Advice Needed on Virtual Assistants

go to odesk . com its a good place to start. I using it and there you can find all you need.
There is also good support and training, so you don´t loose all your money at once

Where and how did you find your Virtual Assistant?

I have advertised/looked through the WF for people and been successful in finding the writers I needed with the specifications I required (nurses). I have also used Elance - haven't used oDesk yet. You can also look in your local area if you want to actually 'meet and greet' the person and want something more personal. Craig's List will get you tons but you'll be weeding through for a long time. Network with friends and relatives - you'll find that someone knows someone who knows someone who is a great writer or has the VA qualities you are looking for and is staying home now because they lost a job or are taking care of aging parents or children.

How do you pay them and track their work

Depends - most of the time I pay for work completed and not their time- -because I was working with people who are doing writing. Elance keeps your money in escrow until the job is done.

How do you manage their work in terms of daily tasks

I honestly like to break down what they are doing in terms of task and not time, making it easier to track and pay for jobs done. The tasks you listed (forum posting, article writing, videos, link building) can be tracked and paid for on completion.

What other kind of stuff do they do for you

I do what I do best and try to outsource the rest However, I NEVER outsource the money. I know what is coming in, going out AND I always oversee customer relations (the other side of the money coin)

you can choose any freelance site that will help .. hoping that you got right contractor

thanks for all the feedback so far

I've found my VA's here on the WF. Give them some tests to make sure that their English is great or at least decent enough. As for paying, I pay them via Paypal after they have rendered work at a given (usually agreed upon) time. Communication is the key to working well with your virtual assistant. So, work out that area if you want to be successful working with your VA.

Hi Max,

I'm a VA here based in the Philippines and I would like to answer your questions and give you a bit of advice on how to hire VA, from a VA's perspective/

Where and how did you find your Virtual Assistant?
My boss found me through onlinejobs.ph but he was also able to find good people here and at bestjobs.ph. I'm not that familiar with how you can find VAs here and at bestjobs but I do know how you can look for a virtual assistant at onlinejobs.ph. At onlinejobs, all you need to go to their jobseeker database and check the list of skills (and skill level) you want your VA to have. You can also go to their prefound workers section or you could hire them to build a shortlist of employees for you based on your needs.

How do you pay them and track their work?
Depends. In our case here in the Phils., you can pay a VA through Paypal, Xoom, Payments.ph.
To keep track of our work, you can use whatever project management system that YOU feel comfortable with. Whether it's a shared Google doc or a project management/time tracking software like Basecamp or Time Doctor, the important thing is it has to be something that you're comfortable with and you like using. It's important for us VAs to know that there's a system in place so we can easily keep track of our tasks and it also makes reporting much easier.

How do you manage their work in terms of daily tasks?
This depends on the type of relationship you want to have with your employees. Some employers want to keep of every task that's done by their employees. Some employers prefer giving their VAs general projects and a deadline. While some let their VAs dictate their task and schedule based on the VAs skill and their business needs. In the end, you and your VAs will have to figure out on what works best for you.

What other kind of stuff do they do for you?
In my case, I started out as writer and I ended up learning how to do SEO, WordPress, a bit of HTML and CSS, ebook publishing, and social media marketing. I know another VA who does graphic design and video editing. I know another VA who now works as a project manager because he ended up learning how to do pretty much everything that needs to be done when it comes to online marketing. Most VAs start out having only one skill but with the right training, they'll know how to do pretty much anything you need for your business.

Hope this helps!

Hi Ammaring.

I am an experienced VA handler and i can help u in finding the right VA.

Finding a VA is a art... get it right.,. u hit the jack pot ... get it wrong u burn ur fingers...

Let me know ur exact requiremnt.

neralu at gmail dot com

regards,
Karthik

Link building we can do for you. For articles you can try ettiennevanstaden.com

Hi MaxCl,

Hire a reputable company. This would help you stress and worry free because of supervisors and team leaders per department they assigned to your team.

Hi,

Your questions:

Where and how did you find your Virtual Assistant?
= Onlinejobs.ph and Easyoutsource.com. Many trusted Filipinos are using these to find jobs. You can easily post your job offers there. Also, you can search for keywords that will fit the position you want and search workers that you feel you are comfortable with.

How do you pay them and track their work
= Xoom, paypal or Western Union, but some of them prefer Paypal for you to pay them. You can use Timedoctor, Hivedesk and TeamViewer for the tracking of time and work.

How do you manage their work in terms of daily tasks
=You can set qouta for them to work in that day.

What other kind of stuff do they do for you
= for my experience, I let them do list building, email swaps, product listing, some SEO works, organizing calendar of activities, data entry, data mining and etc.


Hope this helps.

This is all fantastic feedback - I've not really used Warrior Forum before so thanks for the positive responses.

I've employed a VA on a trial basis who was recommended to me by one of the members here via PM... although am I still open to suggestions and might also be getting in touch with some more until I settle on an approach that suits me and my needs.

Where and how did you find your Virtual Assistant?
There're a lot of places where you can find the right VA you need online, such as odesk, elance, freelancer, witmart, guru, WF, etc.

How do you pay them and track their work
Most of the freelance sites listed above have built-in project management tool/interface where you can manege your project, communicate with VA, arrangement work assignments, and handle payments. In terms of payment, most VAs would prefer to get paid by the hour while some other folks prefer an one-time payment. It depends.

How do you manage their work in terms of daily tasks
Like I said above, if you hire a VA on any of these sites, you can use the built-in project management tool to assign and manage their work and exchange files. If you work with the VA offsite, you can use Google doc and email to arrange task and share information on the latest progress on your project.

Hey maxcl,

A good service to hire VA's from is odesk.com. You can find a VA or VA's for all the skills you are requesting and more. My personal advice when hiring a VA is to hire one from the Phillipines. Filipinos are very hard working and loyal employees who will work diligently to complete your task. Another cool feature about odesk.com they have a screenshot tracking feature where you can monitor your VA's computer screen so you can make sure they are working on the task you gave them. I think that is the most valuable benefit of odesk.

A week aho i hierd a VA from Philippines.
She has a great English, and doing very good job, but terribly slow, that slow that it's not profitable for me.
For example, a very easy task, that takes only about 3 hours, she already doing 3 days.
Doing very good, no complains, but i can't keep her if she will be that slow.
So, take my experience, and try to put them a dad lines.