VA wanted

[bobm2011]

Can anyone (personally) recommend me a VA? Can be Far East based,
but needs to be phonable at 1600 GMT and trustworthy, of course,
first tasks will be CV preparation and job searching. Needs to be a
team, as the book says!

Bob.
:)

[kamakiri]

Ahh, yeah. Having your CV prepared by someone in Asia who is guaranteed to speak English as a second language...

Maibe yo shud think thins thru sum mor.

[AlexMoen]

I think the book also talks about how it only saves time and money if you already have a stream of income. Not only that, but in my personal opinion, having a VA prepare your CV is a horrible idea. When you send in CVs companies generally receive 100s for a position and eliminate ones that either don't stand out, or have errors of some sort. If someone writes your CV it's more likely to sound awkward (or have typos and grammar errors as kamakiri points out), or is doomed to be generic. How could a VA possibly be able point out the nuances in your life that make you perfect for a job, or to understand the intricacies for the position you're applying for? Not only that, but it sounds like you might be spending money to save time, when you probably have plenty of time and may lack a flow of money.

[TimW]

A foreigner to type of your CV? Seriously? I have heard some insane ideas here, but we might have a winner.

[paulwbrowning]

I use www.bpovia.com who so far have been very good.

Regards

Paul

[Musetester]

I use GlobeTask. They are a firm of American expats living in Israel.

[infospray]

I just made an endorsement for the guys I'm using over in another post under "Automation":

http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showpost.php?p=33186&postcount=15

[charlestown]

I just made an endorsement for the guys I'm using over in another post under "Automation":

http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showpost.php?p=33186&postcount=15

In that linked post you mentioned employing a couple of assistants from the Philippines full time. I am looking for somebody at the moment and wondered if you have any advice on what to look for and possibly where best to look for somebody? I mainly need a person who will help to market an ebook I wrote online and later on a second one that I hope to have ready in a few months time.

[infospray]

Hiring your own fulltime staff is difficult. I have been through a couple. My advice would be to start on a project base. Hire people through places like elance and odesk. This way you do not have to pay if they do not do the job.

You typically also just pay a fixed price for the project, so if the project takes longer than expected it is the provider that is paying.

If you have not outsourced before I would start with a couple of simple tasks that can be done in less than a day to get a feel for it.

My first task to my VA was to book me a time with my hairdresser. It might seem odd, but I needed to test that they could:

1) Use my skype account to call my hairdresser in local danish business hours
2) Speak English well enough so the girl answering the phone (who might not be the best at English) could undertand them
3) Use my calendar

Not sure it will help you, but below is the exact text I used for this task, I think the template for it is exactly out of the 4hww book :)

*******************
Hi

I've just registered and in order to test your services and english skills I've created this task (which is why it may seem a bit odd).

WHAT:
I need to you book me an appointment with my hairdresser (hairdresser company name = "XXX"). My hairdresser's name is "XXX" (sorry I only got his first name) and I would prefer either an early or late appointment (so I don't have to leave work in the middle of the day)

HOW:
Using the Skype out account below and call the company on: +45 XXXXXXXX. Please check my Google calendar in order to make sure that I have time (I will need to have your company Google account name so I can give you access to my Google Calendar!

WHEN:
Call them either monday or tuesday during local danish business hours.

------------------------------------
My VA info (please store this on my account so I don't need to send this every time):

SKYPE:
- Use can use this account every time you need to call someone for me. Please notify me if you experience trouble or low credit.
Skype username: XXX
Password: XXX

EMAIL
- Use this whenever you need to send someone an email on my behalf
Email: XXXX@XXXXX.XXX
Password: XXX
Webmail can be checked at: XXX

CALENDAR
My company calendar (also used for private appointments @ Google Calendar):
XXX
------------------------------------

Thanks

***********

[charlestown]

Thanks for the feedback. This a not the sort of thing I have ever tried doing but it's a reasonable test to get started and gain a feel for how they work.

I hired a girl for a month not long ago to help with marketing a product and at first she seemed great but after a week or two it became apparent that she wasn't actually getting that much done and was reluctant to give me reports detailing her work, which immediately started to raise my suspicions, so I had to end the contract when I saw that she was doing nothing meaningful in terms of improved traffic or sales. For the time being I have decided to try my luck with some automated software solutions and w'll see how that goes by doing it myself.

[DaveCraige.com]

I use www.bpovia.com who so far have been very good.

Regards

Paul


What did you get them to help you with?

[FreedomTrading]

I can't recommend them enough.
I have a blog post coming out soon on my blog about My experience using a VA (The post is written and is being corrected by my VA at the moment)


Feel free to contact me about this.
My blog/website is at http://www.philliphobbs.com

Kind regards Phill

[FrozenCanuck]

Ok guys - here are my thoughts:

1) I have used full time employees in the Philippines and compared it against VAs from elance. I definitely prefer full time employees over freelancers if I need them regularly.

2) If your business is a real business, and not a hobby, full timers that YOU train are the way to go.

3) When I say "you train them" I really mean that you give them training material. You don't need to be the one to create all the material. You can buy good stuff online that you can use as training material for the business plan that the employee will be helping with.

4) John Jonas' "Replace Myself" course is all about this. It provides you with training modules targeted at Internet Marketing techniques that you would need to use to run an online muse.

5) I am a customer of Replace Myself and highly recommend it. I hire people using OnlineJobs.ph, which I have access to because I'm a customer of Replace Myself.

6) Salaries are VERY reasonable. I just hired two people this month for $300-400 per month. They can both write in very good English (one of them is near-perfect).

7) I suggest you AVOID hiring part time employees. They tend to be much less productive. I did not believe it until I experienced it myself. Same with students who are still doing classes. They will tell you they can work 20 hrs per week but they will disappear if they have assignments due. Hire full time people who have no other job commitments.

8) If you prefer the "free" approach to hiring people you can use Craigslist Manila, or you can look for online blogs from Filipino people who are interested in working online. If you like their blog, you can be pretty sure you'll like the writing they do for you in your online business (blogging for you, etc). Writing is a big part of any online business because you need content to promote your business.

PHIL - It is best not to use a blatant affiliate link in your posts. Maybe you don't know better (yet), but it's not permitted.

The right way to promote something as an affiliate is to do it on your own site, and link to your site in a forum post. Always make sure to add value to posts rather than just dropping links to your own site.

Here's an example:

Thoughts on OnlineJobs.ph (http://replace-myself-bonus.com/onlinejobs-ph-review-and-useful-information.php)

Review of Replace Myself (http://replace-myself-bonus.com/replace-myself-review)