Blog
September 3rd, 2010
 If you host small online meetings or conferences, teach online or have any need to share content but don’t want to pay high prices, then you should check out the latest desktop sharing tool – Mikogo.
Mikago lets you share any screen content or application over the Internet with up to 10 users simultaneously. And it’s free for both commercial and private use! Here are some of the applications:
- Web conferences
- Online meetings
- Product demonstrations
- Web presentations
- Remote support
- Team projects
- Webinars
Mikogo comes from BeamYourScreen, who offers a number of Web collaboration solutions. Most of BeamYourScreen’s products are not free – they offer more sophisticated features like a greater number of participants (up to 25), an HTML viewer and live customer support. The free version is great for small, simple applications. All of Mikogo’s features work on a Windows platform – a number will also run on a MAC platform.
Here’s how Mikogo works:
- The organizer initiates a phone conference.
- The organizer starts a Mikogo session, gets a unique 9-digit session ID from the Mikogo server, and distributes the session ID to the participants.
- Participants open their Internet browser, go to www.mikogo.com, and click on “Join Session”. No installations or registrations required for the participants. They simply join the session by entering the session ID.
- A connection is instantly established, and the participants can view the organizer’s screen in real time via the Mikogo viewer window.
Download it here and give the application a try. It’s cool, it’s free and it’s available in several languages.
Tags: BeamYourScreen, desktop sharing, desktop sharing tool, free content sharing, Mikogo, Offsite Business Solutions, online meetings, online sharing tool, Virtual Assistant tools, Virtual Assistants, Web collaboration, Web conferences, Web tools
Posted in Resources, Small Business, Software, Technology | No Comments »
August 18th, 2010
When you become self employed there are things that you will need to handle that before were handled by your employer, health insurance being one of them. In the corporate world, typically Human Resources handles the paperwork, provides information on how the plans worked and the coverage and you could call them if you had any questions. Now that you’re self employed, you are the one who will be in charge of handling that aspect of your business. When you begin to research different policies, it is vital that you do your homework and don’t sign up for the first policy you find. Most importantly, ask questions, you will find that there is a lot of confusion out there that comes along with health insurance. To help you get started, below are some types of insurance that may best fit your situation.
Major Medical
This is the type of insurance that you may have had when you were with an employer. It covers a wide variety of medical treatments, prescriptions, and hospital stays. This plan is flexible as well by choosing the deductibles and amounts that suit you best.
Point of Service
Point of Service insurance or POS for short is where the patient chooses a primary physician and would have all care done with that physician. If you should have to see another doctor for a service that your primary physician doesn’t handle you would need to have them refer you or it may not be covered.
Limited Benefits Plans
This type of insurance covers only certain types of care this is so that you can keep your costs low but still have some types of coverage. These plans differ by state in the amounts and coverage’s that are minimally required.
Hospital Only Plans
This plan is exactly like its name implies, it only covers if you are hospitalized. This plan would only be a good idea if you had the means to cover expenses for regular checkups or lab work that is done out patient.
These are just a couple of examples of the types of insurances that are out there for the self employed. Start with checking out the plans that may be available through your car or home insurance or check and see if the group or organization you belong to offers benefits, you may be surprised.
Tags: benefits, health insurance, medical, self employed, Small Business
Posted in Small Business | No Comments »
August 5th, 2010
When it comes to online communication, it’s just as important as offline communication, if not more important. Oftentimes when speaking to someone in an online atmosphere, they can take things the wrong way, simply because they cannot hear your voice or see your face. Because of this, it is vital that you get your message across right the first time because you might not get another chance, especially if you offend someone. Here are a few guidelines to follow when you are speaking to someone online; have it be through email or IM.
- It is typically considered rude and impolite to talk IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS. It is commonly referred to as shouting. Shouting = rude. Instead, you can emphasize words using bold or italics but if at all possible stay away from all caps.
- Make sure you check your spelling and grammar before sending out emails and IMs. Most IM and email programs these days have a spell check function. Be sure to turn it on, this will allow you to look professional. It will also keep people from getting confused by sloppy typing.
- Make sure when you send an email, that you use a signature file. Email programs and sites like Gmail and Hotmail have an option for this. It will allow you to “attach” it to the bottom of all your emails you send out. This email signature will contain your name, business name, phone number, URL, etc. Whatever you want. There are two points to this. First is to introduce who you are and possibly what you want. Second is to possibly promote your website or business.
- Make your email subjects text as concise as possible. Keep it short and to the point.. Oftentimes when people read or receive an email that is incredibly long, especially when it comes to a partnership, sale, email sales letter or newsletter, if it’s too long, they will just delete it. Remember to always enter a subject, if you leave it blank it has a greater chance of being filtered into spam or just deleted.
- Always use the best customer service skills possible. It doesn’t matter if it’s through an email program or if you have a support desk. Don’t make your clients, customers or prospects wait more than two days at a time for an answer. If you get a lot of people that email you once, email you twice and email you three times in a very minimal amount of time - set up an auto responder. Gmail has one of these and it is quite frankly, very useful. It tells people, okay, I got your email, and I will get back to you soon. It shows you care and it puts them at ease.
By using these few guidelines, your business will run smoother, and people will be able to communicate with you on a clearer level. Communication is such a HUGE aspect in the online world. Use these guidelines as you will, when you want and customize them for your businesses.
Tags: business email tips, email, email etiquette, Offsite Business Solutions, Virtual Assistants
Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »
July 17th, 2010
 Over the last few years technology has become one of the fastest evolving industries in the world. But, when you get something as popular as technology, you also have people taking advantage of it and abusing it - the wrong way. Texting and driving are one of the ways and it is very dangerous. You’ve heard it time and time again, “oh I was just answering a quick text”, or “oh that was someone important.” But, before you know it, you are in a fender bender.. or worse. If you wish there was some way around this for your own self, or if you have kids and you want them to be more safe and stop texting and driving, there is a solution!
Some people would suggest you just don’t text and drive at all, but some of you are obsessed with texting! You know who you are! If you have an smartphone you can download this free application called DriveSafe.ly. Phones that work with this app are Blackberry, iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile.
This app has a ton of features designed to keep you and your family safe car accidents. One of the main features is the ability to read and answer texts. The texts, when you receive them, will actually be read out loud to you. When you wish to reply you simply talk, send, and that’s it. This is going to cut down on accidents in a BIG way.
The activation is simple, it’s a one-step process, you can also add an optional auto-responder in case you do not want to or cannot answer the phone, and its 100% hands-free, absolutely no need to touch the phone while driving. The text and read and send to reply options are all real-time. There are other apps as well to listen to emails while driving which is superb for those of you who need to be on top of your business at all times, even in the car!
Tags: DriveSafe.ly, preventing car accidents, smartphone applications, smartphones
Posted in Technology | No Comments »
June 26th, 2010
 The great thing about doing business online is that you have an array of ways to promote your business and products, among other things. If you want a really nice and easy way to promote or sell your products though, you should start thinking about webinars. Think of a webinar as a viral video, they are like phone conferencing, but with added video options. Many different people can end up seeing this webinar, and they will reach out to you when they need your services. You can also choose to promote your webinar through targeted audiences as well by choosing specific keywords and sites to put your webinar on.
While a webinar is a great way to get clients to buy what you are selling or to use your services, you can also use them for other aspects as well such as product presentations, live demos, how to topics, tech talk, and social meetings. Webinars can be utilized for a variety of tactics. While this is a really nice way to increase sales, you will still have to put some marketing behind it. But, as with most other things online you have about one hundred ways of going about this.
You can either put it on a website and blog about it, you can get someone to do article marketing for you, post links on your website domains, contact various people you know and customers. Many people are using social media like Twitter and Facebook to promote as well. Make sure if you do post it on Twitter, Facebook and those other social sites, that you make the account from which you are posting the link relevant TO the webinar,this will allow you to target your audience.
Tags: increasing sales, Marketing, promotions, webinars
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
June 10th, 2010
 If you have a Smartphone and you truly feel like you aren’t using it to its fullest, you are probably right! Most people that own Smartphones only use about half of what their real potential really is! In order to use your Smartphone to its fullest ability, one of the best things to do is get involved in some of the APPS available for your phone. Here are a few suggestions for your Android, Blackberry or iPhone:
- Get Free Turn-by-Turn GPS on an iPhone: When Google originally brought turn-by-turn GPS to the android phone, iPhone users were envious to say the least! In March, iPhone users gained their own app that allowed turn-by-turn GPS abilities courtesy of none other than MapQuest. You also have turn-by-turn with voice if you are an iPhone user with the MapQuest 4 Mobile app.
- Communicate with everyone using Fring: If you love Social sites like Myspace, Google Talk, AIM, and Twitter, you are going to love this app! It allows you to use the application as a hub which allows you to talk and use ONE place for all your Social sites rather than having to visit and use each one individually. HUGE time saver. Fring is available for iPhone, Android, and Nokia devices.
- Find Wi-Fi in Your Area: Apple might have cut wifi stumblers out of their own App store, but you can still turn to a variety of wifi directories, in this case JiWire’s Wi-Fi Finder. This Wifi finder has well over 280,000 hotspots in its directory!
- Compare Prices With ShopSavvy: You can find an array of APPS available that can turn your phone into a bar code scanner, but one of the best apps I have seen thus far that always allows you to do a price comparison is ShopSavvy. You can use these either at local stores or at stores online. You can also set up wish lists as well based on the prices of the scanned items. Pretty cool!
- Slip Away With Fake-A-Call: Sometimes when you are on the phone and having an awkward phone convo with someone, you just WISH someone would call in on the other line and interrupt. Well, now there is no more wishing with Fake-A-Call. This is a free app that lets you schedule or create a fake phone call. Just a fun little app to use.
Some of these apps available, besides the ones above, are for fun. Others are a little more serious - great for travel or business people. Either way, if you don’t use apps, you are definitely not getting the most out of your phone! Most all of the apps available are 100% free. Even if you find one you really like and its paid, chances are someone else offers the same thing for free so make sure you check different ones out.
Tags: apps, blackberry, iphone, Offsite Business Solutions, smartphones
Posted in Technology | No Comments »
May 30th, 2010
 If you host telesemiars on a regular basis, having your seminar calls trancribed to help you generate additional income. By having transcribed seminars, you can reach a wide audience while earning extra cash and spreading the word about your company, brand name and seminar’s message. You can generate extra income by selling your message in various forms of printed media to seminar participants and to those who were interested in attending the teleseminar but were unable to make it. You can also offer a transcript of the seminar as an added incentive to those who are attending the seminar, potentially adding additional attendees.
When presenting interesting and relevant material, seminar presenters may tend to use many technical terms, speak fast and with enthusiasm or cover a great deal of material. These are all reasons why seminar attendees would be interested in purchasing a teleseminar’s transcript. Whether the transcript is used for reference or as a guide to share with co-workers, many are willing to pay for the convenience of this most accurate form of note taking.
If planning on writing a book, with information relevant to the teleseminar, a transcript of the seminar would be an excellent addition. This bonus material is a great marketing tool and can be used to promote the book plus the “free” bonus. When advertised to the appropriate audience, combining the book launch with other teleseminars can help cross-promote both mediums and allow for greater book and teleseminar sales.
Another idea for seminar transcripts is to include them in a promotional package. If offering a service, adding the teleseminar’s transcript allows persons ordering or registering for your product or service to gain full access to the missed event. Because the entire seminar is transcribed, it allows buyers to read the transcript in their own time and implement the given ideas or discussed thoughts at their own pace. Throughout the trial and error process, users can refer back to the seminar’s transcript to perfect and refine their techniques. Once satisfied, the transcript can be passed to another person or kept for long-term reference.
Tags: Offsite Business Solutions, teleseminars, transcription
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 18th, 2010
 If you have a business online or if you are brick and mortar, it’s an absolute must that you know what is going on with the businesses around you that are in the same industry. This can be done by utilizing competitive research to find out about things like who your competitors are, market structures, business environments, what advances they have over you, and various economic trends going on in the workforce and in the industry you are in. Eventhough this is a very important aspect of any successful business, it’s also quite time-consuming.
If you want to keep up with your competitors, but you simply do not have the time to go through all the aspects of competitive research you could consider hiring someone to do it for you - someone like a virtual assistant. This type of research can determine the varying aspects of your competitors and compilng reports can help you to get more of a feel for others in your industry as well as the people you are essentially selling to.
Doing this type of research is absolutely worth the time and investment. Knowing your competitors will essentially allow you to see where your strong suits are and what parts of your business you need to work on in order to beat your competitors and become a strong selling point in your industry.
Tags: Competitor Research, Offsite Business Solutions, virtual assistant
Posted in Small Business | No Comments »
May 13th, 2010
 It seems that everyone is on Facebook or Twitter or someother social networking these days. Now there is something new! OnlyWire 3.0 is the latest, hottest content distribution and syndication tool on the Web. Onlywire lets you broadcast your content to top social networking sites with the click of just one button – it lets you boost traffic, save distribution time and accelerate the rate of your search engine rankings. According to OnlyWire, more than 100,000 publishers and blog sites use “The Button.”
Why we love it
OnlyWire gives you a Bookmark & Share button for your Web site or blog page that lets your visitors share your content with the world, simultaneously. You have options for both free and paid usage of Bookmark & Share. To have the Free button, all you have to do is keep the Bookmark & Share button placed prominently on the content/article sections of your website or blog. Just maintain that presence (OnlyWire checks) and make sure it is functional. That’s all that’s required!
You also have options to participate in special advertising from OnlyWire. All you have to do is visit their site and sign up.OnlyWire has developed 3.0 by getting user and client feedback through surveys and they also provide support for their users through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and email. They offer an iPhone app and they are also bringing API tools to your developers for integration into CMS environments.
If you are a blogger, developer, or manage your own fabulous Web site, take the hassle out of content distribution. Visit www.onlywire.com and get The Power of the Button™.
Tags: blogging, Offsite Business Solutions, Onlywire, Social Media, virtual asistant, web 2.0, web 3.0
Posted in Social Media, Technology | No Comments »
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If you host small online meetings or conferences, teach online or have any need to share content but don’t want to pay high prices, then you should check out the latest desktop sharing tool – Mikogo.
