The Daily Blab

One of the most effective tools I”ve come across in the last few years that many of my clients have jumped on is offering a free tele-class or webinar – and then offering the recording of the seminar afterwards as a streaming (and/or downloading) audio.

This s a wonderful way of getting your brand and services noticed…  Give them a sample of what you can do for them in a free 60 minute call, invite questions and debate and then send the registrant list a link to listen to or download the MP3 audio file to review at their leisure.

Mention your featured product or service at least once every ten to fifteen minutes while moderating the seminar and try where possible to loop back your answers to any participant’s question (how can I help you with that issue??).

One word of caution from your humble virtual assistant, however…

If you plan to offer a lot of these audios, always be sure to check how much bandwidth allotment your host provider (the company that hosts your web site for you…like GoDaddy or HostPapa) provides to you each month and make sure that this is NEVER EXCEEDED!!!

If you’re not sure what I mean by bandwidth allotment, think of it this way…

Each month, your host provider gives you a Visa gift card with say, $3000.00 on it (*sigh*, I wish!).  The $3000 represents the amount of data that can be transmitted from your web site (in this case $3000 means 3000 megabytes).

Now, when you post a 50 megabyte MP3 file on your web site and it’s downloaded ten times – you’ve just used up 500 megabytes of your monthly allotment (or to go back to the Visa card analogy – $500.00).

If you only post one or two audios per month and have twenty people listen to them – that usually will keep you inside the limit that your host has provided.

If, however, like one client I know of, you post two or three flash movies (which are large) and a dozen audios for class participants to download – all in a one week period…  Well, your Visa gift card runs out very quickly…

And here’s the worst part – if you exceed that limit – YOUR WEB SITE SHUTS DOWN!

There’s no need to panic after reading this post.  The quickest and easiest way to prevent such a disaster scenario is to regularly log into the control panel (administrative back end account) of your hosting account.  No matter which type of control panel your hosting company uses, there will always be a way to check your bandwidth usage in any given month.

And should you be close to your monthly limit (and it’s only one week into the month!) here are some suggestions:

1. Use an outside audio streaming service like Audio Acrobat or Audio Generator.  These services are simple and easy to use – upload the audio file to their service and then copy and paste (or have me do it for you -LOL) the code into your web site.  The viewer is then presented with a set of play>rewind>fast forward buttons to listen to the audio.  If you want to offer the option of downloading, Audio Generator will allow you the option of offering a download link.
2. Call or email your hosting provider as they frequently have upgrades that are available to any hosting package to allow for increased bandwidth usage.  Pricing may vary, depending on who hosts your web site, but this might be a cheaper alternative to using a third party service.
3. Remove older recordings from your web site.

If you’d like more information on how to use streaming audio or would like help in setting up a third party service like Audio Generator, feel free to give me a call, toll free at 1.800.355.8785 (8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday) or contact me via the web site!

Happy streaming!

Jef Keep

All rightey, then!!

After putting this blog up almost a year ago (and promptly forgetting about it), I’ve decided to use it to (like my wonderful friend Marlene Oulton) share tips, tricks and suggestions for working – not only with me as your virtual assistant – but with any internet specialist.

I can’t promise that I’ll remember to post daily…  But I’ll do my best!

Okay, today’s topic…

If you’re using 1-Shopping-Cart, aWeber, Constant Contact or any other list building service, do yourself (and your virtual assistant) a favour!

Submit content as early as possible, especially if you’re planning on sending out a glossy, HTML announcement or newsletter (one with graphics, special fonts and so on).

Submitting it the night before and expecting it to come out right the first time?  Certainly possible, but not likely.

Remember…

A virtual assistant can have many clients – all of whom he or she may deal with daily.   Submitting last minute items and expecting your VA to get it right the first time is unrealistic.

Your assistant needs time to create the template (if this is the first time) or at least format the content in a pleasing manner (not to mention include the pictures, graphics, pie charts or what have you).

48 hours is a good rule of thumb if you’re planning on submitting your eZine, newsletter or product launch announcement.

This allows your assistant enough time to turn around the draft, make any revisions you may wish to add and upload the finished product to your shopping cart or broadcast service.

I’ve been lazy and remiss…

I installed this blog on the web site over a year ago and then promptly forgot about it…

There it lay, unwanted and unloved…

Until now.

I make it my New Year’s Resolution to try (at least as often as I can) to write up any tricks, tips, suggestions or just plain rants to help clients, prospective clients or any visitor thinking of working with a virtual assistant to better understand the relationship and/or – how to get things done.

Happy New Year!!