Click here to read the full article on Friday’s Fortnightly

Click the link to read the full article on Friday’s Fortnightly

Click here to read the full article on Friday’s Fortnightly

Click here to read the full article on Friday’s Fortnightly

In Cinema’s October 2010

You may have the most outstanding website and have spent many hours crafting it, so that it is a delight to visit, a visual dream and a portal that is just waiting to make you money. However, there’s one small problem. You have to find traffic, as after all you don’t want your site to represent a billboard in a desert.

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In school they teach students to pick out the theme of a paragraph or story. After reading it, it’s the job of the student to figure out what’s the most important part of what they have read. If you are a researcher, this is exactly what you would be doing for those who don’t have the skill or the time to devote to this themselves. The act of compiling information that is of use to others is a core ingredient of your business.

The Internet provides access to a massive amount of information, staggering by any comparison. Experts in different fields post their knowledge in articles and blog posts. There are a large number of databases online, where agencies, professional organisations and governments alike digitise their information and present within directories for anyone who has the desire to access the material.

As there is truly so much information available, the average person or the harried business owner can really get lost very quickly. Who uses this kind of information? For example, a business might turn to the Internet to compile statistical information and to spy on competition. Writers, book authors, journalists, television professionals and literally just about anyone else you can think of, use information from the Internet for their work. With their busy jobs, they don’t have time to do the research.

It can be a lengthy process conducting research. Within the Internet, you need to know how search engines work in order for you to use them to your advantage and find out what you’re looking for. Primary search engines are Google, MSN and Yahoo!, but there are a number of other engines that most people don’t hear of. An Internet researcher is familiar with all of them and uses the one that will yield the greatest harvest of useful information for their particular task at hand.

Virtual assistants working within Internet research would provide several services to clients:

• Compiling current statistical data.
• Current knowledge of search engines and relevant databases.
• Uses proven methods for information gathering (relevant use of keywords).
• Spreadsheet and Word document expertise for presenting information in useful manner.
• Specific knowledge about the client’s subject matter.

You may be approached by a writer who is looking for knowledge and research on specific subjects, for example 18th-century London or snake venom, for the next book. A business client may want statistics on auto maker revenue in the last ten years. Each is a different subject, but methods of researching are similar.

The virtual assistant Internet researcher may compose a specific niche for his or her business. In your case, this might be gathering and analysis of statistical information, or possibly website development. You could establish a client base around that service for large and small corporate businesses alike. Experienced clients realise it is not easy to perform research and come up with the best results, yet they want the best; consequently they would be willing to pay premium prices for top quality results.

What’s a web designer? A web designer is someone who works to set up websites for other businesses. You may be knowledgeable in this area and have quite a lot of talent as well and can set up your virtual assistant business in this field.

The Internet is the next great frontier. Millions upon millions of people use the Internet every day to look for information, conduct business and buy merchandise or services. You need to build up an online presence to be able to access this world. It’s the way that people learn about you and your business.

There is a great deal to learn about web designing, unfortunately. If you talk to somebody about CSS for HTML, they really won’t know what you are talking about. As such, if you want to build a website for your business, either an existing one or an Internet operation, it can be difficult to do so without making mistakes.

Mistakes can easily cost you business. If your pages won’t load quickly or you have graphics that don’t look good, visitors can be turned away before they even get to know what your site has to offer. Many business owners, starting off, would rather avoid these traps if they could.

The field of web design is rapidly expanding and booming and is a perfect choice for a virtual assistant with the relevant experience. Those website designers who can convert a business owner’s ideas from a dream into reality have always been in great demand and will continue to be so.

Virtual assistant website designers perform tasks like:

• Website setup
• Setting up a blog
• Monitoring discussions on a forum
• Setting up a page
• Conducting search engine optimisation
• Uploading audio, podcasts, videos and files
• Troubleshooting coding
• Website maintenance

Visitors are looking for different things when they visit a website. Advertisements placed at the top of the page look appealing. Dedicating each webpage to a different product allows more information about the product to be readily available. Well-informed visitors are more likely to buy the product that way.

These examples are just a few off the tasks that you could be called on to provide. Believe it or not, just taking care of the website duties is a weight off of the mind of business owners both small and large who want to concentrate on the business side of things and not pulling their hair out trying to manage complicated graphics or blog posts.

The good news is that any one of these areas can further be defined as a sub-niche. Within web design you can concentrate on website maintenance or simply the initial setup process. Both aspects are much needed services, and certainly high in demand. Any virtual assistant, who likes the technical side of the Internet, will see their passion fulfilled as a website designer.