How can I use a digital assistant? What can they do for me?

Hi,

yes getting a digital assistant is highly effective when you start making money on your blog, they can do all sort of things: publish content, contact other bloggers, optimize your blog for seo, social media tasks, email marketing stuff....

If you're looking to hire a digital assistant then the place to do it is through Upwork.com, it's one of the biggest freelance sites online.

All the best

If he knows what to do better than you , then how would you be able to afford him ?
You can instead , hire multiple small guys , some for writing , some for website management ,some for marketing ,some Facebook admins...etc,

What are your doing that is bringing you money? Do more of that. Outsource the rest.

And if you can't, do them in batches: take one hour twice a week to reply to everything, for example.

If you believe you are changing people's lives by replying to their Facebook messages then by all means don't outsource that. Nobody will be more genuine and helpful than you, nobody will love your project more than you do and you can lose some important customers.

I see some advice from "Eat That Frog" by Brian Tracy in the previous reply.

You can hire a Filipino VA (Virtual Assistant) for about $400/mo at onlinejobs.ph
If you hire a VA then most likely you will be wasting time telling them exactly what you expect them to do. If you want to find someone who will work together with you on your project and suggest new ideas to you, then you might want to get a partner.

Henry David Thoreau said: "Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it."

I doubt you can find someone to work for you for free, but if you offer a share of profits you could find someone.

hi
VA will provide assistance and support online, to make management of social networks, the creation of newsletters and also the management of blogs, usually a series of activities tecniche.possono fully manage your business.
they can do everything, but then ... the blog is ...you !!!

You want someone to counsel you AND be your assistant all at once?

Or are you confused and don't know what you want yet?

My guess is you are confused.

Hello!

I totally understand what you mean!

You want a partner who will truly help you in your business, rather than just controlling a wage slave..

I have been working with a digital assistance in my business for about 6 months.
and so far I have had a great experience working alongside her.

but you will have a hard time finding a perfect employee that clicks with you on every level right off the bat. It takes time to build a great professional relationship

Here is some advice that might set you on the right track:


The right mindset to have here is that you want to develop an employee to a point where he or she can be as great a value as you are to your blog.

-You need to build a relationship with that person first,

-establish good back and forth communication habits,

-and then you must teach, educate, and guide your employee
so that he or she can assist your efforts as much as you do!

-You need to be a leader and lead by example rather than discipline,

-You need to be very tolerant of mistakes,

-You need to trust thier intelligence if you wish that one day he or she
will contribute to your blog in a greater way.

-And you must understand that this is a long term project


How to get Started


Where do you find a good person?

I highly recommend hiring a full-time employee in the Philippines.

The Philippines is a great place to find great VAs for several reasons:


1. You can hire your first Full-Time VA for as little as $450 per month.

- As he or she develops you would respectfully raise their salary.


2. You can find perfect English speakers, and great writers.


3. They have an honest, and hard working culture.


Hiring one of these people is great, because they can live a great lifestyle in the Philippines for a lot less money. Instead of hiring someone within your area with the same skill set for 4 to 5 times more money.

To find great Filipino VAs you can go to:
Hire the best Filipino employees and virtual assistants the Philippines has to offer!



What to do once you hire your VA:

This is probably the biggest big of advice I can give you!

Tell him or her that they must send you a daily email answering these 3 questions.

1. What did you do today?

2. What problems did you run into?

3. How can I make your job easier?

This will build healthy back and forth communication habits.

You can also use a tool called: BaseCamp to manage communication.



So you can start off by asking him or her to do tasks that you feel take up too much of your time, you should really only work on whatever you find the most exciting!

Then as times goes by you can ask him or her to complete bigger projects for you.

and when he or she messes it up....

You must critique their work with patience and care,
Give them constructive positive feedback and understand that in the long run it will pay off.

There is a lot more to this, so I'll give you the YouTube Channel of the guy I learned most of this stuff form lmao.

Here it is!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpN...3-7AgKr1bud2cg

Enjoy!

Mike Vietri

I can tell you what I do. Maybe it'll help.

This is typically how I operate in IM:

1. Setup a business.
2. Optimize the system.
3. Optimize earnings.
4. Outsource operations to a VA or VAs.
5. Rinse and repeat.

The idea is to create one cash cow after another. Not only are you building income, but you're building a diversified IM portfolio. This translates to income growth and financial stability.

What you should not do - really - is try to use a VA for mentoring or coaching. You're not utilizing VA services as they're intended. Instead, think about the movie Multiplicity. You know the one - where he clones himself. Ask yourself: if I cloned myself today, what would be the best use of the clone's time? Would it be creating content, building traffic, optimizing websites? Ask those questions and many others. The aim is to give your VA a manual of explicit instruction about what tasks you want them to perform.

- Tom

Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but most VAs don't do this.

They must be trained and they must have either very clear SOPs (standard operating procedures) or be managed.

Someone who can be a mentor for you won't get a job as a VA. Think about it. If someone can earn more than you do and do a better job at it, unless you are a major name in the industry, why would he work for you?

Now let me tell you what a VA does. A VA is good for saving time with repetive tasks like proofing, editing, link building, small design jobs in some cases, data entry, data management, summarizing data and some organization.

You don't need to tell them what to do every single time but you need to create SOPs. An SOP can be like:

1. Login to XYZ.
2. Do X.
3. Do Y.
4. Do Z.
5. Check if everything is done alright.
6. Logout.

Think McDonalds. No matter where you go, you'll get about the same level of quality. This is done with minimum paid workers because the entire business is based on procedures.

I have VAs I pay $50 per day to

The best thing is I only pay them when I need work done

This flexibility is awesome

Also, they are PRE-TRAINED

This helps me tremendously because I don't have to pay for their training.

Also, this aspect helps me a lot with BLOGGING.

Need traffic from FB groups? DONE

Need traffic from Twitter reverse engineering? DONE

Need traffic from some forums from a network of 300 English-speaking forums? DONE

I use my VAs primarily for TRAFFIC GENERATION

I would recommend finding a specific task that you would train someone to do that you feel would be easy enough they can learn quickly and be beneficial to you. Despite the other recommendation above I would definitely recommend upwork.com above anything else. Keep in mind you are dealing with a real person and you need to make a friend and treat them like someone important to you, and they will likely do the same for you. You may have to go through a few people but eventually you'll find the right person that is best for you.

They can do for you all sorts of things,

like publishing articles, moderating comments, administrate wp site, taking care about customer support etc etc browse sites like freelancer and others and you will what are people willing to do and for how much money

The advice you have received so far is all good. Here is what I give my clients before they work with me:
"Where's the Money Worksheet" *attached*

1. Write down everything you do for your business (even keep a journal for 1-week)
2. Put a dollar sign next to anything that puts cash in your hand
3. Put a checkmark next to things that you don't like doing (even if it makes you money)
4. Put a star next to the things that you like doing

Now, Look at everything that makes you money.

Is there anything that you don't like doing, but earns you money? Outsource these first.

Everything that doesn't make you money - Outsource these next.

You already know what to outsource first: blog and facebook commenting (doesn't put the cash in your hand)

Create some "canned" responses for both FB and Your blog with some highlights like:
- thank them for commenting
- mention one key point from the comment
- signature line

You also want to let your VA know which posts to forward to you. Some just need your voice. Also, as a way to know which posts your assistant worked on, use a code like [Mon2] which is Monday the 2nd or initials to mark these as posts approved by you, but not written by you.

Eventually, once your schedule is manageable, you can do an open AMA type of post or Live broadcast for your viewers so your personal voice is still being offered.

If the price is a concern for you, I recommend Philippine VA's as well. Most speak and write in English and are affordable. Sites like Virtualassistantforums.com also let you post ads for free. This way you will receive offers from a number of applicants giving you the opportunity to select the right one for you.

Hiring a VA is all about personality match, testing with small jobs, and communication.

Anything you want really, he can as well reply to messages if you teach him how. Find somebody in Philippines or something like that, will cost you $10-20 a day.

One thing that you want to realize is that someone who is a Pro Blogger is not likely to become a Virtual Assistant. I mean, if someone is really good at blogging and is successful with it, that means they are earning a good income from it and are enjoying life. So, you will not find a "Mentor" as an assistant! lol

What you will find is average people who are very good virtual assistants. In my years of online marketing and blogging, I have never met someone who is all of what you are looking for (mentor, coach, assistant, adviser, etc). Usually they come separate - you know what I mean?

A mentor, will just be that, a mentor - and nothing else. And they are not very cheap.

It seems like you are looking for help with work - so you need just an assistant. If you need coaching and advice, look for a mentor.

An assistant (or virtual assistant) - can do the tasks anyone can do. For example, you can have this assistant do a lot of your Social Media Marketing work (liking, commenting, engaging, publishing, etc).

You can also have them publish unique content all over the internet - promoting your blog. If you are building a Youtube Channel, you can have them engage on Youtube for you (commenting, engaging, messaging, etc).

And if they are also good at writing, you can have them write articles for you and then have them submit it in many article directory sites.

And things like that. You should already know what there is to do to move your blog and business forward. And then come up with a daily action plan for your assistants

It is no longer an issue to find a Virtual Assistant. Today there are many freelancing site. If you take a glance on the site, you will found a ton to virtual assistant available. to do this you may need to create a Client ID at Upwork or, Fiverr. Then you can make a job post at Upwork, the Freelancer will apply on your job post. On the other hand if you wish to use the Fiverr, no problem. just see the gigs details what the freelance will do for you. Thanks a lot.