Good morning! Today we continue with our series about making money online. You can check the previous posts about Starting your own website, Choosing a name, domain and hosting, My July blog income and stats, How many hours are you willing to put in?, Blogging mistake #1: blogging in the dark , How I got my Alexa below 100K in 8 weeks, Monetize your site with affiliate and Adsense, August blog income and stats recap, Going self hosted right away: How to link Godaddy, Hostgator and WordPress, Go self hosted or migrate your blog to a new server for $5 or less.
I hired a VA the week before MMYW was launched. I found her on staff.com and have been really happy with her work so far. She is doing 20 hours per week and relieving me of a lot of backstage work. Here is a quick list of what tasks you can outsource and why.
Writing content
Depending on the brand you are creating, it can be a good or a bad idea. If your brand strongly revolves around you, and people come to read you, having a new staff writer can unbalance things and deter some loyal readers. If your site is less personal, then getting a few writers on board can bring diversity and please your readership.
On Reach Financial Independence, I accept a guest post every Wednesday from other bloggers, but do not have a regular staff writer. This is my personal site and at the moment, I want to keep things personal.
On MMYW, I have outsourced the posts about investing. I think Troy does a great job because I am not an expert on the stock market, and even less on 401k, Roth IRA and other tax sheltered accounts so he really brings value to the blog. I deal with the real estate investing posts and all the rest at the moment but may consider bringing more expert writing once we leave the basics and move to more advanced stuff.
Blog design
There are tons of small tasks you can hire out on Fiverr. I had this logo and RFI’s done by two talented designers on Fiverr. A full website design will cost you at least $500, usually around $1,000 and more if you want special features like secure online payment, and with Fiverr you can go with a free or premium theme and upgrade the little details you don’t like.
Coding
My theme is Prose on the Genesis framework from Studiopress and I love it, for being simple and clean. It cost under $100 with lifetime support and a ton of online tutorials. I know a bit about coding, in that I understand how it works and what needs to be changed in order to make the thing work as I want. I am able to follow a tutorial but it is not something that comes intuitively.
So I prefer to outsource tasks that would take me more than 15 minutes to perform. A quick research tells me how long it would be. Align the widgets 50px from the right in the sidebar? 10 minutes max. Set up a Google Search box? I have tried to do it myself and only managed to break the search page, will outsource.
Those little tweaks should be at most $5 a piece on Fiverr. If you require more work and want a personalized service, you can try Elance or Taskrabbit. On both sites you publish the details of the work you need done, you get quotes from freelancers, and once the quote is accepted you supervise the work.
Tasks can include
– Adding social buttons to the header
– Getting rid of WC3 validation errors
– Improving page speed
– Moving widgets around
and so on.
Blog maintenance
There is a lot of work involved when you want to keep current in the blogging world. Regular tasks are easier outsourced to a VA than finding someone to do them on Fiverr or Elance.
Some of the tasks my VA will undertake over time will be
– Moderating comments (not answering, see below)
– Updating tags and filling up Meta description and SEO title on SEO by Yoast
– Adding internal links to old posts
– Minor blog design adjustments, move a widget, test different ad boxes, etc
– Social media
– Submit posts to blog carnivals
– Submit blog and posts to blog directories
– Keyword research
– Research post ideas
– Research statistics for a specific post
– Find blog pictures
– Upload posts, attach picture, schedule post
– Track ad payments, follow up unpaid, update Excel folder with all payments, send reminder when a deal is about to expire.
The VA will be working 20 hours a week and doing more than I actually do backstage so that is pretty cool.
Social media
A VA can do a few tasks for you related to social media. For example, set up automatic tweets of your new posts, and auto publish on FB. You can do so with a plugin or services like Twitterfeed and DLVR. Setting it up takes time but once it is installed you don’t have to worry about it anymore.
If you are not comfortable with a social media (Google + anyone??) you can ask the VA to take full control of it. Check out Google Analytics after a month to see if the efforts have paid and that social media brought traffic.
It is good though that you keep at least one personal outlet that you manage yourself. I manage Twitter and FB but am thinking about having the VA do G+ and Pinterest if we create an account.
Commenting
Again, that is a VA task, or something you could ask your staff writer to do, but I don’t recommend it. If you have no time to comment around, find another way to bond with a blogger. Auto-tweet their posts, link back to them, don’t have a VA leave awkward “Great post!” comments, chances are they won’t entice many people to click on that anyway. If you really have no time for comments, hire your staff writer or another blogger in your niche to do the commenting, so he/she is already known around and knows what to comment on, it will be a bit more expensive but look more natural. In any case, do not have them ghost comment. Create a profile for them, or they will go treat your best blogging buddies like complete strangers and you will have to go apologize and edit the comments.
In an ideal world, all I would have to do would be write posts, reply to my own comments and comment elsewhere. I hope to get there over time, it takes a while to train a VA, but it is worth the time saved in the long run.
I’ve been looking to outsource more of my blog and these are all great suggestions. I currently outsource some writing, but for the most part I do all the work for my blog. Because I want to start one or two new sites next year I am going to have to decide the best way to outsource and what should be outsourced and what I should keep doing myself on a daily/weekly basis.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…The Weekly Quick Hits Roundup
Thank you. I am off to work very early this Saturday morning but I will try this tonight when I get home.
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle recently posted…Lottery Wins, BlackJack And Money Quickies For September 25, 2013
I cannot afford another blog expense because my blog does not generate any income. I have been accepted for Flex Offers but I am struggling with placing the ads on my site. I have the link for one ad on my site but I cannot figure out how to get a much needed graphic to be with the link.
Can you hire someone for one task only? I am so untechnical.
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle recently posted…Lottery Wins, BlackJack And Money Quickies For September 25, 2013
Do mean the one in your sidebar? If so, upload the image to your WordPress library. Next, create a new page (you won’t be publishing it, this is just to get the code for the sidebar widget) and insert the image via the toolbar.
During this process, on the far right column where you add title/caption/alt-text there is a section that says “link to”. Select “custom URL” then you can add your link destination. Click “insert into page”.
Now select the “text” view of the page (not the “visual” view) and copy the HTML code. You can now move the page to trash. Go to your text widget, replace what’s there with what you just copied, click “save” and you are finished.
Sorry for the thread hi-jack, just like to help : )
I outsource some stuff, but for the most part I do 99% of the work. I am about to hire someone for a new blog design though.
Michelle recently posted…Don’t Let Addicting Side Hustles Ruin You
Good post Pauline! I outsource writing having one staff writer, and soon to be two. And automate some of the social sharing. I am actually in the process right now of interviewing potential VA candidates myself with the hopes of freeing up some time to do other blogging related things.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted…Should We Cut Food Stamps?
I would love to start outsourcing a lot of the administrative tasks. And design is something I know nothing about, so getting some help there would be great as well. If I can clarify for myself exactly what I’m trying to achieve with the blog and decide that it’s something worth pursuing for income, then I think this is definitely a direction I will move in.
These are all things I’d love to do! VA work, staff writing- I don’t know enough about design or coding to be good for much else. But being unemployed and having a fair amount of experience as a blogger, I think this type of work would be a great fit for me and I can definitely see how much time it would relieve for a blogger!
Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life recently posted…NYC Chocolate Tour Review
It is a ton of time. My VA is doing 20 hours and has her hands full. You can offer your services around, I am sure some people would love it better than a foreign VA.
I am planning to outsource my site but now I am doing it by myself. Once my blog will generate, I will start outsourcing some tasks. Yes delegating other task to VA can save our time & effort. It will cost a lot but it will gives a better outcomes or design.
My Wealth Desire recently posted…13 Ways to Solve Not Having Enough Money to Live on | My Wealth Desire
It can save you a lot of time and help your blog grow faster, generating more money, and covering the costs. But you can fail and lose money too.
I do plan on doing some kind of outsourcing at some point as I make more money (hopefully) from blogging. I imagine hiring a staff writer will be the first option, probably for my second site. I think I’ll be gathering a lot more info at fincon which will help me make better decisions about this.
Budget and the Beach recently posted…Link Love/Week in Review 9/27/13
I take less time writing a quick post than coding or tweeting so I’d rather have a VA behind the scenes. But it is nice to have a writer too when you are out of ideas.
I think your recommendations seem like a good balance for a VA. I’m not nuts about the comments that tend to come from blog commenting services as they’re often not contributing anything to the discussion. And you’re absolutely right that a hallmark of them is “Great post!”
Mrs PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Hedonic Adaptation to Savings?
I am really on the fence about hiring a staff writer. I think traffic would increase if I was able to post consistently on Tues and Thurs. I get guest posts, but not every week. I did hire a designer for the recent changes that were made, and I think that was money well spent. I would love to have someone do SEO things and Google+ and Pinterest. I set up a Pinterest account last night and it gave me a headache to think of one more thing to manage! September was my first month to break $1000 in blogging income. I’m always afraid next month will be zero, but if I can have some consistency, I am certainly going to hire some things out in the next few months.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted…My Trip to the Food Bank
Congrats! I went from 5 posts to 2-3 a week on RFI and it hasn’t reduced traffic, so not sure you would get a huge bump by posting more, once you get a good chunk of SEO traffic the daily readers are only a small part. So if you want more traffic, you would have to do SEOptimized posts that may drive away the regulars. Depends on where you want to go with your blog. I have a sponsored post that drives huge traffic because it is optimized but if I give that to my readers every day they will go away. I have no idea how Pinterest works my VA created the account and manages it, so far it hasn’t brought a lot of traffic but I read on some blogs that it is a great source for them so we are giving it a try.
I’m sure your tips could be helpful for someone who manages multiple blogs. I’m not trying to generate income with my blog, I just do it for fun, so I don’t have the need to outsource.
Bryce @ Save and Conquer recently posted…Carnival of Financial Planning – Autumnal Equinox
Hey Pauline and thanks for a very informative post 🙂
I look forward the day I truly need to outsource ’cause that would mean that my blog is doing well 🙂 Until then, I’ll keep chuggin’ along!
Take care and all the best and oh…”great post” 🙂
Lyle
lyle @ the Joy of Simple recently posted…Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues!!
Thanks Lyle and I know sooner you need to outsource. 🙂
Clarisse recently posted…How to Identify the Short Term Market Peak
haha thanks Lyle. Some bloggers choose to invest money to grow faster, before they even make money. I was ok to invest my time and the hosting fees only but now that I can justify the VA am really happy to get some of the work load off.
I’m looking forward to going cash flow positive to free up some money for a VA.
I think mostly it would be for the grunt work – moderating comments, keyword research, monthly usage statistics, linking new articles into old content, etc.
I enjoy the content creation and reading other blogs too much to outsource that.
Jack @ Enwealthen recently posted…How to Survive Disaster with a Financial Emergency Preparedness Kit
I’m the one doing all the work on my sites (from setup to content writing and web design) and I don’t plan on outsourcing it too soon, since it relaxes me and I like how I do things. Still, if it came to not having the time to do this and there were some good people I could hire for less than my hourly rate, I’m open to anything.
dojo recently posted…Emergency fund: why is it important and how to grow it faster
For now, I’m all on my own but if I had the money to hire a VA, then I would definitely get one myself.
Mark Ross recently posted…7 Shopping Tips That Can Help You Save Money
I guess only time will tell for me but for now I’m doing it all and thankfully we have some computer whiz’s in the family who can help out when needed. Thanks for all the tips.
canadianbudgetbinder recently posted…The Saturday weekend review #39: New Blog Design Meet Greg at Engine1Media
These are great tips. I outsource Social Media posting and I use buffer for that. So far it working great for me.
Marissa@Thirtysixmonths recently posted…Why I Spent Twice My Budget on My Car
Hi Marissa thanks for dropping by, you can also use hootsuite for posting.
Clarisse recently posted…How to Identify the Short Term Market Peak
It’s really a joy to hire other people’s help to relieve you of some stress brought about by some blogging tasks that take too much time. As for me, I am a one man army most of the time, and go to fiverr for some one off tasks that I cannot do on my own. 🙂
Nancee recently posted…Smart Times To Blog About Your Business
We can always do it all but we soon realize that it can be time consuming or we could be doing other stuff that would have greater returns for our time. Outsourcing sure does save one sometime allowing them to focus not only on improving things as they are but also crafting strategy and providing direction for the future.
I guess the key is in finding, training and retaining great talent and they will not only save you time and a couple more headaches but also have a positive impact on the bottom-line.
Simon @ Modest Money recently posted…EverBank Review – Exclusive Review of EverBank Online Banking
That is certainly a lot of good tasks to outsource. You might even need to hire a manager to oversee all that and make sure it all gets done to your liking!
I do caution against outsourcing too much. Once you start, it can get very easy to spend $2 per hour here or there. But then after so many hours that quickly builds up into $100 or even $500 per month in fees. You have to make sure you’ve got a handle on what your income will be for your sites each month before you go spending too much or more than you make to keep the site going.
I just got a logo done on Fiverr…very good work at a low price. I don’t make anything from the blog so I’m not really outsourcing although I have contemplated having someone submit my articles to carnivals to build links. Do those really help?
Andrew@LivingRichCheaply recently posted…Monday Update and Roundup
The link strength is not much as it is split in 50 submitters. It can get you exposure and get your name out there with other bloggers. There are services for that around $20 a month so you can try for a couple of months and see if it is worth it for you. My VA does it but when I had to do it I wasn’t very consistent.
I outsource commenting and carnival submissions at the moment. If I want to change up my blog, I will assess how much work it will take and how involved the work is. I have a good understanding of coding, but others are much better than me. If it means more than 30 minutes of work, I am going to find someone to do the work for me.
Jon @ MoneySmartGuides recently posted…Saving Money and Saving the Environment
Hey Pauline- just an FYI, I didn’t pay anywhere NEAR $500 for my full blog design, including Genesis.
Catherine recently posted…Life Lesson From An Airline Pilot/Pizza Delivery Man
Now that I’ve gone back to work, I need to outsource some of my tasks. So happy you wrote this article. Since I’m a designer and developer on the side, I’ll keep that task – I like it more than writing! But I am considering outsourcing social media. I just don’t like that piece of the blogging pie. (Clearly by my social media presence – ha!)
Taynia | The Fiscal Flamingo recently posted…An Accountability Partner – Why You Need One If You’re In Debt
Maintaining your blog does take a lot of time and effort, however I like learning about the behind the scenes stuff aside from the writing, so I don’t mind doing it for the moment. Eventually I would like to outsource that. Having someone research post ideas for me would definitely help a lot. It’s not easy coming up with a topic to write that someone else hasn’t written .
Initially I was thinking about outsourcing for the design of my blog, but I might trying dabbling in design on my own first to see what I can come up with.
Karen recently posted…I Refuse To Be a Slave to Technology
I personally do not like to outsource anything on my blog as I would rather it was done by me so I know it is done right and so I know I can engage correctly with my audience. However, I do like to buy some guest articles every now and then when I can not find the time to post.
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Social media can be a great gold mine for businesses, but it takes time and effort. Outsourcing can be great for that because it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t post on Facebook or Twitter every once in a while, but the bulk of the marketing for social media is taken care of. Thanks for sharing!
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