Heather Jacobson - Valley VA

Hi Heather! Tell us about your businesses.

My primary business is a virtual assistant offering marketing and web services to small business owners. Valley Virtual Assistants just celebrated its first birthday on January 14, 2006 and in this past year, I’ve also started coaching aspiring VAs with VATraining.com , co-created The Blog Mavens, and introduced my first eBook --

Making Dollars out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer.

Do you have any recent news, products, a new launch, freebies, etc.

I’ve just launched a site called the Marketing Geeks which features marketing articles covering a wide array of topics. We’re launching the “I’m a Geek Program” on February 1st where you can list your articles before I find them in the article banks and get your own page complete with bio, picture and link to your “Geeky” articles.

I’ve also added an affiliate tools section to the eBook site to provide my wonderful affiliates with more resources to help promote the book. The book relaunch is scheduled for January 22nd and will feature additional bonuses.

I also added a Featured Business Owner section to my bi-weekly newsletter, Marketing Made Simple and am looking for business owners to submit their picture, logo and 150 word bio to info@valleyva.net

What are your absolute favorite products or resources you can't live without in your business (or have helped you the most)?

There are so many! Aweber was definitely the wisest investment I made over the past year. I’ve been able to manage my various lists, track who is interested in what and really expand in the email marketing arena.

BYOAudio.com is another wise investment. At first, I was unsure of exactly how I was able to use it to its full potential, but that didn’t last long. I’ve used it with my tele-classes, on my blog, in my newsletter and a slew of other places. It’s been great for testimonials as well.

Jimmy D. Brown’s List and Traffic Video Newsletter was a total shock to me. It was recommended by Alice Seba which was the only reason I subscribed. I was blown away with the content inside and it’s produced a flurry of excitement between a lot of us at Mom Masterminds…

Oh! Mom Masterminds! I wasted a lot of time joining, for various reasons…all of them stupid in hindsight. I’ve made so many new friends, learned so many new things -- I know 2006 is going to be my year.

My webhost – Dreamhost. I was a religious DayanaHost user, and still love them. But when I added my 10th site and my VA site continued to grow, I realized that making the move to Dreamhost was a more economical option.

And the last thing is my coach, Dale Noles, with VA Training.com. In addition to the great things I learn with Mom Masterminds, Dale really helps me focus on my business. When I get excited about new things that I’m learning at MM, I’m able to work things out and really nail down exactly what I want to do. He took me from an insecure woman trying to start my own gig to a very confident, but not over confident business owner.

What's your best advice for someone just starting out in online business?

Before getting traffic, article marketing and networking, really take the time to define your target market. Without that you’re pretty much just going at it blind.

The other piece of advice I have is to stay focused. Don’t start on another project until you get one up and running. It’s something that I really struggled with and still struggle with if I’m not careful. For the first time in my life I’m doing what I love and getting paid to do what I love and I’m excited. The ideas keep coming, but so do the laundry and the dishes.

Read Heather Jacobson's free reprint articles on LadyPens