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Writing Website Content – Completely Outsourcing Your Content Creation Efforts

Girl working on her laptop with a pen in her teeth

Thank God for the audio recorder! When writing website content, I’m possibly one of the most writing-lazy persons you can imagine.

Still, I have managed to create two websites full of written content. By the way, you’re right here on the second website, it’s ideal-helper.com.

You need to know that I wrote the first one myself. It was very hard to do, especially the writing. Here’s how you can make this happen in a smarter way.

With the help of a virtual assistant, you could outsource yourself out of the equation of writing, too.

Instead of writing website content, you can easily use audio recordings to create the written work. Of course, you need the help of a transcriptionist to do so. But in the end, this results in extremely fast blogging or article “writing”.

Are you a SBI! owner?

Tortoising along... Are you a SBI! owner?

For my SBI! friends, I have created a page about…

Training your own

SiteSell Virtual Assistant

What would you do to blog faster?

Honestly, to maintain a blog is a little bit more work than most people think. You surely have seen this before: 99% of people who’ll start a blog, stop blogging after a few posts.

Only the 1% continues on because they are truly motivated or because they make money with it.

Since ideal-helper is a website about using a virtual assistant, my extremely easy method for writing website content with the help of audio recording and voice transcription.

Why is it important to produce content fast?

  • If you try to follow along with the hundreds of discussions that happen in real-time in your niche, you cannot possibly focus on writing website content.
  • If you focus on writing enough stuff, you cannot focus on promoting it online like Facebook or other social media.
  • The more content you write, the more traffic you get!

Now to speak of tasks like podcasting, creating interesting e-books and so on: by working together with a virtual assistant, you can get much more of it done.

It really is doable.

What about the money?

Of course, hiring a virtual assistant costs you money. A critic could say that you’re wasting your money and that you should do it yourself.

How important a virtual assistant can be to you

Virtual assistant with a headgear holding a pen

The questions you must ask yourself are:

  1. How much is your time worth to you?
  2. What can you do with your time to make money when you’re not spending it with basic tasks?

For example, writing website content, illustrating your posts:

  • research the right picture,
  • place it with HTML
  • and optimize it for the size

All of these tasks take a lot of your time.

This is a process I have outsourced for years now. It has been some time since I last illustrated a post.

Of course, if I don’t like the illustration my virtual assistant makes for me, I’ll tell him and he will propose alternatives.

I feel that your time is better invested in managing the “how” of using a virtual assistant rather than looking for the right illustration.

Perhaps you are blogging about a very specific topic that only you can really talk about.

What’s more important:

  1. getting your word out, your message,
  2. or researching basic stuff about how to run a blog or a website?

I’m happy that I’ve used Site Build It! as a method to build my websites. With this system many of the tedious web-building tasks are already taken care for me.

Also, their web-building method follows a systematic strategy that results in traffic with less meaningless work.

But you want to read about how to outsource content, right?

Well, here is how I did it.

  1. Almost all content that comes to mind spontaneously, I record it in real-time.
  2. Then, a transcriptionist transcribes the recording for me.
  3. Then my main virtual assistant optimizes the transcript and inserts links, pictures, all that you like to make the website readable and nice.

Of course, you must have a final proofreading before it goes online.

How to easily stay on top of your niche

In order to discuss topics that are of real interests to the world, ask your virtual assistant to send you daily a summary what’s going on in the world.

Get a list of keywords, questions and topics that are currently discussed. Give it your expert opinion in voicemail form and then watch as it gets involved into buzzing places all over the world.

Be it your website, your blog pages, Facebook, LinkedIn, forum posts, blog discussions, you name it, I’ll be there.

It’s hard to work full-time while maintaining a web business. I’ll completely agree that not everyone is able to maintain a web business.

You need perseverance and a lot of time to do this. This is why outsourcing is so important. Everyone has a message to share. Make yours be heard.

Take-home message

Girl in black formal dress indicating towards her right

Are you a writer? Are you a hunter? Do you love to photograph? Do you love to party?

I don’t know what your passion is but you have something worthwhile to share with the world. And you don’t have the time to learn blogging and creating websites 90% of the time.

The compromise I have found for me is to learn each step of the way and immediately teach it to my virtual assistant.

This way, you can take yourself out of the equation.

What remains is your passion and your message. You can share your experience freely. Your virtual assistant or your team of virtual assistants makes sure that your passion and your experience gets out to the world.

What happens then? Well, I’ll leave it up to you.

(Hint: Like, Share, Comment the heck out of my stuff!) 😀

I can’t predict if you like my message or not. I can only try to do my best when sharing my experience with you.

What you can do is, of course, to share your feedback if you like reading my thoughts or my ideas about writing website content.

Is what I’m telling you too simple or too overwhelming?

  • If what I say is too basic for you, feel free to call me on it. I’ll teach you more advanced stuff then.
  • Sometimes when you’re so immersed in your passion and your subject, you lose your sense of simplicity. So if what I’m talking is too much far away from your real world experience, call me on it!

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Writing A Job Description On oDesk The Right Way

Writing a job description well serves two purposes:

  1. Getting the right person for the job
  2. Losing you, the employer, as little time as possible.

Write a job description that filters out the best applicants

Filter out the best applicants

It sounds mean, but I tell you from experience: the hiring process is much more time-efficient if you focus on pre-screening the dozens of applicants.

You don’t want to use too much time in the hiring process, neither.

  • Ask questions that limit some bad apples to apply
  • Make the “Sunshine” test.

What is the “Sunshine” test?

At the end of your job description, write something along the lines of:

To show that you have read the job description in its entirety, please start your application letter with the word “Sunshine”.

All applications that do not follow this instruction will be rejected.”

My virtual assistant tried a harder test.

  • By the way: yes, you can outsource the hiring process completely.
  • In oDesk, there is a manager feature allowing you to give your virtual assistant the necessary rights to hire and fire new providers.

He asked the applicants to write the correct spelling of “rednevous” at the start of their cover letters.

To my surprise, most applicants to a simple project failed this and did not write “rendezvous” correctly. Perhaps it was too hard.

Specify your budget or any must-have skills when writing a job description

Tell applicants up front: I won’t pay more than XYZ $.

However, think about the ethical aspects of outsourcing.

You get what you pay for. Still, if you want to negotiate, specifying your budget in your job description helps.

Screen for skill sets

Make it clear if you need a specific set of skills.

For example:

“You need to know HTML. Please don’t apply if you can’t handle an HTML editor. Write in your job description which editors you are comfortable using and, if possible, provide a portfolio of your online work.”

Screen for attitude

A famous quote by Winston Churchill

Sometimes, you need different people:
  • fun
  • serious
  • precise
  • people that don’t ask too many additional questions,
  • sometimes motivated idea givers

Ask about the character of the applicants and choose the right person for you.

Ask for technical equipment when writing your job description

You can explain that a provider needs to be able to have a Skype conversation. This easily filters out those providers that are missing the technical equipment, like a headset.

(I have had numerous occasions where provider lied about having a headset and later told me it was broken, etc.)

Don’t keep your job opening open for too long

It’s best to close the job offer after maximum 2 days – having hired someone, or no one.

What if you have found no one?

Just re-open another day, hoping for more applicants.

Give the applicants a chance to make themselves stand out

Follow the advice for writing a job description

Have a little fun with your job description. Ask for a joke, a rhyme or something witty as the introduction.

Impress upon the applicants that they must shine with their personality when they apply for your job.

That’s the best way to read between the lines of copy-pasted and reused cover letters.

Don’t ask too much of the applicants – don’t waste their time

Clearly describe what is waiting for them at your project. It’s best if you are writing a job description that saves both you and the applicants as much time as possible.

You can have a pdf attachment prepared with detailed instructions, pictures and graphs for any applicant to read.

You can also have another, different “Sunshine” test in the attachment, pre-screening the providers who have read both the job description and the attachment!

Tell them for how much time they will be hired

For an employee, it’s important to schedule their time and projects.

  • Be honest about how long the cooperation will last.
  • Let them know upfront if it’s an ongoing job or a task-bound project.

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Write Or Die! End Writer’s Block Forever!

Get rid of your lazy writing habits

Every writer knows and dreads it: the writer’s block. We have found an easy and free tool that will get rid of that problem immediately. It will boost your writing’s productivity tenfold.

I was trying out a new method to boost my productivity when writing. Normally, when I am online and trying to create content for my website(s), then many distractions from my work are lurking just around the corner.

Get a virtual kick in the arse with the Write or Die web-tool

The newest method to fight writer’s block and laziness is called “Write or Die”.

Quite the name, isn’t it?

The concept is simple: you write into a web-editor, ideally without pausing. If you stop… well, there are consequences. From an unpleasant noise to your work getting deleted right in front of your eyes….

A brilliant way to overcome writer’s block.

It is the kick in the butt I definitively need to get myself going! I wish I have had this tool when I was in school or during college…

However, it might not work as well if you are easily intimidated. If did work for me though – look at what you just read:

380 words in 8 minutes.

That would never have worked the “normal” way.

Need some real motivation? Write or Die!

Write or Die Web App

Is your virtual assistant too nice to you and you just need a big kick in the ass?

There is virtual “help” and it’s called “Write or Die”

The desktop application costs 10 bucks, but its web app is free and it’s easy to use. Just type the goal you have and the time you can spend for the amount of words you want to do.

Famous saying by Ray Bradbury

There are different “consequences”. Consequences are the “stick” to drive away you’re writer’s block.
  • If you choose “Gentle mode” you will get a pop-up reminder.
  • In the Normal mode, you will hear an unnerving sound which will only stop if you continue writing.
  • Kamikaze mode deletes the content you have just written. I am sure this will give you enough motivation to continue writing.

Sounds evil?

It is! The startling sound will actually be a pretty strong punishment. Especially if the sound settings of your laptop are a bit too high and you get suprized. No more dozing off and procrastinating after that happens once, I can assure you that!

Do anything that is necessary to destroy your writer’s block. Trick yourself with any possible strategy into your most productive self.

There are different Grace Periods during which you are allowed not to write.

However, it’s simply best if you don’t ever pause your fingers.

If you choose “Evil” and not only “Strict” as your Grace Period, you’ll only have one second until the consequences kick in.

Want to try it out?

Are you sure?

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

This is how it looks like if you stop writing…

How it looks when you stop writing!

One second into the Evil mode…

Oh No!

It gets redder and redder

The consequences are about to begin…!

The crude sound (I won’t tell you what it is, it’s a surprise!) you get is pretty surprising, but you won’t be able to handle it for long. Well, almost.

So never stop writing… or else…!

This tool works best if you have music boxes and work colleagues next to you. You will get some eyes looking at you if this music starts. I am pretty sure your fingers will never stop moving if you will have to face this social pressure.

And I am not even talking about Kamikaze consequences, where your text gets deleted word by word. Talk about fighting writer’s block!

Have mercy, I don’t want to “die”!

It is not like the creator of this tool was without mercy. Do you have to go to the toilet real quick?

OK – you are allowed ONE PAUSE.

Check it out: click on pause, and you will see this:

Write or Die pause notification

So, did you stop your desk from burning?

Did you save that child outside?

Good. Now get back to work. *evil grin*

You only have one pause. If you try pausing again, you’ll just see that “Pause only works once”

An alternative way to eliminate writer’s block: Boost your writing with a Virtual Assistant

Another method to eliminate writer’s block is to use a dictation device – like my cell phone with the Catch application – and start talking. The recording is sent to my virtual assistant and he transcribes it.

This does increase my productivity a lot. Why?

There is a social responsibility to follow through: I cannot stop and start updating my Facebook account in mid-recording. By the way, the Catch app does not allow a pause of the recording – so any awkward pauses are directly transferred to my VA…

There is more than one disadvantage of outsourcing all writing to a transcription worker, though.

  1. It costs money. Although this sort of work is one of the cheaper uses of outsourcing, this can add up. It still takes time. Not yours, necessarily, but that of your VA. The time you need to record your message should be multiplied by four or five.
  2. The result is the amount of time the VA needs to transcribe, format and proofread my transcript.
  3. Your writing style is different. When you write or when you talk, your sentences are way different.

You might have noticed this different kind of phrasing on Ideal Helper. Though generally, I review my transcripts, because they can be just a bit too awkward. Of course this revising costs you some time as well. Also, I tend to use longer sentences when talking – which are less effective for when you want others to read it on the screen.

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What To Look For In A Virtual Assistant – Start Of An Interview

Job interview managementWhat to look for in a virtual assistant is part-1 of the second interview from Stefan from Germany, who lives the Four Hour Work Week lifestyle in Thailand.

Summary:

  • Usually most VAs/providers promise higher but can’t deliver what is expected.
  • Trust building process between both parties is crucial for a long term relationship
  • Good work ethics is probably the most desirable skill an employer is looking for in a virtual assistant.

Start of the Interview:

Francis
Francis:

Hello, Stefan. We already talked about this subject and here are my thoughts about how to create confidence in a freshly hired assistant so that later on he can work with self motivated drive for you and what to look for in a virtual assistant at the first glance. That’s where we want to go, right?

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

Yes. That’s good.

Francis
Francis:

Okay. In principle, it’s important at the beginning of the working relationship that your employer has no fear from you and has the room to grow self confidence in his work. If he’s afraid of being fired all the time or something then it’s difficult. 

What’s also very important at the starting of a new working relationship is to figure out how big are the cultural barriers. Are there some? Where are they? How can you overcome them? 

In my opinion, there’s not much of a short catch around this first trust building stage. It needs regular communication from both sides and the rough approach of “Do this work or I will fire you” often does not work in my opinion. 

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

Yeah. I have experienced that when I’m trying to find someone who’s doing a good work. In the beginning, the promise is so very high.

You have a job and the employee, most of the time tells you right away that he can do this or that. And he will, in the beginning, most likely not say that he can’t do something. 

Francis
Francis:

Yeah, that’s natural. They need the money. That’s totally natural.

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

Yes. I understand that but this goes on for awhile. In my experience too long and often the whole working relationship is built along that.

But the promises are very high and the delivery is very low. And because they don’t want to get fired, as you said, they’d rather say that they can do it or they need more time or whatever. 

Francis
Francis:

They will come up with excuses, right?

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

With excuses instead of admitting that they are somewhere or that they’re not able to do it or whatever.

Francis
Francis:

In my opinion, this trust building goes both ways. You added that even before the virtual assistant should have the room to work and build his own confidence; he must give the employer (so us) the confidence in his work. 

So if within the first few days a virtual assistant does not deliver at all, I would be extremely careful. I would immediately let him stop working and first figure out where’s the problem.

If the problem is clearly something that he does not have the ability or the programs or anything so that he cannot do the work and that he lied to me then I would have to end the working relationship. Or, figure out a way to train him so that he still can work for me depending on the situation.

If there has been some dishonesty going on at the beginning of the working relationship from the side of the virtual assistant and, in my opinion, this happened to me personally not so often because I’m very thorough in the interview process. But if it still happens then you have to take your consequences. 

In general, there are many virtual assistants out there and many of them are highly motivated and capable people. You do not need to work with people who don’t have good working ethics.

There are many other people which have good working ethics which you can find instead. So before it gets expensive and time consuming, it’s better to end a bad start than to continue and try to fix it.

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

Yeah but the problem is that in the beginning it’s often a good start. Then you have the impression that your worker does understand the job, has the skills and he gives you feedback.

He talks with you about the job and you are coming to a conclusion together. You’ve given him job. You tell him what he has to do in the next three days and the next week. And often, he delivers the first week whatever you wanted from him.

In my case, I don’t want my worker to deliver the job. I tell him the job and he delivers the end product.

That’s how I work. I give him a part like a partial goal first.

Francis
Francis:

Yes.

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

Like the job is, for example, 3 weeks. I have estimated 3 weeks to finish it and I break it down to 3 parts, for example.

Francis
Francis:

I think the tactics of using milestones is very effective.

stefan employer interview
Stefan:

So, for example, I have a job 3 weeks. I’ll tell him after I hire him, because we had a good interview, I had the impression that you understand what we’re talking about. He could do the work and he assured me he could do the work. I give him his first milestone. 

In 1 week, you have to do this and that, this and that until end of the week. He tells me, “Yes I can do that. I come back to you end of the week.” Then I let him work because he can’t work when we were “Skyping” so I leave him alone to do work.

At the end of the week, he comes back to me with finished part of the job. It’s done but it’s not as I had imagined which is okay because we can work that out.

We can rearrange stuff and then finish it so that it’s perfect. But there the problem starts. Because most of the time after that he lacks the work ethic, most of the people.

If I’m not happy with the first milestone which most of the time I will never be happy because we just started working together; he will start taking longer and longer for easier parts of the job. 

Francis
Francis:

In other words, his efficiency drops with the time that he provides.

stefan employer interviewStefan:

Dramastically, yes.

Continue reading part 2 – Fixed Price vs Hourly Jobs

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How To Best Use Voicemail Transcription

If you hire an assistant to help you with voicemail transcription, always remember that there is a human being on the other end. Make it as easy as possible for him to transcribe your dictation and in return you get the best results.

Say goodbye to writer’s block!

Recording a Voicemail Transcription

The main advantage of voice transcription is that you free your mind by talking easily. If you are writing, you may experience writer’s block and an empty page before you might look intimidating.

But you can always talk. Can’t you?

Imagine talking to a friend, which is the best way to create articles out of speech by voicemail transcription. If you need to create materials which contain both written elements and pictures or graphics, then you probably will prefer using good screen recording software.

9 Tips for effective transcription

  1. When you record your message, try to talk slowly
  2. Aim for half of the speed that you normally are talking with
  3. Try to take your time and think of each sentence
  4. When talking, and especially when you are recording a dictation, you tend to make longer sentences. In writing they are more difficult to read so break it down
  5. Try to eliminate exterior noise
  6. Use a quality headset
  7. Review your recording after you have finished it. Is it audible?
  8. Check for missing pieces of your recording before sending it to your virtual transcription assistant
  9. You will save some time reviewing your dictation before sending it to your virtual assistant

This way, you eliminate possible emails back and forth if you need to try to clear up any uncertainties.

The exact working style when you hire someone for voicemail transcription still depends on you.

Find your optimal talking speed for transcription

Famous saying by Tommy Shaw

If your personal assistant is really used to recordings of your voice and if they are always clear and accent free, you can feel free to talk faster. Leave it to your assistant to rewind and listen to the recording repeatedly until it is transcribed.

Don’t forget the final proof-read

A great way to proofread your transcript without losing focus is to read it out loud. Always make sure to proofread your transcripts. Sometimes the written word may look silly or too informal, for example in a letter, an email or an article which you have transcribed. You can ask your assistant to proofread your transcript for you and propose editions and corrections.

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Writing Content On My Mobile Phone Versus Voice Transcription By My Virtual Assistant

Recording a voicemail for transcription

Here is a story from my day to day life where voice transcription services save me tons of time.

To use the hundreds of hours that I spend commuting daily in a productive way, I started writing my blog posts on my mobile phone.

This way, the time was not completely wasted.

When compared to the effective writing speed and output I achieve when I ask my virtual assistant for voice transcription of my dictations, then my mobile phone can just pack its back and get the hell out of here.

Voice transcription is affordable

To anyone, and I really mean anyone who is writing English texts of whatever nature:

Team up with a freelancer from India or Pakistan or from the Philippines.

Transcription work can be done for you for as cheap as 1$/hour.

I’m not kidding.

Transcription services are useful for anyone who writes online

If you always wanted to

then invest this small amount and get your dream from your brain on the paper!

By the way, the prices I mentioned are for when you hire a voice transcription worker via oDesk, an outsourcing company.

7 Steps: How to get text transcribed

Here’s how to create written content super fast:

How to get your text transcribed
  1. Get out of the house. Take your mobile phone with you. It’ll do you some good to see some sun and breathe fresh air. Don’t worry, I won’t go all “New Age” on you, I’m sort of a geek anyways.
  2. Open your dictation app. Personally, I use Evernote for Android and iOS.
  3. Relax and talk into your phone.
  4. Specifically say it if you are just thinking aloud or if you are dictating.
  5. Save your recording. Send it via e-mail to the other end of the globe.
  6. Your faithful transcription expert will have it written down in no time.
  7. Review and correct. That feels easier than fighting writer’s block, right?

You’ll never go back

It’s like using Swype or other fast writing technology. Once you start getting used how fast it goes, you never want to do it the old way any more.

There are times when transcription is not useful for writing text, though:

  • When you need to write a short note to anyone that needs to be sent out now, you’ll better sit down and type it yourself
  • When you are dealing with many foreign words that will get messed up in the transcription process
  • When you’re writing down confidential information

But those are exceptions.

For books, articles, website content, emails, you’ll be faster using transcription services in most cases