Like many of our community members Lashawn Wiltz works a full-time job, while balancing her family demands and her photography blog, Everyday Eyecandy. For about a year, she’s been mulling over the idea of hiring a virtual assistant to help grow her blog’s reach. Lashawn was also feeling overwhelmed with all of the tasks of sharing her posts on social media and in blogging forums. First, it was hard to get over the idea of paying someone to do things she could do herself. Lashawn said, “Once I got over that, the problem was finding someone. Now I’m trying to understand what exactly VA’s offer.” If you’re considering hiring a virtual assistant to help grow your blog, keep reading for tasks you can assign to them and how much to pay them.
Tasks for a Blogger’s Virtual Assistant
The purpose of hiring a virtual assistant is to hire someone to do that things you don’t want to do, don’t know how to do and don’t have time to do.
You can hire a virtual assistant for your blog to do a variety of tasks including:
- Sharing/promoting blog posts
- Reorganizing Pinterest Boards
- Drafting blog posts & Ghost writing
- Creating pitch letters or campaign reports
- Designing/editing collages and images
- Researching topics and contacts for public relations and marketing
- Updated WordPress plugins and settings
- Responding to emails
- Writing your newsletters
- Syndicating blog posts across social media channels
Confidentiality Concerns
If you are sharing login and password information, client leads, billing, etc, with your blog’s virtual assistant, include a confidentiality clause within your agreement. You could also provide a non-disclosure clause as well.
How much do you pay a blogger’s virtual assistant?
As Lashawn learned, ” There is such a variety! Some do more than others some charge monthly some hourly.”
Talk it over with a virtual assistant on whether you need help with a specific project and negotiate a price. For more consistent, weekly tasks it’s typical for a virtual assistant to charge per hour. I’ve seen ranges from $10-$20 an hour depending on the virtual assistant’s experience and expertise. If your budget is extremely tight look over our past post Fiver for Bloggers: Burden or Blessing. Fiverr.com allows you to hire someone for as little as $5 per project. You can also ask your blogging tribe for a recommendation on a virtual assistant for bloggers.
Lashawn is moving forward with hiring a VA. “I just got a email back from one I sent an inquiry to last week. I’m waiting for her rates.”
Comment below: Which tasks would you like to assign a virtual assistant so you can work on larger projects? What’s holding you back?
