Last week I posted my answers to the social media questions that members of the Halton-Peel Chapter of Professional Organizers in Canada recently asked me. As promised, this week I’m posting the rest of their questions, along with my answers.

©Depositphotos / Vladislav Kochelaevskiy

Blogging

What would be the #1 Social Media tool you would suggest to start with?

The best social media platform for you is the one most used by the people in your target market. Regardless of which one you choose, I strongly believe that a blog should be the hub of all your social media activity. If you devote a lot of time and energy to developing great content for your Facebook page, but all of a sudden Facebook is no longer popular, or your page gets deleted due to some technical glitch, it’s of no value to you. Instead, put all your best content on your blog, where it can remain permanently, and post links to it on your social media accounts.

Is WordPress the best place to blog?

I am a huge fan of WordPress.

Do you post photos onto your blog as well?

Absolutely! Photos not only add visual appeal to your posts, but they make them pinnable on Pinterest. In addition, if there’s an image in your post, a thumbnail will appear when you share a link to your blog posts on Facebook, making it more likely that people will notice it and click on it.

Would you separate your blog from your website? For example, have your business website with your domain and then your blog on WordPress.com?

You can do that, but I highly recommend that you incorporate your blog into a WordPress site on your own hosting account. Because your blog is going to be updated more frequently than your website, that’s what’s going to generate the most traffic. Don’t you want those readers to be as close to the information about your services as possible?

Do you have to pay for using WordPress?

Not exactly. WordPress.com is a free service, but you are limited to the design themes and features they offer. If you want to customize a theme or use your own domain name, you have to pay for a premium account.

Self-hosted WordPress (often referred to as WordPress.org) is free software, but it needs to be installed on a hosting account, which you have to pay for. It is much more powerful, allowing you to choose from a much broader selection of design themes, or even to have your own custom theme designed, and offers a lot more bells and whistles.

For a more detailed explanation, refer to my Website Owner’s Guide for Non-Techies.

What do you blog about?

The possibilities are endless, but here are a few suggestions:

• The organizing products you use most often
• Organizing books you’ve read
• Answers to questions people have asked you in workshops, emails, or consultations

For additional content ideas, check out:

• Blog Energizer’s Blogging Calendar & Planner (free download)
• Professional Organizers Blog Carnival monthly themes
• Blog Post Ideas plug-in for WordPress (free with any WordPress Package from Organized Assistant®

I don’t want to give away too much of my knowledge. What would stop people from using the information and  organizing themselves?

Don’t be afraid to demonstrate your expertise! Yes, people hire you because of what you know, but it’s not the only reason. Many people lack the time, energy, or interest to carry out a major organizing project on their own.

Michelle Shaeffer wrote an excellent post about this very topic: Overcoming Secret Blogging Fears: If I Give Away My Secrets and No One Will Hire Me

Email Marketing

Do you send out Newsletters?

I don’t do a traditional newsletter, but I do have a mailing list through which people can receive my blog posts by email.

What tool do you suggest?

I really like MailChimp. It’s free if you have less than 2000 subscribers, and you can email them as often as you like at no extra charge. It’s also one of the easiest email systems I’ve ever used.

How does  MailChimp make money?

They charge for people with 2000 or more subscribers. If you use the free service, you have to put the MailChimp branding in it, but if you get a paid account, you can remove it. There are also other features available for a small fee.

Can you set up both Newsletters and a blog through MailChimp?

Yes, you can. I have one client who sends out a quarterly newsletter in addition to a monthly summary of her blog posts.

How do you get people sign up for your Newsletter?

You can put a sign-up box on your website and on your Facebook page.

Do you help others to create newsletters?

Yes, I do. In fact, I started offering VA services when I was a professional organizer and another POC member asked me to set up a newsletter for her. I help by designing templates, setting up mailing lists, editing and formatting content, and setting up RSS-to-email campaigns.

Virtual Assistants

What do Virtual Assistants do?

This virtual assistant focuses mainly on blogging – including everything from WordPress installation and theme design (for both websites and blogs), developing an editorial calendar, proofreading and formatting posts, sourcing images, ghost writing – anything to help you promote your business through your blog!

How do you charge for your services?

For new blogs and websites, I charge by the project. For other services, I offer hourly packages which are good for up to a year.

Websites

Would you use Go Daddy for building a website?

I don’t recommend using any site building software that is offered by a hosting company. Aside from the limitations, if you decide to change web hosts, there is no way to transfer your site to the new service, so you basically have to start over again from scratch.

Do you know anyone who can help your website to be on the top in web searches?

I am very skeptical of anyone who claims they can get you top ranking in the search engines, as there are just too many factors. Furthermore, with personalization of search results, different sites come up for different users, depending on their browsing history. The best thing to do is keep adding new content to your site, using the keywords that your target market is most likely to enter in the search box.

Other

Do you find QR Codes useful?

I have very little experience with QR codes, but I follow Stephanie True Moss on Twitter, and that’s all she tweets about.

Would you have any comments of benefits and ways of using YouTube?

That’s also beyond my area of expertise, but I know that video is becoming more and more important as a marketing strategy. If you’re interested in speaking engagements, it’s a good way to let people see you in action. Many organizers use it to demonstrate specific organizing products or techniques.

Big thank you to Chapter Secretary Blanka Smetana of Tidy Corners for diligently writing down all of the questions, and to Program Coordinator Michelle O’Sullivan of Saving Spaces for inviting me to speak.

If you have anything to add to my answers, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment! And if you have a question of your own you’d like me to answer in a future blog post, I’d love to hear from you as well.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on More Online Marketing Q&A.

Many new professional organizers choose one of our Starter WordPress Packages for their first website or blog, because it allows them to have a professional design at a very reasonable cost. One of the benefits of WordPress is that you can update to a different theme, even a custom design, any time you’d like a new look, without having to recreate your site from scratch.

When Lois Kennedy established 3 Step Solution by lk in 2010, her main focus was on residential organizing. We created her original website, shown above, using the Flexx Theme, with a little customization to match her logo.

As happens very often, the shape of Lois’ business evolved very quickly during the first year. After becoming GO System certified, she started offering workshops and other business services, and needed her website updated to reflect her new services and her new branding. She also wanted a more polished look to better attract the corporate market. We decided to redesign her site using the iThemes Builder Theme, which allows for complete customization, not only of the design, but of the layout of different sections of the website.

We’re all very excited about Lois’ new website:

Here are some of the other new professional organizer websites we’ve created recently:

• SeniorDownsizing.ca
• Very Organized
• Jean Linder Organizing

If you’re in the market for a new blog or website, or a new look for your existing WordPress site, let’s talk!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Another Website Makeover.

It’s been quite a while since I blogged about any client projects, but that’s not to say we haven’t been busy here at Organized Assistant®! We’ve actually had a lot of different things on the go, and I can’t wait any longer to tell you about some of them.

Above is a screenshot of a website we recently created for Neaten Up With Nancy. As a new organizer, Nancy opted for our Basic WordPress Package, choosing the Yukon Theme by iThemes for her design. WordPress is ideal for starter websites, because it’s easy for most people to add new content as needed, and we can easily give it a new design later on without rebuilding the entire site.

We’re especially proud to have been selected by some seasoned organizers to redo their older HTML website in WordPress, including Pat McArthur of Home Definition. Pat’s original website looked like this:

After implementing a new design created by Snapdragon Design, her site now looks like this:

I’m excited about learning to develop mobile versions of WordPress sites as well, and had fun creating this one for Smart Space Organizing:

I can’t wait to mobilize my own sites when I get a break in my schedule! I guess it’s a case of shoemaker’s children syndrome…

But don’t let me scare you off if you’ve been thinking about contacting us about a new website or other project! I have some great people working with me, and we’re committed to helping you enhance your online presence in any way we can.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Three Types of WordPress Websites.

One of the great things about being a web designer is the ongoing opportunity to learn about new trends, tools and features as I work on various client projects. The downside of this is that I frequently become disenchanted with my own site and find it challenging to make the time to do anything about it.

After squeezing in time to develop a new design for the Organized Assistant website and Your Organizing Business blog over the last few months, I’m finally ready to share it with you. What do you think?

I’ve also added a new feature that I think you’ll enjoy. Every month I’ll be posting a new poll on the home page and you’re invited to participate. All polls will be archived on the site so you can refer to them at any time. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve, but you’ll just have to wait for them!

In the meantime, I am here to serve you, so please don’t hesitate to let me know if there’s a poll question you’d like me to ask, a topic I should cover in the blog, or a particular feature you’d like to see on the site.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on We’ve Got a Fresh New Look!.

If you were to ask me what I like best about my work, it would be a toss-up between developing new WordPress sites and providing blog support to professional organizers, so naturally, I was thrilled when Clare Kumar contacted me about setting up a blog for her.

Clare and I had spoken briefly in the past, but had a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another when we sat together on the train to Montreal for the POC Conference in November 2010, and I was really impressed with her enthusiasm, her professional manner, and her outgoing personality.

She already had an up-to-date website which represented her brand quite effectively, and after considering several different options, she decided upon a blog that not only had the same look and feel as her website, but that would integrate with it seamlessly. She also had several unique features in mind which I had not seen before, and as a result I’m pleased to have several new items in my toolkit that I’ll be able to apply to future projects – and maybe even my own blog!

I had a wonderful time working with Clare and her graphic designer to create her new WordPress blog, and I’m sure you will enjoy reading her posts.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Another Professional Organizer Joins the Blogosphere.

The new year is here, and I’m sure you’ve got lots of exciting plans for growing your business! If your list for 2011 includes a new website or revamp of your existing site, there are many questions for you to consider. One of the most important elements of your website is your content.

It’s a great idea, especially if you’re new to the organizing profession, to look at other professional organizer websites for inspiration. Seeing what others have done can give you a good sense of the type of information to include on your own site. You might even see one and think,

I offer the exact same services as this organizer. I’m sure he/she won’t mind if I use the same wording. After all, we’re hundreds of miles apart, so it’s not like I’ll be taking away business from them.

Guess again! Even though technology makes it easy for us to simply copy and paste text and images from other websites, it’s no different than a student copying information out of a book and submitting it to the teacher as their own work. It’s both unethical and illegal. Furthermore, technology also increases the likelihood that you’ll get caught, potentially damaging your reputation or even having your website taken offline by your hosting company.

Taking that text and mixing it up a bit isn’t enough. According to Wikipedia,

Plagiarism is not only the mere copying of text, but also the presentation of another’s ideas as one’s own, regardless of the specific words or constructs used to express that idea.

In other words, your website content needs to be original. As it should! You may not be the only professional organizer in the world, but you are the only YOU. Your website needs to express the reasons why clients should choose YOU to help them solve their organizing challenges. At a minimum, it should answer the following questions:

• What services do you offer?
• What areas do you serve?
• Who is your target organizing client? How will they benefit from working with you?
• What are your qualifications?
• Do you belong to any organizations?

And most importantly,

• What makes you different from your competition?

To get indexed by Google and other search engines, it’s recommended that you have at least 250 words on the main pages of your website. Keep in mind, however, that when gathering information online, most people prefer browsing over reading. You should therefore avoid dense blocks of text and instead use a combination of lists and short paragraphs.

When writing your content, be sure to include the keywords and phrases that people are most likely to use when searching for your business online, but remember, it’s more important to write for human visitors than for search engines spiders. We’ve all seen websites that were so heavily laden with keywords that it was a challenge to understand the actual message. That’s a surefire way to get people to leave your site in a hurry!

For some excellent guidance in writing your own website copy, I highly recommend The Longman Guide to Style and Writing on the Internet. And no matter what your writing ability, be sure to ask someone else to proofread your work before you publish it online. When you know what something is supposed to say, that’s what your mind sees, whether it actually says that or not.

On the other hand, if there are other things you’d rather do with your time, let’s talk! I’d love to help you find just the right words to describe you and your business, and attract the type of clients you’re looking for.

Photo source: iStockphoto

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Writing Website Content that Effectively Promotes Your Organizing Business.

There’s nothing like a custom designed website or blog to give your organizing business a professional online image, but it’s good to know there are other options if you don’t currently have the budget or the need for a custom site. When I discovered premium WordPress themes, it opened up a whole new world for me – and it can do the same for you and your business.

There are literally thousands of themes available on the Free WordPress Themes directory and elsewhere on the Internet, and I used to spend hours looking for just the right one for a client’s site or one of my own. Sometimes, when I finally found one that was just right, I’d find it didn’t work properly or wasn’t up-to-date to handle all the current features of WordPress.

Last year one of my clients introduced me to iThemes and I haven’t looked back. Their themes are gorgeous right “out of the box” but someone with knowledge of HTML and CSS can easily customize them to more closely match your business branding or your personal vision.

Because they’re so easy to use, Scott and I were able to create new websites for three clients in one month without working overtime or falling behind on our commitments to other clients. The two screenshots above represent our Basic WordPress Package, with little to no theme customization. Fresh Appeal Staging is based on the Edmond theme, and Amazing Space on the Yukon Theme.

The third site, 3 Step Solution by lk, is based on the Flexx Theme. This site required our Enhanced WordPress Package in order to customize the colors to match our client’s logo. The Flexx theme is really quite amazing, because it allows to you customize your layout without any technical expertise. This is the same theme I used for the Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants Group and W.P. Consulting & Associates websites. You have to look pretty closely to tell, don’t you?

If you’re ready to try building your own premium WordPress site, here’s how you can get started:

1. Purchase your domain name from your preferred domain registrar (I recommend MyDomain).
2. Purchase a hosting account from Hostgator (affiliate link) or another service that allows one-click installation of WordPress.
3. Purchase the theme you like best from the iThemes Theme Store.
4. Install WordPress, upload your theme, and your site is now ready for your finishing touches!

If it sounds like this will take more time or technical skill than you have, contact me for a free consultation. I’d love to help you make your ideas come to life.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Get Your Website Up and Running in No Time!.

Perhaps you created a website when you launched your organizing business. Over time, you may have added or discontinued some services or decided to specialize in a certain area, and it’s important that your website reflect these changes. It’s equally important to update the design of your site to effectively represent you as an established professional in the organizing industry.

Heather Burke has been working in the field of organization for over 10 years, and in residential and commercial interior design for over 15 years, and she had a very basic website to market her business. Due to her current studies through the NSGCD Certification Program and her active involvement with the Kingston/Frontenac Region Hoarding Coalition, Heather wanted a website that would effectively promote her expertise in hoarding and chronic disorganization. Rather than simply updating the information on her existing site, she decided to start a whole new website dedicated to the organizing side of her business. She worked with a graphic designer to develop a logo, and asked me to create a WordPress website around it. I am now very proud to show it off:

We were able to import the posts from her existing blogs on Blogger in order to take advantage of the full power of WordPress. Heather now has her website and her blog all in one spot, which is great for branding, as she no longer has separate sites that don’t look and feel the same way. Furthermore, every time she publishes a new blog post, it will generate traffic to her website, which is great for search engine optimization.

Another benefit of using WordPress is that it’s not a major task to add new content to the site, even when that involves making changes to the navigation menu. If you’ve ever tried to change the menu on a regular website, or asked your webmaster to change it for you, you know that it can sometimes be a big job! And you can be sure that Heather has some amazing plans for her site, which is going to continue growing over the next while.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Heather to bring her new website to life, and I’d love to do the same for you! If your website doesn’t reflect your professional image as well as you’d like, please feel free to contact me for a free 30 minute consultation.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on A “Smart” New Website.

Although some organizers are extra busy in the summer, for others, work seems to slow right down while their clients are in vacation mode. Fortunately, there are many ways to fill your time that will benefit your business in the months to come. If you don’t already have a list of projects to work on when you have the time, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Start a blog.

You’re good at what you do, and blogging is a great way to show the world what you know. In addition to being very search engine friendly, blogs allow website visitors to interact with you, making it more likely that they’ll return on a regular basis. If you’re worried that you may not have time to keep it up when business picks up, take advantage of the summer lull to write posts you can keep on hand to publish at a later date.

Check your website for broken links.

Websites come and go, and pages may be deleted or moved, causing some of the links you’ve placed on your site to no longer work. Broken links make your website seem out-of-date and can cause visitors to move on very quickly, so it’s important to take the time to verify the links on your site. To save time, use a tool such as Webmaster Toolkit’s Link Checker or the Broken Link Checker plug-in for WordPress.

Learn something new.

The lazy days of summer can be the perfect time to sign up for a teleclass, webinar, or live training event. If nothing is scheduled that tickles your fancy, check out the recorded teleclasses available from A Red Bench, or the webinars on demand offered by ProfessionalOrganizers.com. There is a world of information out there; why not take advantage of it?

Add new content to your website.

If your website hasn’t been updated since it was launched, you probably offer products or services that aren’t advertised on your site, and you may be missing out on potential business as a result. Even if you haven’t made any significant changes, it’s a good idea to update your site from time to time, as fresh content gives both website visitors and search engines a reason to return. Updates may include information about recent or upcoming projects, or new testimonials, awards or certifications you’ve received.

Look into affiliate programs to supplement your income.

There are hundreds of affiliate programs available that allow you to earn commission for promoting certain products and/or services on your website. You may already recommend books or other products to your website visitors and blog readers, so why shouldn’t you make a little extra money for doing so? Just make sure that you select programs that complement what you do, and don’t clutter your website with so many affiliate ads that it looks junky or that visitors are distracted from your main content.

Write articles.

Articles you’ve written can be an excellent addition to your website or blog, and can also be submitted to article directories such as EzineArticles.com, where they may be picked up by other websites, featured in newsletters, and sent out in ezines, creating additional traffic and more exposure for your business. This will also enhance your search engine ranking, by increasing the number of links pointing to your website.

Take a well-deserved break.

Try and get away for a week, a weekend, or even a day! Taking time for rest and relaxation is one of the best gifts you can give yourself, reducing stress and renewing your energy for the busier days ahead.

If you never have time for these activities because your business thrives all year long, maybe we should talk! After all, even professional organizers need an Organized Assistant!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Seven Ways to Make the Most of Summer Downtime.

I love anything and everything to do with blogging, I love working with professional organizers, and I love customizing WordPress themes, so when an opportunity comes along that lets me do all three at once, you can be sure that I am in geek heaven! Today I’m excited to share with you my most recent project:

I first met Tina Blazer of Spot On Organizing back in my organizing days, when she drove all the way in from Toronto to help me de-clutter a client’s home, in preparation for putting it on the market. We’ve stayed in touch since then, and I was really pleased when she asked me to create a blog to match her newly redesigned website.

Although for the most part I work directly with my clients, it was great collaborating with Tina, her webmaster, and her graphic designer to bring her new blog to life. Scott and I look forward to supporting Tina with her blogging activities and other projects over the coming months.

Earlier this year, we created a new WordPress site for another client, using the Red Essence theme from iThemes, which is one of the 100+ premium themes in our collection.

We’ve got several other WordPress projects on the go for professional organizers and other small business clients, and I just can’t wait to show them off!

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, giving your existing blog a facelift, converting your website to WordPress, or launching your first website, please let me know. I’d love to provide you with the perfect theme, whether it’s one from our theme library or a custom design just for your organizing business.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Recent WordPress Projects.