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.
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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.
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.
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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:
Virtual Scribe – Your assistant will accompany you in the examination room and complete your notes for you while you’re working with your patients.
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.
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.
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
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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
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
Outlinematic is a graphic design service company that specializes in producing graphic design work for Amazon sellers and they have been in business since 2016.
Their headquarters is in Florida, US. All of their designers are also based in Florida, and they have a virtual assistant based in the Philippines.
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About Outlinematic
Outlinematic is run by husband and wife partnership Michael and Miriska Harris. Michael is the company Director, and Miriska is the Design Director.
They decided to form Outlinematic after realizing a lot of their clients in their previous graphic design business were Amazon sellers and requesting branding and graphic design work for their Amazon products.
This gave them the opportunity to streamline their business and focus on helping clients develop their brands.
When you sign up for one of their design packages you’re assigned a dedicated designer to work with. You’re able to communicate by phone, Skype and email, and they aim to answer all emails within 12 hours.
There is a definite advantage to working with the same designer if you want to keep all your branding consistent. This is an important consideration when ordering branding designs, and along with good communication is high on Outlinematic’s priorities.
Services
Outlinematic said, “We can design anything – from book covers to billboards, but we choose to focus on designing for sellers on Amazon.”
The most commonly requested design tasks from their clients include:
Packaging design
Logo design
Label design
Insert design
Flyer design
Infographic design
Brochure design
Plans and Pricing
Outlinematic have different pricing packages built around different graphic design services.
Their services start at $75 for t-shirt and logo designs, and top off at a complete packaging and brand identity package for $297.
A complete list of their packages are as follows:
Packaging and Brand Identity – $297
Packaging Design – $237
Logo Design – $75
Flyer and Insert Design – $89
T-Shirt Design – $75
Brochure Design – $99
Infographic Design – $99
If you want any graphic design work not covered by any of these packages Outlinematic will provide a custom quote by contacting them.
All of their work comes with a 100% money-back guarantee and unlimited revisions. A decent peace of mind that you’re walking away with designs you are 100% satisfied with.
Outlinematic Alternatives
For alternatives on the opposite end of the cost spectrum you can try either Fiverr or 99Designs.
Fiverr is good for a quick turnaround and you can choose your own designer based on their portfolio and feedback, while 99Designs is a crowdsourcing platform and probably best suited to larger branding and ongoing design work.
Another resource worth checking out is FreeeUp, a freelance marketplace that started out with a focus on serving Amzon and e-commerce sellers.
Outlinematic say that their understanding and experience of working with Amazon sellers give them an edge over generic graphic design services if you’re after graphic design work for your Amazon listings.
Your Turn
Have you worked with Outlinematic? If so, please take a moment to leave a review below to help others with their decision.
$98 Buck Social provides daily custom prepared content and syndicates it across all the main social media platforms; such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and LinkedIn.
The company has been in business since 2014, and they are located in Florida, US.
Now I’ll admit, when I first came across this company my first reaction was that it was a clear attempt to undercut and one-up the very similarly-named $99 Social.
It reminds me of the 7 Minute Abs scene from There’s Something About Mary … “That’s good. Unless, of course, someone comes out with 6 Minute Abs. Then you’re in trouble, huh?”
But I digress…
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About $98 Buck Social
The company is headed up by founder and CEO Chris Heuwetter, and they employ college-educated, highly trained, full-time, US-based content managers who work out of their offices in Jupiter, Florida.
When you sign up with $98 Buck Social you are assigned a dedicated social media manager. They then research your business and look at your competitors to formulate a social media plan.
When I reached out for some more info on how it worked, $98 Buck Social said, “Our managers are educated, US-based professionals that spend hours on the web looking for relevant and optimal content in order to connect with your businesses’ audience in a meaningful and personal way.”
The company specializes in social media, social media marketing, Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, Twitter marketing, and LinkedIn marketing.
Services
$98 Buck Social offer a range of services revolving around social media promotion and content creation, some of their staple services are:
Creating social media content
Posting to your social media platforms
Growth engines to boost your followers.
Facebook advertising
Producing SEO focused blog articles
Plans and Pricing – $98 Buck Social
As the name suggests $98 Buck Socials pricing plans start at $98 per/month. For this you get their “Level 1 Social Media Management” plan.
If you’re looking for more their highest plan costs $398 per/month and contains a more comprehensive social media strategy.
Here is a full list of their plans and services:
Level 1 Social Media Management – $98 per month – Dedicated social media marketing manager, posting to three social media platforms 6 days a week, regular promotional posts.
Level 2 Social Media Strategist – $198 per month – All Level 1 services along with posting to four social media platforms, and the ability to review posts before they go live.
Level 3 Aggressive Growth and Reach – $298 per month – All Level 1 and 2 services along with Instagram posting, and growth engine to build followers across platforms.
Level 4 Full Service Digital Agency – $398 per month – All Level 1 – 3 services along with regular strategy calls, ad campaign assistance, monthly SEO reviews, and blog articles.
$98 Buck Social also have a number of add-on services you can add to any plan. For example, you can buy a growth engine for any or all of the social media platforms, or add an extra LinkedIn marketing plan.
$98 Buck Social Alternatives
The aforementioned $99 Social is probably the closest competitor in terms of pricing and services. One difference (aside from the $1) is they do post 7 days a week with their basic plan.
Social media services are also covered by most virtual assistant companies. If you’re thinking about outsourcing more than just social media it might be worth looking into working with a virtual assistant.
Ossisto is one of the newer virtual assistant companies operating out of India starting operations in November 2017.
They specialise in connecting business owners and entrepreneurs with, “Personal virtual assistants, business services virtual assistants, digital marketing virtual assistants, and IT virtual assistants.”
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About Ossisto
The goal at Ossisto is to provide affordable virtual assistants to help busy entrepreneurs and businesses by taking on any type of work that can be completed remotely off their hands to free up more of their time.
The company was founded by Pinki Sohan Dadhich and Sohan Dadhich, and they currently have between 5-25 employees working out of their offices in Bangalore, India.
When you sign up for one of their plans you are assigned a dedicated virtual assistant who also acts as your point of contact.
Ossisto also makes a team of assistants available to ensure you have adequate cover and more than one assistant is available to work on tasks that require the extra hours or to turn a task around quicker.
They are currently only working with clients in the US, UK, Australia, and India. However, at the time of writing this Ossisto had only been in business a month, they do they have plans in the future to accept clients globally once they have the infrastructure in place.
Services
Like most virtual assistant companies, Ossisto’s assistants are willing to carry out any tasks that can be performed remotely.
They sum it up well themselves saying they, “Provide virtual assistance for every possible work you could imagine.”
They highlight their areas of specialization as:
Domain specific analysis
Business specific analysis
Data scraping
Research based analytics
School / college / university level analysis
Job analysis
Medical facility research
Something worth noting is that their business hours are 9.30 EST to 18.30 EST. They do say they will offer 24/7 virtual assistance in the future however.
Plans and Pricing
Ossisto currently has several different pricing plans to choose from. Their plans start at just $20 per month, which gives you 2 hours of VA time.
Their full list of plans are:
Starter Plan – Basically a $10 per month membership where you can delegate tasks as needed for $12 an hour.
Try Us Out Plan – $20 a month for 2 hours of work.
Regular Plan – Starting at $100 a month for 10 hours of VA time.
Ossisto also offers an array of larger time plans with rates as low as $6 an hour for the equivalent of a full-time VA. If you want a dedicated VA though, the rates are a little higher, currently $1600 a month or roughly $9 an hour.
As the company is in startup mode, these prices and packages are of course subject to change.
The Virtual Hub provides a scalable, cost-effective support layer that enables your talent to focus on high value work. They hire, onboard, train and manage staff who embed into your business and take ownership of recurring tasks that create operational drag, including scheduling, reporting, documentation, coordination, data handling, customer follow-ups, and day-to-day admin. The result is fewer bottlenecks, faster execution, and more capacity without increasing overhead. Their philosophy is simple: great execution is built through consistent support, strong systems, and a team that is trained, coached, and set up to succeed.
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About The Virtual Hub
At The Virtual Hub, they believe execution is the unsung engine of every great business. Their mission is simple: to help teams scale smarter by pairing deeply trained human support with proven systems.
They’re a distributed, deeply integrated team working across time zones and industries. They hire, train, and retain full-time support staff in the Philippines—embedded in a culture of growth, feedback, and operational excellence.
Their Support Teams, Results Coaches, Client Success Managers, and HQ teamwork behind the scenes so your team can shine.
The Virtual Hub Services
The Virtual Hub’s virtual assistants offer a wide range of professional services. The unique angle to their business model is the ongoing training they provide their assistants. So, whatever your requirements or tasks are, you can communicate with your assistant and their supervisor to arrange training in your processes and business.
General Admin – Our Virtual Assistants can help you accomplish everyday tasks that you simply may not have time to complete — from creating a booking at your favorite restaurant (or helping you find one in a foreign city) to helping you plan, organize, and coordinate your event.
Social Media – Every online business needs an online presence, but sometimes, remaining active on social media while running your business can become overwhelming. Our VAs are well equipped to help you ‘stay alive’ online.
Content Management – Being online isn’t enough, you have to create content that will keep your visitors, leads, and customers engaged. Even though our VAs are not trained to be content writers, they are still equipped to help you generate new ideas and bring new life to the content you already have.
Digital Marketing – Your business needs to run, even without you sitting at your desk all day. Our VAs are trained and familiar with the concept of the sales funnel so they can help you accomplish tasks that are related to your digitally focussed business with little to no supervision — in fact, our VAs are rock stars at it!
Systems – What’s an online business without an effective and efficient process? Luckily, VAs are quite handy at handling different systems! And with a solid support team backing them up, they can handle even the most complicated tasks with ease and confidence.
Plans and Pricing
The Virtual Hub offers 3 levels of pricing plans at time of publishing.
They have strong and tested processes and frameworks designed to make every part of your business more functional coupled with an excellent team of leaders and supervisors eager to help you and an exclusive community of like-minded business owners. Truly, there has never been a better time to commit to a virtual assistant from The Virtual Hub.
Are you looking to hire a rockstar virtual assistant who will help you take your business to the next level?
Upwork and Fiverr are two of the more popular freelance markets today with a deep talent pool that can help you in just about anything you need.
Whether you’re looking for a talented graphic designer or a versatile voice over talent, these two freelancing giant’s have everything you’re looking for. All you need is to find the right person based on your preference.
Note: This article is written from an employer’s perspective. If you’re a freelancer looking for work, the information below will provide you insights into the hiring process, fees, and protections on each of the marketplaces mentioned, but will not speak about the difficulties of getting work nor the types of clients you’re bound to encounter.
Fordisclosure, links to Fiverr are affiliate links.
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Intro to Upwork and Fiverr
With all the different freelance platforms available on the internet today, Upwork and Fiverr are without a doubt, two of the most popular services small businesses love tapping into.
Though Upwork is probably considered the biggest and most popular among its competitors, Fiverr is not far behind.
Origin Stories
Upwork is the result of the merging of Silicon Valley startups Elance and oDesk and unquestionably the biggest of them all with more than 12 million registered freelancers under its belt.
(Elance dates back to the late 1990s.)
Compared to Upwork, Fiverr is younger but has seen rapid growth. In 2012, just two years after it was launched, the company was already hosting 1.3 million Gigs and saw a huge increase in its transaction volume.
In its early days, Fiverr wasn’t really seen as a “serious” freelance platform, as the company hosted a lot of silly gigs. Today though, they’ve become a great resource for business owners with high value gigs and the addition of their “Pro” level service.
Fiverr is known for being a more affordable alternative with all of its Gigs (the term used to define what other platforms consider as projects) starting at a minimum price point of $5 but can go higher depending on the extra work that can be done.
Alexa Rankings
At press time, Upwork was ranked as the 250th most popular site in the US and #442 worldwide.
Fiverr was ranked similarly; #232 in the US and #352 worldwide.
Both marketplaces offer a ton of skills and freelancers you can hire for your projects and with the deep pool of talents each of the platforms possess, it’s almost impossible not to find the person you’ve imagined to be the best virtual assistant that will satisfy your needs.
Remote work has been organized and categorized accordingly so you won’t have a hard time looking for your best candidate whether you’re looking for design professionals or developers and programmers.
Under each of these major categories are several highly specialized areas of expertise, giving you more options and flexibility in finding the skill/talent/freelancer you’re looking for.
Searching for Talent on Upwork
Below is a good example of the skills you’ll find under Sales and Marketing on Upwork:
Clicking on any of the skills provided will take you to another page where you’ll be presented with a list of freelancers belonging to that category.
If you click on SEO specialists, for example, the page you’ll see should look something like this:
The profiles that show next will provide you with useful information about the freelancer like their hourly rate, their location, and the number of hours they spent on Upwork, giving you a better idea on how they performed for past clients.
You can begin reaching out to these freelancers directly as soon as you’ve signed up for a free account. You can also post jobs for freelancers to apply to.
Searching for Talent on Fiverr
Fiverr does pretty much the same though the presentation is quite different. All the major categories are already displayed on top in the form of menus.
Hovering your mouse over each of the categories will display a submenu where you’ll be shown all the specialized skills belonging to each category.
Below is an example of the skills you’ll be provided with if you mouse over “Writing and Translation”:
If you click on one of these submenus, you’ll be presented with a list of gigs offered by several freelancers. You should be directed to this page if you click on “Product Descriptions” for example:
What makes hiring in Fiverr easier for clients is the wealth of information you’ll find once you click on any of the gigs listed.
From a detailed comparison of the packages offered to the reviews the freelancer received for the said gig, making a decision on who to hire becomes easier.
How Upwork Works
How Fiverr Works
Fiverr put together a quick 2-and-a-half minute video on this page to explain how hiring works on the platform.
Employer Protections in Place
Shelling out money to people you haven’t met will always pose a risk to both workers and employers which is why safeguards that will protect both sides are put in place. The section below will expound on its importance.
Rating System
A two-sided rating system where buyers rate sellers and vice versa, is crucial to the success of freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
Popularized by eBay back in the mid-90s, Upwork has established a solid rating system that allows workers to see feedback from past clients.
While clients also receive ratings and feedback from workers they’ve hired in the past, the opportunity to collect a string of positive feedback from several clients given the tendency for short-term projects works best for the workers’ side.
More than the 5-star rating and the excellent feedback, one thing a potential client should look out for is the number of jobs completed where no feedback was given.
Whatever the reason past clients has for leaving no feedback at all, the absence of one should raise some red flags especially when you have a job still in progress more than 5 years after.
One of the features of Upwork I love is the “job success rate” it displays for each of its freelancers which measures the percentage of the projects they’ve completed that garnered them “a great client experience” which comes handy when narrowing down candidates. The higher the score, the better.
The project I had with the developer above was a complete success but in all honesty, a job success rate of 59% is pretty low and I’ll think twice before hiring a freelancer with that kind of score.
Upwork’s freelancer profile page also has a wealth of information much as Fiverr does. For one, a summary of their work history is provided, giving you a better picture of their experience based on the number of clients who have trusted and hired them.
Below is an example of a great profile page Notice the number of “in progress” projects she has that are both hourly and have thousands of hours completed yet she still has a 99% job success rate to show:
Past performance is not always a good indicator of positive results. Yes, they do help you with your hiring decision but they shouldn’t be one of your major considerations for hiring someone.
I’ve been hiring freelancers for quite some time and I’ve come across a couple of excellent workers with almost no work history or feedback at all. There are also those who had really impressive reviews but produce average quality and subpar results.
Pre-Screening
Do Upwork or Fiverr do any of the work for you, by pre-screening candidates for skills?
This is a selling point for a virtual assistant company, or even a marketplace like FreeeUp, in that they only accept the “top 1%” of applicants.
In the case of Upwork, being the biggest freelance market comes with downsides too and one of them is the crowded market and stiff competition sellers or workers face. While they did allow just about anyone to create a profile and start looking for projects to work on, Upwork has revamped this system and has become more selective when it comes to accepting freelancer applications.
Today, if you don’t bring something different or a really impressive set of skills on the table, they’ll most likely turn you down because they’ve already got a ton of talents offering a similar skillset.
In contrast, on Fiverr, anyone can set up a seller account and begin offering services.
Fiverr Pro is by application only, and those sellers are the ones hand vetted by Fiverr.
Freelancer Tests and Self-Ratings
Upwork provides freelancers the opportunity to make their profiles more impressive through hundreds of skills tests that they can take for free. These exams are not mandatory and can be retaken after 180 days.
Fiverr also offers their own set of skills tests which are all free and not necessarily required. These tests can be retaken twice within a three-month period.
Both platforms allow freelancers and sellers to hide or show both tests and test scores from their profile for more flexibility.
Below is an example of the test scores of a freelancer I previously worked with.
Clicking on “Details” will show you the different categories included in the test as well as the freelancer’s performance on each of them.
These tests do appeal to me, being an “A-student” back in the day and though they won’t really be a major consideration in choosing the best candidate, I appreciate their value when I need a “tiebreaker.”
It’s a good indicator of how driven and serious a freelancer is in landing projects online. It gives me a better idea who among the candidates are “hungrier” so if all of their skills cancel each other out, I have the tests they took to use as additional criteria.
Work Monitoring
Monitoring freelancer activity is easy for clients in Upwork with the platform using the “Big Brother” approach through screen capture software.
The platform uses a tool called “Work Diary” which takes screenshots of your freelancer’s screen every 10 minutes while they’re on the clock, allowing you to monitor their activity (or lack of) and assess if you’re getting your money’s worth.
Fiverr does not have a tool or system of this kind because gigs are all fixed price. Gigs come in different packages with each package carrying a corresponding price and a designated delivery time. As long as the seller complies with all the conditions indicated in the package the buyer ordered, everything should be good to go.
The buyer can also reach out to the seller at any time while the gig is in progress should they want to check the status.
Escrow Payments
Escrow payment is a good way of protecting both the client and the freelancer. It ensures that a client pays for a job completed and a freelancer completes the job agreed upon.
Both Upwork and Fiverr use the escrow system in processing payments. This works with a client depositing funds to the platform’s escrow account and the payment only getting released upon completion of certain milestones.
What makes this system effective is that it shows the freelancer how serious you are about paying them, while still keeping yourself protected in case the freelancer doesn’t comply with what was initially agreed upon.
Fiverr uses the same payment system where the seller only gets paid if the buyer accepts the work submitted.
When you buy a gig in Fiverr, the money gets charged immediately but the seller won’t get the money until they complete and submit what’s required and the buyer accepts the finished product.
Dispute Resolution on Upwork
One of the best features of Upwork that sets it apart from its competitors is the dispute resolution system it has in place.
The platform allows you to file a dispute should there be problems with the final product delivered by the freelancer or if you suspect them of charging you with more hours than they should.
A mediator is tasked to review the case and help get the money back or cease payment altogether. It’s important to note, however, that these mediators aren’t going to be judges of the quality of work. They usually make decisions based on the Work Diary instead.
Dispute Resolution on Fiverr
Fiverr’s answer to dispute resolution, meanwhile, is its “Resolution Center.” Unlike Upwork, however, there won’t be a mediator to help settle the dispute but more of an interactive request depending on what you would like to do with the order.
You’ll be given the following option upon clicking on the Resolution Center option:
Ask the seller to provide a progress update for this order
Extend the delivery time
Ask the seller to cancel the order
The succeeding choices will vary depending on the option you choose.
Once you have decided on the reason and click “Send”, the dispute will be submitted and the seller will have 48 hours to either accept or decline.
Your Employer Profile on Upwork
Also worth noting is the fact some of your client metrics are visible to freelancers who apply for the jobs you post. Information like feedback from your previous hires and the amount of money you’ve spent on the platform are just some of them.
These pieces of information are effectively shown as a means to protect freelancers. Hiring 1 out of 5 job postings is clearly a red flag because it may not be worth their time and effort to impress you when you’re not serious based on your performance.
Spending thousands of dollars on multiple job postings that all resulted in a hire meanwhile, makes you a very attractive potential client not only because of your metrics but the reputation you’ve made for yourself.
In Fiverr’s case, the reviews and ratings you’ll find in the seller’s profile are not the only considerations that will help you arrive at a decision. They also have a tier system that really helps clients narrow down their choices.
For example, they have a Level 1, Level 2, and Top-Rated Sellers, with increasingly difficult performance metrics to hit to achieve the higher levels.
Recently Fiverr added a completely new tier of seller called Fiverr Pro, considered to be the platform’s cream of the crop. Pro sellers’ skills have been proven to be some of the best.
Unlike Upwork, however, a buyer’s history is not available in Fiverr. Sellers are not going to see reviews, ratings, or anything that relates to a buyer’s previous projects.
What Happens After You Hire?
Upon hiring a freelancer on Upwork or buying a gig in Fiverr, you instantly pay them through platform and the company takes a cut for getting you connected.
For project-based work on Upwork, pre-paying a portion of the total project fee into an escrow account is standard. The same system applies with Fiverr with the payment also going straight to an escrow account.
Advantages of Upwork
A massive global talent pool
Control over the recruiting/screening process
Solid and effective freelancer profiles and ratings
No upfront costs required
Best for one-off projects or very specific support
Advantages of Fiverr
It’s cost-effective
Easy to use and user-friendly
Active community and supportive forum
Easy to understand concept
Fast to shop for specific packages or gigs
Pricing Comparison
With a massive talent pool under its belt, both sites earn money by deducting a fee on payments processed through their respective systems.
On Upwork, freelancers set their own rate and bid either by the hour or by the project.
Fiverr has definitely graduated from its days as “the $5 marketplace.” You can still find gigs at that low price, but most sellers now use tiered package pricing that allows them to provide better service and more value.
Platform Fees on Upwork
In Upwork’s case, most of the money they make comes from the fees they charge on every completed project which can be between 5-20%, depending on the amount of work a freelancer has done. The said fee is already included in the price you pay but comes out of your virtual assistant’s pocket.
For example, if you agreed to work with a freelancer for a $1000 project, the first $500 of that will have a 20% Upwork fee, giving the freelancer $400. The next $500 meanwhile, will carry a 10% fee which would give them $450. All in all, the freelancer would earn $850 while Upwork earns $150.
This pricing system makes sense because it rewards Upwork for connecting you with the freelancer while giving the freelancer lower rates for working on your project through the platform which is so much better than taking the relationship offline or somewhere else.
Do take note too that Upwork will also charge you a 2.75% processing fee on top of your $1000 payment.
Platform Fees on Fiverr
Fiverr earns money in typically the same fashion, deducting 20% from every payment. For instance, if a gig costs $5, the freelancer stands to earn $4 with $1 going to Fiverr. If you buy a gig extra for an additional $5, Fiverr takes $1 from that payment once again, leaving $4 for the freelancer and upping his or her earning to $8.
All purchases on Fiverr are subject to an additional service fee of $2 on purchases up to and including $40, and 5% on purchases above $40. Per Fiverr, “this helps us operate our platform and offer 24/7 customer support for your orders.”
My Experience with Upwork
The most successful project I had with Upwork was the redesigning of this website back in 2012. If you want to know how the site used to look like so you can appreciate how big of an overhaul it has gone through, you can check it out at the Wayback Machine when you have the time.
Suffice to say, I really loved the work the developer has done for me. He was very responsive, quick, and I got him at a very good price. I even re-hired him later for another project which he completed equally well. It was disappointing I couldn’t find him anymore when I needed his services once again. It’s like he completely disappeared.
I’ve been using Upwork for some ongoing work for quite some time and I can confidently say that some of my best hires have come from this site, way back when it was still Elance.
Though it is generally a project-based platform, I’ve had a couple of long-term hires that worked out really well, they’re almost doing it full-time, including a virtual assistant whom I worked with for more than 2 years.
Getting Burned by Upwork Contractors
While my experience with the platform has been generally satisfactory, I’ve also seen worse, having been burned for around $10,000 for a couple of web development projects that never really saw the light of day.
Those were some of the more painful and expensive experience I wouldn’t want anyone to go through.
I wasn’t able to take advantage of the dispute resolution safeguards in the first case because I foolishly agreed to take the project with the developer “off-platform.”
For the second case, we amicably agreed to just terminate the contract after a few of the milestones were met (though some of them were not on time). Technical incompetence kept the development company from completing the job which really sucked, to be quite honest.
My Experience with Fiverr
I’ve also been a Fiverr customer for years — with varying degrees of success.
Some of the gigs I’ve gotten the most mileage from were the book cover for Virtual Assistant Assistant, my podcast voiceover and intro music, and some website fixes.
I’ve ordered graphics for social media and display ads, video intros (including the “logo-slam” you see on many of the Virtual Assistant Assistant videos), transcriptions, blog posts, and even the custom chatbot on this site.
(The chatbot was my most expensive Fiverr order — over $300 — feel free to test it out!)
Some of the graphics I’ve gotten back have been unusable, and many of the articles required heavy editing, but for the most part my experience has been positive.
In fact, I recently found a Fiverr seller to clean up a malware infection that plagued several of my sites.
Which Should You Choose?
If your project requires skills that belong to a very specific niche or a bigger talent pool, Upwork should be the better the option.
If the project is simple and you’re working with a relatively small budget, Fiverr is the way to go.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The company is headed up by founder and CEO Chris Heuwetter, and they employ college-educated, highly trained, full-time, US-based content managers who work out of their offices in Jupiter, Florida.
