Outsourced Virtual Assistant Blog Archive
Reader Interactions
Outsourcing your Life with Asksunday – My opinions
by Francis
(04 June, 2013)
The model of Asksunday seem very nice, for personal outsourcing. But in my opinion it is more suitable for beginners in outsourcing.
If you have gotten your feet wetter a little bit, then I really recommend hiring someone on hourly basis.
Even better – Using a system that has you paying for your virtual assistant exactly depending on the time they worked.
That can also be on smaller increments than an hour, For example 10 minutes. If you do that you will never have to worry about paying for more than the assistant actually worked for. With these ideas of those requests, it seems to me a little bit unclear how long each request takes.
Exactly 10 minutes? Up to 10 minutes? If a task takes only one second… Will it be credited as a 10 minute task?
Another thing I wanted to comment on was the idea of having an army of virtual assistants.
Do note that managing an assistant can be quite a bit of work too. Of course, after sometimes your assistant will be able to do many things without your instructions. But especially at the beginning, you will need to manage your assistant closely. And even after that ideally you communicate with your assistant daily.
Now imagine doing that with an army of assistants.
But all in all – I thank Tim Ferriss for inspiring me to trying out the Four-Hour-Work-Week myself. I think I wouldn’t have done it without him.
Maximizing the ROI from Viral List Mailers with the Help of a Virtual Assistant
by Francis
(05 June, 2013)
It has become a little bit silent on this blog these last days. My virtual assistant has been very busy helping me researching, testing out, tweeting and eventually working on a manual all on the subject of viral list mailers.
What are Viral List Mailers?
I will be writing a post about this subject soon. But for now, here is my definition of viral list mailers.
- They viral list mailer systems function in a way that you can get traffic from other people in exchange for reading their e-mails.
For reading different emails with offers all centered around internet marketing, you can deliver traffic on the push of your button to your own landing site. It’s quid pro quo exchange.
Why are list mailers interesting to me?
For one, it is just another idea of getting traffic to our website. I have to admit, to me personally, it has been a very interesting idea. I have been poking around the subject of list mailers for quite some time – a few months, actually.
But in the end, what I’m really interested is to boost start the opportunity to generate traffic with list mailers by using a virtual assistant. My VA allows me to bypass the time lost from clicking and reading through all those offers and still getting my traffic in return.
Because there are so many different list mailers out there, I want to innovate their use that with the help of my VA. What I present to you is only a list of the most effective of converting tools.
My Virtual Assistant Organized a Data Entry Specialist for My Team as a Hiring Manager
by Francis
(13 June, 2013)
When you have worked together with a virtual assistant for long time, there is a big advantage you gain. Since he knows you very well, he can train and hire other people for you.
You can leverage the training you invested into your virtual assistant. By having him, teach the same skills to others.
This way, you multiply your efforts without you spending more time in hiring, managing and training new assistants.
This only works if you have a relationship based on trust with your primary assistant and he of course the right person and has the right training.
All in all, I am extremely happy that my main assistant has the capabilities of acting like a hiring manager, doing the interviews and training new workforce for my team.
This way, I can scale down my business or up as I needed. This is one of the bigger reasons why I strongly recommend to you that you invest time and efforts into training your own long time virtual assistant in opposite of having several sequential assistants one after the other.
Converting SBI BlockBuilder Pages to BlockBuilder 2
by Francis
(5 March 2013)
It’s already the second website from SBI-ers that we are going to do a thorough BlockBuilder 2 conversion on. I’m looking forward to the work and to learning new stuff as well as to the excellent business opportunity.
If you have a website in BB1 that you don’t have the time or the energy to convert to BB2, please feel free to contact us. We are likely to be able to help you with your conversion.
Continue reading more about Sitesell Virtual Assistant
Thinking About Buying Stock Photos from Fiverr? Better Think Again
by Francis
(07 March, 2013)
It is not a good idea to buy stock photos from Fiverr or similar services.
Why?
You won’t get the copyright information with it. In other words, you will purchase pirated stock photos and paying money for it.
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
Well, a stock photo bank can catch you using those photos and then it’s going to get really expensive. Legal fees and legal battles are not known to be easy and easily paid.
So do yourself a favor and stay away from services like Fiverr if you are looking for stock photos. I’ve made the same mistake but luckily my only damage has been to pay $5.
Continue reading the complete case study about buying creative commons images from Fiverr
Beginners Guide to Outsourcing
by Francis
(08 March, 2013)
Are you a total beginner in the area of outsourcing? Don’t you even know where to start?
I was once at that point, four years ago. Since then, I have made many experiences. I’m sure you are looking out to get an easy, down-to-earth beginner’s guide to outsourcing.
How do you get that Outsourcing Guide?
You can simply sign up to download it from our free coaching sessions by just signing up to the form on the right.
What will you learn?
My virtual assistant and I will take you by the hand and lead you step by step through the process of understanding and mastering outsourcing.
Then, you can apply this knowledge to whatever you need.
Think hard about where you want to save time now.
Make it possible.
How? By getting your free beginners guide for outsourcing and free email coaching from us, from our experience.
Why is it free?
Because I don’t want you to stumble in the dark and make the same mistakes I did.
We would be very happy if you followed along and send us your comments from time to time.
We thrive on your feedback.
Prioritizing Your Work for Your Virtual Assistant If There Is Too Much To Do
by Francis
(11 March, 2013)
Sometimes, I would have so many ideas I would like to hire ten virtual assistants and get them all done. But before I do this, I need to stop myself and think.
No one can start out and have enough work to do and manpower to supervise ten virtual assistants. So, I keep the numbers of co-workers on my team low. At the moment, there’s my main virtual assistant and my transcriptionist.
For times like these where I have several projects running, I simply prioritize the tasks and let my virtual assistant know which tasks to attack right away and which tasks later when there’s more time.
How Your Virtual Assistant Can Help You with Video Search to Create Great Content
by Francis
(19 March, 2013)
Short, time-effective but effective method to build quality content fast.
Step 1: Have your virtual assistant research videos regarding your niche subject on YouTube.
Step 2: Have him compile the best videos in an Excel-sheet
Step 3: Watch one video – Take notes
Step 4: Record a voice transcript with your thoughts about this video
Step 5: Your virtual assistant creates a post out of the transcript and embed the video that inspired your blog post.
Step 6: Feel free to contact the video owner that you have made a post based on his video. He might promote this on his own social networks and you gain double.
Step 7: Enjoy great new content on steroids and great new relationships.
See an example of a page inspired by a YouTube video.
Read more pros and cons of outsourcing
Good Tool for Video Instructions but It Is A Little Slow
by Francis
(13 March, 2013)
I swear by using Jing as a screen instruction tool almost every day. One little thing is bothering me with it, though.
It takes an awful lot of time to start up when you don’t have it run in the background. And when it does run in the background, it takes a quite considerable amount of computer resources.
Do you have the same experience than I have?
I’m always on the lookout for better programs to make managing my assistants easier. Actually, my VA has researched a big list of transcription programs for me. I’ll feature them in a future post.
For now, Jing still is the most efficient tool for a screen recording in my opinion. Just the start up time is bothering me a little bit.
Read more about free screen recording tool
How Your Virtual Assistant Can Help You with Your Twitter Profile
by Francis
(12 March, 2013)
I am just getting started in world of twitter. I like researching interesting tweets and following people who have only interesting stuff to say. I try to filter out everything else.
As you might know its important that you have a customized Twitter profile as well as a logo or a personal picture. Else you look like just everyone else.
These tasks of customizing my Twitter profile were outsourced to my virtual assistant. I think he did a very good job. Check out our Twitter profile here and follow us if you also use Twitter.
Expanding the Dropbox Space Using a Fiverr Deal
by Francis
(Feb 01, 2013)
My virtual assistant asked me to increase his Dropbox space.
In fact, we are working so much together that he has so many files lying in his Dropbox that it surpassed his 5 gigabytes of free space.
I’m happy to invest those five bucks in order to increase his Dropbox space.
Most of the spaces are taken up by my screen recording videos, anyways.
An easy deal for a useful investment.
Comments for Expanding the Dropbox Space Using a Fiverr Deal
| Sep 21, 2014 | hoping for a longer contract with Dropbox I had the opportunity to avail this kind of deal when I asked my boss (Francis) to have it expand for future collaboration of files—and that expanded to 66gig. Cool, right?I thought it was just a joke, but as I was taking a good long look at the prompt messages and on my Dropbox account~~wow! It’s just truly amazing, it’s seriously 66gig 😀 But, it won’t last that long because it’s only good for two years. I was hoping that I could have it for a longer time—hoping! |
| Sep 22, 2014 | I think there is hope I can’t even remember when I did my DB expansion via this gig. I still have the expanded dropbox long after it.So I wouldn’t lose hope that the expansion will stay there for longer. Even if not: just create a new account, connect it with your Dropbox folder, and re-expand it again for 5 bucks. Easy peasy 🙂 |
Give Your VA A Backlog of Work When You Are Busy
by Francis
(Feb 14, 2013)
Sometimes life gets in your way or you get really busy with other stuff. If you already have hired a virtual assistant, don’t make him stand idle too long.
In order to prevent situation like these, record a set of instructions beforehand. Those can be projects which have not so high priorities but you’d still want to get them done anyway at some point in time.
Whenever you will be away and cannot give your virtual assistant instructions, he can fall back to this secondary project and work up all that is to do.
That’s what I do when I get really busy. Fortunately, this works out really well.
Your VA Can Work Through Complicated Legalese Documents for You
by Francis
(Feb 18, 2013)
As you know, you can easily get the help of a virtual assistant to pre-research stock photos or other illustrations for your uses. Simply tell them what you expect.
Perhaps, even illustrate what you want by simple Google image search. Then, your virtual assistant goes to work.
If you really want to be a 100% sure you don’t run into legal troubles, make sure to read the terms of service.
Ah! But the terms of service are long legalese documents, right?
Nobody has the time to read them.
The solution?
Ask your virtual assistant. That’s what I did.
Well, to be honest, my virtual assistant took the initiative and did that by himself. I was interested in what conditions needed to be fulfilled to use certain images. But my virtual assistant was thorough and inspected terms of services from each photo bank one at a time.
Then, he highlighted few sentences I needed to read and I saved easily a few hours of long boring readings.
That’s some time well outsourced. Don’t you think?
Pay Your Virtual Assistant for Training like Reading an Important E-book
by Francis
(Feb 21, 2013)
If you work with a virtual assistant for a long time, it makes sense to invest some money in to his training. Sometimes, there are skills that you need for your business that your virtual assistant does not have.
In many cases, you would be able to find an e-book teaching that specific skill. Now you have two possibilities. First, you read and understand the eBook yourself and teach everything to your virtual assistant in your own words. Second, you give the e-book to your virtual assistant and ask him to work through that content.
Of course, the latter method only works if there’s a relationship of trust with your virtual assistant. I recently did just that.
To be more specific, my virtual assistant took the initiative and started working on reading an e-book to gain a new skill. This is time and money well invested into your future.
| Sep 10, 2014 | Invest now for future use That’s actually a great idea and it’s rare that an online employer would gladly invest to a VA.But, the principle there is, they’ll be of use to your business and future projects, so, yes that’s a great investment. You will gain out of your investment and so are the VAs. |
Focusing on the Most Pressing Projects Together with My Virtual Assistant
by Francis
(January 06, 2013)
My job search has come to an end. Now, it’s time to re-organize myself with my Virtual Assistant. Before, I had a few hours a day to get projects organized with my VA. Now, time is more than scarce.
But that isn’t really a problem. Since one of the biggest factors of the success of a website is time, meaning that a site needs to mature to be successful, it’s good that I can’t give my VA tons of input every day.
To be honest, he has more than enough on his plate to work through the to-do list I’m leaving him every weekend.
But it has helped that he has changed from daily updates to 3 updates a week. Also, his work updates include screenshots, links and all sort of information that makes it easier for me to follow up faster.
Also check out this link about when I set up the communication with a team member.
The most important task now, for both me and my VA, is to prioritize. This way, we will get more done than if we were working on thousand projects at the same time, without finishing one for good.
Comments for Focusing on the most pressing projects together with my Virtual Assistant
| Sep 11, 2014 | Reap what you Sow.. by: JomvieAs your website matures—time is of the essence. And I think that’s a good feedback because it only means that it is growing and that you have to keep up with your website’s needs.And the good thing is you have a team of VAs to help you around.. |
We Want You to Learn From Our Experiences of Cooperating With A VA
by Francis
(January 18, 2013)
From the past, all I did with my VA was to get my work done. Now, I want to change my focus.
In order for you to learn as much as possible, I’m always asking my virtual assistant to put up a sort of mini manual from each step we have learned.
Look out for those free downloads. All we ask you for it is a short vote of confidence.
Whenever my virtual assistant learns something, he will put the things learned together in a mini manual. You can really do it yourself or you can simply send it to your virtual assistant.
After he will have reviewed the manual, he will have acquired the same skills as my virtual assistant has.
I hope this is a great deal.
With My Virtual Assistant I Finally Got the Projects Done With the Detail I Would Like To
by Francis
(January 21, 2013)
When I returned from work, my VA has already worked for 5 hours. He has completed a few projects of mine on both of my websites with a lot of attention to detail.
When I remember the times when I worked on my websites alone without a virtual assistant, I was not as thorough as my assistant.
Not even by far.
That’s the cool thing about working with my VA. He implements my ideas and instructions not only to the letter but with creative attention to detail.
Sometimes, he implements ideas I wouldn’t even have had without me asking. That’s extremely helpful.
A lot of little details that you would only discover when they were not taken care of are laid off very well on my websites.
Great stuff! That’s what I love to see when I came back after a long day of work.
Speeding Up the Communication with My Virtual Assistant by Using More Informative Work Updates
by Francis
(January 22, 2013)
I’m happy to have started my new job. As expected, it takes a lot of time from me. Luckily, my virtual assistant and I have prepared extensively for the situation.
Now, it’s time for the hardcore test.
I work much more than the classical 9 to 5. If I’m still successful in keeping two online businesses running then great!
If I give up on both websites, please come over to my house and kick me in the butt.
Just kidding!
If I cannot keep up, then as a full time employee, this would prove that we have nothing to do with a virtual assistant.
Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.
I have a long discussion today with my virtual assistant about how to improve the speed of his work updates. I’ve asked him to invest much more time in updating me about his work.
The more clearly he can illustrate and present his progress, the faster I can react and give him input.
Each saved minute in my end helps.
In other words, even if my virtual assistant will need more than an hour to formulate a well-presented work update; it might be worth it if I have only 10 minutes a day to spare.
Do you get this principle?
If your time is worth a lot of money it makes sense to invest that money in working time from your virtual assistant even if he’s only updating you about his progress.
I’ll keep you informed how this works for me.
Upcoming Interview with Successful Online Business Owner
by Francis
(January 27, 2013)
Ever wanted to meet someone that lives the online biz lifestyle – with great success? Even while working on a day job at the same time…?
Then now is the chance to secure yourself a seat in the front row!
A new series of Question and Answers Interviews, called “Meet an SBIer” is starting in 2013.
On January 31, 6 pm ET you’ll be able to see Carl Trent, owner of dadsguidetowdw.com, live on YouTube!
He’ll be talking from experience about:
- Targeting your audience with the right “voice”
- Monetization of your online business
- Keyword Research for successful web pages
Become part of this interview and ask your questions beforehand on Sitesell’s Facebook page.
Stay tuned to this Facebook page to know about the exact location where the interview will be released: on the day of the event, the exclusive interview will be posted there!
In the meantime, please also enjoy Jill, who also turned her passion into a way to leave the day job rat-race:
My Virtual Assistant Helped Me Resolve Traffic Loss Problems with Penguin
by Francis
(January 29, 2013)
If you own a website and follow the actual trends with Google algorithms then you will know about the Penguin update.
In principle, the problem was that on my other site, I lost some traffic because I involved some less than optimal link-building techniques.
Fortunately, I could retrace whatever I did at that time and asked my virtual assistant to help me sort that out.
Probably many webmasters have the same problem. Some link-building techniques were more popular than others. But after Penguin, some of those techniques are punished with traffic loss.
What did my virtual assistant do?
He helped me locate where I used a certain technique too much and helped me reverse the process. Hopefully the next time a Google algorithm update comes along, my other website will regain some of its lost traffic.
Using Free Software for Voice Recognition and Transcribe into Text Automatically
by Francis
(December 04, 2012)
If you want a free transcription software and you use Windows 7, simply try typing the term “Speech Recognition” into the search field.
You’ll be surprised to find very useful, totally free software for voice recognition.
For simple transcription of your voice recordings, this tool should do fine. Remember to talk very slowly.
However, if you want to get the very best results from even sub-optimal voice recordings, be sure to hire a transcriptionist that is human. You’ll get better results this way.
- Read more about Voice Transcription
How Do You Get a Virtual Assistant for Your SBI Website
by Francis
(December 04, 2012)
Recently, a friend from the forums asked me about how I got a virtual assistant to work for me on my SBI! site.
I decided to gather all the information I could into one big article.
Hope you enjoy!
Do You Have To Fear Bad Work Ethics in the Philippines
by Francis
(December 05, 2012)
If you ever have really worked together with a virtual assistant from the Philippines, you’ll be surprised how much of a good deal this is.
There are almost no downsides from choosing a provider from the Philippines to work for you on your outsourcing projects.
About the two very small issues that you should look out for, please read the full page about outsourcing to the Philippines.
- Continue reading Outsourcing to Philippines
How to Not Be Involved In Bad Business Ethics When Outsourcing
by Francis
(December 11, 2012)
When you chose to get involved with outsourcing and when you hire a virtual assistant from overseas, you will be confronted with the possibility that you can hire people for ridiculously low amounts of money.
This is where you have to make a personal choice.
How low will you go with your pay rate?
You will probably find some desperate person willing to work for under minimum rates.
How good would the quality of the work be, though?
In my opinion, you should invest in to screening for a good assistant. Making sure that work conditions are acceptable to both parties.
And most important of all, you shouldn’t be part of the low rate dumping movement.
- Read More about Ethics in Business
How to Write a Job Description on oDesk
by Francis
(December 12, 2012)
When you write a job description for the oDesk outsourcing service, you try to do several things.
- First, you want to find a good freelancer for your project.
- Second, you want to compare different candidates against each other.
- Third, you want to get a feel for the communication with your interviewees.
- And fourth, you want to lose as little time as necessary for the whole invitation process.
Be sure to read all our tips about Writing a Job Description.
A Lot of Work Behind the Scenes and Wrapping up A New Project
by Francis
(December 17, 2012)
Even though things seem to be a little more quiet here on ideal-helper, several projects are being worked on in the background.
After we get a lot of audio transcription done, we’ll present the result of a big teamwork research that I outsourced.
Also, there was a problem with my assistant being away for some time due to private reasons. Without him, the work went on a little slower. Actually, a lot slower.
I’m almost not used to working my website alone anymore.
But stay tuned. There’s a lot to come.
Software That Tells Me How Productive I Am
by Francis
(December 19, 2012)
If you don’t measure, you cannot improve.
If you want to improve your productivity, you must be able to measure it. This is a simple lesson I have learned from experience.
You can actually use software to measure how productive you are. To do that, it must run on your computer, while you’re working, silently in the background.
After a week, re-check with the software.
What are your productive habits?
What are your unproductive habits?
The software can even tell you at which time of the day you are being productive and when you are essentially only wasting your time.
Could this information be useful for you?
What Can You Outsource that Has Nothing to Do with Building Websites?
by Francis
(November 02, 2012)
From time to time when I talk with my friends, they ask me what they could outsource if they’re not an online business owner.
The answer is, of course, everything as long as your fantasy and imagination can handle it.
Just think of any tasks you do at the computer that is repetitive and takes a lot of time.
Are you researching something repeatedly?
Are you clicking the same links again and again?
Are you, perhaps, even playing an online game which needs something boring to do in order to proceed?
Although the last example is a little bit extreme, you could outsource all those things.
In fact, I have prepared some transcripts for a brand new case study and page section about real life outsourcing in action.
I had to do something repeatedly the last days. I won’t tell you what it is. It’s still a surprise.
But then, something clicked in my head and I decided now’s the time to outsource it. It will take less time to explain this task and have someone else do it repeatedly hundreds of time than for me to do all of these on my own.
So stay tuned. It might take a week or so until everything is ready. Until you can read about my next super-secret outsourcing project, but it will be worth the wait. Promised!
Comments for What Can You Outsource That Has Nothing To Do With Building Websites?
| Oct 09, 2014 | A variety of outsourcing by: JomvieActually, you can outsource games. I do that for quite some time, especially over the weekends.I am having fun and at the same time I can get rare and expensive equipments for my own characters as well :DOutsourcing comes in many different ways and it’s not just contained in the online world. |
| Feb 20, 2015 | Outsourcing Games? Now that’s a Confusing Concept by: FrancisGreat addition, Jomvie. I was actually wondering if working on websites is the only thing one can effectively outsource to virtual assistants. I have heard about outsourcing games.For example, to receive bigger magical items or something of the like but I didn’t investigate on that very much. So it’s very interesting to me that you have some hands on experience on such a hard sounding work.I personally believe you were pretty lucky to land such a job that’s funny and paying at the same time especially if you are playing the game. Would you mind sharing more details about this? If you have some screenshots from the time or could recreate something like that, I would love to read a case study of your experience in outsourcing games. |
Keeping In Touch With Past Employers Is What Sets Apart Awesome Providers from Normal Virtual Assistants
by Francis
(November 05, 2012)
I just got a nice surprise as I received a chat from Shailesh, a virtual assistant whom I have worked with in the past. He’s was one of the top three excellent contractors that I had the chance to work with, that also without any reasons took that time to drop a line and say hello even if there’s nothing new.
It may be the politeness of Indian people or it may be that this person genuinely cares about my well-being. The only thing I know is that this does make a huge difference.
If you have a virtual assistant that takes the time to write back to you even years after your last cooperation and keeps on doing so regularly even if you don’t respond; then this should give you a hint.
The next time you open a project; consider hiring the same person again. He won’t disappoint you.
Making Money with Socks: This Has To Be One of the Most Creative Fiverr Gigs Ever!
by Francis
(November 06, 2012)
I just came across a funny Fiverr Gig. You can make money as a freelancer either by doing quality work or by surprising the heck out of the reader with just fun and bizarre ideas.
This guy will explain to you how he got your missing sock in a crazy as a thousand words letter for only $5.
If you have seen his video in his crazy bearded glasses look, then you will be chuckling already.
I have to hold myself back from not ordering this gig immediately. Who doesn’t miss some socks?
Outsourcing your time with your girlfriend – a funny Big Bang Theory Clip
by Francis
(November 07, 2012)
One of my favorite series is the Big Bang Theory. When they made a joke about outsourcing, I just had to share this with you 😀
Check out this clip from the series:
If you hate to use the phone or are simply too lazy to use it, will you outsource spending time connecting to your friends?
(Anyone who knows the time before Facebook can see how very possible this extreme scenario could be!)
I’m all for unusual outsourcing experiments. The more fun, the better.
But you, dear reader, will have to find the line where you cannot send the task overseas to your assistant in India or anywhere else, and have to buckle down and do it yourself.
That’s why I have the section about productivity on this site. Be sure to check it out to learn more about being the most productive self you can be!
Leave a Reply