The VA Says

Twitter Hacks - What To Do If Your Account Gets Compromised

Normally I go about my business and don't pay a lot of attention to talk of Twitter spam and hacks. Until it happened to me.

I was active on Twitter and had been noticing a number of dms and @ messages asking me to take an IQ quiz. There is an awful lot of quizzes and games out there. You can send followers this and that. Generally, I don't pay much attention--I have too much else to do. 

But I did receive a tweet from a business acquaintance asking me to view a video. She is far from frivolous and I took it as a serious request.

This is when things became interesting.

I have four different Twitter accounts focused on separate purposes (yes, unlike Facebook, you can have multiple Twitter accounts). So when I check for Twitter updates, I quickly go from one, sign out, then go to the next. 

When I tried to sign back into the account in which I had clicked, I couldn't log in. Then I saw I was being redirected to a different URL. When I manually typed in the proper URL I got in. So far so good. 

Later on, I found I was unable to access @ messages and direct messages. Meanwhile I got some email notifications of direct messages from two followers (I have my Twitter accounts set so I get notified of dms). They were telling me that my account was sending them spam messages inviting them to click on a link to take this ubiquitous IQ test.

I tried to answer them, but by that time, I could no longer tweet out.

At that point I started to feel pretty hopeless. I had put a lot of effort in to building up my followers, especially in my main account and certainly didn't want to start all over again.

After searching on Twitter's support site, I was taken to a page listing step-by-step actions you can take such as signing out of your Twitter account, emptying your cache, and changing your password to one you don't use elsewhere. The page wasn't easy to find so I listed it here. The actual URL is http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/31796

I also ran an antivirus scan and walked away from the computer for a couple hours. When I returned, Twitter was working fine. But now I have to change passwords to all of the apps linked to my Twitter account.

And that was another headache.

Sigh...

Bargain Alert: 50% Off Internet Training

VAs and online business owners need to perform certain functions to maintain an online presence. They need to be able to build a simple sales page. Increasingly, they need to have a presence on Twitter and Facebook and perhaps some of the other social networks. 

And no one wants to be held hostage to their web designer. Especially when he (or she) goes out of town when all you need to do is make a simple change, but you need to do it sooner rather than later. 

Erin Blaskie, VA turned internet strategist, has developed a number of online trainings in a downloadable format. But I have learned to wait until a holiday before purchasing. Because Erin often steeply discounts her products during a holiday.

If you buy between May 25th and May 27th, you can save 50% from her normal price.

It's worth checking out. http://budurl.com/mderin

Choosing an Email List Manager

Tracy Lawton writes about the pitfalls of choosing the wrong email list manager.

The right email list manager will have flexibility to grow with your business, allow you to use autoresponders to enhance your marketing, doesn't hobble you as you add new income streams and products.

Making the right choice is particularly important because most email list managers require double opt-in where the subscriber not only clicks on your opt-in button, but then has to respond to an email link confirming his permission to opt in. 

In my experience, you lose many subscribers who do not receive the opt-in email or choose not to respond to it. 

Tracy recommends (and I agree) that the best approach is to sit down and do some serious thinking. Where do you want your business to be in 2 years--or more? What system will accommodate the growth that you will need? 

You ought to put your infrastructure in place and then grow into it. If you are an online business, your email list manager is an integral part of your infrastructure.

Event Registration, Automatic Reminders and 1ShoppingCart

Like most coaches and internet marketers I use 1ShoppingCart as my shopping cart system. 

That was in my thoughts today as I attended a meeting for a new networking group. The organization has a lot of potential--they target an under-served niche, but they are still getting their systems together and, like most non-profits, rely on the help of unpaid volunteers. 

Which is another way of saying that many things are "hit or miss." Like sending out notices of upcoming meetings on a timely basis.

I suggested that they might want to consider an account with 1ShoppingCart. It would solve many of their problems.

I explained that they could use 1ShoppingCart's functionality to set up meeting registration and notification. They could set up a order page listing the meeting with a "Buy Now" button for people who wanted to pre-register and prepay (less work for volunteers on meeting day). 

When guests enter their PayPal or credit card information into the cart, they would be automatically connected with an auto-responder confirming their registration. The auto-responder can be set up with a series of reminder messages to be sent out a predetermined intervals.

Another plus, it is easy to generate a list of people pre-registered--it is simply the list of people already subscribed to the particular event's auto-responder.

At the same time they can be set up with a general auto-responder that would be loaded with announcements of future meetings and general information. The messages can easily be modified as needed.  

Lastly, 1ShoppingCart has a robust broadcast feature. So the "day before" reminders can be sent out to the entire list all at once.

My point is that once the auto-responder system was set up, everything runs automatically. Because members and prospects would receive their notifications in a timely manner, event attendance would increase and time-starved volunteers could be able to allocate their time elsewhere.

I also like 1ShoppingCart's excellent technical support. The techs are well-spoken people easily reachable by phone as well as extensive video tutorials. But if you don't have the time or inclination to learn it yourself, there are many VAs who can easily set it up for you.

Because 1ShoppingCart's roster of subscribers includes leading internet marketers and coaches ensures a certain security--if 1ShoppingCart's standards were to fall, the word would get out very quickly.