24/7 Virtual Assistant

Posted by Mica Harvey / Dedicated Virtual Assistants, India Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies, Virtual Employees

24/7 Virtual Assistant is a personal outsourcing company with locations in Atlanta, Georgia and India. The company has been in business since 2008, and has attracted clients all across the country and around the world.

24/7 Virtual Assistant Review247VirtualAssistant.com is geared toward the small business customer, with several dedicated plans starting at 30 hours a month for $299 ($10/hour) and going all the way up to full time 160 hours a month for $999 ($6.25/hour). The 30-hour plan is the most popular offering.

About 24/7 VA

247 virtual assistant reviewThe advantage of these plans is a dedicated virtual assistant you can train to the specific needs of your business. If you don’t need so much time, 24/7 Virtual Assistant also sells hourly pay-as-you-go plans for $15 an hour in 5-hour increments.

You can take advantage of the services offered by 24/7 Virtual Assistant, regardless of the type of business you have or even if you just need someone to deal with your personal tasks. The services offered range from clerical and secretarial tasks, such as responding to messages or calls, to web research, customer service, human resources, and real estate services. They even do web design for just $20 an hour.

In addition to their offshore center in India, 24/7 offers US-based staffing as well from their Atlanta headquarters. The rates are outstanding for dedicated American help, starting at just $359 for a 20-hour per month VA. There are a variety of plans depending on how many hours you need, and you can even get a full-time US-based virtual employee for only $1999 a month.

247VirtualAssistant.com Review


Virtual Assistant Assistant Exclusive: Mention referral code 2ni4ck7 for 10% off your first month!

The virtual assistants from 24/7 Virtual Assistant also offer services which are extremely creative and technical. These could be managing your technical calls from important clients and helping with computer related issues. You can get help from creative VAs who are able to design programs for Internet marketing campaigns. You get to train them as if they were a real employee.

You can also use these assistants as customer support staff to answer calls from potential customers.  This service is offered at very affordable cost and you are not required to sign a contract.   What’s even more interesting the service is offered on a month to month basis, so you can unsubscribe at any time without incurring a penalty.

24/7 VA Video Interview


Virtual Assistant Assistant Exclusive: Mention referral code 2ni4ck7 for 10% off your first month!

Since launching this site, 24/7 has been one of the most popular companies around. The competitive rates and diverse skill-sets of the team are a major contributing factor, but the behind-the-scenes service is important too.

My main contact there has been very responsive to  customer questions and concerns, even working to create custom solutions or handling some of the workload himself until a more permanent set-up can be established. I think an important measure is the speed at which customer issues are resolved, and it’s been my experience that Thomas (my contact) and his team genuinely care about delivering a great service and doing whatever they can to make it right for their clients.

Is that a guarantee? No, but you can learn more about my personal trial with 24/7 in the video above or in the comments down below. I had the opportunity to test out their 30-hour plan for a month.

24/7 Virtual Assistant Alternatives

If you want to compare directly to another India-based VA company: TaskVirtual is a full-service virtual assistant company offering dedicated, highly trained professionals for business operations, customer support, and digital tasks. They combine structured processes, experienced talent, and cost efficiency to deliver measurable results. Backed by 1,400+ clients and 38,000+ completed tasks, they are built for scale.

My Tasker or VMG BPO are well-rated alternatives with similar pricing structures and a dedicated + team-access approach.

Your Turn

Have you used 24/7 Virtual Assistant? Please share your experience below.

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WP Fix It

Posted by Mica Harvey / Technical Assistants

WP Fix It is a WordPress support company based in Irvine, California. The company have been fixing WordPress issues since 2009 and have fixed over 58,000 issues for their customers.

About WP Fix It

wp fix it reviewThe company’s head office is located in Irvine, California, and is headed up by founder Jarett Gucci. They currently have 8 agents, all working remotely and staggering their shifts to cover various time zones.

WP Fix It offers WordPress site owners and developers instant support and are available to tackle any WordPress-related tasks you may have.

Their target customers are anyone who has a WordPress website or are involved in developing WordPress related plugins, add-ons, and other apps. The company offers online support, so anyone can seek immediate resolution to these issues and keep their site running smoothly.

WP Fix It Review

Services

WP Fix It offer instant support, infection malware virus removal, infection insurance, site speed-up services, and offer a complete website management and support service. If you are looking to hand over the management of your site so you can rest easy knowing it’s in safe hands, WP Fix It are waiting for your call.

Website downtime can be costly to any business. Not just financially, but it can be damaging to your brand and reputation if customers are experiencing problems accessing your site.

Plus, I know I’ve personally felt the frustration of trying to make WordPress bend to my will and having little to show for it after hours of effort. These guys aim to fix those frustrating moments, and for just $39 a pop. You gotta ask, how much is your sanity worth?

WP Fix It Intro Video

Plans and Pricing

There is a flat fee of $39 to fix any one-off issue. If the issue is not resolved for any reason, you get your money back.

wp fix it pricing

They also do site speed-up services for $97, and virus and malware removal for $87.

One potential downside is the lack of an “unlimited” plan if you have lots of things you’d like to tweak on your site. Of course on the flipside, you don’t have any recurring expenses once your issue is resolved.

WP Fix It Alternatives

Due to the popularity of the WordPress platform, a number of maintenance and support companies have popped up. Work Hero, Zen WP and Access WP, being three of them.

WP Fix It is a little less expensive than these two for single task fixes, and with their money back guarantee there is a peace of mind that WP Fix It will either fix your issue or refund your money.

With the option to use these companies for one-off fixes without being tied into contracts or monthly plans it’s a good opportunity to try more than one company. If you find yourself paying for fixes on a regular basis you should look into the monthly plans they companies offer to see which best suits your business needs.

Your Turn

Have you worked with WP Fix It? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their own decision.

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Jooble

Posted by Mica Harvey / Recruiting Services

Jooble is one of the largest online job search platforms on the web. You’ll find job listings for literally millions of jobs from all over the world at any given time.

The company is headquartered in Kiev, Ukraine. Jooble aggregates their job listings from job boards, websites, social networks, and various other online sources.

About Jooble

The company started operations in 2006 and was founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Roman Prokofiev and Eugene Sobakarev.

Roman and Eugene say they started Jooble to help everyone looking for a job to find the “job of their dreams.”

To achieve this, they’ve built one of the world’s largest job platforms. It’s estimated that more than 90 million users search for jobs on Jooble every month, and there are thousands of new jobs being added daily.

If you’re looking for a job and that job is being advertised online somewhere, chances are you’re going to find it listed on Jooble.

This is because Jooble collects job positions and vacancies from more than 53,000 sites all over the web. This includes places like social networks, individual company sites, and other job boards.

The platform is strictly for job seekers and some select advertising relationships. They do not currently allow employers to manually post vacancies.

It’s important to be aware that Jooble only scrapes and aggregates data from other sources. They cannot help you with your job search, answer any specific questions about a listing on their site, and so on.

How Jooble Works

Using Jooble couldn’t be any easier. From the home page, you can simply type in the role, position, or location you want to work in, and Jooble will bring up all the relevant results.

Or, you can filter down by location, type of vacancy, job role, etc., and start browsing the list of jobs that meet your criteria.

When you see a job listing you’re interested in, simply click the link and you’ll be taken to the original listing. There you’ll find all the instructions you need on how to apply for the job.

Jooble Services

Jooble is a job board that aggregates job listings to help job seekers find the job they’re looking for.

It’s a hands-off platform for the most part. As all of the data is pulled from other sources, Jooble doesn’t offer any support and can’t answer specific questions about the job listings on their site.

On the employer side, Jooble doesn’t allow you to post individual jobs. You do have the option to block their crawlers from scraping your site and sharing your listings though.

Jooble does offer some paid sponsorships. If you’re interested in getting your business in front of their huge audience, you need to speak with a member of their team for a quote.

Jooble Pricing

Jooble is completely free to use for job seekers. They do offer some paid sponsorships and advertising opportunities for businesses but do not have any set pricing plans.

Jooble Alternatives

For alternative job boards, you can check out Dynamite Jobs and JustRemote. Dynamite Jobs specializes in remote jobs and allows employers to post their jobs.

JustRemote also specializes in remote job listings. They allow employers to post jobs for a fixed price and also have a membership model for job seekers to find out about new jobs first.

Your Turn

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

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MMF Infotech

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

UPDATE: MMF InfoTech has become unresponsive and the below information may be outdated.

MMF InfoTech is a virtual assistant company based in Indore, India. They also have a sales office in New York, but all their virtual assistants work out of their location in India.

The company has been operating since 2006 and they currently have a team of 200+ virtual assistants on-hand waiting to handle any tasks you’re looking to outsource, which definitely makes them one of the more established BPO firms.

About MMF InfoTech

The Managing Directors of MMF InfoTech are Mr. Priyansh Patodi and Ritika Jain. As entrepreneurs themselves they understand the needs and frustrations that come with running a business.

They turned their focus into starting MMF InfoTech to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses by outsourcing tasks at an affordable rate to qualified virtual assistants.

Their target customers are businesses and entrepreneurs who are ready to use virtual assistants to scale and grow their businesses by outsourcing tasks so they can focus on other areas of their business.

Although the majority of their clients are in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, they welcome the opportunity to work with clients anywhere in the world.

Services

MMF InfoTech’s staff of more than 200 virtual assistants can handle any remote tasks. They group their services into four areas to help allocate your work to a team as follows:

  1. Web design and development – This includes CMS, e-commerce, website design, etc.
  2. Back office support – This includes customer support, data entry, live chat, general VA tasks, etc.
  3. Digital Marketing – This includes PPC management, SEO, social media marketing, etc.
  4. Mobile App development – This includes iOS, Android, etc.

They point out that they value communication and friendly relationships between clients and their VA’s.

When you sign up with MMF InfoTech a member of their team will arrange a consultation with you to discuss your needs. You are then allocated a dedicated virtual assistant to work with on a one-to-one basis.

Plans and Pricing

MMF InfoTech doesn’t have any set pricing plans, they calculate custom quotes for each individual task.

Priyansh did offer a little insight beyond that, explaining, “We match the pricing with industry standards and are known for providing the best services with the quoted cost. Our prices starts from as low as $6 per hour up to $40 per hour depending on the virtual services required by the client.”

There’s also a free trial offer mentioned on their website.

MMF InfoTech Alternatives

There are a bunch of highly rated virtual assistant companies operating out of India, including MyTasker and TaskVirtual.

They offer competitive rates in the $7.00-7.50 per hour range for larger plans, and have a good deal of client feedback and ratings so I’d’ check them out if you’re after a more transparent monthly virtual assistant package.

Your Turn

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

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Adaza

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

ADAZA is a marketplace that helps connect independent sales professionals with new companies looking to utilize freelance sales reps to accelerate their growth and reach new markets.

The company was formed by four software veterans in 2015 and is backed by the SAP, one of the world’s leading technology companies. Their head office is in Palo Alto, CA.

About ADAZA

There are four co-founders behind ADAZA; CEO David Brockington, Head of Sales, Scott MacKenzie, CTO, Vivek Ranjan, and Engineering Manager, Damien Murphy.

Their target customers are companies or enterprise startups looking for salespeople to help accelerate their growth.

 

ADAZA provides the platform for companies and sales reps to work together. To protect the integrity of their platform and their sales reps’ time, they carefully vet each startup or company that comes in requesting sales support.

How Adaza Works

Services

Think of ADAZA as sales-as-a-service: “Augment your sales team with a network of veteran freelance sales pros.”

If you’ve been focusing on product development, it might not make sense to bring on a full-time sales staff yet, and that’s where Adaza comes in. Their reps work on a performance basis to generate leads and customers for growing businesses.

They aim to match experienced freelance sales reps with products and companies that fit their areas of expertise and network, making it faster and easier than ever to scale up your proactive sales efforts.

Plans and Pricing

The cool thing about ADAZA is that as a vendor or employer, you only pay for successful sales or referrals. It’s all on a performance basis.

(The company presumably takes a cut of each sale too to pay the bills.)

ADAZA Alternatives

Adaza is the first company of this kind of I’ve come across. This type of skilled on-demand workforce has been attempted in other verticals like web development, graphic design, and copywriting, but not necessarily in sales yet — at least as far as I’ve seen.

If you’re not quite at the enterprise sales level yet, you might consider a company like Prialto to support your existing sales team, a service like Outbounders to do cold calling for you, or a platform like Upwork to find a freelance sales pro to help you land more customers.

Your Turn

I’m curious, have you worked with ADAZA? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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Priority VA

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

Priority VA is a Remote Executive Assistant company based in Georgia. Since 2013, the company has provided US-based Executive Assistants to businesses and entrepreneurs all over the world.

About Priority VA

Priority VA was founded by Trivinia Barber, a CEO, author, podcaster and speaker who is committed to creating leaders who “don’t do it alone.” Trivinia founded Priority VA after growing tired of seeing hardworking growth-minded entrepreneurs get overwhelmed and burnt out while scaling their business to the next level.

If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in good company. Priority VA has served notable clients in the online space such as Ray Edwards, Todd Herman, Simple Green Smoothies, Caroo and Social Media Examiner.

When you work with Priority VA, its team of Kolbe-certified Talent Acquisition Specialists work with you to find an Executive Assistant best suited to your needs. The company seeks to foster integrity-driven relationships between executives and their EAs based on your company’s values, vision and culture. This service is preferable for leaders seeking long-term contracts rather than one-off project work.

Priority VA Services

Priority VA matches executives with teammates who are ready to serve as an Executive Assistant, Project Manager, Integrator or Chief of Staff.  

Priority VA provides leaders and Executive Assistants onboarding prep steps to help ensure a successful long-term relationship. Once you’re matched with your EA, it is up to you to continue to engage and communicate your needs and expectations.

Here is a list of tasks Priority VA assistants commonly carry out for their executives:

  • Calendar Management
  • Travel Management
  • Inbox Management
  • Schedule Management
  • Document Creation and Formatting
  • Market Research
  • CRM Management
  • Project Management
  • Event Management
  • Writing and Editing
  • Customer Service
  • Affiliate Management

Priority VA Plans and Pricing

Priority VA offers three tiers of support with first-class talent only based in North America through Priority STAFF (fractional support), Priority MATCH (direct hire placement) and Priority HIRE (direct hire placement and EA mentorship) services. The company’s direct placement services are customized to your needs as an established, growth-minded entrepreneur.

Priority VA Alternatives

Priority VA seeks to redraw the boundaries of what an EA can do. It invests in ongoing training from world-class experts to make sure its team is up to speed on the latest tactics, tools and strategies. If you’re just getting started, or aren’t able to invest in hiring a right-hand Executive Assistant for a least 10 hours a week at this phase of your business, this might be a little more than you need at the moment.

Three of the highest rated US-based virtual assistant companies are ClearDesk,  Time Etc and Boldly. These companies also put a lot of emphasis on matching up clients with assistants to form long-term, strong working relationships.

Your Turn

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

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LiveAnswer

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Receptionist Services

LiveAnswer is a call center support platform. They offer a cloud-based solution for companies in need of extra call center support to launch or expand their call center campaigns.

The company has been in business since 2014, and was acquired by Stericycle in October of 2016. Their headquarters are located in Miami, Florida, where a team of 12 oversees a network of more than 25,000 call center agents.

About LiveAnswer

Adam Boalt is the founder and current CEO of LiveAnswer. He formed the company back in 2014, and in 2016 was acquired by Stericycle, Inc., a Fortune 1,000 company.

LiveAnswer works with businesses of all sizes, from large leading brands, to nationwide health care systems and local contractors.

With more than 25,000 call center agents and operating 24/7, 365 days a year, LiveAnswer has the call center staff available as and when you need them.

It’s worth noting that LiveAnswer use a call behavior tool. This allows businesses to have a chance to handle their inbound calls first and only forward the call to Live Answer’s team if you aren’t able to answer the phone yourselves.

This helps lower the cost while still providing 24/7 phone answering coverage.

How LiveAnswer Works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J_YdKlNdfE

Services

The services LiveAnswer offers includes:

  • Messages – Real-time instant access to ongoing and completed messages.
  • Call-flow – You can fully automate your call answering procedures.
  • Contacts – Manage all of your contacts from a central location.
  • Numbers – You have unlimited toll-free numbers available.
  • Agent scripts – You have full control over the scripts the call center agents will read from.
  • Reports – Custom reports to help you keep track of all your call data.
  • Mobile app – LiveAnswer has a mobile app so you can stay in touch anywhere, anytime.

Plans and Pricing

Live Answer has four pricing plans as follows:

  • Basic – $99/month – This plan includes 70 live agent minutes, 100 IVR/forwarding minutes, 2 toll-free or local numbers, and 3 voicemails/extensions.
  • Plus – $149/month – This plan includes 125 live agent minutes, 200 IVR/forwarding minutes, 2 toll-free or local numbers, and 3 voicemails/extensions.
  • Pro – $399/month – This plan includes 400 live agent minutes, 800 IVR/forwarding minutes, 10 toll-free or local numbers, and 10 voicemails/extensions.
  • Premium – $999/month – This plan includes 1,050 live agent minutes, 3,000 IVR/forwarding minutes, 20 toll-free or local numbers, and 100 voicemails/extensions.

IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response, which I’m guessing is something like the automated phone menus you can talk to get routed where you need your call to go.

This works out at approx $1.41 per minute on their basic plan, dropping to $0.95 per minute for their Premium plan.

Ideally you want to sign up to the plan that comes closest to the number of minutes you will be using each month. However, should you run over, additional minutes are available starting at $1.45 per/min.

LiveAnswer also offers a 7-day free trial period leading into any of their plans, so you can try their services before committing.

LiveAnswer Alternatives

Gabbyville and Ruby Receptionists are two of the higher rated virtual answering services that are also worth checking out.

These companies are more suited to businesses in need of virtual receptionist support rather than large call center operations however. If that’s more in-line with what you’re looking for I recommend checking them out.

Your Turn

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

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Ripplepop

Posted by Mica Harvey / Technical Assistants

RipplePop is a WordPress support company based in Chicago, IL. The company was started by two best friends, Michael and Jordan in January 2016.

They offer monthly plans to ensure your WordPress site is kept up-to-date, you have backups in case of an emergency, and turnaround jobs in 4-8 hours.

About RipplePop

What separates RipplePop from other WordPress support companies is their ability to connect you with the right developer no matter your project’s requirements. That is because over their nearly 10 years in business they have amassed a talented crew of nearly 40 developers with skills to help any type of client.

What started as a simple monthly recurring WordPress maintenance and support based service has evolved over the years from the direct input of their customers. “When your customers ask you, ‘What else can you do for me?’’ that is both a compliment and an opportunity to be prepared for.” Jordan, the Co-Founder of RipplePop said.


Now RipplePop works with agencies of all shapes and sizes and their plans can scale up and down more easily as your needs change so that you don’t ever need to look elsewhere if and when you need more help. Jordan recalls this being a vital pivot for the business as RipplePop changed from a low-cost monthly service plan to a plug-and-play developer resource for agencies. It became a differentiator and a key to RipplePop’s success.

RipplePop Services

With almost endless fixes and customization tweaks that can be made to sites on the WordPress platform it’s impossible to list all the services covered.

It’s fair to say that RipplePop have you covered for just about any WordPress related task you will encounter. RipplePop developers are required to have at least 6 years of professional industry experience before they can apply to RipplePop so that clients can rest assured knowing they are working with highly talented developers.

With RipplePop’s plans you get to work with your developer on your schedule. You get to choose what window during they day they will be active so they are always online and responsive when you need them.

With weekly billing it makes it easy to adjust your plan up or down as your needs change. You can even pause your plan at any time with no long term commitments.

Plans and Pricing

RipplePop has three different pricing plans (at time of publishing):

  • 2-Hours Daily – $195/wk – Developer online and active daily for 2 hours (10 hours total per week)
  • 4-Hours Daily – $395/wk – Developer online and active daily for 4 hours (20 hours total per week)
  • 8-Hours Daily – $795/wk – Developer online and active daily for 8 hours (40 hours total per week)

RipplePop also offers bulk-hour bundles for people or agencies who need help but may not have a predictable daily schedule of tasks.

These bulk hour bundles let you buy 125 or 250 hours in bulk and spend them over the course of 18 months. The bulk hour bundles start at $2,592 for 125 hours to spend as you go.

RipplePop Alternatives

Zen WP and Access WP offer a similar range of services and start around the same price point as RipplePop if you want to check them out.

For one off fixes without the monthly subscription, you might consider WP Fix It or Zen WP‘s à la carte option.

Your Turn

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

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Gun.io

Posted by Mica Harvey / Freelance Virtual Assistants, Technical Assistants

Gun.io is a platform connecting freelance software developers with business owners and entrepreneurs in need of professional software development services. (Think “hired gun.”)

The company is privately held and was founded in 2011, and their headquarters is located in Nashville, Tennessee. They say that over 80% of their community are based in the US, primarily across cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and New York.

About Gun.io

The company was founded by Rich Jones and current CEO Teja Yenamandra. Hiring a freelancer always comes with an element of risk, but Gun.io are keen to emphasize, “We believe that remote work isn’t an excuse to be flaky. Gun.io attracts skilled professionals who thrive on autonomy and use that freedom to best provide value to clients worldwide.”

They work with US-based team leaders and developers, so if you’re hiring from the US you shouldn’t struggle with language barriers or time zone differences.

There is a premium to pay for US-based freelancers (see below) in comparison to overseas workers, but there is some extra security knowing you’re working with someone closer to home.

Services

Some of the services Gun.io lists as within the skillsets of their freelancers include:

  • Web applications
  • SAAS products
  • iOS apps
  • Android apps
  • MVP development
  • Project management
  • Desktop programs
  • UX strategy
  • Scripting

How it Works

There is a simple 3-step process when signing up with Gun.io and submitting your task:

  • Discovery – You explain what you want done and your budget for your project with one of their team leaders.
  • Planning – Gun.io create a plan of attack and handpick the team members from their pool of more than 25,000 freelancers best suited to complete your task.
  • Execution – With your say, work starts and your dedicated team leader keeps in contact with you as to the progress.

They list their areas of specialization as, iOS, Andriod, LAMP, .NET, Java, C#, Swift, Scala, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, C++, PHP, Python, Django, Javascript, Objective-C, Node.JS, and project management.

At press time, the company has facilitated close to 1000 projects and paid out over $16 million to developers.

Plans and Pricing

Gun.io are not for those looking for a small one-off quick job. The minimum job size they take on is $15,000 over a two month period.

For ongoing tasks their rates range from $150 to $250 per hour depending on the level of experience required for your project.

To get started, Gun.io requires a retainer fee of $2,000 which is credited against your final invoice. You can get a custom quote for your task by contacting a member of their team and discussing your project.

Gun.io Alternatives

The closest competitor to Gun.io that comes to mind is TopTal, a similar service that curates “top talent” in technical fields. Alternatively, you might check out the smaller Crew.co or a much larger freelance marketplace like Upwork.

In the case of Upwork, you will need to sort through applications yourself however and therefore there is a larger risk involved, but you’re likely to find someone at a lower cost.

Your Turn

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

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Upwork

Posted by Mica Harvey / Dedicated Virtual Assistants, Freelance Virtual Assistants, Project-Based Virtual Assistants, US Virtual Assistants

Upwork (formerly oDesk) is a community that brings together contract workers and employers. The company has been in business since 2003, and now serves hundreds of thousands of clients all around the world.

They boast more than 12 million freelancers ready to bid on your job.

About Upwork

odesk reviewIn late 2013, Elance and oDesk actually merged into one company, but continued to operate separate freelance marketplaces. Then, in 2015, they rebranded oDesk to Upwork.

I’m not sure why they made the change since 0Desk was a well-established brand with a solid reputation in the industry, but their official press documents said it was to help businesses connect with great talent faster than ever before, collaborate in larger teams, and fuel growing companies.

Why they couldn’t have done that under the old name, I have no idea.

Services

upwork review

While Upwork / oDesk was primarily known as a place to find programmers, it is also a great place to find a virtual assistant, and administrative support is one of their fastest growing categories.

I found over 5000 matches for a recent Upwork search for “virtual assistant”.

Plans and Pricing

Upwork has no sign-up fees to access their network of freelance virtual assistant service providers. In fact, you can create an account, post your requirements, and have workers bidding for the job within a few minutes.

The company makes money by taking a fee from the contract price of the work. That means if you agree to pay an Upwork virtual assistant $500 for 100 hours worth of work (not an uncommon price!), they are really collecting slightly less than that.

Upwork Review

The Upwork system offers the benefits you’d expect from this type of marketplace, including feedback mechanisms and dispute resolution.

One thing that sets Upwork apart is their monitoring software. (Note: Elance has since implemented similar “Workview” software.) Some say it’s a little Big Brother-ish, but others swear by it because it makes sure the work that is paid for is the work that gets done.

The software, which workers turn on when they begin a job, tracks keystroke volume, takes screenshots at certain time intervals, and even has an optional webcam feature. If you’re wary about hiring a remote virtual assistant, it can definitely help overcome some of the fear of not being able to manage their working hours effectively.

A Global Minimum Wage?

In 2014, Upwork introduced a $3/hour minimum wage. Yes, it’s still absurdly low by Western standards, but it does prevent even lower bids from new overseas workers in developing economies.

When searching for virtual assistants on Upwork, pay close attention to their account history. How long have they been working? What does their feedback say about their work?

Another thing to look for is to match the virtual assistant’s specific skill set to the tasks you need done. Everyone has certain specialties, so seek out those who have good ratings in the areas you need the most help with. Alternatively, you can post your own job requirements and have workers bid on them.

Upwork Alternatives

There are several other freelance platforms you might consider testing out, including specialized services for graphic design, content writing, and technical support.

FreeeUp Upwork Fiverr OnlineJobs
Established 2015 1999 2010 2008
Location Worldwide, w/ concentration in USA and Philippines Worldwide Worldwide Philippines
Customer Rating
Size of Talent Pool Thousands 12 million 830,000 250,000
Hourly Rate $5-75+ $3-100+ $3-100+ $3-20+
Platform Fee 15% 5-20% 20% + processing fee $69 a month
Worker Tracking
(optional)
Pre-Screened Freelancers
(w/ Fiverr Pro)
Best For Quick hires, e-commerce One-off projects Smaller jobs Affordable full-time help
Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More

My favorite other broad-focused freelance site is Fiverr, primarily because you can just select the freelancer you want to work with directly, without sifting through dozens of applications. But it’s definitely better for smaller jobs where there’s less money on the line.

Related: Upwork vs. Fiverr: Which Marketplace is Best to Find an Awesome Freelancer?

For ongoing employment, you might consider OnlineJobs.ph, the largest job board in the Philippines with a huge database of qualified workers.

Related: My in-depth comparison between Upwork and OnlineJobs.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Upwork? Please share your experience below.

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