The Blog of Lisa Morosky

First of all, it’s been pretty quiet around LisaMorosky.com recently. It’s because of the big task that took up all my time last week: the relaunch of VAforBloggers.com.

I love deconstructing things. I love figuring out why people do the things they do. And in this case, I love deconstructing launches and relaunches and seeing the rhyme and reason behind it all.

So here’s my rhyme and reason.

I had planned to redo VAforBloggers.com in the first couple months of 2010 (after SpendLessOnLife.com was up and going). But, plans changed when I found out that I may have the opportunity to be profiled by a big-name blogger in the near future. Last thing I wanted to do was refer a ton of people to VAforBloggers.com with the way it looked before. So this relaunch suddenly became priority number one.

So I sat down and thought about everything that wasn’t working with the way VAforBloggers.com was, and the way that aspect of my business was.

Here’s what I came up with:

• My prices were too low, and because of that, I was getting swamped (and not necessarily with projects I loved).
• I didn’t have a way to monetize the people who visited VAforBloggers.com and didn’t necessarily want a virtual assistant. I was missing out on this big population of visitors.
• The site was ugly and boring, and it was half-assed. It was just something I put up there when I started doing VA work.
• I was wasting too much time following up with people before making a sale. There was too much back and forth communication. Nothing was automated.
• I wasn’t showcasing really anything I can/did do.
• I wasn’t following up with testimonials.
• I wasn’t giving people the opportunity to find out about my work style and personality before working with me. I spent too much time working with clients that I didn’t mesh too well with business-wise.

So now that you know why I did what I did, here’s…what I did.

• Goodbye hourly, hello packages. I don’t do hourly work anymore. Period. It limits my earnings and it gives people an automatic employer/employee attitude towards me.
• People now have the opportunity to know exactly who I am and how I work, and get answers to their questions ahead of time. So then they can make the informed decision to work with me.
• Some things are now on auto-pilot. There are “Buy Now” buttons to purchase packages. After you purchase a package, you’re automatically forwarded to a page with a project information form to fill out. I don’t need to do all of these steps now.
• The theme word is now “efficiency”. The way I do business is now more efficient, from automation, to publicizing my “no phone calls” policy.
• I’ve monetized those “in limbo” visitors by offering a range of products (currently just one) on how to do things related to your blog. So if you don’t want to invest in a VA, no problem. I’ll still show you how to do things, how to be organized, how to waste less time, etc.
• Some people view me as a consultant, instead of a VA. I’m not a consultant. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know just as much as they do – it just means I choose to be the Master Implementer of already created strategies (and not creating those strategies for clients myself). So to capitalize on the ton of questions I get through VAforBloggers.com (which, honestly, take up a ton of time to answer when they’re specific how-to questions), I’ve decided to do email consultations.
• I’ve made the site more visually appealing and organized.
• The homepage is essentially a landing page now. And just from the last day, I can tell you that was a good move on my part. I’ve created an email list for this site and a big goal this year is getting people on it!
• I’m showing work samples now. Not everything I’ve done (since some work has been confidential), but some of what I’ve done.
• The site is branded now (what a concept). The whole grungy dark background, the purples, the green, etc – that’s part of my Lisa Morosky/VAforBloggers.com brand. Twitter already rocks this, and so do my business cards, and now the two sites are catching up. Get used to the VAforBloggers.com look – you’ll be seeing something very similar over here on LisaMorosky.com soon.
• I’m doing Lisa Live (which isn’t really VAforBloggers.com-centric), broadcasting live for 2 hours weekly. It’s not going to start up for a couple weeks yet – but it’s a great way for people to get a little bit more comfortable with me, before they had their blogs over to me.
• I’m going to be feeding LisaMorosky.com content to the site monthly. I don’t have time to create unique articles for that site, so I’m recycling LisaMorosky.com content. Why not? They’re similar audiences.
• I’m using Headway on a site – finally. I wasn’t planning on using Headway for VAforBloggers.com. But time is money, people – and Headway saves me time.

So that’s that. I’ve had a good response from people thus far, so that makes me happy. I think the changes I made will affect business in 2010 (and for that, I’m psyched).

In response to this post, I’ve decided to work through and write each of the ten blog posts I said I’d rather read. Here is my submission for number two!

I’ve been at this whole “working for myself online” thing for over a year. I’ve been doing it full-time for about seven months. And up until only recently, I’ve been struggling with a real feeling of disconnect.

I’ve felt disconnected from the outside world. I don’t go out as much as I used to now that I work at home.

I’ve felt disconnected at times from my husband, because work is always beckoning me back to my desk.

I’ve felt disconnected from my hobbies. It seems like (and it’s actually a reality sometimes) I work 12 hours a day, every day, and no time to pursue the things that once brought me a lot of joy.

I’ve felt disconnected from myself. My health hasn’t been real great. My thoughts seem to be all over the place and concentrating is difficult.

It has been a major obstacle for me since I’ve started working for myself to balance all of these things in my life and feel connected and present in my own life.

But I feel like I can say that I’m out of the woods. I’ve figured out a way to make it all happen.

I’ve accepted a routine that is similar to my husband’s.
I have the luxury of being able to mold my own schedule. My husband doesn’t. So I’ve shifted my schedule to match his so we can connect more.

We’ve decided to move to a bigger apartment.
That means I’m going to finally have an office. An “only work” zone. I think this is going to do wonders for helping me to uphold the work/play boundaries I have set.

I’ve made a point of going out and doing more. Even if it’s just errands.
As those of you who are web workers know, it’s really easy to get cooped up in the house for a long period of time. Everything you need is right here. But I’ve decided that I’m going to run more errands, have more lunches with former coworkers, and do more things, in general, outside of the house. I even plan on traveling more to conferences, and to see family and friends. I crave that in-person connection with other people and the world.

I’ve started a personal, family blog.
It’s nice to have a blog that only my friends and family can read that allows us (my husband and I) to decompress.

I’ve made major lifestyle changes.
For example, I’ve gone gluten-free. For a lot of reasons that I don’t plan on sharing here. But let me tell you – I’ve felt better than I have in years. And that’s done wonders for my clarity and focus.

So that’s how I’m beating my disconnect. How do you balance and cope with it all?