Hey there,

I've been putting off starting a blog because I wanted to get my business up and running first but I have a major itch to get started...lol I did start a personal blog but it's not public and I'd really like to go ahead and start a VA blog. Is that weird considering I'm not anywhere near opening my doors? I really hate to draw people to me (positive thinking there...lol) when I'm not ready to offer them my services quite yet. But I really want to start getting involved (I'm already addicted to Twitter and try to keep it on as much of a business/information sharing level as possible). Does it make sense to start networking when you don't feel you have much to offer quite yet? (as things in my personal life are starting to come together, I'm just now starting to formulate a viable timeline for my business)

Also, if you think it is a good idea, what's the best service to use for integration into my website later? I'm thinking Wordpress but I just want to double check.

TIA

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase

Well, Stephanie your enthusiasm for opening your business is wonderful! That's a great sign for success.

I would suggest getting your site up first. If you put a VA blog up, and then people try to contact you without looking established, you might lose them.

So I'd go with the site first. However, you can use a blog as your site if you didn't plan on putting together a site right away. Many people use wordpress as their sites. That is possible as well.

I would suggest Wordpress to integrate into your site.

I see you have your company name already. There's a nice checklist here on VAF that may be helpful to continue on.

There's nothing wrong with getting the word out and scratching that 'itch' but you do want to be prepared for that first client. There's alot to learn from getting that first client so the more prepared you are, the smoother the transition will be for every other client after that.

Good luck to you and looking forward to hearing how you do.

Janine

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Thanks, and I know you're right (if you have to ask the question and all that...lol). One more reason for me to get the ball rolling.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase

Love Janine's post - it might turn out to be the shortest thread in the forum because it's simply so hard to disagree or see another perspective :-)
There's nothing like advice from a Wizard obviously! FAB post!

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Virtually yours,
www.nzvas.com

I'd go ahead and start the blog and keep up with it the entire time you are starting your business. It could be a great networking tool and way for you to hash out some issues you come upon with starting your business. Good luck!

Or you could use the personal one as a kind of a draft for when you launch your business blog. That way you can write now about the process of starting up the business, the good, the bad and the ugly - who's to say you can't reformat several posts into an article for your business blog in the future. That's the rationale I'm using in my case right now, lol

Kathy

That is a really great question, and the answers were spectacular. As I am working on obtaining my biz as well, this information is quite helpful, because the blog question, came to mind, but I was not sure on what direction I should take it, and these answers, answered all my questions. Thanks Ladies.