Filipino Virtual Assistants: What They Can Do and How Much They Cost

Virtual assistants hourly rates are fixed on the basis of the skills required. And the amount of time it takes to complete the tasks depends on the amount of work provided. Carl John Fechner talks about the tasks of the Filipino Virtual Assistants and what they can do and how much they cost.Here you go.

I’ve been talking about the benefits of hiring Filipino virtual assistants in this past series of articles. By now you should have a pretty good idea of how the process works. You might have heard other people bad-mouth outsourcing and say that it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

It can be, if you don’t know what you’re doing, or don’t do your due diligence, or expect your Filipino VA to be a panacea that fixes all your business woes. The clue is in the name: your VA is there to assist you by taking recurring jobs off your shoulders. You break these tasks up by areas of expertise.

Administrative VAs

An administrative VA does work such as the following tasks, for about 20 to 40 hours per week:

Filtering email and getting rid of spam
Building your database
Updating contacts and CRM (Customer Relationship Management software)
Customer service
Answering emails
Live Chat
Tickets
Managing your calendar and scheduling appointments
Make travel arrangements
Transcribe videos and audio files
Preparing the minutes for an online meeting
Doing online research and data mining
Acting as a receptionist
Basic bookkeeping (using software such as MYOB, XERO, and Quickbooks)
Personal errands such as buying gifts online
Project management and training

According to our calculations, assuming 2080 hours worked per year, you might expect to pay a Filipino administrative VA around AU$12,000, whereas you might pay a local VA around AU$60,000, and salary and benefits for an in-house assistant might reach AU$109,000.

Technical VAs

Technical VAs can handle tasks such as programming, web development, and SEO (search engine optimization). They might also do some writing or graphic design work. Some of the tasks they might handle are:

Modify a page on a website: 1-2 days
Create a new page for a website: 4-5 days
Make a brand-new website: 10-15 days
Design or redesign a database: 3-5 days
Track down and fix a bug: 2-3 days

SEO tasks might be things such as:

Setting up Google analytics and webmaster tools and monitoring the data: 2 – 3 days per site
Reviewing website authority and metrics with SEO tools such as MOZ, Majestic SEO, and ahrefs: 4 hours per day or less depending on site performance
Inspecting web pages’ meta title tags: 15 minutes per page
Deleting duplicate content: 15 minutes per content
Content quality control (making sure it reads well and doesn’t sound keyword stuffed or spammy): 1 – 4 hours with revisions
Linking to other related and high-quality websites: times may vary

For a Filipino technical VA, you might be expected to pay around AU$20,000 per year, while a local VA might cost AU$140,000. An in-house web developer and SEO expert might set you back AU$220,000 a year.

Creative VAs

Once you have your website set up you’ll need to keep it updated with fresh content (preferably every few days or every week at the longest). Many Filipinos speak and write quite good English, especially when compared to other Asians.

Creative VAs do writing tasks such as:

Articles (700–1000 words): Varies with the amount of research needed
A video might need to be transcribed in order to create the article
Blog posts (500–1000 words): Depending on the topic and amount of research needed, it might take 1–2 hours. A more involved and technical post might take more than 5 hours.
Newsletters (300–500 words): 1 hour
Ebooks: 1 month
Sales and landing pages: 2 days including time to make corrections

You might expect to pay a Filipino writer about AU$15,000 per year, a local writer AU$83,500 per year, and an in-house writer might cost AU$151,500 per year.

A graphic designer would do tasks such as:

Build the layout and framework for a website : 3–5 hours from a template, 8 hours with changes and corrections included
Create a banner layout and add other graphics: 1–3 hours, with an additional 2 hours for changes and corrections
Design a logo and banners: 1–3 hours, with 1–3 hours for changes and corrections
Convert PSD to HTML/WordPress: 2–7 hours depending on how complicated the job is
Make a Slideshare presentation: 1–4 hours depending on how complicated it is

You might expect to pay a Filipino graphic designer about AU$16,000 per year, while a local one would cost AU$70,000. An in-house graphic designer might charge about AU$127,000 per year.

Social media VAs

In today’s market, all businesses need social media accounts – at least one, and preferably several. Social media specialists manage your social media accounts, replying to queries, setting up pages and adding new content. They perform tasks such as:

Developing and managing Facebook fan pages and groups: 30 minutes–1 hour
Promoting your Facebook pages: 15–30 minutes
Collecting and interpreting Facebook insights: 30 minutes –1 hour
Creating and managing Twitter accounts: 15–30 minutes
Scheduling Tweets, Track Mentions, and Hashtags: 15–30 minutes
Creating and managing a LinkedIn Account and Profile: 15–30 minutes
Creating and managing a Pinterest board: 15–30 minutes
Scheduling and tracking Pinterest pins: 15–30 minutes
Creating and Managing a YouTube account: 15–30 minutes
Uploading YouTube videos: 15–30 minutes
Moderating YouTube comments: 15–30 minutes
Responding to comments and messages: varies according to the number of comments and messages
Networking with other social users through different accounts: varies depending on the scope of your business

You might expect to pay a Filipino social media VA around AU$12,000 a year, a local around AU$56,000 a year, and an in-house social media guru around AU$109,000.

How much you can save with Filipino VAs

By our calculations, you can save a lot of money hiring Filipino virtual VAs:

For an administrative VA:

Compared to a local you would save AU$48,000 per year
Compared to an in-house employee you would save AU$97,000 per year

For a technical VA:

Compared to a local you would save AU$120,000 per year
Compared to the in-house staff you would save AU$200,000 a year

For a writer:

Compared to a local you would save AU$68,500
Compared to the in-house staff you would save AU$136,500

For a graphic designer:

Compared to a local you would save AU$54,000
Compared to the in-house staff you would save AU$111,000 per year

For a social media VA:

Compared to a local you would save AU$44,000
Compared to an in-house staff member you’d save AU$97,000

If you look at the numbers, you can see how much a Filipino VA could save you every year. Sure, a local employee might be easier to manage, but they would cost your business a lot more money.

This article was originally published by Carl John Fechner.

www.internetsecretsmadeeasy.com/outsourcing-changing-businesses/

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