They say being a writer or blogger is a solitary job and that you only need yourself to keep your career afloat. While this may be true for small bloggers just starting out, it’s a different case for growing bloggers and writers who want to upscale their businesses.
As you start and grow your blog, tasks will pile up until they overcome you. Bloggers, writers, and even entrepreneurs must be mindful of where they spend their time and energy. Outsourcing to a virtual assistant is an ideal way to eliminate repetitive tasks and focus on essential details.
Virtual assistants are talented at juggling various responsibilities so you can have more control of your time. From social media management to client relationship management, you can count on your VA to take care of everything for you.
What Are Virtual Assistant Services?
Virtual assistant services include email management, content creation and editing, customer service, scheduling appointments, research, and more. VAs are incredibly versatile in what they can do and offer unique solutions to meet each client’s individual needs.
Hiring a virtual assistant eliminates the need to focus on time-consuming and repetitive tasks. This frees up your time and energy to focus on other parts of the blog, such as content creation, marketing, engagement activities, and more. A virtual assistant helps keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.
How Can a Virtual Assistant Service Help You?
If you want to monetize your blog or use it as a medium to acquire more clients, you’re basically a small business owner, and hiring a VA can help you scale up your business.
Knowing when and what responsibilities to delegate is a critical business skill you should have. By mastering this, you can optimize your time for the bigger picture.
Every small process in your business is essential, and at the same time, not everything requires your attention. You can quickly solve this conundrum by hiring competent and high-quality virtual assistants.
Here are more ways a virtual assistant can help you with your blogging career:
- Give you more time: As repeatedly mentioned, one of the benefits of hiring a VA is that they can help free up your time. Scheduling and posting content can be confusing and time-consuming, which can be delegated to the VA to give you more time to focus on planning and crafting your content.
- Declutter your life: When you outsource tasks to a VA, it helps declutter your life. From sending emails and scheduling appointments to managing social media accounts — you can count on your VA to help you get your life back in line.
- Expands your business: As a growing writer or blogger, your calendar will be filled with deadlines from multiple clients. On top of this, your inbox might be getting flooded with client and prospect emails. This is where a virtual assistant can help you manage multiple clients and eventually expand your business.
- Hire according to your needs: A great thing about hiring a VA is you only need to hire according to your needs. If you only need them to organize your calendar and declutter your email inbox for two hours every day, you can easily find one. Scale up and down depending on your business needs.
Where Do You Find Virtual Assistants?
Now, we’ll discuss the meaty part: finding high-quality virtual assistants. You can look at countless sources to discover VAs, such as online job boards, dedicated websites to connect you with experienced VAs, LinkedIn, and other social media channels.
Here are some platforms you can use to find your first virtual assistant:
Online Job Listing Platforms
Online job listing sites, such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Google Job Search, are all great places to look for VAs. These are good sites to start your search as they are familiar to most people, and many virtual assistants also lurk on these sites to look for potential opportunities.
Among the sites listed here, Indeed is the biggest job search site, with over 300 million monthly visitors. While the other two platforms have similar audiences, Indeed offers ample opportunities for virtual assistants and independent contractors.
Freelance Marketplaces
This is the best place to start your search if you’re looking for virtual assistants globally. You can find virtual assistants of all budget ranges here, which makes it an ideal choice for writers and bloggers of all levels.
You should start with Upwork, PeoplePerHour, or Fiverr. These are the top three marketplaces for freelancers and virtual assistants. All these sites have advantages and disadvantages, so you should research to determine which fits your needs the best.
If you only need to outsource a specific task, a freelance virtual assistant might be an excellent and practical option, as you can hire them hourly or on a project basis.
Virtual Assistant Agencies
The downside with freelance marketplaces is that they’re often a hit or miss. You could hire an inexperienced virtual assistant if you don’t research thoroughly. Virtual assistant agencies can be the perfect alternative if that’s a risk you’re unwilling to take.
Virtual assistants from these agencies are thoroughly trained to perform routine virtual assistance tasks, such as calendar management, email filtering, social media management, and more.
Moreover, the staff at these agencies are always available to help you with any concerns or questions. If you’re incompatible with your virtual assistant, the agency can replace them with another talent that fits your needs.
The downside of virtual assistant agencies is that you commit to the agency for the duration of the contract, and this might be a downside if you want to get out of the deal halfway through the agreement.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are also an excellent way to find experienced and competitive virtual assistants.
Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer great resources to connect with potential virtual assistants. On LinkedIn, in particular, you can search for Virtual Assistants using the search bar or use LinkedIn’s job posting feature.
Facebook Groups are also an excellent option for finding virtual assistants. Make sure to join specific groups related to your field, such as a community for writers and bloggers. This way, you’ll be more likely to find a qualified VA who shares your interests and is familiar with the industry.
Referrals and Recommendations
Another excellent way to find talented virtual assistants is through referrals or recommendations.
You might know another blogger or author who works with a VA they swear by, or you may have heard of someone through industry conversations. Ask around and see if anyone can provide a referral for you.
Referrals are great as they come from people you know (or at least the person making the referral). The social proof is already established through referrals, and you can be sure that the virtual assistant you hire is highly qualified for the job.
How To Decide What You Should Outsource to a VA
Now you know all the different platforms to look for a dedicated virtual assistant on, but you should understand what responsibilities you want them to handle before hiring one. Here are some steps you can take to gain clarity on what you want your VA to do:
Establish Your SOPs
First, you need to list all your processes from end to end and establish a solid workflow for each procedure. For example, writing down how you acquire and onboard clients is a great way to start. You might also have a particular process you follow when creating content or researching topics.
The key here is not to overthink everything. Breathe, grab a pen and paper, sit down, and write how you would typically perform tasks, from speaking to clients to submitting your final draft or publishing a blog post to your site. You don’t have to think about what you want to outsource during this step.
Categorize Your Processes
Now that you have a bird-eye view of all your processes, you must categorize them into the following categories:
- What I’m not good at: These processes you find challenging or time-consuming. Remember, you don’t need to be an expert at everything. There’s no shame in admitting your weak points. Be honest with yourself and put the processes you’re unfamiliar with in this category.
- What I’m good at: These are the processes you don’t find challenging and are happy to do yourself. As a blogger or author, content creation is one of the most evident processes you must put here. Include the processes only you can do and love doing here.
- What I don’t have time to do: These are the processes you don’t necessarily hate but don’t have time to do. For example, you might not have the time to meet and update clients about their projects or respond to inquiries from prospective clients.
- What I hate doing: These are the tasks you dread doing. For example, you might not be fond of social media and hate creating content for these channels, but you need them to reel in potential clients.
Now you know the responsibilities you could delegate to your VA. You can hire different VAs to perform tasks or find someone to do all the ones you don’t want to do.
Name Your Qualifications for a VA
Once you know what tasks you want to delegate, you must identify the qualifications you’re looking for in a VA. Do you want someone with a degree in marketing? Do you prefer someone already familiar with your industry?
For example, you might want someone with experience in lead generation and client conversion if you want to outsource your client acquisition processes.
Finding a VA with experience relevant to the processes you want to outsource is beneficial. In contrast, you can hire an inexperienced VA if you’re willing to teach them your SOPs.
Determine Your Budget
At this point, you already know what you want to outsource to your VA and what your ideal VA looks like. You can start creating a budget for hiring a VA.
We’ll talk more about the cost of hiring a virtual assistant in the following section, but the key here is to be reasonable with your price and the weight of their responsibilities.
Start Your Hunt
Now that you know what processes to delegate, the qualifications you’re expecting in a VA, and your budget, you can start searching for the perfect virtual assistant. You can refer to the section above for platforms and resources to find potential VAs.
How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost?
This is the part you’re probably longing to hear, and the answer depends on multiple variables. There’s no standard price range for general virtual assistant services.
Factors like the complexity of the task, the VA’s experience, the VA’s location, and other factors determine their service rates.
According to Indeed, the average rate of most virtual assistants based in the U.S.A. is around $23.92 per hour. This rate could go lower if you choose a foreign-based VA. Time Doctor says you can hire an entry-level general VA from the Philippines at $6.00 per hour.
Low prices don’t always mean you can save money. At the same time, premium rates don’t always guarantee quality output. It’s essential to be clear about what you’re looking for and stick to your budget.
If you have a prospective VA you want to hire, ask them how they can help you improve your process and the strategies they can use to optimize your workflow. This way, you’ll know if their rate is worth your money.
How To Assign Daily Tasks
When you find the VA you’re looking for, it’s time to put them to work. Although you know what processes you want them to take over, you might be overwhelmed at this point because you don’t know the specific tasks you want them to do.
Here are some tips to help you make the most out of your VA and assign them valuable daily tasks:
- Identify your goal with your VA: You might’ve hired a VA to focus on your content creation process or have more time for yourself. Whatever your goal is, it must be clear to yourself.
- Identify where you are currently: You might be flooded with emails right now or bombarded with project deadlines. Awareness of your current situation helps you understand what you and your VA can do to improve your circumstances.
- Determine the steps you must take to reach your goal: If your goal is to have more time to write actual projects, you must identify the tasks that’ll help you get there. It could be delegating your email correspondence or client acquisition processes to your VA.
- Break it down into small, actionable steps: Now, break it down into achievable steps. You can ask your VA to introduce themselves to your clients and provide project updates first or organize your calendar to ensure deadlines do not overlap.
- Schedule recurring tasks: If your VA has routine tasks daily, weekly, or monthly, you can pre-schedule them in your project management tool. For example, you can assign checking and decluttering emails first thing every workday or make end-of-day reports before they end their shift.
What Tools To Use To Assign the Daily Tasks
A project management tool is your ultimate savior when delegating tasks to your VA. There are countless superpowered project management tools on the market today.
Here are some tools to help you find the right partner for your workflow:
- Asana: Asana is a staple name in the project management tool market and offers a free version for teams under 15 members. Their free version allows you to use all the app’s essential features, which is enough if you only have one VA or a small team.
- Trello: Trello is another free alternative that provides a kanban representation of all your tasks. The interface of this app is pretty straightforward, and it’s relatively easy to use.
- Monday.com: Monday is a cheaper alternative for Asana but offers a free version for teams under ten members. Monday is better if you’re into personalization and automation.
- ClickUp: ClickUp is an all-in-one project management tool for teams and individuals. Their free version offers unlimited tasks, projects, and users — perfect for bloggers with multiple VAs and clients.
Tasks To Outsource to a Virtual Assistant Today:
With many types of virtual assistants out there, you can outsource numerous tasks to optimize your time. Here are some ideas to help you get started:
1. General Virtual Assistance
You can outsource routine administrative tasks like data entry, calendar management, lead generation, and in-depth research tasks to a general virtual assistant.
General VAs are typically enough if you don’t have a lot of clients and only want to get rid of annoying and repetitive tasks on your plate. These VAs are relatively cheaper compared to VAs offering specialized services.
2. Content Writing & Management
You can hire a specialized virtual assistant to help you create content, proofread your first draft, organize your content calendar, or ensure your blog posts are published on time.
Content writing and management VAs are perfect for content creators needing extra eyes to scan their projects and hands to do the initial research for them. Your content VA could also help you create outlines for your content projects.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Digital Marketing
Suppose you need help to launch campaigns, create digital content, run ads, and perform basic optimization to your website for search engine rankings. In this case, you can hire a specialized digital marketing or SEO VA.
Keep in mind that SEO and digital marketing professionals are different from VAs specializing in this field. SEO and digital marketing VAs can do the basic work for you and implement strategies.
However, SEO and digital marketing experts help bloggers and business owners curate a digital marketing strategy to boost web traffic.
4. Social Media Management
You can hire a social media VA to maintain your social media presence for your business or personal social media accounts.
Social media management VAs are perfect for small business owners and bloggers who want to keep their social presence active but don’t have the time or don’t want to do it.
Your VA can help you create your social media calendar and prepare visual and text content for each platform.
5. Web Development
Some virtual assistants offer basic web design services with drag-and-drop builders or provide basic code-writing services for personalized setups.
Web development VAs are perfect for bloggers and businesses who don’t have the time or skills to develop their own websites or create a mock-up of their ideal website.
6. Audio & Video Editing
Many virtual assistants are knowledgeable and skilled in audio and video editing and can help you create and edit content for vlogs, podcasts, or social media.
Audio and video editing VAs are great for bloggers and businesses looking to expand their reach with videos and audio. Other than editing and improving the quality of your video or podcast, they can also help you add transcriptions or captions to your files.
7. Managing Emails and Answering Phone Calls
If you need extra hands to organize your emails or need someone to approach and respond to clients, you can count on your VA for an extra hand.
Email management and phone handling are basic professional skills you can find in VAs across any skill set. Even inexperienced VAs can provide basic email handling services and be trained to answer or call clients on your behalf.
8. Miscellaneous
You can delegate other miscellaneous tasks to your VA besides the tasks and responsibilities above. Client relationship management tasks such as onboarding clients, setting up meetings, and organizing databases for multiple clients are all tasks you can delegate to your VA.
Some VAs are also skilled in graphic design and can help you create carousel posts, advertisement banners, and other visual content you need for your website or blog.
You can also hire senior VAs to be team leaders and spearhead your business’s entire project management side.
Make Every Second Count. Outsource to a VA Today
It’s easy to see hiring a virtual assistant as an added expense in your budget. However, you should consider it as an opportunity to free yourself from vital tasks that keep you from moving toward your goal.
Outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant is the perfect way for writers and bloggers to maximize efficiency, free up valuable time, and focus on their core business processes. VAs are available with different skill sets at an affordable cost, so you can pick one that matches your needs perfectly.
From a simple email and calendar management task to a more intricate research and marketing project, you can count on virtual assistants to help you succeed.
With the wide availability of virtual assistants worldwide, it’s easy to hire one, no matter your budget.
Optimize your time, minimize stress, and maximize your life with the help of talented and reliable virtual assistants.
