Outsourcing Tips From My Experience

Hey all, I would just like to share some of my experiences in outsourcing many different parts of my online business. After many ups and downs I finally think I am on the right track considering I’m relaxing on the beach writing this.  It’s some of the perks of Internet Marketing, making a fulltime income, while working from home (or on the beach in this case).

Like with many business ventures, or ideas I always find an expert in this  field that I can personally talk with, or if required, purchase his or her product to educate myself further. During a conversation with a very well know 7 figure online earner he told about his secrets to outsourcing.These secrets involved hiring people who lived near him and paying them a decent wages and, finding people that will help improve your business all round, without having to give further instructions to.

a rate of $18 per hour. WOW, I know $18 per hour was a lot for a VA but all in all I did get what I wanted. At the end of the day paying $18 per hour, where some days the only requirement was data entry work was too much to pay. Let’s say it did not last very long.

I decided to give cheap outsourcing another go and found a recruitment company.  Another mistake, this company handed me one person after another with little to no experience in anything. I ended up going through 6 different VA’s in two weeks. I gave each one a simple task, based on the experience they had stated on their CV.  Needless to say, 2 weeks of my time wasted, again with zero results.

Jobs were piling up, time wasted instructing staff, crazy amounts of money wasted paying recruitment companies for nothing. I needed an answer and fast.  So this all seemed to make sense at the time. Hire someone in the same industry as me, who is already making a certain amount of income online but would be happy with extra cash. They know the business already. My overall experience here was good. There was little to no questions, work was always complete exactly as I wanted without instructions, but there always must be a downfall .  In Internet Marketing we all know its a building process overtime. As I a hired a person  who is up and coming and already had an online business I noticed over time the many paid working hours would be spent promoting their business and not the business they were hired to promote. This is always expected to happen and you should stick to the normal business rules when outsourcing.

Ok, so far I told you about all the mistakes I’ve made and  where I’ve gone wrong. Keep reading  for some powerful tips.

Hiring & Paying Your VA

to end up paying someone $10 – $30 a hour so they can research how to complete the task. They should already know and be able to complete the task fast, saving time and money. At times, depending on the project, I ask for a price and a time-frame. But, noticed this can lead  to either low quality work, as they just want to complete it, or the opposite more expensive, telling you the work will take 3 days and it could be done in 8 hours. What I would do if I found a very good programmer, (which is difficult) and you notice their work is too slow for the hourly rate, ask them to price jobs based on the work required and ask for a time-frame.

The same applies for basic HTML programmers. For example, setting up basic squeeze pages, one time offers, complete sales funnels, and even your own affiliate programs using rap action profits requires only some basic skills. If you do not have the experience in doing any of the above, I highly recommend you put a little time and effort into learning so you can help your business and help your VA. Using screen share technology you can easily control the mouse and keyword of your VA’s computer, making training a breeze without mic to mic conversations.

Finding & Training Your VA

The great thing I noticed about VA’s and, in the my experience isthis. Filipinos love to learn. I’ve always know my SEO and basic programming skills but ask me to put up a Fanpage for example and I’ll run.  By providing training on what tasks you need to complete, your VA should be willing to learn if you provide the right material.

Where do you get training material for your VA’s? The great thing about the www (world wide web) anything, anyone needs to know  is on the Internet for free. Information is free and right at your finger tips. Its a great world , but you still need templates, graphics and certain software tools. Please note: the idea of this post was not a long sales pitch for my site, but rather anything you to need to know about Internet Marketing is there. Many members came back confused what to do with 450 products and 45 Gigabytes of information. Trust me, your VA’s will make very good use of this site. Click here to join.

Outsourcing Article Writting

Articles writers are probably the easier type of VA to find. With many websites you can find articles writers for $1.50 – $3.00 per article. I’ve never had the work for a full-time article writer but always have one at hand. I pay between $1.50 – $2.00 per article 300 / 400 words and work is delivered within 2 – 4 days. Using the same writer for 12 months with no problems. I would recommend always read the content before publishing and make sure your writer understands the basic rules of SEO as well. Each time I send in an order I just provide a title and  a few more words on what type of article I am looking for. I also provide the main keyword / words, and instruct the writer to place the main keyword in the first, middle, and last paragraph with a keyword density of 3 %- 5%.

Regarding copywriters. I’ve worked on a few projects which required somewhat of a more professional copywriter and lets just say they don’t come cheap. You should expect to pay anything from $150 – $15,000 for a sales copy and from $60 – $300 for articles and followup letters.

Graphic designers, skilled programmers, copywriters  are probably the easier type of VA to manage, as many tasks will be paid upon completion. They either know how to do the job or they don’t. No baby sitting or training should be required. This is another reason you’ll probably pay a higher rate. I know many people as just looking for a general person to help with simple daily tasks. For example, support desk help, checking emails, providing daily reports, updating membership sites, keeping fanpages active, setting up ad tracking, blog in-stallion, backlink building, forum posting, and the list goes on depending on what type of business you are running.

Success With Your VA

In the first few paragraphs you read where it kept going wrong for me, but I did finally get it right. While with the recruitment agency I remembered one guy who likes to learn, but the recruitment agency required staff to work basically while I slept. I still had this guy in my Skype so I contacted him and talked about money and hours. I stressed “work hard, earn more, learn more, earn more, the longer you work for me, the more you earn”. Rewards, rewards, and more rewards. I spent more than 4 weeks walking my new VA (Justin) though every single part of my online business. I setup blogs and websites, which I knew were never going to make money, for training purposes. Best time to do this, as there is always room for errors, and this is the time and place to make mistakes. You don’t want mistakes on your personal or company blog, fanpage or website

1. Teamviewer – Free Screensharing / Remote Access Software ( Easiest way to train anyone )
2. Timedoctor – Task & Time Management Software ( Have your VA’s use this )
3. Jing (TechSmith) – Easily take screenshots and place arrow on texts on images and share ( Saves lots of time )
4. - Time & Patience – Spend time training your VA  on every task. If the task is completed incorrectly use teamviewer to show your VA an example of the correct format. If shown clearly the mistake should not be made again.Explain every task clearly and give examples, using jing to make diagrams, include font sizes, font styles, your preferred colours, you main keywords if required. Lower paid VA’s in general, unless you train them, do not think for themselves, and will only do exactly as you asked them too. So if your wondering why your page looks bad upon completion, it is generally because you did you correctly instruct them.

Building trust is also very important and remember, the reason why we all wanted to quit our JOB. Why we choose or want to be self employed. We don’t like orders, bossy people putting you down, putting you under pressure and not rewarding you when you think you deserve rewards. Your VA also doesn’t  want a 9 – 5 job, and  is why they choose to work from home as well. Justin, who I spent time training can now run nearly 80% my business and 100% while I want to take a few weeks vacation, every few months. He is now earning near double the average worker in his country and is now training his friend Skanash everything he knows.  Skanash does not want a JOB because he will need to cut his dreadlocks.. These guys are legends and hard workers (bow).

Set goals, time-frames and targets for them to meet and reward them when deserved. For many who are earning a fulltime income online, if you’re paying $1.50 / $1.75 or $3.00 per hour, you can get some really good VA’s for this, if you train them. The extra $0.25 / $0.50 increasing every few months will not really be missed, but will mean a lot to your VA.

Kevin Fahey