Tips to start an online business

by Francis
(November 08, 2012)

Screenshot from the work diary of my transcriptionist

You won’t find a writer doing high quality blog post writing for this amount of money.

Guaranteed.

How did I do this?

I hired a transcriptionist. In fact I hired several transcriptionists and continued to work with the best of them. Then I took a few minutes of thinking and about 5 minutes of recording an audio file.

My transcriptionist from the Philippines swiftly transcribed the blog post, formatted it and proofread it.
Then she sent it back to my main virtual assistant who set it up on the website.

I quickly had a last proofreading glance at the article but found nothing to change on it. So, I went ahead and posted it.

Total cost?

It’s about eighty cents for the transcriptionist.

Do you think this would come handy in your blogging efforts?

If you are serious about blogging regularly but you are hard pressed on your time, try this little magical trick of mine and hire a transcriptionist. This additional help alone will help you produce much more high quality content than any outsourced writer could ever dream of giving you.

After all, whatever you are recording for the transcripts are your very original high quality thoughts as a blogger. And the best thing of all, you will save much time in the process.

Don’t believe me?

This very post you’re reading was recorded in less than 4 minutes and the rest was set up by my team of virtual assistants.

Comments for Getting a High Quality 400 Word Blog Post Written For 80 Cents

Nov 08, 2012	Keyword optimizing would have made this post even better by: FrancisThis post is an example of quick-and-dirty outsourcing efforts to leverage your money into time. If I would have keyword-optimized this article with the help of my virtual assistant even further, then the blog post would even be a traffic generator.I’m also not saying that this process is as easy as hiring a guy, paying him a few bucks and then your blogging works on autopilot.That’s NOT how it works. You need to invest some time initially to train and get to know your virtual assistant. But when everything is set up, your cooperation will give you some great results.
Sep 29, 2014	No Small is Small by: AnonymousA great deal you got there.. Yes, it’s not that easy in getting someone online to do the job for you. I did freelancing job before and that is one of my problems because I don’t agree with exploitation.I noticed that many freelancers would agree to a pay less than a dollar and I find myself in a deep situation because there’s no way I can control them and tell them “Hey, do you understand what’s exploitation?”But, oh well, who am I to stop on what they are doing—we have different viewpoints in life and I don’t know what they are going through.So, I’ll just have to adjust to the freelancing world—bid and bid because no small is small.
Nov 18, 2014	Missing the Point by: FrancisThanks for taking the time to leave your opinion here. However, I think the point I wanted to make with this blog post didn’t come across well.I did not outsource the writing of a blog post for 80cents. I outsourced the transcription of my own thoughts into a blog post which was then formatted by my virtual assistant team. In other words, all the thoughts behind the writing of the blog post you just read was from me. The only thing I didn’t do was write it. In my opinion, transcribing thoughts is one of the fastest, most efficient and probably also most affordable ways to create written content. And the written content is, from the quality, very high because it comes straight from your thoughts.

by Francis
(October 31, 2012)

I just had an amazing discussion and I wanted to share this enthusiasm with you while it is still fresh so to speak.

If you have a dream, an online business, an idea or a product you want to create or market; it is possible but it is almost impossible to do alone.

This is a lesson I have learned and I’ve implemented in to every fiber of this very website you are reading. For example, every illustration you see on these pages has been carefully chosen, placed and optimized by my virtual assistant.

But that is only an example of what is possible when I let go of the control of certain parts of my business and give my coworkers and assistants freedom to work things out on their own.

I am most happy when my virtual assistants comes up with something on their own. Unfortunately, this is a trait that apparently not more employers of virtual businesses cherish.

I think that’s because every time I start working with a new virtual assistant, their demeanor is often extremely polite and eager to please but almost never eager to challenge my points of view. I can understand that. After all, I am the employer.

But still, real growth only comes when one more mind, one at a time in addition to the team, adds their creative input or their useful advice in order to make the whole business grow.

As I mentioned in other posts, I do have another completely unrelated website. It is older, bigger and draws a lot of traffic. Traffic is such a technical term. The website attracts many interested people, thousands, daily.

If you think about it closely, the amount of power that is behind such numbers of interested people is enormous. What would happen if I could take anyone is interested in cooperating with me by the hand and if I could teach them how they could contribute to a business that would not be only mine but ours.

Actually, I had fans from time to time contact me, interact with me and often submit their stories and ideas to me for that other website and it’s still growing.

Although, I feel that for this very young Ideal-helper site; it is too early to ask for. I want to emphasize that every helping hand is welcome. I want this website to grow and expand on the thoughts of many interested people.

It is not my motivation to teach you like a teacher in front of the class while you seat obediently in your chair and listen. A professional book would be better than that.

But if we start to discuss, communicate and even argue things, that’s when real growth happens.

Who the heck is interested in what someone else has to say?

But who on earth is not interested when there is something to gain, to grow and to learn for yourself.

That’s the distinction I want to make sure you, the patient reader of this very long post, take with you.

If you think you could contribute, challenge and ask questions to this site, you are probably right. If you don’t find the right place to submit your idea, question, challenge and follow-up; the best guess is to use the contact us form.

Almost all pages have comment fields at the bottom and I do encourage and actively read all comments you submit.

How could you contribute, you ask?

If you are already interested in outsourcing or already working together with a virtual assistant, I would love to hear your stories.

The little quirks, the little accidents, the good and the bad stuff, the everyday occurrences that you think are neglectable. But that I think are hugely charming to read about.

If you are not working with a virtual assistant yet, but could you imagine it and if you have questions, that hold you from starting a journey, an experience, an adventure with virtual assistants, then I want you to ask me these questions?

Challenge me. Ask really hard questions and try to think of questions that either burn on your soul or that you think I cannot answer. Try me. I dare you.

If you think that outsourcing is not for you, then I have two questions for you.

• First, why did you read this far in this article on this site?
• Second, what can I do to convince you that your success is closely bound to your openness of this adventure?

I am not saying that hiring a virtual assistant is the only key to success. That would be incomplete rather than incorrect. However if you worked at a problem, any problem in your life, with two thinking heads deeply involved into your problem rather than only your own, don’t you agree that it would be natural to assume you will get results faster?

So far from me, I truly have already “talked” more than enough. Now it’s your turn; your turn to talk, your turn to ask, to challenge and to think.

I’ll see you in the comments!

Comments for An Inspiring Discussion and the Big Picture of Things with this Website

Aug 03, 2014

Two heads are better than one by: JohnYou are probably right 😀 often it is because of feeling inferior or too shy to open an idea on the other side of the planet. Lol but I do believe in that, “Two heads are better than one.” Sharing and comparing some thoughts or ideas are great factors that can help improve from one thing to another.

by Francis
(October 23, 2012)

Sometimes when people asked me about my websites, they refer to them as blogs. This website is not just a blog but it contains a blog as well.

Setting up a free blog on WordPress or Blogger is extremely easy and that’s also a task you could outsource to a virtual assistant.

But only because it’s easy does not mean it is effective. Using SBI! for its capability of implementing a blog, it’s much more effective in my opinion.

How do I actually get all my blogging done successfully?

Blogging for me means that I share with you in real time my progress, my news, my challenges and my questions while the news are fresh. If I had to sit down and write a thoughtful post every time something happened, I wouldn’t be able to catch up.

Actually that’s what happens to 99% of all blog owners. They just don’t find the time to follow up with their posts. And that’s why most blogs out there are inactive and just lying around.

I have two advantages for my blogging.

1. I use the right tool. It’s called RSS-BlogIt! and it’s from SBI.
2. I like to blog using transcription to my virtual assistant.

In other words, my blog posts literally talk to you. When you follow my regular blog postings, you are in fact listening to me.

Did you know that transcription work is one of the most affordable ways to use a virtual assistant? And one of the fastest ways to get the written work done?

Well now you know it! That’s my little secret.

Comments for How I Am Actually Successful With Blogging and Getting Results Thanks to My Virtual Assistant

Aug 06, 2014

Great Job Opportunity by: JomvieAlthough I am not so familiar with how blogging goes—just a few of these and that. As a worker online, we are grateful for this kind of job opportunity where we can learn something in the online world. And apart from that, we can work comfortably right in the premises of our home, away from the real world’s day to day hustle-and-bustle and at the end of the day will leave us beat and stressed.

by Francis
(October 09, 2012)

I like to ask my virtual assistant for feedback before making big decisions regarding my online business.

Since he has worked with me very closely since the beginning of one of my major online projects, I know I can trust him with his judgment when I ask him for his judgment when I asked him about anything.

Recently, I came across a seemingly great online service. Of course, it was not free. I fell for the charm of many of its sales letters and was just about to make a major purchase online.

Fortunately, I asked my virtual assistant for a final check-up on this. Sure enough, he researched the topic in depth. He quickly found out that many of the review pages are, of course, from the affiliates of this online project. But after he researched some more, he found a forum where they discussed the product controversially.

For my information, he also researched some alternative reviews from the competitors of this service. What I liked the most about the review that my virtual assistant wrote for me is that he provided all the links to the research for me to look into if I wanted some deeper insights.

But because he knows that I’m short on time, he always wrote something like “but if you are pressed for time, don’t read this. Read this resume.” And then he condensed all the information down to a compact size which was easy for me to read in 5 minutes.

In other words, my virtual assistant researched for me worth 10 hours, saved me money worth a hundred bucks per month and I needed to invest a time of about 5 minutes.

It was not only efficient, it was almost magical.

No, I’m not trying to exaggerate here. This was a very wise decision. I’ll be sure to ask my virtual assistant for his advice the next time I’m about to do a major online purchase.

Comments for How My Virtual Assistant Helped Me Not To Make a Bad Decision

Jul 15, 2014

Neutral is your second option by: JomvieSometimes we have the tendency to be clouded with our judgment especially when we are blinded from its sweet offers and shiny perks. And it’s always good to ask for a second opinion from a neutral person. 😀

 

by Francis
(September 25, 2012)

As a website owner there is one thing you never lack: “ideas“. And there is one thing you never have: “enough time.” Especially link building activities are time consuming.

The best help you can get is a full time employee. If you decide to hire a virtual assistant full-time, it is important that you have prepared a blueprint for the tasks he is about to do beforehand.

This post discusses tasks that a full time virtual assistant for link building and/or editing could do that will fill 8 hours a day, 5 hours a week.

1. Forum marketing
2. Social Media Marketing
3. Twitter Marketing
4. Creating and curating content
5. Proofreading and editorial tasks
6. Blog commenting
7. Article marketing
8. Writing and submitting press releases
9. Following up with Google Alerts and Google Reader
10. Guest blogging
11. Guest blogging and writing on our own web properties
12. Reporting and communication

Here is what I would have my full time VA do, in detail:

Forum marketing

• The virtual assistant should research 2-3 forums

• Then he has to create 2-3 extremely well-researched and worded forum posts per day

• In the signatures from the forum posts, he has to promote the website which will gain traffic using a personal noteFor Example, something like: “If you like what you read from me, please visit and support this site”

Total time: 1 hour a day

Social Media Marketing

• Promoting a website using StumbleUpon, Digg, Diigo and other social media sites

• Using a proven strategy of social media marketing that do not spam the services is crucial. Especially new pages that do not get much traffic yet should be added to social media regularly

Total time: 1 hour a day

Twitter Marketing

• Task of contacting people who might be interested in our niche

• Re-tweeting the most relevant posts for the benefit of our Twitter followers

• And “buffer” tweeting a set of important web addressesThis all falls under the task of twitter marketing. If done correctly, this should increase overall traffic to the site.

Total time: 1 hour a day

Creating and curating content

• A virtual assistant from the Philippines should have great English knowledge in order to write content of appropriate quality

• For example, short blog posts and updates could be outsourced to the same full-time virtual assistant

Total Time: 1/2 hour a day

Proofreading and editorial tasks

• Since I heavily rely on voice transcription to create content, there is a need for someone having great English skills to re-read, edit and proofread those transcripts

• Transcripts can be the basis for Email marketing newsletters or content pages

• Ensuring the best quality of writing. This will greatly benefit to promote websites

Total time: 1 hour a day

Blog commenting

• Although the strategy of mass blog commenting is outdated due to the latest Google algorithm, it is still useful to get into an honest discussion with relevant blog owners by using blog commenting

• Researching relevant blogs and actively participating regularly on a same set of blogs will result in additional traffic

• Also, building relationships with those website owners may open the doors for even more business opportunities.

Total time: 1/2 hour a day

Article Marketing

• Similar to blog commenting, mass distribution of articles to article marketing sites is counter productive and treated as spamming. Still, if an article is completely original, well written and relevant to the website, used at a very slow pace and without spinning articles, it is still a viable strategy

• Researching writing and fine-tuning the article should be done with the biggest care.

Anticipated goal: 1 article a week – Total time: 1/2 hour a day

Writing and submitting press releases

• Press releases are a great way to build traffic to newsworthy content. This traffic building tactic only applies for bigger news and important parts of the website. I expect that not more than one press release per month will be necessary.

Total time: 15 minutes per day

Following up with Google Alerts and Google Reader

• Those two tools are great for keeping in touch with the latest news about a niche topic

• When the link building, the virtual assistant screens Google Alerts and Google Reader streams daily for different topics. Many follow up tasks can arise from that activity alone

• There is possibility of commenting on an interesting article

• Sharing it via twitter or Facebook

• Adding it to a paper.li curated online newspaper or Pinterest

Total time: 1 hour a day

Guest blogging

• Guest blogging is a better strategy for traffic creation than article marketing. That’s because it is more “real” and not that easy to cheat as a strategy

• We should aim for one weekly guest blog article. If possible, it should be based on transcription input from me.

• The research of useful platforms to find guest blogs should be taken care by another virtual assistant

Total time: 1/2 hour a day

Guest blogging and writing on our own web properties

• When a virtual assistant is working full-time on finding opportunities to build traffic to our website, he should be bound to find some interesting stuff along the way

• This sub-task consists of jotting down notes of interesting ideas the virtual assistant found over the week.

Distilling this into one value-packed post written in his own words with a length between 300 to 500 words, we should aim for one added blog post per week.

Total time: 1/2 hour a day

Reporting and communication

• This may be the most important task for the full-time virtual assistant in general

• Constant communication to ensure the best quality of work on an ongoing basis is most crucial for the success of this project

• The full time virtual assistant will be in constant contact with the hiring manager or the employer (me), directly

• A daily email with exact accountability of what was done during the day as well as questions and discussions should be the minimum expected. (One can use a simple time tracking software to help keep the VA on track.)

• Because this task is so important, it should be allowed ample time

• At least every two weeks, a phone call should be scheduled

Total time: 1 hour a day

Miscellaneous Tasks

• Different other link building activities may be finished as needed on an ongoing basis, for example answering Yahoo Answers and other similar sites

• Helping with split testing of website content

• Analyzing each new written content page

• Taking the time to think about different strategies and giving feedback

• Helping with the creation of polls and visitor interaction

• Creation of diary posts containing very personal information about the progress of the work and work atmosphere in general.

• Skype calls

• Giving feedback to training

• And finally taking his time to take a break during the dayAll of these activities can be summed up with a total time of 1/2 hour a day

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That’s it!

That’s my basic blueprint of how I would schedule work for a full-time virtual assistant who helps with link building and some editing, too.

If you found this list of tasks useful or want to give feedback about what would you do different if you would hire a full-time employee for link building, please let us know.

by Francis
(September 12, 2012)

From my VA’s work diary: Setting up a quotation template to one of my webpages

Although the virtual assistant I am working with is not a designer, he helps me with my website design tremendously.

I thought that some useful quotations would look nice on my webpages. After I shared this idea with my virtual assistant, he researched a few dozen high quality quotations and sent me an Excel-sheet with his propositions.

My work as always was very easy.

I simply picked the quotations I like best!

Then as if it wasn’t enough, my virtual assistant proposed quite a few different templates of how the quotations would look their best on my webpages.

After picking my favorite template, all I had to do is sit back and watch as my virtual assistant implemented each quotation to my different webpages.

The Results:

They look rather nice 🙂

Don’t you think?

Be it stock photos or quotation pieces or even Google web elements, once you instruct your virtual assistant how to do it and once you give him access to your content management system, any virtual assistant can help you with your website design.

This again frees up your time as a webmaster to create excellent content or to build relationships with other webmasters.

Without the help of my VA, the creation of quotation images would have been a project that stuck into my head and I never would get around to do it.

Now all it takes is some instructions and a little bit of time and the next thing I see the project is completed.

Would I ever build another website again?

Hell Yes!

Would I ever build another website again without the help of a virtual assistant?

You bet I would not! I wouldn’t even think about it.

But what do I know? 😉

I am sure you have your own opinion about this.

Just click on the comments button below to let us hear it.

Comments for How Your Virtual Assistant Can Help You With Your Website Design?

Sep 13, 2012	My VA even set up a photo gallery for me 🙂 by: FrancisMy virtual assistant is not a designer, and neither am I. Still, with some solid internet research, he managed to create a slick photo gallery for me. You can see how it works here. And here you can see the result “in action”!
Sep 20, 2012	Nice by: AnonymousI like the context of your blog, it really is helpful, I should recommend this to my friends Harrice
Jul 08, 2014	Super VA by: JomvieVirtual Assistants give too many wonders for their employer/s. I think it’s mandatory since the job title itself defines the person holding it. And speaking of VA, I, myself am a VA in training. Although I’ve worked with too many persons on the internet, this time, this is the only job that I felt I am now in a serious online job and that feels good.