Hiring People who Write Great English

Over the past week I've been doing quite a lot of recruitment for my online businesses. I intended to hire a new full time employee to be a content writer. But, since one of my other employees had to resign due to a personal situation, I needed to fill two spots.

I use OnlineJobs.ph to do my hiring. I have free access to this site for life because I became a "pro outsourcer" through John Jonas' system. This system is called ReplaceMyself.com and you have to select the one-time offer upsell to become a pro-outsourcer. This gives you perpetual access to the job site (and other stuff) for no monthly fee. Here's a direct link to the offer.

Anyway, using OnlineJobs.ph is fantastic, but time consuming. You have two options. You can either manually search people's resumes and email the candidates that you want to connect with. Or, you can put a job posting up on the site and have people contact you.

Here are some tips that I learned while recruiting this time around:

• Job postings are effective. You'll get a lot of resumes sent to you.
• Be really clear what the main skill set is that you want. I said "English writing with awesome grammar and spelling". I got lots of qualified people.
• Ask for writing samples in your job post. Otherwise everyone will send you their resume, which is not what you want.
• Ask people to send you a link to their blog, if they have one. Bloggers who are active are good candidates, and you'll be able to see their writing style
• Don't be afraid to ask them to write you a *quick* sample. Don't ask for free work - that is rude. But asking for them to demonstrate their capabilities is fine. I would recommend you ask for a 2-3 paragraph email on a particular topic. Pick something insanely silly so that they can't possibly plagiarize. For example, you could say, "Pretend that you've just invented transparent aluminum. It's like glass, only lighter and stronger. Write me a 2-3 paragraph explanation of all the things that this new material would be great for. Have fun with it and do your best to submit something with proper spelling and grammar"
• DO chat with them over skype. I recommend using a text chat to see how fast they type and how well they communicate with text. Then, as a follow-up, use voice.

In case you're wondering what the "going rate" is for workers these days, I found 2 great candidates. The full time people are about $250-300 to start, but I expect to pay them more over time. The part time people are about $150ish.

Personally I think I might get more "bang for the buck" with a part time person because it's easier to be productive for 4 hours a day rather than 8.

We'll see how it goes.

Awesome Free Outsourcing Tutorial

I got my hands on an incredible audio (phone) interview with John Jonas. In this audio he explains exactly how he outsources his online business activities to people in the Philippines for a very low cost (about $350 per month on average).

I *know* this is achievable because I'm one of John's customers and I'm doing exactly this same thing.

List to the audio and then go get his program. It's awesome. Either way, the audio is totally free, no strings attached, and you'll get an incredible education.



Get more outsourcing information from John at this link.

Let me also provide you with this additional insight. You can get his system for a recurring monthly fee, and you can cancel anytime after you learn what you need. But, what I did is to take his "pro outsourcer" package. Yes I actually paid $697 to get this, but the benefit is *lifetime access* to the resumes, project management software and a lot of other great bonus material that is making me money. To get the "upsell", just subscribe and you'll get presented with a one-time offer. I highly recommend you get the pro package.

Beyond being a better value, the pro package kinda forces you to get off your ass and make use of the system. You'll be very committed to USING this stuff after you plunk down that kind of money. I know that's what happened for me.

Don't Fix Your Outsourcer's Mistakes For Them

Just a quick thought to share with everyone today. I know that, often, it seems like YOU can do something far better than your outsourcer. And you feel that way because you probably ARE better at doing it. Installing WordPress, picking domains, finding information, doing research, etc.

Yes, you know your business better than the outsourcer you hired, and you can do it better. But you know you're supposed to outsource, so you give your guys some work, and it comes back in a way that is not 100% acceptable to you.

What now?

Simply show them how to correct course. Don't go and fix their work for them! It's a lot like raising kids. If you always make your child's bed and fix them breakfast, they'll never learn to do it themselves. Let them do it, and show them how to improve. Keep reinforcing the message with positive feedback. Be nice.

One of my guys had a real problem with communication. He'd send me short emails that were not clear enough for me to understand. I simply told him, over and over, to be *much* more specific with things.

Before I smartened up, I tried to guess at what he was asking and answer all possible variations. Then I realized I was training him to keep giving me crappy emails with crappy explanations.

I changed course and started simply replying with the following "Can you please be a lot more specific, because I do not understand what you are saying here. What, specifically, is the problem with the XYZ project?"

This worked like a charm.

So, if you want to train your guys to do GREAT work for you, don't fix their mistakes. Show them how to fix their own mistakes.

Whatever you do, just make sure that you are outsourcing. I highly recommend hiring people in the Philippines. This is the resource I am using, and it's awesome.

Sick of having VAs write articles? Focus on other content ideas!

I'm the type of person who constantly thinks about the happiness of others. So when I assign a task to my content writer, and I think it's too repetitive, I worry that she'll get bored. Not only do I want her to be happy, but I want her to be effective.

So I don't want her to simply crank out articles all day long on the same topic. That would drive anyone crazy!

Recently I gave my writer a task to craft an e-book that I'll offer as a free bonus to my customers. I picked a topic for the e-book that I thought would fit well within the interests of my market.

My guess is that it will take about 2 weeks of labor for her to brainstorm ideas, write them up, format the book, add photos, and turn it into a finished PDF. That's my guess, but we shall see how fast it really goes.

If I give her projects like this every so often, it will keep her more interested in the job, and therefore happier. That's what I want. It will also give me great bonus material for my customers, which should drive more sales.

Another idea I'd like to implement is to have her write some kind of super-interesting stuff that will get noticed. Nothing to sell ... but something that would be link-bait. Imagine how many incoming links we could get if I can have her research something that is HIGHLY interesting, and put together a fantastic article on the subject? Social bookmarket it a few times and watch it go viral.

Maybe the first attempt won't work. Maybe the second attempt won't work either ... but if we get even ONE hit out of a few tries, we'll get so many incoming links it will make it all worthwhile.

That's the power of outsourcing (at least in theory!).

Outsourcing: Communicate with your VAs by Voice!

I've been working with my 2 Filipino employees for a while now and I have one very simple observation. Unless you have a very smooth process running, using a lot of back-and-forth email will waste time. Same with using IM via Skype, MSN Messenger, whatever.

Use voice.

I use Skype to talk to my Filipinos. They all seem to have Skype and they are online when they work. When I have a 10 minute conversation with them, I often discover that there was some kind of misunderstanding on how to do a task that I'd never have understood without talking. IM chats take WAY too long.

So, get on the (skype) phone! Ask your VA if they have a microphone. If they do not, consider going to Best Buy and grabbing a cheap mic, and mail it to them. Or send them an extra $15 and tell them to go buy one. It's worth every penny.