Category: Outsourcing

    Writing Content for your Business

    The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there.

    With good website content you get the benefit of clearly depicting what it is you want to share with people. Also, good content and articles can lead people to your site. With more traffic, you get to earn more from your site making it profitable. A sites success, be it for profit or not, is the number of the flow of traffic in your site.

    SEO Enhanced Website

    So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages.

    But before you think of just plastering your site with all the keywords and keyword phrases it could hold, search engines also filter out that abuse. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content and articles.

    There are many of those who cannot afford the time to write their own website contents and articles. While writing content and articles specifically designed for the internet may take some getting used to and some researching and learning, there are many writers that can be found all over the world who could do it for you.

    Outsourcing your Web Content

    Many of us do not have the time to learn web content writing and article writing designed for the internet. There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings.

    Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. Every website could use the extra traffic website visitors could invite.

    Outsourcing your Writing in Your Business

    Then there are those who need papers to be done either for their school or office work. Top writers around the world are very knowledgeable and do extreme researching to get a job done right. They are also very adept in many writing styles that are needed to best suit the client’s need.

    Many writers around the world charge a minimal fee depending on the type of writing job needed and the number of words needed in the content. Usually, a two hundred fifty worded article would cost from 4 to 8 dollars depending on the writers experience and ability. This is a small price to pay for having a content rich site or for a well researched and written paper.

    Finding a Good Writer

    There are also many sites that can offer you these services with their team of well trained and experienced writers. They offer many writing services to cover any writing needs. A writer can be based anywhere in the world and are guaranteed to offer good contents and articles. Each one are doubly checked, edited and proofread so that you would get your money’s worth.

    Finding a good writer or a site that offers these kinds of services is simply done by searching for them in search engines. Type down your keyword or keyword phrase (e.g. Content Writers, Article Writers) and you will see a long list of sites that offer these services.

    The services site include:

    Upwork.com

    Freelancer.com 

    The top sites would probably be the best since they have done a good job of keeping their content at a high quality to get them high rankings. But you may also want to shop around and read some of their sample work to get an idea of how much it will cost you.

    Writing content is a skill that can reflect well your business or not reflect well if the content is less than grammatically correct or it is not easy to read. So, make sure you get samples of someone’s work from them before you hire them to write your content. They should be able to give you a $ per page or $ per 1000 words rate so you can budget your money for outsourcing some writing.

    Categories: Content, Grow a Home Business, Outsourcing, SEO, Website Tags: Tags: , , , , , , ,

    How to Find a VA That’s Right for Your Needs

    Finding a VA is not as hard as you might think. One thing you want to do is avoid huge VA companies that pay their VAs pennies while taking dollars from you. Instead, find an independent VA who either works alone or has a team who works under them. If you can find someone in your own country, or who speaks your language, that’s much better. To find the right VA, do the following.

    * List the Tasks – It’s important to make a list of all the tasks that you need the VA to do. The VA you hire will need to know what’s involved, and you can’t hire someone until you can make a list of all the things you need them to do. You may discover you need more than one VA if your list comprises a lot of different business areas.

    * Write a Request for Proposal – Using the task list, write an RfP. An RfP lists all the things you want the VA to do, as well as the compensation range and other expectations you will have of the VA. Remember not to expect too much in different business areas of your VA; most VAs specialize in one or two areas.

    * Elance.com – Post your list on Elance.com, and put a budget. Sign up for a paid account and restrict the bids to people with paid accounts. Check their references, check their work history, and do not pick the lowest bid. You can even restrict bidding by country.

    * Vanetworking.com – This is a great place to pay to post your completed request for proposal. They have high quality paying members who are serious about building their VA business. You’ll likely get some very good bids from proactive virtual assistants if you post your RfP there.

    * Your Groups and Organizations – If you are part of any group or organization, you can post your needs for a VA there. They will likely have plenty of recommendations and even recommend their own VA for you.

    * Social Media – You can post your RfP on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media, and you’ll get applicants as well as recommendations from others about who to hire.

    * Colleagues and Contacts – Send notification to your circle of influence, mentioning what you need done and that you want to hire a VA. They’ll then recommend people to you, or send out the notice to their circle too.

    * WAHM.com – On WAHM.com there is a VA message board where you can post your RfP. There are many good VAs who frequent that message board who will answer your RfP, but there also questionable people.

    If you’re careful, know what you want and stay proactive with your VA, you’ll end up having a great experience, improve your business, and make more money.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    How to Find Your Niche as a Virtual Assistant

    It’s very important to choose a niche as a virtual assistant. By choosing a niche you will have an easier time choosing the service you’ll offer, and marketing those services. It will also be easier for you to set your rates if you know who your audience is. But to experience all those benefits, you’ll need to figure out what your niche is going to be.

    Choose an Audience to Become Your Clients

    Many people who start a business do it wrong. They create or find a product to sell, then they search for their audience. In truth, a successful business owner will first choose the audience they want to serve, and then develop their services and/or products based on the audience. What type of people do you want to work with? Be very specific about what you want.

    Get to Know This Audience

    Who are these people? What do they do for fun? What kind of business do they run? How do they get clients? How do they accept payments? How do they go through their day? Knowing how they run their business will help you know how you fit into their business. For example, do they have a newsletter? Do they speak in public? What is entailed in each of these things that you can do?

    List the Skills You Have That You Enjoy Doing

    When listing your skills, do not list every skill you have if you hate doing them. List the things you know how to do, or are willing to learn how to do, and want to do, and like to do. After you make the list, decide how they fit in with your ideal audience or client. Those will be your services that you offer your audience.

    Who in This Audience Needs Your Services?

    As you make the list and match them with your audience, narrow down the services you’ll provide to the ones they want to buy and where they need what you have to offer. There will be a specific narrow portion of the entire audience that needs and can afford to pay for your services.

    Get Training to Fill Gaps in Your Knowledge

    If you have gaps in your training that you should fill to better offer your ideal client the services you want to offer, find that training. There are so many places today online and offline where you can take a course and learn what you need to learn. As you learn new things, you increase your value to your clients – as long as what you’re learning fits in with their needs.

    Set up Your Packages and Watch Scope Creep

    One issue that can pop up when you set up your packages is that clients may start asking for services that you do not offer, nor want to offer. Do not start offering these services just to get the client, unless it’s something you really want to do.
    You have a few choices: you can outsource, or you can refer the client to someone else. Working with the niche you chose in the beginning, offering the services you have the skill to do and want to do is where you should stay to be happy with your business.

    Network Where Your Clients Are

    Once you have worked out who your audience is, find your clients by going to where they hang out. Networking with other VAs is fine, but you also need to network with your audience often to be able to market well to your niche.

    Finally, keep up to date on your niche so that as things change you will keep up. Today, your audience may be using AWeber.com for example; tomorrow they might be using another program to do the same thing and you’ll need to learn it – either by hiring someone to train you or taking a course.

    Be ready to build and grow with your niche. As you learn more, you’ll be able to find your niche instead of casting too wide of a net and not knowing what you’re going to do each day. Or worse – ending up doing things you dislike.

    Categories: Outsourcing, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    How Virtual Assistance Has Changed the Way We Do Business

    The advent of fast broadband technology has changed the workforce forever. Outsourcing has been common since the 1980s but at that point, a contractor still had to come into the office to get information and take it to their office to get the work done. Now, an outsourcer can live literally anyplace where they have access to the internet.

    Once the internet became a viable and secure way to do business, companies first started outsourcing work to call centers in other countries like India. When the internet became commonplace among households, homemakers started realizing that they could do the work of any large outsourcing company – just on a smaller scale for fewer clients. This opened up the opportunity for small business owners to afford to bring on talent that they never could before.

    * No Need for Fully Equipped Offices – A VA is a business owner who owns all the tools needed to do the work for you that you need completed. You do not need to provide the tools, and you shouldn’t. They are their own business owner and have the tools.

    * No Need to Pay for Benefits – When you contract with a VA, they are independent contractors who pay for their own benefits. The money you pay the VA covers those expenses, which is why you may pay from $20 to $40 an hour or more depending on the specialty that you need. It still saves you money because you only pay for work you need.

    * No Need to Train Someone – You do not have to train your VA on the tasks you want completed. You may need to show them how you like your work to look when it’s finished, but you won’t tell them what tools to use or how to do it exactly. They should know how to do it already.

    * No Full-Time Costs for Part-Time Work – Many people think they have to hire someone full time, in their office, to get good work done. But the truth is, there are lots of times in the day where a receptionist is just sitting there. If you can pay them only part time for exactly what you need then you can afford to hire more experts, too.

    * Expand and Contract Your Business As Needed – You only pay for and hire people to do work exactly when you need it. This means you can easily take on extra work when you get offered it, and get your VA(s) to help out with the parts they can do.

    * Look Like a Big Business to the World – It used to be impossible for a small self-employed freelancer to make a big enough dent to make a good living working for themselves without practically killing themselves with the workload. Now you can look big by being able to bring on more outsources when needed without killing yourself.

    * Find Very Specific Expertise When You Need It – Virtual assistants have a variety of skills that fall into many categories from finance, to management, to organizing and planning, to technical and more. Find the right help when you need it instead of having to keep people on the payroll when you don’t need them.

    * Get a Proactive Partner in Your Business – Many VAs specialize in being a business partner who are very proactive in helping you run, manage and build your business. Look for an “online business manager” or “online marketing manager” or other specialties to help you run your business.

    Virtual assistants understand how important it is to deliver good work to you because your success is very dependent upon their success. Virtual assistants work hard to train themselves to do tasks that are needed and in demand so that you don’t have to train anyone. You simply hire the expertise you need for your projects. VAs can be brought on long term or on a by-project basis.

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss, Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    Outsource What You Hate

    One way to cure procrastination is to simply outsource what you hate. Instead of setting deadlines for yourself, set deadlines for other people. There are few things that you can’t outsource today. So, the first clue you have that you should outsource something is that you dislike it. But there is more to it than that.

    Does It Make Sense Monetarily?

    Often the things you hate doing are considered (at least by you) to be menial tasks. Tasks like bookkeeping, data entry, posting blog posts, and so forth. These are tasks that are ripe for outsourcing because they are boring (to you) and more than likely you can earn more money outsourcing it and turning your focus to your main money maker.

    For example, if you earn $100.00 per hour doing your main business, why would you do tasks that can be outsourced for $20.00 per hour? You’re missing out on $80.00 per hour if you don’t outsource.

    Are You Skilled At Doing It?

    Many things that you hate doing are likely simply because you’re not good at doing them. It’s okay not to be good at doing everything. This doesn’t mean you’re deficient. It just means that you can’t do a good job doing something you weren’t trained for and have no talent for. It’s okay and not a sign of weakness on your part.

    A good example is graphic design or website building. If this is not your core function for your business, then it probably takes you ten times as long to do it, and it looks poorly executed to boot. While hiring an expert of this caliber may cost you more than 100.00 dollars per hour, the time savings will make up for the discrepancy.

    You’d Rather Be Swimming (Golfing, Fishing, etc…)

    Sometimes you hate doing something just because it’s taking away from the things you really want to do. When your business gets to a certain point, it makes sense to start outsourcing various activities so that you can do other things you consider fun to do.

    The rule of thumb is that if it’s not your main line of work, that outsourcing it is perfectly fine. The other thing is, if you can outsource it for less than you can earn from the project then you’re ahead of the game too. Of course, you want the outsourcers to do as well as you would for the job, so pick your outsourcers carefully and pay them a fair wage.

    Find Outsourcers

    To find outsourcers and contractors, look on Upwork.com, or even in your local classified section. Conduct a thorough investigation about the people you are going to trust with this work to ensure that there aren’t any problems. Check testimonials and references to ensure that the people are legitimate. If they are people you plan to bring into your home, do a criminal back ground check, or ensure that they are bonded and insured. You can find out how to do background checks at your local police department as well as online.

    Link to online check – http://www.intelius.com/background-check.html

    Putting all this together, if you hate doing certain tasks, it’s preferable to outsource. In fact, if you’re not outsourcing these tasks, you’re doing yourself and your business a disservice. Even if you can’t bring yourself to outsource some things in your business, consider outsourcing some domestic tasks such as lawn care and house cleaning to help you lessen the pressure on your life as you build your business.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    Ten Common Mistakes Made When Hiring a VA

    Before you hire a VA, look at some of the common mistakes made when doing so. By understanding the common mistakes you can ensure that your VA experience will be successful instead of stressful.

    1. Not Understanding What Work You Need Completed

    Before even placing an advertisement for a VA, you need to write down the types of work you need to outsource. Remember at first to only write down things that do not directly earn money. You should keep doing the core work that you are known for, and let the VA do the supportive tasks.

    2. Not Reviewing Their Work Regularly

    Once you do hire someone, it’s important to review their work on a regular basis so that you are assured that it’s up to your level. Plus, it will give you peace of mind to know that the work is indeed really done.

    3. Not Providing Feedback

    Be sure to provide your VA regular feedback. The best way to do it is to first tell them what they did well, and then tell them where they can improve, and leave it with something else good. This will help your VA tremendously.

    4. Not Having a System in Place

    It’s imperative that you have a system in place to help you assign tasks, and for your VA to receive them without having to deal with email. A good system to use is Basecamp.com, and some people really love Teamwork.com too.

    5. Failing to Set Expectations

    It’s important to let your VA know what you expect from them from day one. Establishing the right boundaries and the right expectations will go far in helping you and your new VA work well together. For example, if you prefer the VA to just do the tasks you give him or her and no more, say so. If you want them to make suggestions, let them know.

    6. Not Realizing That You Get What You Pay For

    There is a movement out there, as you’re likely aware, to hire VAs for next to nothing and well below minimum wage of most industrialized countries. This is a very bad practice to get involved with as the work will not be as good as if you hired someone who is experienced and an expert in their field, who charges professional rates.

    7. Not Giving the VA Time to Acclimate

    Many VAs can get up and running pretty fast, but every new contract takes time to get to understand and mesh with the rhythm of the new arrangement. Don’t give up too fast. Give it 60 to 90 days to ensure you’ve given it all that you can to make it work.

    8. Not Letting Them Do Their Work Their Way

    Micromanaging is the worst thing you can do. If you contract with a social media VA who is an expert in their field, don’t tell them how to do the work. Instead, tell them what your expectations are and what the deliverables will be. What work will be “turned in” to you at the end? What reports will be shown to demonstrate the success of the work completed?

    9. Treating the VA Like an Employee

    A VA is not an employee and you cannot call on them in the same way you would if you had a secretary in the front office to do your bidding at any moment. You’ll need to work within their system too. They may have a 48-hour time limit for work deadlines, or they might require you to give them all their work for the week by a certain date and schedule phone calls. And yes, they’re going to charge you for every phone call, and every moment they work on your business. Be prepared for that.

    10. Not Giving Clear Instructions and Deadlines

    When you give work to your VA, it should include very clear instructions along with a strict deadline. They should know what they need to deliver to you and when. They should not have to ask a hundred questions about each assignment. You should try to answer everything up front. But, do be available for questions so your VA can work efficiently.

    If you can avoid these common mistakes when hiring a virtual assistant, you will be that much more likely to enjoy working with your VA and he or she will enjoy working with you.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    Ten Reasons Businesses Need a VA

    Contracting with a virtual assistant is an important way for a small business to deal with their non-money making tasks. VAs usually do administrative and technical tasks that either you can’t do or don’t have time to do, or that are not your main source of income. Here are ten reasons why you could need a VA for your business.

    1. Your Workload Is Too High

    If you find yourself working day in and day out, you need to find someone to help you. Remember why you started your own business? You started it because you wanted freedom. Now you probably feel chained to your desk. You’re starting to experience success but it’s starting to take over your life.

    2. You Put Off Important Admin Tasks

    You’re so busy doing billable work that important admin tasks such as customer service and bookkeeping are put off until it’s so overwhelming you don’t even want to do it. This is dangerous because you cannot know how well your business is doing without doing the books and admin tasks.

    3. You Are Spending Too Much Time on Non-Money Making Tasks

    You’re keeping up with the administrative work, but you are spending more than 10 hours a week doing it. These hours could be spent doing tasks that make you money instead. If you can earn $140 an hour, why are you doing tasks that could be done for $20 to $50 an hour?

    4. You Are Stressed Out

    You find your business a drudge and you’re no longer having fun. You catch yourself looking at want ads and fantasizing about not having so much responsibility. Your health is suffering and you don’t have time to exercise or eat right.

    5. You’re Working More than 40 Hours a Week

    As a business owner, you knew you’d have to work long hours in the beginning. However, if you’re working more than 40 hours a week, you need to find someone to help you. Figure out how many hours of your work is billable versus non-billable. The non-billable amount is how much help you need from a VA.

    6. You Don’t Want to Train People

    Hiring an employee comes with training but hiring a VA doesn’t. You hire one or more VAs who have experience and specialize in the things that you don’t know how to do. You’ll gain their expertise once you hire them.

    7. You Don’t Want an Employee

    Hiring an employee comes with a lot of paperwork and government regulation. When you bring on a contractor they do their job without training, use their own tools, and meet your deadlines in their own time.

    8. You Don’t Know How to Do Something

    If you need work done that you really don’t know how to do, and it will take you more time due to having to learn it, you’re better off having someone else who is an expert do it for you. They’ll do it a lot faster than you can, and during the time you are wasting time trying to learn, you could be earning money.

    9. Your Business Is Growing

    You’re building your business and it’s growing fast and steady. Each week you have more work to do than last week. You’re getting to the point of overflow. Contracting with a VA will help you manage the growth easier.

    10. You Realize Others Can Do the Tasks

    Once you realize that others can do the task that you’re struggling doing, both in skill level and the time you have to work on it, you’ll be able to let go and let someone else help you.

    Virtual assistants can screen your emails, respond to some of them, send you only the ones that you need to respond to personally, schedule and confirm appointments, book travel, make calls for you, conduct research, fill out reports, create invoices, post invoice payments, and manage projects for you that other contractors are working on.

    Working with a VA can free up your time to focus on the things that make you the most money instead of the unbillable admin work, giving you more time to focus on taking on more billable work.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    The Most Important Thing You Need When Hiring a VA

    When you work with a VA it’s essential to treat it like a very important business deal and not casually. You wouldn’t work with most people without the most important document that you can have in the business world: a contract. Many people make the mistake of not getting a contract first because they feel like it’s a lot of work. But, it will be a lot more work if you don’t get a contract.

    Here’s what a contract involves:

    1. Write Down the Offer – Write down in a list every last thing that is being offered by both sides of the agreement.

    2. Spell Out Terms – Express how much money will exchange hands and how it will happen, such as the monthly fee and how it will be paid, such as through PayPal.

    3. List Contact Information – Be sure to list main and alternate contact information such as business name and address work phone and business phone number, as well as pertinent email addresses.

    4. State Expectations – Be sure to list all the expectations and responsibilities of each business involved. For example, the VA must get the work done by xyz date, after being given the work by xyz date by the business owner.

    5. Mention Consequences – It’s always a good idea to mention the consequences of not following the contract, such as whether or not both agree to arbitration and which country, state, city and county laws will be enforced.

    6. Sign the Contract – Use something like HelloSign.com to sign the documents to make them legally binding. It’s very important to get the contracts signed in a legally binding manner.

    These things are important because:

    * Without a Contract You Have No Legal Standing – It is true that sometimes a judge will enforce a handshake and emails if you have enough compelling evidence to back up your claims, but a signed contract is iron clad.

    * It Solidifies the Business Relationships – It’s good to keep your professional and business life as separate as possible, and the best way to do that is through a contract. You’ll likely become close to your VA over time but the contract will help keep you both on the right path.

    Contracts do not have to be complicated but they do need to be very specific and include every eventuality that you can consider within the contract. Include prices, extras, and more. The more you put, the better.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    Tools Needed to Be a Successful Virtual Assistant

    Being a successful VA doesn’t really require that much in the way of tools. The barrier to entry is extremely low, but there are certainly some tools that are helpful and that will make your life (and your clients’ lives) easier. This list is not exhaustive and you may have tools you love and would like to share too.

    * Bookkeeping and Invoicing Apps – Without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of being a VA is keeping track of your income and expenses, plus being able to send invoices to your clients. Today, it’s easier than ever. PayPal.com, GoDaddy, and QuickBooks offer tools for this purpose.

    Links:
    GoDaddy Bookkeeping – http://www.godaddy.com/Online_Bookkeeping
    QuickBooks – http://www.intuit.co.uk/

    * Relevant Software – Depending on what type of services you will offer, you’re going to need a list of software. If you plan to do graphic design, you might want to sign up for Adobe Creative Suite, for example. For sure you’re going to need word processing software like MS Word, or Open Office.

    * Password Keeping App – It’s likely you are going to have a lot of accounts to sign into as a VA. You’ll have your clients’ plus your own, so an app that helps you keep track of passwords is essential. A good one to get is Lastpass.com.

    Link – http://www.lastpass.com/

    * Computer, Laptop, Monitor(s), Etc… – Some virtual assistants enjoy having a super-fast and up-to-date desktop computer with more than one monitor. It is very helpful to have more than one monitor to help you get more done in less time.

    * File Backup and Sharing System – It’s important to be aware that file backup and sharing are not the same thing. You’ll need something like Dropbox.com for saving files, and for sharing with your clients. Plus, something like Mozy.com to back up your computer and files.

    * Website – It’s imperative that you have a professional website to be a successful VA. You need a website that is not a free one, but one with your own domain. It is highly recommended that you use something like self-hosted WordPress.org to build your site. There are a few builders that work such as New Rainmaker, but it will be more expensive.

    Link to New Rainmaker – http://my.newrainmaker.com/portal/

    * Comfortable Chair – You are going to be sitting a lot to do your work, so a comfortable desk chair and set-up is very important. Don’t forget to get up and stretch every 90 minutes or so, and walk around and get your exercise in. It can be dangerous to sit for more than four hours per day. A good chair and moving around can help eliminate some of these issues.

    * Calendar System – Keeping deadlines is very important for a VA. You will need a good calendar that will work on your mobile device. Google Calendar is actually a really good choice, but there are other types that even allow your clients to schedule appointments with you, such as TimeTrade.

    Link to TimeTrade – http://www.timetrade.com/

    The tools an individual VA may need will change depending upon their niche. For example, if you’re a VA who takes phone calls during lunch for a client, you’ll need a system that enables you to do that. The best course of action is to make a list of what you will do each day, and then ensure you have the tools that you need.

    Categories: Outsourcing

    Top Virtual Assistant Task Requests

    When deciding whether or not to become a VA, it can be helpful to know what skills and tasks are in demand right now. This list will change as time moves forward, but it can give you a good idea about what is in demand right this moment.

    * Infusionsoft Experts – This is a marketing and sales automation software that combines CRM, email marketing, lead capture and e-commerce all in one. It’s very in-depth software that requires a lot of understanding and knowledge about client sales cycles and product cycles. You can get training on this software from their “Official Infusionsoft University”.

    Links:
    Infusionsoft – http://www.infusionsoft.com/
    Official Infusionsoft University – http://university.infusionsoft.com/

    * Bookkeeping Experts – In most cases this is more of a local service, but if you have had certain training and licensing like EA training, you can do books for anyone in any state. This is a much sought-out service and if you truly understand independent contractors and small virtual businesses, you’ll be swamped with clients if you offer this service.

    Link to EA training – http://irsexams.com/

    * Ontraport Experts – This system promises to allow a small business to run like a huge business from one dashboard. The features are endless but it handles CRM, marketing, payments, partners, automation, publishing, and more. You choose what you want it to do. They offer training of their own too. You can become certified through their training system so that you can offer this to your clients.

    Links:
    Ontraport – https://ontraport.com/
    Training system – https://ontraport.com/partners-get-certified/

    * Social Media Marketing – A social media marketing assistant can do a lot of things for a client. This includes keeping their social media profiles updated, writing, crafting, and creating (or managing those who do) and updating social media posts for different clients. There are a lot of tools available to help you automate these things for your client, for example Hootsuite.

    Link to Hootsuite – http://www.hootsuite.com/

    * Pay-Per-Click Marketing – Experts are needed badly in the PPC space. A PPC expert would help organize, plan and implement a pay-per-click advertising campaign for a variety of clients. You would either do it all or manage a team who helps implement what you plan. And yes, you can get certified at the Online Marketing Institute in PPC.

    Link to PPC training – http://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/course-certifications/paid-search-certification/

    * Online Marketing Manager – Being a manager is a little move up, and if you have the chops you can do it. As a marketing manager, you’ll plan and organize systems so that your client’s team or your team can implement the plan. Of course, you can get certified as an online marketing manager too.

    Link to training – http://www.pamivey.com/services/online-marketing/

    * Google Analytics Expert – Some businesses need people who know how to set up Google Analytics, and understand how to make goals and set up everything in an expert way. You can learn how to use it through various training programs and then become a Google Analytics Certified Partner.

    Link to becoming a partner – http://www.google.com/analytics/partners/listing/service

    * Events Expert – An events expert is good at planning either online events or offline events (or both if you want). Usually you’ll need experience using webinar software like Adobe Connect or GoToMeeting. There are many others, but you should find one that you like and become a true expert using it, and then promote that service.

    Links:
    Adobe Connect – http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
    GoToMeeting – http://www.gotomeeting.com/

    These are many VA tasks and project requests that you will be asked to do that you do not offer. It’s up to you whether or not you want to offer it. Be careful about moving outside of your niche but, if your ideal clients are asking for something, you should highly consider offering it.

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