May your days be merry and bright!

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

Let us hold a moment of silence for the good old HP dv6700 laptop…

There was just a minor slowdown while waiting for my new computer to arrive, but thanks to my husband’s a backup laptop and Dropbox I was able to keep things going close to “business as usual”. Dropbox especially was a lifesaver as I was able to store the files I needed in the cloud to get them whenever the project called for it.

Now, I am a proud new owner of a MacBook Pro. I will spare you all the details on how I came to the decision to ditch PCs and go for the Mac, but I am super happy with my choice and I won’t be looking back. While I have a bit of a learning curve since I am a total Mac virgin, it helps that I have been able to keep my lifeline to Windows (via VM Ware Fusion). Because of that, I didn’t have to buy new software for absolutely everything and can still access all my same Windows based files for clients.

Having the right backup systems in place really saves a lot of stress and anxiety, and a computer crash or transition to a new machine is always a great reminder of that. I always stress that you MUST backup your computers files often because a PC crash or virus can happen at any time . Here at the BVAS office, we backup our computers to a external hard drive here, and also via the web with Carbonite. You can never have too many backup systems in place.

In other BVAS news, sew systems and service packages are in the works, so stay tuned for some upcoming announcements. As always, please join the conversation on our Facebook page, and feel free to leave a comment with your questions and request for upcoming how-to’s.

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

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Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

Image via CrunchBase

One’s offline reputation can be tarnished by some gossip around town that can eventually fade way. One’s online reputation can be destroyed by a few poison words that can be indexed in Google forever.

That brings me to my post today. I am disgusted that I have to address this issue at all, but the time has come where I have to publicly address the injustice of the situation I’m facing and defend myself against completely false allegations. I have been quietly living through this nightmare for 6 months and I am finally now going to speak out and tell my story. Buckle up and get ready for a long one.

Approximately six months ago, I received an anonymous email from someone stating they’ll “won’t be doing any further business” with me based on claims on a complaint website regarding me and my business. This came as a complete surprise as I had no idea who this person was that had implied they have done business with me. It was from an anonymous gmail address. When I went searching for said complaint, I was shocked and completely horrified by what I found. (I will not be linking to the offending site, but if you are smart and know how to use Google, I’m sure you can find what I am referencing.)

What I found was a so called “consumer complaint” website with horrific allegations made against me by a “third-party” poster, that I am a child predator. It was complete with my name, company name, links to my site, videos, displaying my home address and a map, etc. What is worse, links to the complaint on the site where indexed on the 1st page of Google in searches for my name, my business name, etc.

It almost goes without saying, but I will say it here. The allegations that have been made against me on that website are of course patently false and have no basis. Anybody who knows me would know that those ugly things said about me cannot possibly be true. I am a work-at-home mother to a small child, running a small business, trying to make an honest living. There is no possibility that what have been accused of can be remotely true. It is clear that some sick and deranged person had set out to do serious harm to me and my business. To this day, I still do not know the person who has done this to me or why.

My first course of action was to contact the owner of the supposed consumer complaint website, and kindly ask that they please remove the false and defamatory content from the website. I was sent a response that shot down my request citing their policy that they never remove reports that are claimed to contain defamatory, even if the original author requests it. They do this in the name of free speech and to avoid “rampant censorship”. But they suggested 2 courses of action:

1. Contact the person who made the complaint (who, may I remind you, was basically “anonymous”)
2. Take part in their “COPA” program where I can pay them $4999 a year to be able to defend myself

This same website’s policy and FAQ displays a “go ahead and sue me” attitude, because they are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. (I won’t go into it’s merits or details, but you can find more info here too) IT was soon after this initial contact that a 2nd false complaint appeared on the site, not of the same ugly nature, but still completely false and still damaging.

I did consult an attorney to see what my options could be, but it didn’t leave me with much hope. Unfortunately, I am a small business and do not have the deep pockets of a large corporation to be able to come up with the tens of thousands of dollars to front for legal fees to be able to fight this in court. The only real course of action I had left was to file complaints with the state attorney general offices in my state and the state the website is located in. I had done so nearly 6 months ago and now it’s just a waiting game if the state attorneys choose to take any action.

So why am I waiting until now to tell my story? Frankly, I was embarrassed that such awful things were being said about me and did not want to give it publicity. Also, I did not want to bring much public attention to it because I did not want to give that website a boost in traffic. Though I have tried to rise above by continuing to provide great services to my clients, marketing my business, and blogging, with the hope that this ugly content would be buried in Google, but it is still coming back to haunt me. If I do not speak up, it still leaves the allegation open to question, and I cannot have that anymore. I can’t have potential clients Google my name a have these outrageous allegations cause them to question my credibility or my ethics.

It is horrible that such things can be done to innocent people, especially small business owners, and they have little recourse. This could have happened to anyone in my industry. Someone with a vendetta and a few poison words has the potential to destroy businesses and lives. Online defamation and libel needs to stop and I wish people would not be able to easily hide behind anonymous names without consequences in cases like mine.

Let it be known that again, that the allegations made against me are completely false. I, Megan E. Barber, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions,  am a good, decent human being, an upstanding citizen, and do not have so much as a speeding ticket to my name. I have been a victim of online defamation, and it has been nothing short of a nightmare. I don’t know what the absolute solution is, but I wanted to start by getting my side of the story out there and making sure there is no question about my ethics and integrity.

I will not stand for it anymore! And you shouldn’t either, so I invite you to please share my story.

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

New higher 2011 rates will be effective after January 15th. S new clients thinking of signing on with our services and want to get in on the current 2010 rates, you have until January 15, 2011 to sign on. This applies to all services including our Retainer plans and Pre-paid Blocks.*

Rate increase happens at midnight on January 16th so don’t miss out!!!

**Current clients will not face a rate increase at this time. You will be grandfathered in at you current rates.

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

I am happy to announce that I recently passed the IVAA Certified Virtual Assistant examination with flying colors and am now considered a Certified Virtual Assistant ( a.k.a. CVA) by the one of the leading VA organizations, the International Virtual Assistants Association.

More on my CVA announcement from IVAA:

This designation is the industry standard for excellence. It is no small accomplishment to have passed the CVA examination, which tests VAs at an advanced level as opposed to core competencies. The IVAA CVA examination is the only VA examination-format certification that tests a VA in many areas of a VA practice.

I am happy to have this certification under my belt and a plan to display it with pride and to uphold the same high professional standards as always. Thanks for the opportunity IVAA!

Thanks for letting me toot my own horn for a minute!

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

Image via Wikipedia

Have you seen my latest video posted to YouTube? You still need a great real estate website? Well now at BVAS, we are offering WordPress website design! Check out what I had to say about the recent development.

So if you are interested in starting a new real estate website and real estate blog using the WordPress platform, visit my  website for more info and contact us today!

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Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC,  and runs blogs, The BVAS Connection and The Virtual Perception. Megan has been in a Virtual Assistant for 4+ years and has spent 10+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.

• Social Network Marketing packages and more
• More graphic design services including Twitter backgrounds, custom web/blog headers and buttons

And as a celebration for our celebration of our site’s new look, I am running a New Look Special! For any new clients that sign on with us before March 31, 2009, we are offering 5% discounts on all of our retainer packages for the first 6 months of your contract. So don’t delay and contact me today for more details. Be sure to stay tuned and check back to our site frequently to see our new services, new resources and new team members we add in the coming months.

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC,  and runs blogs, The BVAS Connection and The Virtual Perception. Megan has been in a Virtual Assistant for 4+ years and has spent 10+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.