My VA, Gerlyn, next worked on submitting an article I emailed her to around 30 different article directory sites.

Here’s the report she gave me afterward (the white box is just covering up personal info).

Since I’ve never used SENuke myself, I’m not sure how easy or fast it is to use.  However, I’m a bit suspicious that I’m not being billed for actual time worked, because it seems to me that 4 hours to submit 30 articles using software is WAY too long.

Not quite sure how to broach the subject without offending anyone, though…

My 2nd VA, Gerlyn, spent her first day (4 hours…since I only have her half-time) doing Web 2.0 profile backlinks using SENuke.  She then emailed me a report (spreadsheet) listing the pages and keywords she targeted, as well as the 100 or so URLs that were created.

Not bad for the first day and < $8 out of my pocket!  It’s also a nice feeling knowing that when you’re asleep or at the bar…there’s someone on the other side of the world continuing to get things done.

I emailed my new VA, Jemelo, to ask him a few questions and here’s his response:

I’m sure you already know my name, the following are the answers to youre questions sir.

1. i am available through email and chat only.
2. i can’t do phone calls to someone in north america.
3. The SEO software that we have is SENUKE.
4. yes sir i am working 20 hours perm week.

what kind od SEO task i will be doing for you sir?

I am looking forward for your responce.

Since I’m looking for someone who can do a bit of article writing, and content editing, I decided his English wasn’t quite up to par.   Don’t get me wrong, it’s not terrible…heck I’ve seen much, much worse from outsourcers…it’s just not good enough for my needs.

So I emailed First Page Web Search and told them about my dilemma.  They were completely cool with it and offered to assign me a replacement VA that had better English.

A day later, enter “Gerlyn”.  She seems better from my initial conversation with her.

For her first task, I wanted her to use SENuke with one of my client’s sites.  Since I’ve never used this software myself, I asked her what it could do as she wanted some direction.

SEnuke can make automated backlinking, social bookmarking, linkwheel, article submission, rss feeds submission, video submission and keyword research. This can make the work fast as it is automated.

Perfect.  So I gave her a list of page/keyword combinations via a shared Google Doc as well as 5 articles I had saved from a previous campaign.  Gerlyn said she’d get to work ASAP.

For my next update I’ll talk about how Gerlyn did on her first task with SENuke.

After much deliberation, I decided to hire my first Virtual Assistant (VA) from First Page Web Search.

As the site says to do, I emailed “admin(at)firstpagewebsearch(dot)com” to request a part-time SEO VA, which costs a super-affordable $37.50 for 20 hours a week.

The company owner/manager, Jake, replied:

Right now, we do need one week confirmation payment. This covers the two days trial and 5 days work. This is a policy we implemented since we had previous clients who runaway after the two days trial. We hope you understand. If in case you’re not happy with the service, we can arrange a new VA or we refund the whole amount.

Please pay using the link below:

(PayPal link removed)

I will then forward the VA contact details after we receive the payment.

So I completed the PayPal transaction and the next day received this email:

The “New Client Pack” had the following 3 files, which are pretty self explanatory.  The “Welcome Kit” is just a 1-page PDF with contact info for “First Page Web Search” departments.

So far so good!  My next update will be about my first impressions and communication with my new VA named “Jemelo”.

Time Tracking & Analysis

So I’ve religiously logged my time for a couple weeks now (using a desktop widget from Paymo.biz), and come to the following conclusions -

Virtual Assistant Providers

Job posting boards

Outsourcing companies