Tips on finding the right odesk worker

God    Outsourcing    

Odesk provides great tools to find the right outsourcing staff. I personally find it much easier to use and filter on odesk than the other sites I frequent, vworker and scriptlance. However I still go to those sites for programmers. I have discovered some tips that would help you filter for the ideal candidate. Love to get your feedback on them to see if they worked for you or not.

1. Look at the hours they work on their projects – If a contractor is good they are usually hired for a long period of time per project. If you are looking for someone long term you would be sure to want that person to have a long term mindset. Make sure that the projects they’ve worked on are also long term.
2. Look for “real” feedbacks – Look at how their employers rate them. Usually if they are outstanding they will get consistent enthusiastic comments. If you see lack luster comments such as “They did as required.” It’s an indication that the employer did not like their work and only wrote that to be polite.
3. Review the type of work they’ve done -make sure it’s similar to yours
4. Make sure they have a lot of hours worked (around at least 50 or 60). – This will ensure that they follow the system. You do not want to waste your time trying to manage a newbie.
5. Plan to select more than one worker. – If the task can be divided select 2 or more workers at the same time doing different part of the tasks. Depending on your task and your style, one worker will be better than another.
6. Invite contractors to get more applicants. - Whenever I outsource the odds of the perfect candidate applying is very slim. So I am always proactive and look for them. In the case of odesk this extra effort saves me a lot of time and make the process quicker. After setting my filters I invite those contractors to the job. Since I invited them I just review those I invited instead of everyone that applied which many do not match my filter. As well since I invited them they respond within 24 hours so I do not need to wait for applicants.
7. For article writing, hire from culturally relevant countries – It is important to hire writers that have same cultural perspective as your country. I’m from Canada and I find that the Copywriters I was looking at, only people from the US, Canada, and Philippines seem to write in a style that is ‘normal’ and relatable here.

This is the process to find good candidates.  You might be able to find contractors for a lower rate if they don’t have as much feedback or hours worked but I find that it is high risk and not worth your time.

[*Added March 23rd 2012]

The post was first written over 2 years ago and it has been highly comprehensive and relevant. After 2 years I still agree with every point. The only thing I would add it to do a test with the applicants. Many candidates look good on paper and is great at interviews but when they are hired they do not live up to your expectations.

Step by Step Guide to Finding a Virtual Assistant

God    Online Tools, Outsourcing, Productivity    

What can virtual assistants do:

Virtual assistants (VAs)  provide personal and office support services, such as

1. general administrative tasks
2. making customer contacts;
3. writing reports;
4. editing documents; sending out marketing materials;
5. handling thank-you notes, gifts and follow-up letters
6. setting up and maintaining databases
7. handling billing and bookkeeping; and updating Web sites.

You can also get a VA to manage your personal life as well. Here are some of their tasks:

1. Some VAs even help clients manage their personal lives
2. Doing such tasks as arranging for pet-sitting
3. Calling the plumber
4. Scheduling doctor’s appointments
5. Planning an upcoming family reunion
6. Or coordinating a move.

For a comprehensive list see: Tasks that a Virtual Assistant can Eliminate for You.

Sites to find VA’s:

Many people have recommended using VAs from the Philippine because their culture and accent is close to North America. They are also hard working and very loyal. Some sites to use is Onlinejobs.ph ($49) and Manila Craigslist (Free). However I posted 2 of the same job description on Onlinejobs.ph and Odesk and I find the candidates on Odesk to have a lot higher quality response.

Searching:

1. Better to hire them full time and split with friends or clients
2. Lower rate is not a good thing. When a VA is charging too low of a rate it means that either 1) they are not good or 2) they will have to juggle too many tasks to make a living and your responsibilities will slip to the side
3. Have everything written and signed. This includes fees, terms and conditions, etc…
4. Consider working with someone on a short term project basis before fully jumping in. This will ensure that you two are compatible but also ensures that a VA is what you are looking for.
5. Find out the hours they are available and make sure it is compatible with their responsibilities.
6. If there are certain specialized tasks you have make sure they have the right tools and equipment to do the tasks you require
7. View sample work.
8. Ask them to fill out a survey. You will get a lot of applicants, the fastest way for you to filter it out is to have them fill a survey, you can use SurveyMonkey.
9. Look for training and certification. If you are using Odesk it provides this information.
10. Return business. Look up the history of the VA to see how much and how long does their client stay with them. If they have many clients but only a few or no repeat clients then it a telltale sign that they are not good. In Odesk I was able to see how much each client spends with them then I know that they are good.
11. Look for polish work. A sure sign of incompetency is spelling errors, typos, and gaammar mistakes.

Working Together:

1. Use a software to communicate – e.g. basecamp or other
2. Stay in contact
3. Set realistic deadlines
4. Set a communication schedule

once they are hired treat them like an employee. The saying goes “Hire slow fire fast.” If you get any clue that they are not the right fit end it as soon as you can. Make sure they are real issues and not just communication issues. One of the biggest issues would be punctuality.

Questions:

Hire one or hire many?

Hire from a firm or individual?

Signs of a good Virtual Assistant

1. If they ask for a consultation
2. They have a system or software they use to keep track

Branding and Copywriting Ad Strategy Worksheet

God    Marketing    

Since I learn copywriting and branding I have used this simple copy worksheet to organize my thoughts. It’s very useful.

Creative Strategy Worksheet

The following sheet helps to understand and guide the process of developing an ad. This was taken from Fundamentals of Copy & Layout (1984) Alber C. Book and C. Dennis Schick

Product (or Service):
Primary Selling Points: (Product Points: built-in characteristics or product itself, including any U.S.P.)

1. .
2. .
3. .

Primary Benefits: (Prospect Points: what buyer gets from using the product or service)

Pain Points: (The pain the prospect feels in which this product/service will solve)

Consumer Profile of Target Prospect:

1. Demographics: (Age, sex, education, income, occupation)
2. Psychographics: (Lifestyle, attitude, personality traits)

Belief you want this ad to establish:

Reasons why prospect should believe it:

1. .
2. .
3. .

“Big Ides” to dramatize this belief:

1. .
2. .
3. .

Visualization of Big Idea:

1. Product alone:
2. Product in setting:
3. Product in use:

Action you want reader to take:

Interview Questions for Outsourcing Candidates

God    Outsourcing     interview, odesk, Outsourcing, questions, VA, Virtual Assistant

In Odesk there is an explicit “interview” process where you ask the candidates questions. With other sites there are similar processes. Most likely when you get to this process you are pretty confident in the remaining candidate and have done the proper research.

The goal of this process is to discover the following:

1. Do they know and understand the importance of the project
2. Their knowledge and experience on the topic and style of writing
3. If their communication style matches yours

Either if you do not care to know those information, it is better to still do this process before hiring to make the candidate do more work. This will make the job seem more scarce and coveted and as such they will respect the job more and work harder.

Questions:

1. Why do you think this project is important?
2. What kind of related work have you done before?
3. What’s your knowledge and experience with the topic?
4. Describe the target audience?
5. How do you typically communicate with your clients? How often?
6. How long do you think it would take to complete the task?
7. What would be your process for completing this task?
8. Do you have experience doing this work and how does it relate?
9. Do you have any suggestions for the project?
10. Do you have any questions for me?

Those should be enough to get their response and their dedication to the project. Then you can filter out the candidates and find out additional information to select the right one.

Better Usability Testing for Lower Price

God    Uncategorized    

There are many user testing sites out there but they are expensive. In additions the users on that does those service does not represent the actual user of your site because those using the service is an experience (they do it all day) and paid user.

A better technique would be to get people on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. And get them to install Screencast-o-matic and to send you the video of them using it. Be general in what instructions you give them. For example, use this site to find your favourite laptop to purchase. This will cost 1/20th the cost of those user testing sites.

If you are launching a new service you could find millions of bugs in your app but instead of fixing them all which might take you forever, just fix the ones where the users are having issues with. Many bugs will never bother the user.

Million Dollar Revenue for your Startup

God    Money, Uncategorized     million dollars, money, Monthly users, Recurring, SASS, startup

Getting to a million dollar revenue is not as difficult as many startup thinks if you follow Signal37 thinking. Charging a monthly recurring fee can add up quickly. See the chart below to see how many recurring customers you need. For example if you were to charge $40 monthly you need just over 2000 paid users monthly.

Embed this on your blog or site:

<a href=”http://businesstoolreviews.com/million-dollar-revenue-startup/”><img src=”http://businesstoolreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/million-dollar-revenue-info-chart-01-1024×431.png” alt=”Million Dollar Revenue Startup Info Chart></a>

How to make a Web 2.0 Logo

God    Uncategorized     design, logos, web 2.0

If you are looking for ideas on designing web 2.0 logos check out this collage of web 2.0 logos. This will for sure give you a lot of great ideas.

Here are some characteristics of Web 2.0 logos:

1. Simple Shapes – Drawings of the icons are very simple, it is filtered down to it’s simplest elements
2. Sans Serif Fonts – Most of the text are sans serif, and in the rare case it is a serif font, it is the most
3. Bright Colours – Check out the colour palette of the sample logos. They are all bright happy colours
4. 2 tone – Text are divided to 2 colours. This is because for URL it is a combination of 2 text and it is not possible to have spaces between them or else the URL would be confusing. As well many names are made up of 2 concepts like Dis Us.
5. 2 fonts – Similar to 2 tone, some logos use 2 types of fonts to communicate the effect of the previous point (2 tone)
6. One idea – If you look at all the logos there is one concept or idea, one thing that draws your attention to. This is general of logo design.
7. Gradients – This is web 2.0 signature.
8. Lose the “.com” – Very few logos actually have “.com” in it. It’s so obvious that it’s a web 2.0 company, .com is not needed. But make sure you have a version with .com as well.

How to make a great company video

God    Uncategorized     Grumo Media, Made to Stick, mixergy, video

This is a real cool and ingenious concept on making company videos. Miguel Hernandez of Grumo Media on Mixergy talks about his approach to video.

Your video should answer 3 questions:

1. What is the problem that your product or service is solving?
2. How does it solve it?
3. What do they do next?

And he follows the methodogy of Made to Stick S.U.C.C.E.S: Simple Unexpected Concrete  Core Emotional Story

Check out one of his video that applies his philosphy:

Applying Lean Startup Techniques

God    Online Tools, Sales     99designs, Agile Software Development, AppSumo, Ash Maurya, Chargify, demo, Lean startup, Minimum Viable Product, MVP, Pivotal Tracker, Postmark, Recurly, Running Lean, sales, tools, Twilio

Lean Startup is a philosophy about starting a product/service where market demand is verified as quickly as possible for with the minimum resources required.

I am currently working on a “video yellowpages of dentist” where unlike a yellowpages there is no monthly fee and the dental clinic only pays for the lead generated from our service. This is how I applied some of the Lean Startup principles:

1. Get customers before making the product
   The original idea was quite different from what it was now because customers were not willing to pay for it and it was too much work. After talking with a couple of dental offices extensively we were able to make an offer the customer was willing to pay for. So far I had meetings with 2 dentists and both signed on. And one dentist referred 2 other dental clinic that were interested in the idea. Our goal is to get 10 customers to cover all of our cost of making the site. We do not offer any “freemium” plan as it diverts from creating something customers would pay for as well as we need money to fund the project.
2. Make a demo for selling
   Because we had nothing it was hard to get dental clinics to pay us money. So we made a quick demo mock up with very limited features, scrape the internet for data to populate it then pitch it to dentists. The great design and functionality was important in communicating with the dentist to build the trust.
3. Didn’t waste time with design contests like 99designs… at the beginning.
   I have used 99deisgns many times and love it. But to move quicker for the demo we grabbed a template from the internet and got the designer to modify it. Design contests takes time and lots of communication. And no we don’t have or need a logo at this point. When we do need a logo and once we finalize the site and direction by getting feedback then we will use 99designs to create it.
4. Minimize cost for coding but keeping the quality
   It is absolutely important to have great code. I wanted to use Ruby on Rails (ROR) for this project. Because ROR coders are expensive I got my coder in Philippines to learn ROR which decrease the cost of development. But to make sure the code is right and we move quickly I hired a experienced coder from Toronto to “consult” and review his code and pay him his full rate but for only for a set limited hours a week.
5. Use the right tools for agile communication
   We are using Pivotal Tracker for Agile Software Development
6. Minimum Viable Product
   There is an extensive wish list of features for the product. As such we segmented it to 3 major phases. Phase one is the MVP and we might never even do phase 2 or 3, we just wishlist features there so our minds stay clear. Within Phase one there are 3 different stages and the site can go live when each section is complete. Each stage can be done within a week.
7. Move faster, develop as little as possible
   These are the software we plan to use. The majority of the development would be integrating the APIs instead of making new software. 
   1. Twilio - Track leads. We offer Twilio numbers on the site, visitors call that number, get directed to the dental office and the dental office is charge for that lead.
   2. Postmark – Sending emails to users
   3. Recurly or Chargify – Monthly billing. Based on our current forecast the price structure of Reculry is substantially lower then Chargify but we have to do more research.
   4. YouTube/Wistia - Would like to use Wistia for hosting the videos but to keep cost low we will start by using youtube to hose the videos.
8. Lean Sales Process
   To get sales quickly I bypassed the urge to dedicate my attention building a sales team and sales program. Instead I am focusing on getting referrals to and from dentist. To fill out the rest of the customers needed to meet the target of 10 I will be making cold calls to dental offices that have already bought “video” listings on yellowpages, those are the perfect candidate for this service.
9. Lean Sales Pitch
   Even our sales pitch is lean! Due to the simplicity of our service our sales pitch can be done in 15mins (by intention and necessity). We will be testing this with more clients so I can’t say this is a success but it’s our aim.
10. Using Mentors and LinkedIn to Minimize Mistakes
    To learn about best practices and find any pitfalls I might asked several mentor or people that had been through this for feedback and learn about their experience. That has helped a lot. Also I join and have been participate in the dental groups on LinkedIn to learn about the dentists and sales professionals in the industry as well as to make contacts and have potential future partnership. Lastly I also tell everyone and anyone about the project and i have gotten the most insightful feedback from people I least expected.

You can get special discounts to many of the tools by buying it from AppSumo.com. Please vote for me here for the Lean Startup Challenge. Also I highly recommend getting Running Lean by Ash Maurya which also has great tidbits of real life experience using the Lean Startup methodogy.

Best Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Export Settings for Youtube

God    Uncategorized     adobe, Camera, cs3, HD, premiere pro, video, youtube

If you ever tried exporting video for youtube you will most likely find that the files you export are huge and take forever to upload. As well the quality is pretty bad.

If you were like me you found a lot of different methods and setting out there but they seem to have little effect. I found this one and it has amazing quality at low file size.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Export Settings
(Use “Adobe Media Encoder” not “Export Movie”)

Format: QuickTime
Range: ~
Preset: YouTube HD (this is the name of MY preset)

Summary: 1280×720, 29.97 [fps], Progressive, 24-bit – Color
Apple Lossless, 32 kHz, Stereo
Alternates: 0

Video Codec: H.264
Quality: 100
Frame Width [pixels]: 1,280
Frame Height [pixes]: 720
Frame Rate [fps]: 29.97
Field Order: None (Progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)

Set Bitrate [kbps]: 4,000 kbps

Uncheck everything else in Filters, Alternates, and Others