overnight and all my posts with them. What would I do if I lost them all? Does it matter? I decided it did, so purchased a domain and had wordpress installed onto the webhosting I was using and imported all my posts there. The blog now has over 800 posts since that time and they're backed up regularly. Also, for the sake of search engine listings, it means they show up under my domain too. So, certainly use free services and get some practice, but if you feel it's something you will want to do for a long time, consider purchasing hosting and a domain so you have them stored in the one place and backed up.

How exactly do I go about doing this?? Would tutorials/websites do you recommend?

Hi Nadia, you need to have some idea of what you want to write about? If you are just playing with some ideas and want to test how it works then open an account with blogger.com or wordpress.com and just have a play. Wordpress.com is not meant to be used for commercial purposes so you can't sell anything from the site. Blogger isn't fussed about this. But it is about learning how the program works (very easy and similar to using Word online) and getting used to writing regularly. There are blog forums you can join but I wouldn't recommend these really until you've got serious about blogging. I'm always happy to answer questions.