I was over at VANA yesterday and came across a post that’s worth its weight in gold! Well, that doesn’t really make sense does it? How do you weigh a message board post? Anyway…it’s great information. If you are a member of VANetworking.com, you probably already read it, and if you’re a virtual assistant and not a member, you should scoot over there and register!

One must give credit where credit is due, and this thread was posted by the fabulous VA, Karri Flatla.

Check out this article at PC World.com, and then feast your eyes on PC World’s 15 Best Downloads of the Year.

I’ve already replaced my virus scanner with Avast! (featured on the list) and I also downloaded the coolest program ever that I never knew existed - CCleaner. Seems popular. The creator of the program claims it’s been downloaded 100 million times. (100 million and one now thanks to moi :)) In my very nontechnical assessment, from what I can tell, it searches your system for…well for lack of a better word…crap that is slowing down your computer. I let it run and it cleared out something like 385MB of stuff that had been gumming up my poor ‘puter.

Get yourself a cup of coffee and check out the list. There are some great free goodies there.

Enjoy and thanks Karri!

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A lot of people ask me if I feel lonely or isolated, working from my home office. These people apparently do not have two children under the age of two. Not really lonely around here! However, it is tough not having co-workers to chat with, and I think that’s where the isolation question comes from. Many VAs do have feelings of isolation, but I can only hope for an hour or two of loneliness each day when the girls go for a drive with their father or - when the stars align - have a nap. Loneliness=productivity.

Anyway, what many people don’t realize about our industry is how extremely networked it is. There are quite a few virtual assistant networking forums on the ‘net and they serve as a source of information, and support.

I belong to most of them!

• VA Networking is a great one. It’s the biggest out there - as of right now there are over 7400 members. Up until the 1st of November, membership was free. Now you can still have a free membership, but it’s limited. There is a ton of information in the forum at VANA, and it truly is a friendly place to go!
• IVAA is another large VA organization. It’s a paid membership, so you get people who are a bit more serious about their businesses. I find people are really quick to respond to questions, and there’s a pile of resources available that I still haven’t come to the bottom of.
• The Virtual Assistant Revolution, is my favorite. It’s also a paid membership, and only people completely serious about their business end up as members. The support you have access to within its ‘walls’ is tremendous. Can’t say enough about them. We’re even having our second annual Secret Santa gift exchange this year! I’ve made actual friends through the ‘Rev’.
• CVAC is a Canadian forum, and a great place to find Canadian information. The group is extremely helpful, and you usually receive an answer to your question within minutes.
• IREAA is a forum specifically for real estate assistants. For industry specific information, there’s no parallel.

There are more, but these are the ones I frequent the most. The greatest part of belonging to these organizations is if you hit a rough patch in a project (or in life) this is where you turn for help. The members of these organizations support one another like you wouldn’t believe. There are conferences for virtual assistants a couple of times per year, and I can’t wait to attend my first one ‘FoVA‘ in May 2008. I hope I will get to meet many of my ‘friends in the box’ there.

You might not believe this, if you are unfamiliar with the industry, but it is a small world, even though it’s virtual!

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