The SEO Virtual Assistant’s tips to Web Research

Formerly, when people need to look for information they usually go to the library and painstakingly search for the information in the dog-eared pages of the books that have been in shelves for like the last hundred years. Nowadays though, all that information is just a click away. You just enter what you’re looking for in the search bar, click search and presto, research finished.

Conducting research today has become simple thanks to the advent of the Internet. However, there are still others who find difficulty in looking for the relevant information in the world wide web. Here are some tips from an SEO virtual assistant to get started with web research:

A- Always begin with your own knowledge; What you already know maybe enough and can serve as a jumping board for your web research.

B- Brainstorm for keywords related to your topic.

C- Concept-based search can be used. Although this might be outdated, it can still be very effective.

D- Do not rely on the first page of the search engine results page, dig deeper until you find the most relevant.

E- Evaluate the content based on the relevance, the date it was last updated and if possible the author’s authority on its use; these things are important in your web research.

F- Fine tune your search with the use of search operators.

G- Google is not the only search engine in the world. Make use of other search engines as well.

H- Haste not in your search, take time to ponder and assess your findings.

I- Information in the Meta tags can be useful to shorten your search.

J- Justify other authors work by citing the URL’s. Web research is no different from traditional scholarly research.

K- Keywords must be used when searching.

L- Learn as you go. Try to absorb pertinent information while searching.

M- Master Internet jargon as well as those related to the concept.

N- Not all that you may find is reliable. Neglect unessential information.

O- Observe for indicators of quality information. One good indicator of quality information is if it’s from a .edu site, since the articles usually presented are from reliable research.

P- Plan your web research. This will lighten the task and get you more focused.

Q- Questions to ask: who is the author, the purpose for writing it and is he reliable?

R- Relevance must be the top priority.

S- SEO virtual assistants can seek quality and relevant information

T- Think about the words you need to search.

U- Use quotation marks when searching for exact phrases.

V- Vary your search strategies.

W- What do others say? Whenever possible try to find about the pages linking to the page and check if these pages are quality ones and are devoid of degrading content.

X- Xeropthalmia (dryness and soreness of the eyes) may occur when you do too much web research. Avoid this by using a computer screen glare filter.

Y- Your mastery of the Internet is a factor for the success in web research.

Z- Zealously follow this SEO virtual assistant’s tips provided in here.

The world wide web is without doubt the ultimate repository of information. It holds more information than a library can; however not all the information that can be found in here may be relevant to your search. It is important therefore that one has the knowledge on how to conduct web research. Whereas, if you don’t want to be hassled for doing web research there SEO virtual assistants who can do it for you.

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SEO Virtual Assistants Laude Microsoft for Upgrading MS Office Live

Microsoft Office Live is a partially discontinued web based service providing document sharing, and website creation tools for consumers, like SEO virtual assistant and small businesses. It is composed of two types of services, Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business. Although this web based service is getting obsolete as more updates in Web 2.0 has recently arrived, having a working knowledge about it can help in understanding and learning about its “successors"-Office Web Apps on Skydrive and Office 365. The following is a detailed discussion about Microsoft Office Live, capitalizing on its features:

Office Live Workspace

Office Live Workspace was a free online storing and sharing service for documents. It was commonly used in work, like in the case of SEO virtual assistants, school and home projects because documents can be managed without a flashdrive making it possible to work almost anywhere with an Internet connection. Web access with a compatible browser is required to run the service.

Features:

• Online storage – Office Live permits users to save up to 5 gigabytes (GB) of information in many file formats, which can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection, even if Office isn't installed. This eliminates the need for flash drives or CD’s as a storage solution, and provides capabilities for updating project schedules, organizing events, and delegating assignments without scheduling a meeting or relying on email. That’s why SEO virtual assistants prefer it.

• Information sharing – Office Live Workspace is designed so that computer users can share a single document or a workspace containing multiple documents, as well as collaborate online as a group. Workspaces are password-protected and can be shared to as much as 100 users who in turn can control who views and edits information. 

• Software compatibility – While Office Live Workspace works with Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, it also allows users to store documents of other file types. If the Office Live Update is installed, files and documents may be opened and saved directly from Microsoft Office XP, 2003, 2007 or 2008 for Mac. Users may also synchronize, contact, task, and event lists with Outlook 2003 and 2007, and workspace lists can be exported to Excel. 

• Resources and support – Microsoft established a Community Support website, which includes a blog, wiki, how-to videos, and the opportunity for customers to ask and answer questions about using Office Live Workspace

Office Live Workspace is currently not supported on Microsoft Office 2010, plus other factors such as a limited storage capacity and the check in check out policy lead to the decline of its usage.

In May 2010, it was announced that Office Live Workspace customers would be moved to Microsoft's SkyDrive service, which offers 25GB of storage and the ability to view and edit documents through Office Web Apps; to the joy of SEO virtual assistants.

Office Live Small Business

Office Live Small Business is an Internet-based service designed specifically to assist the nontechnical users so that they can create professional-looking websites. In contrast to Office Live Workspace this one was created to cater to the needs of the general public most especially entrepreneurs together with their SEO virtual assistants.

Features:

• Web site design tools and hosting – Office Live Small Business provides access to free online web design tools and templates for non-technical users' website development and SEO virtual assistants. This allow the users to customize their own website or page, provided free website hosting and 500 megabytes (MB) of storage space for site files. If user’s site exceeds limit, additional storage can be purchased from Microsoft.

• Domain name registration and business e-mail – Office Live Small Business allowed selection and registration of domain names. However, customers who already have a domain name with another provider can redirect it to Office Live Small Business. Users can create up to 100 domain-based e-mail accounts at no charge. 

• Contact Manager – It was designed to organize customer information, contact histories, and sales information in one place and make it accessible via the web to their entire organization.

• Document Manager – This application is used as an online repository for documents in order to make them easily accessible to employees to facilitate collaboration.

• Team Workspace – This application creates a project website for posting information to share with customers, employees, or business partners. It is meant to streamline the editing process, give users, like SEO virtual assistants, remote access to company data, and download large files as needed.

• Resources and support – Microsoft offers 24-hour technical phone support at no charge for 30 days. Online, the Community site includes a blog, wiki, articles, how-to videos, and the opportunity for customers to ask and answer questions about using Office Live Small Business. 

The recent move of Microsoft on upgrading MS Office Live, by creating Office Web Apps on Skydrive and Office 365 to supersede its features, has enjoined them to Web 2.0 and was widely appreciated by its consumers. 

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SEO Virtual Assistant: Can You Trust Yours?

SEO virtual assistants can be good for the growth of your business. They can work off-site at lower rates with more specialized skill sets. In order to maintain harmonious relationship between a client and the VA, an open line of communication must be maintained and some measure of trust. There are ways that a client can track the progress of his virtual assistant. Read below:

Hire assistants with integrity and credible backgrounds. Ask to see samples of good work they have done in the past. Emphasize that they will be compensated by the actual hours worked, not based on a daily rate. If they are still enthusiastic about the position then they may be good candidates.

Ask SEO virtual assistants to install tracking software on their computers. Tracking software monitors if the user is actually active on designated websites or software products. If the assistant is idle for a certain pre-set amount of time (e.g.15 minutes), he is automatically logged off and have to log on again to become active. The assistant is only paid for the time that he is actively working.

Set tracking software, to monitor extraneous sites. The software can monitor if the assistant is playing around on social networking sites or gossip blogs. If there are internal company software systems, your tracking software can monitor whether the assistants are using those.

Request a daily work summary. This should approximately match-up with the results from the software system. Create a standardized template that can be filled out in a couple of minutes by your SEO virtual assistant.

What is supposed to be a meaningful professional relationship might lead to chaotic discord. Trusting a stranger nowadays is hard to do, how much more in giving your trust to someone you haven’t met personally.

Before you outsource the task to a virtual assistant, you must make up your mind whether you will be able to give your trust.

At the end of the day, it is about trusting your SEO virtual assistant. Trust is a key factor for the success of outsourcing a task to a VA. Without it, you and your VA cannot perform harmoniously. 

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Posted in: SEO Virtual Assistant: Can You Trust Yours?,SEO virtual assistants,virtual assistant,virtualassistant.org

SEO Virtual Assistants - Facts and Other Stuff

Virtual Assistance and Why It's Popular

One of the latest trends that dominates the world of work and business is virtual assistance. In fact, if you are going to search the internet, many online businesses and companies offer this kind of service.

That's because SEO virtual assistants to clients are like sidekicks to superheroes.

Technological advancement has greatly changed businesses and employment. The internet has dozens of features such as instant messaging, emails and social media that help employers and employees to easily interact with each other while they are countries apart.

Looking for VA's can be Hard

Finding an SEO virtual assistant is easy.

What's hard is finding good ones.

Thanks to the internet, this job is getting easier as time goes by.. There are many freelancers nowadays, and they post and update the services that they offer.

Bidding is done prior to hiring an SEO VA. You need to bid for the price of the virtual assistant before anything else. We can assume that those who offer a higher price for their services are better ones.

But it is urgent in the client’s part to be realistic. Do not bid any amount which is off your budget. This is very important because how much you bid is the amount that the virtual assistant expects to receive during the entire period of contract.

Getting a Permanent Client for a VA is Important

One good thing for SEO virtual assistants who are loyal to their clients is that they have a greater possibility to be referred or recommended by their present clients to other prospective ones. That is why they need to maintain the highest quality of their work and the right attitudes towards their clients.

It is very important for a virtual assistant to be honest in all times to his client especially since the latter is the one who gave the job opportunity and that he expects maximum satisfaction from the virtual assistant's services.

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