My Adventures in Outsourcing
I’m in the middle of starting to do some outsourcing. Actually, I’ve been outsourcing some things for a very long time. I’ve just lately gotten very serious and handing out lists of jobs to my VA’s.
I have one in particular who is absolutely the best! (You know who you are sweetie! Or maybe I can say Goob? Yep, that’s her nickname! The Goober!) I also have a couple other “little ones” who do more specific jobs and not as much.
I can’t share any names right now because first of all, I’ve not gotten my goober’s permission to do so and secondly, she’s not even a VA! LOL! I keep telling her she needs to open herself up more, as a VA, she rocks! But, she is perfectly content with doing some work for me and another friend of mine. Other than that, she has her own sites to take care of and is just honky dory the way things are right now. The other’s I can’t share just yet because if I understand correctly, they are going to be launching a whole service in ghost writing. So, we’ll wait and see there.
Anyway, it seems quite odd to me at times that I’m an affiliate manager. In basic terms, I guess you could call it: a VA who specializes in managing affiliate programs. So, why is it that someone else pays me to do their work and I pay someone else to do mine? Simple – that’s business. I specialize and enjoy affiliate marketing while my VA’s prefer the more “secretarial type work”.
(I hope that was a decent enough description! I so don’t want to be offending any VA’s!! If you’re a Virtual Assistant and would like to give me a better description – by all means – leave a comment.)
My goober helps me take care of my end of the deal here on the blog. She currently has 3 days a week to take care of me with the possibility of 2 more depending on what I have for that particular week.
Monday is Monday Nite Blog Thing
Tuesday is “open”.
Wednesday is our newest section, Wacky Wednesday Videos
Thursday is “open”.
Friday is our Parenting Humor day highlighting our very own Lisa Barker.
(You’ll be hearing from Goober soon with a more detailed list of each of these.)
So basically, what she’s doing so far is searching for blog things, searching for wacky videos and she recieves our Jelly Mom installments – then posts each of those here.
As you see, Tuesday & Thursday are open. These are days for me to speak my mind (even though we’re off here – today being Friday and all, lol!). These are also if Goober wants to post anything extra AND my “ghost writers”.
I have ghost writers in quotes because they are ghost writers but not necessarily in the same traditional aspect that you usually see. I make a list of my random thoughts for a post and they put them together to make something that makes sense to more than just me! Believe it or not, this works out two fold for me. First, I get more posts and secondly, it saves me times. If you only knew how many blog posts never got written simply because I didn’t have time to put those random thoughts in order. I’m really going to like this set up.
The control freak in me still has just enough control to keep her happy and I don’t feel as though I’m just posting everyone else’s thoughts. They’re my thoughts – just in a much more comprehensible way.
My goober will also be soon taking over all my advertising at MommysHelperOnline.com (notice how I refer to her as MINE? lol!) Wow – this has been a REALLY long time coming! If you search back through old blog posts, I bet you’ll find many years ago I started this with one other VA. You’d probably have to start at our old blog to find them! That’s how long it’s been!
I’ve been wanting someone to completely take over my advertising for a really long time. I just never got around to it. Goober has been handling small sections of my advertising for a couple years now. Soon, she will be in complete control of the advertising. You can certainly refer to her as my customer service in advertising.
This too is going to work out two fold for me … Again, saving me time AND making more money! How you ask? I’m now going to pay someone else to take care of it but I am going to make more money. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it?
On the contrary – it makes complete sense. She’ll be saving me more time so I can do other things of my own that I enjoy and don’t procrastinate until it eventually never gets done. AND she will keep a much better eye on my advertising.
She’ll be taking down ads that have expired. She’ll be reminding people to renew. She’ll be answering questions, placing new advertising plus so much more. So, all of you that have been getting free advertising from me for so long … sorry folks … it’s about to end, lol! No more taking down expired ads two months later because I didn’t have time and/or then forgot. You’ll have approximately one week to renew and then it’s gone baby … GONE. (Getting goofy am I?)
This will also allow me to do extra promotions and run contests! YAY ME! They don’t call me the contest queen for nothing. Although, I’ve really stepped down a notch or two from this thrown. Just no time to do it. Now I have someone to help. So, those of you may not get any free advertising anymore because I didn’t have time or simply forgot – have no fear – there’s a good chance you’ll be able to win it! (So, watch out for a comeback with my infamous Quick Impromptu Contests!)
But that’s what I’ve been doing …
Do you outsource?
If so, what exactly do you outsource?
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Anita
Topics: Outsourcing | 4 Comments »
January 30th, 2009 at 10:54 am
[...] My Adventures in Outsourcing [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I think this is something that a lot of online business owners could benefit from – I mean this sort of arrangement. It’s a win/win situation for both parties I think.
Not sure if Goober is going to publically want to be known as Goober but anyone who reads this post then orders advertising from http://www.mommyshelperonline.com will certainly learn Goober’s secret identity! LOL!
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January 30th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
LOL! Good point. Maybe I shouldn’t have used that so publicly. I think I’ll stop now, lol!
February 9th, 2009 at 3:48 am
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