Your VA's Daily Activity?

by Adie
14 replies
For anyone who hire a full time VA, can you share the amount of tasks he/she can perform daily (6 to 8 hours)? As I mentioned in my previous post, I have 2 VA's but both are part timers.

I am planning to hire both full time so I am gathering ideas on how to maximize their work hours. For now, I am giving assignment for the whole week and one's daily (4 hours) activity look like this:

  1. submit 2 articles to 60 directories
  2. submit 2 articles to 60 PR sites
  3. bookmark 2 URLs to 50 SBs
  4. make 20 forum posts to 10 forums (2 each)
  5. 20 x 50 words blog comments

All submissions are done with the aid of roboform.

I am not sure if this is too heavy or too light as I never heard a slight complain from my VA. During the time that I was doing my own SEO, I can do the above in less than 3 hours, but of course I can't compare myself as I already mastered it doing for years.

What's your take on this? Can you share your VA's daily assignment? If not, then that's okay.

Thank you
#activity #daily
  • Profile picture of the author huester
    To be fair I could do that in around 4hrs back when I first started IM. However if you hired the VA's from elance or freelance they should have experience so I would say it's a fair amount of work.

    Good luck!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6733048].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    I would say that a VA would only need 3 to 4 hours to accomplish all the tasks you listed. Everything that you listed needs them to move their mouse and tick the keyboard. Do you plan to add some more tasks?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6733839].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by contentwriting360 View Post

      I would say that a VA would only need 3 to 4 hours to accomplish all the tasks you listed. Everything that you listed needs them to move their mouse and tick the keyboard. Do you plan to add some more tasks?
      I plan to add more tasks and make them full time as I am adding 2 more authority sites that needs promotion in the long run...
      Signature



      Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

      Signature edited.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6733850].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Chris Reeves
    Give them more work and see what happens.

    Seriously though, try to build as good a relationship with them as possible. If you're wondering if they can take on more work, why not just ask them if they're capable of doing more?

    If they say no, but you get the feeling they're slacking/have major downtime, give them a chance to step it up by gradually giving them more work.

    People work at different speeds. I feel as long as their actions are making you money then you don't have much to worry about.

    Regards,
    Chris
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6733887].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Azlan
    from my experience, you will know yourself how long to complete the task. for me, i always ask for a daily update on what has been done by the worker.

    if you think that they are not working enough, just use a time tracking software to check whether they are working or not. than you will know, if they are doing the work, or just browsing the internet such as watching youtube and checking facebook.

    - Azlan
    Signature

    New WSO - Coming Soon...

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6734063].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by Azlan View Post

      from my experience, you will know yourself how long to complete the task. for me, i always ask for a daily update on what has been done by the worker.

      if you think that they are not working enough, just use a time tracking software to check whether they are working or not. than you will know, if they are doing the work, or just browsing the internet such as watching youtube and checking facebook.

      - Azlan
      I am not really particular with tracking time as I am going to give daily assignments so it's up to the VA to work on his most comfortable time. For example, I give assignment for 4 hours of work, he should submit the report to me on time.

      There are lots of interruptions online so we cannot really control their time unless we are inside an office supervising them. That's why I only require part time because I know, I would be wasting more money if I pay him 8 hours with less work because of this mentioned distractions.
      Signature



      Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

      Signature edited.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6742327].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author interactivex
    Definitely good to set objectives, but if you just measure objectives the VA might try and get too cleaver or do it in a way that isn't really effective for your site. If you can ultimately check how much traffic you get to your site from these activities that is great.

    I don't think this is a light schedule. Submitting blog comments depends on how well you submit them, and where you submit them. If you're talking about 20 submits that's easy, if you're talking about 20 confirmed links to your site, that's more difficult
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6754222].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by interactivex View Post

      Definitely good to set objectives, but if you just measure objectives the VA might try and get too cleaver or do it in a way that isn't really effective for your site. If you can ultimately check how much traffic you get to your site from these activities that is great.

      I don't think this is a light schedule. Submitting blog comments depends on how well you submit them, and where you submit them. If you're talking about 20 submits that's easy, if you're talking about 20 confirmed links to your site, that's more difficult
      I provide all the lists of the sites where my links will be posted as I was the one who does this personally before... My VA's work is just like data entry.. I provide all researched materials as I don't want to get backlinks from irrelevant sites...
      Signature



      Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

      Signature edited.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6754261].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Daniel007
    I agree with Azlan, it is really important for VA's and freelancers alike to use a time tracking software. It does not only let you monitor your employee's billable hours but their computer activity as well while they are working.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6876681].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yanminis
    Elance lets you use a time tracking software. Why don't you use it?
    Signature
    Saying thanks is more than good manners. So hit that little button please to pay it forward...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6876756].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by yanminis View Post

      Elance lets you use a time tracking software. Why don't you use it?
      I don't use elance. I better hire my VA directly from outside freelance sites...
      Signature



      Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

      Signature edited.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6877229].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author jessiem
      Yes, using a time tracking software will definitely help you monitor your VAs if they are really working on their assigned tasks. That way you can tell how productive they are when they start working on their computer, you will also know if they are browsing Facebook, Youtube or other non-work related sites. If you can consider the time tracking software we use in our company then go ahead and search "Time Doctor" on Google. We've been using it for a year already and it was nothing but an awesome app.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6877700].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    Here's a great way to figure it out...try it out yourself!

    Seriously, for anyone looking to outsource some work, actually doing the work yourself first and understanding it is critically important. You'll better be able to judge the time they're spending on tasks, answer questions as they learn the process, etc.

    For anyone looking for a cheap/easy way to monitor their progress, consider looking at HiveDesk. (No affiliation) You can put in their hourly rate to help with payroll, the system will take random screenshots so you can monitor their work, etc. We use this with all of our staff...quite helpful!
    Signature
    Website Brokers - We can help you sell businesses making $500 to $50K per month.

    Free Website Valuation - How much is your website really worth? Find out here, free.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6878166].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author MatthewWoodward
    To be honest your VA's daily assignments is purely based on the requirements of your business and not what other people do.

    For example the only VA's I have are content spinners. All of the SEO/link building tasks I have personal and full control of. But that is because my wealth of knowledge and experience cannot be replicated through training and I like to have full control of anything that directly impacts my sites.

    I dont use any time tracking software, I know roughly how long a task should take and I realise that I work a lot quicker and efficiently than most people so I always allow a bit more time.

    For example I know that if I send a VA 3x 500 word articles in a full working day for each article they can write 2 alternative sentences for each sentence, spin all the words/phrases where it makes sense to do so and write/spin 15 alternative titles.

    As long as they produce 15 of those in a week (3 per day) I dont care what hours they work. The tasks get assigned on a Sunday night and they must all be delivered by the following Sunday night.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6879270].message }}

Trending Topics