They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, so

I must admit to being insanely flattered by the recent and huge influx of Virtual Assistants who have adopted Joomla

It's Friday and as an interlude, I wanted to do some quantification.  I've been reading "The E-Myth Revisited," by Michael E. Gerber which discusses taking your small business past the "Technician" stage, whereby there is no real business, only YOU - to a place where you have systems and processes in place to the point where someday if you stepped out, your business could go on without you.

Today,

I'd like to learn your thoughts about Virtual Assistant's and get your ideas on what makes a good Virtual Assistant

So, feel free to add your comments to this post below - include your website and you'll get a link back to your site for the effort!

At first, I just thought it was an issue with my browser or bandwidth - perhaps I needed a quick cache clear or reboot, but I realized quickly that ALL Advanced Access websites were totally offline today.  After doing a quick search, I found news at Active Rain that indeed, AA were having some "power" issues and needed to relocate all of their servers to another location.

Of all the various scenarios I've heard over the years with multiple hosts, both big and small, this is a first for me.  I've heard the "denial of service" attack, we're working on it.  I've heard the "close your browser and reboot," it's all your own fault excuse.  I've heard the "you're using unsupported xyz."  IMHO, it just seems a little fishy.

There's an unsubstantiated rumor over at Active Rain that they're moving servers to obtain new IP's due to spam black listing.  If all of their IP addresses are black listed from most servers due to spam, few of their subscribers would be able to get any email through to anywhere. 

Follow up -  May 24th:  It's official - on behalf of a client who has an AA website and Comcast as her ISP, we contacted a rep at Comcast because she has had serious email trouble.  It seems Comcast blacklisted the entire Advanced Access range of IP's due to spam issues.  The rep at Comcast stated that the blacklisting of all AA sites wouldn't be listed unless the management at AA contacted them directly to work out the issues.

So, you can firmly bet that the "power outtage" is a cover story for AA moving their entire server base to new IP's - however, it may be a short-term solution if Comcast quickly detects this move and simply blocks the new set of IP's.  Be warned! 

One of the biggest hurdles in my business so far has been effective communication - keeping clients updated, returning calls and emails promptly and just ensuring my valued partners know I haven't died or dropped off the face of the earth.  When you're deep into an exciting new website design, sometimes you look up and realize it's three days later...2:00am....and you forgot to eat again.

As a person who balances analytical and creative skills daily, I've often found communicating effectively difficult.  There have been times where my communication has been excellent (several calls and emails per day) and my turnaround time stellar (same day results) with a brand new client yet they've expressed disfavor due to some unexpressed need.

Yes, I'm still alive - although rather sleep deprived due to a gigantic influx of prospective new clients.  I'm not sure who's been out there raving about me or if it's just a search engine thing, but my phone is ringing off the hook!  Bear with me if you're waiting to hear back, I haven't yet gotten my new assistant up to speed.