Last week I posted that I was working on an ebook to help the “beginner” who wants to start an online business.

It’s finished now, so I’m making the link live. You can get in line right now for your copy.

Read all about it here. You’ll also be able to access the “Get it now” button from there.

And if you have questions, be sure to contact us.

Well, it’s done!

Click on our link here to see our new eBook with tips and suggestions to help you with “Creating an Online Business”.

Topic headlines include:

- Why Start an Online Business?
- Things to Consider Prior to Setting up an Online Business
- How to Set Up a Business Plan For an Online Business
- How to Set Up an Online Business On a Budget

And a whole lot more.

See for yourself! Click on the link and take a peek!

Many of us just starting a business or those of us that have been around for a little while, sometimes need a little help figuring out where to start.

Or how far to go and how fast.

So, I wanted to give you a “heads up” that I’m working on an eBook, along the lines of “Beginning An Online Business for the Beginner and Intermediate” …or something like that.

I’ve just about got things worked out with it; sales page, autoresponder, “money taker” and the like. Once that’s all taken care of, I’ll post how you can get it here.

You can get in line now if you want…or come back in a few days. Or, send an email to me at kmcgreevey@konceptuality.com to let you know when everything is ready.

I’m looking forward to sharing these thoughts with you.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

It’s the age-old question that still hasn’t truly been answered. And it’s much like the question of “how do you build a list”? There are many solutions from which to choose, some of which I’ve included here:

E-Courses

You’ve seen it yourself! People are hungry for information, so a free e-course will persuade people to part with their email address. Create at least a seven-part course that is delivered every few days into their Inbox. Of course, the e-course also subtly sells your product!

Articles

Write articles and distribute them to article directories. Include your newsletter sign-up in the resource box, and if you have provided good quality content you will get the visitors who will sign up to learn more.

Free Books

A free e-book is an excellent way to build your list. It doesn’t have to be an epic rendition of some great happening, just valuable information for which people will exchange their email address. You can write it yourself or get have a ghostwriter step in for you.

Make sure, though, that it is information your visitors will want to have, and be sure you have included (clickable) links to your products and sites in the book.

And to further “accentuate your positive” and increase your potential for earnings, include Affiliate links.

“You’ve Got to See This!”

My friend just sent me this link and it cracked me up. As an Internet Marketer, you may feel like nobody outside your online buddies understands exactly what you do all day at home. And, sometimes you feel a bit like an alien trying to tell people stories about your day-to-day life.

Well, Jimmy D. Brown hit a home run.

He’s created 15 comics about what it’s like to be an Internet Marketer. Some will make you laugh out loud and some will make you groan, but all are worth taking a minute to peek at.

Totally free and totally funny.

Check them out here.

I seem to have a huge fixation on email lately.

Perhaps it’s because not so long ago I had a bit of Excedrin headache issues with mine. The most recent happened when Microsoft released an update. Between my Outlook 2003 and my anti-virus software, I ended up unable to send or receive email using Outlook 2003 for over a week.

It turns out my anti-virus software did not recognize the MS update and caused the “send/receive” feature to stall out. (In fairness to Microsoft, it took a while to resolve the issue because we were unable to reach each other; on several occasions they called me and I was not available. I emailed them and they were unavailable, etc.)

Numerous telephone calls, email conversations and remote hook-ups with Microsoft and my anti-virus provider and many days later eventually resulted in a positive outcome.

And once again I was finally good to go.

But not before I managed to rack up a bit of distress at my inability to send and receive email in a timely manner. Of course, I did have Outlook, and I added Thunderbird. But they just weren’t the same!

That said, now I’m faced with another email issue.

This time, though, it’s because I seem to “somehow” have got on everybody’s list. “Somehow,” of course, really means at my own doing over a course of months it appears I have managed to sign up to receive email ezines/newsletters from “everyone in the whole wide (web) world.”

And more and more I get email, ezines/newsletters and offers, etc., than I have time for. Much of my email is now coming addressed to “undisclosed recipient” (who, for Pete’s sake, is “undisclosed recipient”), advising me I’ve won the lottery in the UK, or the British Prime Minister has a bunch of sterling for me; or I can enter into a very lucrative Hong Kong business proposal, or some woman’s deceased family member deposited a huge sum of money in a foreign bank for me, and they’re waiting to get my name, address, and other identifying information. (And that’s a whole other story.)

This too much email dilemma can possibly be resolved in a number of different ways; the most obvious and least disruptive for me would be, when traveling about the Web, to just make it a practice to not sign up for ezines/newsletters or other email notifications.

Unfortunately, though, this measure could result in the loss of really great ideas and tips, and networking that could be of benefit at the time you’re at the site or much later down the road.

Another solution might be to set aside time in each day…or at least weekly–to sort through your email to read what is going on in your niche market or an area where you’d like to venture.

It’s not hard to unsubscribe from a list. Well, at least it shouldn’t be, if the form of email that comes to you provides you with a means to unsubscribe. (I have seen instances, though, where it was not possible to unsubscribe.)

Short of unsubscribing, another solution would be to just hit “delete” when the notion strikes.

You wishing you could be like “everyone else” and have a blog?

But you don’t know what to do or where to start?

I know something that might interest you.

Traci Knoppe of Genesis Blogging is launching a “Beginner to Blogging” with Word Press, 4-week ecourse Monday, June 1, 2009. The course is limited to the first 1,000, and will sell out fast.

Here is the link to Traci’s site so you can get the details and see for yourself what all the hoopla is about.

And while you’re there, get on the mailing list. too!

Congratulations to Jeannine Clontz, Accurate Business Services, for winning the Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award and to Jef Keep, Daily Planet Virtual Services for winning the Janet Jordan Achievement Award at this year’s International Virtual Assistant Day (IVAD) Celebration, May 15, 2009.

The Online International Virtual Assistants Convention, (OIVAC) has been rescheduled to October 1-3, 2009. The Speakers’ lineup and topics are at OIVAC.

Mini-conference sessions leading up to the Convention will be held throughout the summer at the OIVAC site. check there often for details.

I’m pleased to announce that the International Virtual Assistants Day will be held as originally planned tomorrow, May 15, at 5 p.m., EDT.

However, the IVAD will be a “stand-alone” event instead of as part of the OIVAC as originally planned.

The link to attend the festivities and to enter the event room are at the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention site, http://www.oivac.org.

At this year’s IVAD, two outstanding Virtual Assistants will be honored for their contributions to the Industry.

Please join us as Friday, we celebrate these VAs and this very special day.

If you read here regularly, you know we’ve often posted about the upcoming Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC).

Unfortunately, today we are relaying a bit of unfortunate news regarding status of this month’s Convention.

The Steering Committee of the OIVAC has made the decision to postpone the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC) until October, as this year we have not received the same high level of registrations as previously experienced. As we can see no logical reason for this, we are putting it down as yet another statistic of the economy.

The new date for the convention is 1 – 3 October, 2009, and we will continue to market the event during the coming months to ensure increased attendance is achieved.

We will not let the economy damper deter our efforts to recognize VAs and the celebration of our contributions to businesses located around the world. As a result, we will conduct the International Virtual Assistants Day (IVAD) celebration, on Friday, May 15, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. EDT, as previously planned. This is OUR annual day of recognition, and we encourage VAs from around the globe to continue to participate in this celebration.

The Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction and Janet Jordan Award winners will be announced, and we will be providing tons of FREE giveaways to attendees.

The link to the meeting room for this gala event will be distributed next week. So please mark your calendars and plan to attend.

In addition, we will host several FREE pre-event activities between now and October, so look for future announcements about these dates.

Thanks again for supporting us and we are sorry for the inconvenience. Having said that, we are extremely excited to now be working towards a more positive and energetic convention in October once the “doom and gloom” of the economy has eased.

Kind regards,

Sharon Williams
and the OIVAC Steering Committee