How To Hire A Virtual Assistant

You Can’t Afford Not To Have A Virtual Assistant

First Published: ADawnJournal.com July 7, 2009

I have outsourced a good chunk of my tasks before; however, those were nowhere near having a virtual assistant.  Those outsourced tasks were done on a one-time basis only by independent contractors and most of the time I have not met those individuals again. I have thought of hiring a VA (Virtual Assistant) before, but I was reluctant due to costs associated with it. However, just a few days ago, I was able to hire a VA at an unbelievable cost, and it does not make sense not to hire at this incredibly low rate. You just can’t afford not to hire anyone and enjoy your free time, or use your newly discovered free time for something more productive.

Today, I am going to tell you how you can hire a VA even if you don’t make a killer monthly income.

Which Sites To Use?

There are many sites online where you can hire VAs at incredibly low rates. To browse through all these sites, do a search by entering these keywords: virtual assistant, outsource, freelance, etc. The site I use to hire my VA is oDesk. This is one of the most cost efficient sites to hire someone at low rates.

How Much Will The Cost Be?

At oDesk, you will be able to hire someone at below $5 per hour. I have hired assistants at $1-$3 per hour in the past. Don’t underestimate these virtual assistants because of their low rates. These are highly qualified, educated individuals in their respective fields. Many of them

hold Masters degrees and speak and write English better than many native speakers.

How Can They Work At Such A Low Rate?

They can afford to do it because these individuals are working from low-cost countries such as Philippines, India, East European countries and so on. With these low rates, they are able to make a decent living – which is unthinkable in Western countries.

How Do I Do The Actual Virtual Assistant Hiring?

Use these simple steps to have your first virtual assistant:

·   Create an account with www.Odesk.com

·   Verify your credit card

·   Post a job

·   Pick and interview a few candidates among the many who will be replying to the job you posted

·   Hire the most suitable person who fits your specifics

What I Like Most

oDesk provides some unbeatable features, such as:

·   You set and control how many hours your VA will work

·   No additional headaches: oDesk does all the admin work such keeping track of hours, billings, and payments for you

·   Pick hourly or fixed price jobs

·   No commitment. You can terminate your assistant or end an assignment anytime you want

The Internet has revolutionized everything. Virtual marketplaces like oDesk provide endless possibilities for entrepreneurs and service providers across the globe – which was not possible just a few years ago.

The Green Living Blog

Let The Green Journey Begin

First Published Published Date : March 8, 2009 TheGreenLivingBlog.com

I am happy and excited to introduce my new Green web site The Green Living Blog to A Dawn Journal readers. I created The Green Living Blog to make the world of environmental issues a lot simpler and clearer for people who want to do their part.

The Earth is the source of everything we use on a daily basis, from cradle to grave. However, we fail to realize that resources are depleting so quickly that one day the planet will not be able to accommodate our demands. Our daily actions affect the environment in which we live. We and some of our actions are a cancer to the earth and one day this cancer will spread to a point from which there will be no return.

The Green Living Blog is written for the curious individual interested in doing what they can to alleviate our own burden on the planet. The Green Living Blog will be a way of learning more, understanding better, and hopefully also being entertained.

I will be updating The Green Living Blog once a week. Visit this new Green site here – The Green Living Blog. Also, here is a Press Release I issued yesterday announcing the launch of The Green Living Blog –

Make Money Online | Internet Money Making 101

How To Make Money Online

First Published Date : April 19, 2009 ADawnJournal.com
Writing an eBook

There are very few of us who are lucky enough from a financial point of view to be able to ignore an opportunity to make a bit more money. Even the hardest-working among us may often find that we have reason to consider new ways to make money, whether it be because we have new commitments, or an existing line of finance has stalled for one reason or another. In light of this, it makes a colossal amount of sense to consider other options so that we can maximize  our earning potential. If we could all rely on money coming in when we needed it, chances are that the economy would collapse even further than it recently has, purely because the imperative to work would disappear.

It becomes the case, therefore, that we need to create our own lines of income. There is a limited range of things that we can do to make this happen – again, circumstances dictate that making money is never going to be as easy as sitting back and waiting for it to roll in. Making our own opportunities is important because in the final analysis it is down to the individual to make their own way – relying indefinitely on other people will only end one way, and that way is not an edifying prospect. Finding a way to maximize your potential hinges on one thing above all others – finding the answer to the following question: “What do you have that other people do not?”

Individual expertise is something that just about everyone has to some extent. Even if you do not consider yourself an expert, you will find that there is some talent you have that other people comment on. It may be something quite simple. It could be something that you do every day without it ever really being commented on. It might be technological, it might be musical, it may even be something as apparently simple as being a good listener and someone who is good with individual advice. Either way, this qualifies as expertise whether or not you realize it. And where there is expertise, there is cash. One popular way to turn your knowledge into money is by writing an eBook.

Think of it this way – you have the knowledge, and there are people out there who wish they did. Among these people there are certainly some who would pay good money to have that knowledge. As long as you can take the time to sit down and write a bit about how you do whatever it is that you do, how you learned that you could do it, and how other people could do the same thing, you can make money from this.

There is a growing market for eBooks as people realize that with the Internet revolutionizing our world you don’t need to have a publishing deal to write for money. All you need is a computer and a bit of savvy. If you can build websites yourself, then you can set one up to promote your eBook. If not, then you can set up a blog at any one of a number of free blogging platforms. Take a bit of time out of your day to explore the possibility – it could well turn into a very lucrative sideline for you.

Can’t Afford To Buy Physical Real Estate? Buy Internet Real Estate!

How To Buy Internet Real Estate

First Published: ADawnJournal.com Published Date : May 6, 2009

During a recession, property values tend to decrease, and those who can afford it don’t hesitate to grab the opportunity to acquire some nice properties at unbeatable costs. However, buying physical assets may not be a viable option for everyone due to the heavy upfront expenses you need to go through. But how about buying Internet real estate? Is it still possible to grab opportunities that exist due to economic turmoil and buy assets online with very little money and still flourish in the future?

The answer is:  absolutely yes. You see, domains are like virtual real estate that exists only on the web. There are many similarities between domain names and real estate properties: both of them aren’t increasing in quantity any more, we are dealing with the same quantity today as we were twenty or thirty years ago, and due to limited supply, the price has to go up one day. You just need to buy those that will be in demand in the future.

In order to buy domains, you need to know a few things I discussed in this article – How to Make Money from Domain Names. I believe financial crisis opens up opportunities to buy domains which wouldn’t be available otherwise. In a financial meltdown, businesses close down and people lose jobs. As a result, lots of good domains drop out as businesses don’t need them anymore or people just can’t afford to maintain their domain portfolios.

Opportunistic entrepreneurs grab this opportunity to increase their domain buildups. I purchased most of my high-potential domains in the past few months. Also, I hired many programmers to develop a few new web sites. I can do it now because of low hiring costs available due to the current economic crisis. Entrepreneurs should be always on the lookout to use negative circumstances to their advantage and turn them into positive circumstances.

We all hate economic crises like the one we are going through today. The difference between a successful and a failed entrepreneur can be determined by how well you can use this crisis to build a better future. Yes, opportunities even exist in the midst of a crisis.

Blogging And Its Positive Effects

Why You Should Blog

A decade ago, had you mentioned a “blog” to just about anyone, they would have looked at you as though they thought you had gone mad. Even today there are many who don’t even know what a blog is, but their numbers are growing ever smaller compared to those who not only know, but blog enthusiastically themselves. In fact, the word blog has become more and more frequently used both as a verb and a noun. “I blogged about this” or “I wrote about it on my blog” are sentences that are technically possible, if a little self-involved. There is a persistent strain of opinion which holds that blogging is the preserve of the self-obsessed and conceited, but this is to do a tremendous disservice to the medium and many of its practitioners.

There are many different ways one can approach a personal blog. Some find that it is a good place to vent about things that have upset them, while simultaneously a good way of communicating positive feelings. Others may get creative with their blog and build up something of a character around it. Some of the most popular blogs are read by millions worldwide, considered by many to be better than a soap opera due to the interactivity that a good blog can have. Others just enjoy putting up opinions and observations, either inviting or at least not discouraging feedback. If all of this sounds a bit like a glorified diary, you’re close, but not quite there. A diary is, after all, intended to be extremely personal while a blog is very much shaped by its potential for wider readership.

So far we have seen blogs turned into books, films and TV shows, and we have further to that seen the medium itself take several different shapes. “Vlogging” is now an entity in itself, differing from blogging in that practitioners do not so much write about their subjects as speak directly to camera and post the video content on a blog, or on the popular video hosting site YouTube. Everyone with a webcam and a microphone, or with a modern cell phone, can now be the star of their own video show. This medium has the further advantage above blogging of being more demonstrative. Words typed sarcastically on a blog can become damaging by virtue of the fact that typing has no inflection. When vlogged, they are better understood.

Of course, you don’t need to make your blog public. It can be as private or as open as you wish, and you can ring-fence it for only your friends to see. Top bloggers have made careers in the wider media, too, so if you have a gift for the written word it can be advantageous to let your opinions be read by an audience. You may simply want an easily archived journal of your thoughts. The only limits are those which you choose to place yourself – which in itself is good practice. It is generally better to keep some things for your eyes only.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Entrepreneur Journey site. This article originally published on the above website on August 23, 2009.