VAnetworking

Posted by Mica Harvey / Education, Virtual Assistant Resources

VAnetworking is one of the largest global networking platforms for virtual assistants to connect with each other and utilize resources to help them improve their businesses and find more opportunities.

On the client side, VAnetworking accepts job postings from businesses and allows their paid members to respond.

The company has been in business since 2003, and is based in British Columbia, Canada.

About VAnetworking

VAnetworking was founded by Tawnya Sutherland. As a virtual assistant herself in the early days of the industry, she couldn’t find a support network.

So as you might have guessed, she set out to build it that support network.

She started a forum for virtual assistants and as it gained momentum she started VAnetworking.

VAnetworking now has more than 30,000 members worldwide and has become one of the largest online resources for VAs to get their businesses up and running.

The company specializes in giving virtual assistants resources to help them find more work and improve their businesses.

They also work with clients looking for VAs helping them find the right assistants and offering resources to help them learn about working with VAs.

VAnetworking Services

VAnetworking is primarily focused on providing everything a VA needs to start and run their business. They have a system and a certification program VAs can work through — for what it’s worth — as well as various training resources, mentoring groups, and a forum where VAs can meet and talk with one another.

They offer a lot of free resources and a free membership that opens up access to their forums and some training materials.

Their paid memberships open up access to job boards, network groups, and more training tools.

But with such a broad network of VAs, it’s only natural that VAnetworking offer something for prospective clients too. If you’re looking to hire, you can post a job for free, and they’ll try and match you with the best suited VA.

Some of the skills listed include:

  • General Administrative
  • Web Design
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Real Estate

The company offers support and training for clients to ensure they are getting the most from their working relationships with VAs.

(Tawnya also sells a $97 ebook series on finding the ultimate VA for your business.)

VAnetworking Plans and Pricing

On the VA side, VAnetworking has 3 different membership options:

  1. Free Membership – This gives you access to networking forums, video training courses, ebooks, checklists, and other resources.
  2. VA Insiders Club – $333 per year. This gives you access to a job board, monthly group coaching, webinars, training tools, a brainstorming network, and some other resources.
  3. VA Career – $997 per year. This gives you access to everything above, plus a startup system to help you get your business up and running in 30 days. Members also get access to online training tools, and website hosting.

For clients, your Request for Proposal is free to submit, and your job will be posted to VAnetworking’s VAinsider’s job board. Prospective VAs will reach out to you directly via email if they feel they’re a fit for your role.

Keep in mind that the company caters primarily to higher-end North American VAs. That means when budgeting for your job, think in the range of $25/hour and up.

But because the company is charging the VAs, you don’t pay any ongoing markup on your hire’s hours once they start working for you.

Since it’s free it doesn’t hurt to post your job and see what kind of responses you get.

VAnetworking Alternatives

For US-based freelance virtual assistants sourced in a similar vein, check out HireMyMom or Gina Horkey’s Virtual Assistant Finder service.

If your budget is a little lower, you might consider a service like FreeeUp, where you still have some vetting done by the platform but can reach a global (and potentially more affordable) talent pool.

And if you want someone else to really do the most of the hiring work for you — and the benefits of working through a VA company — there’s always well-rated options like Time Etc.

Your Turn

Have you worked with VAnetworking? If so, please take a moment to leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Read More

Virtudesk

Posted by Mica Harvey / Philippines Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

Virtudesk is a virtual assistant company based in Washington state. The business was founded in 2016 and their assistants specialize in real estate prospecting, marketing, and administrative tasks.

Their company tagline says it best: “We manage the small tasks so you can focus on what’s most important.”

About Virtudesk

The company’s assistants are home-based across the globe, with most of them working out of the Philippines.

The company is run by Pavel Stepanov, CEO, Fatima Patricia Pablo, Operations Manager, and Roan Kris Yboal, Client Relations Manager.

VirtuDesk provides virtual assistants to entrepreneurs, professionals, business owners, investors, brokers, and agents, in the real estate industry. They specialize in admin support, marketing, prospecting, and transaction coordination.

When you sign up with Virtudesk you’ll be assigned a dedicated assistant based on your requirements. It’s then up to you to communicate what you need done and build on the relationship.

Services

VirtuDesk’s assistants can carry out any remote tasks, but they group their services into 4 areas of specialization to give you an idea of how to best utilize their skills:

  1. Prospecting and Lead Nurturing – Their assistants are trained as internal sales agents. They will manage, organize, and nurture your leads.
  2. Administrative and Office Support – They will manage your calendar, do data entry, and any general admin tasks.
  3. Marketing and Public Relations – They will manage your social media accounts, write blog posts, carry out SEO tasks, website management and more.
  4. Real Estate Transaction Coordination – Their assistants are trained to oversee all aspects of buyer and seller transactions.

If you have a steady stream of work in any of the areas their assistants specialize in, it’s a good opportunity to get a running start instead of training a new assistant from the ground up yourself — as you may have to with a more general VA company.

I recommend contacting a member of their team and seeing how their skill sets line up against the type of tasks you’re looking to outsource.

Plans and Pricing

Virtudesk have 4 different plans depending on the services you want, and each comes with separate part-time and full-time hourly rates.

All of their plans require a $350 setup fee and 3-month minimum lock-in period.

A complete list of their plans are as follows:

Administrative Assistant

  • Full-time $8.60 per hour; $1,376 per month
  • Part-time $9.60 per hour; $768 per month

Marketing Assistant

  • Full-time $8.60 per hour; $1,376 per month
  • Part-time $9.60 per hour; $768 per month

Transaction Coordinator

  • Full-time $10.00 per hour; $1,600 per month
  • Part-time $11.25 per hour; $900 per month

Prospecting Assistant

  • Full-time $9.60 per hour; $1,536 per month
  • Part-time $10.75 per hour; $860  per month

Virtudesk is also happy to put together a custom package if none of the above meet your requirements.

VirtuDesk Alternatives

There are plenty of options if you’re looking for other virtual assistant companies using staff in the Philippines.

OnlineJobs.ph and Task Bullet offer very competitive rates and a good deal of positive feedback, so I recommend checking them out for comparable quotes.

Closer to home, I know Uassist.ME (El Salvador) works with lots of real estate industry clients as well.

Your Turn

Have you worked with VirtuDesk? If so, please take a moment to leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Read More

Deluxe Logo Design

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

I was surprised to learn that Deluxe has been in business since 1915 — 100 years! They started back in the day making checkbook holders and are still one of the leaders in check production today.

Naturally, the business evolved to include small business support services, including graphic design. The logo design arm (formerly known as LogoMojo) got its start in 1992 and the company has served more than 50,000 logo design clients since then.

About Deluxe

deluxe logo design reviewWhile the specific deliverable many small businesses are after is an attractive logo, Deluxe can also help with developing your organization’s brand identity through marketing, search engine optimization, social media development and website design.

They target small businesses that want an affordable logo with more options and attention to your overall brand than a cheaper service (like Fiverr). Check some of the portfolio samples in the video below to get an idea of what they can create.

How it Works

To get started, you’ll complete a short design brief. If you’ve never done one of these before, it’s a pretty fun exercise. You go through a series of questions about your personal style and your business’ “personality.”

In the case of Deluxe, they’ll ask you what other types of logos you like, what colors you like or are thinking of using in your business, any images you want included (or excluded), where you might use the logo, and some information about your company like who you serve and what sets you apart in the market.

After that, Deluxe will assign a handful of designers (number based on what package you select) from their Charlotte, North Carolina-based team who are the best fit for your project, and they’ll get to work in producing design concepts for you to review.

Deluxe Logo Samples and Intro Video

Plans and Pricing

Deluxe offers 5-tiers of logo design pricing, starting at just $99. At that price point, you’ll get a couple different design concepts from a single designer.

Higher tiers add more logo concepts and input from more designers.

From there, you can ask for a revision or two if the design concept is close but not quite where you want it.

Limited Time VAA exclusive: Get 10% off any logo design package through this link!

The mid-tier Silver package is $395 and bumps you up to 4 designers and 6 logo design concepts. Plus they’ll throw in a black and white version of your vector file.

And at the top-end, Deluxe has their gold package with 8 designers and 10 design concepts. The big value add-ons here are the fonts and color codes, which are really helpful in making your website look like a coherent extension of your brand.

VAA Exclusive: Get $100 off a Gold design package with promo code 100OFFGOLDLOGO. 

Each package comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, in which you can request a redesign from new designers or a full refund if none of the concepts are acceptable.

Logo Design Alternatives

Deluxe operates in this unique middle ground between the fully crowdsourced logo services like 99designs and CrowdSPRING, and the straight 1-person freelance shops you’ll find on Fiverr or Upwork.

I definitely like the idea of having multiple people contributing multiple concepts, and the Bronze package is less expensive than the lowest option at 99designs.

Have you ever had a logo designed by Deluxe? What did you think? Please feel free to leave a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

Read More

VoiceNation

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Receptionist Services

VoiceNation is a virtual telephone answering and messaging service provider for businesses looking for a cost-effective solution to handling high call volume.

The company has been operating since 2003, and all of their team members are based in their offices located in Buford, GA.

About VoiceNation

The company is run by Jay Reeder and Graham Taylor, and their target customers are businesses with high call volumes such as real estate and specialty marketing groups.

They specialize in virtual PBX with multiple mailboxes and extensions, have local or toll-free number availability, provide digital voicemail and fax-to-emails, live call answering, take and pass on messages, and other virtual call answering tasks.

Their receptionists are available 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays, so you never need miss a call, or a sale again.

Voice Nation use proprietary communication technology that can be adapted to you and your business needs and provide custom usage reports to help you track how many minutes you’ve used, call numbers, and more.

When you sign up with VoiceNation a team of phone operators are assigned to answer your calls around the clock or for the hours you’ve specified.

This means you have cover in place to ensure you don’t miss any calls, and at a fraction of the price it would cost to hire employees to do the same thing.

Services

Voice Nation’s team of virtual receptionists will handle all of your telecommunication needs. They provide 24/7 coverage for call answering, instant activation, call forwarding, and more.

With their online dashboard, you can manage your on-call schedule, easily make changes to suit your schedule, and view reports for billable time and minutes used.

There is an app too, so you can keep up-to-date and make changes to your plan on your smartphone quickly and easily.

Plans and Pricing

VoiceNation offer a 7-day free trial if you’re interested in their services but want to try before you buy.

They offer six different pricing plans ranging from $59-$849 per month as follows:

  • Quickstart – 0 minutes for $59 per month.
  • Business – 75 minutes for $99 per month.
  • Pro – 125 minutes for $149 per month.
  • Platinum – 250 minutes for $249 per month.
  • Executive – 500 minutes for $449 per month.
  • Enterprise – 1,000 minutes for $849 per month.

There is also a one-time $75 setup fee for any plan.

They also offer plans for messaging only, and can build custom plans if none of the above plans meet your requirements.

VoiceNation Alternatives

Gabbyville and Vicky Virtual are two of the most well-known virtual receptionist companies in the space to also check out.

Voice Nation have the lowest cost per minute rates if price is a starting point for you. They all offer free trials though, so it might make sense to test a couple on your short list before signing up for any long-term commitment.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Voice Nation? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Read More

Brandmark

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

Brandmark is a logo design company that uses AI technology to generate logos based on some color and design specifications from you.

They are one of the newer AI-powered logo design companies in the space starting operations in August, 2017, and are based in Vancouver, Canada.

About Brandmark

The company was founded by Jack Qiao, an electrical systems engineer turned web developer. Jack has developed a suite of AI-powered design tools, with the Brandmark logo maker being one of his tools.

Brandmark said their target customers are small business owners looking to re-brand, new online businesses, and bloggers with a need for affordable logo designs.

The advantages of using an AI-powered logo design service is the speed in which you can produce logos (literally within 1-2 minutes), and the lower price point due to no human manpower being involved.

Brandmark do have some in-house logo designers on hand to help if you purchase their Enterprise package however, and a customer service team ready to handle any questions.

Services

There are just a few quick and easy steps to follow and you will be flicking through finished designs in a matter of minutes.

  • Step 1 – Type in your business name and tagline (optional).
  • Step 2 – Type in some brand keywords (this helps the AI select some relevant images and fonts).
  • Step 3 – Choose a color style from the 4 options provided.

That’s all there is to it.

You will then be shown a number of different logos. You’ll see there are various fonts and colors used, some will have small images, and there will be dozens of combinations and crossovers.

You can click on any of the designs and change either the font or the colors before deciding too, so you have a lot of control over the finished logo.

Plans and Pricing

You can practice generating logos as much as you like for free. So, you can design, tweak your color choices and layout, and change the images etc without having to commit to paying, or even signing up for an account.

You only pay for your logos when you’re 100% happy with the design. Then there are three different pricing options to choose from:

  • Basic – $25, you can download a PNG file of your logo.
  • Designer – $65, you can download a PNG file, print-quality vector, business card designs, letterhead designs, Facebook cover designs, social media icons and app icons, and make additional changes at any time.
  • Enterprise – $175, you can download a PNG file, print-quality vector, business card designs, letterhead designs, Facebook cover designs, social media icons and app icons, make additional changes at any time, and you have access to 10 design concepts from Brandmark’s in-house logo design team.

After making a purchase you then have access to their online brand asset studio where you can continue to customize your designs for other uses such as social media platforms.

Brandmark Alternatives

Another company operating on a very similar business model and pricing structure worth checking out is Looka. Seeing as both Looka and Brandmark let you design your logos for free before choosing it makes sense to try both platforms.

Brandmark say they have the edge over their competitors by providing better, and more unique logo designs. As well as priding themselves on having excellent customer service.

If you can’t find a logo you’re happy with from AI-powered design platforms like these I recommend trying Fiverr for an inexpensive option and access to hundreds of logo design gigs, or 99designs where you will receive designs from several different designers to choose from.

Your Turn

Have you created and purchased any logos from Brandmark? If so, please leave a brief review to help others with their decision.

Read More

Fyxer

Posted by Mica Harvey / UK/Europe Virtual Assistants

FYXER is a UK-based virtual assistant company. They have been in business since 2014 and provide experienced remote virtual assistants to small and medium size businesses.

Their assistants are based in the UK (and maybe in the US soon) and offer a wide range of services to help business owners free up more of their time.

About FYXER

The company was founded by Richard Hollingsworth. They employ virtual assistants in the UK and offer a bespoke service aiming to find an assistant, or a team of assistants to work with you and your business based on your individual requirements.

FYXER say their assistants are, “The key to unlocking executives’ potential.” They have a 3-month working period with new clients in which they strive to “give you back 20% of your day, every day.”

They call their virtual assistants “Fyxers”. FYXER say all their fyxers are carefully screened and matched the needs of their clients according to their requirements.

There are no fixed plans or profiles of assistants to browse with FYXER. If you’re interested in learning more about how they can help you and your business, you need to schedule a consultation.

Services

FYXER group the services their assistants commonly carry out into the following categories:

  • Managing diaries
  • Scheduling meetings
  • Planning events
  • Managing social media
  • Proofreading and writing
  • Travel arrangements
  • Conducting research

FYXER also say that their assistants can undertake occasional physical roles if applicable. Such as queuing at the passport office or welcoming guests to an annual meeting.

This opens up some interesting opportunities that are not available when using staff based overseas. If you have any physical tasks you want help with you can discuss these with your assistant.

Plans and Pricing

FYXER do not currently have any fixed plans or pricing. If you’re interested in hiring one of their fyxers you need to fill out a form for a free consultation.

A member of their team will contact you and after a consultation to access your requirements they will advise you when they will have a suitable fyxer available and the cost.

According to some user accounts, pricing is in the $45 an hour range (roughly 32£ plus or minus depending on the exchange rate) for 20-40 hour per month packages. Lower rates may be available if you pre-pay by the quarter or for six months, or for full-time virtual assistance.

FYXER Alternatives

The two main players in the UK market are Time ETC and Boldly.

Both of these companies are well reviewed and offer a menu of pricing packages and services upfront if that’s what you’re looking for.

Your Turn

Have you worked with FYXER? If so, please leave a short review below to help others with their decision.

Read More

Hello Rache

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies

Hello Rache is a live virtual assistant and transcription service for medical professionals. They have a team of HIPAA-certified assistants trained and experienced in the medical field waiting take some of your workload off your hands.

The company started operations in 2017. Their headquarters is in the US, and all of their healthcare virtual assistants are in the Philippines.

About Hello Rache

The company was founded by Mark Carnett, D.O. Dr Carnett has his own medical practice in Arizona, and after using the services of virtual assistants to help manage his workload for the last three years he decided to start the business to help other medical professionals.

When you sign up with Hello Rache you will be assigned a virtual assistant after discussing your requirements.

You can start a live feed with your assistant via tablet, mobile device, laptop, or any streaming device and literally take them with you as you do your rounds, see patients, work in your office, and so on.

The assistant will be on-hand to watch and listen as you interact with your patients. They can update live charts, transcribe if needed, and carry out any other tasks that can be completed remotely.

Services

Their services are broken down into three main categories:

  1. Virtual Scribe – Your assistant will accompany you in the examination room and complete your notes for you while you’re working with your patients.
  2. Administrative Services – You can task your assistant to handle your emails, faxes, refill prescriptions, phone calls, or any other admin tasks that will help free up more of your time.
  3. Medical Transcription – All their assistants have been trained in a medical profession. They understand medical jargon, are familiar with transcription software, and will transcribe medical notes.

If you have other tasks that can be completed remotely you can discuss these with your assistant.

Plans and Pricing

The pricing structure at Hello Rache couldn’t be any simpler, you pay a fixed rate of $9 per hour. That’s it, no hidden costs, no extras, just a flat hourly rate.

There are no fixed contracts and you’re not tied into any usage packages either, you just pay for the hours you use.

Hello Rache Alternatives

Another company offering similar pricing and specializing in supporting medical professionals is Xilium. They also use staff based in the Philippines and can handle all the day-to-day tasks of a medical professional.

What separates Hello Rache apart from other companies in the same space is that they specialize only in the medical field, and you’re able to take a live assistant with you as you go about your work.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Hello Rache? If so, please leave a brief review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

Read More

Gabbyville

Posted by Mica Harvey / US Virtual Assistants, Virtual Receptionist Services

 

GabbyVille is a virtual receptionist service provider based in Nashville, TN. The company was founded in 2013 when a business owner realized his software product sales were suffering because clients were always getting voice mail instead of a live person when they called her.

Virtual Assistant Assistant Exclusive: Mention referral code VAA1 when you sign up to get:

  • a 10% discount off the first month
  • your 7th Month Free
  • one free month every calendar year for a lifetime subscription

About Gabbyville

Gabbyville live virtual receptionists answer your business phones using your preferred customized call greeting, take detailed messages, initiate conference calls, and ensure you get the messages you need so that your clients never feel neglected or forgotten.

Employees work either out of the company’s call center office in Nashville or out of their own home offices. Regardless of their physical location, all virtual receptionists use T1 VoIP phone lines and noise-canceling technology to deliver the highest quality service.

You can forward your existing business line to Gabbyville, and your receptionist will have all the necessary information about your company and scripts/procedures to follow automatically on their screen.

Gabbyville’s Services

Gabbyville’s services are intended for all types of businesses who don’t have the budget or manpower to bring phone support in-house.

From lawyers to chiropractors, accountants and CPAs, physician’s offices, mechanic’s shops, cleaning companies, and much more, their cheerful receptionists can help any business by providing the services of a receptionist at a fraction of the price it would cost to have one in the office at all times.

Gabbyville is HIPAA compliant and on-call 14-hours a day. They make every effort to understand your business and follow your script/guidelines and standard “if/then” logic when handling calls.

All service packages include the following features:

  • A bundle of monthly reception minutes.
  • Voicemail with email notifications.
  • Appointment reminders for you, as well as your clients to remind them of upcoming appointments.
  • Toll-Free or local number included (or forward your existing number).
  • Live call transferring (Talk time is unlimited after a call has been transferred to you.) While the call is being transferred, your clients will hear the hold music of your choice. You will also know who is on the line before you answer.
  • Return personal and business calls on your behalf, including booking appointments, booking services, and finding and purchasing gifts.
  • Text message notifications.
  • Custom IVR prompts for business and after hours.
  • Online Scheduling (not included in the Basic plan).
  • 24 Live Chat and 24/7 Available soon!

“We’re not telemarketers,” my contact explained, “but we can make outbound calls on your behalf.” That may mean tasks like following up with leads and setting appointments.

Gabbyville’s Plans and Pricing

GabbyVille is currently offering a 7-day free trial or 20 unlimited phone calls; whichever comes first for anyone interested in trying their services. After the Free Trial, there is a $99 setup charge on both STARTER & BASIC plans only.

Virtual Assistant Assistant Exclusive: Mention referral code VAA1 when you sign up to get:

  • a 10% discount off the first month
  • your 7th Month Free
  • one free month every calendar year for a lifetime subscription

They offer four different pricing tiers:

  • Starter: 100 minutes for $229 per month
  • Basic: 250 minutes for $429 per month (this is the most popular)
  • Premium: 600 minutes for $799 per month
  • Executive: 1000 minutes for $1169 per month

Larger plans can also be arranged by contacting Gabbyville directly and of course, you can upgrade or downgrade at any time should your needs change.

Virtual Assistant Assistant Exclusive: Mention referral code VAA1 when you sign up to get:

  • a 10% discount off the first month
  • your 7th Month Free
  • one free month every calendar year for a lifetime subscription

GabbyVille Alternatives

Some of GabbyVille’s biggest competitors include Ruby Receptionists, Davinci Virtual Office Solutions, and Vicky Virtual.

At the time of their launch in 2013, GabbyVille knew they would need to do something to set themselves apart from the competition in a crowded field. With an aim to provide the best customer service in the industry, the creators of GabbyVille focused their search for employees on individuals who have the talent needed to speak while making their voice smile.

Referred to as “gabbonistas,” the receptionists treat your business as if it were their own to ensure they always make a fabulous first impression on your clients. To ensure that the gabbonistas stay on top of their game, GabbyVille offers frequent customer service training seminars.

GabbyVille also stands out by allowing potential clients to try out their services for an entire week to be certain they offer everything the client could possibly need.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Gabbyville? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their search.

Read More

BlogMutt

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services

BlogMutt is a content creation service offering monthly subscription plans based in Colorado, US.

The company was founded in 2011 and aims to provide businesses and agencies with as many articles as they request each month.

About BlogMutt

The company was founded by CEO Steve Pockross. Steve has more than 20 years industry experience working with businesses of all sizes from startups to Fortune 500s.

Blog Mutt hires writers in the US, and put each new writer through a test to ensure their grammar and writing skills are up to scratch. I thought the profile displays of some of their writers on their site was a nice touch.

Blogmutt’s target customers are individuals and businesses of all sizes. If you don’t have the time, resources, or expertise to write the kind of content you need for your business, Blogmutt’s team of skilled writers do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-1GvPQKbY0

Services

BlogMutt provides custom content starting at 250 words per article. They can also include 1-2 images per post at an additional charge.

When you sign up with BlogMutt you will have a consultation with a member of their team to discuss your business and content needs.

You then put in requests based around keywords and any other information you have and their writers will submit content to your queue and wait for you to either accept, reject, or request edits to the posts.

You can elect to work with the same writer if you like a certain style of writing, or continue to review articles and select the ones you want each month from their pool of writers.

This is where BlogMutt differs from a lot of the other content writing services. You get to choose which articles you pay for, giving you some extra choice and putting added emphasis on the writers to do their best so their work gets picked up.

Plans and Pricing

Pricing varies depending on the number of words you order in your content. You have to sign up for a monthly subscription and commit to ordering four or more articles.

The smallest blog post you can order is 250+ words for $29.95, and the largest is 1,200+ words for $179.95.

So, your minimum spend will be $119.80 for four 250 word articles. You can tweak the word count and number of articles to meet your budget and requirements each month.

Blogmutt also offers an Agency subscription plan. With this plan you can add as many clients as you want and order anywhere from 1-99 posts each month per client.

There is a 10% discount when you add 2 clients, and the option to receive royalty-free images with your blog posts for an extra $9.95.

All of their plans can be cancelled at any time, there are no contracts or hidden fees.

BlogMutt Alternatives

Copywriter Today is another subscription-based content creation company and has a good deal of positive feedback.

If you don’t want to commit to a monthly plan you can use HireWriters or iWriter to request individual articles as and when you need them.

Your Turn

Have you worked with BlogMutt? If so, please take a moment to leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Read More

Wonder

Posted by Mica Harvey / Dedicated Virtual Assistants

Wonder is an online personal research assistant service that performs like a search engine, with the added benefit of being human-powered and delivering more detailed answers.

You can ask Wonder a question or request some research to be carried out and you’ll have a nicely written synopsis back within 24 hours.

The company was founded in 2012, their headquarters are in New York, with their team of researchers based all over the world.

About AskWonder

The company is headed up and run by Founder and CEO Justin Wohlstadter, CRO Guy Cohen, Head of New Business Bill Vesce, Head of New Markets Nick Maugeri, Director of Staff Andrew Karp, Director of New Business Bill Germano, and Director of Research Rachel Granby.

Most of their researchers are based in North America, with some spanning across Africa, the UK, Brazil, Japan, and other countries.

The only countries where they cannot accept researchers are countries that do not accept PayPal payments.

Their target customers are, “Anyone from individuals up to Fortune 500s.” So, if you’re too busy, do not have the resources, or are not sure where to start researching an answer — Wonder is will do it for you.

Services

AskWonder.com was developed to be a personal research assistant available for anyone and everyone who is in need of a detailed human answer to a specific question.

You can use the service to answer a question that’s been on your mind, or direct a detailed business question requiring some in-depth research to their team of researchers.

Whatever the question, the researchers at Wonder will do all the work for you and send you a detailed response quoting all the necessary sources to back up their answer.

How it Works

To give you some of the behind-the-scenes details, when you submit a question their system will break it down into smaller pieces if need be.

These are then picked up by different analysts to speed up the entire process. They combine all their information and add multiple points of view and the research is delivered to you in under 24 hours.

Some examples of the kinds of requests Wonder commonly answer are:

  • Please provide demographic statistics for residents in a 3 mile radius of [Insert Location].
  • How many boxing gyms are there in the US?
  • What is the hottest chilli in the world?
  • I need information about how the cost of living has changed in New York over the last 20 years.

As you can see from these few examples there are no limits to the types of questions you can ask. If there is an answer and some research to back it up the researchers at AskWonder will find it for you.

Plans and Pricing

There is an undisclosed annual membership fee, and a flat fee of $75 per request.

I reached out to find out what exactly that annual fee is, but based on the big national brands listed as customers, I’m guessing it isn’t small.

A sales representative from Wonder responded almost immediately, but wouldn’t discuss pricing over email, and instead wanted to set up an introductory call to learn more about my company and my research needs.

Wonder Alternatives

Obviously there are some other online resources you can use for free to find answers to your questions, such as search engines like Google or websites like Quora.

You’re not going to get the detailed, personalized answer like the team at AskWonder will give you though, and it can take a long time to sort through all the answers yourself.

But odds are if you’re researching a research service like Wonder, a simple Google search probably isn’t going to turn up the data you’re looking for. In the past, I’ve turned to Fancy Hands and OkayRelax for research tasks, but Wonder seems to really specialize in the in-depth digging that these services would have a harder time with.

Your Turn

Have you requested research from AskWonder? If so, please take a moment to leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Read More
«‹5657585960›»