H! I hope you all have enjoyed your holy week with your family and friends. I am writing this letter to addressed few concerns that has come to our attention. Please take time to read and understand this “friendly reminders”:

1. PROFILE COMPLETENESS
We have included in the “How Do I get a Job” section that users should complete their profile to impress employers. If you don’t want to provide your email address for fear of being spammed that’s fine, clients/ employers can contact you through the EO messaging. But at least provide enough information especially the “Worker Experience” section.

2. PROFESSIONALISM
Being professional is very important ( it means that we’re not “playing” and we are serious in getting a job ). So we would like to remind everyone, if you don’t want to use the default avatar please use an appropriate photo in your profile.

3. BE HONEST
Even if others are not;
Even if others will not;
Even if others cannot.”

I have also received some complaints from clients/ employers about EasyOutsource users/members applying to their job post and claiming to have the set of skills they are looking for but would found out later that its the opposite. We really don’t have to do this kind of act as this will put a negative mark on us as professional workers. We would like to stress out that there are clients/ employers who are willing to train workers after hiring them.
Let us all “be honest” and let our client/ employer know what we can and can’t do

4. THE FEEDBACK SECTION/ FLAG USERS AND JOBS AS INAPPROPRIATE
We, at the Administration board are very much aware of user/ member not being paid by clients/ employers as well as users receiving malicious job offer. Being ripped-off is really hard and devastating but we would like to remind you guys to please visit “The Feedback Section”( after sending an email to that certain client and to the Admins ) if you encounter any problems with a client, like not paying you, problems related to nature of work etc.
At the moment, the only method we have is to get user feedback about them ( the non-paying employers ) so we would really appreciate it if you can provide a feedback. This will also warn fellow EO worker/ member.

Let us put in mind though, that not all employers are like this. There are honest, genuine and professional employers/ clients here on EasyOutsource.

If you encounter any malicious job offer or job post you can also click the “Flag Users and Jobs as Inappropriate” flag icon and inform us.
To be sure, we can always refer to this links:

http://easyoutsource.com/blog/what-kind-of-work-should-you-outsource/

http://easyoutsource.com/blog/job-posting-rules/.

There, I think I’ve covered enough.
Thanks for reading

Paramae A.
EasyOutsource Manager

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.

Thanks for your patience.

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.

503: Service Temporarily Unavailable
Too many IP addresses accessing one secure area!
Please contact Support if you require assistance.

We use a member management plugin called s2member, and it was restricting access to users who had viewed the site from multiple IP addresses (several computers or networks). We deactivated the plugin last week so users could still log in. I re-enabled the plugin today and reset the “IP Restriction Logs” and everything should be working correctly now.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

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.

1. Upgrade to WordPress 3.1 and BuddyPress 1.2.5.

We upgraded the site to the newest versions of WordPress and BuddyPress. It took a significant amount of work to get the site ready to upgrade to the new version of BuddyPress, but it’s well worth it. This new version has many improvements and we’re now on the upgrade path to future updates as they come out. Later in the year you should expect improvements to privacy, search and messaging as these updates are rolled out in the “BuddyPress core.”

2. Favorites list replaces the Friends list.

We used to have a reciprocal friends list, much like Facebook. We came to the conclusion that this isn’t the ideal way to manage user connections on a job site, and so we removed it. Instead you will now see an “Add to Favorites” link on all user profiles, and if you click it the user will be added to your Favorites list. This is a private, one-way relationship. Users do not know they have been added to your list. The purpose is to let you build up a list of people to contact and refer back to whenever you want.

You can access your Favorites list (if you’ve added people) by clicking Hire Workers and then clicking the Favorites tab.

You can also see your Favorites in a new section in the right sidebar.

3. Improved sorting of workers and jobs.

We moved the search bar and categories to the top of the screen on the Hire Workers and Get an Online Job pages to make them easier to access. We added sort filters to these pages so you can easily sort by date added, recently active, etc. We also are now displaying the categories for each job in its description.

4. Improved job interaction

We redesigned the job admin area to make it easier to manage your applicants, and also to delete the job and update its settings. We also added an Activity page to each job showing all updates for that job. Any user can add a comment into this activity stream. We believe this feature will help to facilitate conversation around each job, and will let workers more easily determine if a job is still active.

Note: We are aware that there is a bug in the activity stream for jobs which is causing comments to occasionally display twice. We are currently working on a fix for this bug. Edit: This is now fixed.

5. Monthly Rate added

We added a new field for workers – Monthly Rate. This is now a required field so as people start updating their profiles you will see it displaying more and more often. Workers, please go ahead and update your profiles with your preferred monthly rate.

6. Complete cross-browser support

The old site experienced some display issues in certain browsers, particularly older versions of Internet Explorer (every web developer’s worst enemy!). This new design has been tested in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE6, IE7 and IE8 and found to be compatible with all of these browsers. If you discover any display issues please let us know.