I know I’ve blogged about Google Analytics in the past but I wanted to tell you about the report I received from GA this week. It was interesting because there was international activity on my site in April. The countries where my visitors originated from are: India, Switzerland, Canada, Iran, Taiwan, and the U.K.

Another thing that surprised me on the report is the fact that there were visits from people who are using dial-up. And there were some hits from people who browse from their PlayStation 3 console – wow!

I also figured out how to get the report emailed to me each week so that I don’t have to log into my account to view the report. What a time saver!

If you or your virtual assistant aren’t monitoring your site traffic yet, you can sign up for GA here.

If you have a blog, are people able to comment on your blog instantly or is your blog set up so that you can approve or reject a comment before it’s posted?
I can’t tell you how glad I am that I can read a comment and determine whether or not it’s posted. Lately, I received a couple of emails requesting that I approve or reject comments that were in no way related to my blog topic. Fortunately, I can immediately mark those comments as spam and delete them. Bub bye spammer!
If your blog isn’t set up for comment management, ask your blog guru to change that setting. You can also have comments emailed to someone else to manage them for you. It sounds like a good job for your assistant, eh?

To your blog success!
Holly

P.S. – To change the setting in your WordPress blog:
Go to Settings, then Discussion, and check the box next to “an administrator must always approve comments”

I was speaking with a potential new client today. She hired a VA last year and things were going great. At least they were going great until December. She hasn’t heard from her VA for about five weeks now. No calls, no emails, no nothing. What happened?

I wasn’t surprised as I’ve heard of this happening before. What I can’t understand is why a VA would suddenly stop all communication. I know that emergencies come up, illness, etcetera but as a solo business owner, it’s especially important to have processes in place so that a client isn’t left wondering what happened and whether you’re going to continue to help them.

This situation really got me thinking about disaster planning and how I would handle an emergency and what processes I should have in place so at least my clients would know something happened and what their expectations should be in terms of my return or whether we need someone else to step in to assist. I also started thinking about how I can help clients set up their own disaster plans.

So, one of my projects this quarter is to set up a disaster plan for my business and to find out from my clients what processes they have in place, if any, in case of a disaster.

Do you have a disaster plan?

Are you monitoring your website traffic? If not, you need to start and an easy way to do so is by signing up for a Google Analytics account. Once you sign up, you can copy the HTML code and place it on each page of your website. Okay, if you aren’t skilled in that area, then send the code to your web guru and ask him or her to put it on your website for you.
By monitoring the reports, you’ll find out how many visitors have been to your site and where they came from. For example, let’s say you recently posted a news release on webpr.com. If you put a link to your website in the article, Google Analytics will show you how many people visited your site from clicking on that link. Then you’ll know which marketing campaigns are working and which are not.

You’ll also learn:

• the length of time spent on each page of your site
• what browser visitors are using (i.e. Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox)
• source of the traffic
• keywords used in their search

If you don’t want to have to sign in and out of Google Analytics and monitor the reports yourself, your virtual assistant can do that for you. Just be sure to discuss the reports during your weekly or bi-weekly telephone calls.

If you’d like to see a sample report, post a comment here or send me an email. I’d be glad to show you one of my reports.

To your success!
Holly

I was talking with a colleague this morning and the subject of holiday cards came up. I mentioned that I was planning to send a few cards to clients thanking them for their business over the past year and wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving. My colleague mentioned that she sent hers out via email and added that it was easier.

Easier indeed but I’m sorry, I disagree with sending holiday cards via email. It’s too impersonal for me. We all want ‘easier’ these days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about being efficient, and finding the quickest way through a project but at the same time, a person needs to consider whether it’s really best for their business.

As for me, I personally choose my cards, hand write them, and send them out snail mail. Am I being old fashioned here?

This is a great project that you could ask your VA to help with. It can still be personal but efficient as well. Simply send your database to your VA and ask her to do a mail merge and either print the names and addresses on a label or directly on the envelope. While you’re at it, ask her to make some creative return address labels for you. Then, make a file for the leftover labels so you can use them next year.

Thoughts? Comments?

Wow, what a day! Today was the third session of the Elizabeth Kearney Leadership Development Program. Each session has been inspiring to say the least and today was no different. I have learned so much about myself in the past couple of months.

Prior to starting the program in September, I learned that my top 6 strengths are:
Harmony – I look for areas of agreement and try to find common ground.
Positivity – I have an enthusiasm that is contagious. I am upbeat and can get others excited about what I am going to do.
Activator – I can make things happen by turning thoughts into action.
Futuristic – I am inspired by the future and what could be. I inspire others with my visions of the future.
Restorative – I am adept at dealing with problems. I am good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.
Empathy - I can sense the feelings of other people by imagining myself in others’ lives or others’ situations.

Powerful stuff huh?

If only more companies were interested in identifying their employee’s strengths. Imagine the impact a team could have if they were assembled based on their strengths rather than their position within the company. Hmmm…. what a concept, huh?

Do you know your strengths; those talents with which you were born with?
If not, then check out the Strengthfinder 2.0 assessment by Gallup – www.strengthfinder.com

I’m looking forward to future sessions of this leadership program with great anticipation!
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

If you have any thoughts on the strengthfinder that you’d like to share, please post a comment.