Outsourced Virtual Assistant Blog Archive

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?

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.

Raj, being an Indian, often has to deal with stereotypical humour. But who knows what the future will bring?

If you hate to use the phone or are simply to 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!

by Francis
(October 08, 2012)

I browsed around on the Fiverr website and was looking for worthwhile Gigs to buy.

I was really tempted by a couple of copywriting Gigs where freelancers offered to proofread some sales letters, emails, advertisements in order to maximize their effectiveness.

In the end, I chose not to do this.

Why?

Nobody knows my website, ideal-helper, as well as I do.

Outsourcing the task to talk about my website would probably be fake and not very personal.

So I hope you bear with me when you read my emails which are not that professional.

On the flipside, they are honest and authentic.

What you read on my blog posts or in my emails is really how I am talking.

So don’t hesitate to comment or leave us a note or even write us an email using the contact us page.

We are here and happy about your comments.

Comments for I Was Surprised to Read that You Can Outsource Copywriting to Fiverr!

Stop Yourself from Procrastination on the Internet – Start Getting Productive

by Francis
(October 08, 2012)

In order to keep myself productive when working on the internet, I like to use a set of different plug-ins in my favorite browsers.

One of them is LeechBlock.

You can use it to add your favorite time wasters to a list of black-listed URLs.

Of course you shouldn’t be there in the first place but we are all human, right?

Anyways when I install this plug-in, I put Facebook in there first.

I knew from another time recording software that I’ve spent most of my procrastinated time on Facebook.

Perhaps that’s a good place to start.

If you’re working with a virtual assistant, you should make sure that he or she is not wasting your time on Facebook either.

So perhaps it could be a good addition for a virtual assistant too.

Teaching My Virtual Assistant a Complex Multi-Step Process Once and Profiting From It Forever

by Francis
(October 10, 2012)

Today, I gave my virtual assistant a challenge with a one week deadline.

I explained to him about a process of setting up a complex share-to-download button webpage only with a 5-minute video.

He has access to most of the training tools and can research freely but still it’s a challenge.

I’m very interested in seeing how this will work out.

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Update:

My VA has completed the challenge with ease and elegance. Check out this link to see what he did for me. Quite a piece of work. 🙂

How I Outsourced a Review about Wordtracker Link Builder Service

by Francis
(October 12, 2012)

If you think about using a system for link building in order to increase traffic, the Wordtracker Link builder tool is probably not a bad choice. All in all, I could recommend it.

However, I believe that SBI! has the better tools.

If you want to get an unbiased research about the Wordtracker Link building tool, I highly suggest you check out this post.

How Do I Know If My Virtual Assistant Has A Strong Internet Connection?

by Francis
(October 23, 2012)

by Francis
(September 01, 2012)

Here’s a very effective and fast productivity life hack that I learned today:

Hide your icon tool bar, which typically is at the bottom of your screen.

You would be surprised how distracting it is when you are working online.

How to do it?

In Windows, you can right click your tool bar, select properties, and select auto-hide the tool bar.

It will fade out of your screen when you are not needing it. This way, you won’t be distracted all the time

• By the time
• By other programs
• By changes in the notifications

Try it out! You’ll work much more productively.

And be sure to check out or other online life hacks!

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Keeping your Virtual Assistant Busy and Productive with a simple to do list of task.

by Francis
(September 04, 2012)

When working with a long-term virtual assistant, especially if you work on several projects at the same time, it is critical to keep an efficient to-do list of tasks ready for your virtual assistant.

Order your tasks by high priority and low priority at the least so that your VA knows what tasks to attack next.

A low priority task doesn’t necessarily mean that the task does not have to be done ever. It only means that any high priority task is more important than that.

It’s very simple really, but important for the productivity of your company and your virtual assistant.

I asked my VA to write about the to-do list of tasks that he uses.

Check out his post.

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Outsourcing to Other Countries. Is it Morally Wrong?

by Francis
(September 04, 2012)

The first reflex when people hear outsourcing, when I talk to them about the contents of ideal-helper.com is to say that outsourcing to other countries is morally wrong.

But is it?

If you are paying your employee in other countries enough money so that he can live well and you can afford it, isn’t it the win-win situation?

Even if there is a job loss in your own country.

If you do private outsourcing, you wouldn’t have hired anyone in your own country in the first place.

To differentiate a point of view of saying that outsourcing to other countries is morally wrong, we have created a big section about ethical outsourcing.

Be sure to check it out!

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Time-Sensitive Offer: Win a Completely Outsourced Website!

by Francis
(September 06, 2012)

Ever wanted to own a website that makes you money while you sleep? You have the chance to win a completely outsourced website, right now!

To join the sweepstake event for free, click here!

An expert team of website builders will build you your personal online business – for free! This service is worth more than 3000 $, and you have the chance to win.

Want to know more about this sweepstake thing?

Sure, profit from the video illustration to know what you could get!

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This was one of many time-sensitive promotions done by SiteSell. Not only do they provide the best website building program out there, but they surprise you with nice gifts, giveaways or contests all throughout the year! 🙂

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Advice on hiring people on oDesk!

by Francis
(September 14, 2012)

I got asked for some tips about hiring people on Odesk.

You may learn a few things from this!

For transcription, formatting pdf, and finding pics, you don’t need to spend more than 1- 1.5$/hour (probably none of the above candidates will work for so little).

Search in the categories Data entry and/or virtual assistants.

For all tasks, very specific instructions are the best. If you are pressed for time, record what you want to get done and share the video.

• Read More about hiring a virtual assistant

 

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Comments for Advice on hiring people on oDesk!

 

Internet Outages: The biggest challenge when working with a virtual assistant

by Francis
(September 22, 2012)

The last few days, my main virtual assistant was struggling with internet connectivity problems. Unfortunately, he was not able to work with me for a few days because of that.

I don’t blame him. But you can learn from this: no one is safe from losing his internet connection at a critical time.

If you choose to work together virtually with an assistant, freelancer or even your colleagues, always think of a backup plan for when your internet connection fails:

1. Be it your mobile smartphone with internet access for a short email notification
2. An internet café
3. Your friend next door who lets you use his internet for a quick email update

It does not matter how, but try to keep the communication between the virtual assistant and his employer alive. Who knows what one side of the team might fear has happened.

Luckily, my virtual assistant found a way to contact me quickly.

For the future, I’ll have to think if a backup solution might be a viable option – and how this fits into my business plans.

Take home message: Things can always fail

Outsourcing is useful as a business tool. But there is no need for exaggerated hype.

• If it works for you and you get measurable results, that’s great.
• If not, you might need to reassess your strategy.

It’s important to not forget the contras of outsourcing when getting into the outsourcing business. No matter how useful outsourcing is for most business owners.

• Click here and read more disadvantages of outsourcing

 

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Comments for Internet Outages: The biggest challenge when working with a virtual assistant

Dropbox – Not Only Useful, But Also Safe!

by Francis
(September 27, 2012)

A great discussion came out of a recent guest post. There is no doubt that the Dropbox is an awesome tool. But is it also safe?

I asked my virtual assistant to do some research, and he added his assessment into the comments.

Spoiler alert: using the Dropbox is dead safe!

• Click here to continue reading the whole discussion

 

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Coaching a Friend to Do the Hiring Process on oDesk

by Francis
(September 28, 2012)

I have the privilege of helping a friend hiring a suitable virtual assistant for different data entry tasks on oDesk.

He has never worked on this platform but needed help quick. So that is why I am right behind him following up via email as often as I can and giving him instructions and tips using video recordings and coaching emails.

I am excited about this and it is a really nice project and I like to follow up things in real time. Also it’s the perfect case study to help others on this ideal-helper site.

By the way if you are interested in getting coached just contact us and we see if we can work something out.

Anyways the most tricky part is to choose the right person. The right provider will do wonders for your business. The wrong one will lose your time and money. So of course you have to choose wisely.

Still it can be a fun process. You get to know a little bit a lot a lot of different people from all around the world.

Have fun with it!

I mean if you are a normal person and not a CEO, how often are you hiring someone?

So look at the whole process with open eyes like a kid and not like a burden that is slowing you down because ultimately it will speed you speed you down a lot.

I have written an extensive article about what challenges you’ll come across when you are hiring someone on oDesk and how to overcome these challenges.

If you are in this position, be sure to check it out.

by Francis
(August 02, 2012)

Have you tried using transcription programs to record your spoken word?

Are you really happy with the results?

I often end up editing and correcting more mistakes from the program which takes me longer than if I just would have written it myself.

If you really want the transcripts just as good as your spoken word, then you should think about hiring a virtual assistant to do transcription work for you.

• Read More about Transcription work at home

Comments for Transcripts Just As Good As Your Spoken Word – Not Possible Without A Virtual Assistant

Aug 27, 2014

Yup, I tried that 😀 by: JomvieMust I say that this experience had made me skip a beat for awhile since I am not used to hear my voice and I am not even used to talk out some topics while recording.But, all in all, it was a good experience~~at least I can say, “Hey, I tried that!” 😀

Aug 30, 2014

Was it useful? Would you do it again? by: FrancisHappy to see it was exciting for you. :)I have found you gain confidence with being comfortable speaking longer and complicated explanations into a recorder. (Not as effective than face to face conversations though.)Is this a skill that is useful to a VA? If yes, why?Time could be saved for an employer, if he can listen to voice mail instead of reading on the go. Thoughts…?

Sep 01, 2014

Collecting more confidence in recording my voice 😀 by: JomvieI was just getting warmed up on the first few minutes, so I sound like a bit shaky, and yes, I gained confidence in the middle of the topic.In my case, as a VA, it will probably be useful in giving out instructions if written instruction is no longer effective.I am not yet confident in talking out my thoughts and ideas through recording, but I will try 😀

Feb 20, 2015

Stepping Into the Footsteps of Each Other by: FrancisI have to agree, Jomvie, that I also found it very enlightening to turn into virtual assistant for a few hours. I think that this sort of exercise of expanding your comfort zone and trying something new that makes you really make progress with understanding each other.With this understanding comes a newly learned appreciation of each other’s workload and a much better compatibility in working together.I wonder how many other employers try doing the task themselves that they outsource. By the way, I have written my experiment of doing transcription work here.

The Best Tool for Free File Sharing Online with a Big Team of Virtual Assistants That You Should Use

by Francis
(August 03, 2012)

When working together with virtual assistants, it often is necessary to send around big files back and forth and the easiest free file sharing system online that I know of is the Dropbox.

This free service makes possible to share in real time files of much bigger file size than your mailbox attachment could ever handle.

You can use them for recorded video instructions or to share the most actual results from your cooperation with your virtual assistants.

Why not saving time and trying to do that now.

Read More about Dropbox online file sharing tool

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Business Ethics: Did You Make Bad Experiences in Your Own Company With Outsourcing?

by Francis
(August 04, 2012)

Outsourcing is a cheap solution to get things done and can be very effective. It also can be very frustrating.

Were you let down by the work outsourced to your freelancer employee?

Or, as a freelancer working online, did you make bad experiences with a “virtual” employer?

Sometimes, you cannot express criticism directly at your workplace out of fear of the consequences (social pressure/getting fired).

We invite you to send us your stories from your outsourcing experiences! We’ll add our opinions and advice to help you out.

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Are there any oDesk shortcomings?

by Francis
(August 04, 2012)

Are there any reasons not to use oDesk as an outsourcing company?

Are there any oDesk shortcomings?

I am talking about the advantages of using oDesk all the time and it is pretty obvious that I am pleased with the company as a whole, but there is one big shortcoming for me as an employer that comes along with using oDesk.

The price you pay!

Every transaction and every payment you pay to your virtual assistants, oDesk keeps 10% of it as a cut.

If you use oDesk over years and long time, this cost will add up considerably. However, compared with many other outsourcing companies, you do not have any initial cost to sign up for this service. It is free of charge to sign up and if you don’t hire much, you don’t pay much.

In the end paying 10% on every transaction for oDesk is in my opinion a pretty fair deal for the advantage of using oDesk’s team management features.
All in all, I think it is the best place to manage and keep long term virtual assistance.

Read more about oDesk

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Time Tracking and Screen Recording for Virtual Assistants – All in One Place

by Francis
(August 04, 2012)

When you work together with virtual assistants, it is important to keep track of the time worked and the quality of work.

The best way to do that is to use time tracking and screed recording software on the end of your virtual assistant.

If he is really contracted with you, you will need to ask him to install appropriate software on his end.

Or if you would like it to be really easy, just hire a virtual assistant on oDesk.

ODesk comes pre-equipped with the time tracking and screen recording software that automatically records and documents the time worked, the quality of work and the money paid for that work.

This software features are enough reasons to manage your work over the oDesk platform.

Read more about oDesk team application

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My Virtual Assistant Helped Me Set up My Email Marketing

by Francis
(August 08, 2012)

Setting up my Email marketing campaign is something important for my website, but also something I never got around to do.

Luckily my virtual assistant is there for the rescue.

He not only helps me set up the emails I am sending out but also he helps me set up the free bonus Ebook and the Email form which you can see on the top-right of the website.

He even created the EBook cover for me. Nice. Isn’t it?

If you have a virtual assistant helping you out with your email marketing efforts, you can completely focus on delivering quality content and detailed knowledge that isn’t to be found anywhere else.

Read more about hiring an email marketing assistant

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Can’t Login into your oDesk Team? Trouble with Odesk software?

by Francis
(August 09, 2012)

No system is perfect.

And although the Odesk system is extremely reliable (I used it for over 4 years), from time to time you might find that you can’t login into your odesk Team Room, due to maintenance or any other problem.

Fortunately, Odesk has a pretty big online knowledge base. I researched one article that might be helpful if you are experiencing this problem.

Read this post for more help if you can’t login into your oDesk team

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Don’t Get Too Dependent On Your Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(August 15, 2012)

Your virtual assistant can be a lot of things for you and your business:

• An asset
• A great help
• A time saver
• An adviser

However, there’s one thing your virtual assistant should never become, if you don’t want to become vulnerable: something you depend on (and expect will be around forever).

I am very happy to have my VA, and our cooperation is very smooth over the years. Would I have to hire a new VA for whatever reason, sure, I would lose some time and money, but my business would not take a plunge from one day to the other.

A good attitude to have when outsourcing your work to a virtual assistant is:

“He is a great help, and is doing things like I showed him. I would be able to do it alone, but it would take more time.”

Always document every step of cooperation with your virtual assistant, making backups often (easily done with this free tool).

Read more about how a virtual assistant can help you starting an online business

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An Interesting Thing About Hiring A Virtual Assistant On oDesk

by Francis
(August 21, 2012)

I read an interesting post about how hiring a virtual assistant really helped out an entrepreneur to take care of his customer service.

One thing I read there really resonated with me:

Hiring is an interesting process. One the one hand you have the side of you that wants to find the perfect person for the job and who will benefit the business. On the other hand there’s a side to you that thinks “I really want to help this person out and give them a great opportunity to work for a cool startup”.

The hiring process really can be emotional.

Often, I go with my gut feeling when hiring someone out of a big number of candidates.

How can you know if you picked the right candidate?

You can’t.

But you can trust into each individual, and give each one of them a fresh chance to do well with you.

I won’t lie. Sometimes, you’ll lose time initially finding the right virtual assistant for you. It’s a screening process.

But if you hire one excellent virtual assistant and stick with him, I promise you that it’ll all be worth it!

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Giving Your VA the Right Amount of Work is Crucial

by Francis
(August 27, 2012)

If you choose to hire a virtual assistant full time, be sure to be prepared to keep him busy full time.

It’s not enough to give him any tasks, the tasks must have meaning.

Do you know that there are two things that are really frustrating for your VA:

1. Getting overwhelmed with work (with you expecting everything to be done by yesterday).
2. Getting underwhelmed and forgotten (with you expecting your virtual assistant to come up with work on his own).

But boy, is giving instructions daily a lot of work!

I soon found out that I would do anything to shorten my workload that comes from managing my VA.

How to do that, without looking mean and uncaring?

(You should NOT, in any case, be uncaring towards your virtual assistant. He is an asset to your business and success!)

• Record your thoughts, wishes and instructions with voice recording and screen recording.
• Show your assistant what outcome you want.
• Let him know how much time you allow him to research a specific subject on his own, before you expect him to ask you for advice.

For my “ideal helper” VA and me, the cooperation runs smoothly now that we know each other. Without my many voicemails, my VA could not “guess” what I want from him.

Voicemails can be treated like one way telephone calls. Just talk away, but try to keep focussed on what you want from your assistant.

Every virtual cooperation between an employer and a freelancer needs some time to get the right “calibration”.

Using smart tools can heavily cut down the time you need to invest.

Read how to use Screen Recording to prepare instructions for your Virtual Assistant.

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How long did it take you to find your first job on oDesk?

by Francis

We interviewed different virtual assistants as case studies to get your feeling how it is like working as a virtual assistant on oDesk.

The personal assistant I am using in cooperation with this website needed six months to land his first job on oDesk. So if you are unlucky it can take quite a while, but we share our best tips in order that you don’t have to wait this long.

How long did it take you to find your first job on oDesk?

And don’t forget to check out our oDesk interviews with different case studies.

Comments for How long did it take you to find your first job on oDesk?

Sep 18, 2014

There’s so much more than meets the eye by: JomvieNot on oDesk, but it sure did take me like forever before I got my job online..It’s probably I’m still a newbie, but I hope that would not be any employers gauge in measuring one’s ability because you’ll never know what can the person do for you.As for me, I was jumping from one employer to another, it’s not because of me and my performance. It’s because they can no longer provide the finances and leaving them on the losing side of the business. I have no choice, but to accept it. I was just happy that I can get something out of it—not financially, but the experience so that I can flaunt it in my portfolio.

Nov 30, 2014

Annoying but what can you do by: FrancisIt’s a shame when an employer needs to cut ties with a good VA just because the funds are running out – although work quality is good.But it’s also a lesson for virtual assistants to try to find out and support the employer with finding the most efficient ways to keep the business floating. Although, granted, this is definitively the employer’s job.What was it that got you hired in this first job? Any tips on what to look out for to get hired?

Nov 30, 2014

About how long it took me to land my first online job by: JomvieIn my experience, it was long like three to four months and when I thought I am going to be hired–it was just all a scam.Yes, there are employers online who scams your work and will leave you nothing. Like, they will ask you to write an article and after you pass the article, you’ll never hear from them again.Take note, they are very particular–“I want a 300 word post/article” is what they might ask… So, we should all be wise and vigilant in dealing online.

How to Outsource Using the Dropbox Referral System on Mechanical Turk?

by Francis
(August 28, 2012)

A visitor asked me an interesting question if it would be wise to outsource expanding your Dropbox using the referral system via the crowdsourcing service Mechanical Turk.

While it’s easy to ask hundreds of people to do a simple step for a few cents signing up via a referral link and expanding your Dropbox in the process, but it is against their terms of service. It might even get you banned from Amazon Mechanical Turk.

There are better ways that they are customized and ready to go on this other outsourcing service Fiverr. I have done it and if you want you can easily have it done too.

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Read about the Outsourcing Life and Experiences of a Working Assistant from Sri Lanka

by Francis
(August 30, 2012)

I am pleased to say that the interview we did with Rilwan, a virtual assistant from Sri Lanka and his life as a freelancer and his working experiences has become one of the most popular pages on Ideal-helper.com.

It’s interesting to read how a virtual assistant thinks, feels and works.

So have a look and check it out.

Comments for Read about the Outsourcing Life and Experiences of a Working Assistant from Sri Lanka

Sep 11, 2014

Freelancing is not for me, but i’ll make him as my inspiration =) by: JomvieWow, I am so amazed how being a virtual assistant turned up to be his profession.Virtual employee will get more from freelancing since there are no ties between him and the employer and that’s the good side of being a virtual employee. But, as for me, I doubt I will ever get into freelancing since it requires more technical skills and the price is not for me. So, I’ll stick to a full-time job. Maybe later in time if I have the technical skills to show off 😀

by Francis
(July 01, 2012)

As a freelancer, my virtual assistant is free to work online whenever he wants and finds time. Often, he has worked over weekends, when I was taking a break from work myself.

Is this fair? Would you insist your VA takes the weekends off, as you are? Or do you assume he has other times when he can take a break?

I’m assuming that in many asian countries, like India for example, work ethics and work loads are much much higher than for example in the US.

Would it be the right thing to adapt the VA’s to the rhythm of your country? Or do you let them work at their own pace?

I started an interesting discussion about outsourcing business ethics with my virtual assistant.

Read more about Morality of Outsourcing

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Automate My Marketing With My Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(July 05, 2012)

If you have a website or a blog, then you know how much work it can be to follow up with all the

• To Do’s
• I should have done this
• If I could only find the time to do XYZ.

With my virtual assistant, this all works like a wonder.

In fact, we just share the work.

Twittering?

My VA has my back.

Distributing my RSS via Email, Twitter or Tumblr?

I set it up once, then my assistant helps me get news items out regularly.

Almost effortless marketing is possible if you train your assistant once – and then use his skills to the maximum!

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Some factors are more important than TALENT

by Virtual Assistant
(July 06, 2012)

Do you know there are some factors more important than your skills while working as a virtual assistant?

Have you ever considered your VA career without a

• strong internet connection
• reliable power backup system

No one discusses these factors while talking about a VA’s qualities, but we will definitely do!

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Challenge your Virtual Assistant from time to time!

by Francis
(July 09, 2012)

Today I gave my Virtual Assistant a little challenge 🙂

He is to build one of the pages on ideal-helper without my help.

He already has done many of the steps, but this time I want to see how well he does when he has to do the SEO of a webpage.

In my opinion, it’s good to give your VA a challenging task to mix up any repetitive jobs – it sure would be more fun to me!

Doing this will teach you what sort of VA you have – and both “sorts” of VA are just as good! – because people like to work differently.

• One likes work he can do with instructions and without much involvement
• The other prefers challenges and learning new stuff. Provided he gets the guidance.

I think I’ll ask my VA to write a post from how he is thinking about this.

Comments for Challenge your Virtual Assistant from time to time!

Oct 13, 2014

Been there..Done that =) by: JomvieChallenging tasks will help you determine your virtual assistant’s ability and what are the things that he/she is not comfortable to work with. And this is by far the most effective gauge for trial and error to be more productive. And I had been on this trying test for quite some time =)

Feb 20, 2015

You Need To Trust Before You Can Challenge Your Virtual Assistant by: FrancisIf you try to give a newly hired assistant a very hard challenge right off the bat, you risks scaring him or her away. In my opinion, this applies double for VAs from the Philippines. It is really important that you share the thoughts behind a challenge with your virtual assistant. If the VA knows why he is doing the task that he might, perhaps, not feel up to then the pressure is much less. If you don’t tell him your plans beforehand, the virtual assistant risks to think, “Hey, I need to do this but I can’t do this. I will fail. I risk to get fired.” That’s why I don’t recommend doing too many challenges too early in the working relationship. If you have been working together a few months with your VA closely and if you explained the background then, go ahead, give them challenges. Continuing to give virtual assistants challenges helps them train their skills and not get bored with their tasks.

Increasing the Difficulties of the Challenges for my Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(July 11, 2012)

My Virtual Assistant is pretty knowledgable about SEO and web-mastering by now. By teaching him some things while outsourcing tasks to him, I believe he learnt a lot by now.

I wanted to give him another little challenge, but it ended up being pretty complicated. I won’t bore you with the details, but I want him to do some SEO for me on a future page.

Will he do a good job? I don’t know yet. Although I have a feeling that it’ll be great (no pressure! ;))

But it will be a great learning experience for both of us!

He did a great job finishing my last “Challenge” 🙂 You can see the results of his page-building right here.

Related Post: Making Hard Decisions

Comments for Increasing the Difficulties of the Challenges for my Virtual Assistant

Feb 20, 2015

Adapt the Challenges to the Abilities of Your Virtual Assistant by: FrancisI have many ideas and extremely many projects that I’m running with my virtual assistants at all time. Actually, I’m working on too many projects at the same time which lowers my productivity.But split testing different approaches and challenging your virtual assistants to do different tasks has many advantages. You avoid boredom from your virtual assistants. You screen for their ability and find out which tasks they really feel comfortable with. You get more tasks done in parallel and many more. On the other hand, following up on those challenges and really measuring and implementing the lessons learned is a skill in itself. But that’s something to worry about for the employer. The virtual assistant only has to do his best with his challenges.

Worry-free business building thanks to my Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(July 16, 2012)

I have some non-website related stuff to take care for now.

Of course, I am still doing something for ideal-helper every day.

But it sure is calming to know that my virtual assistant has my back.

With his help, this website is growing more and more each day – faster than if I would have tried to do it myself.

We still have much stuff offline that we didn’t even publish yet. So be sure to stay tuned in 🙂

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Stuck in a Train, I am Not Losing Time. I Have an Opportunity to Work Together With My Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(July 17, 2012)

Today I was travelling to friends and I got stuck in the train. That’s something everyone can relate to.

Right?

Instead of being angered that I am losing time by doing nothing, I can quickly whip out my cell phone. Sent my VA some voicemail instructions and get some work done.

How often are you losing time waiting in line, waiting for a phone call and waiting for anything to happen?

Whenever this happens to me, I have my notepad and my cell phone ready and my virtual assistant who is faithfully waiting for my work instructions. This sort of flexibility really increases my productivity.

Comments for Stuck in a Train, I am Not Losing Time. I Have an Opportunity to Work Together With My Virtual Assistant

Sep 18, 2014

sit back, relax and turn on your mobile phone by: JohnThat’s one great kind of an idea.. Davao also jams during peak hours, but I usually turn on my mobile phone for some games 😀 I might try that for quite some time—I just hope I won’t get dizzy.

Want to Become a Proactive VA? Why Not Get Help from the Internet!

by Francis
(July 17, 2012)

Working as a virtual assistant has become much easier nowadays. Internet is stuffed with some real high quality material where you can feed yourself with the best of information and processes.

If you know to how to research a keyword in Googleor in any other search engine, you can say that you can limit the world to your fingertips.

Similarly becoming a virtual assistant has been easier than ever and you can teach yourself by getting information through different online posts and articles.

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Others work, you sleep!

by Francis
(July 18, 2012)

I actually thought about using “others work, you sleep” as my domain name for a while. It was thought to be comical, with a true meaning deep down.

If you hire virtual assistants from the other side of the world, then your work gets done in your sleep, literally

This not only is effective, but sometimes even fun!

My VA works late at night some times, and that’s why I can see him work right when I’m at the computer, too. I prefer it that way.

A personal online assistant is the best asset a website owner could ever have.

Read More about how to Start a Online business

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Hiring One vs. Hiring Many Providers on oDesk

by Francis
(July 21, 2012)

As much fun as outsourcing is you have to remember that taking care of a team member is work too. If you just randomly hire dozens of people, you will soon see that emailing with everyone will take up all your time.

The optimal solution from my point of view is to hire and train one and only one permanent personal assistant. Teach him the most important things he has to know, especially tasks that are repetitive and come up again and again.

If you then have specific work needs you can hire other providers on an off-an-on basis. Hire them, have them the job get done and then release them again. Everything else is just much work and too much hassle.

As soon as your personal assistant is well trained, he will need minimal supervision. He will especially need input from you as his employer to give him tasks he has to work on.

Outsourcing is all about gaining more free time, not losing free time because you will use all the time you freed up to look after your several virtual assistant.

So don’t work hard, work smart!

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Using Voice Transcription For Writing Books

by Francis
(July 29, 2012)

The biggest difficulty when writing books (or reports or even emails) is experiencing writer’s block.

By using voice transcription for writing books, your writing speed greatly increases – and your writer’s block decreases.

If you think you cannot use a virtual assistant because you don’t own an online business, this is the ONE application for outsourcing that I recommend everyone should use.

Writing text over the internet is a skill that is not optional anymore. Unless you live far away from all civilization.

So, if you ever wanted to get some good writing done, think about recording your voice.

However, when using voice transcription for writing books, you need to focus on using short sentences that read well.

You’ll be surprised how different your writing and your recorded speaking appears to the reader.

• Read more tips on how to actually get good writing out of transcribed voice recordings.

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Who is outsourcing?

by Francis
(July 31, 2012)

If you are not involved in outsourcing yet, you may ask yourself: who are those people doing outsourcing?

• Big corporations CEOs?
• Famous entrepreneurs like Tim Ferris?
• Crazy people like the author of this website?

It’s not that crazy.

Who says you have to do all chores online alone?
Why not save some time?

by Virtual Assistant
(June 09, 2012)

Hello everyone,

I am the virtual assistant working together with Francis on this website. All posts which start with Blog Post by VA will be written from my point of view.

So here is my first ever post 🙂

Couple of days ago, I researched a method where I can download many stock photos free of cost. Normally it costs you a minimum $1 for each photo, but I have managed to download tens of photos without paying anything.

Of course the method is 100% legal and you can download these photos under their TOS.

I will write another post about how to do it sometime later in detail.

 

Taking A Day Off – Get Your Virtual Assistant to Take Over

by Francis
(June 11, 2012)

Today, I felt like taking a day off. If you employ a virtual assistant, it’s good manners to let him know if you are not available suddenly.

A short voicemail sent to him via email may be sufficient. To make most use of both your and your VA’s time, give him some instructions, too.

In my case, I asked him to prepare the stock photo research which he discussed in his last blog post, as well as researching deeper into the training modules from SBI.

• If you are interested in hiring a personal assistant, I have laid out the exact steps of how to do this.

 

How I see the future of outsourcing

by Virtual Assistant
(June 12, 2012)

Hi Everyone,

Today we hired some Newbies to our team for a fairly short task. Both providers did an excellent job and have impressed both me and Francis with their extraordinary skills and hard work.

So the future of the outsourcing is very bright and I think we will see some more skilled and hardworking virtual assistants.

• importance of Odesk feedback system from both employer and employee’s point of view.

 

Working With a Large Team

by Virtual Assistant
(June 13, 2012)

As I said before that yesterday we hired a couple of new providers to our team.

While communicating them I realized that it’s a real tough job to handle so many providers at the same time.

You get messages from all of them back and forth and in the meantime you are also working on your own tasks.

• Read this if you want to know more about hiring and adding more virtual assistants to your team.

 

Ethical Outsourcing – Is It Doable? I’ll Make It My Mission to Teach You How!

by Francis
(June 15, 2012)

As you may know, this blog still is pretty young. So there are many directions we will be able to go.

But it going to be about outsourcing stuff from your life to virtual assistants.

Just outsourcing is not enough. We have to ask ourselves some hard but necessary questions first.

How can we outsource ethically?

I’ll make it my mission to teach you, step by doable step, how to not only

• get a trustworthy virtual assistant to do stuff for you

but also how to

• be able to sleep at night (that’s a biggie!)
• be able to justify having some other human being on the other end of the world work for you.

I’m in the middle of working out some more blog posts. Stay tuned for news from me.

And I hope you enjoy the news from the point of view of my VA (Virtual Assistant) as he supports my work and research with my websites.

See you soon!

 

Outsourcing to Pakistan – I’m Looking Forward to Get a Glimpse Behind the Scenes

by Francis
(June 16, 2012)

My virtual assistant is from Pakistan – but the subject of outsourcing to this country is of course pretty controversial.

My VA agreed to give me a look behind the curtains, farther than the classical media normally allow. This is interesting!

Don’t worry, I won’t make my blog into anything political. It still will be the number one place to learn hands on about hiring an ideal helper for your outsourcing needs.

To stay tuned, make sure to subscribe to this blog via email!

 

Know The Strenghts And Weaknesses Of Your Assistant And You

by Francis
(June 18, 2012)

If you are looking to hire a virtual assistant, you should first know what sort of assistant would be your most effective partner in real life.

Would you need a strict, organized partner?

Would you thrive with an ally that means your best but also givey you all the free room you need?

If you don’t know yet, do some soul searching.

In my personal case, I am creative and all-over-the-place, and I appreciate a highly organized VA that encourages me on my way. That is the best environment I can get when I am looking for a virtual team that makes results.

If you want to find out exactly how you best go about hiring a VA, read this post.

Comments for Know The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Your Assistant And You

Sep 18, 2014

disorganized to organized by: JomvieI think I can pass on one of your standards of being organized—sometimes. :DI am grateful to be working with you for being given this kind of opportunity where I can hone my skills in organizing about any kind of stuff—literally or not. I am not the one mentioned in this post, but I am one of those who have been trained and employed under Francis’ company.

Sep 18, 2014

There is strength in chaotic creativeness by: FrancisBut for that alone, I think I alone am more than enough for any team ;)All in all being organized is learnable. And there are tools to help with that. I wanted to report about project management tools for some time, perhaps in another post. Sometimes it’s all about priorization. Finding the task that makes a big difference and doing it first. There are many things one can do once you have an online business. Too many things. But the number of tasks that make a definitive difference on your bottom line are, in principle, quite limited. It’s about focussing on those tasks that makes the difference.

Pros and Cons of One Dedicated Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(June 19, 2012)

Train one person really well, and you save lots of time giving instructions. There will be less misunderstandings, and you can rely on each other (for work and for results, respectively).

Downside: you need a backup plan for when the cooperation ends one time. No one expects you to work with one VA for a lifetime. And if yes, good for you 😉

I’ll teach you how to prepare for the change of a personal assistant with minimal time loss in a future post.

But if you have had a good assistant, be sure to leave him with more than a mere “”thank you”” as a feedback.

Feedback is enormously important for a VA!

 

Get Things Out of Your Head and on the Table – Tell Them to Your Virtual Assistant

by Francis
(June 21, 2012)

My head is always full of ideas. As a web-business owner, it’s hard to keep up with all the ideas, the potential projects etc. And actually doing any of them.

I call it inspiration overload.

There is a good way against that. I like to send my VA a long voice recording, where I “speak my ideas off my chest”. They don’t need to be perfect for now. Nor are they often well organized.

But my virtual assistant can always take care of organizing all those ideas in doable action steps, in categories, by priorities.

This alone makes a trustworthy personal assistant an invaluable asset. Not only for any business owner. But for any creative persons with too many ideas for their time.

I’m sure many of you fall into this category 🙂

• Read more if you want to know what to look out for in your potential new VA.

 

Expanding My Team Again

by Francis
(June 24, 2012)

My VA and me got back in touch with an assistant I have worked with over a year ago.

We had a very productive cooperation at that time and I’m trying to work out some take-home lessons for you, dear readers!

How would you like some insights behind the scenes, and possibly directly on the desk of an assistant working on the other end of the world?

I thought so 😉

 

Letting Your Virtual Assistant Work Out Your Web Page Creation With HTML From A Word File

by Virtual Assistant
(June 25, 2012)

It takes time to build a webpage correctly. Even with a good content management system, you still fiddle around with HTML until the page looks just right.

But you could be doing something else in that valuable time. You could be

• building more content,
• sharing your expertise
• or managing more cash flow to your business.
• You could also just do nothing and chill out, your choice 😉

My solution?

I outsourced the process of course.

After teaching my VA each step along the way with screens, video recording and voice messages, he knows the process as well as I do now.

A huge time saver. And another reason why you should consider hiring a VA for your online business, if you have one or consider having one.

 

Writing Pages With A Tag Team Combo With Your Virtual Assistant Feels Like A Breeze

by Francis
(June 27, 2012)

OK, now I know I got your attention.

Creating a website is actually sometimes hard work. Although it is very much worth it!

Still, I remember the times when I did all this stuff all alone. How did I ever manage to do it?

This new site, ideal-helper.com, grows at a much more rapid pace.

One reason is probably, that I already have more experience building webpages.

But the main reason is, that I can team up with my virtual assistant to produce this content – that actually looks pretty fine in my opinion, btw.

I don’t think I’ll go back to working online alone any more. Depending on my budget, I will always have one or several virtual helpers hired and ready to help me out.

 

Interesting Discussion About My Virtual Assistants Beginnings of Online Work

by Francis
(June 28, 2012)

We have an interesting discussion going on in the comments of this post.

Don’t be shy to join this – or any other – post and ask away. Be as personal as you want, we don’t hide and won’t bite 😉

Update:

Having my VA work from Word files into websites works great. This has at least doubled my productivity and I am far ahead in schedule.

Which means you’ll get to read more insteresting stuff about outsourcing much sooner!

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Now back to the interesting discussion I mentionned above…

 

Outsourced Interviews about Mechanical Turk Workers

by Francis
(June 29, 2012)

I am curious about life behind the scenes of Mechanical Turk workers. So, I designed key questions for an interview of several Turkers around the world.

Stay tuned for the results, I am sure they will be eye opening.

And if you did not know about Amazon’s outsourcing service, where you can give tasks to micro-virtual assistants, then you should check out my post about Mechanical Turk!

 

Teaching My VA to Manage This Very Site for Me

by Francis

Ousourcing on a real life example. As we speak, this website and blog are partially managed by my personal VA.

I teach him everything there is to know about building and maintaining a website business.

He helps me run it in a way that lets me focus on what matters.

Typical win-win situation, right?

 

Interact With Us! Your Opinion Matters the Most!

by Francis

What would you choose if you had to decide between hiring someone with a fixed job or an hourly job assignement?

Take the (new!) poll and let us know!

• Read more about Hourly Jobs vs. Fixed Price Jobs.

 

Explaining My VA the Blogging Feature on My Website

by Francis

The screen recording software Jing is not only free and awesome, but also very useful to explain things to your VA.

• Watch here a video how I give instructions and feedback to my virtual assistant by using a screen recording software.