As a marketing professional, one thing that remains the same is that things always change.

That’s what I love most about marketing, it’s constantly changing, evolving, improving and moving.  While this is one of the things I love, it is also one of the things that makes the profession so challenging because you have to constantly stay on top of things.  Continuing my own self-education is more important now than ever before.

To keep my business growing and moving, I have to always stay on top of the latest trends and niches.  One of the rapidly growing niches is Book Marketing Specialists.  With more and more authors self-publishing, the need for marketing virtual assistants has never been greater.

 D’vorah Lansky, the founder of the Author Marketing Circle has partnered with VAClassroom to bring a high-value training program that will effectively connect their certified graduates with a community of 4000+ authors, hungry for these skills and services. As I have mentioned many times before,  VAClassroom is committed to offering the most relevant and cutting-edge training to help.  This only helps elevate our profession and ensures we are ready to help clients when they need us.

The more you invest in yourself and your business, the more you will continue to grow personally and professionally.  What are you going to do today to grow?

What exactly IS a virtual event?

A virtual event is an event, like a conference, that is broadcast via live video, shared computer screen presentation, radio, podcast, etc.  The event is held live somewhere in the world, but, you don’t need to travel to attend.  Virtual events are typically recorded, so that you can access the material at any time if you aren’t able to attend live. 

There are many benefits to virtual events such as cost savings (no need to travel), accessbility (attend the event when the time is right for you), world-wide audience, permanent access to the event, and so much more. 

 I am not sure if you were aware but the Virtual Event Industry is actually one of those markets that has GROWN in leaps and bounds during this economic downturn. 67% of professionals responsible for physical events report that overall attendance has dropped, and 76% of businesses say have already begun using or plan to start using Virtual Events in 2009. In fact, 70% of Corporate Event Organizers predict a reduction in live events in 2010, and forecast major growth in virtual conferences and webinars.

There is no better time than now to position yourself as a Virtual Event Specialist!  If you are a virtual assistant looking to grow your business, or maybe you’ve been thinking about becoming a virtual assistant, this could be the niche for you! The popular training center, VAClassroom.com has just unveiled the Virtual Event Specialist Self Study Certification Program. VAClassroom has a knack for providing the right niche training opportunities at the right time.

This self study training program will cover the key set-up, implementation and management activities for the 5 most popular virtual events in 2010, including tele-events, webinars, live podcasts, online radio and webTV.  Just click on the below link to get all the course details and enroll today:  vaclassroom.com/virtual-events-specialist.  Plus, you’ll also get the Camtasia Mini-Course as a bonus (if you signup for the course by March 1, 2010)!  Camtasia is one of the best tools on the market today to created, edit and publish videos.

When this course was originally released at the end of 2009, I did not sign up because I didn’t think I needed to learn about virtual events.  I wasn’t planning to offer it as a service in my marketing virtual assistance business.  I was short-sighted.  Within a few weeks of the launch of that course, I found myself in a unique predicament.  I needed to learn how to host a teleseminar for my SendOutCards business.  EEK!

Needless to say, I fumbled through the entire thing.  And, I’m sure I could have done it more effeciently and effectively.  I also just completed VAClassroom’s Traffic Geyser Certification course and again, I really could have used the virtual events training since we needed to create videos for our final assignment.

As always, VAClassroom offers courses that help virtual assistants increase their earning potential, BUT, this course is for anyone who needs to learn how to host a virtual event.  This course is also great for direct sellers who want to use the power of the internet to get more customers and potential recruits.  The virtual events specialist course will not only teach you how to set up and manage a virtual event, but also gives you tips on how to maximize your event. 

We’ve all got the same 24 hours in a day.  Our challenge, regardless of what business we are in, is to maximize those 24 hours. By learning how to set up, create and host a virtual event, you’ll be able to repurpose that material into many other things.  For example, once your virtual event is recorded, you can have it transcribed and use those notes to create future blog posts, articles, tweets, an eBook, and so much more.

As soon as I’m done with VAClassroom’s new Social Media Certification Course updated for 2010, I will be taking the Virtual Events Specialist course. 

I encourage you to at least check out the course details to see if you can benefit from it.  The special bundle with the Camtasia mini-course will not last for long.  (Remember, it expires March 1, 2010.) That’s an additional savings rather than signing up for that class separately. 

So, who’s going to join me in this course? vaclassroom.com/virtual-events-specialist

P.S.  Here’s a video from the co-founder of VAClassroom, Craig Cannings, on the Top 5 Reasons Virtual Events are so popular.  It’s a quick video, but really gives you an idea of the potential for this specialty!

You’ve seen the buzz – Facebook is all the rage!

With more than 400 million active users, Facebook is THE PLACE to be seen by people and businesses.  This creates a ripe opportunity for you to start or expand your virtual assistance business by creating and maintaining Facebook Fan Pages.

Businesses large and small are looking for ways to leverage their Facebook Fan Pages, and why shouldn’t they?  According to Facebook’s Press Room Statistics – the numbers are reason enough to get involved ASAP!

• 50% of active users log in everyday (that’s 200 million people!)
• More than 35 million users update their status everyday
• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

So, it stands to reason that business are looking for help – your help to create great Facebook Fan Pages.  But creating a great Facebook Fan Page is only the beginning.  Businesses need to ENGAGE their Fans.  They need them to come back to their Fan Page to see updates, click on their links, opt-in for their great FREE content, watch their videos, attend their events — and BUY their stuff!

All of these actions take a great marketing plan to start, implement and maintain.

I’ll share with you a somewhat embarrassing story:

I tried to create a Facebook Group page last year for someone.  I had NO idea what I was doing.  I tried to figure out how to create a group, engage people to join our group, set up events, the works.  It bombed.  It bombed BIG.

I can tell you first hand that it’s not a good idea to “wing it”.  I only wish that I had some instruction, some insight, some HELP to do that.  I didn’t even know that Facebook Groups were so “yesterday”.  That’s how little I knew…

Well, the good news is, that help is now available!  VAClassroom Fantastic Fan Page Mini Course is just the thing you need to learn how to create a Fantastic Fan Page.  Not only that, but it will teach you marketing methods and techniques to get your fans to come back, engage with you and help create loyal fans.  You know, the ones that talk about you and recommend their friends become your fan too!

This course can help you start your virtual assistance business, or expand your list of services.  Even though the course is only 2 weeks, you’ll be prepared to tackle the task with success!  Plus, as an added bonus, their is the social network for all course participants so you can ask questions and converse.  There’s a lot of great “nuggets” of information in the social network.  And the best part is, once you sign up for the course, you have access to it, all the updates and the social network – FOREVER!

As I have mentioned before, I think VAClassroom has the best training programs on the internet PERIOD.  But this course is also special in a lot of ways because it’s not just for virtual assistants.  Anyone can take this course (or any of VAClassroom’s courses for that matter.) But the Facebook Fan Pages Mini Course is really great for anyone that has any type of  business.  Maybe you work for a large company that has been talking about creating a Facebook Fan Page, or maybe the company has one but it’s not very active.  You can take this course and learn how to make your Fan Page everything you want it to be.

So what are you waiting for?  Make 2010 your year!  Create a Fantastic Facebook Fan Page TODAY!