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My OFS, Julia, is in the process of getting her driver’s license. She’s in her forties, so I was surprised to learn that she’s only started learning how to drive. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/21557765-9a91-be42-b825-0af97e615860.jpg" width="480" height="312" data-file-id="474712" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/21557765-9a91-be42-b825-0af97e615860.jpg" /> She tried learning to drive when she was younger. But she crashed the car, which scared her from driving ever since. But since she and her husband bought a car, she was finally motivated to learn how to drive again. She wanted to enjoy the car for herself and not be a passenger all the time. I realized that her story is a great analogy for those who tried to hire Filipino workers in the past. If it doesn't work out for you, it makes you scared of hiring again. But just as Julia has to drive her car, you have to drive your business. And part of driving a business is getting the right help. Being a business owner can be fun and rewarding if you have smart and capable people helping you. If you’ve had a poor hiring experience in the past, it can be different this time. You can hire a great Filipino worker and avoid the mistakes. I can show you how to do it right this time with <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">OneVAAway.com</a> Drive your business. Stop being a passenger. |
In 2022, many Philippine holidays fell on the weekend. But in 2023, you may have noticed that many of those holidays now land on a Monday or Friday. If your OFS doesn’t work on the weekends, they can expect around 9 “long weekends” if we count regular and special holidays. If your business is affected by this, make sure you talk to your OFS to work on their schedules as soon as possible. These are <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/1?cid=bGN2azRxY2pnajI5OW1scXM3YjAyYjdwbWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/1?cid=bGN2azRxY2pnajI5OW1scXM3YjAyYjdwbWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ">Philippine holidays</a> that will result in long weekends. Regular Holidays - April 6 - 10, 2023 (Th,F,M) - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Day of Valor. - May 1, 2023(Monday) - Labor Day - June 12, 2023(Monday) - Philippine Independence Day - August 28, 2023 (Monday) - National Heroes Day - November 27, 2023(Monday) - Bonifacio Day - December 25, 2023(Monday) - Christmas Day Special Holidays - August 21, 2023 (Monday) - Ninoy Aquino Jr. Day - November 1 - 2, 2023 (Wednesday and Thursday) - All Saints and All Souls’ day. Expect your OFS to ask for a leave on October 31st (Tuesday) for travel to the province and Nov 3rd (Friday) to complete their long weekend. - December 8, 2023(Friday) - Feast of the Immaculate Conception. To make sure you’re updated on Philippine holidays, make sure you subscribe to our <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/1?cid=bGN2azRxY2pnajI5OW1scXM3YjAyYjdwbWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/1?cid=bGN2azRxY2pnajI5OW1scXM3YjAyYjdwbWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ">Google Calendar</a>. It will put the Philippines holidays on your calendar so you're aware of them. PS. My family recently went on holiday to Southern California. It's amazing to me how fast the kids grow. One of my 5 is already out of the house, and another is about to leave. So sad. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/fb13a128-438f-362e-a864-642b8a496196.jpg" width="480" height="360" data-file-id="474740" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/fb13a128-438f-362e-a864-642b8a496196.jpg" /> |
Chat GPT is everywhere. People keep asking me if it is replacing VAs. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/b48024d9-5ba9-f564-30a5-008ef3243cf3.jpg" width="480" height="325" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/b48024d9-5ba9-f564-30a5-008ef3243cf3.jpg" data-file-id="474748" /> Yes and No. Yes, in a sense that it can help get rid of a lot of busy work that your VA is doing. If you need your VA to write ten articles daily for your content marketing, an AI can do that faster. But once your AI has generated those articles, somebody’s got to read through them and check if they’re good and on topic. They need to be checked for plagiarism. They need to be uploaded. Those articles would need links and images. You need to create social media posts to promote those articles. An AI can’t do all that for you automatically. Not yet. Here’s the thing, these are also jobs that not all VAs can do. If you want to make sure that the content generated by that AI is on brand and up to par with your standards, you need someone who really knows your business. A VA can't do that. If you want to make sure that your AI-generated content is promoted in a way that maximizes exposure to the right audience, you need someone who really understands your market. A VA can't do that. If you want to ensure that after you’ve promoted your content, your audience can interact with someone who can anticipate their needs, you’ll need someone who knows your customers. A VA can't do that. An Online Filipino Specialist CAN! Even better, you can <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/artificial-intelligence/2dd0692ccbadb1132a63c285eaf765475522529/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/artificial-intelligence/2dd0692ccbadb1132a63c285eaf765475522529/0">find an Online Filipino Specialist who can help you build and understand AI</a>! Will AI replace your virtual assistant? Probably. But for every other job that an AI and a virtual assistant can’t do, you’ll need an OFS. We've been playing with it for content creation. It's amazing, but not up to our standards (or voice, or tone). We're also in early stages of seeing if we can provide better customer support with it. Not replacing our customer support, but providing better customer support. We'll see. John |
After I released that <a href="/phone-services-you-can-use-with-your-ofs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="/phone-services-you-can-use-with-your-ofs/">newsletter on phone services</a>, I got a lot of responses on phone services that are not on the list. So here's an update based on what subscribers told me: <a href="https://www.unitelvoice.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.unitelvoice.com/">Unitel</a> <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/dp/ucaas-intl/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-bbt_aus&utm_term=dialpad&utm_content=514240878381&_bk=dialpad&_bt=514240878381&_bm=p&_bn=g&utm_device=c&source=cpc&utm_location=9067223&_bg=119218935045&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkr6rTX7sSEsAG5KLf0rboSqc_OB_X8CNwktUowC7bMwQzknn3xh43JRoCJEIQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.dialpad.com/dp/ucaas-intl/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-bbt_aus&utm_term=dialpad&utm_content=514240878381&_bk=dialpad&_bt=514240878381&_bm=p&_bn=g&utm_device=c&source=cpc&utm_location=9067223&_bg=119218935045&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkr6rTX7sSEsAG5KLf0rboSqc_OB_X8CNwktUowC7bMwQzknn3xh43JRoCJEIQAvD_BwE">Dialpad</a> <a href="https://www.ooma.com/office/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.ooma.com/office/">Ooma Office</a> <a href="https://www.twilio.com/go/twilio-brand-sales-1?cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_med=&cq_plt=gp&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=twilio&utm_campaign=G_S_APAC_Brand_Brand_EN_PH_Phrase&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkrzEHgnFjqF_suG04tzQqh-2ip51T2Iu3PLIicupjfawxIfjvLijsuxoC3IwQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.twilio.com/go/twilio-brand-sales-1?cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_med=&cq_plt=gp&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=twilio&utm_campaign=G_S_APAC_Brand_Brand_EN_PH_Phrase&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkrzEHgnFjqF_suG04tzQqh-2ip51T2Iu3PLIicupjfawxIfjvLijsuxoC3IwQAvD_BwE">Twilio</a> <a href="https://web.whatsapp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://web.whatsapp.com/">WhatsApp</a> <a href="https://www.zegocloud.com/product/voice-call?_source=g&_keyword=twilio%20voice&_adsgroup=135123669592&_adscamp=16592306840&utm_term=twilio%20voice&utm_campaign=%E8%8F%B2%E5%BE%8B%E5%AE%BE-%E4%BA%A7%E5%93%81-Voice%20Call-%E7%AB%9E%E5%93%81%E8%AF%8D&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4689334831&hsa_cam=16592306840&hsa_grp=135123669592&hsa_ad=587965529223&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-40294503664&hsa_kw=twilio%20voice&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkr0aayS9EHNyvZn7MymRL7fovj0G40_FGztL4oHYDXi18In40oR5VJBoCXJ8QAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.zegocloud.com/product/voice-call?_source=g&_keyword=twilio%20voice&_adsgroup=135123669592&_adscamp=16592306840&utm_term=twilio%20voice&utm_campaign=%E8%8F%B2%E5%BE%8B%E5%AE%BE-%E4%BA%A7%E5%93%81-Voice%20Call-%E7%AB%9E%E5%93%81%E8%AF%8D&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4689334831&hsa_cam=16592306840&hsa_grp=135123669592&hsa_ad=587965529223&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-40294503664&hsa_kw=twilio%20voice&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkr0aayS9EHNyvZn7MymRL7fovj0G40_FGztL4oHYDXi18In40oR5VJBoCXJ8QAvD_BwE">ZegoCloud</a> <a href="https://dialdesk.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=prospecting_oct22_sea&utm_content=general&utm_term=business%20phone%20solutions&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkr2pezPApKijxMiVfDiqLakiGAhE55DZ_KmSMtI3WM9myz3qxRCmyKxoC1B4QAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://dialdesk.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=prospecting_oct22_sea&utm_content=general&utm_term=business%20phone%20solutions&gclid=CjwKCAiAkfucBhBBEiwAFjbkr2pezPApKijxMiVfDiqLakiGAhE55DZ_KmSMtI3WM9myz3qxRCmyKxoC1B4QAvD_BwE">DialDesk</a> Not a phone service but a subscriber also recommended <a href="https://www.heymarket.com/pricing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.heymarket.com/pricing/">HeyMarket</a>, which is an SMS/text messaging service. This service is good if you use SMS a lot for marketing and customer support. Here’s another option that I got that I just had to share in verbatim: Any phone provider that provides IP phone services should be able to set up an overseas OFS with a soft phone app either a cell phone or computer. I pay $25 a month for her line and my ofs can make unlimited calls to and from the United States. And since her phone is tied into my phone system, she has an extension. I can dial her extension and talk to her. In addition, when people call my business phone number, she has an extension which people could just punch in and get through straight to her. She can also call other countries for the same rates that I pay. Note: setting up a soft phone is what most of the companies we've mentioned will do. Here’s another solution that’s not applicable to everybody but can work if you’re in Australia. You don’t need to know how to set up a PBX (although I do), just need to know to ask your local ISP for a virtual PBX and VoIP phones. Then describe to the ISP how you want it set up and they will do the rest. I use Spintel for my services but that is of no use to anyone outside Australia. They also have to think of using the ISP for business not just getting an Internet connection like at home. I find the smaller boutique ISPs are easier to work with, than the bigger Telcos. Armed with this information, you should be ready to <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/-customer-service-/342d460aee72202a430433fb853a1ec94662872/0/1000/337/338/244/339/340" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/-customer-service-/342d460aee72202a430433fb853a1ec94662872/0/1000/337/338/244/339/340">hire an experienced online Filipino customer service representative</a>. Thank you to everybody who replied with their suggestions. If you guys have anything more to add or if you have any other questions or topics you want me to cover, email me at john@onlinejobs.ph My point in sending this is to make it very clear that it's super reasonable to hire an OFS to make phone calls. Here are searches on OnlineJobs.ph for: <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/call-center/7e85dd6bdf7e18dfe4c4469529c9c6ce5587729/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/call-center/7e85dd6bdf7e18dfe4c4469529c9c6ce5587729/0">call center</a> <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/phone-support/0f5f29133bbc8343339e4d0d26f762085587735/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/phone-support/0f5f29133bbc8343339e4d0d26f762085587735/0">phone support</a> <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/cold-calling/db53a7a94bab73bb6476fd58a6fa104b5587740/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/cold-calling/db53a7a94bab73bb6476fd58a6fa104b5587740/0">cold calling</a> <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/telemarketing/80702046e23b484ce7dad092d7cf1beb5587743/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/telemarketing/80702046e23b484ce7dad092d7cf1beb5587743/0">telemarketing</a> Thousands of experienced people looking for work. John |
"John - How do I know if I can trust them?" It's one of the first questions people ask me. Humans are hardwired to be suspicious of things we don’t know or understand. That’s how we protect ourselves. So I understand why you’d be reluctant to trust a stranger halfway across the world to help with your business. What most people don’t know is that fear runs both ways. Filipinos also have this fear when they apply for online work. They are afraid because most people know someone scammed with online work at least once. Many have personally experienced it.<a href="http:// https://mb.com.ph/2022/05/30/cybercriminals-continue-preying-on-filipino-job-seekers-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="http:// https://mb.com.ph/2022/05/30/cybercriminals-continue-preying-on-filipino-job-seekers-report/"> https://mb.com.ph/2022/05/30/cybercriminals-continue-preying-on-filipino-job-seekers-report/</a> <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/80bc5f9d-5810-f99f-d0a0-aca6629054cf.jpg" width="480" height="448" data-file-id="474704" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/80bc5f9d-5810-f99f-d0a0-aca6629054cf.jpg" /> In fact, for most Filipinos, their feelings of fear towards you are stronger than your fear towards them! Taking on a job is a leap of faith for them. They’re choosing to commit all that time to a job where they might not get paid. That’s time they could have spent pursuing other options. They can work for established companies in the Philippines that guarantee a paid job. A paid job means they can pay their rent, utilities, and groceries this month. The worst that could happen when you don't hire an OFS because you don’t trust them is that you’re not growing your business. You can afford to take that risk. But Filipino workers take that risk if they want to feed their families. That’s why I often say that you need to earn their trust just as much as they need to earn yours. The stakes are higher for your OFS. You can find someone trustworthy when you follow the steps I lay out at <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">OneVAAway.com</a>. But when an OFS puts their trust in the wrong employer and they’re scammed, there’s not much they can do. They can’t get that time back. It’s a painful learning experience that will make them more cautious. It's a lesson that leaves them worse off because it doesn't help pay the bills. If you're worried about finding someone you can trust here's something interesting; we deal with more problematic employers than we do problematic workers. Filipinos (generally) are trustworthy. But you won't know until you try it yourself. John PS. Here are Jody and Brian from <a href="https://atozbuildingblocks.com/" data-cke-saved-href="https://atozbuildingblocks.com/">https://atozbuildingblocks.com/</a>. They recognized me at a restaurant last Friday night and came and introduced themselves. I'm so glad they did. They have 2 OFS who they trust their business to. Those 2 OFS also trust them. They're good employers. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/a73a34d2-a413-db61-9b8f-c902f09be655.jpg" width="480" height="360" data-file-id="474744" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/a73a34d2-a413-db61-9b8f-c902f09be655.jpg" /> |
Here's a VA I know who is available to hire. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/09a34b2f-3459-b3da-801d-b586be2fb5b0.png" width="250" height="250" data-file-id="474840" /> Notice I didn't call him an OFS. He's not. And...I don't actually KNOW him. Here's the story... My oldest son is serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The "Mormons". Yes, I'm an active member of this church and an active disciple of Jesus Christ. We try to follow. My son got assigned to the Philippines. This is crazy because when you go on a mission, you don't choose where you go. You apply to go, send your application in, and the church assigns you somewhere. It's not "random", but there was nothing on his application about any connection to the Philippines. When we found out I had no words. So, he gets there and then gets assigned to this little island: Marinduque. You've never heard of it. And, actually, it's not a little island, but the population is small and it's super remote. Like, it takes him 2 days to get to meetings on the main land, which is only like 30 miles away. He has been there for a few months now and has gotten to know a lot of people quite well. He tells me he meets people all the time who are either looking for work or have found work on OnlineJobs.ph. He doesn't often tell people that his dad owns OnlineJobs.ph. But last Sunday he brought someone to me for the first time. He said this guy (VA) needs a job or he's going to have to leave his wife and 2 kids, move to Manila, find a job so he can send home a little money to his family. I was like... "Well...I'm not likely to find him a job. I don't know anything about him." The my son started telling me about him. He's honest, super hard working, and super smart. He's not super talented because he has grown up on this island and hasn't had many opportunities, but he graduated from university and is looking for work. He speaks English, has done some customer support, and likes to do design work and is somewhat talented at it. My son, who before leaving the country as a 19yr old missionary was running a $300k/year business that he started at 11 and grew while going to high school, said he would hire this guy in an instant. He's so confident in this guy that he's the first person in 4 months he has brought to me...and he meets people every day who are out of work. I've emailed with the VA. His English is great. Not perfect. His internet speed is good (145mbps down, 21mbps up). His laptop is good. He's super affordable. He needs full-time work. You'd hire him because you want a general VA. Not an OFS. Someone who doesn't know much but who will grow with you and learn and work really hard to do good work. Someone you can trust. Someone like my first hire, Joven, who I hired in 2005 and who now runs OnlineJobs.ph. I'm sending this email to 100,000 people. 25,000 will read it. One will hire him. If you're interested, reply. John PS. Doing this isn't my favorite. I don't make any money from it. It's not scaleable. It's not automated. And it requires my time. Yuck. But depending on the response I could do more of it. |
Last week I told you about my son in the Philippines and how he had a friend there who needed a job. My son had vetted Marc for me. Marc was trustworthy and hard working, just not super skilled. His option was to travel to Manila for work and leave his wife and 2 kids home, or try to find online work. His plight is common. The Philippines doesn't export many things but they import a lot. That leads to a difficult economic situation (more to come about this in the future). So, they turn to exporting people. They send their people overseas to work and send money home. Families get ripped apart. Children are raised by their grandparents. Communities suffer. That's "just how it is". But not for Marc. One of you hired Marc. He now makes $4/hour. More than enough to support his family on his remote island. His kids will grow up with him at home. They'll know their dad. I get tears just thinking about it as I write this. I had over 100 responses from people asking to hire Marc. Not because he's a super talented OFS. He's not. But because you knew he was trustworthy. Because I had vetted him and said "You can trust this person." So I spent this past week working on more of this. On finding more people you can trust. With Marc I just trusted my son. With these people we put them through the wringer. We've talked to past employers, we've gathered government clearances (it's like the background check of the Philippines), we've verified skills. Some are "VAs". They're not super skilled. Others are OFS: Bookkeepers Accountants Social media managers SEO experts Sales people Customer support Property Management Graphic design Because we have to do a lot of work to vet these people, we're charging to hire them. But we're charging half of what we normally would because of the response last week. If you're looking for a vetted VA/OFS: <a href="https://www.OnlineJobs.ph/vetted-workers" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.OnlineJobs.ph/vetted-workers">www.OnlineJobs.ph/vetted-workers</a> First come, first served. John |
You want to hire an OFS (or maybe even a VA!) but you've been putting it off because you're afraid you don’t know how to do it right? There’s one thing you can do to help you get over your fear of hiring AND help you learn how to hire someone faster. <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/postjob" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/postjob">Write and post a job today!</a> Just do it. It's just not that hard. You can write your job post from scratch or <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/job-post-templates" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/job-post-templates">use a template</a>. It doesn’t have to be perfect. As soon as you’re done, just post it. It's free! What’s the worst that could happen? If you realize that there’s something wrong with the job post, you can easily edit it. Do you need more responses? - Maybe the salary’s too low. - Maybe you listed down too many skills. - Maybe it’s too specific. Edit and post the job again! Not getting the quality of jobseekers that you want? - Maybe the job post isn’t specific enough. - Maybe you didn’t put any instructions that can help weed out unqualified people. - Maybe the timing was off (this happened to me a week ago) Edit and post the job again! Want more help? - Use my step-by-step guide at <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">OneVAAway.com</a>. - email our support: support@onlinejobs.ph Posting the job is the hardest part because it seems daunting. Take the leap. John |
It may be winter where you live (it certainly is where I live), but most Filipinos are preparing for the summer heat. If you sent your OFS 13th-month pay, some of them probably spent that money to buy new fans and air conditioners or upgrade the ones they already have. Some employers are aware of this and have even given their OFS air conditioners as part of their 13th month. we paid the 13th month pay on the 15th. and my personal assistant got a new aircon (only cost us $435 total, but her loyalty and hard work are priceless) Ziv There’s also Bob H., who <a href="/heat-in-the-philippines-and-working-conditions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="/heat-in-the-philippines-and-working-conditions/">bought his OFS air coolers a few years back</a>. It can get scorching hot in the Philippines. In 2022, the highest heat index reached as high as 127 degrees (54 degrees Celcius). Most days, it’s around 86 degrees, but it feels much hotter because it’s humid. It’s the kind of heat that can make you dizzy if you’re not used to it. This is why most homes in the Philippines have at least one electric fan. Many would have at least one per room. If you go into the slum areas, you’ll see few houses with air conditioning. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/107b57d2-652e-bac5-2572-b630e65df6bf.jpg" width="480" height="344" data-file-id="474708" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/107b57d2-652e-bac5-2572-b630e65df6bf.jpg" /> This is one of the reasons why the siesta(Spanish word for an afternoon rest or nap) is a common practice for Filipinos. They sleep when it’s too hot and return to work when the temperature becomes more tolerable. They’ve done it long before they adopted the Spanish term for it. If you’re like Ziv and want to give your OFS something they can use to help them be more productive, you can help them buy something to improve their work conditions. Fans, air coolers, and air conditioners aren’t that expensive in the Philippines. A desk fan in the Philippines starts at around $7. $30 can buy you an air cooler for a small room. Small air conditioners, on the other hand, start at $140. Still not that much. John PS. It's cold where I live and I love it! Watching the snow is one of my favorite things to do. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/ecf39328-5e78-d65d-1465-b3ce762f0200.jpg" width="360" height="480" data-file-id="474844" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/ecf39328-5e78-d65d-1465-b3ce762f0200.jpg" /> |
I got this email from one of my newsletter subscribers asking about how I organize my video training library. I love your emails and am extremely grateful for what you've created with OnlineJobs. I hired a wonderful person a little over a year ago through your site and has helped me tremendously; I don't know how I would have continued to do all the things I needed to do without her. I read your newsletter everyday (which, is also very helpful) and was hoping you might be able to talk a little bit about how you organize your "library" of Snagit training videos for your VAs? Snagit works great, but I'm wondering if there is an easier way to organize the videos as you make them besides just naming and dating them and dropping them in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder. Maybe you could write one of your daily posts about this? This is going to be ... questionable. My OFS wrote a whole response about how I organize my videos. All about spreadsheets and columns and dates... I deleted the whole thing because that's not actually what I do. It's what someone else does. I'm going to give you exactly what I do. It's stupid simple, less "organized" than you think, yet it's permanent. 1. I use Snagit to create screen capture images and videos. This is key. Snagit! You can use Loom or TinyTake or Screencast-o-matic...but I don't know if any of them do what Snagit does that makes this work so well for me. 2. I set Snagit up to upload to MY OWN HOSTING ACCOUNT. I do NOT use their auto upload service. Since it's my own web hosting account (you could use google drive or dropbox or...) I control when things get deleted...which is NEVER! This is really important. You need to upload to somewhere where you know it will not be deleted. 3. I add the URL of that video to an email or a task or a training document. 4. If that email/task/training document is a long term thing, we'll refer back to it regularly and no matter how far in the future it is, my video is still there. If that email/task/training document is a short term thing, we'll stop looking at it and we'll stop looking at that video I created. Either way, the training I created never goes away. It's a big deal when things you create don't go away. Here's a video of me explaining this, created with Snagit: <a href="http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2023-01-26_14-09-38.mp4" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2023-01-26_14-09-38.mp4"><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/555ad69a-0f5d-f1fb-364b-2b706dcefcdf.jpg" width="480" height="335" data-file-id="474848" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/555ad69a-0f5d-f1fb-364b-2b706dcefcdf.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2023-01-26_14-09-38.mp4" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2023-01-26_14-09-38.mp4">http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2023-01-26_14-09-38.mp4</a> Some of you may have gotten a video like this from me in the past. Search your email for "quickvideolearning.com" and I bet whatever I sent you is still there, no matter how long ago I sent it. You don't have to buy your own domain (like "quickvideolearning.com" which is what I bought) but for $10/year to make sure your trainings are always accessible in the same place...it's worth it. John PS. I record videos and take images every day. If you really wanted to spend the time, you could probably find all the trainings I've given my team by guessing every second of every minute of every day on my server until you find them individually. You'd have to sift through a lot of crap to find something relevant (probably not worth it). |
I’ve mentioned a few times that “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is one of those books that shaped the course of my life. It kept me out of debt. It taught me to take appropriate risks. It taught me to buy assets before liabilities. There’s a line in that book that, I think, perfectly illustrates the potential of hiring an OFS: Online Filipino Specialist. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/820836b1-f118-b1e3-4e1b-08a91352759a.jpg" width="480" height="698" data-file-id="474716" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/820836b1-f118-b1e3-4e1b-08a91352759a.jpg" /> "‘I can’t afford it’ shuts down your brain. ‘How can I afford it?’ open up possibilities, excitement and dreams." If you think you can't afford to hire any help, you're limiting yourself. - You can't take on new clients because you don't have help. - You can't grow your business because you don't have help. - You can't go on a vacation or take a break because you don't have help. But when you think about how you can afford to hire an OFS, your brain starts to look for opportunities. "I want to give my OFS this task to get this thing off my plate. With that free time, I can look for more clients." "I've always wanted to improve our customer service. I'll give this task to my OFS so I'll have more time to do something else." "If I delegate one more task to my OFS, I'll be working 1 hour less per week. I can use that time to sleep more." When you don't have an OFS, you can only see what you can't do. When you have an OFS, you start seeing everything you can do. Open yourself up to possibilities, excitement, and dreams. You can start by posting a job at <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">Onlinejobs.ph</a> John |
People always tell me "How can I trust this person?" Their minds immediately go to “What if my OFS steals from me?” With a local hire, you know you can go to the police. But what if your OFS steals your financial information or client list or destroys your website, database, or cloud? What can you do? The good thing about hiring an OFS is that this rarely happens. Digital theft is rare in the Philippines! Three reasons: 1. because your OFS doesn’t want to steal from you. 2. there’s no incentive to steal. 3. if and when they’re caught, the punishment is really steep. Even though it’s really rare, I understand wanting to know what you can do if this unlikely event happens to you. We've seen hundreds of thousands of people get hired through OnlineJobs.ph. We've seen theft happen...but it's so unbelievably rare I only talk about it because you want to hear about it. So my team took it upon themselves to research. They emailed the Philippine Department of Justice - Office of the Cybercrime to ask what’s the protocol regarding reporting cybercrime committed by Philippine citizens against someone who is not in the Philippines. This is the email my OFS sent. Because many employers are concerned about the safety of their data, they are concerned that some Filipinos they hire as off-shore contractors may breach their trust, data, and information security, we'd like to know: Since the employers do not have any entity in the Philippines, can they report Philippine based Filipino workers to the Philippines' DOJ for cybercrime if they steal, sell, or destroy data? The DOJ responded with: The normal course of action, therefore, is for them to file a report to their local law enforcement so that they can coordinate with their Philippine counterparts. They may also file a complaint to the nearest Philippine Consular Office by executing a consularized affidavit and sending it to the Chief of National Bureau of Investigation - Cybercrime Division, 5th Floor, VTEC Tower, 1257 Gregorio Araneta Avenue cor. Maria Clara St., Quezon City, Philippines or to the Director of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, Camp Crame, Quezon City. For their contact details, they may visit the following links:<a href="http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions"> http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions</a> and <a href="https://acg.pnp.gov.ph/main/contacts" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://acg.pnp.gov.ph/main/contacts">https://acg.pnp.gov.ph/main/contacts</a>. That’s pretty straightforward. If ever a Filipino worker commits a cybercrime against you, you can first contact your local law enforcement to file a formal complaint. Your local law enforcement will coordinate with their Philippine counterparts, and the ball will start rolling. You can also file a complaint with the Philippine consulate if you live close to one. The Philippines government takes theft seriously. They don't tolerate it. There is no "$950 California theft law" in the Philippines. If you steal and are caught, you're going to jail. Everyone in the Philippines knows this and it's almost always enough to deter people. It’s not worth losing your reputation and future opportunities just for a bit of extra money. I want to remind you that I am not a lawyer. Nobody on my team is a lawyer. Listen to your lawyer. Consult your lawyer. But you won’t be needing this information if you have a solid hiring process that consistently gets you good, trustworthy, reliable Filipino workers. That’s what I teach at <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">OneVAAway.com</a>. John |
You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dream a reality. - Walt Disney <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/0ade1e99-78b5-9836-7692-4a29eef2a5d0.jpg" width="480" height="348" data-file-id="474728" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/0ade1e99-78b5-9836-7692-4a29eef2a5d0.jpg" /> I don't think I can say it better than him. Your business requires people. Ready to take the leap? Start with <a href="https://www.OFSGuide.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.OFSGuide.com">www.OFSGuide.com</a>. <-- Answers the top 9 questions I get asked Then use <a href="https://www.OneVAAway.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.OneVAAway.com">www.OneVAAway.com</a> <-- Guides you through hiring an amazing OFS Or, just post a job at <a href="https://www.OnlineJobs.ph" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.OnlineJobs.ph">www.OnlineJobs.ph</a> <-- It's just a job board kind-of like Indeed.com. You post a job, people apply. You interview and hire however you want. There are no commitments or requirements of full-time or how you pay or benefits or ... John |
I get a lot of emails from employers and Filipino workers telling me how Onlinejobs.ph changed their lives. But this...is different. Here's a conversation I had last week with my oldest child, Austin. He was sent to the Philippines for his mission with the Church of the Latter-Day Saints and assigned to a remote island in the Philippines. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2czGqddhVM" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2czGqddhVM"><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/7e9560c7-b165-510e-5adc-6a24330ca71b.jpg" width="356" height="505" data-file-id="474852" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/7e9560c7-b165-510e-5adc-6a24330ca71b.jpg" /></a> <a href="https://youtu.be/_2czGqddhVM" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://youtu.be/_2czGqddhVM">https://youtu.be/_2czGqddhVM</a> Here's what I learned. 1. The Philippines does very little exporting. Individual islands do even less exporting. When you don't export anything, you have no money coming in, just money going out to buy goods. 2. They solve this problem by exporting people. 3. Exporting people destroys families. The Philippines government has actively encouraged workers to go find work overseas and send money home. The problem is it doesn’t account for the emotional and mental toll it takes on a culture that deeply values family ties. It doesn’t consider the strained and broken relationships brought about by distance and neglect. But with every OFS, we know: That’s one family where the mom or dad doesn’t have to leave the island so that they can make enough money to support themselves. That’s one family where the kids can grow up with both parents. They don’t have to go through the pain of homesickness and separation. That’s one family where the grandparents can just enjoy their grandkids. They don’t have the added burden of being full-time parents when they’re old and retired. When you <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">hire an OFS</a>, you’re doing a lot of good. You’re helping families and communities. Be proud of that. And, look. About 98% of the people on OnlineJobs.ph are honest, hard working, loyal people. They just want to find work to support their family. Finding trustworthy people IS NOT HARD! Either post your job today at OnlineJobs.ph or use my <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">www.OneVAAway.com</a> challenge to post your job today. Either way it's a win-win-win-win-win-win. You win. Your family wins. Your business wins. They win. Their family wins. Their community wins. Stop kicking the can. Hire someone. If you have questions about "can I hire THIS kind of person", just respond to this email. It comes to me. John |
I talk a lot about earning your OFS (Online Filipino Specialist) trust and giving them training and benefits. Why? Why be so nice to Filipino workers? They work for you! You’re paying them to do their jobs! You’re paying them to work, right!? Right??? Yes, you’re right. When you hire an OFS and pay them right, they’ll do their jobs. But something amazing happens when you inspire them and boost their self-esteem. Being a good boss is actually good for business. I know that compared to other businesses, I have a low turnover rate. I have Filipino workers messaging me every day, wanting to work for me because they know that Onlinejobs.ph is a great company to work for. When you give your OFS benefits, it boosts their trust in you. They're less likely to leave. More likely to do better. When your OFS gets training, it boosts their confidence. They're confident that they're doing the job correctly. This gives them the confidence to take on more challenging tasks. This isn’t unique to Filipino workers, but it's especially effective with them. When you have all the best people wanting to work for you, all you need to do is have a hiring process that helps you find the people who best fit your business. That’s what I teach with my <a href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onevaaway.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">One VA Away hiring challenge</a>. What kind of OFS do you want to hire? <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/seo-expert/926e615466a5b1ce1e779f5dc8fafae35729748/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/seo-expert/926e615466a5b1ce1e779f5dc8fafae35729748/0">SEO expert</a>? <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/forex/a51e12c7aff691306b3299cae2a088a85729752/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/forex/a51e12c7aff691306b3299cae2a088a85729752/0">Forex trader</a>? <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/gohighlevel/da2b4c368a5cfe6025c39d0d6e23eb735729757/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/gohighlevel/da2b4c368a5cfe6025c39d0d6e23eb735729757/0">GoHighLevel expert</a>? <a href="https://www.OnlineJobs.ph" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.OnlineJobs.ph">Anything else</a>? John |
I have a neighbor who sells shoes on eBay. He has like 3,000-5,000 Pairs of shoes...in his basement! He's always wearing some cool new pair of unique shoes. I've mentioned to him a number of times about hiring OFS and he's always like "Oh, there's nothing they could do for me. I have to do it all myself." Ok...I mean...I believe there are some things that he has to do by himself. He’s amazing at finding great deals on shoes that will sell really well. That’s what’s making his business successful. Then I turn around and have an email in my inbox from someone else saying "I run an eBay business selling "___" and I just hired my 6th OFS and they do this and this and this on eBay for me." Guess which eBay business is bigger? Actually, no. Guess which eBay business owner works less? I know every business has a unique selling point, but for the most part, that’s probably the only thing unique about your business. Everything that supports that unique selling point, everything that makes it possible, isn’t unique. To give that unique selling point to your customers, you need: - <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/marketing/c769c2bd15500dd906102d9be97fdceb5729767/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/marketing/c769c2bd15500dd906102d9be97fdceb5729767/0">marketing people</a> to spread the word. - <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/Office-and-Admin/f9906ba2198dcac31245e8556a1cfe6a5729768/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/Office-and-Admin/f9906ba2198dcac31245e8556a1cfe6a5729768/0">admin people</a> to keep things running smoothly. - <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/customer-support/64430ad2835be8ad60c59e7d44e4b0b15729771/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/customer-support/64430ad2835be8ad60c59e7d44e4b0b15729771/0">customer support</a> to make sure your clients are happy. - <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/tech-support/6be0cc4b7fd9b6c28453714102a8fb2b5729773/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/tech-support/6be0cc4b7fd9b6c28453714102a8fb2b5729773/0">technical support</a> so you can automate Getting someone to help you in your business doesn’t make it less special. It actually gives you more time to focus on that special thing, that magic, because you have people taking care of everything else. Check out <a href="https://www.ofstasks.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.ofstasks.com/?he=*|EMAIL|*&el=email">OFSTasks.com</a> to see what OFS are doing for other businesses in your industry. John |
Riding a bike is so easy...once you know how. Once you know, you can't imagine not knowing how. To a lot of people, a bike adds freedom, opportunity, exercise, competition, transportation... Here's my daughter competing in her last high school race: <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/50e1ea34-8f2f-f752-8690-ff668d7b8f48.jpg" width="480" height="266" data-file-id="474856" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/50e1ea34-8f2f-f752-8690-ff668d7b8f48.jpg" /> Hiring an OFS is similar. It seems so daunting. So hard. So..."I can't do this" So...let me outline how easy this actually is. Once you know how, you'll never NOT know how. 1. Search and view some profiles at OnlineJobs.ph - this is always the first step because it requires no commitment by you. Search something like: <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/amazon-fba/17a573e4b9b7c57ad158b020109989ae5747387/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/amazon-fba/17a573e4b9b7c57ad158b020109989ae5747387/0">Amazon FBA expert</a> <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/adwords-expert/3ca5b8816bf3b6f4cdfe38fe76afb1474002230/0/186/341/342/244/343/344" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/adwords-expert/3ca5b8816bf3b6f4cdfe38fe76afb1474002230/0/186/341/342/244/343/344">Google adwords</a> <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/real-estate-va/566a8218d8c79943f79d8f07cb0b7e635747396/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/real-estate-va/566a8218d8c79943f79d8f07cb0b7e635747396/0">Real estate VA</a> <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/shopify/329a01fddb5a552265170b02c579c85f5747399/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/employers/skillsearch/shopify/329a01fddb5a552265170b02c579c85f5747399/0">Shopify Developer</a> Look at some profiles. You'll get a really good idea of what's out there. 2. Post a job. Super simple. Don't over complicate this. Post a few sentences. It's free. 3. Interview applicants via email. Ask them some questions. You don't need to do any prep work. No scheduling. No time zones. No video conference links. Just keep asking them questions. ^^^^^ This is my secret to hiring fast, easy, efficiently, and almost always finding someone great! 4. Hire the best fit. If you're still not sure, use the steps at <a href="https://www.OneVAAway.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.OneVAAway.com">OneVAAway.com</a> Hiring an OFS is easier than learning to ride a bike. And to a lot of employers, it gives MORE freedom than a bike. And to the person you hire, it's life changing. John |
Job titles aren’t that important to me. But in the Philippines, it’s a big deal. An impressive job title is a source of pride. A nice-sounding job title announces to their family and friends how good they are at their job or how much money they’re making without openly bragging about it. This cultural thing is what Lukas used to find himself a great OFS. When he used Executive Assistant in his job post, he wasn’t getting good applicants. But with one small tweak, he started receiving applications from the candidates he wanted. Here’s what he said in his email. I was looking for somewhat of a general VA but with more experience and strong communication skills. I got plenty of applications but very few qualified candidates. A couple of awesome candidates, but none that felt like a home run. I tried changing the job title to CoS (Chief of Staff), reached out to a handful of profiles, and had completed applications, test projects, AND interviews within 12hrs with 2 STELLAR candidates. Interviewing 1 more later today and hiring someone tomorrow. Amazing talent! Just had to look for and advertise the right job title/role! The job title matters. Another thing you can do is browse through the <a href="https://www.onlinejobs.ph/">OnlineJobs.ph</a> database and invite promising candidates to apply for your job post. This way, you’ll also reach workers who may not have seen your job post. Last, if you're not getting the quantity or quality of applicants you want, try posting your job again. It's weird and I can't figure it out. One day I'll post a job and get 4 applicants. 2 days later I'll post the same job and get 15 job applicants, with a bunch of really qualified people. It's not something we're doing with our software. It has something to do with timing...but I don't know yet. John |
Every day I get emails from people saying "Do you have X type of worker?" Yes, yes we do. I usually reply with a search result from OnlineJobs.ph. With over 2,000,000 Filipino profiles, we have people who can do almost anything. And, it’s easy to find great applicants at OnlineJobs.ph. BUT...I'm also aware that there are also a lot of poor-quality applicants. People who don't read the job post. People who send a crappy form application. People who are unqualified and don't care. I hate that this is happening because it’s making it harder for you (and me) to find amazing people. It has been eating at me for years...but I didn't know how to fix it. Until a few months ago. Introducing Apply Points. Apply Points is a limited resource all applicants must use when applying to jobs. Because it's limited, those who are careful with it will stand out to you. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/3f3a03c9-5626-75eb-e1fb-b18b70d644d5.jpg" width="480" height="337" data-file-id="474876" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/3f3a03c9-5626-75eb-e1fb-b18b70d644d5.jpg" /> I could write a bunch about it, but my team did a really good job of <a href="https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/apply-points-helping-the-best-and-most-qualified-applicants-stand-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/apply-points-helping-the-best-and-most-qualified-applicants-stand-out">explaining how AP helps you find better candidates more easily</a>. I want to clarify that Apply Points isn’t a measure of how qualified they actually are. You still need to interview, ask questions, and do test tasks. Apply Points is just our way of weeding out the ones who put in no effort applying, and pushing forward jobseekers who want to work for you and feel that they can be a great addition to your business. When it went live a few weeks ago I was hiring and it was awesome. I got like 20 applicants. A bunch used 1 Apply Point. I didn't even open their applications. A number use 3 Apply Points. Fine. Then a couple use 8, 12, or even 30 Apply Points. Those were the applications I paid attention to first. Not all the high point ones were great applications, but most were. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/78a9cc3d-c50c-5093-6051-feb2be7b9be8.jpeg" width="480" height="224" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/78a9cc3d-c50c-5093-6051-feb2be7b9be8.jpeg" data-file-id="474884" /> We’re constantly improving this so let me know what you think. Has it improved your experience? Are you getting better applicants now? Email me at john@onlinejobs.ph John |
Most people aren't going to like hearing this. Working 40 hours/week is overrated. Most people working 40 hours/week fritter away time. They watch funny cat videos on YouTube, they scroll Facebook. They read "news". I don't do any of it. No FB. No news. No Youtube. No, I haven't seen "that video". No meetings. No phone calls. No 40 hours. With my type of business, I can work anywhere. As long as I have a laptop and an internet connection, I can answer emails, give feedback, create content, etc. But I don't. I don’t like bringing my laptop on vacation. I don't want to be thinking about work when I'm home. I don’t like bringing my work with me. When I work, I’m in my home office and I'm super productive. I (most of the time) make sure I finish what I’ve set out to do that day. I’m focused when I’m in that room, and I’m away from any distractions. That’s how I get a lot of work done despite working only 17 hours a week. Well...that and my team of OFS. All the emails get answered. I’m on top of most ongoing projects. My team gets feedback from me regularly. I troubleshoot problems, and I come up with new ideas for the business. I don’t need to work 40 hours a week to get 40 hours of work done. When I’m being super productive, I don’t want to drop what I’m doing simply because I have to attend a meeting. I don’t want to stop working because my OFS needs me to answer their questions ASAP. An OFS working on a different timezone helps you be more productive while you work. There's a time for giving feedback, then there's a time for getting your own work done. Quickly. Without distraction. John PS. The other day while coming back from skiing with my new "Moonbike", this moose was standing on the road. We stood there for 45 minutes waiting for him to go away. 45 minutes from 5:15 - 6pm! Cold! But what a beautiful animal. <img src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/78c494d3-00fd-a176-f730-648373ae4711.jpg" width="360" height="480" data-file-id="474888" data-cke-saved-src="https://mcusercontent.com/4bdbf922212cd053de282f27f/images/78c494d3-00fd-a176-f730-648373ae4711.jpg" /> |
I’ve talked before that setting up shop in the Philippines is really hard, and that’s still the case today. People sometimes want advice on how to set up a legal entity in the Philippines and my advice is DON'T. It's really difficult, and the Philippines government is not trying to make it easier. But if you want to set up shop in the Philippines just because you want your OFS to work in the same place without going through the paperwork and government red tape, you might want to consider renting from a co-working space. Now that most COVID restrictions have been lifted in the Philippines, co-working spaces are opening up again. The great thing about co-working spaces: - It lets your business have an “office space” where your OFS team can work without having to set up shop in the Philippines. - Most co-working spaces in the Philippines have Fiber internet, back-ups, and a generator. Blackouts and internet outages would be less of a problem. - Your OFS will be comfortable because most of these places have air-conditioning and unlimited coffee. We know that some OFS use co-working spaces as back-up offices where they pay by the day. They go there if there’s an internet/power outage at home, or a change of scenery. If your OFS team all live in the same place, having them together in a co-working space makes sense. You don’t have to worry if your OFS can’t get back-up internet or upgrade their internet because their area doesn’t have that service. Despite these advantages, most of our OFS still prefer to work from home for the following reasons: - Most co-working spaces are in big cities, which means commuting through traffic. - Not all co-working spaces are open 24 hours a day. OFS that work at night can’t use it. In most places, it’s also safer for them to just work at home. - It can be expensive. The average cost per desk is around $100 per month, but some offer cheaper rates when you get more desks. It’s more expensive for your OFS too, because they’ll have to spend for fare, outside food, etc. So if you only have a small OFS team or your team is distributed nationwide, it’s cheaper just to give them an internet allowance. - Some co-working spaces will require you to be a registered business in the Philippines if you rent out a bigger office or a lot of seats. Take note that a co-working space will NOT manage or monitor your OFS for you. They just rent out the space. They can’t force your OFS to show up for their shift. They’re not going to watch over your OFS to make sure they’re working. But, if you're looking for office space in the Philippines without the hassle of setting up a legal entity there, this could be a really good option. John |
In case you don't know, there was a typhoon in the Philippines 4 days ago. It's bad. I'm writing this blog post for 2 reasons: 1. A call for donations 2. Answering questions I've gotten -------------------------- 1. A call for donations -------------------------- I've never asked people to donate to anything before, but this disaster really hit home. One of the girls I employ in the Philippines lost her uncle. Someone else I know has a VA who lost a sister. People there don't have water, food, clothes, blankets, shelter. I hooked up with an organization who normally ships stuff to Africa but now is sending their normal stuff to the Philippines. If you can donate anything, please do: http://purecompassion.org/urgent-shipment-needed-in-phillippines-now/ Whether you can donate $500 or $5, it's going to help. On that page, be sure to click the link right below the "Donate" button to read more. Please don't wait on this, people are suffering right now. I talked with the guys who run that website. They're not a huge organization, but they're very well organized and have a lot of experience with this. Also, Google has a page where you can find other places to help: http://www.google.com/landing/typhoon-ondoy.html -------------------------- 2. Answering questions -------------------------- I had quite a few people ask me the question today: "How does this affect your ability to outsource to the Philippines" I have 2 answers: 1. Short term: My people are not working for a few days 2. Long term: It doesn't! A similar typhoon came through the Philippines 2 years ago and some of my GUYS were very affected by it. They didn't have power for 4 days. They struggled for a while. I sent them money to rebuild their houses. Short term I lost a week of work from them. Not a big deal. Long term, it didn't affect anything. I still continue working with them. They still continue doing great work for me. Please consider donating some money if you can: http://purecompassion.org/urgent-shipment-needed-in-phillippines-now/ |
There are a lot of online tools I use in running my business. Tools which at one point I didn't know existed, and when I found out about them, I said "HOLY COW!!! THAT SAVES ME HOURS OF TIME AND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!!" I attempted to create this list somewhat here, but it was just too much content creation for me (I just don't like creating ongoing content...that's why I only blog once a month!). So, here's a big laundry list of tools I use to run my business, and just in general good internet websites to know about. This is a list that comes from my experience in doing online business, as well as the knowledge of my mastermind group. If you have great sites to add, please add them in the comments. Maybe I'll add them to my main list if I start using them. Testing/Tracking Crazyegg.com - heatmap click tracking Woopra - website analytics Statcounter - Not the most detailed analytics, but gives very important trend/keyword data easily. Great for affiliate websites. Google Website Optimizer - free split testing and multi-variate testing ClickTale - web analytics that takes a video of your users mouse/actions ClickDensity.com , similar to crazyegg.com... Site Yogi Free consolidated website statistics Video/Audio/Picture Audacity - free audio editing Jing - free screen capture/sharing tool JW Player - best free flash player (the best flash player...period) Super - free video conversion tool (the best free video converter - converts from anything to anything) Download VSO Image Resizer - right click to resize/save images to a different format OnlineVideoToolkit - How to do video with a Flip camera LiveFaceOnWeb.com , Pay to have an actor create a video and "appear" on your site TubeMogul.com Free Video Distribution service (free alternative to traffic geyser) iStockPhoto free stock photos sxc.hu free stock photos Amazon S3 I use them for streaming video and for reliable image/file/video hosting. Pixlr Image Editing - Free alternative to photoshop. Amazing online image editing...free. Outsourcing ReplaceMyself.com - How to outsource to the Philippines Elance - freelancers galore OnlineJobs.ph - Where to find Filipinos to hire BestJobs.ph - Where to find Filipinos to hire Guru, GetAFreelancer, odesk, RentACoder, ScriptLance - More freelance job sites Screen Sharing/Collaboration Crossloop.com - screen sharing for tech support Logmein.com - free alternative to gotomypc.com Adobe Connect now - free (for 3 people) screen/mic/webcam sharing Phone Calling/Recording FreeConferenceCall - a whole suite of phone services - conference lines, voice boxes, broadcasts... Pamela skype recording plugin PhoneTag.com , intercepts voicemail, transcribes it, and texts the voicemail to you (voice recognition to text) Google Voice , If you can get in... MagicJack.com - A usb device that gives you VOIP for dirt cheap. My partner, Dan, uses it exclusively at home. K7.net Free incoming voicemail and fax service AuctionAudio.net or AudioAcrobat.com , 3 way in phone conversations to record Project Management Google Docs - duh Mindmeister.com - free mind mapping tool RememberTheMilk.com - free online todo list (the most full featured online todo list) ActiveCollab - great project management software Graphic Design 99designs.com - People will compete to create a logo/design for your website (cheap graphic design work)contest for cheap graphic/design work DoMyDesignStuff.com - Great graphic designer DesignGuruRyan - Another great graphic designer Kuler.com free Adobe recommended color pairings and design templates Content Creation Screen Steps - tool for creating step by step instructions with screen capture MTurk.com - Get articles written for you for cheap. Also automate human processes. AssociatedContent.com , get content here and then re-write it for articles ExpertVillage.com - collections of video that you can buy from people Findarticles.com , searches offline articles , go buy them from people HowStuffWorks.com , good source of content, like expertvillage Ehow.com , more content, like howstuffworks.com Online Survey Tracking/Creation Zoomerang.com Free Survey Tool Survey Monkey Free Survey Tool Online File Storage/Backup DropBox.com Free file storage, sharing and remote backup from a folder on your desktop! Mozy - Simple online backup solution SugarSync - Online File syncing/storage Backupify - backup your online life! Random Coolness Evernote - free note taking tool (puts notes on your desktop and online, indexes images/pdf to make them searchable) Fatwallet.com - get great deals on "stuff" Gliffy.com - free flow chart design - alternative to MS Visio Filezilla - best free ftp client "The" Paypal Button - Andrew Lock says that if you're doing more than $3000/month in paypal, you can click this button and they'll charge you less transaction processing fees Kayak.com , travel prices aggregated Web-Appointments.com , let people schedule appointments with you when you allow them to Doodle.ch , Group date picking ("when works for everyone?") HandWrittenresults.com Send hand written thank you letters to your list! Ted - Inspirational video presentations from great minds! Windows Notepad Replacement - A better program than what comes with standard windows. RescueTime - Auto tracks and categorizes computer usage. Usable with employees. LastPass Password Manager - Keeps track of all login info across computers. I'll never (hopefully) be without this again. Kunaki - awesome CD/DVD creation/fulfillment service. |
I recently had a great comment/question on my blog: http://www.jonasblog.com/2008/07/how-and-why-you-should-replace-yourself-with-someone-overseas.html/comment-page-2#comment-62563 In a nutshell, David asks "how many sites do your GUYS maintain, and how much are the sties making in order for them to pay for themselves?" I thought the question and answer were informative enough to make a post out of it. Here's my response: David - this is a great observation. I'll tell you a little about my business so you can understand a bit about how I work. I don't know how many sites I currently have; maybe 50, maybe 100? How many have I built over the past years? ...hundreds maybe? Here's a quick breakdown of sites my team has 100% built for me: I have a site that makes me over $15,000/month that my team built. I have some sites that make between $1000-$5000/month that my team built. I have lots of sites that make between $100-$1000/month that my team built. I have even more sites that make me between $1-$100/month that my team built. Most of my sites that my team built don't make me anything! $0. Some of those $0 sites are new; at some point they'll make me money. Lots of them I've given up on because the model/market/niche/site failed. I lost money on those. For me, I just know that the more sites I build, the better chance I have of finding winners. I also know that some of them that I build are going to do really well. Every once in a while I'll get an awesome one. My team (of 3-5, depending on how you look at it) builds and maintains all these sites. Once a site is built and established, it requires less and less maintenance. The thing about all this is that I DIDN'T DO THE WORK! If it were up to me to do the work, none of these sites would have been built or marketed. Because other people are doing it, it got done, and I make money because of it. To me, that's the key to all this. For years I tried to do all the work myself. With that I think I had built 10 sites in a few years and only 1 of them was really successful. With other people doing the work I've built hundreds of sites and lots of them are successful. Frankly, I'm capable of doing better work than my GUYS do. However, I DON'T DO THE WORK even though I'm capable. I don't know...it's just some problem I have. If it's up to me to do the work, it's just not going to get done. For this reason I created my outsourcing system. So others can benefit from what I've done. John |
When it comes to outsourcing your business (or yourself!) to the Philippines, there's definitely a learning curve. Here are 7 ways you can guarantee failure for yourself : (Hint: Don't do these things!) 1. Try To Hire Someone To Do Everything Here's an actual email I got this week So wait...you want a programmer, graphic designer, webmaster, who is fluent in english and likes to write, who can write sales copy, autoresponders, forum posts, ebooks, and reports. Oh yeah, sure, let me help you find that person! Oh wait, that person doesn't exist. Hire someone to do a specific task! Then train them to be able to do everything. 2. Hire A Project Manager Filipinos don't know how to run your business for you. Don't try to hire a project manager first along with 6 others, and expect that "project manager" to manage those other 6 and get things done. They don't know how. YES! They're very capable of being project managers, but very rarely will you find someone who has been involved in enough internet business that you can just turn a project over to them and have them manage other people for you. Eventually...yes! After you've trained them and they've seen how the business is supposed to work. 3. Hire Someone And Ignore Them You have to train the person you hire. They don't know how to run your super-niche internet marketing business. Don't expect to hire someone and just let them go do everything themselves. Expect to spend some time working with them. 4. Ask Someone To Do Work Before You Offer Them A Job This is my favorite. I get an email that says Can you please tell me why I can't successfully hire someone, they all keep disappearing. Here's the email I send them: I want you to start by doing a trial task. Write 20 articles, submit them to article directories, do a bunch of directory submissions for me, build me a website and write all the content for it. Then, I'll evaluate your work and see if it's going to work out. hahahahaha. Yeah right! They're not going to do work until AFTER they know they have a full-time job working for you. Don't give them a test task. Give them a job. Tell them the first month is a probationary period. 5. Expect Immediate Results This is a long-term proposal here. I've been doing it for 4 years. You're not going to see the same results in 4 days. Don't expect it. 6. Search and Search and Search For The Right Person, Then Email Them Hey John, I searched for 3 days and I found the perfect candidate. They can do everything you said wasn't possible back up in #1 on this blog post. Why won't they respond to me? Why? Because they already have a job and they're loyal to their current employer. Instead of trying to find the perfect person up front, try contacting 20 potential fits, see who responds, then sort through them. 7. Set The Wrong Expectations When you hire them, don't tell them you expect them to be totally self-directed and to work without supervision and to be able to figure everything out on their own. If you do, you'll never hear from them again. Try telling them I expect you to try to figure things out, but I understand that I'm going to give you tasks that you won't know how to do, and sometimes there won't be any way to figure it out. In these cases, please know that I'm here to answer your questions. I'm here to help you. Please don't hesitate to ask me when you get stuck. Otherwise, when they don't know how to do something they get embarrassed and will never talk to you again. If you set the right expectation with them about asking for help, they'll ask, you'll help, and all will be happy and good. These aren't hard things to avoid...you just have to know about them to avoid them. There's more good stuff like this as a member of ReplaceMyself.com. |
I haven't been this excited about a product coming out in a long time. This is a special interview I did with Peter, the creator of a product to be released tomorrow. What Peter is teaching is EXACTLY what I do on my websites in terms of the layout and design. It's exactly what I have my GUYS do for me to make me money each month. Where it's different is in his promotion strategy, which is BETTER than what I've been doing. Just listen to this: [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/peter-spaepen-for-blog.mp3"][/audio] My post about making sales Get NanoBloggers Here (when you do, notice the sales process...it's part of nanoblogging) (here's my guarantee) After buying, listen to the bonus audio (it's friggin' amazing!) |
First of all, there's a LOT of misinformation about the new FTC guidelines about bloggers, affiliates, and testimonials. I'm going to outline the main points (from the link above) and give a couple example disclaimers. 1. Clearly Disclose Typical Results From the FTC page: Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. Notice that you CAN use testimonials with results that aren't typical. If you do, you just have to also disclose somewhere what the average user might expect. 2. Disclose Affiliate Relationships From the FTC page: The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that "material connections" (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers , connections that consumers would not expect , must be disclosed. If you get paid or get free "stuff" from advertisers, disclose it. 3. Don't Lie From the FTC page: the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement , or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers Don't make false statements (fake testimonials, fake checks, fake results, ...), don't lie, and disclose your affiliate relationships. Example Here are a couple example disclaimers. Another great way to find your own disclaimers is to look at blogs or websites that are of the same nature as yours, and look at their disclaimer. I would put this in the footer of every page on your site. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I suggest you consult your own attorney. :-) Simple: Disclaimer: I may receive compensation from other websites I mention on my blog. You should probably assume I do. Sometimes (often) products I promote I receive for free. Blog Disclaimer: Disclosure: You should assume that the owner of this website is an affiliate for providers of goods and services mentioned on this website. The owner may be compensated when you purchase after clicking on a link. The owner may also have received the product for free. Perform due diligence before purchasing from this or any other website. Money Making Disclaimer: Income examples are representative of some of the most successful participants in the program. Some individuals purchasing the program may make little or NO MONEY AT ALL. These claims are not a guarantee of your income, nor are they typical of average participants. Individual results will vary greatly and in accordance to your input, determination, hard work, and ability to follow directions. Results will vary by person. Marketing Story Disclaimer: Please also recognize that the story and comments depicted on this site and the person depicted in the story are not real. Rather, the story is based on what some people have achieved with these and other similar products. If you have more insight on this, please post in the comments. If you have more disclaimer info, please post it also. If this was helpful please Digg it --> |
The following is an email that John Barker (the original "Mr X.") sent out last week.I thought it was so full of good info and advice that I asked him if I could publish it. In the email he gives you an example of a profitable affiliate site he has! I'm reading the new edition of the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and I want to share a few thoughts with you. First, is the new edition worth buying if you already own the first? If you're a big fan, sure. Why not. I'd have to compare the books side by side - and I haven't read the complete second edition so it's hard to say exactly what the new info adds. Instead it's a reminder of principles that have influenced my work. If you want to believe 4 hours per week isn't enough to make six-figures or more, go ahead. I could tell you otherwise but you probably wouldn't believe me otherwise. Here are some quick notes you might find useful. DEAL - Define, Eliminate, Automate and Liberate. That's the outline of the book. Define - what do you want? Almost cliche we've heard it so much but when you take the perspective that you work as much as you do because you've been too lazy to come with enough reasons to NOT want to spend most of your time working . . . well that's a paradigm changer for me. I could probably work 1/4 the hours I do and my income wouldn't change (it might even grow). AND I could have a really kick-ass life, all made possible by my Internet marketing lifestyle. Eliminate - what if the goal is to reduce and simplify your life instead of acquiring more information, more responsibilities, more crap? People usually look at me like I'm crazy when I tell that that after the initial shock of losing everything in a house fire passed, I felt the weight of the world off my shoulders. Plus, the really cool thing is that instead of living with a couch Tara hated - but I was attached to because I paid a ridiculous amount of money for it 15 years ago - we got to go buy a new one we both liked. Man, life is so much easier than we make it when we're just willing to let go and eliminate the things which hold us back. "The stuff you own ends up owning you." - Fight Club Automate - The end goal of your online business should be to automate it. Need an example? Go see http://abundancecourse.net It's simple. Find quality product with affiliate program.Setup up site with 6 pages. Page one is squeeze page, page 2-6 are information that leads into a sales pitch (recognize the similarity with how Nanoblogger was sold?)Create autoresponder follow-up series that highlights points from your 5-lessons.To capitalize on competition, it's great if the affiliate program is 2-tiered (this means even if you decided to try to copy and swipe my campaign you can assume all the cost of running ads and I'll still make a 10% commission for your efforts - thanks man!)Setup Adwords campaign and drive traffic. This particular site was created FIVE YEARS AGO. Except for moving the site from a static HTML site to Wordpress 2 years ago for Google Slap reasons, I have virtually not touched this system otherwise. December check = $2400 from one affiliate program. Oh, and then there's the list. :-) Sure, I've left out plenty of key details here but this isn't rocket science. Plus I have ZERO customer support and all that other good stuff that comes with being an affiliate. Finally, Liberate - This is all about creating the conditions in your life that mean you're not tied down. The crazy thing is discipline means freedom. You must have systems and you must have standard operating procedures so you can hire someone else to do it all for you. I'm getting better and better at this. Final Thoughts - The place to start here is defining the life you want. Me? This year I want to get into better shape than I've been in since I was 20. I don't want to sit on my ass all-day anymore. I also want to have the freedom to spend more time at home with my family. I want to be a part of educating my kids and enjoying them fully while their still little. And I want them to have adventures they're going to remember for the rest of their life. Next - Evaluate what makes you money NOW. Not dreaming, hoping, etc, but what do you KNOW works? That should be your focus - do more of that and waste none of your time doing stuff you hope might work for you. If you're trying to free yourself from a J-O-B then you may need to find someone who has a system you can put some faith in. (I know someone who has one ;-) Thing is, if you're going to put your faith into that system then put ALL of your faith into that system and work it until you succeed with it. Don't give up when it comes to work. Don't give up when something high gloss grabs your attention. DECIDE to make it work. Cut yourself off from any other possibility other than making it work. NOW - Don't just close this message and move on. You deserve to have what you want as much as any other human on this planet. Take 5 or 10 minutes and think about it. Define what you want and evaluate what you know to work. There is no magic pill to swallow here - doesn't exist. All the best to you - X PS - Thanks to all those who wrote to congratulate on Noel Patrick's birth. I just haven't had time to write everyone back yet. The little man is doing great and I'm happy to have this time with my family. When our first was born I had a J-O-B and was called back to work when she was 3 days old. That SUCKED. I'm grateful to be free of that. If you're not already on John's mailing list, go here right now and subscribe:http://blackbooksblog.comHe'll mail you like once a month (IF that much), and when he does, it's pure gold! |
On March 19, 20, 21, in Boracay Philippines I'm putting on an outsourcing retreat seminar. This seminar is NOT FOR FILIPINOS! It's for Americans, Australians, Brits, Canadians...Basically, for people who want to understand why the outsourcing they're doing to the Philippines is working SOOO darn well. And...if you're not currently doing it, you can come and find out exactly why it will work so well for you. At the event I'm going to teach some stuff about how I do outsourcing that I've never talked about before. Stuff that will literally double the productivity of your GUYS. There are a couple reasons I'm doing this: because when we did it in Costa Rica 2 years ago it was sooooo fun for everyone who was therebecause it gives me a chance to meet other people (you) who are succeeding in their businessesbecause it's a tax deductible vacationbecause I'm already going to be in the Philippines on vacation with my family for the whole month...because (this is a big one) it will give lots of people an excuse to come and meet their GUYS and make their outsourcing efforts WAY more effective. It's going to be 3 days of networking, learning, fun, and face-to-face question answering. We're also going to go on an excursion together which I will announce later. The hotel where we are doing it can accommodate 70 people for the event. I already have at least 6 of those spots taken (me, Dan, speakers). This will sell out.I'm finalizing all the plans for it right now, and will make it available next Tuesday.The Outsource Retreat is available here |
I had a great comment on my blog that will answer so many people's questions: A great way to show appreciation is to come meet your team. |
Since I'm here in the Philippines for a month (I've been outsourcing to people here for 4 years and this is just my 2nd time here...the first being 3 months ago!), I figured "what a great time to give some great tips on outsourcing yourself and your work to the Philippines. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esZvALwrQx4[/embed] All these tips plus many more are available inside ReplaceMyself.com. Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
Today's tip is about getting started when hiring a Filipino. What are the things you say to them. What are your policies? How do you expect them to work. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgxG2UWFYTo[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
Tip #2 - Filipinos feel unworthy. It's really a big cultural problem that holds them back. They feel like they're not good enough. If you don't know this and know how to take care of it, you're in for a frustrating time. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNh2ltiW-78[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
So often I see people say "I want to hire someone to do X, Y, Z, 1, 2, and 3. They have to have all those qualifications!" I think that's a mistake because the Philippines doesn't have a super developed workforce like in the US. In my opinion, you'll have a better experience if you hire someone to do 1 task for you. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l57TYFDUjUE[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
There are some unique cultural reasons why you'll get much better work from people if you hire them on a permanent, full-time basis. Hiring them part-time just isn't as effective as full-time will be. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43Y6pAo0cw[/embed] You can get the whole story about how to outsource to the Philippines at ReplaceMyself.com. Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
It took me a couple of years to find BestJobs.ph, which for a long time was the best place to hire Filipinos for online work. Today, OnlineJobs.ph is the best place to hire Filipinos. You'll find AMAZING talent at both places. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE87kxWDSoM[/embed] You can find your talented Filipino employee here at OnlineJobs.ph and BestJobs.ph Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
It's important that you don't try to hire someone to do everything at first. Hire them for their English skills, unless you're hiring a programmer, designer, or some specialty job like an accountant. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYONe38Exdg[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
This is something that people don't realize that they don't realize. Filipinos are human beings. They have families, needs, problems, wants, desires, ... just like you do. Treat them as humans (not as robots) and you'll have a much better experience. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anZL_MGNjzw[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
It's important that you know multiple ways of paying your people. Sometimes one will stop working. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiNynYO9Zcg[/embed] Ways to pay your people xoom.com emoneygram.com paypal.com remithome.com Update We recently switched to using Payments.ph to pay people. It appears to be faster, cheaper and has higher conversion rates than other options. Xoom is no longer a good option as they are now disallowing commercial payments (payments intended for workers). Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
The educated, experienced workforce that exists in the US doesn't exist in the Philippines. Yes, you can find people who have experience in some things...but for the most part, you'll have to teach and train people. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_NwV-3XHNc[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
The Philippines is VERY different than India. You don't need to micro-manage people. You don't need to look at every single thing they're doing. Let them do their work and don't worry about it. Get their work out of your head and concentrate on the things that are most important in your business. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoN-0vkJHsQ[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
There are some cultural differences that exist in the Philippines that don't exist together anywhere else in the world. This is one of the biggest reasons why outsourcing to the Philippines works so much better than anywhere else. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNfO5COyJGU&t=1s[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
This is one of my favorite videos I've ever made. It's tips for outsourcing...from the Filipino perspective. I asked my guys to give some tips for things they've found helpful, or things they wish I did better. These are the things they came up with. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUKTv9zQjds[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
You'll find lots of different ways to communicate with your team. Try different things and see what works for you. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=094qoQGsy8c[/embed] Messenger Skype Google Talk Yahoo Messenger Project Manager Basecamp ActiveCollab Screenshots and Screen Recording Jing Camtasia Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
Filipinos can do anything. But, I've found they're better at some things than other things. Here are my thoughts on what to have them do for you. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTI-VioCg_Y&t=5s[/embed] Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
This last tip was supposed to be a video just like the rest of them. 2 nights ago someone came into our apartment while we were sleeping and stole everything: 3 laptops 2 cameras my Kindle ipod Touch 750 GB hard drive (which had all our pictures on it from this trip) cell phone cash wireless router 4 SD cards wireless recording equipment my backpack (lots of personal stuff) They also stole my passport...but were nice enough to dump it in a plant right outside our apartment to give it back to me. We're ok. It was all just stuff. Maybe the guys who stole the stuff will find OnlineJobs.ph and get a job so they can stop stealing stuff. So, since I don't have a camera to record this tip, it's just text...not as fun. Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA The reason I started ReplaceMyself.com was to make outsourcing to the Philippines easier for people who are just getting started. Not only do I teach everything I know about it inside ReplaceMyself.com, but it's also designed to take away the initial time investment curve most people will have when starting hiring. How? ReplaceMyself.com is designed to train your Filipino staff for you. As a member you'll get access to all my training that I've given to my GUYS on how to do the tasks they do to run my businesses. You'll get training that will allow you to hire someone, and make them productive for you from day 1. ReplaceMyself.com is not another "training"/"technique"/"coaching" program. It's not really even for YOU. It's really designed to make your life easier by training the GUYS you hire so that you don't have to spend the time creating that training. As a member of ReplaceMyself.com you'll also get FREE access to OnlineJobs.ph (which costs $50/month to join). My suggestions for getting started hire 1 person give them 1 specific task to do which will help your business (either give them article marketing, video marketing, building a mini-net, directory submissions, social bookmarking, or something else you know of which will help your business grow. All these trainings are available for you inside ReplaceMyself.com) help them accomplish that 1 task add another task (give them training) and have them split time between the 2 tasks grow from here I've had fun doing these tips. I hope you've had fun watching them! Tips In This Series: Philippines Outsourcing Tip #1: Daily Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #2: Setting Expectations Philippines Outsourcing Tip #3: Initial Hiring Communication Philippines Outsourcing Tip #4: Getting Someone Started Philippines Outsourcing Tip #5: Hire Permanent, Full Time Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #6: Where To Hire Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #7: Skills To Look For When Hiring Filipinos Philippines Outsourcing Tip #8: Filipinos are Human Philippines Outsourcing Tip #9: How To Pay Your People Philippines Outsourcing Tip #10: Teach, Train, Teach, Train Philippines Outsourcing Tip #11: This Isn't India Philippines Outsourcing Tip #12: Philippines Culture For Outsourcing Philippines Outsourcing Tip #13: Tips From My Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #14: How To Communicate With Your Filipino Team Philippines Outsourcing Tip #15: What Filipinos Are Really Good At Philippines Outsourcing Tip #16: Getting The Most Out Of Your Filipino VA |
Most people when they start a website, they have no plan for it. "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Here's MY website plan. It consists of 13 "ToDo" lists that I have my GUYS implement for me. Some of this stuff won't be relevant to your business, but my guess is that most of it is relevant. These lists were designed to be used to build and market an online business that I don't want to be involved in. This is supposed to get the site ranked well in SEO and bring traffic in from lots of different sources so that the site makes money. Also, this list has some things that are specific to building 'review' websites with WordPress. You might want to use some other plugins for WordPress than the ones I list here. Please think about it. Maybe some of the plugins listed here aren't relevant to you, or maybe they've gone out of date by the time you get this. Nothing on this list is CRITICAL. Nothing on this list will make or break the process. You DO NOT have to do everything I list here to be successful. These are just the things WE do. Also, there are probably some things on this list that we don't do anymore. Things change all the time. If something on this list doesn't work for you, SKIP IT AND MOVE ON! Most of the stuff on this plan was created with the idea of having someone else do the work. Lists 10, 11, and 13 aren't 'todo' lists. They're more for ideas of things you can/should do with your website. If you have things to add to this, please post it in the comments. If you find errors (I know there are quite a few), please post it in the comments. I'll monitor the comments and update the list as you add/correct things. Website Building and Marketing Plan Table Of Contents Pre-Site Setup Site Setup Configure Wordpress Initial Site Work Initial SEO Initial Adwords Campaign Long Term Linking Strategies Testing Adwords Campaign Building Trust Sales Copy Notes/Ideas Long Term SEO Landing Page Notes Pre-Site Setup Things to do before you build the site. When I wrote this it was based off the plan of building a website where we write reviews on all the products in the niche we pick. If your business plan is different, modify this list accordingly. Decide on a market (one way to find what's hot is to record late night TV and watch the commercials/infomercials. Those are hot products/markets) Here's how I do niche research Familiarize yourself with the market Do initial keyword research (familiarize yourself with the keywords) Buy a domain name (I recommend using godaddy) Here's how I pick a domain name Buy hosting (I recommend HostMonster) Build a good keyword list Site Setup Things to do to get your site setup properly Set up domain on hosting Install Wordpress (You can usually do this through "fantastico" in your hosting control panel, or you can download it from wordpress.org and install it yourself) Upload robots.txt file (in the zip file at the end of this post) Configure Wordpress (Todo list #3)> Do a 301 redirect from non www to www (.htaccess example is in the Files tab) Set up mailing list (I recommend aweber) Set up GoTryThis If not using WordPress, figure out a way to do tag and ping, and blog and ping (an easy way is to add tags to your pages, and to use pingoat.com each time you add a new page). If you're not using WordPress, I think you're foolish right now. Configure WordPress All these things can be done inside the admin area of WordPress. This assumes you use Semiologic as your theme. We DON'T need to have every single one of these plugins. Some of the URL's might not work. Try to find that plugin by searching google for it. If something doesn't work, just move on and set up other plugins. No single plugin is absolutely necessary. Depending on the theme you use, you won't be able to do everything here. The really important part is that you get rid of ALL widgets. We don't want any sidebars. All they do is distract people from our main marketing message. Plugins - Activate Akismet Plugins - Activate Contact Form http://chip.cuccio.us/projects/contact-form-ii/ Plugins - Activate Exex-PHP http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/18/50/ Plugins - Activate Feed Control http://www.silpstream.com/blog/ Plugins - Activate Full Text Feed http://cavemonkey50.com/code/full-feed/ Plugins - Activate Google Analytics http://www.semiologic.com/software/marketing/google-analytics/ Plugins - Activate Google Sitemaps http://www.arnebrachhold.de/2005/06/05/google-sitemaps-generator-v2-final Plugins - Activate Permalink Redirect http://fucoder.com/code/permalink-redirect/ Plugins - Activate Singular http://jamietalbot.com/wp-hacks/ Plugins - Activate WordPress Database Backup Plugins - Activate WordPress Hashcash Plugins - Activate dd sitemap plugin - http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/sitemap-generator-plugin-for-wordpress/ create a page called "Sitemap" and put into it and then link to that page in your footer nav Plugins - Activate Any other plugin you think you'll need/want Plugins - Deactivate all the rest of the plugins (you don't want extra crap going on) Presentation - Install Semiologic (the pro theme is better...but I believe the free theme will work) - Make sure you get Semiologic Version 5! this page: http://www.semiologic.com/resources/wp-basics/how-to-upgrade-sem-pro/ is a good resource for installing/upgrading Presentation - Turn off ALL widgets Presentation - Change Font to Verdana, Small Presentation - Footer - Uncheck "Kudos to WordPress, Semiologic and the skin author" Presentation - Pick a layout you like. I do Wide with "Main, Ext Sidebar" (this is assuming you're using Semiologic) Presentation - Menus - Only Home in the header Presentation - Menus - No Sidebar Menus Presentation - Menus - Add these footer menu's: Contact - /contact RSS - /feed Sitemap - /sitemap.xml Privacy - /privacy-policy Presentation - SEO - Add title, keywords, description Options - General - Let Anyone Comment Options - Writing - Set up your ping list (mine is available in the Files tab) Options - Discussion - Check: Attempt to notify, Allow Link notifications, Allow people to post, Comment Author must fill out name and email Options - Permalinks - Custom Structure /%postname%.php This is where the .htaccess file in the Files tab comes in handy. If WordPress has problems, just upload that file to your base website directory Options - Feed Control - Include Posts, Pages, and sort by modified date Options - Google Analytics - Paste in your google analytics code (this is a good time to sign up for google analytics if you haven't already). Update: I have now stopped using google analytics because it really doesn't show me the data I want to see. I now use statcounter.com. Categories - create one category for your default posts (always put stuff into this category) Plugins - install Custom Query String plugin http://www.transycan.net/blogtest/download-themes/ Options - CQS - Add an "is_category" and set it to -1 (this will show links to all posts in all categories on the category pages) Initial Site Work Things to do to your site in the very beginning after it is configured The business owner needs to decide what the "sales page" is. Write your first post about your topic Write your second post about your topic Write a privacy policy as a page and name it "Privacy Policy" (there is a privacy policy in the files tab that you can pretty much copy) Write a sales page as a "page" in WordPress. "Sales page" could be: - an actual sales page if you're selling your own product - review page (where you review affiliate products in your industry) - squeeze page (where you capture name/email and send them on to an affiliate offer) - lead generation form - whatever your goal is with the site Link to your sales page in the header section of Presentation -> Nav Menus Write a contact page and name it "Contact" - in the body of the page put [CONTACT-FORM] and that's it. That will create a contact page using the "contact form" plugin you already activated Initial SEO Things you should do for immediate SEO for your site. Make sure your keywords are in the title, meta keywords, meta description, and h1. If you can, add an h2 and h3. Submit an article to ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and articlecity.com. Link to your site in your resource box. Initial Adwords Campaign Adwords is how you should get your initial traffic. Make sure you monitor this to see that it's profitable for you. If it's not, turn it off. There is a full training on how to set-up and run and Adwords campaign inside my outsourcing training website Set up an adwords campaign Use only a few keywords (just enough to get traffic and see it working) Write 2 ads Turn on the content network Set up separate bids for content network and search network. Bid lower on content. Long Term Linking Strategies Tons of things you can do to get links to your site. This is the most important thing to do for SEO. Start doing these things now, and do them consistently. The more links you get over a long term period of time the better your site will do. If you get too many links, too quickly, search engines won't consider it to be natural. It's important that you set up systems to do this stuff. If you don't have systems (whether it be reminders from google calendar or be an employee doing it) they won't get done and your site won't progress. This is a SUPER long list. Don't do all of these things at once. Do them one at a time. When you've completed one, move on to another. Then do the first one again, then the second again, then move on and do a third. These do not have to be done in exact order. Sign up for UniqueArticleWizard.com Use UAW to submit an article each week linking to your product. (There is NO SUBSTITUTE to using UAW) Create a reminder for either yourself or for an outsourced employee to get this done (use google calendar or rememberthemilk.com). RECURRING - Submit each UAW article manually to ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, articlecity.com Use need-an-article.com or elance.com or guru.com to get articles written for you. (Education) Always use different keywords as anchor texts when linking - If you don't it doesn't look natural to search engines. Use as many anchor texts as you can, but focusing on your main keywords. Buy links from high PR sites. www.text-link-ads.com or backlinks.com is a good place to start. Do this about 2 months into your site. You should be able to get a pr6 or 7 for $50 or less per month. Use buyblogcomments.com or hire someone to do what they do for you (bbc has become somewhat unreliable) Submit to directories (do both: pay seoster.com to do it, use directory submitter software to help you). There are ton's of directory submitter softwares. Most will give you a free trial of like 300 sites to submit to. Submit slowly (like 5-10 directories each day). Submit to DMOZ.org Submit to Yahoo Directory (it costs $300 and is well worth it) Build a blog on blogger.com that links to your sales page/other pages on your site Build a squidoo page and add content to it every few days. Make it link to your site. Squidoo site notes: - Use lots of tags - Create a bio - Use the Guestbook module at the end of the lens - Use the links module. Add affiliate links to your page - Use the write/text modules to add content - Add an opt-in form to your lens for your mailing list - Use the YouTube/Flickr modules to add relevant video/pictures to your page - Don't forget to promote your squidoo page just like your other sites (submit articles linking to it and submit it to directories) Use Pingoat.com every time you add content to any of your sites (including your squidoo site, myspace site, and other blogs) Build a blog on wordpress.com Build a blog on livejournal.com Build a blog on clearblogs.com (Education) With all blogs write a few blog entries initially (1 every few days for 2 weeks) and link to your site. Afterwards, write at least one blog entry each month. (Education) Link all your extra sites together in a circle (don't reciprocal link them, link site A -> B -> C -> D -> A) Use onlywire.com to do social bookmarking for your site. Create a blinklist.com space http://www.blinklist.com/space/contribute.php (Education) Don't link every page on your site to every other page on your site. Only link one way. (this isn't totally possible if using software ...just use it as a general rule). Set up a Wikipedia page for your topic (or add a link to your site on an existing page). Make sure you put legitimate info or it will get taken down. Build an MSN Spaces blog. Answer a few questions on yahoo answers and link to your site/sales page. After answering a few, answer one more each day. Get an account and put your link on your profile page on these sites: flickr.com youtube.com facebook.com buddytobuddy.com twitter.com Make some posts in forums that link to your site. (add your link to your forum signature) Make some comments on blogs that link to your site (make sure they're legitimate comments) Use trackback spider to get links to your OTHER sites. Don't promote your main site with this (unless you know what you're doing) (WARNING: This is very black hat. It is spamming.) Add listings to Craigslist.com. Link to your sites. Make sure you don't look like you're blatantly posting ads, the craigslist community doesn't like it. This can bring you TONS of traffic. Add your site to stumbleupon.com Pay prweb.com to do press releases for you. Come up with something interesting about your site and pay them the full $200 to get them to do a good job with your press release. It's worth it. Give something away that links to your site (templates for your industry, site award, software, widget that does something cool) Testing Testing is critical to getting conversions correct. You should always be testing. use a multivariate testing program on your sales page (or your review page, or your squeeze page). Try and increase your conversions. Google Website Optimizer - Free SplitTestAccelerator.com - $900 KaizenTrack.com - $500 Test the headline and any other pieces of the page that are "important". If you do nothing else, test your headline. Enter wildly different variations of tests. Don't just test different variations on the same concept. Test using wp-cloaker (if you can find the plugin). It cloaks or redirects visitors that come to your site who have used certain search terms that you define. You can send those visitors to any page you want. Last I tried I couldn't get the plugin to work, but if you can, it's super powerful. Adwords Campaign Obviously I can't give an entire adwords tutorial right here. There is a full Adwords tutorial inside www.ReplaceMyself.com. These are just things I've written down to serve as a reminder to me (and you) to do certain things. (Education)Put benefits in your ads (put them on the first description line and test the CTR) (Education) There are 3 types of buyers: Browsers, Shoppers, and Buyers Cater to the Buyers. Use buying keywords like discount, buy now, purchase, get, sale, limited time. Browsers don't know what they want. Shoppers are looking to compare stuff. (These are notes I took from Mr. X) (Education)Keywords that don't convert, add them as negative keywords Set up winneralert to test your ads. I bolded this because so few people actually do this, yet it's so important. Set up site specific targeting (the adwords180 concept). Once the campaign is profitable, duplicate the campaign in a new adwords account (Thanks Kirt Christensen). With a new adwords account you can show 2 of your own ads on every search page. Get more clicks. Get more sales. Set the campaign up in Yahoo Set the campaign up in MSN Set the campaign up in second tier search engines: Looksmart Findwhat Goclick.com 7search.com Building Trust These pieces are more notes than things you have to do. They help you build trust with your users. Some of them might not be appropriate for your website. This is more as a set of reminders for me (or you) to add things to our site to help increase conversions. Add testimonials to your sales page Add live chat to your sales page You can use skype to do this http://www.skype.com/share/buttons/index.html You can use www.liveperson.com There are ton's of these (search google for "live chat" or "free live chat") Interrupt your users while they're on your site and chat with them about what they really want to find (liveperson.com will do this). This helps you get into the head of your customers. Doing this allows you to write a better sales letter. Put your contact info at the top of the page and make it obvious. Tell them to read the whole page and then contact you if they still have questions. Tell them the flaws/negatives in the product (this really makes you sound honest) Don't charge their card until their trial period is up (30 days, 14 days, ...). Just authorize the money, but don't charge the card. Use the plugin "What Would Seth Godin Do" for WordPress. It allows you to display something to the user after they've seen your site X times. Find out why they keep coming back. Set up a broadcast phone message to your customers. voiceshot.com xmvoice.com search google for "voice phone broadcast" Send a hand written letter to your customers. http://handwrittenresults.com/ Sales Copy Notes/Ideas This is by no means a comprehensive list of things to do in your sales copy. It's just a list of ideas/notes from different copywriters. It is stuff you should try and refer back to in building your site. Some of it might not apply to you. Your headline is a Problem + a Solution. If you state people's problem, they know you understand them. If you give them a solution, they'll listen to you. Guarantee - Give double money back if they do something extra. Make an outlandish guarantee. Remove the risk with the guarantee. This builds trust. Add a drop first letter (where the first letter of your sales page is bigger than the rest) Make it time/quantity limited. Create scarcity. Offer a coupon to entice them to buy. Offer a free trial/sample and then automatically charge their card at the end of the trial. Scientific Advertising - Offer Service, don't ask for a sale. "Try this for a week, then do what you want" (meaning either return it or pay for it) Scientific Advertising - The longer the copy, the better the response rate. But only if you're telling people relevant information. You should test, test, test sales copy. Scientific Advertising - Copy other people's ads, ads that have been used over and over again. Long Term SEO Things you can/should do long term to increase your natural search engine rankings. Use a service to turn your blog posts into speech. Add the mp3's to your rss feed. This makes them podcasts. Podcasts increase search engine rankings. Create a video and add it to your site. You can use animoto or eyejot or veodia to easily create videos. Submit your video to video sites (youtube, google video, ... search google for video sites). Add your video to your rss feed. Landing Page Notes These are notes for specific types of landing pages you're doing. This overlaps somewhat with the Sales Copy list. These are just notes/ideas that I've had or that I've taken from other people. They don't apply to all cases. Review Site - Ugly does it. If it's ugly, it's a little more trustworthy. Not too ugly. Review Site - Make one product the clear winner. Don't leave a doubt in the persons mind. Review Site - Test different products as the best product. Squeeze page - In addition to the name/email, have them give you something else (a checkbox, a choice from multiple check boxes, an open ended box, ...). It makes them feel a sense of commitment because they've already given more info. Squeeze page - There is software to help you make it: squeezepagemaker.com squeezepagegenerator.com Squeeze page - Test all the different elements of your squeeze page You can download the files here. |
You get an email that says: Do you believe it? What do you do? 1. Do you believe it? YES! Power outages in the Philippines are a SERIOUS problem. In some areas they have them EVERY SINGLE DAY. Most areas aren't so bad, but one of my GUYS has a 5-hour power outage every day. Look at what google has to say about it. It's VERY common. 2. What do you do about it? You'll find that most Filipinos will apologize for not being able to work and they'll make it up another time. If they don't, you need to figure out how to deal with it. You have 2 choices: Don't worry about it, let your brain focus on more important things like how to make more money. Worry about it and have it pull you down. Yes, I realize that's a simplification. The reality is, there's not much you can do about it. You could let the person go and find someone else. For me, that's not a reasonable solution. I train my people too well to let them go just because they're working less than I would like. For you, if this is a serious concern, try hiring people in Manila or Cebu. They tend to have less of a problem with it. |
I get this story often enough that I thought it was worth a post. DON'T PRE-PAY FOR WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES. Clearly this isn't a 100% of the time rule, because there are times when it's appropriate. Just DON'T do it with a new employee. Don't buy them a laptop. Don't pay their internet bill. Don't pay for their sisters medical bills. Not with a new employee. Filipinos are shy enough as is. If they're not comfortable with you yet, and they're asking for money up front, for work they haven't done yet, there's something wrong. Here's a conversation a friend of mine had recently with a new employee: It was the 2nd person he had hired who was asking for money up front. The first person disappeared. He learned his lesson for the second person. |
Last night Typhoon Megi hit the northern end of Luzon island (Luzon island is the island Manila is on). In case you don't know, a Typhoon is essentially the same as a hurricane. This one was about equivalent to a category 5 hurricane. The Philippine government did a pretty good job preparing for this one, so few people died, but many people lost most of what they had. If you have GUYS in the Philippines, regardless of if they're on Luzon island or not, it's probably a good idea to ask them if them and their families are OK. It will go a long way with them. Also, if you do have GUYS in northern Luzon, expect MAJOR delays in productivity and communication. |
In this interview I describe the number one problem people (including myself) experience when hiring Filipinos to work in their businesses. In 4 words: Embarrassment, unworthiness, fear, (not being good enough to qualify) <- that's one word :) [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/number-1-philippines-problem.mp3"][/audio] To sum it up for you, here are 3 situations that occur frequently: You just hired a new person, gave them their first task, and they give you a reason why they have to resign. You've had someone working for you for a bit, they've done great work, then all of a sudden you don't hear from them for a week. You've had someone working for you for years and they stop responding to your emails and don't email you for a month. In over 90% of the cases I've seen, the cause of all of these is that the person is embarrassed that they don't know how to do whatever it is that you've asked them to do. They either don't know how to solve something, or they don't understand something, or they can't figure something out. The natural Filipino reaction to this is to shy away from it because they don't want to disappoint you. Unless you want to lose an employee (or lose months of productivity like I've done a couple of times), you need to email them and tell them you know they have a problem and that you'd like to know what the problem is so you can help them solve it. This will literally save you thousands of dollars and countless headaches. You can find more tips like this both in the free video and in the members area at ReplaceMyself.com. |
Command of the english language in the Philippines is amazing. They watch american movies and TV shows. They listen to american music and radio. They know english better than they think they know english. For example, I got an email from my good friend Robert Murgatroyd the other day. He forwarded an email that one of his Filipino employees had sent him. Not everyone you find will have such amazing english like this, but there are plenty of Filipinos who have perfect english. You can find people to hire at OnlineJobs.ph. Be sure to look at the advanced search to search for multiple skills at once. |
Marketing to local businesses, and helping them do their internet marketing, is what I would do if I had to start everything over. It's easy. It's profitable. It's easy to understand from beginning to end. There's almost no risk. It's easy to get started. You don't have to be technical. You don't have to know everything when you get started. You just have to know more than the small business owner does about marketing on the internet. Simple. Yesterday I did an amazing interview with Jim Cockrum, owner of OfflineBiz.com. Jim gave some amazing tips on how to be successful in doing online marketing work for offline businesses. It's 94 minutes long (it was so good that I didn't want to stop it at an hour). [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/jim-cockrum-local-biz-mono.mp3"][/audio] Download the MP3 recording Just so you know, there isn't a sales pitch in this. Jim does own OfflineBiz.com which has TONS of resources to help you succeed with this, but it's $50 to join. Very reasonable. Here are notes I took along with their timestamps for when Jim talked about these things: 12:00 - why this is a great market 12:43 - beginning of "How do you get a client" 13:14 - you need to talk to people 13:47 - no business card, no website, just being "a fellow business owner" 15:26 - 4 line letter - direct mail you can send to business owners The conversation between 15:26 and 18:00 is amazing 18:15 - build websites then auction them off for a monthly amount (typically $500 - $2000/month) 19:09 - another way to get clients is to knock doors of the businesses you use in your community 21:25 - how to find local business addresses from their websites 23:00 - "Turn Tuesday night into the busies night of the week" 24:50 - using TrafficGeyser to get results for your clients 26:15 - partner with web design companies to get clients 30:50 - Top services to sell to people (really just ideas for services to sell) mobile websites (this conversation is amazing) testimonials google maps social media services 35:14 - what kinds of businesses to target 38:30 - finding businesses based on where people are already advertising on PPC 40:22 - why you don't need a price sheet of services 41:40 - how to get on stage in front of an entire industry of small business owners 44:00 - Q&A 69:28 - how to collect money from clients 72:30 - Questions to ask local business owners 78:43 - What to outsource and what not to Here's my affiliate link to join OfflineBiz.com if you want to use it. Last night a few hours after the call I had this IM sent to me. Here's an email I got with more feedback on the call: |
This is a horror story with lots of lessons in it for you! Please heed them!!! UPDATE: I got my gmail account back. Read this post to find out how. But first, continue reading what I learned before getting it back. THIS IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO YOU! Part 1: My Google (Gmail) account is gone Tuesday night at 10:06pm my phone couldn't connect to my Gmail account. I tried the password...it didn't work. I came up to my computer and tried to login...no luck. After putting my account into the "Forgot Password" system I got: WHAT!!! That's right: "No account found with that email address. Please try again." I tried again. and again. and again. and again. Nothing. So I searched: No account found with that email address. Please try again. Turns out lots of people have had their gmail accounts deleted (or disabled)...with very little success getting them back. Seriously? OH MY GOSH!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!!! I've had my account for 7 years. Never deleted a message. I've gotten 170,000 messages in that time (I'll tell you how I know in a minute). I can't login to my google docs, google calendar, google voice, youtube.com, or google sites where I had LOTS of documentation for my business. They've all been deleted (or disabled...yet to be determined). I can't access anything! What the heck was I thinking trusting so many things to a company who has a ZERO policy: ZERO tolerance ZERO warning ZERO communication ZERO acceptions ZERO phone numbers Don't get me wrong...google provides the best services. There's a reason I'm using all these things. But there has to be a safeguard when you're using a company who will disable such vital information without warning or repercussion. Be warned. In the end I found this link: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request.py?ara=1 which is an account recovery link for if your account has been disabled. Go through that link right now! WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING THEY ASK FOR BEFORE THIS HAPPENS TO YOU! Fortunately for me, I had read a blog post about this a while back so I had written lots of this info down and put it in a drawer thinking I would probably lose the paper before I needed it. I have the info. It's not as complete as I'd like (or as complete as google would like as of right now), but I have a lot of info. Google has already said NO to my first request to get my account back. I didn't have enough information in my first try. I'll update this blog as things progress. Right now all my email is just bouncing back to people who email me. My email address no longer exists. What I *think* happened? I think a hacker got into my account. Either they did what they wanted and then deleted the account they sent a bunch of spam, google caught it and disabled the account It's also possible that I did something google didn't like (I mean...they wouldn't tell me if I had...), but I don't think I did anything different than I have for the past 7 years... In any case, I'll never know because even IF I get my account back, Google will never tell me what happened. Part 2: What I learned from having my gmail account deleted First: I learned (again) that with google, there is 1 chance. If something goes wrong, there are no warnings, no communication, and very little shot at a second chance. Even if you've done nothing wrong. That being said, I still believe google puts out the best products and I'm still using them as I reconstruct my life. Second: MAKE BACKUPS OF EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!!! I had backups of my gmail and google docs. My life isn't over. I backup in 2 ways. Here's how you backup your gmail account: Zoho.com will give you a free email account and they'll POP your email from gmail. I've had them doing this for years. Zoho is amazing. As of right now I have over 175,000 emails backed up in zoho. Zoho has also been invaluable in figuring out all the info google wants to get my account back. **UPDATE**: I just read this post which details some ways to backup google services. It also says that using POP3 to grab all your emails is against google's TOS. Be careful before you do it. I can't find anything saying it's against their TOS, but we know what happens with TOS violations... Backupify.com is an amazing backup service. They backup all kinds of online data including gmail, facebook, flickr, blogger, and picasa. I also had Backupify backup google docs...so I have a copy of all my docs (that's a big deal...over 4 years of documents). With Backupify, they automatically backup your data and you don't have to worry about it. It's an amazing service. Here are more ways to backup gmail: http://www.gmail-backup.com http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx http://gmailkeeper.com/ http://www.labnol.org/internet/backup-gmail-emails-online/13477/ There are lots of other ways to backup gmail. Just search google. Those are the two I use. Third: I will never again use a free email address that I don't own. When someone else is in control of your contact location (your email address), when they decide to take it from you, you're out of luck. From now on I'll have my own domain and have Google Apps handle the email. Now, if something happens to my account, I just change my DNS settings to somewhere else and my email address doesn't disappear. Because I have backups of everything, if they disable my account, I can just reconstruct everything. Yesterday I bought a domain from Godaddy for less than $8 (search "godaddy promo code" and use a coupon when checking out). I have already set it up in Google Apps and have a new email address. Fourth: Dealing with passwords I shouldn't have to say that using an insecure password is just playing with fire. At some point you WILL get burned. That's just stupid. Most people use a secure password, they just use the same password for everything. I'm fine with that...to a point. Now I know you should always have a different password for the things that matter to you: email facebook bank paypal godaddy (or domain registrar) hosting ...figure out what's important to you Use a different secure password for each of the important ones. Fifth: Prepare for the worst with ALL important accounts I'm in the process of going through the account recovery steps for things that are important to me (especially the google account recovery process). When I lose another account, I want to be able to get it back fast. Sixth: Lastpass I love Lastpass. I love that I have all my passwords in one place, and that I can find out all the services that I have passwords to just by looking through the list. I also love that I can change my important passwords as often as needed and I don't have to worry about remembering them. Lastpass does it for me, across all my computers and my phone. Before you hate on me and say I'm stupid for using an online service to store my passwords, look at the security Lastpass uses. It's pretty darn good. Conclusion If you have a gmail.com address as your primary email you're playing with fire. I'm not saying don't use gmail. I'm just saying: Make backups. Lots. Often. Make sure you're prepared to go through the recovery process of your important digital data. UPDATE Here's another horror story of an expensive hacking...and things you should change right now! |
A few days ago I posted about my disabled gmail account. After a long, painful process, I was able to successfully recover the account. Before you read this blog post, let me tell you that one of the things I discovered was Google's account recovery process is 100% automated! No humans involved at ANY level. More on that below. In getting my account back, I learned a LOT. Here are the things I learned about my account My account was disabled/deleted because a hacker got into it. When I was finally able to recover it, during the "change your password process," I found this: So I at least know the account was hacked. The first thing the hacker did was change my password and the account recovery email addresses, so it would be really hard for me to get my account back. The hacker also deleted my Youtube account and added 2 more of his own to my account: Jerk. I did manage to get my youtube account restored, but he deleted all the videos out of it and I can't recover those. Good thing I make TONS of backups of things. The hacker deleted all emails in my inbox (I had probably 15 emails from 10 people in my inbox, 5 of which were to remind me to do something). If you were expecting a reply from me recently...sorry...your email got deleted. Keep your inbox clean! I still don't know how he got into my account. I had a very strong password. I can only think of 3 scenarios: a brute force password attack (unlikely) I used the same password somewhere else and he hacked into some other database that had that password (most likely). My own stupidity. I logged into my gmail account over an unencrypted connection on a public wifi network and he got my username/password (unlikely) What I learned about Google's account recovery system, and what it means to you! I learned a couple awesome things about recovering a deleted google account during this process...a couple things Google doesn't want you to know (or...things they don't tell you). If you're not prepared, forget it If you're not prepared to recover your gmail account and can answer the questions google asks, basically you can forget getting your account back. They ask obscure things nobody would ever know (not even you). Here are 2 screenshots of the page they make you fill out. I took these so I could remember what I had put in. My personal info is blurred out. These are screenshots of the google account recovery pages To recover your account, here's my take on the difficulty: frequently emailed people - easy labels - slightly more difficult invitation url - difficult depending on how you got it all questions about orkut and blogger: if you answer yes they want to know the url of your profile and when you started using it - almost impossible to find 4 services you use - Impossible, unless...you have a backup of your gmail account in a searchable location like zoho mail. I was able to find these things by searching through my zoho for things like "calendar," "docs," "orkut," ... It still took a LOT of work. Account creation date - Impossible without a backup Google's account recovery system is 100% automated! No human will ever even see your account recovery attempt. Don't try to put identifying info into the fields for a human to look at. It will just hurt your chance of getting your account back. You really just have to figure out how to give enough accurate info to get the computer to say "Yeah, this is over 80% correct, give the account back" or whatever percentage they have. The reason I know this is: How Google responds to your account recovery attempts Google says it may take between 24-48 hours for them to reply to you. The first time I submitted the account recovery form I got an answer back in 44 hours. It was a NO. The second time I submitted the account recovery form it took 40 hours. It was a NO. The third time I submitted the account recovery form, it took 2 minutes. It was a YES! Now, I don't know this for sure, but here's what this tells me: You submit your info to Google and a computer validates it against the data the computer knows about your account. If the computer matches the info and it's correct enough, it fires off an email immediately to you saying "You can change your password now!" If the computer looks at your info and it's not correct enough, it waits 24-48 hours before sending you an email saying "NO, you're screwed for a while longer!" If it were humans looking at the requests, why does it take so long to say no, but only 2 minutes to say YES! (I literally got an email from them within 2 minutes of submitting the successful request). It's done on purpose! Google doesn't want to give too many chances to people who don't have the right info. If you get a NO back from Google after submitting the account recovery form, and you don't hear back from them within 15 minutes, start gathering more data to recover your account. This whole thing was a big, painful, learning process. Things I've learned and things I'd do differently Make backups of everything - I already had pretty good backups. In the future I'll have rock solid backups. Prepare for the worst early - I was slightly prepared. Now I'll be better prepared. Don't use a free gmail account - I've since bought a domain and set up my email through google apps. If you want to migrate your email and your docs to another account, I highly suggest this email and data migration company, MigrationBox.com. Their docs migration needs a little work (only try to move 100 docs at a time) but their email migration is solid. It moved 175,000 emails of mine no problem. I chatted with them for a while and they gave me a 40% off coupon for my readers: JOHNSYNC 40% Off Coupon What a lifesaver MigrationBox was for me. I now get all my old emails in my new email account. Everything seamless. They're also good for: moving between gmail/google apps moving between just about any email service providers syncing email accounts (ummmm...backup anyone?) NEVER use the same password for your email, facebook, bank, anything else you care about - I now keep one "junk" password, and like 6 completely secure passwords that I don't use anywhere else. This is a bit extreme, but I'm now keeping an email account that I use to sign up for everything. I won't sign up for things with my real email address anymore. That way, my real email address isn't out there in too many databases, and it doesn't have any passwords associated with it in case I slip up somewhere. The other email account just forwards to my main one so I still get all the emails. UPDATE:This post on lifehacker by adam pash details a new security feature google is JUST NOW rolling out (they're about a week too late for me...although I'm now using it). Amazing...as I was going through this nightmare, I had wished google would have some sort of 2-step verification system. I also wish lastpass had the same thing! Maybe I'm a bit extreme. Maybe not. What I do know is that the internet isn't going anywhere, losing your email account ISN'T fun, and hackers aren't getting dumber. It's getting more and more common. I'll try to stay ahead of the game from now on. Please learn a lesson from my misfortunes and mistakes! |
Below is the sequence of emails I sent to hire someone Note: Don't copy these emails! These are just examples....too many employers have copied this email exactly and onlinejobs.ph is flooded with these emails....jobseekers won't reply to you b/c they'll think you are a spammer/scammer!Email #1: This email went out to about 15 people. Hi, I found your resume on OnlineJobs.ph. I currently have a job opening in my company. I need someone who is great in english, and who can do SEO for some of my websites. Other skills are a bonus, but not necessary. I am looking for someone to work full-time (40 hours/week) from home. I will expect you to not have another job except for working for me. If you're interested, please write one paragraph of why I should hire you. I want you to write this so I can see your english skills. Don't send me a list of your past experience. Describe it to me. I want to see how well you write. Also, please tell me your desired salary (I know you listed it in OnlineJobs....just tell me again) and when you would be available to start work. This email is going to 13 people, that's why I didn't personalize it to you...sorry. John Email #2: This went to each person who sent me back a good response to Email #1 Where are you in the philippines? How are the power outages there? Will you be able to work full time? Do you have your own computer? Did you write that last response to me yourself? Did someone help you with it? When could you start? Email #3: This went to the person I really wanted to hire. They had already proven their english skills and also claimed to have other skills. How fast is your internet connection? What SEO experience do you have? If I gave you a new website to do SEO for, what would you do? Can you send me some references to graphics work you've done? How about wordpress sites you've built? Email #4 - after 2 days of not hearing back from them, I sent this email Name, I didn't hear from you about this. I think I'm ready to hire you, I'd just like to hear from you about these things. Also, one of the things I know is a problem with Filipinos is you get embarrassed when you don't know something. Then you disappear and don't email me back. I've been through this quite a few times. If this is going to work for us, the first thing you need to know is that you MUST email me when you have a problem. I NEED to know. Let me know if you're still interested. John She responded with a good response. Email #5 Name, Great. You're hired. The part about Filipinos is my experience. I've seen it over and over again. You don't know much about my business yet (other than I own onlinejobs.ph) but I would bet you'll get to know it pretty well over the next few months. I would like you to start today. I am inviting you to use our project management system. You will get a separate email from me inviting you to get in. You will find a lot of information in there. (here I gave some specific pages inside MyProjectPlans.com for them to read) I want you to specifically tell me if you have any questions or comments about the Employment policies and the Using TrackLabor.com pages. I want to make sure our working relationship starts off right. I will pay you using xoom.com around the 1st of the month. It should be pretty easy. We will start at $200 per month. Depending on your work it will go up from there. I expect this to be a long-term working relationship. I expect to have you working for me for years to come. Over time, I hope you will make a very good wage from me. I am hiring you right now to do SEO work for a couple of websites we just started...and to help someone with whatever he needs help with. Name, meet (my employee) (he's cc'd on this email). He has worked for me for almost 5 years. He knows EVERYTHING. You will be helping him with whatever he needs help with, and will be in charge of doing SEO for a couple of websites. I will send you your "first" task in another email. He will probably also give you things to do. (the first task was setting up wordpress on my hosting account, change the theme, write a post and a page). Please let me know what you need from me and what I can do for you. I'm excited to have you on our team. John I posted the specific emails here not for you to copy exactly. Some of the information I asked for might not be relevant to you. I post it as an example and a guideline of what I look for when I'm hiring someone. You may (probably will) be different. |
In my last blog post about hiring Filipino workers and requiring them to only have 1 job I apparently stirred up some controversy. In the comments I was accused of exploiting people I was told that I don't pay enough I was told that the people I hire aren't "employees" I feel differently about all of them. Here's my response: <missing video> Here are the notes I worked from: I stand by what I said. I require only 1 job. I don't pay my people $250/month for very long. They get raises. They get large bonuses. This according to their output/loyalty/devotion. Pay is different in different parts of the country. Manila is different than davao. Companies pay more, cost of living is more. It doesn't mean your work quality is better. I have people in davao and their work is just as good as people anywhere else in the country. They ASK for less money. Companies in Mindanao or Panay or Palawan are NOT paying 20,000 pesos per month. Different regions of the Philippines have VERY different in their pay scales. I don't advocate exploiting people. When I teach outsourcing I teach what's real about wage differences, but also tell people to treat them well. Not everyone will. Nobody is forcing anyone to work. If the wages you're being paid aren't enough, you should go look for a different job. I love my workers. I try to treat them very well. They get all the paid time off they want. They work the hours they want. They've asked for me to pay their Phil Health and SSS and I gave them raises to pay for it. In the end, what I think this comes down to is If you treat people well, they'll do good work. If you don't, they won't. |
Some thoughts on how to train your Filipino VA. It has become clear to me that I haven't done a very good job of teaching how to train people. I've done a WORSE job of explaining that ReplaceMyself.com is intended to train your VA's from the Philippines for you. File Download: MP3 Audio, 2.6 MB [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/how-to-train-filipino-vas.mp3"][/audio] Inside ReplaceMyself.com is my training that you can give to your VA's on how to do: Article Marketing Video Marketing SEO High PageRank Link Building Copywriting Directory Submissions Social Bookmarking Build a Mini-Net (or a super mini-net) Manage your Adwords Account RSS Feeds Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo |
"Direct Linking" is an old school internet business model where you buy PPC clicks and send the clicks straight to an affiliate program. It was really popular (and REALLY profitable) from 2000 - 2006. Since then, everyone say it doesn't work anymore. I've heard people say "You can't do direct linking, Google won't allow it." While direct linking doesn't work as well as it once did, I'm here to say: YES! "DIRECT LINKING" DOES STILL WORK! I know because we do it. Here's proof. I took screenshots of an adwords account and of affiliate income from the past 6 months (November - April). Expenses: Income: $2090.12 - Expenses: $437.56 = Profit: 1652.56 Profit per month: $275.42 For members of ReplaceMyself.com, the business model we use is outlined in detail in the "Business-in-a-Box." All members have access to it. The "Business-in-a-Box" is designed to be given to a Filipino employee and have them implement it for you. Like I've always said, this isn't something that will make you rich. It's not designed to make you $100,000,000,000. It IS designed to help you get someone working for you quickly, with little to no intervention on your part, and hopefully have them start making money for you. We just finished updating the "Business-in-a-Box" training so it's current and has all the training someone needs to get started doing it today. No, I'm not getting rich off this income. Does direct linking still work? YES, yes it does. |
Today I sent out an email to my mailing list. Normal. This afternoon I got an email from one of them: Hello Sir, Good day! Just so you know. There's an error on your link but I already fixed it. I created a htaccess RewriteUrl on the error link to the correct link. It was missing the last "L". http://www.jonasblog.com/2011/04/does-direct-linking-still-work-yes.html Regards, [his name] I love my GUYS. They go above and beyond all the time. This is why I hire Filipino workers. I never asked them to subscribe to my mailing list. Or to verify that everything's correct. Or to fix it for me. Amazing. You know who you are. Nice job. |
You know what question a get asked the most about outsourcing? It's not "How do I find a trustworthy employee?" It's not "How much should I pay them?" It's not "How can I know if they really have the skill to do the work"? Nope. The biggest question I get is: "How can I be sure that they are actually working while I am paying them?" AND "If I am paying them by hour how can I know that it takes them as long as they claim? Over the years this has been a major pain for me. I mean, if someone's only working 15 hours/week it's pretty hard to know that. It's hard to know if they're working 2 jobs or just one (for me!). I tried using Odesk's screen capture software to validate things...what a pain in the butt. That took more of my time to manage than it was worth. I tried using manual time tracking software (like DotProject) but that didn't work either. Too easy to fake, too difficult to control. Then I stumbled upon a system that came really close to what I wanted. I've been working with it and tweaking it for the past 2 years. Finally, I have the PERFECT solution for knowing exactly what's going on. An elegant outsourcing tracking solution that: Works for tracking outsourcers Is inexpensive and simple to use, with virtually no ramp up time It tracks, down to the SECOND, how much time people are spending on what activities and what web pages , telling you EXACTLY what they are doing, and where your money is disappearing. But not only that.... Turns out it allows you to increase their productivity and save at least 10 hours of productive time per person per week. Seriously, how you ever wondered how productive are your Filipino employees? (or any employees for that matter) Do you really KNOW? Now you can. Introducing http://www.TrackLabor.com - Productivity and Time Tracking for Outsourced Workers. . |
Scott listened to one of my webinars where I teach how to outsource to the Philippines. He knew he should be outsourcing, but his business wasn't quite there yet. We met when he took me to play golf at Trump National. I told him I thought he should be doing "local business marketing." The rest is history. He's succeeding. He's making money. He's outsourcing all the work. For your listening pleasure. Get Flash to see this player. [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/scott-yarnall-case-study.mp3"][/audio] Download the MP3 recording Things to learn from Scotts experience: Scott was struggling with building niche sites (1:15) Sticking with what works for you (the grass isn't always greener!) (1:50) Scotts business model (2:20) - I love this! He's learning from OfflineBiz Make sales first! (2:58) Everything's confusing, how to gain confidence (4:20) How much money he's making (5:25) What work his outsourcers are doing for him (6:24) How much to pay his GUY in the Philippines ($75/week) (6:40) Things his GUY in the Philippines does for him and his clients (6:50) (includes WordPress, graphics, videos, video editing, video marketing) The work Scott does vs the work his GUY does (8:05) A glimpse at Scotts workflow process (8:40) Teaching someone to do something you didn't hire them to do (9:02) Scotts hiring criteria and hiring process (9:43) Mindset and tasks for how to keep someone busy (12:35) Scotts final words on business model and the highest payoff tasks (14:44) Do you have a success story you'd like to share with me? Please Share Your Success!. |
Dan does a great job of explaining how big the mobile space is, As well as showing marketing opportunities in the mobile space. His "local groupon" business model is brilliant. Here's the replay of the webinar we did. File Download: MP4 Video 77.1MB [videopress xOyppkAN] |
Eric came to our seminar in the Philippines and went out and applied what he learned. Here's a snippet of an email he sent me one day: "... In any case- just a reminder that you have changed my life, an I owe you big time for that. If there's ANYTHING I can ever do for you, just ask and consider it done. (no joke) I tell everyone who is doing everything themselves to get your training and hire someone in the Philippines NOW. Jason has been with me for a year this month, and he runs my ENTIRE business. Best thing I ever did. (Though it's a little scary just depending on one person- need to hire another!) Anyway, thanks so much for all you do- you may (or may not) realize it, but you are literally changing lives (on both sides of the Pacific). See ya! Eric Sent from my iPhone." So I asked him to get on a phone call with me and talk about his success. Sorry about the low video quality...this is the first and last time I record skype video with Pamela. File Download: MP3 Audio, 2.6 MB [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/eric-genesoto-case-study.mp3"][/audio] Here's a summary of what's in the interview: 1:40 - Eric's business model (Local Business Marketing). 2:15 - He got started trading services 4:30 - What he's doing for his clients (SEO, Video marketing, Article marketing, "everything") 5:20 - Work is structured around Filipino workers 5:40 - What his GUYS in the Philippines are doing for him 6:45 - Why he doesn't do "social media" for people. (<-- this is GOOD) 7:30 - How he does things differently than I do. He doesn't do it once himself. 9:50 - Why his GUYS don't do customer service for him 10:48 - Eric's hiring process - how he hired someone. Different things work differently for different people. 11:37 - Eric's criteria for hiring (this was a SHOCK to me) 13:44 - What to do with someone who's English isn't PERFECT. 14:58 - Tips for hiring from Eric 17:35 - BIGGEST tip 20:25 - How much money he's making 21:30 - What kind of people he hired. Teaching Filipinos to do things. Here's where you can find Eric Genesoto blog. If you have a Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I'll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
I shot this video in the Red Cliffs Recreation Area in St George, UT. That waterfall is slightly bigger than it looks and was fun for my 4 and 6 year olds to slide down into the pool below. Pay attention to the exchange rate. File Download: MP3 Audio, < 1 MB [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/pay-attention-to-exchange-rate.mp3"][/audio] |
This is a great case study with George and Evan. They're doing local business marketing and building a whole host of WordPress plugins. File Download: MP3 Audio, < 1 MB -- File Download: iPhone/iPod Version [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/george-and-evan.mp3"][/audio] Here's a summary of the case study. 1:22 - Their business model (local business marketing) 3:00 - tasks they're outsourcing (social media) 3:40 - documenting tasks and teaching new people how to do them. 4:35 - starting with a blank slate 7:50 - asking your Filipino workers to teach you 9:30 - starting with 2-3 people 10:12 - following instructions 10:20 - where they found people to hire (OnlineJobs.ph) 10:45 - George's twist on my hiring strategy 11:50 - emailing them and then waiting to see who emails back 12:20 - looking at someone's delay in response time as a hiring test (this is great!) 13:00 - Don't cherry pick people! 15:10 - Filipino's don't like to disappoint 15:50 - Contacting people vs putting a job out there (<-- This conversation is worth the whole interview!) 18:00 - Laying out specifics before giving a task (good and bad of doing this) 19:30 - Learning to delegate 19:45 - "It doesn't matter how good you can do it, if it doesn't get done...WHO CARES!" 20:20 - Things their Filipino workers do with article marketing 21:20 - "OPSEO" and "MOWSEO" 23:00 - How MOWSEO saves you time and makes your sites more successful 26:30 - Getting stuff done you hate doing 27:30 - How to outsource repetitive tasks 29:40 - Using a different Skype account for interviewing people If you have a Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I’ll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
This should be a guest post by George (who I recently did a case study with). Because George is succeeding with having Filipino workers do the work in his business he has other people asking him how he's doing it (hmmm...that sounds familiar...). He wrote up this list of 21 things he learned while hiring Filipino workers to help others get started with it. George's list of 21 things he learned while hiring Filipino workers It is very prestigious for a Filipino to work for an American company. Filipino companies HATE American companies that "steal" people from their potential work pool. Many Filipinos are more loyal and dedicated and hard-working than their American counterparts (in my opinion). Phone connections are "bad" to the Philippines. Internet is "iffy" in many parts of the Philippines. When it is good it is good, but the rainy weather sometimes makes it tough. Therefore, you must be flexible with their hours. You may be disappointed if you rummage through all the potential resumes and cherry-pick the best. It is better to send out the template to anyone who has the potential skill set you are looking for and then talk with the ones who respond. I only got maybe a 10-15% response rate. One reason you don't get a response...a Filipino friend told me that Filipinos hate to disappoint - so in many cases they just don't respond. In other words, they probably already got a job and don't want to tell you so. Filipinos are leery of Americans sometimes and that is because of many unscrupulous ones jacking them around with their pay. It is not uncommon for an American to hire, get 2 weeks of work and then not pay, only to do that again with someone else. Since Filipinos have intermittent issues with internet connections (depending on how close they live to a major city), you have to be willing for them to make up time; for instance, to work a Sat-Sun to substitute for a day missed. Although you can pay a company based in the Philippines to manage your employee by providing them a computer, office, etc., you will pay twice as much and have a higher turnover than if you take the chance and let them work from home. A typical commute in a city like Manila is 45 minute to work and 45 home. Letting a Filipino work from home is pretty appealing for them. Filipinos like structure. Many are not as fast at doing tasks as Americans, but you get more productivity out of them in the long run. Use an instant message service like Skype to communicate. I used this service to interview as well. At first it was awkward, but I ended up with a written record of EVERYTHING they said, which was great to refer back to when I was trying to make a hiring decision. Pay them using Xoom (http://www.Xoom.com). That way, you can transfer to their bank account (if they have one) or they can go pick it up at any of hundreds of Xoom locations. Filipinos expect something extra at Christmas time. A friend told me he pays them an extra month's pay in December. Find out what they are willing to work for and then give them a little more so that you will lock them in. Make a spreadsheet and keep records of all the e-mails you send, as if there is someone you really think that you are interested in, you need to know if you have sent them an e-mail and how many times. Sometimes it takes several e-mails to get them to respond. If the e-mail comes back (undeliverable), scan the resume for a phone number and call them. I did this. We talked long enough for me to get their new e-mail and a Skype ID. I ended up hiring that person. Get a calling card with NobelCom (http://www.nobelcom.com) for making calls to the Philippines. Very cheap. Never type in a communication using "Philippino" for "Filipino". They will laugh. Hope this helps. I paid hundreds of dollars to learn a lot of what I just shared with you about hiring Filipinos and learned much from John Jonas and by trial and error. Do you have things you've learned while hiring Filipino workers? Contact me and tell me about it. I might let you make a guest blog post. |
"I couldn't believe ReplaceMyself. I know the trainings aren't for me, but I was going through them and learning tons of stuff, and then it was like, "here you go, you guys do this stuff"!, and I didn't have to do it!" - Dean Soto Dean has a full-time job in the Aerospace industry. At the same time he is running a 6-figure side business by outsourcing all the work. What's he doing? - Web development/design - Local Business Marketing In this case study there are so many things to learn about using a Filipino VA for doing either one of those businesses. File Download: MP3 Audio, 19 MB — File Download: iPhone/iPod Version (145mb) [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dean-soto.mp3"][/audio] One MAJOR question this case-study answers is: "Can Filipino's do client facing work?" The answer is YES! Here's a summary of the case study: 2:15 - they build wordpress websites for companies 3:30 - time spent and what he does as a "web development" company 5:00 - what they charge people to do websites 6:33 - how many people he has working for him in the Philippines 6:55 - how much he pays people 7:40 - paying bonuses to his Filipino employees 8:25 - NEVER tell other people your Filipino employee's name 9:00 - Can Filipino's do client facing work? 9:50 - What his Filipino workers are doing in his business 10:30 - His VA creates training videos for him for his customers 11:20 - Hiring a technical person and teaching them technical things 13:22 - What skills to look for when hiring a technical person 14:00 - Hiring for Wordpress skills and for English skills 15:40 - Dean's hiring process - mostly in writing 16:12 - Posting a job on OnlineJobs.ph 17:00 - How to tell how good their english is!!! 18:00 - Skills to look for: PHP, Mysql, AJAX 20:00 - Using Google Apps to give them emails from your company 21:30 - He uses Basecamp to manage projects because his customers find it easiest 23:00 - Doing what you're good at THEN building niche sites 24:30 - Building a team with what you're good at 25:25 - Being the CEO of your business 26:00 - Last words: Use ReplaceMyself.com 27:00 - Your VA's will become your friends. You can find Dean's podcast on Small Business Ideas and Tips on iTunes. If you have a Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I’ll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
Hiring all your GUYS in the Philippines in the same city isn't necessary, but it's something to consider. Here's a video with my thoughts about it. File Download: MP3 Audio, < 1 MB [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/hire-in-one-city.mp3"][/audio] If you see yourself someday setting up an office in the Philippines (because you have a team of 5+), hiring all your people in the same city will make it a lot easier. I shot this video in Bluejohn Canyon. What an amazing place. |
One of my GUYS sent me this tool today: http://clues.yahoo.com/analysis It will show you who's searching for the keywords you're targeting by: age gender location search volume alternative keywords Put in "photoshop" and "learn guitar" for some surprising demographics (at least...surprising to me!). It would be super easy to be marketing to the wrong demographic if you're in those markets. |
Determining someone's English skills is one of the most common problems I come across. When I was in the Philippines last year I was given this awesome tip for one way to get a better idea. Ask potential employees if they grew up watching "Sesame Street" or "Batibot." This is really clever, and surprisingly effective! File Download: MP3 Audio, < 1 MB [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sesame-street-vs-batibot.mp3"][/audio] Ask your current employees what they grew up with and let me know in the comments if this was correct. Just FYI, my guess is that this technique will become less and less effective over time as more and more Filipinos know what their answer should be (from this blog post). |
This is a great case study of how Derrel has used outsourcing to succeed in providing local business marketing services. Derral has done a great job in setting up his business with outsourcing. The quality of the video is pretty bad. The audio is much better. It's surprisingly difficult to get good video+audo recording in today's world. File Download: MP3 Audio, ~27mb MB -- File Download: iPhone/iPod Version [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/derral-eves.mp3"][/audio] Here's a summary of the case study. 1:15 - He does website design, programming, and SEO for people. 1:55 - the joys of internet connection problems 2:25 - problems with hiring local people to do the work for you 2:50 - Cultural differences with India 3:30 - A "Yes" in India isn't the same as a "Yes" in the USA 5:20 - Copying and Pasting an email template 6:00 - How he filters people in hiring (this is really good) 8:00 - His experience giving a first task 8:45 - How much writing is possible...just don't expect this 10:15 - Looking for a technical person (HTML, PHP, CSS) 11:00 - Giving leeway 11:25 - Another Filipino going above and beyond 12:15 - When Derral realized he had replaced himself 13:00 - Don't find a jack-of-all-trades 14:10 - Kinds of people to hire <<-- Video quality gets much better here English Writer Technical person (programmer) 16:20 - how to test a programmer 17:30 - PHP is a more important skill than "WordPress programming" Graphic designer SEO (he talks about this at 25:55) Video Editing and video marketing (he talks about this at 26:20) 19:00 - filling their downtime to generate passive income 21:55 - Keeping people in stable work so they don't look for other work 22:40 - Letting them finish something before starting something new 23:45 - What you can do when you have a programmer working for you 24:25 - Not outsourcing keyword research 26:45 - SEO takes time!!! 27:00 - How we both haven't outsourced social media yet (if you have, please contact me!) 28:12 - When to get a project manager 30:00 - How much to be involved with the project manager 30:50 - using screen capture will make your life easier 31:40 - TREAT YOUR PEOPLE WELL!!! 32:30 - Giving praise 33:00 - Specific hiring tips (and an interruption) 34:00 - Contract work (freelancers) doesn't work as well as hiring full-time 36:40 - Video works great for getting exactly what you want done 37:00 - Going from sceptic to success story! If you have a Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I’ll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
David is another great success story with outsourcing to the Philippines. He has built a really great business thanks to being able to outsource all his fulfillment work. After the video is a summary of the case study. File Download: MP3 Audio, ~7mb MB -- File Download: iPhone/iPod Version [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/david-james-ostiguy.mp3"][/audio] Summary of the outsourcing success study with David 0:25 - Davids business model - owning the top 10 on google 1:00 - What David's 7 people in the Philippines do for him free consultation keyword research use software build backlinks on-site SEO creating videos and doing video marketing high PR linkbuilding article marketing 4:05 - One of his Filipino workers does lead generation for him <-- THIS IS GENIUS 5:30 - David's hiring process 6:00 - often Filipino resumes are exaggerated - expect it. 6:30 - make sure they know they can ask questions 7:00 - having them use tools you don't know how to use 9:00 - a couple ways he has trained his people 10:10 - his tips hire full-time people (not part-time) have them check-in every day have specific tasks for specific people don't give people money in advance!! Recently David put together a training package for how he's done what he's done at Be and SEO consultant in 90 days. If you have a Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I’ll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
Chris has been very successful in numerous businesses. He now has multiple teams of Filipino workers with lots of people on them. His success is better now than ever...but he went through quite a learning process to get there. This is a fantastic case study and success story of using outsourcing to grow a business. Chris is super smart and teaches a LOT. File Download: MP3 Audio, ~27mb MB -- File Download: iPhone/iPod Version [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/chris-johnstone.mp3"][/audio] Summary of the outsourcing success story 0:30 - Chris' evolution in outsourcing: 4 Hour Work Week, then India, then my presentation 2:20 - Giving my training (the training available inside ReplaceMyself.com) to his people 3:30 - What his guys do for him register accounts filling out profiles market research keyword research backlinking article marketing traffic geyser project management 4:45 - Chris usesmixture of full-time and part-time people 5:00 - high-end pay: $8/hour 5:15 - low-end pay: $4/hour 6:40 - How Chris is involved: daily maintenance with google docs and odesk platform 7:20 - time tracking software: TrackLabor.com 9:24 - being very clear with what you want and limiting tasks to specialties 11:30 - teaching them to the point where they see the problems and solutions in your business 12:30 - different methods of finding people 13:05 - recruiting in your GUYS network 15:00 - finding project managers from within your employees 16:15 - investing in the education in your employees 19:00 - he doesn't have an office in the Philippines, they all work from home 20:00 - TREAT THEM WELL!!! <-- this is the most common piece of advice I see from people who are succeeding with this! If you have an Outsourcing Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I’ll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
This was such a fun case study. The last picture is of Marvin and his team wearing sunglasses because, as they said: "The future is so bright we have to wear shades" This is a screen capture of what Marvin Skyped me. Listen to this interview I did with Marvin [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/marvin-webster-case-study-join.mp3"][/audio] File Download: MP3 Audio, ~13.3mb MB 1:35 - take action and hire someone in 2 days! 2:30 - start by hiring 1 person. Don't hire 6 at once! 4:27 - establish relationships with people 5:07 - their first fear is if they're going to get paid 6:37 - taking your internet marketing education and adapting it to a different business 8:37 - wrote down every single detail of a plan for building his sites 9:42 - his profit sharing program 9:52 - how much he's paying people 10:32 - how and why he did time trials for tasks 12:37 - more explation of his profit sharing system 15:27 - some of the things he does to get 200 visitors/day 16:02 - 3 strike rule 17:07 - sensitivity, loyalty, productivity of Filipino employees 17:42 - No Philippines taxes, 100% US tax deductible 18:37 - explanation of his business model 21:24 - Filipinos are excellent at doing repetitive tasks 21:52 - they appreciate their jobs 24:22 - tips for hiring Filipino workers Marvin, his Wife, his business partner, and their Filipino team! The future is so bright that we have to wear shades. His company is Black Tiger Imports |
Scott is a good manager. This case study was a pleasure to do for me because time and time again I saw how he's doing things right. It's no wonder he's succeeding. There's a lot to be learned from this (even the parts where he's not doing it right...and he KNOWS he's not doing it right!). [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/scott-smith-case-study.mp3"][/audio] : MP3 Audio, ~17.7Kb MB -- File Download: iPhone/iPod Version Summary of Success Story with Scott Smith: Managing Filipinos The Right Way 0:45 - Scotts team 1:15 - Scott does local business marketing for churches 2:05 - what Scott's team does for him (WordPress, plugins, graphics, video design, research, looking for JV partners, ...) 3:30 - finding people for specific skills, not necessarily for WordPress 5:05 - tools become an excuse to procrastinate 5:35 - understand WordPress yourself - get someone else to implement it for you 6:33 - help someone get good at things, on your team, so the future gets better 8:20 - learn it yourself, then hire someone else to implement it for you 10:06 - hiring a full-time graphic designer 12:10 - Scott created a full side business just based on the skills of his team! 14:30 - don't hire someone to do everything! Hire someone to do 1 thing. 17:45 - Scott has a programmer in the UK. He could find the same skill set from someone in the Philippines! 20:35 - Hiring "by-the-hour". A conversation for and against. 24:45 - Potential consequences of hiring on a per-project basis. 26:05 - Doing affiliate marketing in your teams downtime 29:30 - Getting local clients 30:40 - Advice from Scott: be detailed in your instructions <-- this is a big deal. It's the biggest feedback I've gotten from my team is that they like detailed instructions. 32:10 - "A lot of time it's the boss' problem" 33:05 - Put the onus on yourself - assume it was your fault first, that you weren't clear enough <-- THIS IS HUGE!!! 33:40 - show your gratitude (verbally), then give bonuses 35:30 - foster their feeling of community 36:35 - Scotts testimonial for me about his success with the Philippines If you have an Outsourcing Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I’ll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
A full 8:44 introduction to outsourcing to the Philippines. How To Replace Yourself In Your BusinessBy Hiring Virtual Assistants In The Philippines https://videopress.com/v/6idjAMeb?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&posterUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fjohnjonas.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F10%2Fintro-to-outsourcing-click-link-graphic-ending_mp4_std.original.jpg&preloadContent=metadata Register To Watch The Full Training Webinar Years ago I realized that the only way to live the "internet business"lifestyle was by getting other people to do your work for you. In this video I explain how to do it. |
In this case study Tim lays out his hiring process really well. It's not the same way I do it, but it works for him. Everyone is different. Figure out what works for you and stick with it. [audio mp3="/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tim-fahndrich.mp3"][/audio] File Download: MP3 Audio, ~13.13Kb -- File Download: 105.22 KB iPhone/iPod Summary of Success Story with Tim 0:52 - his business is web design, social media marketing, local search optimization, and reputation management 1:20 - 3 Filipinos working in their business 1:58 - Tim's interview process 2:28 - contact via skype 3:14 - tests their English 3:38 - good internet connection 4:05 - expects proper and consistent reporting 4:25 - willingness to be on skype during working hours Everyone is different. Find what works for you! 6:15 - willingness to learn and share ideas 7:15 - Part-time vs Full-time 8:54 - how Tim trains his Filipino VA's 9:30 - using GoToMeeting, Jing, and recorded videos with Camtasia 10:40 - skills Tim looks for (English, WordPress, link building, video editing, directory submission, graphic design) 12:55 - Tim likes to have some things done in the USA, not in the Philippines 14:00 - Different personalities do things differently. Figure out what works for you. 15:15 - Figure out what you really want to get done before you hire. 15:45 - Daily communication! So important 18:10 - Have realistic expectations If you have an Outsourcing Success Story, Please share it!. I want to hear about your success (and I'll probably give you some free advice if you do). |
Talk about "The Cloud" is everywhere. The question I get is: "How do I use 'the cloud' for my business?" More specifically: "How do I use Amazon's EC2 and S3 for my business?" About 18 months ago we switched the hosting for my blog to use Amazon EC2 Cloud Computing and Amazon S3 Cloud storage. It wasn't simple. (since...we've moved everything over to Amazon's web services) Why I moved to "the cloud" My goals with moving my blog to "the cloud" were to: understand how to use the cloud effectively document how to use amazons cloud see how much it would cost (about $80/month to host my blog, which gets between 1000-2000 visits per day, and runs LOTS of bandwidth with all the videos) and make everything accessible to people who maybe don't have a tech staff My experience setting it up I had one of my GUYS set up everything and document every step of the way. He did an amazing job of it. We've been running my wordpress blog on amazon's EC2 cloud for about 18 months and have learned A LOT! We've been through crashes, downtime, expensive time, and now cheap time. We've figured out things to do and things not to do. Documentation for how to use Amazon's cloud computing Here is the third version of the documentation my GUY created: Amazon EC2/S3 Cloud Computing How To Document It's VERY ROUGH! It's VERY TECHNICAL! We'll create more versions as I get feedback from people. You'll notice 2 things about the doc: The dates on the title page are older. We've updated the document, we just haven't updated the title page. It's written by a Filipino. He's a programmer, not an english major! (you'll laugh at some of the language Who this is for (and who it's NOT for) This document is for you if: you're technically inclined you want to use "the cloud" but don't want to spend all the time figuring stuff out you're interested in using reliable dedicated servers at a reasonable price This document isn't for you if: you struggle with FTP the word "server" scares you you're not making money with your current website Why I'm doing this I want feedback! I know the document is rough. I want a few people to follow it and implement what it goes through in their business. Take notes and let me know what's missing, what you don't understand, and how you figured it out. I'm interested in making this document a more thorough guide so more people can take advantage of this resource for their business. If using this interests you, read through it. See if it's way over your head. See if it makes sense. See if anything jumps out at you immediately as being lacking. I hope to make this a guide which more people can use. It's free! If you use it, use the contact form to let me know what's wrong or what you like about it. Also, feel free to leave comments of things you find which you believe will help people. |
You recruit what looks to be a very talented employee in the Philippines. They do great work for 3 weeks. Then they disappear. BAM. GONE! This is one of the biggest problems employers have when hiring Filipino workers. This video explains what happens. File Donwload: MP3 Audio, ~1.36 MB Give more/better/proper training and 95% of the time you'll avoid this problem. |
One of my employees gave me the idea of having them make guest posts on my blog.I thought it was a great idea. I asked each of them to write a post. In the email I asked them to: Write about what's good/bad about your job. Write what's hard/easy.Write about what I do good/bad.Write whatever you think would be helpful to people. Things they don'tknow about, things they need to consider, things they need toremember. Through this series I hope to show What kinds of people work for me. You'll see wildly differing english skills. What's important to them. Some of my management style (I don't claim it's great...but it seems to be working) If you'll pay attention to what they write, you'll find out how your outsourced workers in the Philippines feel. "I Gambled To Work For The Company" - A Filipino Guest Post A Peek at the Work From Home Mom's Diary - A Filipino Guest Post Problems with Outsourcing and How to Deal With Them Part 1 - A Filipino Guest Post Problems with Outsourcing and How to Deal With Them Part 2 - A Filipino Guest Post Problems with Outsourcing and How to Deal With Them Part 3 - A Filipino Guest Post Problems with Outsourcing and How to Deal With Them Part 4 - A Filipino Guest Post Outsourcing Made Me Feel Useful - A Filipino Guest Post From Pantsuits to Pajamas: Why I Chose to be a Fulltime Online Worker - A Filipino Guest Post Outsourced and Happy - A Filipino Guest Post Next post coming next week |
After more than 6 years of working with Filipino employees, I learned a couple things this week about the 13th month bonus custom in the Philippines. It's LEGALLY REQUIRED! - I thought this was the case...but wasn't completely sure.It's supposed to be paid BEFORE Dec. 24Paying it earlier in the month is better.Paying it close to the 24th (or even after) is disrespectful and likely to anger employees (I've done this before!)It has specific formulas for calculating what is required!It's NOT a Christmas bonus. A bonus is given ON TOP of the 13th month. This page gives more detail To my GUYS:WHY DIDN'T YOU EVER SAY ANYTHING TO ME??? |
Recently I promoted a product to my list.The product doesn't matter...this same thing happens all the time. I got a response back from someone saying: Hello,I signed up for [PRODUCT NAME], but I wanted to ask you honest opinion.So many of these services get so little results. Is this service really effective? This was my response That's a good question.I've never tracked any of them. I don't have time to track things like "does this one work for SEO or does that one?"I just know that the more you do, the better results you get.My GUYS do everything. They use backlinks ninja. They use UAW They use TG They use SEO Link Vine They use Linkvana They use ...I don't know...there are so many tools we use.com So, is it effective? Yes.Do I use it? Yes.Will it ALONE get you results? I don't know.The reason I outsource is so I can use EVERYTHING!NOT so I can try and figure out if one tool works over another.I don't care which one works...as long as we get results! " |
There was a Typhoon in Southern Philippines 2 days ago. It was REALLY bad. If you have people in the Philippines, make sure to check on them. For more info on the typhoon check out this article about the aftermath or this one, or google it. The whole thing is terrible. You can donate to help out at the Red Cross. One of my customers forwarded me an email from one of her GUYS. Dear sir and ma'am,this is the daughter of [NAME]. sorry for no updates lately. i am now at the city just to email you. there is a calamity happen to our place HINAPLANON ILIGAN CITY. there is a huge flood happen to our place.Thanks God that we are all alive in our family and there is no one in harm. right now, there is no electricty and internet in our place. and our was was damaged until to our 2nd floor. we will send you some pictures and videos to what happen to our place. it was very horrible.we stayed all night until morning at the roof looking at the rising water. all our things were damaged except for our computer and laptop, we saved it so that my mother can still work on you ma'am. maybe this will be the last email until we haven't recover yet. we will just email if have recovered sir and ma'am. we need your help and consideration sir and ma'am. until now, our house was full of mud because of the flood. and some of our neighbors and close friends died. thanks to God sir and ma'am that we are safe... thank you sir and ma'am. just see the news at our place HINAPLANON, ILIGAN CITY, it is the one of the major destructed place. The most important thing to save was their LAPTOP! If you have people in southern Philippines, consider sending money to help them recover. |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. A. (no names will be used) has worked for us for about 3 years. We initially hired him as a programmer. After having him work for a few months, A's skills weren't what we (or he) thought they were. Rather than letting him go, we gave him other tasks. He's been an invaluable member of our team ever since. We couldn't do what we do without him. I have been an outsource employee of John Jonas and Dan Goggins for 3 years. After working on a local company in the Philippines a friend of mine suggested that I should try applying online.Weeks after applying... John Jonas contacted me and asked me if I am interested of being a part of their business. It was my first timeworking for a foreign company and the feelings of fear, hesitations and pressure were there. I gambled to work for the company and tried to be optimistic that everything will be fine after a month of hard work. Since then, everything went well. It was hard for me at first since I need to work from homewith no office mates to talk to or ask about a problem with the things I need to do. Later I became confident with the task John and Dan is giving me because they are always there to guide us and give us instructions on how to accomplishour tasks. It is nice to work for someone who motivates people, who believes in the capabilities of their employees, provides them with proper training and lead them by example. I was more motivated to workfor the company when the team met on a distinguished place here in the Philippines and when John gave us an assurance with our jobs. And one good thing about that meet up is that we were not only there to talk about business but to enjoy ourselves on such rare occasion. John and Dan did not only focus on onespecific task in hiring us for the team but they have fully utilized our capabilities to work on new things through giving us training and allowing every member to teach and share ideas. John and Dan was not only the brain in the team but they allowed us to share our thoughts to come up with a more crisp idea. They have always given us a room for improvement which a very goodthing to keep us going and not getting stuck to our everyday job. " |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. S. (no names will be used) has worked for me for exactly 3 years.I initially hired her to write an ebook for me. Trial work. Temporary.Her writing was so good I asked her to come on full time.Her writing then become so good I made her the dedicated writer for my team.As a standard, she can write about 3000 words per day. And it's GREAT writing.That's probably 3x what I've ever seen anyone else do. She's amazing. S. is an amazing writer and a fantastic member of my philippines outsourcing team ; A Peek at the Work From Home Mom's Diary ; ; Call me A[name omitted]. I'm a full time mom to a feisty toddler by day and full time writer by night. I've been doing this for more than two years now and won't trade it for anything else. But let me tell you this: life as an outsourced employee is no bed of roses.Cultural DifferencesFor one, there's the cultural differences that one needs to adjust to when you have an American boss. Unlike working 9 to 5 for a local company or agency in the Philippines, doing online work is very different. Think of yourself as one of Charlie's Angels , you receive instructions via email, an mp3 file or a video, and you're expected to carry out those instructions and accomplish your task for the day. ; Learn To Speak UpAmerican bosses naturally assume that you follow what they're saying or that you know exactly what they're talking about. If you don't send an email or a skype message to clarify or ask questions, you're toast! They're not going to be sympathetic that you weren't able to finish your assignment because you did not understand the instructions. The lesson here is to speak up and ask relevant questions, or you'll never get any work done. Difficulties Of The Virtual WorkplaceSecond major area of adjusment is the virtual workplace. I'm not sure if foreign employers are aware that Filipinos are "pack workers". They thrive on the office atmosphere and camaraderie with fellow workers. They take their lunch break and coffee breaks together and send each other silly messages via messenger during work hours. Some people may say that this hampers productivity, but this is one of the things that I had to adjust to when I started working for John. The rest of the team worked their own schedules and I found myself the only one online late at night when I do most of my writing. The team is dispersed in different parts of the archipelago, so it was not easy to set up a team building session or ask one of the girls to have coffee. Fortunately, John set up occasions for all of us to meet and get to know each other. These several days off are blissful (yes, no work), fun and very fruitful in terms of building camaraderie and team spirit. Maintaining Productivity For Virtual EmployeesThe third major area of adjustment for virtual employees is productivity. Since there is no physical office and no hands on managers and supervisors to check your work, it's up to you to make sure that you work your full eight hours. There are no quotas or number of words to be met in my case, but I had to take the initiative and set one for myself. For example, I know I'm slacking if I don't even manage to finish one product review or article in one day. My target is at least three, and that's something that I try to meet day in and day out. The good thing about John though, is that he won't berate you for not working. However, it doesn't mean that he doesn't notice. When work is slow or productivity is low, there will be a reminder email sent to all members of the team. He won't single anyone out, but as a professional, you should own up and send a reply. Step Out Of Your Comfort ZoneFourth and most important thing to remember when you're on John Jonas' team is be prepared to step out of your comfort zone. You won't be doing one task over and over again for years. Instead, brace yourself for challenging tasks and varying assignments that will push your creativity and determination. The company is growing, the clients' demands are ever changing, and each team member must grow as well. I start my work day around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and I log off at around 2 or 3 in the morning. I see my daughter every day , I get to hold her, play with her and teach her to count and read. If I was working a regular office job I would miss out on all of these things and still not earn as much. Raise Children, Work VirtuallyI am grateful for the opportunity to work in John's team and I encourage other Moms to give outsourced work a try. We can work hard and earn money the smart way without sacrificing our primary role , raising our children well. " Any Filipinos reading this should look for work at OnlineJobs.ph. PS. Her email to me about this post said: Hi John,Sending in my guest blog post and a goofy family photo. Working for you has allowed me to enjoy life with my family =) and that's what I want your readers to see. However if I need to send a more formal picture please let me know.Best regards,S. |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. R. [name omitted] has worked for me for about 6 years.He'll tell you that when I hired him HE KNEW NOTHING! Of course...I knew nothing about hiring Filipinos at the time either!The biggest thing I've learned from R. is that consistency in a worker is REALLY important. He's not the smartest guy ever.His english isn't the best ever.He's not a designer (although he's taken it on himself to learn)He's not a programmer (although...he did learn some PHP so he could be a better employee)BUT...HE'S ALWAYS THERE! He's consistent. He'll try anything. Fail or succeed, he'll try it.He always replies to my emails.He always sends me daily reports.He always shows up to work (ok...not ALWAYS...but pretty close).I love him for what he's taught me (not to mention what he's done for my business). ; Problems With Outsourcing And How To Deal With Them ; I have read many comments about the problems encountered in outsourcing to the Philippines. In this article, I will talk about the major problems and give suggestions and possible solution to them. I want to share my opinion as one of the Filipino workers who have worked in the online industry for 6 years. ; Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappearedThis is a very common problem that employers want to deal with. You hire an employee and after a week or so that employee never communicates and suddenly disappeared without warning. This is very frustrating on the employer's side. Causes One thing that may cause this problem is the lack of communication in both employer and employee. This may result to an unclear instructions, lack of training materials, or lack of understanding of training materials on the part of the employee. Most employers would chose employees with good English without any experience in SEO or online task. And if an employer would only send an email and tell that employee to build backlinks to a certain site without explaining what backlinks are and why they are important, that employee will surely be stuck on work. And when that happened, that employee will just leave because of lack of understanding. The most difficult task to do is the task that we don't even understand how to do it. Some of us are afraid to ask because of the expectations the employers set. Most of us are afraid to tell you that WE DON'T KNOW how to do a certain task. That is why some employees just leave and disappear. Another thing that can cause this problem is the employee doesn't want to do a certain task. " I have a co-employee that we want to work on a different task aside from writing. After a few weeks of trying, she never sent us any updates and when I asked her why, she said she wants to resign. The reason is that she does not want the assigned task. She is not good at it. So I convinced her to stay and we will give her the task she wants and that is writing articles. She stayed working with us because she is happy with what she is doing. This is only one example of this kind of situation. Solution: If you hire an employee, try to talk to them often. They need you. Try to chat with them (not just email). Talk to them so that you will know their weakness and strength. Don't just rely on training materials. Training materials are very good references, but you need reach out to your employees and let them feel that they are not left behind.By trying to talk to them, you will determine what task would be appropriate for their skills. And because you know their strength, you can give them the task they wanted to do. Don't give a linkbuilding task to a web designer. Know your employees well and set up a good relationship with them. Coming Soon (his guest post was so long I had to split it up): Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappearedProblem 2: Dishonest EmployeesProblem 3: Demotivated EmployeesProblem 4: Really Bad Employees (this is my favorite, wait until you read his "Causes") |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. Part 2 of R's blog post is especially important because it talks about one of the most common problems that discouraged business owners from outsourcing to the Philippines and hiring Filipino workers. I can't guarantee that all the Filipino employees that you'll encounter are honest and hardworking. There will be bad apples in every bunch. But that shouldn't discourage you from outsourcing. If you want to be the CEO of your own business and live the 4 hour work week (or the 17 hour work week like me) you need to be able walk away from your business. You need to delegate tasks and hand over the reins to people you can trust. The problem that R talks about here is probably (and hopefully) the worst that you will encounter. Fortunately, there are ways you can prevent this problem and solutions if you do encounter them. Remember that lasting success doesn't come easily. And with outsourcing; just like in a fairy tale, you may need to kiss a few frogs before you find your outsourcing prince (or princess). Problem 2: Dishonest EmployeesSome employers find out that their employees are working with other foreign employers even though they are paying them on a full-time basis. I personally find this thing an act of dishonesty but I will discuss some possible causes of it. ; Causes:One possible cause why an employee will seek to work for other people is the kind of task given to them. If you give your employee a boring, copy and paste task that he/she can finish in just 4 hours when he/she is good at it, then that employee would have a great chance of getting other work from others employers.Another possible cause is the salary. If the employee is not satisfied with the salary, that employee would find other means to have additional income. And one way to do it is to work for other people. Solution:Don't just give a redundant task. Give your Filipino employees more room to learn. When we have the opportunity to learn more, we get excited and will took some time to read and to write notes about the new idea we are learning. This will make our mind work well enough that we can think of better ideas on how to do our tasks. Giving redundant tasks is like creating a robot and program it to do similar task every day. We are not robots; we are human beings capable of learning and are willing to learn more if the employers are also willing to trust us with these ideas. Use a tracking program such as RescueTime to track your employees work. I know some of you would say that your employees are not willing to use it. Well, maybe But when you have established a good relationship from the very start, this won't be a problem on most employees. It still goes back to employee and employer relationship. Let them understand why you are doing this. " Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappeared Problem 2: Dishonest EmployeesProblem 3: Demotivated EmployeesProblem 4: Really Bad Employees (this is my favorite, wait until you read his "Causes") |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. In the part 3 of R's post, he talks about another common problem with outsourcing to the Philippines: Filipino employees who have lost their motivation to work. This is something that some of you may have experienced. The first few weeks or months with your Filipino were great. He did great work and you received regular updates and emails. Then, slowly, his work started to deteriorate. He's working less and he's not updating you as often as he should. There are a lot of people out there who say Filipino workers are lazy. In most cases, this is completely untrue. A lot of Filipinos are willing to work hard because they want to keep their jobs. They become lazy when they lose motivation to do the work that needs to be done. Fortunately, we now have insider info on how to fix that problem. Problem 3: Demotivated EmployeesThere are times that you hired a Filipino employee and in the first few months they are very productive and after that, their productivity declined. These employees don't work for other people. They don't disappear. They keep on working but the difference is their productivity is not the same as the first time you hired them. ; Causes:One thing that can cause this is that they feel they are not doing well in the tasked assigned to them. Maybe they are good at first and for some reasons; they felt they everything they do is a disaster. They become demotivated and fall short in their performance. Another thing that can cause this is they become bored of what they are doing. When someone gets bored on a certain task, their performance level decreases. This is true to all of us. Solution:You need to motivate your employees. They need a little push from you. You can offer incentives when they reached a required goal and see to it that they are really interested on the task they are working on to reach that goal. You can talk to them about other things, not just work; to know their plans, goals in life, etc. and make them feel that you can help them if they will help you reach a certain goal. I believe only a few employers talk to their employees about personal life. And I don't know if you are also willing to help your employees improve their way of living. If both of you can talk about other things aside from work, I believe that it is a start of a good relationship. And with a good relationship as a foundation of all these things, the above problems could be avoided. " Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappeared Problem 2: Dishonest EmployeesProblem 4: Really Bad Employees (this is my favorite, wait until you read his "Causes") |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. R. really lays it on the line here. He's brutally honest about the fact that there are bad employees out there. Once you read his words you'll realize that bad employees are something that frustrates good Filipino workers as much as it infuriates employers. Bad employees are bad for business. Bad employees are also bad for Filipino employees because it ruins their reputation and limits their job options. I know that they personally don't want to work with this type of people. My favorite part is his "Causes." Problem 4: Really Bad Employees I don't want to be one sided on this article. I also want to tell you that just like on other countries, there are really bad employees in the Philippines. There are people who just want to get money and give little or no work for it. These people are people who think about what they can get and not thinking of what they can give. That is bad and I personally don't want these kinds of people. Causes: I don't know! Maybe they are raised that way. Solution: I would suggest that you should not give any money to those who are newly hired and to those you don't give your full trust to. But as I know most Filipino workers don't ask for a down payment. If you feel that they are only getting your money and they are not working, I suggest you talk to them. Maybe they are into certain problems that they cannot work well. But if they are not communicating, reporting for months, let's say 6 months, and they keep on getting their salary, I suggest you let go of them. I suggested this because I do believe that employers should also be honest enough to pay us after we have delivered the work. I have a friend who is not paid after working for 8 hours a day for 15 days. I hope we can also do away with those kinds of employers. These are some of the problems I find in outsourcing to the Philippines. I think in order to prevent these kinds of problems; you need to have a good relationship with your employee. Establish trust on both parties. " Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappeared Problem 2: Dishonest EmployeesProblem 3: Demotivated Employees Watch out next week for more guest posts from my Filipino employees. |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. J has worked for me for about 3 months. She has created an SEO and content plan for ReplaceMyself, OnlineJobs.ph, and my blog. She has also written lots of content for all 3 sites.When you read content she wrote, you'll never know I didn't write it myself! From Pantsuits To Pajamas A lot of Filipinos believe that you can only find success when you leave your family and work somewhere far away, either abroad or in the main metropolitan cities in the Philippines. It's common to find a lot of Filipinos workers who willingly endure loneliness and depression just so they can provide for their families. This was the situation for me and my family up until 3 years ago, when I found myself a job through a website that caters to companies that outsource to the Philippines. Three years ago, my husband and I came at a crossroads. We were going to have a baby. We knew that even with the jobs we had we still wouldn't be earning enough for the new addition to our family. And we really wanted this baby, we wanted to be with her as much as we could and see her grow up. We knew it wasn't possible with the two of us working long hours and the long commutes we had to and from work. Thankfully, I discovered outsourcing, the answer to my prayers. My Introduction To Outsourcing It was actually my sister who introduced me to outsourcing back in 2009. I had a regular job as a medical information analyst in Manila and was looking for ways to earn extra money without having to leave home. She knew that I was a pretty decent writer so she suggested that I post my resume on bestjobs.ph and onlinejobs.ph. I was able to find work as a freelance writer. Through those sites, I was able to supplement my income whenever I needed to. I started working fulltime as a writer/editor in 2010, when I had my baby. I could have easily gone back to work as a medical information analyst but chose not to. I didn't want to spend 4 hours a day commuting to and from work. I didn't want to come home from a 12 hour workday (plus the 4 hour commute) bone tired and unable to take care of my baby. I didn't want to wait for the weekend just to spend time with my husband and daughter. Outsourcing To The Philippines: Win-Win Situation John Jonas constantly talks about how outsourcing can help you by giving you more time to do what you want. What he doesn't say is that outsourcing your business to the Philippines also gave us Filipinos more time for ourselves and our families. Sure, we still work 8-10 hours a day but we get to spend those hours at home. We get to adjust our work hours to suit our lives. With outsourcing, I have a fulltime job and still am a fulltime wife and mother. I even have time now to indulge a few hobbies (cooking and crafts) and help out in the family business. In addition to having more time, I also have more money. I may not be earning as much as I used to as a medical information analyst but I'm also not spending as much. When I was working in an office in Manila, a third of my income would go to my work-related expenses like fare, food, and office clothes. Now, most of my income goes to my family because I don't have to spend for those things. Challenges Of An Outsourced Filipino Employee I'm not saying that my experience with outsourcing is completely without problems. Sometimes, I miss dressing up for work and meeting co-workers in person. And at first, it was hard for me to focus on work, especially with the distractions at home. I had to discipline myself and set some boundaries. I even got a nanny so I could dedicate some time for work. But the great thing about this set up is my daughter still knows I'm with her at home and I'm still there to cater to her needs. Her nanny is more like a companion and a playmate, not a substitute mom. It was also a little odd for me at first to have an employer who wasn't constantly hovering over my shoulder. That was what I experienced working in an office. Now I appreciate it. I can't believe how much I've learned and grown these past few months. And I'm really humbled by how much John trusts my work and ideas. He really respects us as employees. I've encountered Americans and Europeans before when I worked in Manila and a lot of them talked to me like I was stupid. It was really refreshing to find an American who actually respected my intelligence and talked to me as a professional. And probably the hardest thing about my outsourcing job is that I really don't get the same respect as I used to get from some of my fellow Filipinos. A lot of people don't take my work seriously because I don't wear a suit and I work at home. Despite the fact that I'm a good writer and am now training as an SEO specialist, a lot of people still see me as a stay-at-home wife "dabbling" on the internet. Redefining Success For A Filipino Employee For those who have already outsourced their business or are in the process of outsourcing to the Philippines, I want to thank you in behalf of the Filipinos who are working in this field. Working for you has allowed a lot of us to have a challenging career and a earn enough for our families. You've changed not just your employees' lives but the lives of their families, friends, and loved ones as well. Coming from a culture where most people believe that success can only be found by leaving our families and working abroad; outsourcing has redefined success for us. With outsourcing, Filipinos like me were able to define success on our terms: we can stay in the Philippines, be with our families, have a challenging career, and earn enough to have a comfortable lifestyle. " |
Today (literally, no joke, as I offer my one time only coaching program) in the mail I got this package: Complete with brownies and all. (the card is 8.5x11!) The crazier part was that Nathan actually spent money JUST to thank me for teaching him how to properly outsource! (I bet his Filipinos created the card for him!) Here's the inside of the card: Are you going to be next? It changed Nathan's business. It changed Nathan's family life. It changed Nathan's free time. (Here's the full scan of the front cover) Imagine where your business will be 2 years from now when you're outsourcing like Nathan is. Let me teach you how to outsource! |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. Read the story below! It's amazing There are a lot of smart, hard-working Filipinos out there who can't find jobs because of illness. F is one of those people. When I hired her she was asking for $100/month. She never thought she'd be able to work...ever. "Outsourcing Made Me Feel Useful" It was late in November 2008 when I heard about online jobs. I am staying at home, actually recovering from a long and I can say hard to face Guillein Barre Syndrome. I honestly don't know where to start my life again, but I realized that this wasn't the end of my story. I will work and earn, have a family and live like others do. So I posted my resume at a particular site and then two days after, here's John Jonas asking "Are you still looking for job?", so definitely I replied asap. God knows he changed my life; this job lifted me up in all aspects. I had doubts to be honest at first because I have questions in my mind and I can now tell everyone who is patiently reading this that: WORKING RELATIONSHIP From the very start, both employer and employee should know what the job they will work on is. Video trainings, Instructional documents are helpful too, and OPEN COMMUNICATION. Most Filipinos are respectful; I said most because I know were not all that kind. But if employers show smooth, kind and open to different ideas of his employee, well, working tandem will smoothly flow. On the other hand, if employees shows disrespect, fails most of the time in doing his tasks, then Sir/s and Madam/s, do an action. ASK them why, what is the problem? so both will benefit from each other in case you regain the working relationship. I actually don't know what I am going to do from the very start but since I was given great trainings, unpressured tasks, get to know each other not too personally but almost, everything went well. HONESTY I am not that good in English. But I can write contents, follow instructions, do my tasks not at all times, do self-study when team is busy and always honest. We are not perfect workers but we make things possible in honest ways. Whenever we don't know what to do, we ask. Though others don't and just disappeared. When we need to do something that is on our working hours, we tell our employers, through e-mails, text messaging, or a phone call what we need to do, where, why(if not too private) or whatever it is. It is because we want them to know what situation we're into. We believe that employers are not stone too; they know how to listen, understand and appreciate the honesty Filipinos are doing. !Sharing: I have been hospitalized for many times, I am weak, my immune system. And all those times, my team was there, I let them know and I really appreciate their concerns. In all aspects, they were there especially Sir John. And the last time was when I gave birth by c-section. Premature. It was so wonderful experience though life seems to be tough on me. She lived for three days and it was so hard. I can't move on easily, but the team was there. They never left me. Honesty is really a great weapon in facing life. Work goes along with it and the nice people. Employers get Filipino workers because we are not idiots. They hire us because, they can trust us, we are not perfect but we are giving our bests, we are contented with worth it salaries they offer, we are honest and respectful. Because if not, then why is numbered of Filipino now are on online jobs? To achieve great Filipino workers, I can say that from the start, whole name, contact numbers and addresses should be of employers' knowledge. Don't start with high salary so as to see employees' eagerness and loyalty in working with the employer. Give them tasks that fit our skills. Employers hired us in the first place. If not contented with the work, then let us do other things, in that way, we can pay you done tasks in return and we learn at the same time. If possible, implement GIVE AND TAKE relationship. Fairness results harmonious work bonding. I am almost four years now working with Sir John on websites (promoting, doing contents, setting up and updating), and recently with Sir Dan (on onlinejobs.ph database). *FYI: I knew nothing when I started and with team's open communication, self study and proper instructions and video trainings as well, I now do different stuffs. I earn and learn at the same time. Thanks to our team! " |
This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective. Filipinos are a really happy bunch of people and nobody personifies that more than "Little John". No, I didn't give him that nickname. He made that up himself.I didn't even know the team called him "Little John" until he wrote this blog post...hahahaha.I found John by browsing the resumes at OnlineJobs.ph. Turns out....he's better than I thought he would be. Outsourced and Happy How the Story BeganAllow me to start with a brief introduction of myself. My name is John; well...the team addresses me as Little John to do away with all the confusion with our big man John. I'm 22, a nurse by profession but have none the less no more intention of going back to my medical roots. I was introduced to onlinejobs.ph by a friend who pitied me for complaining about my stressful job as an English Language Trainer for a call center and I've been working for John for more than a year now and have worked a very happy and productive year. As a little present for John (and perhaps for all the readers), I'll be revealing some things most outsourcers don't know. Here goes. Squealing the SecretOutsourcing is one job that has changed lives of many Filipinos.Needless to say, it has broken a lot of barriers starting with the cultural barrier wherein someone from the west works together with somebody from the tropics. Though cross-culture working relationships may sound awesome or cool or whatever, the hard reality is that it is never easy. As a Filipino, I am shy and easily embarrassed by nature. I don't know why, you as the employer need not know why. These stuff cannot be easily changed as I was born with it. The best thing to do if you ask me is to just let me be until I get comfortable with you, my employer. Once Filipinos begin to get comfortable with their employers, they start opening up their feelings and start telling you how they really feel about their jobs, their tasks, their workload.... you name it ! Making the ChoiceIf there one thing employers should know and understand, majority of job seekers posting lower salary expectations are novices in the business. That said, expect to have your employee trained by you which I bet isn't that hard. Judging from experience, I learned most of the basics and more by self-learning. I initially was looking for a writing job but found that managing a website or two is way more awesome. On the flip side, most who declare higher salary expectations are those with extensive experience. Well as a matter of fact; these guys actually do know how much they are worth. Rollercoaster Ride to ComfortI have had my shares of frustrations while on the job. Not getting the job done or not meeting the expectations of John and the rest of the team is one. Despite appearing rather unpressured, I have been pressured because I find myself responsible and accountable for the tasks I am working with. I started out shy and kept questions and problems to myself. Sad thing is, I felt left out and even got more pressured. It's a good thing John and the team allowed me to open up and helped me become closer with them. In turn, I found myself more productive, more involved and more confident with what I do. Having been instilled from the very beginning to ask when in doubt, I took the advice to my advantage whenever Google failed me. Loud and ProudIf there is one thing I am proud of and would actually find pretty neat if all employers did the same, is that John actually acknowledges the fact that as humans, we too deserve breaks in order to become productive. Recognizing that attention may actually diminish after long periods of concentration is something we Filipino's would appreciate if our employers had. Accepting the fact that from time to time, in the middle of our work, we browse Facebook or Twitter or read the latest gossips is pretty important as we are not working in an environment where there are people beside us we could share a giggle just to break the ice. Cutting the Ropes EarlyI have tendencies of writing too much and I guess John knows that (I sold myself into having him hire me because of my lengthy mails) reason why I am cutting this post short. I have a whole lot more to tell but would rather give the space to my team-mates to share their own slices of cake. Having to guest blog for John is a great honor on my part. Not everyone is given such an honoring experience. If you have a workforce in the Philippines, I suggest you give them this opportunity too. I'm sure they'd have smiles as wide as I have as I am writing this. My name is John. I have control over my time. I work at home. I have a job I enjoy. Outsourced and happy. " |
Years ago I was struggling running my own business. There are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done. I knew I needed to get others to do work, but it just didn't work for me. I tried India...disasterI tried US based workers...too expensive, and they quit too quicklyI tried Elance, Odesk...too frustrating, it's not automation and still depends on me Then I found the Philippines. The day I hired my first Filipino worker was the most liberating day of my life (thanks Kates!). All of a sudden I was free to focus on things that actually matter in my business. I never looked back. I now have 11 people Filipinos for me. I love them. They're amazing. This ebook is the story of how I've done it and how you can too. It's the story of how I've replaced myself in my business and how I work the 17 hour work week. Download The Ebook How To Replace Yourself By Outsourcing To The Philippines Available on Kindle " The book is 134 pages (with lots of screenshots). If 134 pages to change your life is too much of a commitment for you read this introduction: Outsourcing To The Philippines: What's it really about? It's only 18 pages, but reads a lot shorter than that. In the books I teach: Why outsource to the Philippines and NO WHERE ELSE!How to find the best talent.How to find great people for $250/month FULL-TIME!!!How to have them do the work you're currently doing.How to best leverage your time and money for maximum efficiencyHow to pay peopleWhat the difficult first task isThe #1 problem in outsourcing to the PhilippinesThe #2 problem in outsourcing to the PhilipppinsHow To overcome #1 and #2 problemsWhat to have them do for youHow to find GREAT programmers for $400/monthHow to find GREAT content writers for $250/monthHow to find a project manager for $500/monthWhy you need to become the CEO of your business, and how to do it with Filipino laborUse Jing - it will become your best friend22 tips on hiring/managing FilipinosWhat sites to use to search through talentCultural differences to expect...I could just go on and on...but you're wasting time already deciding, when you could be reading the book already No opt-in required. Just download it and read it. It has already changed hundreds of people's lives. |
I understand that generalizing "living the four hour work week" into"7 EASY STEPS!!!..." isn't likely to work for everyone... but... I've been living the 4 hour work week (actually, the 17 hour work week: 4 hours/week made me bored) for about 5 years now. I've helped numerous other people do it. So, while these steps aren't necessarily easy, they're basically required (in my experience). It WON'T happen overnight It took me a couple of years(without realizing what I was trying to do). It's DEFINITELY possible. I do it. I had lunch with someone today who is also doing it. 7 Steps To Living The 4 Hour Work Week Learn about online businesses The only way this is possible (as far as I know) is if you have a business that can make sales by itself, 24/7.Learn how it's done! Learn what autoresponders are, what different shopping carts do, what a squeeze page is, how to write sales copy, what an affiliate program is, how adwords works, basic SEO, …There's SOOOOO much to learn.Don't spent too much time learning about it. It's super easy to get caught up learning and learning and never implement. However, you'll find it much easier if you have a basis for action before you start implementing.Jim's book "The Silent Sales Machine" is a great place to start. It will give you a great education and give you ton's of ideas. Create a plan for an online business Make sure you understand it. Make sure you can see the end from the beginning and that you can understand how to get there.Don't try to re-invent Facebook. Don't create the worlds greatest and newest and most magical website.Follow what other successful people have done in the past.I see too many people go into a business not understanding all the pieces. You don't need to know how to do everything, but you need to understand what needs to get done and why. Start an online business. Read my post about how to start a business online. Maybe youcan live the 4-hour work week without an online business…but I don't know anyone who has. Plan to outsource everything from the beginning. Even in internet businesses, there's always work to be done. Fortunately, most of it can (and should) be outsourced. This is the most important piece of the 4 hour work week plan. With every business decision you should ask "Can that be outsourced?" If not, maybe it shouldn't be part of your business. Maybe it should, but recognize that each piece you take on is one step farther from the 4-hour workweek. Here's where you can learn to outsource. Stay away from bright shiny objects. Focus.Stay on track.Follow your plan.You DON'T need to implement everything you hear about.You DON'T need to have everything done before you start. Your business will evolve over time and you'll have a chance to try all the different things you hear about.If you don't focus you'll find yourself pulled in all different directions and you'll never succeed at any one of them.Start with something small and make it profitable. Then automate that small thing. Make decisions based around your lifestyle. If something is going to require a bunch of work from you, maybe it's not worth it.If it involves you being the only one who can do the work, and it's something that happens all the time, it's probably not going to fit the 4hww.Right from the beginning, think about the lifestyle you're trying to build.Part of every decision is the question: Am I going to have to do this more than once? and Will this create ongoing work for me? If the answer to either is Yes, then maybe it's not a good decision. Find something to fill your time Before you can fill your time, your business has to succeed. This one assumes you've succeeded at the previous 5. If not, go out and work your butt off (I did).When you do start to succeed, as long as there's time in the day, you're going to fill it.You can choose to fill it with work, or fill it with life.For some people, work is life.For me, I spend time with my family, playing golf, and trying to do service.As you find free time, fill that time with things that AREN'T work.One thing I remind myself constantly is that "Work will be there tomorrow, my family might not be!" Tim Ferriss' book changed my life.It opened my eyes to what I could do with my time because of the business I had built.Once you build the business, make choices to spend time doing exactly what you want. A great job post can do more than just advertise your need for an employee. A great job post can also attract the right kind of applicants, giving you better choices when looking for the best person for the job. This is especially important when you're hiring Filipino workers. A lot of business owners I know complain about why there are a lot of unqualified Filipinos inquiring about their job post or why none of the qualified Filipino workers seem to want to apply for their job postings. It's like Dating I think an online job post is a lot like online dating. You want to be attractive enough for people to want to date you but you don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry asking for your number. You want whoever's interested to meet your qualifications, but you don't want to set these qualifications too high and scare off potential dates. Nor do you want to set them too low and appear desperate. In line with the online dating analogy, here are a few tips on how to write a great job post and attract the right kind of Filipino employees. Be clear in what you want in an employee. We all have this list in our heads on what we're looking for in an ideal mate. We should do the same thing when we're looking for employees. It's easier to find the Filipino employee that you want when you spell out what you want in that employee. Let's say you're looking for a virtual assistant. What kind of virtual assistant are you looking for? Do you want someone with a strong background in writing, SEO, or administrative skills? This lets the potential applicant asses his qualifications early on and weeds out those who don't make the cut. Have realistic expectations. There's no such thing as an ideal mate in the same way there's no such thing as a Filipino VA who has excellent English skills, can do SEO, WordPress modification, programming and website design. It's just too much, for anyone! Ask yourself, what skills do you need for your business and what can you do without. List down the tasks that you need to be done and can't do by yourself; that's how you should write down the skills you're looking for in an employee. Be the person that you want to hire. When it comes to finding employees, opposites don't attract. Rather, it's people with the same values and work ethics that get along together. So instead of writing down the qualities you want to see in your job applicants, write down the qualities you like about your company, your people, and the qualities you want to see in them. Use measurable criteria. If you want your date to be an animal lover, the first thing you ask if whether or not they have a pet. As much as possible, ask for references, samples or portfolios in your job posts. Those who can submit these requirements are the one most likely to be qualified for the job. Like dating, you'll probably have to kiss a few frogs before finding the ONE. But once you do find that perfect Filipino employee, you'll see that they will be worth the effort and worth the wait. Post a job at OnlineJobs.ph. |
Recently Facebook implemented it's new Timeline feature for fan pages, converting all fan pages to the new format as of March 30, 2012. This change has important implications for internet marketers:- Reduces the effectiveness of using a Like Gate to get more fans- You're no longer allowed to specify a default "landing tab" for your fan page, all users see the timeline unless they arrive via direct link to another tab- Increases opportunities for visual branding- Provides more promotional features This article from HyperArts thoroughly covers the implications of the changes. To make your life easier, we updated the ReplaceMyself.com Facebook training module to provide training for your employees to stay on top of Facebook changes. If you don't want to deal with the new changes (I don't), have your Filipino workers do it. |
Over the past few months I've begun to realize that doing outsourcing correctly requires a change in mindset. See...most people are so used to busting their own butt to get stuff done, that giving their work to other people is very foreign to them. It's almost unnatural. I know often people think "If I do it myself it'll get done faster and better." That's exactly the wrong mindset I'm talking about. The problem with it is that you'll always be the one doing it. Even if it does get done faster and better, you're still limiting the amount of stuff that gets done. When you change your mindset, you start giving stuff to other people and letting them figure it out. No, I'm not talking about giving business decisions to other people, you still have to do that. I'm talking about tasks that someone else can do. ALL OF THEM. For example, here's a list of things I recently had my people do for me: Set up a listing for meconvert all my videos using Supercreate and encode a video for me using 2 different videos and an audio streamupload my personal pictures from my personal PC to my flickr account (hey…this is about lifestyle…I'm tired of doing this!)Set up an aweber mailing listWrite a sales letter (yes, you read that right…and they did a dang good job too).Tell me what ebook in which industry we should write next! I did very little training for this stuff because I've already given them so much training (all the stuff that's available as a ReplaceMyself.com member) that now they can figure out almost anything) After your guys are trained, they can do ANYTHING! You just have to change your mindset! Here's the training you need: http://www.ReplaceMyself.com/audio |
Part of changing your mindset is giving other people tasksthat you would normally have done yourself. It's also about using your resources efficiently. If you canbuy an ebook about something for $50, and have that teachyour guys how to do it, why wouldn't you do that insteadof spending 3-4 hours creating training yourself? Is your time really only worth $12/hour? It's the same thing with ReplaceMyself.com. Did you know that 98% of the content inside ReplaceMyself.com isn't for you! No, IT'S NOT FOR YOU! It's for you to give to your guys to train them. It's process lists.It's step by step training.It's business concepts.It's minute details to make sure stuff gets done correctly. The point of ReplaceMyself.com is to help you change your mindset. If you don't change it, how can you ever expect to be the CEO of your company? Here's the training to hand off to your Filipino VA's.All of this stuff is there to help you move towards the lifestyleyou want to be living. If you're not living it now, when are you going to start? "As soon as...?" "As soon as..." never comes. Today's the day to start. I understand that this is a blatant ad for my website. I've just seen too many people try to hire someone, not train them, and then complain that "this doesn't work."It does work.You just have to train the people you hire…and then manage them well. |
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