Some people want money – that’s their goal.

Others live to make an impact.

Dr. Mani falls into the second category. But because of his passion to help others, he’s made a ton of money. In fact,
through his Internet marketing efforts, he’s raised more than $137,000 for his foundation that has performed open
heart operations on more than 70 children.

He’s one of the most respected men online. He was named one of Seth Godin’s 99 Purple Cows for innovative and
remarkable marketing, and Fast Company magazine profiled his philanthropy-fueled approach to business. And he’s
consistently ranked in the top 50 Internet marketing specialists at Gurudaq.com.

Really, all he wants to do is save kids’ lives.

And I think you’ll want to help, especially after you read this.

In just a few days, the NAMS4Kids Joint Venture Giveaway launches. All the proceeds from the front end of this effort
go to Dr. Mani’s CHD Foundation.

You can help! And you can profit from this as well.

But most of all, you will experience that feeling of saving a child’s life by participating in NAMS4Kids JV Giveaway.

But before I describe what’s in it for you, read this story from Dr. Mani about one of the 70 children so far saved
through the efforts of Dr. Mani:

***********************************************************

On the sands of a beach on Rameswaram, in the southern tip of India, a mother holds her little boy, and stares out at
the sea.

The shiny surface of a fishing boat ashore mirrors the strain and anguish on her young face as she glances at him with deep concern. The boys lips are blue. So is his tongue. And his fingers and toes.

His blood cannot carry enough oxygen because he was born with a complex heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot.
Untreated, it will soon be fatal. And his parents know this.

So she weeps softly, her tears mingling with the salty waters of the Indian Ocean. Far away, on another continent,
her husband is struggling to earn enough money to save his son’s life.

But he’s running out of time. Azhar has been falling sick more often lately. He gets fainting spells and needs to be
rushed to hospital frequently. The doctors tell him operation is urgent.

When our team of videographers visited Azhar’s village to record his story as part of a documentary film about
congenital heart disease, his sad tale touched the heart of the assistant director. He called that night, with an
impassioned request to help.

Thanks to the generosity and support of wonderful people all around the world, the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation has money available to help the little boy. A month later, he was recovering from his complex operation at India’s finest heart hospital, the Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute in Bangalore.

His treatment was fully sponsored from donations you made – to help a child live.

Thank you from my heart.

http://nams.ws/chd2

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian

Chennai, India

***********************************************************

The Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshops have adopted Dr. Mani’s foundation by supporting his cause. In January, 2010, at NAMS3, we raised more than $1600 from the people in the room which resulted in surgery for one child in India.

The students at NAMS saved a life.

If you’ve ever thought about participating in a JV Giveaway to get great products to drive your business, now’s the
time.

This one is truly different.

David Perdew at NAMS4Kids has called in some favors from a whole bunch of top online marketers and convinced them all to give you TONS of free products and services at no cost to you.

But of course, we’d take a donation from you for Dr. Mani’s foundation. Our goal is to raise $10,000 in 72
hours.

You will receive:

-ebooks

-scripts

-memberships

-private label rights products

-self-improvement products

And much more.

You name it, it’s there.

This opened at 10 a.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 20th.
Sign up now to get in first.

http://nams4kids.com/go/219

P.S. – You may be wondering, “what’s the catch?” well, there ISN’T one.

This is my way of saying thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope that you will make lots of money selling and
using those products.

I am always looking for places to promote my business or to get backlinks to my site.  Listing your business on social media sites is a great (free) way to promote your business and build a loyal following.  And there are many online directories and resources to find just about anything you want.

But my friend and wonderful VA (virtual assistant) Cyndi Papia of Office To-Go Virtual Assistance has developed an online business directory where you can promote your business and make a difference for a charitable organization!  Cyndi has just launched Business Directory Listings (http://businessdirectorylistings.net/) for any business to purchase ad space while making a difference for a nonprofit organization.

I asked Cyndi what prompted her to set up this site, and here’s what she said,

“I honestly want to help small biz in any way I can because that’s the only way this economy will get better and it truly is my way of helping.  I figure they get to take a tax-deduction for advertising expenses, I donate the money to charity because I have “enough.”  I’m not rich but I also know donations go down when money is tight, so it gets put to good use.  The 10% covers website hosting and a tiny bit of my maintenance time having to check out and approve each listing.  I put my name out there on the site to be transparent as a lot of directories are “anonymous” business people.   I’m going to post the cancelled checks as proof of the donations so people know it’s legitimate.”

Cyndi already has several businesses that have jumped on board with her.  How about you?  Want to make a difference for a nonprofit organization and get your business listed in this new directory?  Hop on over to Business Directory Listings and get signed up today!

Please share this blog post, “New Online Business Directory” with your online friends, so they can take advantage of the new directory for their business!

Periodically I have the privilege of visiting a local Assisted Living Facility and singing for the Alzheimer’s patients. Today was one of those times that I got to go and sing for them. As I was thinking in my mind of the other times I had visited, I remembered that no matter how many songs or how beautiful the accompanying music was, these precious souls came back alive when I sang the old gospel songs from their childhood.

So today, I didn’t take any accompaniment music with me, I just took a songbook and we had an incredible time, sitting in a circle, sharing stories of singing these songs in school when they were little . What a blessed afternoon I received.

But it got me to thinking about the information we retain and how valuable our memory is. And how some things are never forgotten, even when a vicious disease attacks our brain and robs us of the information.

Relationships are so valuable and building a strong and lasting relationship with others is such an important role in business and in life. Whether you are building your relationships through local networking groups or through social media, give these people reason to never forget you. Do something special or out of the ordinary for them so that they remember you and your unique qualities. Being generous and helpful are tremendous qualities to have and to share.

The next time people are sitting in a circle singing the praises of someone who was helpful, generous and giving…will you come back into their mind?

<p>I had the great pleasure of being the special guest of <a href=”http://www.sandyrees.com” target=”_blank”>Sandy Rees, CFRE</a> on her <a href=”http://getfullyfundedsupport.com/” target=”_blank”>Get Fully Funded Support Club</a> call today.  We had an awesome discussion on how to utilize the many tools on the Internet for raising funds for nonprofit organizations.</p>
<p>Some of the topics we discussed were:</p>
<ul>
<li>Have an engaging and informative Website</li>
<li>Make it Easy for People to Donate</li>
<li>Utilize a Blog to stay connected to your donors more frequently</li>
<li>Keep the Blog short, simple and conversational</li>
<li>Develop an electronic newsletter/ezine</li>
<li>Do NOT make a PDF of your print newsletter and call it an ezine!</li>
<li>Take advantage of the wide world of Social Media</li>
<li>Use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote events and accept donations.</li>
</ul>
<p>Sandy is a fundraising coach, speaker and master trainer and has a wealth of knowledge to assist nonprofits in reaching their fundraising goals.  She also has programs designed to engage nonprofit boards and manage a small nonprofit on a shoestring budget.</p>

I had the opportunity to attend a teleseminar this morning by L. Drew Gerber CEO & Partner of PressKit 24/7. It was part of the Big Fish Nation program I am a member of. Big Fish empowers women entrepreneur’s to take their business to the next level through hard core business skills with a spiritual approach to success. Today’s teleseminar focused on Online Press Releases.

Drew shared with us that he defines PR as, Your Relationship with the Public and that you should begin using PR from the onset of your business. It will increase brand recognition, and boost your sales of products and services. 90 percent of reporters are getting their information from the Internet, so an Online Press Kit is essential to your Online Business Success!

As part of his company, PressKit 24/7 he has established a source to bring potential media opportunities right into your Inbox. PitchRate.com is the name of this site and it’s completely free! You can register, include a profile, select your area of expertise, along with subcategories and daily you will receive a digest of media opportunities. You can also search on the site for keywords relative to your business.

Drew loves games, and so do I! So he has offered the participants of today’s teleseminar an incredible prize for the person that gets the most people to sign up for PitchRate. That’s where I need your help! If you would like to get daily feeds of media opportunities and grow your business through online press release marketing, please sign up for this free service. And then send me a quick email to (terri.avirtualbiz@gmail.com) and put your name in the subject line. And of course, I’d love to get your feedback to share with Drew.

It’s very important that you send me an email, otherwise, I won’t know that you signed up and can’t count you in my group. I’ll follow up and let you know if YOU helped me win!

Today was so much fun. I had lunch at an incredible place with some of my closest and dearest friends. We all used to work together for a national non-profit organization and have kept in touch for the last five years as we have all went our separate ways.

Each year we gather at Christmas (and my birthday) to reminisce and just have a good time together. We have our traditional “onion strawberry shortcake” (that’s another whole blog post) and talk and laugh our heads off.

This year however, the conversation focused on Social Media and Internet Marketing. We were throwing around words like Facebook and Twitter. We asked each other if we Jotted or Skyped and as we walked out of the restaurant I told them they would be tagged on Facebook before the end of the day! Can you imagine what the people at the other tables were thinking? They probably thought we just landed from outer space!

There were two social media “pros” at the table and as we begin talking about our profiles, pages, posts and other such lingo, one of our friends pulled out a pen and paper and started writing it all down. Our hope is that we have successfully converted her to our new way of networking.

Of course, we will still get together every Christmas to visit, catch-up and enjoy some delicious food, but our plan is to stay close to each other all year round through Facebook, Twitter, Skype and the next big social media boom that hits.

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/avirtualbiz and I’ll follow you back

Join my Facebook Page

Check out my LinkedIn Profile

My husband says, I have been “running the roads” a lot lately. That’s a southern thing if you don’t understand that phrase. But he is correct. I have been going a lot of places in the last couple of weeks and according to my calendar, I’m not going to slow down until around Christmas.

Now for a virtual professional, that’s a bit of a culture shock to actually go outside of your virtual world. But I love getting out of here. I love to visit and talk with people and network everywhere I go.

I shared a booth with one of my clients at the National Philanthropy Day luncheon in Knoxville last week and enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones. And of course, sharing my business and the services I provide for administrative support and online marketing. I walked away with a great list of people to follow-up with this week.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the East Tennessee Veteran’s Memorial was being dedicated this past weekend and I was honored to be invited to a reception and the dedication ceremony. The Mayor’s were there, as well as other politicians, high-ranking military personel and many familiar faces from my time with the organization. The ceremony was incredibly moving and I was proud to be an American and to have been involved in the early stages of the memorial’s planning. And it proved to be a great place to network. I was invited to be on a local radio show and several people are interested in learning more about my business.

I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks and the many networking opportunties to share what I do and how I can help other business owners with their administrative and marketing needs.

So Honey, I have a few more “roads to run.”

My work as a virtual assistant began in 2003 with a local nonprofit organization, East Tennessee Veteran’s Memorial. When I was hired, I was the first and only employee and I worked from my bedroom office. I set-up a database, marketing materials, assisted with a website and ran the local office right out of my house. At the time, I had no idea that I was working “virtual.” I just thought I was lucky to be able to work from home and still accomplish the goals for erecting a memorial and learning center for the men and women of East Tennessee that gave their lives for my freedom.

I think back to this group and the man that made it his purpose in life to see that the memorial became reality. Retired Colonel J. William Felton, III, (The Colonel to me), is the man who walked on the beaches of Normandy with his wife Betty and reflected on the lives that were lost during WWII. As he returned to the hills of East Tennessee he wanted to thank the local men and women for their sacrifice, but could find no place in which to do that. Thus, the vision of the East Tennessee Veteran’s Memorial Association was born.

Saturday morning, November 15, 2008, the finished memorial will be dedicated in downtown Knoxville, TN. I am honored to be attending the dedication and also honored to have been involved in this extraordinary accomplishment to our brave service men and women.

Just to think, that my journey as a virtual professional began with one man’s dream of a Forever Memorial to our Forever Heros.

I have such a passion for nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. My background was in nonprofit management prior to starting my own business as a virtual assistant. I know the struggles and hardships that face nonprofits in fundraising. Now with the emergence of social media and internet marketing, nonprofit organizations have so many new doors open to them to find those all important dollars. A Virtual Business Solution offers specialized services to nonprofit organizations by utilizing blogs, enewsletters, social media and other innovative ways to reach your donors.

My client and good friend, Sandy Rees, CFRE was highlighted in an article by the Chattanooga Times Free Press where she commented on using blogs for fundraising. Follow this link to read the article and listen to Sandy’s audio interview.

If you are a nonprofit manager looking for new opportunities to boost your funding, contact me at A Virtual Business Solution and we’ll work together to develop a plan for your online fundraising success!

Terri Brooks is a Certified Internet Marketing Specialist and owner of A Virtual Business Solution. With more than 35 years of professional experience, including eight years of nonprofit management, she assists many nonprofit organizations with their online marketing and fundraising.

How many signs have you seen lately for Fall Festivals? In my neck of the woods, they are around every corner. Especially around Halloween. There’s apple festivals, tomato festivals, water festivals, you name it, there’s probably a festival for it.

I was blessed to be asked to coordinate our church’s Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat event last Sunday. As a former event coordinator for several non-profit organizations and a virtual event planner, it was a perfect fit for me. I love planning and coordinating events and working with the incredible volunteers. I had a fabulous team that helped with the event. Although many of the aspects of this event was “hands-on”, a large majority of the work was done virtually. We communicated through email and phone. We ordered supplies and this cute banner online and we submitted our press release through email.

I’m pleased that we had around 120 families attend our event and served more than 240 hot dogs, caramel apples, nachos and cheese, and popcorn. We had blow-up games, hayrides, pie throwing, bluegrass music, cake walks, Kids on Parade Costume Parade and great door prizes.

I love my virtual job, but sometimes it’s nice to be hands-on and work closely with others to make things happen.

Need help with an event? Contact A Virtual Business Solution