Most recently, I took the time to integrate Campfire into some of my client and partner communications. And I honestly can’t say enough good things about it.

Campfire allows me to come together and file-share with a group of people. While together, we can all look at the same documents simultaneously while chatting via IM. It is perfect for group analysis of data, budget planning and pretty much any other function that requires group collaboration. The sessions are perfect for Q&As, as well as ironing out kinks and confusion, which avoids costly mistakes and wasted time.

Campfire offers a variety of plans and pricing options. You can chat up to four times per month, for free without any restrictions on length of time. If you need more “chatters”, the next plan, accommodates up to 12 people and is priced quite low at only $12 per month. That’s only a dollar per chat! And a huge bonus, it is both Mac and PC compatible with great support through Zendesk.

So, if you spend any amount of time on conference calls, I strongly urge you to take a look at this tool. It has made quite a difference in my virtual business operations.

Wouldn’t it be nice if that invite or shut off notice was delivered to you virtually? Earth Class Mail offers a fantastic service to do just that along with a number of other cool features.

I first came across this service in a newsletter from The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce. I investigated it further to see if it would relieve one of my always-traveling client’s snail-mail headaches.

Using one of their street addresses, Earth Class Mail receives all of your postal mail, including packages, and scans the exterior of the envelopes and packages into a secure online mailbox for you to view. You can then log in and decide how to handle each piece of mail. You can opt to open and scan to pdf, ship a hard copy to an address of your choice, shred sensitive mail and best of all recycle your junk mail. How cool is that? So happy traveling!!

Obviously this is not everyone as the tech-savvy motivated crew have it under wraps and they stay connected just fine. Some actually communicate more than necessary as it is not uncommon now to see people updating twitter and the likes while out to dinner or in the waiting room of their doctor’s office.

But there are plenty of professionals that haven’t yet succumbed to a “crackberry” addiction (aka: constant text contact) just yet. So when they are on the go and need something they do what is natural to them and make a phone call.

And as a professional virtual assistant, with a few clients that feel more comfortable talking on the phone than texting, what that can mean for me is a whole lot of incoming phone calls, v-mails, interruptions and quite frankly lost time.

But I recently found a voice-to-text solution that in my opinion blows away many of the others. It is Jott and has been working great for both me and my clients. Once set up it allows non-technical individuals the ability to send e-mails, notes, written appointment requests etc. just by dialing and speaking. No texting or typing required so it is perfect for my clients that spend a lot of time driving or running between meetings. And for me, it makes management of their business operations much more efficient.

In addition to the phone call avoidance feature I noted above, Jott has a whole host of other features that allow you to update your twitter, facebook, outlook and/or google calendars. And it performs text-to-voice feeds so that you can listen to your business, sports and news while on your travels.

In my opinion, it is very economical (actually free for some features) and a tool worth checking out if your virtual business operations are in need of some efficiencies.

It is for that reason that you want to keep traffic levels high, with return visits from both your target market AND the search engines. And the best way to keep them both coming back for more is fresh content.

That said, I’ve noticed an alarming trend over the last year, especially since many business owners are filled with concern over economic uncertainty. It seems many online business owners are cutting expenses and allowing their websites to become static, like brochure wear, filled with the same content for months upon months.

Aaaahhhh!!!

This is a big time no, no if you want to be taken seriously in the online marketplace. I’ve therefore recently trained a few budget restricted clients on the must knows of CSS/HTML and passed on some free tools I found so that they could prevent their blogs and sites from becoming stale.

If you find that you too are facing budget restrictions in this area, I would encourage you to check out the CSS typography tools below. They are great for people that only need to perform basic web updates and fortunately they are freely available to everyone.

CSS Type Set

TYPECHART

This one lets you flip through, preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS.

VisiStat offers many of the same services found in traditional log file analysis tools like Google Analytics, but in REAL TIME. Unlike many other log file analysis tools, which provide a snapshot of user activity that’s outdated by the time you receive it, VisiStat offers real time traffic analysis.

How cool is that?

Imagine hosting a webinar for a new product and during that webinar you can track REAL TIME exactly which users are visiting your site, where they navigate, how long they stay and their geographic location. That takes the guess work right out of your Marketing campaign.

I encourage you to check it out. On the left hand column of VisiStat’s home page you’ll find a small sampling of what I’m talking about. Just navigate around the site and perform a few searches and then return to the home page. There you can find exactly, how many pages you visit, length of stay, your click path and what OS and browser your are using. I was concerned that my picture was going to show up next to it with what I had for lunch…now what would be creepy.

The coolest part about VisiStat: It was designed specifically for the non-tech small business owner who doesn’t have an IT department at their disposal and it is reasonably priced.

The site offers a 7 day free trial so check it out and share your thoughts with the rest of us. A word of caution though for as you engage this newer tool, it looks like our old faithful Google Analytics may have some traditional analysis tools that VisiStat hasn’t yet incorporated into the mix.

As I mentioned in my last post, I believe backing-up is vitally important and this especially includes the blogging work that clients have paid me to do on their behalf.

I have found the WordPress Database Backup plug-in to be the easiest and quickest means of backing-up each blog and all of its contents. This plug-in is free and once set up can be used to either e-mail the back-up file or save it to your desktop. From there you can treat it like any other file and back it up accordingly.

Since the blog software of choice for me and most of my clients is Wordpress, I am always looking for new plug-ins, tips, short-cuts etc. So please send any you have our way, and visit back often for more as they will be featured in up-coming posts.

Obviously backing up can be achieved with CDs/DVDs or some form of external hardware, but I find that an on-line source is much more efficient. There are many companies out there offering on-line back-up, but my two favorites:

Carbonite: I have tried many (and many are good), but this is my FAVORITE. Mainly because you can just “set it and forget it” and color coded files let you know what is safe or not. An absolute breeze to use and very economical.

and

Mozy: Another great one, but a bit more work than Carbonite.

Whatever company you choose, just be sure to physically test out a restore…this is HUGELY important.

And, if you have any suggestions, please share them with us.

While it’s true you may occasionally experience a dropped call or hear a bit of an echo, all and all when it comes to VOIP technology, Skype has really stood out as a leader.

And for good reason.

If you operate your business in a virtual environment, Skype is just an all around great tool. Whether you need to hold a conference call, make a video call, IM or just make a standard call to an individual, you can do it all through Skype. And best of all, it usually costs you next to nothing (and in some cases it is completely FREE of charge).

Obviously Skype (as well as its competitors) and the VOIP technology is nothing new, but I am pretty excited about a recent find that I believe makes Skype even better. The CuPhone is a small plug-in that lets you answer and make calls via any cordless phone. It even carries over some of the Skype features, one major one being caller ID. A pretty economical purchase at $39 when you compare it to the Skype phones. Plus the convenience of having one device handle your VOIP calls and landline calls is great way to keep your work space uncluttered.

As a company that provides professional assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners interested in expanding their on-line presence, we’re continuously seeking out the latest tools and trends to manage and grow a business over the increasingly competitive Internet. Our first hand knowledge of the pains and challenges that go along with being in business, as well as the need to keep our clients ahead of the curve, is our motivation for finding the best solutions available to make internet based and virtual business operations efficient, profitable and whenever possible EASY.

That said, it is here that we will be posting cost effective tools, strategies and tips that we believe will benefit our clients and you. And because we can’t personally try every tool or read every publication, we will be soliciting your opinion and suggestions as well. So whether an established business owner or a start up in bootstrap mode, you will want to bookmark this site so that you can gain and share insight with your fellow virtual professionals.