Mentoring the Startup Weekend Attendees

Over the weekend, I took part in Cebu’s first ever Startup Weekend, and played the role as a Mentor to the many highly talented individuals and teams that came to the event to make a difference. To affect change in their lives, by doing something amazing.

It got me thinking myself.

So, today I have a very short, simple and direct post for you.

Simply look at the five questions below and answer them. When you’re done doing that, get to work on making the most out of the answers – even if it means making drastic changes.

The Questions

Are you enjoying what you do everyday?

Do you spend the amount of time you want to, with the people you love?

Are you focused on working on something you feel makes a difference?

Does discussing what you do for a ‘living’ get you excited?

Where do you see yourself in 10-years?

If you’d like to share your answers below, please do.

If you’d like to share your Action Plans, please do.

And if you feel answering these questions would help a friend today, please go ahead and share this post with them, by clicking on the floating ‘social’ buttons to the left!

Plus – if you haven’t downloaded my free eBook & AudioBook on working with VA’s, you can also join over 7,500 people that HAVE done so, by getting busy below!!!

I’ll be mixing it up with the best that Cebu (along with neighboring islands, and countries for that matter!) has to offer in the tech startup game, as we all celebrate the first ever Startup Weekend in the Queen City of the South!

I’ve also been asked to be a Mentor at the event, and could possibly be doing a little presentation, too (time permitting).

I picked up the Startup Weekend book on my way back from BlogWorld Expo in LA last year, where I spoke on the subject of bloggers working with virtual assistants to build their online brands and businesses – but, I didn’t get the chance to actually read the book until the beginning of the new year.

No more than a couple of weeks after I had finished the last page of the book, I was invited to take part in the first event, right here in my adopted hometown of Cebu City. Of course, I accepted.

As I prepare for the 54-hours that will make up Startup Weekend Cebu, I’ve also been making plenty of notes on different blog post ideas, presentation topics and even a digital product, which I may, or may not talk about in the near future – depends on whether I think its still a good idea a few weeks from now!

My Question

Throughout the course of my preparations, however, I’ve got to asking myself ‘what does it take to be an entrepreneur?’, or a lot more importantly ‘what traits do successful entrepreneurs have in abundance?’. Hence todays post…

If you have a strong opinion on this already, comment at will below (after reading my opinion, obviously!) – if not, then check out the video below, from the team behind Startup Weekend, for a little inspiration.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My Opinion

As far as I’m concerned, to become a successful entrepreneur you need to be someone that isn’t looking to make a quick buck. You need to be ready and willing to work your ass off – for years, quite frankly – to be able to achieve your dreams. You also need to truly understand the way people (your prospective customers!) think, as well as understanding what they want and need; the problems they have – and more importantly – how to create, package and present products and services that solve those problems.

However, without a doubt, the single most important trait of a successful entrepreneur, in my book anyway, is of originality.

If you’re not original you can forget it. If you’re not willing to brainstorm and mind-map until your ears bleed to come up with that one original idea that you know will solve a problem for a certain demographic, then you can also forget it.

Likewise, if you’re looking for a fast-track to success, diving in on a whim, potentially second-guessing things or worst yet, copying other peoples ideas, then you can also forget it. You’ll never be a successful entrepreneur.

Think about it. When was the last time you saw an insanely successful entrepreneur who wasn’t original? Who wasn’t innovative?

I’d love to hear what you have to say on this topic, so please comment below, and as always, thank you for getting involved and making the VBL Community the hustlin’, bustlin’ entrepreneurial tribe that it is!

That's me... Contemplating my decision! Seriously.

For those of you who might be stumbling on this post and not really ‘in the know’, about 6 weeks or so ago I started the search for my first ever Virtual Business Intern.

After almost 50 applicants and hours and hours of research and contemplation, I announced the Final Five candidates – the guys that I personally connected with, virtually, the most and wanted to interview, formally, for the position.

After five highly enthusiastic, enjoying and entertaining interviews, all averaging around an hour in length, I’ve finally selected the winning candidate. 

However, before I announce the winner…

Let me thank all the applicants one last time for taking the time out to apply for the position. I appreciate each and every one of you, as well as your enthusiasm to come and work with me here in the Philippines.

As an aside, to the final four that didn’t get selected – I know for a FACT, that we’ll certainly be doing some kind of business together in the near future… You were all magnificent. Thank you. Again.

And so, the Winner is…

Ian's 'Positive Thinking' and Pure Passion... paid off!

So, without further ado, I’d like to let you all know that in the first half of June, young Ian Robinson from New Zealand is going to be landing here in Cebu, Philippines to take on the role of his life, helping me grow existing businesses, launch new ones, and even possibly become a partner in one or two ventures, too!

Ian showed a ferocious intensity to get this job, learning new skills fast, sending follow up emails and tweets, even photoshopping himself into an image, to convey his eagerness to get the position! Love it.

As a re-cap, here’s the video that Ian submitted as part of his application.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since our interview, I’ve chatted with Ian a couple of times on Skype, as well as seen 2-3 more videos from him, showing off his ever-growing skills. However, the one thing that really stood out to me about this guy was his passion.

He REALLY wanted this opportunity. That’s not to say that the other finalists didn’t blow me away, thats for sure – but, Ian’s ‘zest’ for everything I’m doing, and want to do in the future really came through.

A New Intern, A New Blog Post Series!

This whole thing has inspired me to include a regular monthly report on everything and anything ‘VB Intern’.

I’ll be posting insights and updates on everything that myself and Ian will be getting up to once he gets here, and I’m looking forward to sharing the process with you.

If there are any specific in’s and out’s that you’d like me to include, please let me know in the comment section below.

So, until the next post, and the first ‘Virtual Business Intern Monthly Report’, take care of yourself, and each other… Oh, yeah, I just went there with a Jerry Springer quote… Jerry, Jerry, Jerry…!!!

As entrepreneurs we have a thousand ideas a minute and not enough hours in the day to think about ‘em!

If you’re just starting out, bootstrapping, growing – you’re no doubt doing long hours and tiring yourself out. That’s okay. It’s expected. A lot of the time you ARE the only one that can take care of a certain task, or project. However, a lot of the time there are certain tasks that you shouldn’t even be thinking about getting involved with (unless you’re an expert in that particular subject).

Today, I thought it might be good to look into this a little more.

Here are my ‘Top 3 Things’ that Remarkable Entrepreneurs should certainly leave to the people that do them every day for a living. By having this type of ‘Delegation Mindset’ we can a) work a few less hours, and b) genuinely get better quality work output.

When you’re done reading, I’d love to hear what else you think startup business owners shouldn’t be attempting themselves, instead delegating to the pro’s.

#1 – Any type of Graphic Design or Web Design / Development

Here’s a true story, involving… me… 3-odd years ago when I started to play around online for the first time, I decided that I could buy a customizable WordPress blog theme, spend a few hours tweaking it to the way I wanted it to look and then go live with my first blog post.

FACT – Business owners are, 9/10 times, perfectionists. 

That afternoon turned into the evening, which turned into the wee hours of the night. It was 4am by the time I had finished ‘tweaking’ everything and the blog I was trying to set-up still didn’t look the way I wanted it to. I was tired, frustrated and overall, I felt deflated about the whole thing.

The next day I sent it onto a Web Development guy that I knew in Manila, telling him what I wanted and even attached a couple of sketches I had put together in regards to the way I wanted the homepage to look. Just 6-hours later I had my blog online and looking exactly the way I wanted it to!

This story will no doubt ring home with a lot of other entrepreneurs that might read this post. The moral of the story – get the professionals to rock out great looking logos, business cards, flyers and websites – whilst you focus on the income generating tasks, such as writing sales copy for your website landing page, or spending time with your number one client on the golf course! 

#2 – SEO and ‘Online Marketing’ Tasks

This is probably one of the toughest topics I had getting to grips with when I started getting active online, in regards to promoting and marketing my business on the internet. That has changed a lot over time, obviously, as I have become a lot more knowledgeable on the subject by reading a ton of books, trail and error and asking as many questions (to those that ‘know’) as possible!

As someone who came from a very traditional, brick ‘n mortar business background (and who’s largest company, presently, is still very much in that category), I struggled with understanding SEO concepts. I soon learned that marketing a business online is a lot, LOT different to marketing one in the ‘real’, offline world.

From day one, I paid someone else to do it for me. Someone that had experience and understood Google and how ‘ranking’ worked, etc. And it paid off – for sure. Nowadays even though I’m a little more involved with the general strategies that we implement online, I still pay other people to do it for me, and I know one thing for sure…

If I had’ve even attempted to do this type of work myself when I was starting out, it would have been a complete disaster.

SUGGESTED LISTENING: Check out Episode 42 of the VBL Podcast with marketing professional David Meerman Scott for some of the most up-to-date marketing ideas and concepts for small business available anywhere online. David is a genius at this stuff!

#3 – Everyday, Repetitive Tasks

Being who I am, and doing what I do – this one is kind of a no-brainer.

Call it ‘working with a virtual assistant‘, or ‘outsourcing‘, or whatever you like – offloading the types of tasks that bog you down everyday as a hard working, ball-busting startup entrepreneur is just plain, good business strategy.

Whether you have to do a ton of online research; frequently have to update your social media channels; handle boring, repetitive book-keeping tasks; update your website content regularly; handle your calendar (note – I am terrible at this, and would be lost without my personal assistant doing it for me!); reply to boat-load of daily email inquiries or simply have to transcribe audio or video files, delegating work to other people, nowadays, as simple as 1, 2, 3.

Off-loading these types of everyday ‘busy tasks’, as I call them, is a great way to leverage your time, allowing yourself to get more done, with less effort and really focus on growing your business. At first that might mean spending more time on marketing concepts, or packaging ideas for your launch product. Down the road it could mean that you have more time to spend on putting processes in place for your growing empire.

Either way, working with VA’s and other types of professionals, people that do this stuff for a living everyday, is great business sense and you’ll enjoy the benefits of it, I’m sure.

That about wraps up my ‘quickie list’. Although, like I said, I’d love to hear from you on any other types of tasks, projects or processes that you feel startup entrepreneurs should simply hand over to the people ‘that know’, instead of attempting to do it all themselves.

Comment below, and lets see if we can get a bit of a conversation going!

The flood of additional coverage was pretty amazing. The post was featured on countless job sites, and even made ‘Sweet Job of the Week’ over at Brazen Careerist, which is a hugely popular site with Gen-Y entrepreneurial types.

I was flabbergasted (word of the day, right there!) at the number of applications that came in, too. Between the submissions at Tropical Workforce and those sent directly to me via email, I received close to 50 people applying for the position! Just amazing.

Who will be joining me to Live and Work in Cebu, Philippines?

When I put this opportunity together, I knew that there was going to be a strong chance that at least 2-3 solid applications would come through. However, I didn’t expect the level of sheer talent to flood my way, the way that it has!

From all the applications I’ve received, I’ve watched every video submission, read every word emailed and pitched (and some of them were hard-core pitches, that simply SOLD me!) and even conversed with a few eager-beaver applicants that followed up via email.

Let me tell you, the selection process for the VBI Final Five has been way, way tougher than I imagined it would be. Seriously.

However, with everything considered, and after hours and hours of research (I had a little help from my VA’s!), I’ve now selected the five applicants that I feel have what I’m looking for.

Their video submissions are below, for you all to check out, should you feel the desire to do so.

Ross McCabe (London, UK)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bjork Ostrom (Minneapolis, USA)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Monique Johnson (New York, USA)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ian Robinson (Reno, USA)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Drew Palmer (Philadelphia, USA)

Click here to view the embedded video.

.

Getting Down to Business

By the time this post is published, all five lucky finalists would have received their congratulatory email. In that email will be a link to this post, along with a schedule for a Skype interview that I will be doing with them.

They all get just ONE SHOT at this interview. Number one rule of wanting to land an opportunity like this – make yourself available, regardless of the time slot!

Following those interviews, which will all be recorded – not to post publicly, but so I can re-watch them as part of my selection process – I will then weigh everything up one last time and select my first ever Virtual Business Intern.

NOTE: If any of the applicants miss their interview, regardless of whatever reason, I will go to the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th applicants, as a back-up. Yes – I actually selected ten applicants to choose from, the standard was THAT good.

Cebu is Waiting!

I simply can’t wait to make my final decision on this process. I never contemplated having an intern myself in the past, as there is so much talent here in the Philippines (I already closely mentor 2-3 people that work for me). However, since the opportunity went public and I’ve received all the amazing applications, I’ve now started to get really jazzed-up on the idea of having someone to work with, mentor, bounce ideas around and generally get shit done with on a slightly higher level on many different projects, across the board.

For those of you who applied, but didn’t make the final list, I’d like to say, again… Thank you.

It wasn’t easy selecting… The level of talent was very high, and I appreciate each and every one of you who took the time out to apply. Really, I was deeply humbled by all the fantastic submissions – to think that all these crazy-talented people want to come and work for me is just insane!!!

Announcing the Winner

Following the final interviews, I will be announcing the winner early next week, here on VBL. As you might be aware, I am very much still recovering from spine surgery, so I’m pacing myself a little right now (I’d usually do all the interviews in one day, but I’m spreading them out over the week).

When the winning, final candidate is selected, I’ll let you all know, and then arrangements will be made for them to get their butt over to Cebu (starting sometime in June, as I need one more full month to finish my recovery), so we can begin putting plans in place to rule the world… er, sorry – I mean, CHANGE the world.

Think about applying, but didn’t? Why..?  What did you guys think of the VBI Final Five? Do you have any favorites? Suggestions? I’d love to know below…

You always hear about the important things that entrepreneurs should ‘do’ in order to become successful.

However, its rare that people talk about the things that business owners should NOT do when it comes to running and growing their businesses, on or offline.

In this post I’d like to serve up a few of those tips for you. And, I encourage you to make a list of your own (perhaps even based on your mistakes in the past) and even share a few tips for the VBL Tribe at the bottom of the post, in the comment section.

On your marks. Get set… GO!

#1 – NEVER Start a Business Just to Make Money

Every business owner that I have come across that has an insanely successful business, attributes that success to one thing, and one thing only - they love what they do!

We spend 60-70% of our waking hours ‘working’. Call me an idiot, but isn’t it a good idea if we spend that time working on something that involves passion – a product or service that we love (that ultimately will make us money), instead of simply working on ‘something’, just to ‘make’ money…?

I love what I do for a ‘living’. Every day I get up and get to work with a smile on my face. Talking with clients, creating content, spending time developing my staff (both on-site and virtual), developing new projects, reading, writing, eating – you get the gist of it, right…?

Do something you LOVE. And you’ll be a raving success.

#2 – NEVER Be Scared to Pivot, or Change Plans

The entrepreneur pivot is something that I’ve discussed before here at VBL and on other blogs and podcasts, whilst being interviewed, too.

It’s a subject that I’m really passionate about because it allows me as a business owner to never stop thinking about how to make something better. How to improve, evolve or make a difference.

Don’t get me wrong – its great to have a plan. Its essential, in fact. But, if you’re so caught up in that plan and following it step by step, you might just miss out on an opportunity to change something, even just a little thing, that could make your business all the more successful.

Keep an open mind and never stop thinking about ways to pivot in your business.

#3 – NEVER Blame Someone Else for Your Mistakes

We become entrepreneurs because we want to be our own boss, right? The head honcho, the big swinging dick.

If you screw up, drop the ball, under price your service or product, get beaten by a competitor on a local holiday battle, have your best manager quit on you, lose your biggest client – don’t blame anyone else.

You don’t necessarily have to blame yourself. But, the bottom line is that you are in charge. You’re the boss. And everything, always comes down to you.

Accept it. Embrace it. And go for it!

ESSENTIAL LISTENING: Check out this interview with best-selling author Jonathan Fields that I did for the VBL Podcast a while ago. There are so many golden business nuggets for you to devour, you’ll thank me – really!

#4 – NEVER Try to ‘Do It All’

I always say that entrepreneurs are a strange breed. We are – think about it.

At a recent speaking gig, I discussed how we, as entrepreneurs have what I like to call ‘Superhero Syndrome’. We like to think that we can do everything. That the world is a better place with us in charge and that we should make sure that we are the one that people look to for guidance all the time – to save the day… all the time.

Reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

What we should be is smart, hard-working business owners. When I say ‘smart’, I mean we work out what we’re good at and focus on that aspect of our business. We then bring in the best people we can a) find and b) afford to do the rest of the stuff needed to help our business explode into a huge success.

Entrepreneurs are not superheroes. Don’t try and be one.

#5 – NEVER Shackle Yourself to One Location. Become ‘Virtual’.

One of the reasons why I wanted to become a Virtual CEO was so that I could have the freedom I felt was required to continue to grow my business.

I wanted to work ON my business, instead of IN it.

Since freeing up myself to be able to only have to go into my company facilities (where 300-odd people work for me) once or twice a week (and normally for only a few hours at a time), I’ve encountered more success, more profits, more opportunities and… a much more enjoyable business lifestyle.

I believe that its an absolute requirement for entrepreneurs nowadays, that want to start and grow something remarkable, to be as flexible as possible when it comes to the way they run their businesses.

Becoming ‘virtual’ is the way to go.

FREEDOM TIP – Start by making a list of all the things that you do in your office (whether it be a facility, or a home office) on a daily basis. Then start highlighting the stuff that you NEED to be IN the office to be able to perform. You’ll be amazed, in this day and age with the technology that we have at our disposal, how few highlights will be on that list when you’re done! Nuff said.

What are things you’ve done in the past, as a business owner, that you would NEVER do again? Anyone got any further tips for the VBL Tribe? If so, please leave a comment below with your pearls of wisdom!

Being an entrepreneur, and in the early days of starting a business is much like being a duck on a pond.

Everything looks great above the water as the duck’s body (the business) glides effortlessly along the surface, with its beak standing out proud – whilst below the surface, the duck’s legs (the business owner) are peddling at 180mph to try and make sure that everything looks good above the water.

Over the weekend I was having lunch with a few friends at my house. It was the first time we’ve had guests around since I came out of spine surgery. There were 4 couples in attendance. Some good food, a little wine and some great conversations were on the horizon. I was really looking forward to it.

But, it was almost ruined for me, by one of the guys that was there - until I intervened.

Problems, Problems and More Problems!

My buddy (name witheld to protect the entrepreneurial innocent!) started his real estate business about a year ago, focusing on the higher-end market locally. We’ve met several times in the last 12-months and all he had to say was how well the business was going, that he wasn’t experiencing any major issues with marketing to the local cliental, or competition, etc. Everything sounded great!

However, on this occasion he took it upon himself to spoil as much of the first hour of the get-together as possible – by moaning, arguing (with himself mostly!) and generally admitting that all was not so calm on the pond, after all.

He was having problems with local competing real estate brokers and agencies.

He was having on-going problems with property owners that he rents places for, as well as property owners that want to get the best deal in utilizing his company to help sell their houses and condos.

And lastly, he was having major problems when dealing with potential tenants and buyers – having him run all over town, showing them this condo unit and that house, one after another – all in the blistering heat that currently is Cebu’s awesome summer season. This problem alone was the biggest for him as he felt that he didn’t have enough time to be able to strategize for growth, which was to be his major focus this year.

I simply had one thing to say to him…

Welcome to the World of Entrepreneurship.

With Problems, Come Solutions!

I learned a long time ago that the higher up the corporate ladder you climb, the bigger the problems that you have to deal with. God forbid, you decide to become a business owner yourself! At that point you’re the head honcho, the CEO, the President – whatever you want to call yourself.

Slice of ‘Reality Pie’, however – you’re the main problem solver!!! That’s it.

And as entrepreneurs, thats EXACTLY what we should be looking to embrace – solving problems for people (AKA. our customers). The more problems we solve, the more success our businesses become.

So, I sat down with my buddy for about 30mins, and these are the points that we worked on together, and ended up putting into place a bit of a ‘Mission List’, as he started calling it:

#1 – Stop Wasting Time

Firstly, he needed to sort through the ‘decent’ prospective tenants and buyers when they came in, only picking out the ones that he felt the most confident about becoming ‘A-List’ clients. He would then pass on the others to his assistant (who is good, and can work well when given instructions, I’ve met her on several occasions).

#2 – Tell People Why They Need You

He’s going to put together a ‘Why You NEED Me’ package (focusing on his USP) to give the owners that he works with, in helping them sell or rent their property. No more wasting time answering the same silly questions, or having to run around getting this document, and that piece of information together.

Everything is to be pre-arranged in a package that not only looks super professional, but also answers all the questions he runs into, in regards to these specific relationships all the time. The rest he can update on the FAQ section of his website (which is good).

#3 – Screw the Competition!

Local competition. Screw them!!! Nobody has the experience he does, that I know of.

The fact of the matter is, however, that its a local market, where the local, Filipino real estate brokers are very much in bed together (some even ‘working’ clients and splitting commissions, etc.). But, there is one MAJOR feather in my friends cap – he’s a foreigner (American). And the very large majority of the prospects that contact him are foreigners, too. So, he will leverage that with a new ‘no holds barred’ approach to relationship building and conversions through social media and other online channels.

This, coupled together with a well run ship and a professional mindset should make all the difference.

#4 – Daily ‘Strategizing’ Time

His goal was/is to focus on growing his business this year. With the other points above, after a while of taking care of teething issues and ironing out the inevitable bumps that come with ‘change’, he should have spare time, every day, to work on his goal for 2012.

As mentioned, he’ll start becoming more active in social media, he’ll start blogging, shooting regular videos on the local scene here in Cebu, along with property ‘walk-thru’ clips to put on his website and Facebook page, etc.

This is What We DO!

If you look carefully above you’ll see that the ‘problems’ as well as the ‘solutions’ I helped define for my friend’s business, can basically be successfully merged into ANY business – online, or offline.

They revolve around the following BASIC business principles:

• Don’t waste time.
• Make sure your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is clearly defined and communicated.
• Keep an eye on the competition – but, work SMART to beat ‘em.
• Never stop planning for growth and expansion.

This is the entrepreneurial way of life.

Solving problems is right there at the top of the list. The thing is, from time to time we get frustrated dealing with the daily grind of running a business. And that IS what you’re doing for the first couple of years of any new venture – deal with the daily grind.

If you think being your own boss means checking your email whilst enjoying your morning coffee, publishing a blog post and then logging into Paypal in the evening to count your millions – think again!

After you’ve been in business for a while and you’ve achieved a certain level of success (and we all define success differently, remember that!), we can start developing plans to remove ourselves from our businesses a little. This might begin with just working in different locations. But, could develop into full blown trips away for a month at a time, or simply working from home four days a week and spending one full day in the office – its different for everyone.

So, the next time you get pissed off with dealing with a pain-in-the-butt client, or stressed out with competition copying an idea of yours, or with staff screwing up, or with suppliers raising prices on you, or with your better half moaning at you for not spending enough time with the kids – just breathe. Think about how to solve those problems, and then deal with them.

Become good at solving problems, and you WILL make it in the business world.

Have you come up with any solutions to business problems recently? Are you struggling with some right now, that perhaps the VBL Community could help you with? If so, we’d love to hear your insights and comments below.

As most readers of the VBL blog know, I have been involved in the outsourcing industry for over 10-years.

The ‘game’ has changed a lot over that time. And when it comes to working with virtual assistants, particularly home-based virtual assistants, the game has changed more than in any other area in the entire industry, as far as I’m concerned.

It’s not about working with an offshore VA anymore.

It’s about leveraging the power of the global economy and what that means to small business owners in western countries, such as the USA, Australia and the UK (the three countries that I hear from and cater to the most). We’ve come a long, long way since to publication of the 4-Hour Work Week, people.

It’s time to look at this a little more seriously.

No More ‘Cheap Labor’ Attitude

The biggest change I’ve seen, and its been more evident over the last couple of years, is the perception of the virtual bosses that I’ve had the pleasure to work with. It used to, and still does, madden me whenever I hear ‘Hire a Filipino for $2 an hour’.  Thankfully things have changed (and continue to!), like I said, people no longer think of working with Filipino VA’s as a cheap option to finding ‘help’.

If they do have that attitude, I change their minds pretty quickly!

Sure they understand and appreciate that working with Filipino home-based VA’s is more cost effective than hiring locally 9/10 times, however, the mindset has shifted from ‘cheap labor’ to simply having ‘overseas employees’ – and that excites me more than words can express, I tell you.

I have one client who has now hired six VA’s through Virtual Staff Finder (Disclaimer: VSF is my match-making company), set them all up with their own computers, their own small ‘office’, at one of their homes (purchasing equipment, etc.) and now considers them very much part of his companies team – an overseas support arm, so to speak.

That stuff just gets my juices flowing!

Compensation – It’s Not All About the Salary!

Another thing thats changed quite a bit is the compensation that home-based VA’s are now getting here in the Philippines. Think about it logically, with demand comes supply – and the VA’s are not silly. They know that if they have the skills to help business owners (no matter where they are based in the word) help run, support and grow their businesses, they should get paid fairly for them.

The playing field is still very much ‘level’ in the grand scheme of things, of course. However, a VA that would have been a $350 monthly investment 3-years ago, is now earning $500 for a full-time role, per month (this is a salary example of a General VA with around 1-year working experience – check out my guide to paying home-based Filipino VA’s for more salary guidelines).

Everyone enjoys getting perks, right? If someone does a job well, if they perform above and beyond the expectations of their employer, they should be rewarded. Likewise, in an increasingly competitive market, if you want your virtual employee to stick with you, to be loyal to you, then you need to ‘look after them’ properly – above and beyond their monthly salary.

With this is mind, and based on experience in working with and training hundreds of VA’s – as well as hearing from virtual bosses and some of the benefits they give their VA’s, I’d like to present to you three great perks that your VA will go crazy over (in a good way!).

Perk #1 – Paid Holidays

Just because you pay your VA a flat rate every month (and no local taxes and benefits) doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t a) give them holiday time, and b) not pay them for it. The standard that I give my personal VA’s 5-days paid holiday in their first year (normal Philippine employer behavior) – after that you can decide what to do on a year to year basis. That means they can genuinely take the time off (usually when I am traveling so not to effect the flow of business anymore than needed) without worrying about the lack of income.

Because of your virtual set-up in working together, and the fact that your VA isn’t employed by a Philippine company, you are not ‘forced’ to pay the compulsory ’13th Month’ benefit, either. This is a yearly bonus that is paid in the middle of December to all Philippine employees, and is pro-rated back throughout the year. However, if you want to be a nice boss, and put a huge smile on your VA’s face just before the biggest holiday of the year, pay it. I always do and my VA’s are always super appreciative of that fact.

Perk #2 – Health Insurance

Remember, your home-based VA is working directly and exclusively for you. They are not being employed by a Filipino company, and that means they’re not getting their usual Philippine government mandated contributions and benefits, such as Social Security (known locally as SSS), Pag-Ibig (a local fund that allows Filipinos to get housing loans, etc.) and PhilHealth (local heath care payout in case they get sick / become hospitalized).

On the subject of health insurance, this is something that not many self-employed (like your VA!) Filipinos think of. And its a great shame. The great thing about your VA having private health insurance is that they can also include their dependents - such as children and parents (at an additional cost, obviously). You’ll find that most home-based workers in the Philippines will be the bread winner for the family. So, if they can get health insurance sorted out for their immediate family, along with being the main source of income in the household then they are even more of a superstar!

You can get your VA to arrange private health insurance (which goes well above and beyond the PhilHealth benefits) through a number of different Philippines-based health care providers that have experience, and that are very dependable as a source of health insurance. It will cost you around $300-$400 a year to get your VA that piece of mind for the whole family, and you’ll be forever in their prayers.

All my employees have private health insurance set-up, and are very thankful for it.

Perk #3 – Incentives and other Bonuses

Along with holidays and health insurance (something that is very much the ‘norm’ in the western world), incentives and other types of bonuses are obviously always welcome.

Monetary bonuses are usually the first thing that pop into mind, understandably. I know that a lot of our clients offer bonuses for their VA’s for a number of reasons such as getting a product launched on time, or finalizing a design project. These are good ideas, however, personally I don’t like to overdo the cash bonus idea – plus, if you do it too often and your VA doesn’t get it at the end of one particular project, they will be a little upset.

I like to get as creative as possible with my bonuses and employee gifts.

In the past I’ve arranged things such as:

• iTunes vouchers
• Flowers and chocolates on birthdays.
• Overnight stays on wedding anniversaries.
• Baby clothes for a newborn.
• Restaurant gift certificates.
• Books arriving out of the blue from Amazon.

The idea is to motivate and reward your virtual employee so they work harder, become more productive and ultimately bring you the ROI that any employer wants – lets be honest – NEEDS to see, in their employees.

Get Creative and Build Culture

The perks mentioned in this article are not ‘requirements’. They are what they are – perks. Bonuses. Incentives. But, they are also highly appreciated and will, as the title of this post suggests, make your VA’s go crazy.

When I read ‘Delivering Happiness‘ by Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh it got me thinking about company culture. It changed the way I look at working with and caring for my employees so much that we ended up creating a whole new set of ideas and values. It also urged me to start a dedicated company culture website for all my employees, too. They love it.

Just because your virtual employees are that – virtual – doesn’t mean that you can’t create culture in working with them. I know of a few of our Virtual Staff Finder clients that use the private social media network, Yammer (its 100% free), to keep in touch with them in a way that really resonates with them – Facebook style. If you haven’t checked out Yammer, do so – your VA’s will love it, and its a great way to communicate with them and break down a few barriers brought about by the distance between you.

Keep an open mind, be a cool boss and try introducing a few perks to your virtual team – I guarantee they’ll thank you for it. And then, you’ll thank me!

Have you offered your VA’s incentives and perks before? How did it go? If not, why not? Are you a VA reading this and thinking ‘Wow, I’d love that!’, then let us know why! I’d love to hear what you all have to say on this subject below.

Snapshot taken via Instagram, whilst in Hospital

I enjoy my social media action.

I have just as much fun enjoying interacting with friends online as I do in real life… And its a great way to get to know my community here better, as well as hopefully help as much as possible, too.

Not to mention building brands and marketing businesses, too. Creativity to one side – being active on social media channels has become the ‘norm’ in our very online world nowadays.

Tweeting is my favorite form of social chit chat. It’s quick, very mobile and above all, simple. Effective.

Twitter is also a fantastic tool for finding new, real time, business opportunities, too (which I regularly do!). But, thats a topic for a future post, perhaps.

And, in the News: Facebook Buys Instagram

I also enjoy taking photos. Instagram makes even the most inexperienced photographer ‘cool’ with its different filters, and sweet blurring effects (I’m sure there’s a technical term for that, but I’m buggered if I know what it is!). As of today, I have 711 people following me on Instagram, and I’ve posted 192 photos in the year or so that I’ve been using it. If you’d like to follow me – just search for ‘chrisducker’ in the app.

A couple of days ago Facebook announced that it was acquiring Instagram in a deal that would total one billion dollars (a mix of cash and stock).

Immediately a couple of quick thoughts popped into my head, namely:

Will I still be able to share my photos from Instagram to Twitter?
Will Instagram itself, as an app, be slowly, but surely incorporated into the Facebook app?

Fair questions to ask, and although Mark Zuckerberg says that the app will remain the way it is, I have to be honest, I doubt it will. I just don’t think that they (Facebook) will be able to help themselves, and eventually it will become ‘part’ of Facebook.

Social Media is SCREAMING at Us – All the time!

I also have to be honest when I say that I’m actually getting quite sick of all these different social media platforms.

The social media landscape is just too damn noisy for me now…

Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Four Square, Pinterest, Tumblr, and so on and so on. The old adage of “You’ve got to be in it, to win it!” is complete and utter rubbish, as far as I’m concerned. I only use a few of those and do quite well when it comes to building a personal brand and marketing my businesses.

I am contemplating making quite drastic changes in my social media interaction. I might even completely drop certain platforms all together.

I’ve started to dislike Facebook as it’s become more and more ‘complicated’ to work with and enjoy. Lets face it – did we REALLY need Timeline? I don’t think so. But, its hear nonetheless. Related Note: If you want a great tutorial on Timeline for Pages, then check out my buddy, Pat Flynn’s excellent post (complete with videos and templates).

However, I do enjoy the interaction on the VBL Facebook page, which currently has over 11,000 people who have ‘Liked’ it. Do so here if you want to be loved forever!

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What says the VBL Tribe?

Are you feeling the same way as me….?

Or, do you love social media, in every way, shape and form?

Will Instagram be affected by this whole thing?

Are you finding yourself strapped for time when it comes to your Social Media playtime?

I’d love to hear your comments below…

If you want to cut the fluff and get the full details, please visit TropicalWorkforce.com - a website run by my good friend Dan Andrews. These are the peeps that are handling all the applications for me.

If you want the fluff (???), then read along…

Why an Internship?

Simple – I just have too many projects that I want to CRUSH this year and I need help.

This all came about when I was having a coffee with Dan a few weeks ago, here in Cebu City, and he mentioned his site and the fact that they’ve had lots of success in finding intern’s for other entrepreneurs to work with, here in Asia.

There wasn’t a lot of convincing needed, to be honest! By the time the coffee was over, he had taken down a butt load of notes and was ready to write-up my listing for the site.

I believe that if this works out well enough (and I have faith in Dan and his team), that I could just have a right-hand person on my hands. Which would be awesome!!! Who knows what the relationship could turn into…

What Skills Do You Need?

Bottom line – I need a hustler. Someone that is gonna work his/her ass off everyday to get shit done. Plain and simple. Someone that is willing to invest a year of their life with me. You’ll help me grow my businesses, and launch new ones (even have the chance to become a partner in one of them if the fit is right – and you blow me away!).

Watch the video below for a few more details.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You’ll be a big fan of WordPress and know how to use it well. You’ll also have some skills when it comes to podcast and video editing (simple stuff to get the job done, I don’t expect George Lucas to apply!) – and the ability to research on how to become better.

There are other requirements, too – but, I want to keep this post as digestible as possible.

Full Details of my Virtual Business Internship are HERE!

What Have I Got Planned for YOU?

You’ll get an apartment, free wifi, the option to work from your apartment or my companies HQ, alongside me.

I’m throwing in a cool $1,000 a month salary, to go towards your utilities and living expenses. PLUS - I’ll also take care of your Visa situation when you’re in the country, too.

You will also be by my side in a number of strategy-based meetings, with my team and become a solid member of that team, too. We will brainstorm together on existing businesses, and how to grow them (both online and off) as well as work closely with me to help develop additional businesses in the futuer, too.

Straight off the bat, you will be helping my finalize plans for, and develop my Outsourcing Bootcamp course, as well as playing a very instrumental role in the re-build of Outsource to the Philippines, too.

And I’ll take you out for a beer (or whatever your tipple may be). Hell, I might even buy you lunch – and I’ll show you around Cebu City, too.

Want to Apply? Here’s How…

If you feel that you’d like the opportunity to come and work with me here in the Philippines for a year, learn tons, make shit happen on a daily basis and change the world (kinda!), then I’d love for you to apply for this role.

All you need to do is hop over to TropicalWorkforce.com. Register, and then complete your application – along with your intro / pitch video (this is very important). Please do not send them directly to me. However, I’d love to get a Tweet from you to let me know you’ve applied - so just follow me on Twitter and then @ me!

Deadline for applications is April 15th, 2012.

Following that date, no more applications will be accepted.

After I’ve had the chance to go through all the applications, I will select 5 (five) finalists, each of which will be contacted by my executive assistant to arrange a time for a Skype Video Interview. Following this, I will choose my first Virtual Business Intern.

UPDATE: I will be posting the top five entries and announcing the winner on this blog! (Thanks to Kimmi in the comments section below for this idea!)

I’m really looking forward to seeing who applies and what they have to offer. I know that the readership of the VBL has grown up with the blog. I am so happy to say that there are many people that still read the blog today, that joined me on my Virtual CEO journey when I started it all the way back in January of 2010. Along with thousands more than have discovered it thereafter.

Either way, I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Good luck, everyone – and if you have any additional questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section below!

Me - Before Surgery!

You might have noticed that I have not been blogging all that much over the last two months. The reasons behind this have been two fold.

First up, Virtual Staff Finder was (and continues to) moving at a very fast pace in February and March and needed more of my attention as we not only ramped up our marketing, but also our team, too. We now have 6 full-time staff members to handle clients and VA’s respectively. We have always been the leader in this space, and will continue to be the GO TO GUYS for entrepreneur’s looking for dependable, experienced and qualified offshore VA’s to help them run, support and grow their businesses.

Pass the Scalpel 

Secondly, I started experiencing re-occurring back problems from an injury I suffered several years ago. To cut a long story short, I opted to go under the knife and have a majorly invasive spine fusion operation to correct the problem. For those of you who sent well wishes through my social media channels during the period, I thank you. I’m still recovering and it will be a long, long time until I am back (pun intended!) to full health.

This post is actually being published from my hospital bed, as I continue to recover, 6-days post surgery.

The Future

With all this said and done, however, I am looking forward to the future NOW, more than ever.

Even though my recovery from the surgery will be long and hard with, no doubt, certain bouts of pain and misery, I know that when I reach the end of the recovery road, I will be stronger, smarter and more ready to rock ‘n roll than ever before!

I also have several projects up my sleeve which I will let you know more of in the coming months. The first of which I will discuss with you, here on the blog, next week – be sure to subscribe if you don’t want to miss out on what it is. Trust me, its BIG, with a HUGE opportunity for the right person.

So, again, thanks for all the well wishes, and I’ll be back to you again next week.

Chris: I’m in the process of preparing for back surgery (thanks to all of you who have sent ‘good luck’ messages), so today I’d like to hand over the blog to the very capable and informative friend of mine, Phil Montero from The Anywhere Office. In today’s guest post, Phil (pictured, left) will provide answers to a few frequently asked questions about common pitfalls of a digital workplace. Something that, as new-age entrepreneurs, we must always pay attention. Over to Phil…

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Information Overload

Q: As mobile technology has transformed business and the workplace in the past few years, is information overload now a concern for businesses and their employees?

A: Yes information overload is a concern as we are exposed to much more information than ever before.  Email, blogs, podcasts, social media, video, TV, newspapers, and other media can make it hard to keep up. It used to be there was a much smaller pool of information and it was mostly consumed in the workplace – but with today’s mobile tools we can access and consume this information from pretty much anywhere.

It is an advantage but it can also be a challenge to know when and how to turn it off and take a break without getting overwhelmed.

Hardware Convergence

Q: In terms of hardware we use multiple devices including laptops, cell phone, work computer, tablet, etc, and online people increasingly have several email accounts, twitter, facebook and so on -  do you see this trend for multiplicity increasing in the years ahead, or would you expect them to converge and simplify – i.e. one piece of hardware to do everything, a unified online persona?

A: I see a form of convergence already taking place today.  Many people use a laptop, but also a tablet or smartphone to access the same information when they are mobile.  Thanks to cloud computing and the increasing inter-connectivity of software and applications there is already a lot of convergence.  For example, I have helped clients move their calendars, mail, and document collaboration to the cloud allowing them to use any device they have to access that information without duplicating documents or messages.  It is also becoming more common for a single programs to allow you to interact with Facebook, linkedin, twitter, and other social media sites.

RSS tools (like Google Reader for instance) make it easy to share information you find on any social media service, via email, or to programs like Evernote.  I think there will always be multiple services but the hardware, software and services we use will increasingly allow you to combine that information into one central place or interface.

Timezones and Communication

Q: In a global workplace, do you think working evenings and weekends – especially to communicate between different timezones, is simply the reality now?

Yes, I do feel a reality of our more global workplace is workshifting – working from different locations and times.  Smart companies will embrace this by allowing their employees greater flexibility in where and when they work.  At first you might think having to work on an evening or a weekend means you never get to unplug and are simply working more, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Many companies are embracing what they call ROWE (a Results Only Work Environment), which essentially means your work hours are much more under your control provided the work gets done (your work is measured on deliverables rather than a set number of hours you work).  With that type of philosophy, someone who needs to work during the night or on a weekend might not be working during the day so they can spend time with their family or pursue other personal development goals they have.

With the mobile tools and access to information we have today it’s possible to have a greater level or “work life integration”.  You might do a bit of work during a vacation but in turn that might be a vacation you couldn’t have taken in the past because of that work. It is a new form of “work life balance” that I think has a greater fit with the way work happens today.

24/7 Contact

Q: How can firms ensure their staff are not put under more pressure from tools that are supposed to make their lives easier?

A: Companies can discuss what are on/off times for employees and respect that time.  Just because you can send or reply to an email anytime doesn’t mean you should be expected to.  I think setting up acceptable and open communications guidelines (i.e. turnaround time for voicemail/email, what times/days are you expect to be accessible) can go a long way toward knowing when it’s OK to turn off or unplug from your mobile work tools. Granted, there may be certain times during important projects that exceptions need to be made, but it’s important for these guidelines to be setup and respected.

Digital Disruptions

Q: What can individual business people do to sort their communication technology so they are not disturbed by non-essential or untimely interruptions?

One key to managing your communication technology is knowing how to use it.  For example, with smartphones there are ways to turn off audible or visible notifications during times when you don’t want to be interrupted by them.  On a weekend, or at night, do you really need to be alerted every time a new email arrives in your inbox?  Someone else on your team might be working at that time but it doesn’t mean you need that notification right away.  Part of your communication guidelines is not only setting up expected turnaround times for different forms of communication but also a priority level.  So, for example, you might decide that voice calls are used for priority messages versus email or IM.  That allows your team members and employees to “turn off” their email or IM during non-essential times, knowing that if something really important turns up they can still be reached.

The communication guidelines need to be discussed and preferably decided on as a group.  They also need to be clear and open so that everyone understands and abides by them.

Chris: This article is seriously important to digest. There’s a lot of great stuff in here. I particularly liked Phil’s points on managing email, which I’ve gone into quite a bit of depth about before and the importance of work/life balance, too. 

One thing is for sure, the importance of technology in business isn’t going to start slow down, if anything, we’re going to be more tech-savvy and sexy than ever in the coming years. However, as business owners and entrepreneurs that are wanting to remain (or even just become!) uber successful, its important that we appreciate technology and what it can do for us, but not become bogged down (or even slowed down!) by it. Switch off for a while, peeps. Enjoy the view – wherever you may be.

My thanks to Phil for a great guest post submission, and please feel free to post your own views on the subject, along with any stories, ideas and resources that you feel are relevant to what we’re all trying to achieve in our lives.

Customer service is something that I’m well versed in. I own and operate a call center, after all. However, if there is one thing that I’ve noticed over the last few years, regardless of best-selling books such as ‘The Thank You Economy’, by Gary Vaynerchuk telling us how important it is to look after our customers – especially in the incredibly social, online world that we now all live in, is that it’s not a subject matter that gets any huge amount of ‘good’ press. It’s most ‘bad’.

Like the story of United Airlines breaking a guitar and not responding to millions of YouTube views on the subject until it was too late. Not to mention the fact that in a recent survey only 29% of consumers received a reply on Twitter, following a customer complaining publicly about an issue they had. Think about that – 71% of the companies / brands basically completely ignored a customer complaint. For the world to see!

It’s all quite pitiful really, isn’t it?

However, I’m here today to tell you that all is not lost. Seriously, it’s not.

Freedom Friday

As an entrepreneur, I’m lucky enough to have the freedom to set my own working schedule and for a while now, I’ve not been working on Friday’s (except the odd client call, or meeting). I’ve also been trying to come up with a regular activity that I can enjoy every Friday morning with my wife and our son, Charlie.

Last Friday I woke up with a hankering for coffee and donuts. That doesn’t happen often. So, when I get a hankering of such a kind, I usually act on it!

We jumped in the car and headed to the local Krispy Kreme donut shop. We’ve been there twice before, but never with the little one, who was simply told we were going to get donuts. He likes donuts (duh!?), but didn’t say much more than “I want a chocolate donut” on the way to our destination.

Good morning, Maam, Sir!

We parked, walked into the store to the usual Filipino greeting of “Good morning, Maam, Sir!” and approached the counter to order our treats!

As I sat my youngest at the table, I observed him getting comfortable – matchbox toy car in one hand, the other hand empty, ready for the battle that was about to commence!

His chocolate donut was placed in front of him (I’m an Original Glazed kinda guy, in case you’re interested!), he picked it up with his spare hand, and took his first, surprisingly large bite. As if it had been timed to perfection one of the young, female members of staff came over with a balloon, to his joy and amazement. Donuts AND a balloon? Surely this Friday morning can’t get any better…!?

For Charlie, oh yes, it can!

20mins, some fun and games – which included attacking a few unsuspecting patrons with his green balloon, and a few laughs later, Charlie had polished off his chocolate donut.

We’re on the verge of getting ready to leave and the young lady comes back to our table. This time, however, she brings a paper hat with her and squarely places it on Charlie’s head, asking him “Would you like to see how we make the donuts?”.

Being as inquisitive, but also as cautious as most other 3-year olds, he responds with “Can my Mummy come, too?”. Of course she can. At this point, I pull out my iPhone4s to capture the moment so that we can share it with Grandma and Grandad later on.

Here’s a 60-second clip from the video…

Click here to view the embedded video.

He was amazed by how the donuts were made. And when he came out from the preparation area, he ran up to me, to tell me all about it.

We thanked our ‘guide’, cleaned up the table and left the store with a smile on our faces, and full bellies. I honestly thought that our experience at Krispy Kreme that morning was finished there.

How wrong I was.

Winning a Fan for Life!

On the way home Charlie said “We sure had fun at Krispy Kreme, Daddy…”. Then he said it again a few minutes later. Then again. And… Then again. When we got home, we showed the video to his grandparents, which was accompanied with his running commentary of the event, which included the word ‘Awesome’ several times.

The sugar rush then came to an end, and he crashed. Literally. On the sofa, with his Krispy Kreme balloon next to him.

When he woke up, he asked to watch the video again. What ensued was another 10min conversation about his experience at the donut shop.

Charlie has not stopped taking about those bloody donuts all weekend! And I for one am very happy about it. Why? Because I’ve found that Friday morning activity I’ve been looking for.

What is REAL Customer Service?

Most people tend to think of ‘customer service’ as being a company taking care of a refund, or another sales related issue, or after sales ‘care’ of some kind.

However, we rarely see it as making an already good experience even better. Even more memorable. Even more enjoyable.

Would we have returned the the donut shop without this great experience? Yes, probably at SOME point in the future. But, not every week, that’s for sure.

Are we going to buy dozens of donuts every week, when we’re there? Probably not. But, I am telling all my blog subscribers, Facebook fans and Twitter followers about my great experience? Yes, I am. And will Krispy Kreme get some additional business out of it..? You betcha!

One of my fondest childhood memories is that of walking to the top of the hill in our town, with my Dad, every Sunday morning to get a newspaper. We did that together for years. I still remember some of our conversations from those 20min walks. Although, it’s the activity itself that I remember more than anything else.

Now, every Friday morning, when Charlie wakes up, he’ll know that we’re going to Krispy Kreme to enjoy some donuts. He might never walk around that prep area again (although knowing him the way I do, I reckon it’s more likely to happen, than not!), but he will enjoy the beginning of each and every weekend going forward and hopefully he’ll remember his Friday mornings with Mum and Dad for years and years to come…

Have you had a great customer service experience? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below. Let’s make each other SMILE at the start of the week and if you enjoyed this story, please share it with your friends, to give them a smile, too!

If you’d like to watch the video on YouTube, click here.

Late last year I received an invitation to speak at the Annual Business Blueprint Conference in Phuket, Thailand, which took place at the beginning of February.

I mentioned it on Facebook and was asked by several people to do a bit of an expose (if you can call it that!), on the subject of traveling for a speaking gig, the preparation I go through to speak in front of an audience, etc.

My first cut of today’s video was a little long, but to make it more digestible, I decided on a shorter version where I get to the guts and the glory, leaving out the flowery commenting!

I hope you enjoy the video.

Have you spoken at any international events? Would you like to? What did you think of this ‘inside look’? I’d love to know your thoughts, so please do feel free to comment below. Cheers!

Stop having one night stands on your social media channels.

If you really want to utilize this medium to grow your business, then start getting married, instead.

Let me explain my thoughts further.

A short time back, I had marketing expert and world-renowned speaker, David Meerman Scott on the VBL Podcast. I’m a massive fan of David’s and literally read everything he puts out. The guy is my marketing Yoda, plain and simple.

The one thing that he mentioned that stood out, more than anything else, was that people have got to stop pitching and start engaging more, to be able to make social media work for them in business.

So, in reverse order, here are three quick and easy tips to start utilizing social media to help grow your business faster than you thought possible… The RIGHT way.

Tip #3 – Fill Up Your Social Media Calendar

At the beginning of February I had the opportunity to fly over to Phuket, Thailand and speak in front of 160 passionate entrepreneurs on the subject of boosting traditional / brick ‘n mortar success, by engaging the online world of business.

Throughout the course of the 3-day conference many successful business owners, myself included (duh!) presented their pearls of wisdom to the highly energetic crowd. One session was on the subject of getting your social media strategy in place – for the entire year!

The strategy is to post something, across all your channels every day of the week.

Its better to try and automate as much of this as possible, so you just have to focus on the interaction side of things, once people start replying, commenting and RT’ing your posts.

It included things like:

• Video clips.
• Links to blog posts.
• Famous quotes.
• Questions.
• Useful resources.

Perhaps I’ll go into this strategy a little more in the near future, but the big eye-opener for almost all in attendance was that, with a little planning and execution, you can be everywhere, be engaging, helpful, resourceful and reap massive rewards through social media, in a non-spammy / sales-pitchy way.

So, get creative, plan your posting schedule (in the same way you would as a blogger), and then put it all on autopilot. Following this, all you have to do is pay attention and engage.

Tip #2 – The Twitter Tactic that has Transformed My Businesses

The one thing that I love about social media is that it’s instant.

Sometime last year I had issues with my hosting provider – our sites went down. I quickly went onto Twitter and discovered that there were a lot of people in the same boat, all using the same provider, just by doing a quick search.

This got me thinking. Surely if people were using the micro-blogging site to bitch and moan about problems they were experiencing, then they MUST be using it to find solutions, too.

I was bang on, right!

So, I immediately started stalking search.twitter.com, searching for people that needed help and support in my niche, and started reaching out – without pitching my company or services. I figured that if I helped them out willingly, that they would go ahead and visit my profile, click on my links and check out what I had to offer – when they were good and ready.

I was bang on, right – again!

Nowadays, I don’t do this searching myself. I leave it up to my VA, who manages all the searches via TweetDeck (see image above), and sends out pre-written responses that I produced in the course of my experimenting myself, as well as other types of interaction that she handles herself, too.

She does this with her own Twitter account, some company ones, and even sometimes using MY account, too! So, people think that they are chatting with me, as a thought leader in our niche, before they actually DO start talking to me. Smart so-and-so, aren’t I…?!!

For me, it works… Check out the tweets below, showing social proof.

Tip #1 – My Number One ‘Social Media for Business’ Tip

This is simple, yet so many people overlook it.

It’s time to minimize and simplify.

Having a presence on the major social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn is important (click at random to interact with me on these channels). However, being actively involved on them all is just unrealistic – especially if you want to make a major difference in your business and more importantly, genuinely help your customers and prospective customers.

So, stop chasing the social media dragon and start getting smart.

Pick ONE channel that you enjoy using more than any other, and then GO FOR IT in a major way. That doesn’t mean that you won’t utilize the other channels frequently (or even have a virtual assistant manage them for you), it simply means that this one channel will become your social media focus.

For me, it’s Twitter. I like to tweet because it’s quick, easy and very mobile (thanks to my iPhone4 and iPad). It also enables me to add images, videos and links to other cool and helpful resources for my list of over 40,000+ followers.

For my aforementioned buddy, Pat Flynn – it’s Facebook. Pat’s fan page is ridiculous – in a good way! The engagement he has with his fans is unlike any other Facebook page that I have seen. Why? Because he decided a long time ago, that this was the way he wanted to answer fan questions, help, support and interact with them, away from his blog. He does a great job of it, too.

I’ll leave you with this…

10 People Doing it RIGHT!

There are LOTS of people doing things right already. However, here’s a list of ten of them that I see using social media in the right way (consistently), as discussed above, to engage, motivate, inspire and educate (as well as promote their businesses!).

Check ‘em out on Twitter, and emulate, people.

• Chris Brogan
• Deb Ng
• David Meerman Scott
• Pat Flynn
• Srinivas Rao
• Corbett Barr
• David Risley
• Francisco Rosales
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Marcus Sheridan

What are YOU Doing Right… or Wrong?!

What experiences have you had with social media in regards to utilizing it for building your brand and promoting / marketing your business?

I’d love to hear about the good, the bad AND the ugly in the comment section below.

Quick Request: If you liked this post and found it even remotely helpful, I’d really appreciate a quick share of it on your favorite social media channel. Here’s the URL, so you can copy and paste it quickly. Thanks in advance! - http://bit.ly/ygb0dO

Earlier today I was interviewed for a podcast, we spoke about a lot of small business principles and strategies, and one of the questions poised to me was today’s discussion point. Obviously, I’m a big believer in working with offshore staff to leverage your time, financials and business growth potential.

I was also ‘cornered’ by pro-blogger John Chow minutes before my presentation at BlogWorld Expo (I’ve been asked to speak again in New York, this coming June, too!) last year where he asked the question ‘How does it feel to know you’re destroying the American economy by promoting offshore outsourcing?”.

It was a fair enough question – and I gave my answer, which was basically the following:

The fact is that it’s the small businesses that fuel any local economy, and a lot of the time these businesses are in bootstrapping mode. Every little the can save makes a big difference to their bottom line. Not only this, but from a business owner standpoint, it simply doesn’t make any sense to me why you would decide to pay $3,000 to have a web developer work for you, managing your websites, when an offshore, highly skilled and experience worker can do the same job for $800…

Fair comment, I believe… And I’m obviously a big believer in working with offshore staff to leverage your time, financials and business growth potential and have helped hundreds of business owners do just that through my Virtual Staff Finder company.

Now… I appreciate that this is a touchy subject, one that we’ve discussed in a round-about way before, and one where opinions will come into play quite heavily, hence today’s discussion point.

Please keep it friendly, and in the spirit of entrepreneurship. Over to you…

One of the most undeniable traits of a real entrepreneur is the ability to be flexible. To move in the right direction when the time strikes and to turn, or pivot in another, when required.

This is ‘formally’ known as the ‘Entrepreneurial Pivot’. 

I’ve experienced plenty of pivots in my career – learning something from each and every one of them. So, I thought it might be a good idea to tell you about my most recent one, what caused it, and how I handled it to turn things around and drive home another successful business launch – just in case you bump into one yourself in the near future!

The Beta Mode

Before I launched my most recent business, YourWebPA.com, we were in beta mode for around a year. We had been testing out different service packages, price points, how our processes ran, the way that we would work with and report to clients, and so on.

As someone that really believes in helping people with their outsourcing needs, YourWebPA.com is my personal answer to the issues of project-based outsourcing via the popular ‘job posting’ websites, and the hassle that comes along with hiring and having to work with people you’ve never worked with, or met before, for simple one-off projects.

Throughout the entire planning process and beta period we had our focus on putting together a line-up of 25 different service offerings. It was going to be a huge launch, with plenty of growth possibility for the future, too.

However, it simply was not meant to be that way.

The Problem

In theory it seemed fantastic to be able to offer that many services, right out of the gate. The problem, however, was that it was taking a long time to gather, train and get management processes in place for the complete, highly skilled and diverse group of people that I was going to have to assemble to be able to provide the best possible service to our clients.

Something needed to happen so that we could focus on bringing this new venture to the marketplace faster, and with a solid line-up of services that would really work well for our clients.

Enter… The Pivot

So, I grabbed my laptop, jumped in the car and went to my local Starbucks to do a little entrepreneurial soul searching.

Being around the team, as great as they are, was just clouding my vision when it came to finalizing a product line-up. Their passion and excitement to finally launch the new company was awesome, but it was really getting in the way of me thinking clearly.

An hour into a planning session over coffee, a brand new mind-map and a couple of quick tweets to people that had been utilizing the service in its beta mode, to get some quick feedback, and I had my service line-up completed.

YourWebPA.com would now feature just five different service offerings (instead of the 25 that we had been planning) for its kick-off, namely:

• SEO Packages
• Niche Site Creation
• Personal Branding Kit
• eBook Design
• Article Writing

Clarity was immediately felt. 

I went back to the office, met with my team and told them the great news! At first I could tell they were a little shocked – but, after explaining why I was doing this, they quickly realized that the entrepreneurial pivot that I had just made was exactly what we needed to be able to REALLY start growing this new business together.

We simply needed to get going, the growth would come… And it is!

The ’3 Reasons’ 

1) You see, if I had of carried on shooting for the 25 services that I was wanting to offer to people, it would have taken at least another 6 months to get it all finalized to the point where I felt really comfortable and confident to go live. I wanted to make sure that I had all my ducks in a line and that people would be immediately impressed with the service line-up and quality of work we were doing for them, as well as the general customer service, too.

After all, you only get ONE chance to make a first impression, right?!

2) Bringing the initial number of services available down to the five listed above allowed us to wrap things up quickly and get this new baby of ours launched and in front of potential customers all around the world – FAST. In fact from the afternoon that I performed this latest entrepreneurial pivot of mine, to the time that we launched, it was exactly 3 days.

3) We are now planning to roll out another six different services this year, with the first addition being transcription services at the end of this month. They are all being tested slowly, but surely and looking better every day. It’s given us more clarity than we ever thought possible.

The future of YourWebPA.com is looking bright… and a lot less complicated!

Have you performed an entrepreneurial pivot on a business venture? How did it go? If you haven’t yet, how do you think you would have handled my situation above? I’d love to hear your comments below.

I’m currently in the process of working with a blogging mentor – I’ll reveal who it is at a later date, but trust me, their credentials are solid!

The reason why I reached out to this person is because I’ve been battling with a few ‘blogging demons’ over the last few months. More specifically, I am actually questioning my purpose as a blogger, as well as my general niche and the way that I am perceived in that niche, too.

It’s Personal, I Get It!

The thing is that we blog for our audiences, obviously. But, as a blogger, when you spend the amount of time that you do, putting together all of your content, surely, you should be:

a) Enjoying it.

b) Doing it for the right reasons.

This is what I am questioning, I guess, at the moment. And, I must say, after just two sessions with my mentor, along with a little homework, I already feel that I’m getting close to REALLY understanding what I SHOULD be doing and the type of content that I should be creating as a blogger.

Now I’m Wondering…

So, here I am, now starting to wonder if all my blogging buddies and the other people that I enjoy reading online (and perhaps even offline – you know, real BOOKS!), are perhaps feeling the same way?

Are you blogging in, and about the niche, that you REALLY should be?

Or, have you started something that has done well, and you’re simply sticking with because it keeps you ‘up there’, or making you money?

I’m curious. If you’re a blogger, podcaster, author or online video producer, please let me know how you feel about this topic below in the comment section.

And please share this post with other bloggers you know…

Nowadays, I often get interviewed for podcasts, magazines and blogs. In fact I was just interviewed by Yaro Starak for his excellent entrepreneurial blog and podcast, which I’ve personally read for years myself.

I’ve been asked ‘If you could go back and start your journey as an entrepreneur all over again, what would you do differently…?’, on more than one occasion.

My answer is a simple one…

As an entrepreneur, I wish that I had gotten active online way, way sooner than I actually did – which is just two years ago.

Why I Enjoy Blogging so Much

My blogging, and the fact that I utilize social media, podcasting and online video as much as I do, has enabled me to far surpass my business growth targets, and has opened more ‘business doors’ than I can count!

In the video above, I go into my feelings on this a little more, and actually tell a couple of stories that reflect things a little clearer.

However, here are a handful of reasons why I wished I’d started my blogging and general involvement in the online business world, sooner:

• It’s enabled me to build a fantastic personal brand. A brand that has catapulted me to ‘Thought Leader’ status in my niche of ‘outsourcing’, even to the point of being asked to speak at several international conferences and expo’s.
• I’ve signed up so many new clients for my largest business (which currently houses over 300 employees), who have found me through my podcast and blog, I’ve lost count!
• The networking opportunities that blogging and having a voice in social media brings, has netted me some of my best, and smartest friends.
• Blogging has enabled me to create and launch TWO new businesses in the last 12 months.
• Doing business online has shown me that the world is so much smaller than it used to be, and that the global economy is thriving!

As you can tell, I’ve become a big fan of doing business online.

How My Blogging Journey Began

When I launched this blog, two years ago, I did so with a 1-year goal to become a Virtual CEO. I achieved that goal. And one of the reasons I believe I achieved it (and a full month ahead of schedule, I might add!) is because I documented the entire journey through the pages of my blog.

I blogged about everything I was doing to achieve that status, and more. And I produced monthly reports for people to see what I was doing on a month to month basis to hit my goal, too. It gave me a focus that I’ve never actually experienced before… Seriously. Some might say that starting a blog, and everything else that I’ve done online over the last 24 months has changed my life…

Has Blogging Changed My Life?

In a word, yes, I think it has. For all the reasons I listed above, and because of the stories I discuss in today’s video, too. Plus, much more.

Has it made me a ‘better person’..? No, I don’t think so (I like to think that I’ve always been a pretty nice guy!). But, it’s certainly made me more accessible to potential clients and business partners – which, as any REAL entrepreneur will tell you is AWESOME!!!

Its also put me into a thought process on business that is, literally, never ending. That doesn’t mean that I don’t switch off from ‘work’, because I certainly do. What it means is that I find myself having more ideas, creating more opportunities for myself and my businesses, as well as allowing myself to truly represent myself and my businesses the way I really want to. I love that control.

Have YOU Started a Blog Yet?

If you have, well done. If you haven’t, and you really, truly want to make a difference in this crazy entrepreneurial world that we live in and enjoy so much – do it. TODAY! Don’t wait… like I did. There really is no point and you’ll achieve nothing by sitting on the sideline.

The fact is that people want to do business with other PEOPLE. And creating, starting and building a blog will give you tons more opportunities to connect with people (AKA, your future customers, friends and partners!) than any other medium out there today, that I promise you.

I’m a curious type, as you know, so I have a couple of questions for you…

If you’ve not started a blog yet – whats holding you back? And if you do have a blog, and you’re perhaps thinking about re-launching it in some way, why is that? What are you not happy with?

—————————————————————————————————————-

How to Start a Blog That Matters

As you might remember, in my last post I did a review of a new blogging course from my very good friend, Corbett Barr (who is also one of my Top 3 Bloggers to Follow in 2012). He had just gone live with ‘How to Start a Blog That Matters‘, and I’m happy to say that there have been record numbers of people signing up for it.

In case you’re interested, you can read my entire review here, but here’s the general jist of it:

• 13 week course will take you from Step A, B, C, all the way through to Z.
• Over 8 full hours of high quality video tutorials
• Direct access to Corbett at any time (this is worth the $97 alone, if you ask me!)
• 4 awesome bonuses
• 60-day, no questions ask ‘money back’ guarantee.

And if you purchase through MY AFFILIATE LINK you’ll get FREE access to an Exclusive 1-hour webinar that I am going to be recording that will show you how to do all the stuff you’ll learn from Corbett with as little effort as possible, by outsourcing the work to a team fo virtual assistants. I’m even including an audio version!

PLUS – a $50 discount off my Virtual Staff Finder service, for when you’re ready to get going and hire your first VA.

To get all this, plus my bonuses, you simply have to sign-up before February 3rd, which is when the launch promo ends. If you have any questions – just drop me a comment below.

As you know, it’s not often (I can count on one hand how many times I’ve done it in the last two years!) that I whole-heartedly get behind someone and what they have to offer online. But, I’m gonna do it today.

On Monday I published a post highlighting 3 bloggers that you must follow online in 2012 to achieve the success I know you are all after – one of them was my good friend, Corbett Barr.

Just as I hit the publish button on that post Corbett opened the doors to his 13-week coaching course on How to Start a Blog that Matters. This thing is stacked, jam-packed with everything you’ll need to know to start a blog and kick-ass online – and the price makes it an absolute no-brainer, as far as I’m concerned.

Watch my video above for a solid explanation on everything, and 2 special bonuses that are up for grabs, if you get involved through my affiliate link.

What’s in the Course?

The following list is taken directly from Corbett’s genius set-up:

• Week 1: Choose the right topic for you.
• Week 2: Develop the perfect blog name and brand.
• Week 3: Design your blog to look great.
• Week 4: Create your social media strategy.
• Week 5: Develop your launch plan.
• Week 6: Learn how to create outstanding content.
• Week 7: Create your launch content.
• Week 8: Launch your blog.
• Week 9: Start making friends in the blogosphere.
• Week 10: Build your thriving audience.
• Week 11: Expand your reach using webinars, YouTube, podcasts and more.
• Week 12: Make your first dollar blogging.
• Week 13: Develop your strategy for taking your blog to the next level.

His Bonuses are INSANE!!!

Not only all of this, but you’ll also get the following amazing bonus videos from him to:

• How to Start a Popular Blog – The Ultimate Beginners Guide (Sit-down interview with Leo Babuata of Zen Habits)
• How to Use Authenticity to Feel Great and Build a Huge Following (with Danielle LaPorte of White Hot Truth)
• Case Study - How I Helped Scott Dinsmore create Live Your Legend and amass 10,000 Subscribers in 6 months!
• How I Built a Launched Expert Enough using the 13 Factors to Make a Blog Successful

As you can see, he covers exactly EVERYTHING you need to know to be able to get started with your blog in the right way, and with SUCCESS already a certainty! He also promises that if you don’t get incredible results he will spend time coaching you personally, one-on-one! An amazing guarantee!

And, Here are MY Bonuses!!!!!!!!!

Like I said in my video above, I want to make this as useful as possible for my audience. The chances to get involved in courses like this don’t come around very often – especially at the ridiculously low price of just $97 – for everything!

So, I’ve decided to put together a couple of bonuses of my own! If you purchase Corbett’s new course between now and February 3rd, 2012, I will give you the following:

Bonus #1

When you buy ‘How to Start a Blog that Matters‘ through my link, you’ll get exclusive access to a 1-hour webinar that I will do in the next month or so, which is basically a re-vamp on my BlogWorld Expo talk that I gave in LA, last November. It’s entitled ‘How to Work with Virtual Assistants to Help Build, Grow and Monetize your Blog’. The PERFECT companion for those of you wanting to take this course and fundamentally get someone else to do all the work – based on Corbett’s ‘How To’ principles and under your guidance!

And, so you can listen to the webinar (as well as watch it), when you’re traveling, working out, eating, walking your dog… whatever - I’ll include a free audio version, too!

Bonus #2

When you decide that you want to go ahead and hire your virtual assistant, whether that be right now, or anytime in 2012, I will give you a $50 discount on my Virtual Staff Finder service, allowing you to hire your virtual assistant and start realizing the power of outsourcing as a blogger and online marketer – trust me, you have NO IDEA what you can achieve (but, you will do, when you watch the webinar!).

So, that’s it.

CLICK HERE – TO GET CORBETT’S COURSE, HIS BONUSES  — AND MY BONUSES, TOO!

And like I said in the last video – in 2012 I’m going to be focusing on providing very focused content on Start-Up and Marketing principles here on VBL. Showing you how I’ve been able to create and market successful businesses (both my own and other peoples!) and launch them online to huge success. Some of them being real ‘online’ businesses, and some even traditional ‘brick n mortar’ businesses, that have simply blown up after getting active online.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about ‘How to Start a Blog that Matters, please leave them below – I know that Corbett will be more than happy to pop over to the blog and answer them for you!

2011 was another outstanding year for me, personally, and as an entrepreneur. I’d like to thank all of you for helping me along the way last year, in whatever way you might have contributed.

It’s now a new year and you’ll be happy to hear that I’ve made some changes to the type of content that I am now going to be focusing on creating here at the blog. I go into a lot more detail about it all in the video above.

However, thats not what this post is really about. It’s about three professional online publishers that, individually are crushing it (and have been for some time!), but collectively, will enable YOU to start doing exactly the same, this coming year.

So, without further ado, I give you…
. 

The Definitive VBL Blog Subscription List

To find out exactly WHY you need to be subscribing to these blogs and following their authors online, watch the video accompanying this post, as the reasons are important! However, if you just want to click, subscribe, and start enjoying their content, here are the links:

Myself with Corbett, Pat and David in LA, Nov '11

+ Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn – @patflynn
+ Think Traffic by Corbett Barr – @corbettbarr
+ DavidRisley.com by, er.., David Risley – @davidrisley

Just three blogs, I hear you ask…? Yes, that’s correct.

This doesn’t mean that there are not lots of other, excellent blogs out there that you shouldn’t be checking out (and I’ll no doubt mention lots more in the future), it simply means that these are the three blogs that I personally suggest that you get well and truly stuck into!

Not only are the bloggers themselves all very good friends of mine (as you might be able to tell from all the man-hugging going on in the photo above!), they are also incredibly smart online entrepreneurs in their own right. It’s been said that you become the average of the five people that you spend time with the most. The same can be said for online friends, too, I believe. And these guys make up three of those five people for me!!! So, surround yourself with good online influences, too.

I read a lot of blogs, like most people interested in business. However, when it comes to these three guys, I never miss a single post from any of them…

Special Mention: How to Start a Blog That Matters

Although I’ll be doing a proper run-down on this fantastic new ‘beginners’ course in the next week or so, I wanted to mention that Corbett has just launched his ‘How to Start a Blog That Matters’ course that is absolutely fantastic from what I’ve seen so far. He has helped launch and re-launch so many blogs now its insane – literally hundreds of ‘em, and this new course has some of the best ‘how to’ content I’ve come across.

If you’re looking at launching your first blog, a new blog, or even re-launching a current blog, make sure you go check it out!

.

Now – Help Me, Help You…

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Facebook Discussions

One thing I really want to try and make happen this year is better utilization of the VBL Facebook page and its community. It’s been a solid resource, in dribs and drabs over the last year – however, not the most ‘active’ of communities. If I was to be really honest, some of that obviously falls on MY shoulders, as the community leader.

So, I will be making a big effort to focus a little more on the community that we’ve already built up, and try to engage, motivate, inspire and communicate with everyone over there a little more. It’s also the perfect place to ask question, spin around ideas and get general feedback from everyone else in the community, too.

If you’ve not yet already ‘Liked’ the page, please do so now. And while you’re there, drop a comment to everyone introducing yourself, too!

It’s a TRIBE Thing!

I have always commended the VBL Tribe for the excellent advice, resources and general passion for business that you’ve all shared between each other. You are, sincerely, in my eyes, the BEST online community anywhere. Period.

I have plenty of things lined up for the coming months. However, I am now turning to you guys, my tribe, and asking what you would like to see from me, as the owner of the VBL brand. Nothing is off limits, literally.

Please comment below and let me know what you’d like to see in future posts – and any other suggestions in general. I’d highly appreciated…

Happy New Year, everyone…!

To kick-start 2012 I’ve decided to post this video a little earlier than I had originally anticipated. Even though it was shot at BlogWorld in LA, last November, I was going to release it at the end of this month, as part of a little series I plan on doing. However, when I was looking at it earlier today, the content just grabbed hold of me again, and I realized how important of a message it is for all of us bloggers! Hence the decision to post it earlier than planned.

Darren Rowse is known as one of the most successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs around. I’d met with Darren originally at BlogWorld in Vegas in late 2010, and we reconnected in LA, where we got to hang out and chat together a lot more – he’s a top guy and someone that I hold a massive amount of respect for.

So, in this video you’ll see me and Darren discuss the subject of one of his BlogWorld sessions, which bears the same title as this blog post.

I feel the content of this video is massively important to all bloggers out there. Not just because it helps us to come up with some cool post ideas, but also to capture the attention and imagination of our communities, and also allows people that follow us online to perhaps get a deeper understanding to what makes us tick and why we all do what we do in business, and life.

As a side note, I’d like to thank my buddy, Pat Flynn for playing cameraman for us for a few minutes on the middle of a very busy expo floor!

I’d love to hear what you guys think about this topic – please comment at will, below.

NOTE: Have you ‘Liked’ the VBL Facebook page yet? If not, come on ever (click HERE now to join the gang!) and introduce yourself, ask questions and get involved!

About six months ago we moved house. It was something that had been on the cards for a while, and although we had looked at a lot of houses in the area where we wanted to live, here in Cebu, Philippines, we hadn’t been lucky enough to find something that was truly what we wanted.

One of the main contributing factors for buying a new house was that I needed a larger home office space. Since I’ve become a Virtual CEO, I am now working from home more and more, and in the old house I was finding myself very constricted on a number of levels:

• I didnt have a ‘view’, which was quite literally driving me nuts!
• The aircon was old and noisey, not condusive to business calls.
• My desk area was small and very limited.
• I had no full-time space for my video shooting set-up.
• The room also housed a ‘shared’ family computer.
• It was on the lower level of the house, where all the ‘action’ is throughout the day.

Above you’ll see that, frankly put, I needed my own space, away from everything else. Somewhere quiet, and motivating. Not noisey and distracting. So, when we visited a one-year old house, designed and built entirely on Feng Shui principles, it was love at first site. Not only that, but the entire top level of the house was wide open and ready to be renovated into the home working facility I needed!

You can see the new home office in the short video tour, at the top of this post.

Needless to say, the difference speaks for itself. I find myself being incredibly motivated and heavily productive in this new environment. The additional desk space is a major factor in this, as I like to spread things out in front of me when I work. Not only that, but the huge whiteboard is a game changer as far as I’m concerned, especially for mind-mapping.

What do you think of my new set-up? Any suggested changes I could make?

As we get ready for the New Year, what steps are you taking to make sure that 2012 is the best year ever for you and your businesses? I’d love to hear your comments below.

First up, I’d like to say ‘thank you’ for all the well wishes I received from everyone last week, via Twitter, email and Facebook, as I lay in bed battling what turned out to be the worst flu of my entire life. I literally didn’t leave my bedroom for three full days. It was intense. Also – thanks for the patience for this latest Niche Site Project report, too!

As you’ll see this month’s report comes to you in all the glory of beautiful video.

The content of the video will either make total and utter sense to you, or perhaps, disappoint you. Either way, it is what it is. Simply watch the video, and get updated.

Items mentioned in this video:

• Official ‘Niche Site Project‘ website.
• The ‘Disable RSS‘ wordpress plugin.
• Monthly Report #4 here on the blog.
• The Adsense alternative, Media.net I’m now using.

So, there you have it. Now – if you’d still like to update the community on your numbers and how you’ve been going with your own niche sites, that would be great – I’ve enjoyed reading them, trust me. And if you feel that you’d still like to do it going forward, regardless of my intentions (again – watch the video!), let me know, and I’ll see what I can do to try and work something out on that side of things for everyone.

What struggles have you had in your niche site adventures? Also – what triumphs? Tell us all about it below.

Here’s a snap shot taken this morning at my facility in Cebu, Philippines. The shoot was for a feature that Entrepreneur Magazine is doing on myself, and my company, Virtual Staff Finder – it’ll be coming out in the March 2012 issue.

I’ve been lucky enough to get featured in more ‘traditional’ media quite a bit in my career – TV, Radio, Newspapers and Magazines. This particular feature in Entrepreneur will actually be my second in the incredibly successful business magazine. I’m always very thankful for the exposure that these articles, interviews, etc., bring me and my businesses.

Traditional Media vs New Media

However, with the world of ‘new media’ quickly becoming the ‘norm’ in regards to marketing and promotion of businesses, events, etc., the question has to be raised – is there really a battle between the two actually going on? Or, has ‘traditional’ media just accepted that the online world is here to stay?

Recently, I was on a flight coming back from the US, where I spoke at BlogWorld Expo (the premier event for new media enthusiasts) and watched a documentary called Page One – Inside the New York Times. It’s a great inside look at how one of the worlds biggest, most successful newspapers is handling their own transition into new media. Easily one of the most interesting docu’s I’ve watched for a long time, and I suggest you check it out.

My Opinion

In my own, humble opinion, I believe that ‘new’ media now includes all of what ‘traditional’ media is about. Seriously, I mean, when was the last time you looked in a magazine, newspaper, or checked out a TV show or even a radio interview / spot, where the words Twitter or Facebook were not mentioned / pimped out…?!!

Utilizing the power of the web, blogs, social media, podcasting and online video is now simply enjoying, incorporating and understanding… ‘MEDIA’. Period.

As a blogger, particularly, surely I am a online publisher… right?. That’s what I think, anyway.

What’s your take on all this? Do you believe that new media and traditional media are locked in a battle, or simply becoming more and more intwined together? Let’s discuss below!