I is for Instant Messengers

These can come in handy when you are working for some clients and business associates in real time. And almost all of them can log your conversations for referencing later if necessary. As you begin to network with other VA’s and build teams, collaboration via chat can save time in a way that e-mail cannot match.

The best instant messengers are:

AIM Pro




Yahoo! Messenger


This is a great tool under Google business apps:

Google Talk



Windows Live Messenger



There is a program called Trillian that has a free base version. With Trillian you can chat on Windows, iPhone, and their web based platform. Supports Astra, Windows Live, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, MySpace, AIM, Email, Google Talk, and others. The professional version costs $25, and if you're interested in this tool it might be worth is because when I tried it and I had issues with logging my conversations. And of course, I had a client that logging came in handy (you know, the busy type that was only online for a little bit every other day, so there was no asking to ) so I didn't use it much.

Other chat programs worth mentioning:

ICQ - haven't used this one in a long time

Pidgin - supposed to be able to support most other im programs but apparently has known issues with yahoo

Meebo - going to look into this one more

Jabber - recently taken over by Cisco

If you have an opinion of any of these chat programs, let us all know. Leave a comment.