Using Virtual Assistants to Help with Web Promotion

I've been dabbling in the use of a virtual assistant to help with some of the repetitive tasks of website promotion... especially since I'm on the road full time now, it seems like there is never enough time.

If you're interested in doing to same, I used Elance.com to post a project and found a company in India for $2/hr. Right now they are doing some very basic things, like maintaining my twitter account (adding/dropping people) and submitting posts to certain social media sites.

I'm still in the trial and error phase, trying to figure out if it's a good use of time and what tasks are most efficiently delegated.

Do any of you guys have a virtual assistant? If so, how has it worked out? Any tips?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Angela K. Nickerson on January 17, 2009 at 12:33pm

I've been thinking about doing the same thing. I am curious to hear if anyone has had good success with this. Thanks for starting the conversation, Christine.

Permalink Reply by Sandra Friend on January 17, 2009 at 2:49pm

I used Rent-A-Coder to hire a gal from California with expertise in my web software to upload a backlog of evergreen articles to my travel writing website at http://www.friendtravels.com. She did it in just a few days for $1 per article, no images involved. It was a good experience. I'm seriously considering a virtual assistant to help with my travel websites - I have content and no time to format, upload - OR real friends to help me get this show off the ground to create travel products for my websites. Glad to see this conversation and curious what others have done.

Permalink Reply by Shane Sakata on January 17, 2009 at 11:48pm

That seems like an effective use for a virtual assistant but for me I find that the creation part takes more time that the uploading part (I use LiveWriter).

Permalink Reply by Shane Sakata on January 17, 2009 at 11:48pm

I like the idea of a virtual PR person who twitters, stumbles & diggs stuff for you and just generally get's you out there in front of people. in my view it take people a few "touches" before they are a dedicated reader/fan.

The question becomes how much would that cost and how find the right person.

Permalink Reply by Craig Martin on January 18, 2009 at 4:14am

I've been playing with the idea of hiring one for a few specific tasks. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the company after a few weeks.

Permalink Reply by Kim Mance, Founder of TBEX on January 18, 2009 at 9:38am

This is a really interesting thread. We've not hired any virtual assistants, but have interns to do some of those tasks. They get some experience for their resume, and if they're good can help with travel news items, etc, and even have clips for later in their careers. It's really been a win-win.

Permalink Reply by Chris Christensen on January 21, 2009 at 8:09pm

I would also be interested. I have farmed out a few tasks like transcription (for about $0.66 per minute of an interview), but have thought about farming out audio editing and promotion.

Permalink Reply by Douglas Lampi on January 24, 2009 at 3:55pm

Here's what I need a VA to do for me:

Get everything set up with www.ping.fm

Get everything set up with www.onlywire.com

Work your way through all the services on www.profilactic.com

Set up everything you can with www.tubemogul.com, including www.blip.tv and transcription creation with www.castingwords.com

Set up www.tweetlater.com to future post to www.posterous.com - which manages sub-posts to all your blogs etc...

And - tie all the RSS feeds together with aggregators like www.friendfeed.com www.secondbrain.com and others...

THATS what I need a VA to set up for me.

Can you find help who can understand this and do it for you - if so - why are they still a VA??

:-/

Permalink Reply by Laura Byrne Paquet on January 26, 2009 at 7:11am

I was intrigued to hear you mention Tim Ferriss, Soultravelers3. What did you think of his book? I found some good ideas in it, but I must admit I wasn't sure how satisfying it could be to subcontract almost all of your life and business!

Permalink Reply by Duke Getzinger on January 26, 2009 at 12:29pm

Hi Laura: I have read The 4 Hour Work Week a couple of times. Tim make some good points but of course not everything applies. He did help to inspire the development of MileHighSwap.com, if fact, we give him "props" on our registration page and promote the book. We actually got an email from him last week about being one of his "success stories". Someone who took what he said and actually applied it.

Permalink Reply by Gary Arndt on January 25, 2009 at 12:09am

I've consdiered it.

There are some things I don't want another person to do and I'd rather do myself. Any actual management of my website, Twitter, etc, are things I'd rather do myself. Anything which requires feedback or communication with other people.

The things I'd pawn off on someone else are things which require regular maintainance: linkbuilding, social media work, and things like that.

Ideally, I'd like a real assistant who could travel with me and do camera work and video editing.

Permalink Reply by Duke Getzinger on January 26, 2009 at 1:08pm

I have been using VA's for years so I have quite a bit of experience in this area. Here's my 2 cents. The true value of a VA comes in the trust that you have in their work. If you operate your blog for pleasure that's one thing, if you operate your blog for business, that's another.

If you have tedious tasks that are fairly routine or some research that does not involve facts and figures or finding accurate data, then a VA makes sense, as long as you don't find yourself spending time going back to look at the work that they have done. That's counterproductive.

It is also important to establish expectations upfront. You need XY&Z done and you anticipate that it should take no more than X number of hours to accomplish. Simply paying $50 - $100 upfront, seeing an end result after 3 days with a spreadsheet in hand stating that it took them 27.5 hours to complete, just doesn't cut it. Then you begin to wonder why it took so long etc… and the trust factor is gone.

You also need to establish your own expectations on the end result. Are you looking to generate measurable results from the work that you are having them do for you, or are you simply just trying to save yourself some time during the day? For example – If you want the VA to do postings for you on social sites etc. with the intension of generating traffic to your site or blog, and you’re just not seeing it, then is it worth paying someone to do something that is not producing the desired end result?

Once you find a VA who you can rely on, who can put up with you and your demands then it is definitely a nice resource and extra pair of hands to have.

Duke