niche-site-screenshotA couple of weeks ago, I shared how I declined a five figure offer for the niche site I built from scratch publicly here on the blog, because I felt there was still a lot more room for growth, and possibly an even higher offer in the future.

The lovely thing about this particular niche (the security guard training niche), is that every single state in the US has a different set of rules and procedures for becoming a security guard. In addition, each state will obviously have different training facilities and companies that could benefit from high ranking pages on my site as well.

This made understanding what content to create almost automatic.

Before I hit #1 in Google, I had written about 15  articles that were just about security guard training in general, and then 11 state specific articles with their respective requirements, procedures and links, etc.

After those 26 posts were published, I stopped creating new content since I was super stoked about meeting my goal and I focused completely on monetization and optimizing Adsense ad placement.

Despite not creating any new content, my Adsense earnings were steadily climbing each month, as well as my traffic. Click to continue…

The Smart Passive Income Podcast

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In this session of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, my good friend Chris Ducker from Virtual Business Lifestyle joins us and shares his expertise and wisdom in the world of virtual assistants and outsourcing.

Hiring help for your online business, whether it’s just for one task you’d like to complete or on a more full-time basis, can definitely take your business to the next level and at the same time make your business a lot more passive and automated – as long as you know how to find the right help and work and communicate with your hired help in an efficient manner.

I’ve used sites like Elance and Odesk before to do a number of “one-off” projects, from designing WordPress themes to transcription work and even article writing, however recently I hired my first full time VA, a programmer who is designing a number of websites for me and clients of mine, and the experience so far has really blown me away.

Like you’ll hear me say in the podcast session with Chris, it’s like I’ve been able to clone myself and get twice as much done.

My only regret is that I wish I had hired someone to help me leverage my time sooner.

Click to continue…

Niche Site PLR QuestionsCurrently, I have 4 niche sites – my security guard training site from the niche site duel and 3 others that I have started since. All are on the first page of Google, however the security guard training site is definitely the most successful (see Friday’s post) – at least for now.

I want to do a lot more, but I know from my experience with these 4 niche sites that I just don’t have the time to write the content for anything new. And now, more than ever, the content really matters.

(Actually, content has always been important – we were just recently reminded of how important it is by Google’s latest Algorithm change)

So, I have a few options:

  1. Stop building niche sites, even though I have a list of 7 valuable keywords that all beautifully meet my keyword research criteria.
  2. Hire a ghostwriter / outsource content creation.
  3. Use PLR or “Private Label Rights” articles. Click to continue…

I have quite a bit of experience hiring help for my online businesses, but only on a project to project basis. iPhone applications, copywriting and web design are usually what I hire out for.

Lately, however, I’ve been incurring a lot of daily tasks in some of my businesses (mostly geared around the Niche Site Duel and other niche sites that I’m building) that I believe would be better suited for a full time VA. Working online for two years now, I know just how valuable my time is and where my time should be invested to give me the most return. Plus, I’d like to keep things as passive as possible, and utilizing a VA will help keep me from working during the beginning phases of some of these potential passive income streams. Tasks such as building a website and building backlinks, as much as I enjoy doing those things (I really do!), should probably be handed off to someone else.

For my niche site in the duel, I will continue to do things on my own as much as I possibly can.

As you may already know, last week my buddy Tyrone Shum hosted a free webinar where I basically asked him as many questions as possible about hiring a full time VA. Tyrone has a team of full time VAs working for him and also runs a very successful outsourcing training course.

The webinar was fantastic! He answered all of my questions in full detail, and we were even able to answer questions from many of you too.

The webinar session and audience Q&A are embedded for you below, and underneath each video you’ll see an outline of exactly what was covered:

Outsoucring Webinar (1 hour 10 minutes)

Download to Your Computer (Right-click > Save Target As) – 215MB

  • What are the benefits of working with a VA?
  • Where do you find good VA’s?
  • How do you actually “hire” a VA?
  • How do you know if a VA will be good for you or not?
  • Are contracts necessary and what does one look like?
  • What is the normal price for a VA?
  • Payments – how do they work? When do you pay and how?
  • How do you give your VA web access to your stuff? Is it safe?
  • What can you expect from your VA, and what can they expect from you?
  • How do you communicate with your VA?
  • Do VAs have their own software to do everything you need them to do?
  • How do you manage your VA, making sure they are doing everything you want them to do?
  • Special Trial Offer for Tyrone’s Course for SPI Readers Only

Public Q&A (28 minutes)

Download to Your Computer (Right-click > Save Target As) – 65MB

  • How would you outsource backlinking?
  • Full-time or contracting? Which one gives you the most bang for your buck?
  • Do they have article spinning software, and if not, do you have to purchase it for them?
  • How much time does a VA actually save you each day?
  • How much vacation time are you supposed to give your VAs?
  • What is a “recurring task” that you could give your VA?
  • Is there any kind of legal action you can take against a VA if they don’t play by the rules?
  • What business hours do you have your VAs work?
  • Is there liability insurance involved when hiring a VA through a parent company?
  • Do you prefer a female or male VA?
  • Can you search for specific skills from a VA, like eBook writing?
  • Would you rather have one person who can do 10 different jobs, or one person for each specific job?
  • Can they ever trick you into charging for more hours than they actually worked?
  • How does hiring a VA affect your taxes?
  • How much do you pay your VA per hour?
  • Do you ever have meetings with your VA?

As you can see, we covered a lot of info. I am still doing some more research, but I am planning to meet with some experts soon and I’ll definitely make sure to report back on what I find out.

A special thanks again to Tyrone Shum for taking the time to share his outsourcing expertise with us, and also for the trial offer for his outsourcing course which is only available to SPI readers for a limited time.

Feel free to leave any additional questions you may have in the comments section.

I’m off to Vegas for Blog World Expo, but I’ll post some updates and photos while I’m there. Cheers!

This is a guest post from Chris Ducker from VirtualBusinessLifestyle.com. Chris has quite an impressive resume, with 19 years in sales, marketing and PR. He’s a CEO of a total business outsourcing company with a staff of approximately 165 full-time employees. I’ve gotten to know Chris fairly well recently since our recent interview, and he’s got some really exciting stuff planned in regards to generating passive income streams and truly living a super-mobile lifestyle. Enjoy!

chris-virtualbusinesslifestyleAs someone that has been involved in the outsourcing industry for almost 10 years, I’ve seen it change a lot over that period of time. It used to be something only the big boys would get involved with, outsourcing scores of customer service and technical support staff over to countries such as India and the Philippines – but, it’s become a whole different animal in the last 3-5 years.

No longer is outsourcing, or utilizing virtual, offshore staff something just for the large companies and corporations of North America. Nowadays scores of entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized business owners from all around the world are catching up by working with virtual employees to be able to grow their businesses, or simply have one-off projects completed quickly and with cost saving benefits in mind, too! Click to continue…

Collective worksVirtual Assistants, or “VAs” for short, are helping people get more things done each and every day. If you’ve read the 4-Hour Work Week, then you know that Mr. Timothy Ferriss is a huge fan of using VAs for all of the clutter and “the things that I don’t want to waste my time doing in my life” type of stuff. Like many internet marketers and other lifestyle design artists, I’m sure he has several full-time VAs working for him at this very moment.

I, on the other hand, don’t have any full-time VAs. I only hire providers and pay them on a per project basis. I’ll tell you why in a second, but there’s one thing I need to address first. Click to continue…

internet-marketing-triple-threatIt doesn’t matter what industry or niche you’re in – different people prefer different ways of learning. If you can cater to each of these types of people, you will not only expand your customer base to those who wouldn’t normally purchase from you, but you’ll give those who would of purchased from you anyways the tempting option to send a little more cash your way.

There are three basic methods to learn new material: reading, listening, and watching. Keep in mind that particular order. While doing business online, we can cater to those who prefer each of these methods by creating eBooks, audio products, and video, respectively. Click to continue…

Decisions sign in the skyOn the Internet Business Mastery Podcast Blog, there’s an interesting debate going on, and it involves a little bit of what I do online. There are tons of very interesting comments and a lot of rage about the subject of outsourcing.

On one hand, online businesses outsource many tasks overseas because you really can’t beat the price. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had hired someone from the Philippines for $2.22/hour to do some web research for me. Hiring someone in the U.S. would cost me a lot more, and a lot of businesses rely on these low wages in order to succeed. In other words, many online businesses would not survive if it wasn’t for outsourcing.

On the other hand, outsourcing takes business and money away from within the U.S. Many people are losing jobs to people overseas who can do the same work for far less. Also, people are saying that paying someone $2/hour is just wrong and immoral. Click to continue…

outsourcing-projects-for-succeddIn Tim Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Work Week (aka, my 2nd Bible), he dedicates an entire section to VAs and the benefits of hiring virtual assistants to do almost any task for you. At first, I was reluctant to agree with the idea of outsourcing because I was always the one who wanted to do all of the work myself. But, after reading more about VAs and how they could help me, I soon realized the huge advantage I would have by making a VA a part of “my team”.

Now, understand that there are a lot of people out there who use VAs for almost everything they do. If there was a way a VA could cut up their steaks and feed it to them, they’d probably have them do that too. Tim gives an example of a man who asked his VA to “make up with his wife” after they had gotten into a little quarrel. The VA sent his wife an apology letter and some nice flowers. I think if I did that, my wife would be pissed…anyways, I digress. Click to continue…

In a previous post, I talked about how knowing and doing everything can be a major mistake for anyone working online. There’s absolutely no reason to waste time learning and doing things that other people can do for you in a shorter period of time, and probably with better results, no offense.

On elance.com, you’ll find thousands of specialists who will bid on any project that you may need help with. It kind of works like eBay. Click to continue…