How do you find SEO people from eLance/oDesk?

13 replies
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Hey,

I'm currently looking for virtual assistant who could possibly help me through emailing and outreaching.

I clearly stated in my job offer that I'm looking people who are savvy enough, know what does the term "outreaching" mean, are fluent in English.. etc..

I even told that I could teach them how to do it properly, give them links to prospects and even scripts that they can use.

However, 24h later I have bunch of proposals from people who are based in India & Pakistan. Non of them is fluent in English, and they offer me F#((#%7# LINKWHEELS, WEB2.0S, TOP RANKINGS IN 30 DAYS, 100 HIGH PR WIKI LINKS, 1000 HIGH PR BLOG COMMENTS etc..

WTF, seriously? Do they really think that I'll even consider them when they don't read through my job description?

My hourly rate wasn't low at all, $10 - $15 yet I'm getting garbage..

Any suggestions? :confused:
#elance or odesk #find #people #seo
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
    Originally Posted by online only View Post

    Hey,

    I'm currently looking for virtual assistant who could possibly help me through emailing and outreaching.

    I clearly stated in my job offer that I'm looking people who are savvy enough, know what does the term "outreaching" mean, are fluent in English.. etc..

    I even told that I could teach them how to do it properly, give them links to prospects and even scripts that they can use.

    However, 24h later I have bunch of proposals from people who are based in India & Pakistan. Non of them is fluent in English, and they offer me F#((#%7# LINKWHEELS, WEB2.0S, TOP RANKINGS IN 30 DAYS, 100 HIGH PR WIKI LINKS, 1000 HIGH PR BLOG COMMENTS etc..

    WTF, seriously? Do they really think that I'll even consider them when they don't read through my job description?

    My hourly rate wasn't low at all, $10 - $15 yet I'm getting garbage..

    Any suggestions? :confused:
    Local Colleges man. I keep saying it. Forget this bs outsourcing to bongobongoland. A small ad on a local college/uni dorm room and you will have 100 college educated, low on money workers kicking your door in.

    Research the college courses and you can also get niche specific workers too.
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    • Profile picture of the author online only
      Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

      Local Colleges man. I keep saying it. Forget this bs outsourcing to bongobongoland. A small ad on a local college/uni dorm room and you will have 100 college educated, low on money workers kicking your door in.

      Research the college courses and you can also get niche specific workers too.
      Seems like a winning idea. Will try it
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
        Originally Posted by online only View Post

        Seems like a winning idea. Will try it
        The really savvy man would submit their LLC as a work experience program employer and get that work for free.
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        • Profile picture of the author jinx1221
          You have enough websites and online prospects to provide somebody with consistent, steady work? Or what, you're going to pay somebody $10 to pester webmasters from a list you scraped? You talk like you have 1000 websites and each one has some sort of unlimited prospects to email. Look man, I dont care how many sites or longtails you have to target, there just isn't that many sites out there that are worth the time begging links from.

          The good ones with high pr get slammed with emails every day with cutesy little "oh your site is sooo great, can you pleeeease add my article with my link?", they probably don't even check their email anymore. That's why they're good.. they don't have your crappy articles and links on them! So you go fishing for a month and maybe get a bite or two.. woohoo! No wonder you want to outsource this.. this huge time waster. How are you going to monitor the work they do? You might as well just do it yourself, takes just as much time and work anyways, at least it'll be free.

          Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

          The really savvy man would submit their LLC as a work experience program employer and get that work for free.
          Really? Hire a bunch of college students, so they can show off their glowing experience on their resume as an emailer for some guy on oDesk? And file that as work experience to boot? As an employer? That's not employment, my friend, that's slave labor. And so is $10-$15/hr for an hour a week's worth of work.. and you wonder why nobody is taking you seriously?
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          • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
            Originally Posted by jinx1221 View Post

            Really? Hire a bunch of college students, so they can show off their glowing experience on their resume as an emailer for some guy on oDesk? And file that as work experience to boot? As an employer? That's not employment, my friend, that's slave labor. And so is $10-$15/hr for an hour a week's worth of work.. and you wonder why nobody is taking you seriously?
            Firstly: I'm such a serious man???
            Damn if my WF reputation is to be taken seriously I'm outta here.

            Second: Absolutely!!!
            You've no clue who I am or the extent of my operations.

            10 Things a student could happily add to their CV:
            1. Researcher
            2. Writer
            3. Publisher/Editor
            4. Web/Graphic Designer
            5. Accountant
            6. Analyst
            7. Sales Rep
            8. Social Media
            9. Programmer
            10. Tits and Ass to brighten the Office

            The slave labor thing is a reflection on "Online Onlys" budget, not mine. I do pay fairly in accordance with the job at hand. But that's not to say I'm going to be foolish with my money. These students are not fully qualified in their respective fields, and their pay scale would reflect that accordingly.
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            • Profile picture of the author jinx1221
              Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

              Firstly: I'm such a serious man???
              Damn if my WF reputation is to be taken seriously I'm outta here.

              Second: Absolutely!!!
              You've no clue who I am or the extent of my operations.

              10 Things a student could happily add to their CV:
              1. Researcher
              2. Writer
              3. Publisher/Editor
              4. Web/Graphic Designer
              5. Accountant
              6. Analyst
              7. Sales Rep
              8. Social Media
              9. Programmer
              10. Tits and Ass to brighten the Office
              The slave labor thing is a reflection on "Online Onlys" budget, not mine. I do pay fairly in accordance with the job at hand. But that's not to say I'm going to be foolish with my money. These students are not fully qualified in their respective fields, and their pay scale would reflect that accordingly.
              Yes well thats different, isn't it? Which one of those tasks you listed need to be "taught how to do it", specifically be required to "speak fluent english", or can be given "scripts they can use"? None because none of those are emailing prospective websites to beg for links!

              p.s. +1 on #10.. can you find me one of those on oDesk? Better yet, fiverr
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              • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
                Originally Posted by jinx1221 View Post

                Yes well thats different, isn't it? Which one of those tasks you listed need to be "taught how to do it", specifically be required to "speak fluent english", or can be given "scripts they can use"? None because none of those are emailing prospective websites to beg for links!

                p.s. +1 on #10.. can you find one of those on oDesk? Better yet, fiverr
                Damn, I should have added "Office Admin"

                I've played that odesk/freelancer game like everyone else. You will find 100 people who say they can do all sorts of shit. And about 1% of them will be actually able to do it. I don't have time, and definitely don't have patience to sift through crap like that.

                p.s This is me saying I see your point. Without me publicly admitting you might be right.
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          • Profile picture of the author online only
            Originally Posted by jinx1221 View Post

            You have enough websites and online prospects to provide somebody with consistent, steady work? Or what, you're going to pay somebody $10 to pester webmasters from a list you scraped? You talk like you have 1000 websites and each one has some sort of unlimited prospects to email. Look man, I dont care how many sites or longtails you have to target, there just isn't that many sites out there that are worth the time begging links from.

            I don't know what to say about this... I don't beg no links. My strategies work very well, most of real SEOs/agencies around the world are doing outreaching as part of their SEO.

            Outreaching is not begging for links, it can either be;

            broken linkbuilding - you point out broken links and suggest a new ones (most people are really happy btw)
            Just "show off" your awesome content without adding a word "link" in the script - works really well and most people are more than happy that you took your time to make something so cool/useful
            Give suggestions for their resources/links page
            Give discounts to universities (.gov/.edu)
            infographics & guestposts
            using HARO/buzzstream
            reverse engineering
            sponsorship/partnership e-mails
            + hundreds of other ways to gain links through email outreaching

            My conversions are anywhere from 5% to 20% and I also care about relevancy, so there's no problem if I get PR n/a or PR1 or DA/PA <30 links from highly relevant site. It does not only help you to rank your your site, but it also gives you referral traffic.

            There's a LOT-LOT more than just "high PR paid links" and "web2.0s with tiers". Plus, I never target long-tail keywords. I go with the mainstream and the rest follows up naturally.

            I do my own thing, you do your own. There's no point to dis other works especially when it works and is longterm.

            Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    Use the Warriors for Hire section in this forum and you'll get the right person for your work.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by online only View Post

    Hey,

    I'm currently looking for virtual assistant who could possibly help me through emailing and outreaching.

    I clearly stated in my job offer that I'm looking people who are savvy enough, know what does the term "outreaching" mean, are fluent in English.. etc..

    I even told that I could teach them how to do it properly, give them links to prospects and even scripts that they can use.

    However, 24h later I have bunch of proposals from people who are based in India & Pakistan. Non of them is fluent in English, and they offer me F#((#%7# LINKWHEELS, WEB2.0S, TOP RANKINGS IN 30 DAYS, 100 HIGH PR WIKI LINKS, 1000 HIGH PR BLOG COMMENTS etc..

    WTF, seriously? Do they really think that I'll even consider them when they don't read through my job description?

    My hourly rate wasn't low at all, $10 - $15 yet I'm getting garbage..

    Any suggestions? :confused:
    Stop pissing around with those 3rd world VA BSers & hire someone local to you, at $10-15 per hour that's a very reasonable pay rate in the US for someone new that needs to be trained.

    Hire a local college kid, stay at home mom/dad, etc..., someone you can have face to face communication/training with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnbrown12
    I do agree with the above posts...hire someone here
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    How to make money from $3000 to $7000 per month:

    http://forms.aweber.com/form/85/530278285.htm

    *JOIN 900+ Warriors*
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew S
    Interview 10, hire 3, fire 2. This has worked well for me.

    Also, instead of waiting for applications to come in, search out the providers you'd ideally want to work with and invite them.
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    Sick Analytics: Find and fix your worst pages. Entity Explorer: Make your content better with related entities.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kimberleytin
    Statlance helps you with projects needing abstract thinking like statistical analysis.
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