By guest author Joanne Reyes, a worker on EasyOutsource. She worked as a writer and editor for a magazine, published in three languages (English, Filipino and Chinese), for 12 years. She also taught English and Journalism. She is currently an English online teacher and freelance writer.

Technology has made it possible for the East and West to work together even without leaving their own time zone. More and more foreigners are reaching quality Filipino workers to work for them at reasonable prices. So better opportunities are opening each day for Filipinos giving them the chance to work for foreign employers without having to leave their loved ones (like many overseas Filipino Workers or OFW’s).

But recently, I see many ads looking for Filipino workers who are efficient, reliable, and who will remain loyal to their employers. It made me realized that some workers do accept a job only to quit later on. What could be some of the possible reasons behind this? As a freelance writer, I’ve dealt with many different clients and writers already, and here are some of the things I learned that hopefully would help foreign clients when they work with Filipinos.

Make sure you hire the right one for the job. If you hire someone who is not fit for the job, he’ll most likely leave you as soon as he realizes that he cannot meet your requirements. Some people tend to make their profile look as if they know everything from web design to keyword research to article writing. But you have to understand how much they really know of these particular skills. Don’t be tempted into hiring someone who has all those skills as your virtual assistant unless you truly believe that he meets your requirements. I’ll give you an illustration.

I’ve met a certain “writer” online because she was advertising for a certain writing project for her “boss.” The ad caught my interest so I contacted her. When I asked her about the job specifications, she confessed to me that she actually applied for the job lying about her true writing skills. Her “boss” contacted her for the job and it was too late when she realized that she hated writing. So she advertised for someone to take on the job on her behalf because she couldn’t bear disappointing her very “kind” boss.

Be specific with your requirements. Some can read between the lines. Some cannot. So the more specific you are with your job requirements the more likely that you’ll be satisfied with your worker’s output.

It is through a lot of experiences dealing with different clients that I’ve learned that not all clients use the same “vocabulary.” SEO articles to one client may mean, using the keyword only in the title and in the first and last paragraph. To another client, it may mean using the keyword in every 100 words. Because there are no set rules in the internet, only guiding principles, some clients can choose which one to follow. So when you contact someone to do the job for you, be as specific as possible. Don’t just give him the keyword and then ask him to write a 500 word article with that keyword. Most likely, he’ll follow such a general instruction in a general way. So you end up writing an email giving him a more specific instruction. Why not write this kind of email to him on his first day of work to save both of you a lot of trouble?

Understand the Filipino culture. Most Filipinos highly regard their employers. They always want to give them good impressions by working really hard. And when asked to do something which they cannot do or something they cannot understand, they’re too ashamed to ask. Why? Because they don’t want to give you an impression that they’re not that witty. Asking questions (even if they’re just for clarification) might mean they’re not fit for the job. So the next time you ask your worker to do something for you, end your email with something like, “if you have any question concerning this task, please feel free to ask.”

Respond to their emails as promptly as possible. Most employers demand their workers to be always available for communication. It’s their right, no doubt about this. Working at home doesn’t give anyone the liberty to be away from his job the whole day and report to duty whenever he feels like it. Home based jobs should be treated in much the same way as traditional jobs—with a great sense of responsibility. Now on the side of the worker (although he might not tell you about this), he also wishes his employer to be always available whenever he needs him. If he sends you his finished job, for instance, he certainly hopes to receive your feedback at least within the day. Failing to do so might cause your worker to worry that you don’t like his job, or worse that you’re a scam. So on the onset of your work relationship, you have to make clear to him how often you can communicate with him. It would be great if you can set a time in a day or in a week to communicate with him or evaluate his job. Doing so can also strengthen your partnership, especially if you wish to keep him for good.

Pay them well. If you think you’ve got one of the best workers in town and you want to keep them, pay them their worth. Otherwise, these people might continually search for a more high-paying job and once they find it, they’ll leave without even saying goodbye to you.

Be kind to them. Some people (like the “writer” I mentioned earlier couldn’t leave their boss because he was too kind to her) hold on to the job because they’re fairly treated by their boss. Perhaps this is the most important rule to remember. Filipinos are very sensitive. Sometimes even a slight hint of impoliteness might scare them away. So please be kind to them. Even if you’re just communicating through emails, mind the tone of your writing to make sure that it would not gie your worker the impression that you’re being too “bossy.”

Working for employers from other countries doesn’t only give Filipinos the opportunity to enhance their skills and reach their maximum potential, it’s also a great way to learn many things about other cultures. Hopefully this kind of work relationship will benefit both the employers and the workers.

The following is a guest post from Julie Zare, Director of Client Services at DIYSEO.

SEO has proven to be the most cost effective way to increase traffic to a site, which was illustrated by a 2009 Marketing Sherpa study that showed an ROI of nearly 70 percent. Until recently, small businesses struggled with finding effective ways to increase site traffic due to a lack of resources. The investment of SEO consultants or enterprise software could not be justified with these high expenses.

Today, small businesses can generate successful returns on investment with a more cost effective solution. DIYSEO was developed as an affordable, web-based SEO service for small businesses. This Do-It-Yourself application was based on a 6-step list of best practices, which we call the Small Business SEO Six-Pack. These 6 basic steps fall into three categories: plan, act and measure. Small businesses that tackle the Six-Pack will find more results with a small amount of effort. Let’s get started!

1. Define Keyword Targets

Take your time here! To start choosing keywords, focus on your business’s core product or services. Consider how your target audience would search for them. Next, brainstorm several terms and review the competition in your target market. Ideal keywords should have high search volume and low competition, but this description is rarely found.

Instead, identify keywords with lower competition levels and pick phrases that are realistic targets but still yield enough search volume to pay dividends. Optimization for highly targeted keywords not only helps small businesses seek SEO success, but it ensures site visitors will more likely convert to paid customers.

2. Optimize Website Content for Target Keywords

After choosing your keywords, small businesses can begin to implement their SEO and consider the four principles of small business SEO: on-site optimization, link building, social media and local search.

Make sure you have control of your site’s content if you can. Updating site content with your chosen keywords will improve organic search results for your site. Primary and secondary keywords should be featured prominently on the homepage and specifically in the title tag of the home page.

3. Build Credibility with Inbound Links

Building high quality links and great content is an important tactic for SEO; it builds authority on search engines and helps with organic search rankings. Whether earning inbound links or creating unique content, small businesses should ask other trusted websites to link to their site. Tip: Very few (if any) shortcuts to link building exist; so if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

An effective tip to earn inbound links is create unique and useful site copy. Becoming an authority on a topic your small business deals with is essential for long-term link building. For example, a plumber starts a blog that features plumbing tips. The more high quality content you post to help visitors, the better chance another site owner will stumble upon it and link back to your site.

Listings in directories, both paid and un-paid, is another way to generate inbound links. High-quality directories that offer links to small businesses, such as Yahoo! Directory, require payment but also improve search ranking. Look for directories specifically related to your specialty. Find opportunities to gain free listings, such as current vendors or partners.

Another component of link building is anchor text, which is the clickable text displayed within a hyperlink. Directory sites feature the business name in anchor text and link to the site. Anchor text should include any of your keywords because engines crawl your page links.

4. Get Found Locally

Local customers often make or break small businesses. Several prominent websites list small businesses for free, and businesses should take advantage of this opportunity. The best local resources include Google Local Business Center, Yahoo! Local and Bing Local. Search engines show maps with local search results; we recommend claiming these free listings to increase the likelihood of inclusion in the map.

Small businesses can consider local indexed directories or review sites, such as Yelp and Yellowpages.com, which give small businesses the opportunity to piggyback on the success of others. You can also optimize site content to be found in local search results, such as adding a map, phone number, or business address.

5. Tap the Simplicity and Power of Social Media

As a rule of thumb, small businesses should create and leverage a presence on leading social networks to own the conversation around the business name or brand and engage with customers more directly.

Search engine results pages typically display 10 listings, and a small business site occupies only 1 of those results. Consider involvement on social media sites to “own” more real estate and links will eventually follow. By maintaining a branded presence on leading social media resources, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, you can collect and control other authoritative online resources. This participation increases a brand’s overall SEO success.

6. Measure Results and Adjust

Search engines take time to identify and index content from your SEO tactics. After applying SEO improvements, it takes about 2-3 months to find positive ranking momentum and a lift in traffic. Still, if you spend only 2 hours a month on SEO efforts, results will begin to appear.

Along the way, small businesses can track progress and adjust strategies, which will boost their SEO results and ensure efforts are on target. SEO is an ongoing process, and the most effective optimization efforts will gauge success on an ongoing basis. To track success, DIYSEO is a great resource for monitoring keyword rankings, competitors and inbound links.

For more information or to get a 7-day free trial to DIYSEO, visit the site or e-mail me at info@diyseo.com.

If you answered “yes” to any of the questions I posed above, then EasyHire might just be the service that you need.  With EasyHire, you just tell us the job opening you are hiring for, the kind of worker you are looking for, and the skill set you’d want them to have and we do the hiring for you.  We will choose workers that fit your requirements, give them tests, and interview them.  All  you do is sit back and wait a few days for us to choose the perfect online worker for you.

EasyHire is a very practical and affordable service.  At $350 for first time customers and $200 for repeat customers, the service is well worth it if it means that you don’t have to go through the hassles of the recruitment process that naturally goes with outsourcing.  Use EasyHire and experience outsourcing made easy!

To learn more about EasyHire, visit our EasyHire page.  Should you have questions, feel free to contact us.

By guest author Kathy Dobson, a free spirited Internet marketer with a passion for outsourcing… specifically outsourcing to the Philippines. Her blog “Dedicated to Freedom” is where she shares her thoughts, ideas and resources on the subject.

She is also the author of a new free report called “Empowered Outsourcing” which will educate anyone interested in learning to outsource their business or personal online tasks.

As a business owner, it matters not whether you hire online or offline there are certain traits/qualities that should always be considered before you hire your skilled worker. These can include…but are not exclusive to…

Intelligence: You want a creative thinker and problem solver
Integrity/honesty: These two go hand in hand.
Curiosity: Someone with a thirst to know and understand
Complimentary skills: Eliminate individual effort by hiring complimentary skill sets.
Enthusiasm: Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm…it is contagious…need I say more?

The above traits are all essential to the success of any business, but the explosion of online business owners as well as personal bloggers using outsourced online workers has presented us with new hiring challenges.

As an online blogger and business owner myself I’ve outsourced many projects as well as hiring permanent outsourced workers. Each time I learned something valuable about the online hiring process…(many of them hard learned lessons) and what you need to pay attention to if you choose to hire online.

The traits/qualities I look for when hiring an online worker:

• Availability: If you are hiring offshore you need to pay attention to the availability of your outsourced online worker. For example: I live in SW Florida and I’ve hired my outsourced workers from EasyOutsource and they all live in the Philippines. I am exactly 12 hours in time behind them so when it is daylight there…it is turning night here.  This is a double edged sword as it can be more difficult to connect because of the time differences…on the other hand, it allows your business to operate and move forward while you are sleeping Since everyone is in a different time zone, you must make the determination for yourself if this works for your business.
• Communication: This is extremely important to your business. If you cannot communicate properly with your online worker because of language differences you will move forward very slowly and waste a lot of valuable time. If you are paying by the hour…this obviously will impact how quickly your project gets completed and the cost to you.Communication can be in the form of written or spoken communication via channels such as Skype. I always interview my prospective candidates via Skype as it quickly reveals how easily it will be to communicate with this person. Some Filipino workers are a bit shy about their English language skills and prefer to type only. This can be acceptable if they are quick and accurate typists. Once again you must make the determination for your own business.Keep in mind that your online worker must have a microphone available if you are to verbally communicate. Not all of them do.
• Experience: Nothing replaces experience in the workplace. I try to avoid fresh college graduates…not that they are not qualified, but I prefer someone who has experience working online. You must also ask them for examples of any work that they have performed for others that may help you to determine their skill level in regards to the tasks you are hiring for. If they cannot supply you with any examples…then most likely they have no experience.There are so many valuable tools, scripts and software packages online that can help with your business. Finding someone who has been previously trained on an application you want to use can save time…which always equates to money.If you have a lot of time…you can hire fresh college graduates…but be aware that you will have to do more training if you do. The plus side to this is that generally those without much experience come cheaper.Most freelancers online keep a portfolio of their work so that potential clients can see firsthand what they have accomplished in the past.

• Promptness/Punctuality: How quickly have your online prospects returned your inquiry? Do they pay attention to their email and are they articulate when they respond? This can quickly reveal to you how serious they will be about your projects.
• Accuracy: If you have assigned them a project to test their skills, how accurately do they use the details you have provided for them? Details are the heart of any project, but in order to avoid wasting valuable time, it is imperative that your online worker is detail oriented and gets the details right the first time around. I believe this also reveals a lot about a person’s attention span.
• Age: I prefer hiring in the age group of 26 and above. There are many reasons for this, but the younger they are, the more uncertain they are about where they are headed. On the other hand, most people 26 and above have experienced enough of life situations to be emotionally mature and they are much more settled into their home lives.That’s not to imply that you cannot find quality workers under that age…if you are willing to risk the uncertainty and indecisiveness of the young.  ;)
• Self Motivation/Assertiveness…Since your virtual worker essentially works alone they must be self starters and self motivators.  There will be no one around to push them to get their work done. The best VA’s and outsourced workers are self-motivated go-getters.
• Organizational Skills…Your virtual worker must be willing to take the time and effort needed to stay extremely organized. Disorganization can cause major problems…leading to costly mistakes that could affect your business.
• Resourcefulness…Learning to be a vast resource of information (we are, after all working online…the information highway,) your online worker must be able to research and come up with information and any stats as needed.
• Work Station: It is imperative that you inquire about their tools. Do they have their own computer or do they have to share with family members? Do they have a quiet place in their home that they can work from? Is their Internet connection fast and strong? All of these need to be considered.
• Personality…Last but not least is personality. This may not be important to all business owners, but I find success comes easier if you enjoy the people you are working with. If you are an outsourced worker, don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through. This is what will get you personally connected to those who have hired you.

As well as looking for the qualities listed above, use your innate intuition and read between the lines. Search for people with lots of energy…energy that will be funneled into their work. Seek to understand what motivates them as well.

The Internet has changed the way we do business in the 21^st Century and with the ready availability of websites such as EasyOutsource, hiring outsourced online help is here to stay. Not only does this benefit the business owner, but it benefits the outsourced/home worker as well. It truly is a win-win situation.

We are very fortunate to be living in this day and age and have business advantages that were not available just a few short years ago. For those of you ready to take advantage of hiring online, understanding some of the complications that may arise ahead of time will help make your hiring process go smoother and be more productive.

However, not everyone who owns a website knows how to rank high at search engines.  To do that requires the knowledge and skills in SEO and more importantly, time.  You are lucky if you have both. But if you’re not a professional SEO and don’t have the time to learn the skills to become one, there’s a service called DIYSEO that might be useful to you.

DIYSEO is a service that seeks to help everyone who needs SEO but doesn’t have the budget to hire a professional agency, which can easily cost upwards of $1,000 per month. DIYSEO costs $49 per month.

What DIYSEO does is to provide simple, actionable steps that website owners and their employees can follow to perform SEO on their own sites. Each step in DIYSEO comes with a clear explanation of the reason for completing the step, a time estimate for completing the step, and instructions on how to complete it. Site owners can spend as little as one hour per week following the steps in DIYSEO, and over time can achieve some excellent optimization results.

DIYSEO helps you to:

• choose the right keywords to target for your site
• create a customized action plan
• walk through easy-to-complete tasks that will help your site’s visibility on search engines
• measure your site’s performance using tools within DIYSEO

At Cluster Interactive Group, we use DIYSEO to have our contractors perform basic SEO for our clients. All we have to do is give a contractor the login to DIYSEO, tell the contractor the name of the client site, and assign DIYSEO todo lists. With very little training and management effort on our side, we’re getting effective SEO done for our clients at a great cost.

You can visit their site to learn more about their services and sign up for a 7 day free trial.

Become fans of our facebook page or follow us on twitter to get updates on the latest job posts, featured worker, new site features, new blog posts, etc.

Don’t be left behind, know what’s new on EasyOutsource by connecting with us on facebook and twitter.

By guest author Kathy Dobson, a free spirited Internet marketer with a passion for outsourcing… specifically outsourcing to the Philippines.

Her blog “Dedicated to Freedom” is where she shares her thoughts, ideas and resources on the subject.

She is also the author of a new free report called “Empowered Outsourcing” which will educate anyone interested in learning to outsource their business or personal online tasks.

As an online entrepreneur you understand and appreciate how learning to outsource your many tasks is the key to achieving the freedom and success you so desperately seek. You have gone through all the trouble of searching, interviewing, testing and hiring your skilled outsourced workers. Gaining freedom and time is paramount to you.

You are also aware that your mind must be kept free and clear to continue the creative process and come up with ideas that will keep your business evolving on the high growth path. You understand the need to leverage your time and hire highly skilled workers to fast track your business to success as well as creating new businesses.

As you begin to implement your first business platform, the realization soon hits that you have more work on your plate than ever. Sure, you have found some highly skilled workers to complete the tasks required for your business to thrive, but now instead of having one person to manage (as in yourself) you have a team of workers eager to please, all waiting for direction from you.

But, you don’t have time and you don’t have freedom. You have simply traded doing the physical tasks of writing, scripting, coding, admin and whatever else your business requires for managing your new team of workers. You have compounded the problem.

There is a simple solution. The solution is to place a project manager to oversee the whole operation, be the delegator, see the projects through to completion and essentially take care of business for you.

Without a project manager in place you will be the one delegating tasks, scheduling meetings, reviewing work, assigning teams and basically doing all the time management. You will be more tied into your business than ever and the freedoms you were after will seem like a fleeting dream.

A great project manager is the key to making your whole operation work efficiently and effectively all the while allowing you to enjoy the freedoms and success that drove you to outsource in the first place. Productive project managers will review each day’s production plans and make sure everyone is clear about their duties and the scheduled milestones that need achieving. They become the “go to” person that your workers will report to when they have issues or problems that need to be dealt with.

Do you really have time to check that every step is completed properly and in a timely manner or answer every question that may come up?

Additionally, a project manager can utilize any tools that you have supplied and make sure they are used effectively.

A great project manager is your secret key to success, but it’s up to you to train them well, making sure they understand the goals of your business plan. You decide what is important for your production success and your project manager is the one that gets it implemented successfully, in a timely manner.

Keep in mind, the clearer your vision is in their minds the easier it will be for them to delegate properly and accomplish your objectives so take time to educate them.

Some of the most important qualities to look for when hiring a project manager are:

• Leadership. This is the most important skill of all. It takes strong leadership to organize, delegate and manage a team of workers.
• Good people skills. No matter how skilled your project manager is, if they do not have the ability to “connect” with your team of workers and motivate them, nothing will get done. They must have the ability to get cooperation and collaboration from the team as a whole.
• Excellent communication. If they can’t get their ideas across how will the team know what is expected? Furthermore, they must be able to relay this information to you in a concise and organized manner.
• Time management skills. Without proper use of time, you could be paying extra for project tasks that should and could be completed in a shorter duration of time. They must value time and know how to use it properly.
• Performance skills. Your project manager must be able to assess a team member’s performance. They must be able to answer the questions: is it on the scheduled timeframe and is it staying within budget? It is this leadership that will guide your team towards working together smoothly and efficiently to accomplish the objectives placed before them.
• Organizational skills. Good organizational skills can move your project forward efficiently and effectively. Organization is where it begins…get this right and you’re off and running….get it wrong and your business suffers from misinformation and confusion and may never get off the ground.

If you have multiple production processes that need completing, a team of skilled workers that need guidance and direction and you find yourself falling farther behind every day…you need a project manager. Realizing the importance of a project manager is the key to fast tracking your business to success, freeing up your mind to create, and enjoying your desired freedoms.

A business without a project manager is like a ship at sea that has lost its ability to navigate. It may know its destination, but not know how to get there. Confusion and misdirection quickly set in.  A business with a skilled project manager is a ship with radar that speeds efficiently and effectively towards its desired destination.

A skilled project manager will bring everything into a cohesive whole and get it running smoothly. They are essentially the heartbeat of your operations.

Remember, if your mind is tied up managing your business then it is not free to create new ideas to grow your business.

Having a highly skilled project manager in place allows you to become the entrepreneur you set out to be, constantly nourishing your businesses with new ideas for growth, expansion and continued success. Isn’t that what you envisioned in the first place?

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However, for some, they don’t know where to start.  You may have heard of outsourcing, are very interested in outsourcing, could potentially benefit from outsourcing, but don’t exactly know what to outsource.

If you find yourself wondering what to outsource, read on to find a list of things that you can easily delegate to an online freelancer.

• Data Entry – Data entry is simple copy & paste work.  Maybe you have some data you would want to organize in a spreadsheet and never found the time to; or you want to harvest some information from a website, like the yellow pages.  This kind of work is tedious and time consuming.  You can easily outsource this kind of work as it doesn’t take much to be able to perform the task successfully.  Just give your contractor instructions on what you want done and they can very well do it for you.
  Example: organizing in an excel spreadsheet the location, contact information, website, etc. of accountants in your area.
  
• Research – Have you ever wanted to know who your competitors are in your niche or would want to know who you can market your product to?  You can hire someone to do these jobs for you.  Information that can be found in the net can be researched and organized by an online freelancer.
  Example: Research and organize information about people in your college class as potential market and invitees to your product launch
  
• Article writing – Do you have a blog or several blogs but can’t find the time to update all of them?  Or maybe you have long wanted to write an ebook about your niche?  Hire a freelancer to ghost write for you.  There are a lot of freelancers out there who are brilliant writers and who are willing to offer you their services.  Truth be told, a lot of bloggers don’t even write the majority of their articles personally, but actually pay freelancers to write for them.
  Example: Blog Article
  
• SEO – Making your website rank on the first page of search engines can be time-consuming work.  This task can easily be outsourced to freelancers.  There are freelancers who are very experienced in SEO work and may be able to do a better job than you.  Of course, you can hire a company to do your SEO, but you can also hire an individual and spend less than when hiring a company.
  Example:

• Link Building – Link building is another way to increase your website ranking on search engines.  You can hire someone to visit link directories and submit your website.  You can even ask them to visit similar and complimentary sites and negotiate a link exchange. This is a very easy task but a very tedious one.  Hiring a freelancer to do this will free you of having to do this on your own.
  Example:
  
• Customer Service – If your business involves customers, you may need the assistance of a customer service representative.  When you are still starting out, you may be able to handle customer support on your own, but time will come when you can no longer do so.  Even if customer service related issues are few, wouldn’t you rather do something better with your time than handling these things yourself?  This type of work is one that can be outsourced.  Just give your contractor some training on the background and workings of your business and they can handle customer service for you.
  Example:
• Virtual / Personal Assistant – If you feel you need an assistant to help you with your daily grind, you may want to hire one online.  Virtual assistants are one of the most sought after freelancers.  They can help you do what you normally do yourself.  They can sort your emails, set appointments, update your personal and work calendars, etc.  Virtual assistants are jacks/jills of all trade.  Just make sure you make a defined job description at the beginning of your working relationship and outline the scope of the work that you are to delegate to him/her.
• Website Management – You can hire a freelancer to manage and maintain your website.  They can write content, approve comments, moderate members, check your forums for inappropriate content, etc.  Basically, they can make your website run like a well-oiled machine.
• Web Design –  If you want a website designed, you can hire web designers online.  Even if you are a web designer yourself, you can delegate some or all of your work to a hired freelancer who does web design.
• Web Programming – Want to build a website?  You may need the services of a web programmer.  There are a lot of programmers you can find online, for whatever programming language you want to use for your website. A freelance web programmer is a lot cheaper than a web programming company, which may charge you thousands of dollars to make a website.

The above list are only some of the work you can outsource to freelancers in the Philippines.  If you can give detailed instructions for the work you want done, or create a video to demonstrate it, chances are you can find a freelancer to do the work for you.

We check the forums everyday for new posts that may require our answer or attention.  See you there!

This scenario is very familiar and most definitely annoying, if you are subject to such behavior from a hired worker.  I am a Filipino online worker myself and am highly against this disappearing act from my fellow freelancers.  But oddly enough, this is commonplace and happens to even the best of them, so don’t take it personally.

Let’s discuss this eccentric behavior and try to solve the mystery of the disappearing freelancer.  First, let’s discuss common Filipino traits that are mostly the reason behind such disappearances:

• Most Filipinos are, by nature, non-confrontational. If faced with a situation where they are required to speak their minds out, they’d rather suck it up, keep their mouth shut, and just walk out on you and deal with their frustration on their own.  I am not saying everyone from our country is like this.  There are also those who are very vocal.
  Why are Filipinos like this?  We have been raised since childhood to respect elders and people of authority.  Not bad, right?  However, this value has been distorted by some such that you are considered ill-mannered if you so much as reason or speak your mind out, even if you are in the right or even if you do it in a respectful manner.
• Some Filipinos are unreasonably shy. Shy, bashful, sheepish, abashed, reserved.  Call it whatever you want, a lot of Filipinos are that way.
• Filipinos are extremely hardworking. To earn enough to have a comfortable life, Filipinos are willing to work more than one job to achieve their target or desired monthly income. Some overdo it to a point that they can no longer handle multiple jobs effectively.
• Filipino family ties are very strong and Filipino families are overly extended. Filipinos will do anything for family.  If there are family emergencies or someone from their family needs help, they will willingly drop anything to offer their help, never mind that the person who needs help is a second cousin, a long-estranged aunt, or a distant relative.

Now, here are some situations that may trigger a disappearing act:

• They did not understand your instructions and would rather disappear than admit they did not understand or ask for a clarification.
• They missed the deadline you set and are afraid you might get mad.  So rather than submit a late output, they won’t submit anything at all, afraid of the impending confrontation.
• Something happened that made them unable to perform a task – a power outage, no internet connection- and rather than submit an overdue project, they’ll just simply disappear.
• They were faced with a difficult situation and didn’t have the time or the means to inform you of such.

So, as an employer, what can you do to prevent your hired contractor from disappearing?

• Assure them that you are a reasonable and approachable person.  If they feel that you are not overly strict and they can ask you questions without being reprimanded, they will not hesitate to do so.  Let them know that you are willing to offer explanations and your help should there be any confusion about the project.
• If they miss a deadline, ask them if there is something wrong or if they are in a situation that caused them to miss it.  Most freelancers just need a nudge to give them courage to speak up.  Asking them a question will prompt them to give you an honest answer, most of the time.
• Let them know that you will understand should they find themselves in a situation that would require them to take some time off from work.

While the above advice is not 100% foolproof that your contractor won’t flake out on you, it will significantly lessen the chance of their doing so.

I hope I have helped you solve the mystery of the disappearing freelancer and hopefully you won’t be running into another one in the future.