As you know, I am big believer in diversification of your business. I personally have AdSense sites, affiliate sites, my own products, this blog, another blog that I am trying to turn into an authority site, etc.
The problem is that I am doing all of this part time, and even though I do outsource some stuff, it is always on an job by job basis.
Well…that was the case until yesterday.
Yesterday, I secured my first “full time” help. I have always wondered about how to do this, as I have had mixed success with “virtual assistants.” I always faced three problems:
- Finding good people.
- Training the people
- Keeping them busy.
Well, I signed up for a membership program that teaches all that, and I have to say, I am pretty impressed. Following the instructions inside the site, I was up an running with a full time assistant within two days. To be honest with you, I am not sure if I will sign up for a second month — I am having so much success based on the month one content, that may be enough for me.
Time will tell how well that this particular person will work out (her name is Jasmine), but I am very impressed with her after day 1. To be honest, I am really excited about the whole thing.
By following the steps outlined in the training, I will be getting twice as much help for half the cost (4x improvement) as I was before. That's a 4 times improvement.
I was a little put off by the price initially, but I have to say that I have already gotten my money's worth out of this thing after only 2 days.
So, if you are interested in learning how to get more done with outsourcing, you can check this out like I did. There is a free audio there (well, half of one, anyway), that I recommend that you listen to.
Best regards,
Mark
What kind of items do these virtual assistants help with?
Well, the method that is taught by these guys is to hire full time people overseas. You can find people that can do just about everything from programming to SEO to content creation, etc. Of course, cost varies as a function of experience and skill. Still, it is very affordable.
The person that I hired is a general purpose writer with decent (but not fantastic) English writing skills. I plan to use her to research and write draft content for several niche blogs to start. I also plan to teach her article marketing and other SEO stuff that I am currently not getting done myself.
But to answer your question — anything that you want.
What’s a typical hourly rate and minimum monthly payment for someone to do some website/SEO work?
@Sean — it is all over the place. You can get someone to do entry level secretarial tasks for as little as $200 USD per month (maybe less). Writers with some decent English skills cost a little more, and great writers cost more (and are harder to find). Programmers can be had for $400 USD per month and higher.
@Mark: Good to know that you are able to find external help and are happy with it. Biggest issue with outsourcing is communication. If you can get the person on phone and the person understands you it works great.
How did you go about ‘finding’ the right person? Forums? Freelancing sites?
@Jeet — I used the method that they recommended in the membership site — I found resumes that looked like a match, then I send a detailed email that specified what I was looking for and asked a few questions about skills. I gave a lot of details about the kind of work I wanted done. When I got replies, I picked the few best ones and asked them to do a “trial task.” I “hired” the best one on a 2 week trial basis. I am in that trial right now. So far so good.
I am a part time internet marketer as well, and I have been outsourcing for quite sometime. I actually found a great VA on Twitter. I also found someone on Odesk, but I used her there for a couple jobs, and then convinced her to go with me outside of their framework on a weekly basis and it has worked out well.
I think that anytime you can spend money to make money, it is well worth it, and when you are a part timer, every bit of your time is well worth any investment made wisely,
AL
@Allyn — yep. I have used people for single tasks, but I have not made the leap to full time until now. I am pretty excited about the prospect of having someone working all night while I sleep….
I’m looking to do some outsourcing for my future online ventures. As of right now I’m a full time marketer making some money but I would certainly enjoy the help!
I’ve been looking for full time writers as well. I’ve tried to hire someone from Agents of Value but the English skills weren’t as good as I wanted them to be. There are several other services available but most will have you pay $700 – $1500 per month for one writer (Philippine based).
Since the average income of someone from the Philippines is $400 a month I would rather hire one directly instead of going through a company.
Did you hire Jasmine directly or through an agency?
/Mikael
There are a lot of good VA’s in the Philippines. And its always better you do work with them instead of outsourcing it in an Indian SEO firm because Filipinos quite communicate so well. I’m optimizing my seach engine marketing for the couple of new sites that I have and most of the work I outsource it in the Philippines.