Over the past 18 months my WordPress website creation services, offered under my Girly Girl Geek division, have become extremely popular.When I started offering the service I offered several money saving ‘packages’ as well as more individualized sites that required a consultation, estimates and a higher price tag.  One was quick, easy and inexpensive, the other was highly customized, more time consuming and could get expensive depending upon the site.

About three months ago I started to wonder if there was a way to give clients both. I wondered;

What if getting a powerful WordPress website were as easy as ordering a pizza?

What if you could order your Girly Girl Geek à la carte, creating a customized website by choosing elements from a menu?

After a lot of thought and reviewing of my most requested customizations and additions, Geek Á La Carte was born.

The  Geek Á la Carte Menu offers a basic WordPress site and lets you add the elements you need, want or can afford. Just like adding toppings to your pizza!

And the Menu is now live over at Girly Girl Geek.
The basic site itself is an incredible value, offering you 3 pages  built with WordPress on the Headway Theme, your choice of 3 layout options, sitewide SEO and a WordPress Basics tutorial.  All offered at a super affordable price.
And if you need more than the basic site, you can add pages, newsletter sign up forms, a blog… just choose what you want. The price of these extras is listed right there on the menu, so you know up front what the site is going to cost you.
No surprises.

The Á la Carte Menu isn’t the only new thing happening at Girly Girl Geek.

There is a new design and be watching for new WordPress, Headway and WordPress plugin tutorials in the coming days. And in the upcoming weeks I’ll be rolling out “Ask the Geek Girl” allowing readers to get answers to their geek questions via the Clerical Advantage Facebook Page. And some of the questions just may become the next Geek Tutorial!

That’s a lot of Geeky Goodness! So make sure you visit Girly Girl Geek and check it out because….

Girly Girl Geek is all about being your  go to geek girl when it comes to WordPress.

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In light of my recent post at Blog for Profit entitled, WordPress Wisdom; What You Can Learn from Robert Scoble’s Hacking,I took some time to think how I could use the information to help my clients and others.

I found myself thinking that if someone like Robert Scoble, who is definitely considered a ‘blog expert’ could overlook simple security measures, what about people like my clients?  My clients and potential clients are busy practicing law or teaching classes or coaching. They are seeking my services because their time to do administrative and techie tasks is severely limited.

In some cases, the time it might take them to learn how to do those simple backups and updates just isn’t there.  It isn’t that they don’t understand the need to perform these maintenance tasks, it’s just that at the end of each day they somehow haven’t been able to fit it in.

It seemed a natural conclusion to create a Blog Maintenance Service Package. So that’s what I’ve done.   The package consists of weekly blog backups, updates to plug-ins and WordPress as needed, an SEO & broken link check-up and assistance with up to 5 blog/blogsite ‘issues’ per month ( requiring up to two hours of skilled assistance).  I’m offering this service package for what would normally only cover the 2 hours of skilled service alone.

Now there isn’t an excuse for procrastinating and possibly paying the price of lost content. If you don’t have the time to do necessary blog maintenance yourself, you have the option of having someone else do it for you. You can check one more thing off your to-do list and breath a little easier knowing you’ve taken precautions to keep your blog content safe.

If a Blog Maintenance Service Package sounds like the just the thing you need, contact me soon.  I expect this to become a very popular package.

I’d also like to announce that I’ve been added as a contributing editor at Blog for Profit, so be sure to check out all of the great blog tips, hints and advice there too!

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It’s funny how one can learn something, teach something, but still drag their heels when implementing something.  I’m not pointing fingers, I’m admitting to all of you that I am that person. Everything I’ve ever learned about marketing has pointed toward choosing a niche, I’ve even written about it to try to help others.  Yet, I had still not taken the plunge and narrowed my own.

Part of that reason was that my niche had an uncanny way of finding me, all of my clients seemed to come from the legal or business creative (writers, coaches, teachers, etc.) professions.  When I took the time to think about it, it made sense, I have a background working with attorneys, with an intense love of learning and writing. I even obtained a creative writing certificate as a young adult. And perhaps that experience and passion shone through somehow.

Which is why I’m taking the plunge.  As of May 1,2009, Clerical Advantage will no longer be considered a ‘generalist’ virtual assistant company, but will focus on providing services to Business Creative and Legal Professionals looking to utilize online marketing methods and/or need assistance with creative pursuits such as books, classes, webinars, e-books and e-courses. (Changes in services will not effect my current clients)

Are you thinking I’m a bit crazy to make changes when I already have found a reasonable amount of success in the virtual assistance industry?  Before you make a judgement, take the time to read the following five reasons I’ve decided to narrow my niche.

1. I can work more efficiently for my clients.

2. It allows me to focus on the services that fit my clients best.

3. I can learn new things that will benefit my clients needs better.

4. Individuals who need what I do best will be able to find me easier.

5. Clients and potential clients will know that they are receiving the benefits of working with someone who specializes in just what they need.

All five of these reasons are in some way an advantage for my clients, but at the same time benefits me and my business as well.  How about you?  Are you trying to be everything to everyone?  Nine times out of ten it will leave you being nothing to anyone.  Examine your strengths, weaknesses, loves and hates and consider narrowing your niche as well.

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Blogs are starting to gain respect in the business world as one of the best ways of building a community that in turn can lead to increased business. A blog is also a less expensive alternative to traditional marketing methods and in many cases can provide a better return on investment or ROI. This of course means that more and more businesses and even non-profits are adding or considering adding a blog to their websites. It’s a great idea. But they’re finding that blogging takes time, time that many just don’t seem to have.

One solution to that dilemma might be to partner with a ghostblogger, someone who writes and posts for you. But there are mixed feelings about using a ghostblogger. Part of the appeal of a blog is that your audience gets a sense of who you are through your writing ‘voice’. The argument is that when you use a ghostblogger, it’s their voice, not yours and thus your audience isn’t connecting with you at all.

So what’s the answer? How about ShadowBlogging? ShadowBlogging is my newest addition to the services I offer. Well, I’ve actually been doing it for clients all along, but I haven’t given it a name before. What is ShadowBlogging? It’s a middle ground. You still choose your own topics for blog posts and write a quick draft, you then send it to me along with notes as to what you’d like to see in the finished product. For example, you might ask me to post it to a certain category or add links to appropriate sites, pictures, podcasts, videos etc. Then I do a spelling and grammar check, polish it up, adding the items your requested and do the actual posting to your blog, including adding tagwords, etc.. I can even ‘flesh it out’ a little by adding some copy if that’s what you need. How does this help? The time needed to complete a quality blog post is greatly reduced, but your ‘voice’ is still yours. It’s still you connecting with your audience, not me. I’m just your shadow, cleaning it up, adding all the hoots and whistles that blog readers and search engines like to see.

If you think ShadowBlogging might work for you, check out the ShadowBlogging value packages. If you have questions regarding ShadowBlogging, you can use the contact form or e-mail me at thilton@clericaladvantage.com.

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It’s March 1st! That means today is the day I roll out the new virtual assistance Value Packages here at Clerical Advantage.  I’ve added six new packages, all of them social media related.  Whether you’ve been wanting to get started with social media or need help keeping your blog up to date you’ll want to check out our latest offerings. Check them out on our Value Packages Page.

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