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August 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

 

Virtual CEO - Chris Ducker's August Monthly Report

My desk at the Live2Sell Group HQ – Yes, the one I want to give away!

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 6mins

Number of Days in the Office: 13, Total Number of Employees: 213

So, here we go with another monthly round-up as I get closer and closer to approaching my end of year goal, and becoming that (hopefully) full-time Virtual CEO. First up, I spent considerably less time in the office this past month, which is great. This wasn’t actually down to me making sure I did this, however, it simply ‘just happened’ as I have been focusing on different projects and have been working more from home to stay focused throughout the ‘creative’ stage on things.

The biggest part of August was the launch my of Virtual Staff Finder service. For a full run-down on the service and its features, you can visit the seperate website, or read my full launch post here on the blog.

We were, frankly, blown away with the response and I have been up to my eyeballs in consultation calls over the last couple of weeks. As we launched the service to the VBL subscriber list only we expected a certain number of people to sign-up, but saw a lot more sign-up’s than we anticipated. So far, so good… with over 20 virtual assistants already deployed to entrepreneurs around the world, through the service.

Although this is not 100% ‘passive’ income, it is to a certain degree. Meaning, nothing actually takes place until someone sign’s up and pays for the service. At that point, myself and my team work on things. I must say, I have enjoyed coming back from dinner and from being out on the weekend, to see emails from Paypal…!

Other going-on’s this month included:

  • Two new client sign-up’s.
  • Expansion on our sales and marketing team.
  • Promoted 3 members of staff to mid-management level.
  • I enjoyed spending time with a good friend that came into town from the UK.
  • Finally found my Eskrima teacher, and a Grand Master, no less (more on this in a future post!).
  • My Son is now a full-blown bodyguard for his Mommy, not even letting me get a little hug-time in!
  • I’ve started planning my first full-blown online product, too.

We also surpassed our target of 1,000 RSS subscribers here at the blog, too (at the time of writing this report we are around 1,020, I believe). Thanks to all the subscribers and if you haven’t added us to your reader yet, please do so, to make sure you never miss an update on the blog. Be sure to also join us on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, too.

Virtual Business Lifestyle Podcast

Another point to mention is that our iTunes Podcast has grown from strength to strength, and has been featured very predominantly throughout the last month in the ‘Noteworthy’ section of the Business listing consistently. You’ll see in the above image that we’re featured along with Pat Flynn’s great new podcast, too.

So, a pretty strong month. Thanks to everyone for their continued support on these reports. They won’t last forever, in terms of the current format anyway, and I do enjoy reading the feedback from you all, very much so. See you on the next post!

The Key To Setting Up Your Blog For Profit!

Setting Up Your Blog for Profit

Screenshot of Robb’s Excellent Blog!

This is a guest post by Robb Sutton.

Blogging has become an incredible medium for income generation online. With thousands of internet entrepreneurs making a full-time income online through their content, thousands more eager bloggers are hitting the market to hit it big and live the life they dreamed. So there you are…wanting to start a blog but have no clue on where to start. While there is a ton of information online on how to setup a blog (you can even see my tutorials by clicking here), if you are looking to actually generate income through your content, you need to take some things into consideration before you even pick a domain name.

 

There Are 2 Types Of Income Generating Blogs

From what I have seen over the years, there are really two types of income generating blogs and you are going to fit in one of these categories.

  1. Business blogs that use regularly updated content to generate free leads for their business.
  2. Blogs that are the business generating income through advertising, affiliate marketing, information products, etc.

What may surprise you is that the plan of attack with each scenario is basically the same with differences in content production and site layout. As we look at each, one solid truth rings through…

We have to attract a buying audience and keep them on our blog.

Without a buying audience in either scenario…there is no dollars changing hands which equals no income for the blogger. You can not make income through content alone, so let’s get out there and find where the money is being made.

Finding A Buying Audience For Your Blog

If you are a company that is looking to generate more leads for your business, you are in luck. You already know who your customer base is so you can taylor your content to attract more customers. Once you get your new leads to your blog, you are going to want to capture those leads through an email newsletter and keep them up to date on what you have going on with your business. Easy enough…

If you are going to start a blog for profit, your job is a little bit more difficult. Your trick is to find a blog topic that is going to attract buying eyes to your pages so you actually have the possibility of making an income online. Here are a couple of things to look for as you come up with a blog topic (preferably one that you know a lot about…do not start a blog about blogging if you do not have a successful blog in another niche).

  • Affiliate Programs – Affiliate marketing is one of the main ways that bloggers make their income online. By referring a sale, you get a percentage commission. Easy enough right? If you have several blog topics in mind, start looking around to see if there are a lot of affiliate programs you can sign up for. If there are, chances are there is some money to be made in that niche. If you find there are not any…you might need to reevaluate where you are headed. Remember…most programs are going to be through a network like Share-A-Sale, Commission Junction or a marketplace like Clickbank.
  • Google Adsense – Google Adsense is most likely the largest online advertising platform in the world. While I don’t normally recommend relying on it for income generation, it is a fantastic tool for figuring out if advertising money is being spent in your target niche. By doing some simple Google searches for keywords in your niche, you can find out if there are advertising dollars being spent by looking at the ads on the right of the screen. If there are a lot of major players advertising, you have a niche blog topic that can attract direct advertising dollars.
  • Google Adwords – Google Adwords is the backend management for Adsense. Google provides tools to advertisers so they can taylor their ads to specific groups. By using the Keyword tool in Adwords, you can find out local and global monthly search engine queries for keyword strings in your niche. This is a great tool for figuring out how large of an audience you are trying to capture that is searching for income generating keywords online. It can also tell you want kind of content you should be writing and which keywords you should be targeting for success.
  • Size Up The Competition – If you are entering a market with very weak or no competition, you have either found an untapped resource or there isn’t any money to be made within that subject matter. When you have narrowed down your blog topic, start to look around at the competition and see how they are generating revenue. This does not mean those are the only ways to make money in that niche, but it will give you some insight into whether or not money can actually be made.
  • Can You Help Your Readers Solve A Problem? – The fastest way to make money online is to solve people’s issues within a given niche. If you can create an informational product or provide solutions (with affiliate products) that solve a person’s problem, that is your fast track to success. If you are just reporting the news, be prepared to wait until you have a massive amount of traffic to make a small amount of income.

If you keep to those theories and tips as you create your blog from day 1, you are starting off on the right foot in respect to income generating blog production. Once you have found that perfect niche for you, rock out the content and create a email newsletter to capture those leads to keep them coming back to your content. The rest will be history…

Robb Sutton blogs about blogging and how to make money online through his experience with Bike198.com at RobbSutton.com. He also teaches people how to get over $100,000 per year of free review product with blogs in Ramped Reviews.

Passive Income Streams – 6 Ideas You Can Get Started with TODAY!

As todays business world becomes more and more web focused, creating passive income streams online should be one of your main focuses when building a business in the new economy – whether you’re doing this on your own, or with the help of virtual assistants that manage your blog, or even handle the marketing of your site – you’ve got to love making money while you sleep!

This doesn’t mean that (if you have one) you abandon your traditional business. It simply means that you can probably capitalize on the way that consumers are purchasing, more than you currently are.

If you’re a chiropractor, for example – why not create an eBook or audio guide on marketing and promoting your chiropractic clinic in your local area? You could then sell that to other chiropractors to help them grow their own practices.

The possibilities for creating passive income streams are endless – especially if you know what you’re doing! Here’s an infographic I created to expand on this further:

passive-income-streams-online

Want to REALLY catapult your passive income to the next level?
Sign-up for my FREE 7-Day ‘New Business’ Bootcamp Video Course!
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The ability to create numerous money-making vehicles, switch them onto auto-pilot and then reap the financial benefits is paramount to living a successful entrepreneurial life in the modern world. There are many people doing it successfully, and there is no reason why you can’t join them!

In this short video I share with you SIX ways to be able to produce passive income streamsonline and ‘make money as you sleep’. Also, try to keep in mind that although its not required to begin with, all of these passive income generating ideas can be made a LOT easier by utilizing a virtual assistant.

There are countless avenues to explore when creating passive income streams, the six I discuss in this clip are:

These online income generation ideas are nothing new… heres a video from 2010 which explores the exact same conceptions as in this post, and infographic. As you can see, the rules of the game might have changed, but how you play it hasn’t.

Obviously, there are many different ways to create passive income streams, the most important thing is that its done with passion and great content. Putting something together is one thing, but making sure that people get genuine value from it is a different ball game completely.

If you’re looking to take your online earning potential to the next level I strongly suggest you check out the following articles for more relevant information:

Thanks for dropping by, and feel free to share this post, graphic and information in general with your friends if you think this stuff will help them.

If you have had success with your own online passive income streams online please consider tweeting me – I’d love to hear all about it!

Personal Outsourcing – 3 Quick Tips to Make YOU More Productive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umUTmnnYQUM

Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

Personal Outsourcing isn’t anything new. However, the best selling book, the 4-Hour Work-week certainly helped push it into the limelight in more recent years. Savvy entrepreneurs from all around the world now ‘know’ what outsourcing is all about and more and more are getting turned onto it with every passing month.

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My New Service: Bridging the Outsourcing Gap to a Professional Home-Based Virtual Assistant in the Philippines!

Screen Shot 2013-12-27 at 4.54.55 PM

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 5mins

If you’re already a subscriber of the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog you’ll know that I’ve regularly talked about virtual assistants and how I use them to help run, support and grow my business. Today, I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand new service called Virtual Staff Finder. 

In a nutshell, the service was put together to bridge the outsourcing gap between entrepreneurs that want a hard working, experienced home-based VA, but one that is selected and ‘checked out’ in a more professional way, with the entrepreneur doing pretty much nothing in the process, accept making the final ‘hire’ decision.

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Fearless Health – Review of a GREAT Free Resource!

Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 4mins

Imagine a life where you…

  • Are rarely, if ever, sick.
  • Have health care costs totaling only your preventative exams.
  • Embody the physical ability and energy to do whatever you wish.
  • Possess the mental courage and creativity to bring your dreams to life.

This is not a dream world. This is a reality that you can build for yourself using FEARLESS HEALTH – How to Thrive in an Unhealthy World. FEARLESS HEALTH is a brand new manifesto by Matt Gartland of Healthy Lifestyle Design. It’s a powerful guide to achieving remarkable health and using this energy as your means of lifestyle domination on your own terms! You may remember Matt from his earlier guest post here at VBL – 4 Ways to Manage Your Healthy Lifestyle Like a Virtual CEO.

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The Virtual Business Lifestyle Top 12 “Lifestyle Design” Blogs

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 10mins

I am a pretty well read guy. I like reading, always have. I have well over a couple of hundred books and can genuinely say I have read every one of them. Although lately I have been spending more and more time reading online, to keep fully up-to-date with the things people are up to – and as my “Virtual CEO” quest continues, I am reading on the subject of Lifestyle Design more and more.

From reading all the wonderful blogs lately on the subject, I thought it might be a good idea to create a little resource here on my own blog, with a list of the all-encompassing Virtual Business Lifestyle Top 12 Lifestyle Design blogs on the internet – and believe me there are some great contenders! I’d like to point out that these blogs are NOT listed in any apparent order, its simply a collection of great content and great minds! So, without further ado, lets get stuck in.

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July 2010 “Virtual CEO Goal” Monthly Report

Virtual CEO - Chris Ducker's July Monthly Report

Featured on the same page as Steve Jobs and CNBC - Wow!

Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 5mins

Number of Days in the Office: 17, Total Number of Employees: 208

Happy Friday to each and every one of you! Wow. What a month… These monthly reports are always the posts that I enjoy putting together the most. What I do is jot down notes in my Moleskine throughout the month on things that I want to mention, and this month is a real corker!

Because so much took place this month, I am going to make this a bullet-point type of post to make it easier for you all the read and get stuck into. So, here we go:

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One Week in my Virtual Business Lifestyle – Searching, Stressing (a little!) and Producing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyU-l8t_EVg

Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

Last Friday I shot this quick video (with my webcam, so quality is a little lower than usual), in regards to last week’s going-on’s. I originally thought I might just slam this up on our Facebook Fan Page, but then figured a post would get it to a larger audience – so, here you go.

It was a bit of a topsy-turvy week, and I can report that I am STILL looking for that Operation’s Manager – so, if you fancy it and have previous, relevant experience, let me know. I will bring you a little more up to date on everything this coming Friday, when my latest Monthly Report (for July) will go live.

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Tim Ferriss Muse Creation – Utilizing a VA to Help Create and Market Your Muse!

Ever since Tim Ferriss wrote and published The 4 Hour Work-Week, there has been hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurial lifestyle fanatics looking to creating what Tim calls, their ‘muse’. Some have succeeded, some have failed – terribly. I wanted to write this quick post to be able to point out some simple things you can utilize virtual assistants for, when kick-starting your muse creation empire!

It doesn’t really matter what kind of muse you’re creating for yourself to be able to create passive income streams and capture that 4 Hour Work-Week dream. It can be an eBook, it can be an eCourse, it can be a software download, it can be a membership site—it seriously doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that you’re making the move; you’re taking the step to be able to become more of a passive income generating entrepreneur. Will it lead you to a 4 Hour Work Week lifestyle? Maybe. Maybe it won’t. But the most important thing is that you’re taking that first step to be able to try and create your muse, get it up online and get people spending money on it.

So when it comes to utilizing virtual staff to be able to create that muse and get it out there, there are a number of different ways you can utilize the support they bring to the online business-building table.

Get Them to Work Hard, While You Work Smart

The first thing to do straight off the bat is competition research and keyword analysis. And a virtual assistant can do that for you very, very effectively. I have people working for me full-time here in the facility, checking this stuff out for me, as I write this post – but, you can do it with anybody anywhere in the world.

Once that research is done and you’ve figured you want to give it a go, it’s time to register your domain name. If you struggle on this, brainstorm with the people around you to come up with ideas for that all-important domain name. I have credited my wife, Ercille, on many occasions and in many interviews to naming the blog you’re reading right now! Obviously, you’re going to want to make sure it’s related to the product that you’re going to be creating and selling in some way shape or form.

Your domain name registration and coming up with ideas can also be done with, or by your virtual assistant as well. Once that goes into effect you’ve got to develop your online portal, or your blog. You can do that yourself but it’s going to take a long, long time to customize, for instance a WordPress theme. I tried it myself on my first blog or two. I did achieve it, but it took forever (especially as I am a bit of a perfectionist!) and I’m just too busy for that kind of stuff nowadays.

Get Them To Do The ‘Techy’ Stuff

Get anybody with PHP and/or WordPress knowledge and experience and it’s a slam dunk all the way. Virtual assistants are perfect for this type of stuff – plus, if you don’t want to hire a full-time developer, just pay them for the project itself.

Graphic design. Now this is obviously not just for your online side of things, but offline, too. Like laying out and designing an eBook, or producing a video, 3D graphics that you are going to be using in the video side of the product that you might be putting out, etc. You can also look at hiring a virtual staff member to be able to handle the editing of your videos as well – both for the short and long-term.

Get Them to Network For You

Something else that you can really utilize virtual staff for is networking. Networking online through Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace—although it’s not talked about nowadays – that sort of stuff is perfect for a virtual assistant, because a lot of it can be put on autopilot. It is, however, very time consuming, so don’t waste your time on Twitter all day long!

Bottom line here is that as long as you’ve given your virtual assistant good directions, they can do almost all of your online networking for you, saving you a boatload of time, so you can focus on other money-making tasks!

One of the other big things you can use virtual assistants for to great, great effect – and this is something I’m a big fan of – is online research. Get them to research the living daylights out of any kind of business model that you might be thinking about pursuing, someone you might want to JV with, or a website you want to review, etc.

So, there are a few different ways to utilize a virtual assistant to create your muse, just as Tim Ferriss has done. If you have had success in working with VA’s to help you do this type of stuff online, please share your experiences below – share the wealth, guys – it’s good karma!