Virtual Assistant Blog

HireWriters

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services

HireWriters.com is an on-demand content creation service. The company began in 2012 as sort of an article marketplace, linking those who needed content with writers from around the world.

I was lured in by the low prices ($5 for a 700 word article), but should have known better. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

That price is for the lowest quality tier, meaning it will probably be illegible to most of your website visitors.

Plans and Pricing

Still, the HireWriters rates are pretty affordable, all things considered.

A 500 word article from a “Skilled” writer is just $8.25. Where things get more expensive is when you want to jump to the next tier, “Expert.” A 500 word article from an “Expert” writer is $19.

Skilled writers are defined as those who have completed at least 7 jobs and earned a feedback rating of at least 4.1 in the HireWriters system. Expert writers have completed 12 jobs with a 4.6 rating or higher.

Another service HireWriters offers is a re-writing, or article spinning service.

The theory behind this is you can use the same content in multiple locations without triggering any “duplicate content penalties” from Google, because each will by slightly different.

HireWriters Intro Video

I tested out a couple of articles using the HireWriters system. I made the minimum required $10 deposit, and was pleasantly surprised to find it earned a 25% bonus! So if you really need a lot of content written, it would make sense to make a bigger initial deposit to maximize the bonus.

HireWriters Review

I had two 300+ word articles written by “Skilled” writers for $5.50 apiece. Both were tackled by the same author, and neither were amazing.

The writer struggled to follow the directions and examples I gave them, and failed to answer all the questions I said the articles should address.

I specifically asked for neutral, news-style, articles (who, what, where, when, why), but got back a lot of generic fluff content that didn’t really deliver. Maybe this is me being cynical, but if felt like they were really just looking for anything that would get them to the 300 word target so they could be done.

And for $5 I shouldn’t be so harsh.

In the end, I had some usable sentences but had to re-write most of the articles myself. I can’t even share the articles as examples because they’re almost unrecognizable from what I got back. But like I’ve said before, there’s still some value in getting a shell back and having some structure to start with, rather than staring at a blank screen.

Just recently I went back to HireWriters to test out the “Expert” level, and was pretty impressed. The cost was significantly higher — $19 for a 500-700 word article, but it took hardly any editing to get it ready for publishing. And for the two articles I ordered at that level, both came back over the 700-word count.

So that’s the thing. If you want an article you’re going to sign your name to, you’ll probably have to pay a bit more, or just do it yourself. If you don’t care, or are just churning out content for search engine digestion, HireWriters is a great choice.

Related: My Outsourced Content Writing Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

HireWriters Alternatives

I’ve also tested articles from Fiverr and Textbroker, with pretty similar results — though every now and then you get a homerun.

	Copywriter Today	Fiverr	HireWriters	Textbroker
Customer Rating				not yet rated
Established	2014	2010	2012	2005
Minimum Cost (500 words)	$265 per month	$5	$5	$7.50
Type of Service	Subscription	A la carte articles	Pre-screened writers; varying quality	Pre-screened writers; varying quality
Best for	Agencies, ongoing content needs	One off, quick work	Inexpensive filler content	Connecting with reliable writers
Notes	First article free	Check Fiverr Pro for better quality	25% bonus on first deposit	Pricing is per-word
Learn more	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More

The other writing company I like is Copywriter Today, which is perfect if you have demand for US-based writers and a lot of content on a monthly basis.

Have you tried Hire Writers? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

99designs

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

99designs is the crowdsourcing design marketplace that is probably first-to-mind for most people. I first learned about the company at a conference in 2008, and since then the Melbourne, Australia-based business has grown by leaps and bounds.

In fact, 99designs has thousands of active design contests and pays out more than $1.5 million to designers each month!

In any freelance or crowdsourcing platform, the level of activity and engagement from the community is paramount. The worst feeling is to go through the trouble of creating an account, paying the fee to escrow, and then hearing the crickets chirp when no one submits any responses.

At the time of this writing, 99designs contests are receiving an average of 110 entries, so you should have plenty to choose from.

How it Works

As the name suggests, 99designs specializes in crowdsourced graphic design work. The platform is a good place to turn for logo design, web design, print media, mobile apps, promotional materials, t-shirts, and more.

If you don’t have ongoing design work, it makes sense to get it done one-time at a place like this instead of hiring an on-site or virtual assistant designer.

To start a design contest with 99designs, you go through this detailed questionnaire about your business and what kind of designs you might like. I think this feature is definitely a strength. When I went through they had sample logos, descriptive words, and colors and their common associations.

You can even upload other logos you like or choose from a sample gallery. It forces you to think about the kind of design you’re looking for and gives the army of designers something to base their work on.

99designs Review

Plans and Pricing

Logo design starts at $299, and web page design starts at $599.

On the lower end of the spectrum you can find card and invitation design (like custom wedding invitations), apparel design, and banner ads all starting at $149. There are several pricing tiers, and as you might guess, the higher price points attract more designers into the contest.

The turnaround time is roughly a week from beginning to end, and each 99designs contest comes with their risk-free money back guarantee. If you don’t like any of the designs you receive, you can get a complete refund.

99designs Alternatives

If these prices seem a little rich for your blood, you might check out 48 Hours Logo or Crowdspring, which both offer similar models at slightly lower prices.

	Fiverr	Penji	99designs	Design Pickle	Looka
Customer Rating
Established	2010	2016	2008	2015	2016
Minimum Cost	$5	$399 per month	$299	$399 per month	$20
Type of Service	A la carte design	Unlimited Graphic Design	Crowdsourced design	Unlimited design	AI logo design
Best for	Fast, cheap designs	On-going design needs	Higher profile work	Ongoing design needs	Affordable DIY
Notes		15-day money back guarantee.	100% money-back guarantee	14-day money back trial; 30% off first month w/ code VA30	Don't pay until you love your logo
Learn more	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More

I’m in the process of experimenting with getting some banner ads done at Fiverr. For 30x the price, I expect the quality would be much higher at 99designs, but depending on your needs it might not be worth it.

If you want to try making a free logo, check out the templates and tools at Logo Garden. You can play around and generate a logo yourself for free, and you only have to pay if you need a copy of the high-resolution file.

Your Turn

Have you had design work done on 99designs? Please leave a short review below and help others with their decision.

3 Ways “Going Virtual” Can Improve Your Company Culture (and your Bottom Line)

Posted by Mica Harvey / News

This contribution comes from Bryan Miles, CEO of BELAY and author of Virtual Culture: The Way We Work Doesn’t Work Anymore.

************

From day one we were a company of two (my wife and I), so remote made sense.

But as we grew, we wanted to maintain a 100% remote workplace for BELAY. We decided on the virtual business model for a variety of reasons, but the primary motivator was a desire for a better quality of life — for both us and our employees.

There are some major perks to being 100% remote as well as some challenges. One of our Core Values as an organization is “VISION: We are leaders in our industry. We refuse to accept the status quo. We have the vision of what can be.”

To do that, we work consistently on our culture and check in with our employees to be sure we aren’t becoming status quo but instead are continuing to be leaders in culture.

Here are 3 reasons to consider going virtual as your company grows.

1. Going Virtual Makes You a Better Communicator

In the virtual workplace, the Swiss army knife for all cultural woes is communication.

Whether in the office or out, I’ve found that effective communication is the best way to overcome disputes and inspire connections. And when it becomes an essential element of a company’s culture, effective communication will prevent most disputes from ever happening in the first place.

We tend to err on the side of over-communication.

What does this mean?

We encourage our team to use the virtual nod. Meaning when emails are sent, you let everyone know you are on it with a simple reply back.

Short on time? We don’t shame emojis. A thumbs up or a smiley face is all we need to know that the team is aware of the ask and on it.

This standard of over-communication makes everyone better communicators.

2. Going Virtual Makes You a Better Vision Caster

Culture is based on a shared vision. And if that vision is passed down effectively throughout your organization, it doesn’t matter if you share a desk or live across the ocean from one another.

In BELAY’s case, our vision is to provide world-class virtual assistance to companies across the country. And we trust our 600-plus team members to carry out that vision as if they owned the place.

We may work in separate locations, but we have shared values of gratitude, teamwork, vision, passion, fun and God. As long as we’re all on the same page in these areas, we’re going to succeed and serve our customers well.

3. Going Virtual Makes You Smarter with Your Money

Personnel budget is often the largest expense any business has. Unless you’re a one-person show, it is likely that you are spending a lot of money on people.

If all your money is tied up in personnel, you will choke on your own payroll.

But, growth is a good thing! Adding people will help spark new ideas, produce products, and offer services that generate revenue and help you accomplish your organizational objectives.

When it’s time to hire that next person, the first thing you’re going to want to understand is how much this hire is going to cost. In addition to salary, you must factor in:

health insurance
dental insurance
vision insurance
life insurance
short-term disability
paid vacation
sick time off
volunteer time off
retirement plans
workers compensation costs
equipment & resources
training and meetings
travel & expenses
401(k) matching
cell phone costs
internet costs

The list feels endless …

And this is just to get you started. A general rule of thumb is to add 35 to 50 percent to the salary you intend to pay. This is the “true cost” of your next hire. (And probably a number that is going to turn your stomach inside-out.)

The cost of even one full-time employee can be discouraging.

For growing businesses and organizations who need help, adding employees means accruing fixed costs versus variable costs.

Today’s business climate demands agility — especially in the area of staffing. That’s why businesses are relying on freelancers and outsourced services more than ever.

Going virtual allows you to “lock in” a fixed monthly cost that is much, much lower than adding a W-2 employee.

But, sometimes you need to see all the facts before you can make a decision. We’ve created a tool to help you gauge just how much an employee can cost. Fill out the Employee Burden Cost Calculator below. Once you have the final number, we’d love to have a conversation to see if we might be the right fit for you.

Nick’s Notes: To learn more about Bryan’s company, BELAY, check out the full write-up and customer reviews here, and be sure to check out his new book, Virtual Culture.

TimeSvr

Posted by Mica Harvey / Task-Based Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

TimeSvr.com is a virtual assistant company that was founded in 2008. The company is based in Pakistan, and was actually the service I used to hire my first full-time assistant.

As a customer, you can opt for dedicated assistance or task/team-based service. TimeSvr virtual assistants (they call them “aides”) are college-educated young professionals with proficient English language skills. Depending on your needs, your TimeSvr aide can work flexible hours, which is helpful given the 12 hour time difference between the US and their offices.

These virtual assistants really get into your business. They stay up to date with and research the market and competition. They read and follow reviews, engage users and potential customers through twitter, facebook or LinkedIn.

Services

The task-based assistants handle your basic administrative tasks like online research, travel planning and coordination, setting up appointments and that sort of thing. With this plan, you can send in your task requests, and the first available assistant will get to work on it and notify you when it is complete. You can use their online interface to submit tasks or use email, Skype, or another instant messaging service.

With a dedicated rep, you have a little more leeway into training and ongoing processes. TimeSvr explains that their aides can double up as customer support reps, conduct PR campaigns, set-up user testing experiments, and a variety of other projects small business owners can think up.

I had my dedicated TimeSvr assistant work on my Google AdWords campaigns, data entry projects in Excel, and research and write company blog posts.

TimeSvr Review

Plans and Pricing

TimeSvr offers two levels of service: TimeSvr Personal and TimeSvr Dedicated.

They’re best-known for their personal plan, which allows you to unload “unlimited” basic tasks for just $69/month. Basic tasks are typically defined as one-off projects, usually lasting 15 minutes or less, such as managing appointments, making phone calls, online research, and travel reservations.

With TimeSvr Dedicated, you can get a dedicated Business Support Agent who works 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for $700 a month. It works out to less than $9 an hour. The advantage of the Dedicated plan is you aren’t limited by “basic” tasks. You get to work one-on-one with your assistant and train them just as you would an in-house employee. They can work for hours or days on one project without interruption.

TimeSvr Dedicated is quite affordable for this level of service, plus you don’t have to worry about payroll processing, employment taxes, benefits, or even providing a workspace.

Even though TimeSvr is one of the smaller virtual assistant companies, both of their plans offers a great value.

TimeSvr Alternatives

The closest alternative to TimeSvr is Efficise, a new virtual assistant company in Pakistan actually founded by TimeSvr alumni. They’re offering 50 tasks a month for just $65.

Another entry is OkayRelax, with dedicated assistants out of the Philippines.

If you don’t think you’ll have enough tasks to justify an “unlimited” plan or the 50 tasks a month, you might consider smaller options from US-based firms like Fancy Hands or Red Butler.

If you have had experience with TimeSvr, positive or negative, please rate your experience below.

crowdSPRING

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

crowdSPRING is a freelance marketplace for graphic design, web design, and logo creation services.

While other freelance sites try and be everything to everyone, Chicago-based crowdSPRING focuses on these creative niches. The company was founded in 2008, and has attracted a userbase numbering in the tens of thousands from all over the world.

How CrowdSpring Works

The way it works is you post a description of the work you need done, and talented designers submit their ideas. On average, projects receive over 100 submissions so you’re sure to get a range of designs to choose from and find one that fits your vision.

Designers on crowdSPRING have created graphics for a wide range of applications, including company logos, business cards, stationary, product packaging, marketing materials, t-shirts, banner ads, you name it.

Essentially it’s a winner-take-all design contest you’re sponsoring for a fixed fee. Once you’ve picked the winner, the designer gets paid and you’re covered by crowdSPRING’s money-back guarantee.

Posting a contest on the site would be an alternative to hiring a graphic designer locally or bringing on a part-time virtual employee for design work.

If I were a designer, the 100+ submissions would be a major turnoff – a lot of talented people are putting in the time for a less than 1% chance of getting paid. But hey as a business owner looking to source some great design work, it’s a great set-up.

One way crowdSPRING differentiates itself from other sites like oDesk is they set a “floor price” for each type of project. For example, logo design starts at $269 (slightly less than at 99designs); web design from $729.

You can raise your price to (in theory) attract higher quality creatives. This eliminates the race-to-the-bottom bidding system you might find elsewhere, and lets you view the work before forking over the cash.

Services

crowdSPRING also works as a marketplace for writing services as well. These projects might include article writing, business naming, resume/cover letter writing, technical writing, and others.

crowdSPRING writing projects all start at $269, but for some of the examples given it’s not entirely clear what your deliverables would be. For that reason, I might stick with HireWriters or CopywriterToday for writing projects.

Your Turn

Have you worked with crowdSPRING? If so, please leave a quick review of your experience below.

Surplus Hands

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

Surplus Hands is a virtual assistant company that employs exclusively US-based virtual assistants. Their offices are located in Philadelphia, and their assistants work remotely across the US.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider Surplus Hands if you’re not based in the US however. They have many clients in countries outside the US, such as Canada, Australia and all across Europe.

About Surplus Hands

The company is run by founder Yassine Jouichate. Surplus Hands started operations towards the end of 2015 and have been “growing exponentially” in their short time in the virtual assistant space.

Surplus Hands have a team of virtual assistants ready to handle any business tasks you’re looking to outsource. They always guarantee you will have a backup assistant too, so should your assistant take time off for an emergency or book holiday time your service will be uninterrupted.

Their assistants are all US College Educated, and capable of handling administrative tasks, research, development of WordPress sites, marketing, and more. When I asked them who their target customers were they said, “small businesses, entrepreneurs and fortune 500 company employees who do not have the equipment or setting to hire an in-person employee.”

Services

With their company directive to become the “go-to-company” for your virtual assistant needs, their assistants cover a wide range of tasks. To get the most from their services I recommend contacting them with as much detail as possible about the work you want completed and see how well their assistants match up with your requirements.

Virtual assistant services are typically not limited to the type of business, but more so the types of tasks you’re outsourcing. You should contact Surplus Hands and provide as much detail as you can about the work you need completed and see how their assistants and skill-sets match up.

There is also a free trial available by filling out a form on their site. Using free trials is always the best way to sample a company’s services and see how well they treat you.

Plans and Pricing

Surplus Hands break down their pricing into 4 different plans.

You can also contact them to build a custom plan by discussing all your requirements and they will supply you with a quote. This is best used for large or one-off projects.

Their plans include:

The $97 per month “Starter” plan, which gives you 5 hours of virtual assistant time ($19.40 an hour).
The $229 per month “Economy” plan, which gives you 12 hours of time ($19.08 per hour).
The $449 per month “Business” plan, which is good for 25 hours ($17.96 per hour).
The $799 “Ultimate” plan, which is good for 45 hours per month ($17.75 per hour).

The rates seem almost suspiciously low, bordering on “too-good-to-be-true” territory. I mean, $18-20 an hour sounds great for US-based help, but can’t leave much margin to operate the business.

All of their plans come with a 1 hour trial period for free. Your dedicated assistant will be available between 9am – 6pm in your time zone, and on larger plans your unused hours roll over month to month.

Surplus Hands Alternatives

For US-based virtual assistants, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a company offering similar rates outside of freelancers on Upwork. If your budget allows, established and well-reviewed companies like Time Etc or Boldly may be worth a look.

Despite the name similarity, I wouldn’t consider Fancy Hands a direct competitor because they operate on a task-based model without a dedicated assistant.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Surplus Hands? Please leave a brief review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

WordPress Sucks! How to Take Your Site from Frustrating to Fabulous

Posted by Mica Harvey / News

This contribution comes from Phillip Koo, the founder of Zen WP, a popular WordPress support company.

*************

“WordPress is awesome,” they said.

“It’s easy,” they said.

If you’re sitting there cursing “they” right now and about to throw your laptop across the room, I’ve been there.

To be fair, WordPress is an amazing platform. It features the most modern website functionality used in the market today such as email notifications, user management, indexing, and more.

But best of all, it’s free!

And because the platform is open-source, there’s an incredibly robust community building themes, plugins, and providing support.

What does all of this mean?

During the dot-com era, website technology was limited in that if you weren’t a developer or had any technical knowledge, you were limited to building static HTML websites through very elementary website builders.

Remember Angelfire?

Nick’s Notes: For me it was Frontpage 🙂

The good news is things are a lot different today thanks to WordPress.

Today, you can install a complete WordPress environment through a budget host for a couple of dollars and install a free plugin like “The Events Calendar” and immediately have a useable and complete calendar, event registration, and content management website in less than one hour and all without any knowledge of coding — something that would have taken months to build 20 years ago.

But there are a couple of caveats to all this, and WordPress can be immensely frustrating for new users.

Nick’s Notes: And even for veteran WP users too at times!

1. The Steep WordPress Learning Curve

Though you can get out of the gates with some amazing modern technology in your new WordPress site, if you’re just getting your feet wet in the website development or management in general, you’ll probably have trouble answering questions like:

What are the best practices to managing user roles that I should follow?
How do I ensure that transactional emails get delivered to my customers?
How do I keep on top of security?
How do I stay in compliance with the law regarding transactions on my site (SSL, payment processors, etc.)?

These are questions that need to be answered if you intend on using your WordPress site for anything other than a personal blog.

Every Expert was Once a Beginner…

…but being a beginner in an expert’s world is discouraging.

This is where a lot of new WordPress users or website owners get overwhelmed and give up. They realize that they have to spend months learning various aspects of owning a website for their business before it’s truly operational.

Nick’s Notes: There’s a learning curve when using any new software. Although it’s getting easier to use and many themes are getting closer to true “drag-and-drop” functionality, it can be difficult to get your website to “cooperate” and behave and look how you’d like it to.

I’ve spent hours trying to explain to Google what I want done, pasting in someone else’s sample code from some forum thread, and crossing my fingers it does what I want without breaking the site.

So I get it when some tells me WordPress sucks!

Lately I’ve been trying to get better about just asking for help from companies like Phillip’s when I run into trouble. It saves me a ton of time and headache.

2. The Cluttered WordPress Ecosystem

Anything you can imagine can be built on WordPress.

At Zen WP‘s partner agency, Fluent, we’ve spoken with a lot of clients who’ve come to us asking for specific functionality that they need incorporated into their WordPress sites. And there’s never been a time we couldn’t think of a plugin or theme that provided what they needed out-of-the-box or an existing plugin that we could customize or build on.

Plugins for Days

But while this is on one hand the biggest advantage of building on WordPress, it can also be the cause of problems and frustration with your website.

It’s very common for new WordPress users to start downloading a variety of plugins as if they’re ordering off a menu.

Here’s the disturbing truth: you don’t have to be a vetted developer or even a competent one in order to build and distribute a theme or plugin throughout the WordPress community. Because of that there are a lot of plugins and themes you need to avoid.

Security Headaches

Granted, many of the plugins you’ll hear of or come across are going to be built by some great people who really understand WordPress and are experts in their fields. But many of them also lack the budgets to properly debug or properly test for security.

It’s the same reason why people who have given up on WordPress are quick to say that WordPress is not secure.

That’s not necessarily true. It’s not WordPress’ job to secure your site; that’s your responsibility. But it all comes from a lack of knowledge for which I don’t blame anyone.

Nick’s Notes: Ever had your site hacked? That’s a scary experience.

3. The Myth of the “Finished” WordPress Website

I mentioned our partner agency, Fluent, above. This is our full service digital agency where about 20% of our revenue comes from web development.

We work with businesses of all sizes from enterprise to sole proprietors, and we admittedly have trouble selling our monthly maintenance plans to our low-budget clients.

Are You Ever Really “Done”?

The truth is no website is truly ever “finished.” We can hand over the keys to a newly-developed site, but technology evolves and security requirements change over time.

Nick’s Notes: I make changes to my sites weekly. Sometimes it’s just adding content, sometimes it’s adding new functionality, sometimes it’s testing a different feature, but they’re in a constant state of evolution.

I consider a service like Phillip’s Zen WP to be “website insurance.” For a low monthly fee you’ve got someone on call should anything break or if you need to make any updates.

Compare it to your car. It probably costs about the same to insure, but is probably far more valuable to your business.

Making Sure Everything Plays Nice

In the WordPress world, when you have WordPress, a running theme, and 15 active plugins, what’s essentially happening is that you’re running 20 pieces of software together to make your website and you’re praying that everything works together flawlessly, which is almost never the case.

There’s always going to be plugins that go out of date and break functionality or incompatible plugins and themes, or new features you want to add.

When working with WordPress, you’ll have to fight the constant battle of updating plugins and themes, checking the site for functionality, addressing reports of bugs, replacing themes and plugins, etc.

It’s not WordPress’ fault nor is all of this unique to WordPress; it’s just the nature of open-source software and it’s the price you pay for flexibility and freedom.

So What Can You Do?

If you’re a business owner selling, say, scooters, and you want to create a website for your business, you probably don’t have time to figure all of this out. And if you’re a much smaller business, you probably don’t have the budget to hire a developer to work for you either.

Website Insurance

This is where WordPress support services like Zen WP or virtual assistants become very useful. They’re able fill this need at a budget that’s easier for micro businesses to work with.

In the past few years, we’ve seen a lot of WordPress technical support companies enter the this niche for the purpose of meeting this very need.

Nick’s Notes: Most of these services cost less than $100 a month, which is a small price to pay for “website insurance” and to make sure you have a professional IT guy or girl on call should the need arise.

Your Turn and Next Steps

The response from the market has been tremendously positive. I think a lot of bloggers and businesses find it to be a relief and are happy to hire WordPress support companies to ensure that the digital face of their business continues to operate without having to lose sleep at night.

So if you’re frustrated with WordPress, don’t throw in the towel just yet. Because of the popularity of the platform, there’s a global network of affordable website assistants ready to help!

Check out Zen WP, Nick’s write-up and review of his experience, and the array of other outsourced IT department-style companies.

Twago

Posted by Mica Harvey / Freelance Virtual Assistants

Twago is one of the largest platforms in Europe helping businesses all over the world find freelancers to help them with tasks and projects. The company has been in operation since 2009 and has grown a large marketplace for clients and freelancers to work together.

(The name, if you’re curious, comes from the phrase TeamWork Across Global Offices.)

About Twago

The company’s head office is based in Germany. The freelancers using the platform are based all over the world, as are the customers. The company is run by founder, Thomas Jajeh. He is responsible for IT development, product management, and performance marketing at Twago. Hermann Hohenberger is responsible for affiliate marketing, sales, and support.

The platform makes it easy for businesses of all sizes to find experts matching the skill sets needed to complete their tasks. You can find support for all areas of your business, such as site design and development, writing services, sales and marketing support, mobile app design, translation services, and more.

Their target customers are entrepreneurs and start-ups, to large enterprises. The size of the business doesn’t matter; you fill in a few details about your job, budget, and the skill sets you’re looking for from the freelancer, and the platform does the rest to provide you with some potential freelancers.

Twago Intro Video

Services

As with most large marketplaces that allow you to post jobs and choose from the applicants that apply, there is a wide scope of services available. You’ll find programmers, designers, translators, marketers, and a whole host of other specialties.

If the work can be completed remotely there is a good chance you will find a freelancer to help. Because of the European focus, you may find more support for German, Italian, Spanish, and French-speaking assistants than on other freelance sites.

Plans and Pricing

Posting a project on the Twago platform is free. You only pay for the work that will be completed. Each project is evaluated on an individual basis, you add a budget to your project posting and this gives freelancers the opportunity to bid for the project based on your budget.

There are some optional extras to help your project posting stand out from the crowd, these are:

€149 ($170) – This hires you some assistance from Twago staff to make your project job the best it can be.
€49 ($55) – This fast-tracks your project so you receive offers within minutes.
€79 ($90) – Limit proposals from freelancers that sign your NDA.
€29 ($33) – Block your listing from search engines to limit it to just the Twago marketplace.

The site applies up-to-date SSL certificates on all monetary transactions making it safe and easy to send and receive payments.

Twago may not be the best fit for ongoing virtual assistant work. They explain that jobs on the platform “are generally limited in scope and duration and do not involve a traditional employer/employee relationship.”

Twago Alternatives

The largest alternatives to Twago are sites like Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, Guru.com, and PeoplePerHour.

Your Turn

Have you posted a project on Twago? If so, please leave a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

Copify

Posted by Mica Harvey / Content Writing Services

Copify is a content marketplace where you can buy content for your site, press releases, ebook content, or any other needs from US and UK-based copywriters.

The company has been in business since 2010 and is based in the UK. They have the largest network of UK-based copywriters, and can handle orders within 48 hours.

About Copify

The company is run by CEO Martin Harrison and co-founder Rob McVey, who are both directors of Copify. Martin looks after the marketing side of the business, along with recruitment and customer service, while Rob looks after the technical side of the business.

All of their copywriters work remotely across the United States and the UK. Your writing project will be assigned a “native” writer based on your preferred geography.

Copify’s services are aimed at digital marketing agencies and professionals in need of quality written content. Content is the driving force behind online promotion. It’s also one of the most time-consuming tasks behind running a blog/website.

Outsourcing written content to professionals who can turnaround your order quickly and optimize the content for SEO can save business owners a lot of time and money.

Copify Intro Video

Copify Services

Whatever your written content needs, Copify promises to deliver. Some of the more popular forms of content include:

Article writing
Blog posts
Press releases
Product reviews
Ecommerce content
SEO copywriting

One of the biggest struggles of online business is finding an audience of customers, and content marketing has emerged as the most popular way to do just that. But if you don’t have the time to craft compelling content yourself, hiring an outsourced service can get you in the game.

With Copify, you can order content on a one-off basis or in bulk and request changes to your order before accepting the work.

WordPress users can use a special plugin to import their content directly into their site with links and formatting intact, instead of having to copy and paste.

Plans and Pricing

Their pricing model is based on cost per word.

“Standard” copy costs £0.03 a word, and “Professional” copy costs £0.05 per word. At these rates, you will pay £15 and £25 respectively for a 500 word piece of content.

In the US, you’re looking at $30 for a 500 word blog post at the Professional level. (I actually couldn’t find the option for “Standard.”)

These prices are considerably higher than you would expect to pay from a “content mill” (see below), but theoretically reflective of the quality and experience of their copywriters, all of whom are native English speakers and go through some strict testing to be approved and join the team of freelancers working for Copify.

When you place an order, you select what type of content you need, describe your requirements such as the keywords to include or the tone to write in, and hit submit. A typical turnaround time is just 48 hours.

Copify Alternatives

While Copify’s rates are higher than what you might find at “content mill” sites like HireWriters and Textbroker (or Fiverr), they’re significantly lower than companies like Ellipsis, which charges up to $200 for a 500-word article.

Another service offering native English writing service is Copywriter Today, and they have an interesting subscription based model that could end up saving you money depending on your content demands.

Your Turn

Have you ordered content from Copify? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Codementor

Posted by Mica Harvey / Technical Assistants

Codementor is a software support company offering one-to-one support and mentorship to students, business owners, and aspiring developers looking to learn how to code — or just to get a quick answer to your coding question.

The company has been in operation since 2014. They are based in San Francisco and Taiwan, and they employ mentors all over the globe.

About Codementor

The company is funded by Techstars, 500 Startups and other investors, and is headed up by CEO Weiting Liu. They provide a marketplace for coding experts to mentor anyone looking to learn more about coding.

Their mentors cover more than 800 topics and offer training and mentorship to beginners and advanced coders. Their mentors are based all over the world and connect with customers via screen sharing, video and text chat.

Their services are aimed at anyone interested in learning to code. Where the service applies to business owners is in getting real-time virtual support to resolve annoying website problems. It might not make sense to hire an in-house developer or post a job to Upwork for a small bug fix, but it still is a pressing issue.

Codementor Intro Video

Services

To connect with one of the mentors on the Codementor.io platform you need a PC or Mac. You can either make contact via on-screen chat, or if you have the ability to connect via video or audio call you can use these methods.

Codementor told me they typically respond to all requests within 10-30 minutes depending on the time of day and complexity of the request. Once one of their mentors has responded to your question you can open dialogue with them and discuss your requirements.

They’re not necessarily going to do the work for you — although I imagine the expert developers DO source some jobs from the platform — but more point you in the right direction on how you can solve the problem yourself. There are a number of times for this site where I could have used a service like this to fix one feature or make some small tweak to the design!

After a preview period you click “start paid session.” Your credit card will be billed at the end of the session. Using Zoom.us you can record your sessions to review again at a later date.

Plans and Pricing

Codementor provides an open marketplace for developers to set their own rates. Rates typically start at around $10-15 per 15 minutes and go up from there. Doesn’t that sound more affordable than $60 an hour?

There is a minimum charge for the first 15 minutes for each session, with the following time charged at the mentor’s rate per minute.

There is a money back guarantee in place. If you are not satisfied with your mentor within the first hour you can request a refund.

Codementor is also building out a gig marketplace similar to Fiverr or PeoplePerHour. These are fixed-price projects with a specific deliverable.

For example, when I looked under their mobile app development category, I found gigs ranging from $25 to $2000 and more:

Codementor Alternatives

Clarity.fm provides a similar one-on-one support marketplace allowing to you to connect with experts, but their focus isn’t as niche as Codementor.io.

For technical help like this, your options are pretty much to hire a developer on Upwork (or Fiverr for small jobs), or sign up for a recurring maintenance service like Zen WP.

Your Turn

Have you worked with a mentor on the Codementor platform? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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