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Montag, 17. Dezember 2012

Why is everyone whining about design all the time?

I have two websites I love to write content for. Whenever I show them to my friends - a few of them are entrepreneurs themselves - all they can whine about is...

"why does the design look so crappy?!"

C'mon man. Seriously, that's all you can think about?
website

One of my sites averages 1500 daily visitors. People seem to like the site even though it looks "crappy".

What does this mean? Are people less superficial than everyone seems to think?

Or, if what you have to talk about is cool enough, will enough people who don't care about appearances stick?

Perhaps that's the point?

Perhaps I only want people who are not superficial enough to not be distracted by the next shiny thing (useless it may be) to be visiting my sites...?

You might find this sounding a bit arrogant - but as a webmaster, don't you have a small say about how your website has to look like?

Of course, in the written content, only bring the good, juicy stuff. But I feel the obsession with optical tidbits a bit off-turning, to be honest.

Donnerstag, 13. Dezember 2012

Setting up my virtual assistant working on his own

I am going to be working full time from January 2013 on. That means two things:


  1. Almost no time to work on my online businesses.
  2. A lot of more fundings available to hire additional workforces.


English: Worldwide Offshoring Business Deutsch...

When I will be getting my first paycheck - yay! - the first thing I am going to do is to increase the payrate from my virtual assistant by a factor 2. He has earned it and also:

He is going to have a much tougher time working with minimal supervision.

The time until now was all for preparation of "outsourcing myself" completely out of the equation. I anticipate weekly input from my side to my VA. More will simply not be possible, I fear.

On the other hand, I trust my VA with hiring additional staff as needed, perhaps even a writer for additional content.

Or at least for guest blogs!

Yep, I think guest blogging via outsourcing could be a very good thing.

The question remaining is: how much am I willing to invest into a great guest written article?

I will have to exactly measure the ROI from these link building activites.

Sonntag, 11. November 2012

When People Criticize My Outsourced Website - And have nothing to show for it

I love criticism. It is the greatest indicator of what you have to do to get better.

I also love my website(s). They are a work of passion and life-blood.

Escaping Criticism
Escaping Criticism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So if someone comes over and writes to me:

"Your website looks dead-ugly" or something similar, don't expect me to swallow that comment without a snide remark.

(hint: it had something to do with a Yo Momma is so Fat joke)


If I have a website that is doing very well, and all you can say is to whine about

"But it doesn't look prettyyyy  ~~~"  >___<

Then I can't help you.

As opposed to many wannabe entrepreneurs, I swallowed the bitter pill and JUST STARTED and got my work out there.

I'm not saying it is perfect, or even pretty...

But at least, it is THERE.

Tweaking it can still be done.

Talking about it without having anything to show is easy. Just as is bashing about it blindly.

--
If you have a business idea: go for it.

Work through it until you get some results. Ignore the overly critical voices from people that have no clue (but behave like they are the experts).

Dienstag, 30. Oktober 2012

I rented out my Virtual Assistant

I did a fun experiment yesterday. My GF needed something done, so...

...I rented her my virtual assistant.

My take home message: a VA might be useful for most people, but the threshhold to hire one oneself is pretty high - at least here in Germany.

It just feels too "weird".

Well, if you ask me: I don't care how weird it might be to others!
Fuck Time Art Work
It gets the job done for me and saves me hundreds of hours of work.

(Over four thousand hours until now, to be more exact)

--

What I decided: I'm not going to try to convince sceptical people into hiring a VA and becoming massively successful. That's wasted energy.

Only teach those who are open minded enough to jump on this innovative train.

Timothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well, perhaps not so innovative any more. Who knows how many years it has been since Tim Ferris has written the 4 Hour Work Week Book!

Samstag, 27. Oktober 2012

I plan on outsourcing my job research to help me find a job faster even if it's just a day

To be honest, I am fed up of writing dozens of application letters and not getting many job interview invitations back. The times may be hard but damn it - I'm running out of time and patience!

As I take hours daily to research firms and enterprises for job opportunities, I decided: I am going to outsource this whole job research.
At a job interview
At a job interview (Photo credit: Arroz y Asado)

This does not mean I am going to let someone else apply for me.

No, that would be very bad and will bite me in the arse someday.

What I aim to get outsourced is the actual research of
  1. Where are all those enterprises?
  2. Do they have job opportunities?
  3. What is the contact information?
Then, my job will be simply to call, write and apply on each of those positions.

Because I am looking for positions in Germany, outsourcing the process might be a tad tricky for English-only-speaking virtual assistants.

But at least it's a fun challenge!

I believe there is much to gain from this project, namely finding a job faster - even if it's just by a day.

Nobody will be able to say: I didn't try everything!

Freitag, 26. Oktober 2012

Superquick Update - Oh Noes: My VA has a few days of vacation!!

philippinesJust joking, it's actually a good family reason he has, and he has deserved a break for all the awesome work he does.

Did I mention that in the meantime, he manages yet another virtual assistant (transcriptionist from the Philippines, actually) for me?

So he is a hiring manager too, now. Killer-awesome.

--

What is the problem if my VA takes a few days off? No problem really, only that on my own, I rarely get any work done :D

Will have to bite the bullet and do some work on my own. It's actually a good thing I am not too dependent on the productivity of my one virtual assistant.

You should always be able to figure out how your business would survive even if you are not there any more.

Peace and out.

Montag, 18. Juni 2012

How awesome is my VA?

I had a disheartening discussion about outsourcing some days ago. I was serously considering stopping my business out of moral reasons.

Location of Pakistan, including all areas cont...I asked my virtual assistance for his honest feedback for some really critical questions.

Example: How can I not know that if I hire someone in India or Pakistan, that I don't support anything illegal?

And the like.

My VA gave me some very solid answers. Very solid.
He wrote about 1800 words of text. With some very valid arguments. Of course, not all related to this one question, but many other critical points.

In short: my faith in my business model is restored.

He took about 5 hours for this research and writing. This cost me less than 10$.

Freitag, 15. Juni 2012

Is outsourcing just impossible to do ethically? Should I give up?

Until now, I was pretty much excited 100% about making a site about outsourcing. Recently, I run into a pretty serious and spririted debate, with the result that I should not do it.

Decision Making Skills When it Comes to Outsou...That was disheartening. I planned on this site for almost half a year. I have tons of value to share. I really meant well, I really did.


But still, there is a risk that I might do some damage that I cannot undo. What if I support bad stuff when doing outsourcing?

In the end, I'll be accountable. Even if I only wanted someone to send me the weather daily or answer emails. Or anything.

Is it as bad as I think now it is?

--

There is NO way I'll give up without a fight. I'll find the way to blog about outsourcing. Effectively and ethically.

And when the success comes, all the critics will know better.

Freitag, 8. Juni 2012

Synergizing with a virtual assistant. I blog, he illustrates

Now we are talking. Together with the resarch from my VA, I built a pretty huge webpage today in the new site builder from SBI.
He helped me pre-format the article in word. I copy pasted it into the builder, thinking of some unique information I cannot outsource along the way. Like a striking page description.

You can see the page here.

How does the teamwork continue? I point out which formatation I don't like - he fixes it. I ask him to illustrate the post with diagrams and graphics - he is on it faster than the speed of light.

Damn I love outsourcing :)

He has already started on a new project. In order to get more illustrations, we'll outsource the research again to even more providers. They'll jump on the team, he will give them the instructions, and I'll review the final results.

Easy? Easy.

Freitag, 1. Juni 2012

Working together with a virtual assistant that does transcription work for me and orders my thoughts

Yesterday I experienced serious writer's block. Nothing unusual for me.
Writer's Block
Writer's Block (Photo credit: Elemento Zeca)


My solution: "call up" my virtual assistant. Actually, I didn't really call, but just used an application from Catch.com to record a message.

I was 1.5 hours long..! But at least it got me over my writers' block.

Simply telling what projects I was thinking about, how I wanted items be ordered, while dictating pieces and parts of future articles for transcription was surprisingly easy.

I was very eager to find out that my VA had successfully worked through the gibberish to yield some nicely polished stuff to work with.

This essentially replaced my writing work with a polish-and-put-the-best-stuff-together work. Which is way easier.

Writer's Block: 0 - Virtual Assistant: 1

Dienstag, 29. Mai 2012

Yeeehaw! I did it! I registered a new domain!

After hours, days and even weeks of intensive, mind-numbing and time-wasting research - I finally nailed it.

I decided which domain name I should use and registered it right now at SBI.

This feels sooo relieving. My virtual assistant is also sitting in the fences, ready to plug in my content for me - of format, order or enrich existing content.

Time to start seriously working now. I can produce all the content I want now - nothing will hold me back anymore.

Freitag, 25. Mai 2012

Menthol "incense" makes me focus more

English: Menthol
English: Menthol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I really enjoy working in an atmosphere of refreshing cool air.

The best way to do this, is to take some menthol crystals and put them on a piece of hot charcoal.
 


For example shisha coal.

It freshens up the room immediately, and in combination with a cup of coffee this is the perfect wake-up combination!


Disadvantage: if you use too much menthol, the air will sting and it's not so healthy.

Advantage: you can use it in many other ways.
  • Put it into a candle, 
  • in hot water, 
  • use it in the sauna...




Animated SpaceFill representation of menthol. ...
Animated SpaceFill representation of menthol. Done using the real time open source QuteMol system. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)