Communication in business with Virtual Assistants: Learn from behind the scenes of two employers outsourcing their work to overseas Virtual Assistants!
Communication in Business
Reader Interactions
How To Outsource Tasks With A Team Of Virtual Assistants?
Team of virtual assistants is part-15 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.
Follow along to learn from our experience on working with VAs!
Click here to read part 14 of this interview – how to handle a newbie full-time virtual assistant
Summary:
- Learn how to control a team of virtual assistants and your online business.
- Learn what are the pros and cons between a single virtual assistant and a team of virtual assistants.
- Learn how to organize and outsource tasks to a team of virtual assistants
Start of the Interview:
Francis
Although, I’m sort of slightly switching topic; I would like to test out something. Do you know how to share screen in Skype?
Eric
Yes.
Francis
The plus button or…
Eric
Let’s see, I’ve done it before but I don’t really…
Francis
Ah, yeah. I have it. I’m sharing my screen now and please don’t get overwhelmed, I just want to show an idea I had.
Eric
What program is that you’re using?
Francis
That is Lucidchart.com. That’s online. It’s integrated with Google documents.
Eric
Okay, cool.
Francis
So, I had tried to do some flowchart. It’s simply overwhelming but, in principle, what this shows is we start with ideas and do certain steps then do the keyword research.
Do certain steps than writing starts with voice recordings, a transcription then it goes back in some sort of feedback loop.
We look at the result. We fine tune it, do some steps. And then when I’m happy with the interim results, I create a content page from that with my VA who does some more steps. I’ve implemented a few links from SBI tools or articles in to these steps.
And then I go back to:
- Optimizing stuff building the traffic from that page,
- Doing some supporting steps,
- Going to the Aweber email creation,
- Checking the steps,
- If the stats exceed a certain level then you monetize or you find if you can make an auto-responder or a Content 2.0 invitation,
- Freebies creation, so when you want to have submissions, you’d create some sort of free gift to download. Stuff like that.
- I tried to make some sort of a flow chart.
The idea of that is because we are talking about the team of assistants. This is much more than one person can do.
Eric
Right, yeah.
Francis
Especially, so I’m just stopping now; especially when you are having more than one site going through that to do that sort of process. But that’s sort of my dream final result.
I have a team of assistants and then I start with an idea saying it would be cool if we could talk about this but in high quality.
Then we start with the research finding good keywords. Then we are picking my brain. So, in other words, my assistant puts together a list of ideas and input from internet research and then I just give my comments about each of these topics. Very much like the list of ideas we have in Google documents.
Eric
Right. I think that’s great. Go ahead, I’m sorry.
Francis
Yeah. And then just it goes from there into the next steps of the business building process. And that’s how I would like to really speed start my content creation process with a team of virtual assistants. So, I have a sort of overall assistant but he could not do everything.
And now I would like to expand to have a writer on my team or an editor for fine tuning transcribed content, for example. And then, we go from there.
Eric
Right. And for example, like for me, I was thinking about how I’m willing to start getting into YouTube a whole lot more with my videos because I think that’s a lot for my audience is.
I thought, okay, I can get my general virtual assistant to be just doing basic stuff you were talking about and then hiring maybe somebody to be my video editor. So all I have to do was just drop the videos in the Dropbox, and they go ahead and edit the videos.
Send them back to me and then I could let my general VA upload them to YouTube for me. Put the different descriptions. Add the links and things like that.
Then, I even thought about doing a podcast and I could hire somebody to do the editing of the podcast. Because those are things that I can do but it takes hours and hours of my time to do this thing.
The thing is that somebody else is probably a whole lot better at it than I am anyways. And then have somebody send that back to my virtual assistant and let them upload it.
I’ve been doing a lot of the same things as I kind of trying to come up with some kind of process rather than just being, how do I want to say it, hiring for different roles and having to process.
So, that’s where they can actually do different things rather than just randomly expecting my one virtual assistant to do everything.
Because I think that’s one of the things that as beginners are hired, we think that we can desire one person that can do everything and that kind of gets in the way of expanding your business.
Francis
If you have a person who does everything and you rely on that person 100%; what happens if he goes away? Then all of it falls together. All your training is lost. All your internal knowledge goes away. And you have to start from scratch and perhaps even have to fear that your knowledge goes somewhere else.
So, it makes sense to have some big pictures only for yourself, some big dreams. And some tasks, some very specific tasks given to specialists. If they are full time specialists or project based specialists, it doesn’t matter. But, keep them separated from each other slightly.
So that everyone talks with your Hiring Manager. But the Hiring Manager himself in the end does nothing else than manage. He does not do the technical stuff perhaps.
Continue reading part 16 -What are the standards in hiring part-time administrative assistant?
Part-Time vs Full-Time Virtual Assistants: Which One Fits the Job Title for Outsourcing?
Part-time vs full-time virtual assistants is part-13 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.
Follow along to learn from our experience on working with VAs!
Click here to read part 12 of this interview – How do you fire assistant who is unfit for the job?
Summary:
- Learn about the pros and cons between part-time vs full-time virtual assistants
- Learn which virtual assistant works best with your online business: part-time vs full-time.
- Learn when will be the right time to hire part-time and full-time virtual assistants.
Start of the Interview:
Eric
If we could talk a little bit about the first one because I know that I have a little bit of experience working with project based assistants and you’ve had a little bit of experience using permanent assistants. Maybe we could talk about that.
Francis
Actually, it’s the other way around. I have had almost only project based assistants. Well, not project, but non-permanent assistants. So, on oDesk, what will define project based assistant and permanent assistants?
Permanent assistants are like a full time position from an assistant in the Philippines. For example, I’m saying that because I believe they are for full time assistant positions because often they are looking for that.
So, someone who really has a contract – has 40 hours paid work time even if you don’t come up with ideas for them to work. So, they still get paid like a real employee. That’s, in my opinion, are personal assistant.
And then a project based assistant, or how I understood it, was someone from oDesk or Elance or any other hourly billed service. And then you just tell them what you would like to do and they work on that. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.
Eric
Okay. I get what you’re saying. I get you.
Francis
So, I have most experience with oDesk based assistants who are working on one project after another or several at the same time. Except for my main assistant who’s working about 30 hours a week for me, so almost full time; I have had no full time assistant for long.
Eric
Yeah, yeah. Most of the time, I’m just doing specific projects, specific things that I need done and then call on those people when I need those things done.
Francis
Okay. So in principle, we are on the same page based on our experience with the assistants. So, perhaps let’s change the topic to “In what ways do I believe a full time assistant is better or worse than a project based assistant?”
Eric
Okay, that will work.
Francis
So, obviously, I know the advantages of a project based assistant. And only if you sort of have a project based assistant and really feel okay, he’s working 30-40 hours regularly; I might just as well have a full time assistant.
Eric
Now here’s the thing, I didn’t feel like I had enough work or enough tasks because I would like to have somebody working full time. Because, where I am right now, I could pay to have somebody working full time.
But, I just don’t feel like that I have enough things for them to do. And it might just be me who was thinking that, you know I’m not willing to give up certain parts of my business here. You know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yes. That’s true
Eric
Because, I think that there are certain things that I could give to a virtual assistant that I’m just not ready to give away at this point. I think that’s where we have to kind of bear ourselves as employers and be like okay:
- what are the things that we don’t want to do?
- what are the things that we shouldn’t be doing?
And then give those things off because it’s going to free us up for more time, free us up for more opportunities to do more high level tasks. You know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yep. I totally get that. But, there’s also a slight difference between going back to high level maintenance and being sort of the inspiration guy and just giving away the business. So that the assistant sort of works to make the money for you while you don’t care.
Eric
Yeah, right. Yeah. I know what you’re saying.
Francis
And the second option is I think what many people associate it with when you have a full time virtual assistant. Also, there is some marketing into that direction which perhaps gives people the wrong perception.
Like, “Okay, I have this business in a box idea.” You just hire a full time virtual assistant then you just give them the idea and then they’d find out the rest and you get tons of money.
I do not really believe that this works, at least not on a long term, stable and fulfilling basis. Perhaps, it does technically work. But, I think one of these factors is then not meant.
So, I have the same problem of finding a list of tasks, especially for a beginning virtual assistant, that will fill 40 hours.
But, from the experience with my full time VA, the beginning was so rough with discussions going back and forth and I was not really habituated to having so many questions anymore. Because, working with my main assistant has been so long already that I’m used to that.
Also, that assistant is helping me in managing the full time assistant. So, I think it makes sense to first start out with hourly based assistant until you have reached a certain experience with the outsourcing thing. And then have a person to help with training the next person.
Eric
Yeah, and you can almost promote that person who is your general assistant to kind of be more like a team leader or a management type of position, I guess you could say.
Francis
Exactly. That’s actually what I’m doing. So, I try to do everything on my own when, or mostly on my own, my assistant did some research for the candidate.
But, then when I was interviewing and getting to know that person which was my last full time assistant from the Philippines, I was involved too early.
I was personally involved and I really felt connected to that person. She’s fun and was interesting to talk to and I had almost all these ideas ready. And then when it didn’t work out like I wanted it to, I was not able to give up easily.
My assistant had to get very, for his standards, very drastic in his rhetoric to tell me, okay; perhaps my approach is not the most efficient one to just continue doing what does not work.
And because I did not only give that assistant (the full time assistant) one second chance; I gave her like 4 second chances. And really there were many people who were giving me advice to say “Okay, just try someone else. Perhaps, someone else will make you much happier.”
And I do not think my previous virtual assistant (full time assistant) was a bad person nor did bad quality work. But, we really had problems with the internet connections and they just weren’t solvable. So before, I’m technically stuck.
It’s better to switch to another assistant and go away in peace. And then find someone where it really clicks. Right?
Eric
Right, yeah.
Francis
So, those are obviously the disadvantages of the full time assistant. You have to set them up and then you probably need support to keep them going. So, in the beginning, I had all these ideas and we were just talking about SBI! sites and my ideas in how the content management system feeds then this system.
Then there’s an auto-responder who delivers traffic which can be split test optimized to monetize, you know. Right? Then I just lose them.
But then I said okay, if there are any questions, please first talk it out with my sort of Hiring Manager assistant. And then if both of you can come to the conclusion that there’s something you don’t know then come back to me. This filters out 95% of the questions.
Continue reading part 14 – Learn how to handle a newbie full-time virtual assistant
What Are The Standards In Hiring Part-Time Administrative Assistant?
Part-time virtual assistant is part-16 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.
Follow along to learn from our experience on working with VAs!
Summary:
- Learn how to hire a part-time administrative assistant for project-based tasks
- Know the rules and standards in hiring a part-time administrative assistant
- How to effectively progress project-based tasks with a part-time virtual assistant
Start of the Interview:
Eric
I have a question for you, Francis. Like say, for example, that you’re trying to build your team and you want to have somebody do those specific roles; would you hire somebody specifically for like say, for example, graphic design? Do you think that that’s something that you would hire that person for full time?
Like, say that you got to the point in your business where you felt like you were able to support that role, would that be something that you think that should be hired full time or you think it’s something that should be just a project type of thing?
Okay, I needed a new graphic created for this particular page or I need something created, you know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yes. Unless you are in the service business yourself or unless your day to day work needs graphic design often, I would not have an idea why I should hire a graphic designer person full time.
Also, in my opinion, graphic design is one of the most expensive things to outsource. At least if you want quality.
Eric
Because I’ve been thinking about, okay, if I wanted to really build my team the way that I wanted, I would probably need a graphic designer. I probably need a video editor, an audio editor and all these different things.
But, then I thought okay, that’s going to be very expensive to keep up with each of these roles. I wouldn’t be able to pay for each one of those people. So, I thought, okay, maybe I could just keep them, you know the functions that I really like and then just use them as I need them to do specific things.
Francis
Yeah. And also, I think you have to find a sweet spot between expanding your team and losing additional time with communication. So I talk to my assistant through video recordings almost every day for sort of, let’s say, on average half an hour.
This means that sometimes I don’t say anything and sometimes I record just a 5 minute feedback because I had a good idea. And sometimes I sit down and record a one hour big, big talk about everything.
On average, half an hour a day and with one assistant. And that assistant takes care of the communication with up to 3 or 4 other assistants at the moment. So I leverage the time so that I only talk to him and don’t need to talk to 5 different people.
But in the end, it makes sense to stay in contact with your other team members because they have to feel also like part of the team.
Even if your communication goes over one hiring assistant, from time to time you have to talk to your other team members directly. That they know we have an open ear for their feelings, for their problems and even if it’s only to tell them Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, something like that. I have to say I’m not very good about that either, but I’m trying.
Eric
Yeah, yeah. Well I think it’s just that there are so many different things that we do as online business owners that I feel like I could hire a hundred different people to do all of the little things that I do.
Francis
Yep.
Eric
But, I couldn’t see myself paying the money to do that right now, you know what I’m saying
Francis
Yes.
Eric
And have a hundred different people working for me at the same time.
Francis
Yeah, it makes sense to sort of max out the time working with one person as much as possible. So if you have a project based video designer, I think it makes much more sense to train them for a podcast creation and, I don’t know, slideshow creation or something like that because it’s similar.
And it has the same business strategy ideas behind them. You build a podcast on iTunes for the same reason that you build a video presence on YouTube.
So the big picture is the same. And I think the technical aspects are also similar.
Eric
Right. Because I mean, it doesn’t have to be a perfect video, I can just find somebody that can maybe transition into both roles rather than having to have an individual do every single thing, I guess.
Francis
Yeah, exactly. When you have that and you say, okay, you still have more videos and things to do, then you expand. You either expand by one other project person to take care of the 10 additional hours.
And then as you expand more, you then just say which person does a better job on videos and which person does a better job on podcasts and then separate the roles.
They still can complement each other when needed. But, if you start out and say, okay, I have 10 hours a week for podcast and 10 hours a week for video and you just hire 2 full time positions. And you end up with lots of overtime that you just fill with nonsense because I want to fill them, the time.
Or you lose time because you have to do the hiring process and the business relationship building with both people.
Eric
Great, yeah. I mean, that’s great. Thank you. I appreciate that. It makes a little bit more sense than having to go out and just hire 20 people to do something that you could split off between maybe 4 or 5, you know.
Continue reading part 17 – how to outsource with YouTube marketing strategy effectively
Learn How To Setup Initial Tasks With Virtual Assistants
How to setup initial tasks with virtual assistants is part-11 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.Follow along to learn from our experience on working with VAs!
Summary:
- Learn how to setup initial tasks with virtual assistants effectively
- How to outsource tasks one at a time to your virtual assistant to avoid overwhelming information.
- Learn how to encourage the virtual assistant to ask questions in the beginning process of outsourcing task
Start of the Interview:
Francis
So, at the beginning, you have to encourage questions. You will think that this is self-explanatory but you have to tell them that it’s okay to ask questions.
Eric
Yeah. I think that a lot of virtual assistants, especially from other countries, I think in the United States, the people are a lot more vocal. I don’t know how they are in Germany.
But, if there’s a problem, they’ll ask you. And they’ll say “Okay. Sir, what is it exactly that I need to do here? Can you explain this to me better? I don’t understand.”
But, I think with the VAs that I’ve worked with from other countries, I think that what they do is they’d rather just get it done. Because, I think they want to give you results rather than stopping to ask you a question.
And I think if you make things more upfront in the beginning of the process saying, “if you have questions, make sure that you ask me or make sure that you send me an email or a screenshot or something.” I think that will go a long way rather than the long queue of going back and forth between the two of you for days.
When in the beginning, if you say, “If there’s a problem ask me a question first, before you go too far along in the project.” Because, I would see a lot of my assistants, they would get too far along in the project or get the project finished. I was like “Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let’s go back to the very beginning and redo this whole thing.” Where if I was a little more upfront, they can ask me questions, before you have any issues, even if it took a couple of days longer to get that project done.
It would have saved me money. It would have saved time rather than having to have them risk the entire thing.
Francis
Yeah. I had a similar experience for a very basic task. So, I had my Aweber list funnel with all the preloaded emails.
I knew that they were not perfectly written because they were all transcribed. So, I recorded them talking and then just said, “Okay, my assistant, take the transcript, put them on Aweber. I don’t want to see them for now.”
I wanted to have 80% solution. I said okay, I will fine tune them later. And I did not do that for a long time. So, when I had the full time virtual assistant candidate, I said, “Okay, I would like to edit and proofread all my emails from the funnel. Just subscribe and when you get the emails, proofread them.”
And then things were forgotten for the other projects that we talked about and this just went on. And she took long hours working on that.
And in the end, I was not happy with the result. It could have been saved if we had exchanges on one example.
So the bottom line: if you have a task, do a very small portion of the big portion. Tell them that there’s a big portion coming.
Don’t necessarily give them access to the big portion. Is it writing an e-book, writing an article, doing research and proofreading lots of content or something like that or reading content for training?
Don’t give them access to everything because they will just do everything and not necessarily how you like it to be done.
So, in this case, she proofread it and then we had a Word document. But, to edit in the proofreading, we didn’t know where the errors were.
So you would have to compare the old version with the new version to find out what to edit. And this would have been prevented if she had just used the “track changes” tool in Word.
And then every correction would have been highlighted and my virtual assistant would have had an easy job doing her proofreading. But at that time, the communication was not very stable.
We took a few days talking back and forth. And during that time, she just continued to work. So, that was not efficient.
Ideally, if you have a task like research or proofreading, do it on one example. And then say, “Okay, I like the result. But, I don’t like xyz.” Don’t say it negatively because it’s always good to say things positively.
But, I would like the system to be different. Then you optimize on one example until it’s really dead. And then you can give her 3 more items. And then when it’s running smoothly, just say “Do the rest.”
Eric
Yeah. I think that the “take away from” is to just start off with one task or one portion of the task so that they can check the work, make sure that’s okay and then you can move on to the larger task. I think that’s great.
Francis
Yeah. And as you do that, of course, you’re communicating a lot and you are also communicating about other stuff. You can really show that you’re a human being. So, I like to even make voice recordings which are quite, well, one sided; I like to small talk a bit.
Because I’m just talking and doing so if I don’t have something smart to say, I just say, “Oh my god, you don’t want to know what a day at work I had.” Or, I say something like “Okay, by the way, next week, I will be on vacation for one week.” So, this saves me writing an email saying “Okay next week I’m on vacation.”
You can say “I’ll be in Italy. It will be cool. I will be in France. Okay, back to the task. Here is blah, blah, blah.”
Eric
Right. And I think that that’s one of the things that’s difficult for a virtual assistant is to kind of get that personal relationship with them. Because, it’s like you’re trying to communicate with somebody across the world and you’re not sitting at the desk with them.
You’re not getting to know them. You’re not getting to know their family or anything like that. I think that’s important too that for us as employers that we get to know our virtual assistant as best as we can.
And, share those personal experiences like what you’re saying so that we can better understand their situation. Better understand them to where they actually have that personal connection with us.
Francis
I agree. I’ll put it as a possible discussion on the list but I’m to be honest a little bit more careful with getting too personal with my assistants too soon.
Continue reading part 12 – How do you fire assistant who is unfit for the job?
Learn How to Share Large Files to Your Team of Virtual Assistants
How to share large files is part-9 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.Follow along to learn from our experience on working with VAs!
Click here to read part 8 of this interview – How to effectively extract virtual assistant concerns
Summary:
- Learn how to share large files with your virtual assistant that causes no delays in relaying tasks.
- Learn simple tricks and tips to share your large files with your virtual assistant
- Learn the importance of sharing application software to your online business
Start of the Interview:
Francis
One detail I wanted to come back to regarding the videos is you said you uploaded them to YouTube. Why?
Eric
Because I didn’t have any other place to store them. That’s why the very first thing I started working with was I started with Jing.
I didn’t have any other way to record the videos and basically no other place to store the videos or to upload them.
I wasn’t using Dropbox or anything like that. So, basically what I did was to put them on my YouTube channel and then I just made it a private video and then I just sent them the link to the private videos so they would be the only one to see that video.
Francis
Okay. But, obviously, setting up a video for YouTube even if it’s a very simple video takes longer than saving a file into a folder.
Eric
Right, yeah.
Francis
Yeah. So, actually it’s pretty fun when I started using oDesk. I was just curious about some online stuff which I didn’t know.
I was not very savvy with some online related stuff. And I think the very first task I did, I think, I wrote a blog post about that, is there was a song called Heaven which is some sort of a trance song and I liked it. I wanted to have ten different versions as an mp3 file on my desk.
And at that time it was possible to outsource fixed price jobs for $1 as a minimum price. Now, the minimum price has been raised to $5 on oDesk. But in principle, it would still work.
So, I said okay, $1 is like very little. It’s less than a Euro. So I said okay, I’ll have fun with $1 instead of buying half a mass. Just for fun.
And so I wrote a small description and said, “Yeah, this is the link to YouTube video. I really like this music. Please find other versions on YouTube then download them into mp3 format and send them to me.” And at that time they sent it to me as an email attachment.
I was happy with the results. I was really happy when I heard my song in different versions up and down all day long. And this was worth the $1.
But, then I said okay, this cannot be done with the email attachment. It’s stupid. I did not know about Dropbox then.
Then I said okay, please do a research on some sort of online storage service. To be honest, I could have just type into Google “online storage service” but this didn’t come to mind. I think I also used other words. I did not know this service existed. I just thought it should.
Yeah. And then they set me up with a Mediafire account and then I used that for a long time. And then Dropbox came around. And so now I say when you have an assistant, the next thing to use is Dropbox. That’s why I have a dedicated page about this tool.
Eric
Yeah, definitely, I agree with you too because I have no place to save these files. Because I mainly use Elance and there was a limit, a cap, on how many megabytes that you can upload there.
And I didn’t have any other place to upload the video because I didn’t know anything about Dropbox either. And so I was just like okay, well I guess, the next best thing would be just to upload it to YouTube.
And that’s why I’ve decided to use YouTube. And since then I don’t use YouTube anymore. Dropbox is probably one of the most important things that you can use. I mean, they have the free option, too. So, I think you get like 2 or 5 gigabytes for free.
Francis
It’s 2 GB.
Eric
And really if you’re just doing basic things, 2 gigabytes is plenty. Unless it’s major high quality videos or like hours and hours of videos.
Francis
If you’re using a screen recording, then 2 gigabytes is not enough and gets full very fast. So, especially, if you’re like me, I like to record one hour of videos often then it gets full, too.
But, there’s a very easy work-around, you can actually outsource the expansion of your Dropbox for $5 on Fiverr. I’ve written an article about it and I’ll send you the link via chat.
So, if you use the service, I won’t get anything. There’s no affiliation there. But in principle, you pay $5, you get your Dropbox expanded to 18 gigabytes and that’s sufficient.
Eric
Wow, that’s cool and I didn’t know that.
Francis
That’s one of the best gigs I like on Fiverr. Because Dropbox is so important, that’s why I thought okay, I’d write an article about it. So, if you like to use the tactics… Oh, yeah, I think that’s the article. I don’t know. They’re not the one.
So, it’s very simple. Just get the service on Fiverr and pay $5 (once) instead of the premium service which is like $20 monthly or something. And that’s really an investment that everyone should be able to afford.
Eric
Now what are they doing exactly? Do you know how to upgrade your Dropbox?
Francis
Yeah. So I think they are just creating different accounts somehow and they use the referral link. I do not think this is extremely a white hat on what’s going on there.
I used this years ago and there has been no consequences of any kind and in my opinion, it’s like 99% risk free.
Eric
Yeah, that’s great. That’s awesome.
Francis
Yeah. Just to caveat, if for some reason people send you legal notice of whatever, I don’t think it’s that bad. The Dropbox is free and you can use the referral link. And there’s not much information on what’s allowed and what’s not.
And if they tell you in the service that they legally expand your Dropbox and you say okay I choose to believe that, then I think as a user of the service, you shouldn’t be in much trouble.
Eric
Right. Yeah, that’s definitely great. Thanks for sharing that with me.
Francis
You’re welcome.
Continue reading part 10 – Learning the art of Communication with Virtual Assistants
How Reliable Google Analytics YouTube Tracking For Online Business?
Google Analytics YouTube Tracking is part-18 of an interview with Eric, a fellow entrepreneur interested in outsourcing his work to virtual assistants all over the world.
Follow along to learn from our experience of working with VAs!
Summary:
- Learn the importance of Google Analytics YouTube tracking for outsourcing business.
- Learn how to setup conversion funnels easily with the help of screenshots and virtual assistants.
- Learn the comparison of traffic conversion and surf traffic with the help of Google Analytic
Start of the Interview:
Eric
I’m trying to look at my analytics real quick to see how much of my actual referring comes from YouTube. It’s not super great.
Francis
But also look at the Google Analytics and see how much conversion comes from YouTube in comparison to your surf traffic.
Eric
How do you do that?
Francis
How do you set up the conversion funnels?
Eric
Yeah.
Francis
Okay, I think that’s something I would have to record perhaps on video or ask my virtual assistant to explain real quickly with screenshots. That’s what we can do. In principle, you go on Google Analytics. On the left side, you have goals and you can set up goals. For example, an Aweber sign up.
If you want to track your mail out manager sign ups in SiteBuildIt!, that’s a little bit more complicated but it’s possible.
Eric
See, I was trying to do that for email sign ups and it just never work.
Francis
Which email sign-ups for Aweber or?
Eric
Yes. Aweber.
Francis
You go to the right and then go to User settings. And then you click on the Admin panel at the top.
Eric
Okay.
Francis
You see there on the right, that’s view and then there’s the page and then you say goals. It’s like a flag.
Eric
Is this in your main analytics or is this under admin?
Francis
Ah, let me share the screen again.
Eric
Okay.
Francis
I think it’s fastest.
Eric
Okay, yeah, that’s where I’m at right now.
Francis
Okay. Oh, that’s good. Then you go here on goals.
Eric
Oh, okay. I see.
Francis
And then you can set up; I think the limit is 10 goals or something. You set up a new goal here and destination like a landing page or an event.
There are some options. And then you can verify the goal. For some, you have to put some code, some HTML code, on the landing page.
Eric
I thought that I did all of that. And for some reason it’s still just never… It must just be something technical that I’m just not…
Francis
Yeah. Perhaps just try out the goal again and by subscribing yourself. If it doesn’t work, do something else. Try until it works. But it’s very useful because then you just see how much of your traffic from where converts into which goals.
Eric
Do you do a lot of tracking like that?
Francis
Not lots. I would like to do more but it’s technical and I think Google Analytics is extremely powerful. And I think that’s also something a very analytical virtual assistant can give you lots of advantage in.
Which of your traffic strategies works out best for your conversions to your most wanted responses? Then you can drop everything that doesn’t work and save money. And increase the efforts, for example, you want to split up between podcast traffic and YouTube traffic and your efforts.
And you know that you are paying 2 full-time assistants, just one $300 and one $500. So you know about how much money you put in. And then you track with Google Analytics how much money comes back.
And then you can make a business decision on what strategies to either refine because you do not master the topic yet or which strategy is obviously more powerful than the other.
Eric
Right. I think that where I am right now is I’m doing a lot of split testing with Aweber forms and trying to really increase my conversion there. But I think I’m really lacking with converting the specific traffic from certain sources like that, like you’re saying.
And I think I need to figure out how to do that a little bit better because there was something that I listened to awhile back that talk about how to really increase your opt-ins and the number of people that subscribe to your list and everything like that.
And that’s also what I’m working on, trying to get the optimal number of people to subscribe and really increase the conversion rate that I have with that as far as my email list, you know what I’m saying?
Francis
Yeah, that’s something I do a little bit; also a little bit with my assistant, but if I could pick your brain about that topic another time, perhaps you can bounce a little bit back and forth about the topic how to increase the conversions on whatever topic with the help of a virtual assistant.
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