10 Things You Don't Know About Working From Home as A Virtual Assistant

Maybe right now you might already know a lot about Virtual Assistants, how it works, how to avoid scam, what are the skills needed, and other important aspects concerning working from home as a virtual assistant. But allow me to share with you 10 things you don't know about working from home as a VA.

 I don't know if this will inspire you or not but it really depends on how you manage and value your time with you family at home. The list below actually happens in real VA life scenario and it might happen to you as well.  Good thing is that you are already aware of the good and the bad side. 

1. You'll suddenly realize that housewives are totally busy people -with hardly any breaks.
2. You'll be challenged not to work because your cute baby is staring at you, saying "play!".
3. You'll be asked constantly, "What do you want to eat today" by your spouse.
4. If you're not careful, that DVD collection will be your #1 distraction from work.
5. You don't remember when was the last time you took a bath/shaved.
6. You're suddenly more interested in nice looking shorts and pajamas in the mall.
7. Your cellphone isn't getting much use unlike before.
8. When you walk to the neighborhood park, pool, all you see are yayas and their wards.
9. When it rains, you're happy you're indoors and won't be going anywhere!
10. In the hot months, you're happy that you can afford an aircon for your room!


-Jomarhilario.com


So there it is --the honest good and bad.  Find out how you can work from your nice bahay --even if you're already abroad: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4371417


P.S. Don't worry, this is no s-c-*a-m. I know the guy. Read and judge for yourself: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4371417

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How to Use Google Calendar?

Finally, this is my 10th blog post for 10 applications/websites/tools which are very helpful on my journey as a Virtual Assistant. Though my goal before was to share only 10 tools on this blog, I realized that it’s a lot of fun making presentations and imparting my knowledge to others. So expect more tools to come one of these days.

Ok, let’s go back to the main topic. Google Calendar can help you organized schedules for meetings, appointments, events, and other activities that you don’t want to miss. Whether it is personal or business matters, Google Calendar can help you manage your schedules effectively.

Google Calendar is like my personal digital Virtual Assistant that reminds me on my daily schedule. When I am the organizer of an event, it will also remind other participants that they have a scheduled event and this done automatically.

Go ahead, view the presentation below and follow the step by step procedure on how to use this wonderful tool from Google. 

How to Use Google Calendar

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How to keep notes efficiently Using Evernote?

Conventionally we use a piece of paper or a notebook to take and keep notes of things that we want to remember. In a computer, we might be using notepad, MS Word, and other MS Office tools to keep notes organized. 

Those are good tools way back then and somehow I’m still using it up until now, in some cases. However, the whole ball game has already changed; people are now into mobile lifestyle. Carrying a paper notebook or a laptop is just too much inconvenient in the world of mobility. We need a tool that stores our notes where we can access it conveniently anytime anywhere. 

This is the idea behind Evernote, it’s a digital repository which organized all your notes and keeps them searchable so you can find your notes easily. Your files are being stored in the “Cloud” or internet so there is no need to carry your own laptop. Just drop by in an internet café then you can already access all your notes. 

If you hate to go to an internet café, then install Evernote in your smart phones. Evernote works in iPhone, the BlackBerry, phone running Google’s Android operating system, the latest PALM phones, and windows mobile phones.

What if there is no internet connection?

You can still access your notes offline since Evernote synchronized your data. These means that, Evernote on your Smart phone, Laptop, Desktop, and your internet account will all have the same data content. Synchronization of data happens by the time you are online.

As a Virtual Assistant, this tool is very vital to my day to day work productivity. It makes a lot easier to keep track of all my notes and access them fast and convenient.

I have created a presentation for a step by step procedure on how to install and use some of the basic functions of Evernote. Please go through the presentation below and I would appreciate if you can write some comments for this blog post.

How to Use Evernote

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How to Use Talk Shoe?

TalkShoe is a service that enables anyone to easily create, join,or listen to Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcast and Audio blogs.You could be a pod caster or talk radio host instantly even if you are not a "Techie" person.

Below are the benefits you can get with TalkShoe:

• Community Calls can be recorded and listened to
• FREE recording
• FREE storage
• FREE bandwidth
• Uploading of existing podcast episodes
• Unlimited recording hours
• Detailed statistics reports
• Earn money with TalkShoe Cash 

How it Works.

TalkShoe is really a great tool for Pod casting, audio blogging, or even just simply adding interactivity to any online event. I'm new to TalkShoe but it seems that I feel I'm not a beginner because the application is very user friendly and you can easily find free tutorials online on how to use the application.

You could use this service to interview others, get a discussion going on, host a teleseminar or workshop, record your own audio or even upload an existing pre-recorded podcast/audio recording too. At the end of the day, the best part of this great tool is that its for FREE!!

I created a PowerPoint which is step by step procedure on how to install and use some of the basic functions of TalkShoe.

How to Use Talkshoe

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How to Use Backupify?



 In this post I’m going to share with you another useful tool in the Internet, his name Backupify. Backupify (www.backupify.com) is a website that provides backup on your online data such as Gmail emails or maybe Facebook pictures.

In the presentation below, you will know the rest of the sites that are supported by Backupify. You can open an account for free but the storage space is just minimal (only 2GB), or you may opt to pay a dollar for a much larger storage space.

How Backupify can help you?

When I was still in college, I lost two email accounts because I forgot the passwords. I tried to recover the account by answering the security questions, but still it did not work.

Those accounts contain files and emails for my thesis, and it was really painful because I did the rework from scratch. Fortunately, I have saved some of the files in my thumb drive and still able to deliver the thesis just in time.

If only I have a Backupify that time, there should never be a problem because my files/emails will be backed up.

So diffenetely, Backupify can help recover your data on your Gmail, facebook, and other accounts when S***** happens.

How to Use Backupify

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Be an Effective Virtual Assistant, Use Jing Screen Capture.

Jing is a screen capture software powered by Techsmith, it enables you to capture images or record on screen tutorial videos.

Whether you are a business man, Teacher, Entrepreneur, or just a high school student helping an onshore grandpa how to upload photos in Facebook, Jing is good to go.

Often times just words are not enough, inefficient, vague, and sometimes leads to miscommunication.

Adding visual elements to your online conversations will make it a lot easier to understand a certain discussion. With Jing, explaining Ideas, giving feedback, collaborating on projects, or simply sharing information’s becomes so much easier.

There are other screen capture applications out there, but I prefer to use Jing screen capture because besides it is free it is also user friendly and amazingly reliable.

This is a great tool for virtual assistants like me. If the client instructions are not clear, I can simply record an on screen video, send it to the client and ask this question “Is this what you want me to do?”. That’s it, by this way I can eliminate unnecessary exchange of emails and most importantly, I save some of my precious time.

Personally I’m very glad I learned this application, it makes my life much fun and easier

How to Use Jing Screen Capture Read More......

How to Use Dropbox?

I want to share another tool called Dropbox, which is very helpful to me as a Virtual Assistant.

Dropbox syncs files online to your local Computer. It means, you can transfer files to your local computer even if you are hundreds of miles away to your office, but provided you have an internet connection.

Sync what??? 

Ok let’s explain this piece by piece.
Let’s say you’re working on an onshore site or perhaps you are on vacation in the Philippines, specifically in the beautiful island called Cebu (no bias,I’m from Cebu). 

You’re in the middle of your enjoyment then unexpectedly your phones rings, an assistant asking for a customer files (orders) and if you cannot send her the files right away you will lose $1 million every 2 hours.

Fortunately, you found out that the files were saved in your laptop. But the problem is how are you going to send an 80 GB file? You can’t attach that large amount of file and send it through email.

But luckily you have a Dropbox account and you have installed Dropbox on your office computer. So you just find an internet connection for your laptop and Log in to your Dropbox account and upload all the needed files. Dropbox will then gradually transfer your 80 GB file to your Office computer. Sync means synchronization of data. So whatever you uploaded in your dropbox online account, it will also appear to your local computer.

 Dropbox save the day!!! It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Dropbox is also very useful when you are working in different sites. For instance, you are working on 3 countries and travels often. But you are the kind of person that hates carrying a laptop or a storage device for your files.

So all you need to do is to install Dropbox on your computers in each office (country), upload your files on Dropbox, and then you can work on any of the 3 offices because you have all the files needed. Sounds good ha!

Click here this link to create an account http://db.tt/5pKfe2d

How to Use Dropbox

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How to Convert MS Word to PDF Online.

I just want to share with you this another tool which I learned from my Virtual Assitants Training. I've been using this for quite some time now and so far I find it very realiable and useful.

There are other ways to convert word doc to PDF and there are a lot existing applications in the market now that do this function.Some of them are legal and some are illegal but don’t worry what I’m going to show is a legal way and the good thing is that, it’s FREE!!!

Though one thing you must have is internet connection. Yes, you should be online to do the conversion. No internet, no convertion.

Three Reasons why you should use PDF instead of MS Word.

1. PDF files are generally more compact (smaller in size) than the Word document and they easily preserve the original formatting.
2. Unlike Word and other popular document formats, the contents of a PDF file cannot be modified easily. You still need an application to edit/modify it.
3. You can view PDF files on almost any computer or even mobile phone using the web browser.

Ok I’ll stop the talking now and let you do the actual. It’s very easy, have fun!

How to Convert Word Doc to PDF

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How to Protect Your Computer from Spywares?

Spybot is just another tool I learned during my Virtual Assistants Training in the Philippines. This is a freeware designed to detect and remove spywares which are very rampant in the web today. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behavior to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.

Months ago, I received an email from an unknown company offering a discount for a malicious product. I wonder how they get my email. My friend’s PC often shutdowns itself even there is no power failure. Worst case is when they hijack your email account and use it for their advantage. 

These are just example of spyware infections and some of it symptoms are hardly noticeable. 

To get rid of these spywares, you must install anti-spyware just like Spybot and scan your computer twice a month.Now you might be asking this question “Why I still need to have Spybot while I already have an anti-virus? The answer is, hybrid spywares are not easily detected by an ordinary anti-virus, so to be safe better have an anti-virus plus Spybot to have double protection on your computer.

Please find below the step by step procedure on how to install and use Spybot Search and Destroy.

How to Use Spybot Search and Destroy

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How to use Google Chrome?

Are you looking for a fast and convenient internet browser? 


Google Chrome is just right for you. 

I use internet explorer before but when I joined the Virtual Assistant Seminar by Jomar Hilario, I found out that Google
Chrome is much better internet browser.

Google Chrome is an internet browser developed by Google.

Some of its advantages are:

1. Light Weight

2. Colorful – You can set your own theme.

3. Easy browsing facility

4. Contains own task manager

5. Great bookmark facility

6. Displays your most visited websites (saves time of typing the websites URL)

There is also a mode in browsing that they call Incognito Mode. When you are in incognito mode you can set your browser not to store information’s from the visited websites. In other words, the website you visited won’t appear in your browser history. Cookies are also deleted auto automatically after you close the website.

I created a presentation for a step by step procedure on How to install and use Google Chrome. I hope you'll find this blog post helpful. I would appreciate if you can leave a comment below.

How to Use Google Chrome

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How to Share Documents Effectively Using Google Docs?

                                                             
Usually, we share documents through email but this often leads to problem such as listed below:

1. Cannot attach big files.

2. Lost or delayed emails.

3. Unreadable attachments.

4. Confusing document versions.

5. Lost data integrity.

These are some of the common problems that you and I have probably encountered using emails as a medium of sharing documents. But since the birth of Google Docs these problems seems to be not an issue anymore.

How Google Docs Work? 

Google Docs provide a storage place where you can put all your documents. Since it is online you can access it anywhere, anytime provided you have internet connection. You can share your documents to others by just giving them the link through email or chat. You can also set restriction to your documents. This means that you can select few people whom you trusted to edit your documents. Others will have view-only, they can view the document but they can't edit it.

Google Docs is really helpful when it comes to team collaboration. Instead of exchanging emails with documents attached on it, the team members can access directly the document and work on it at the same time. With Google Docs, less hassle more efficiency.

Get the detailed procedure on the presentation below on how to share documents using Google Docs.

How Share Documents Effectively Use Google Docs Read More......

Virtual Assistants Training Philippines: How to increase your blog traffic?

Are you wondering why your blog gets few visitors in spites of great contents? Virtual Assistants Training Philippines help me understand why.

What I love with this Virtual Assistants Training is that it’s not only beneficial for Virtual Assistants but also for bloggers and businessmen. In my case, I’m a blogger and I’m trying the best I can to write quality content that would satisfy my readers. However, my blogs still get few visitors. Through this training I found out that great content is important but it is not enough to bring more traffic into your blog. Virtual Assistants Training Philippines focus on teaching SEO (Search Engine Optimizition) and SEO copy writing.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. In plain words, SEO is just a strategy of getting your website on the top-most of the first page of a search Engine (ex. Google, yahoo, bing).

How SEO can Increase traffic?

Most of the searchers focus only on the website in the first page result of Google. They don’t want to bother anymore of viewing the second page. You don’t want your blog to be in the second page because it has lesser chances of being viewed by a searcher. So if your website is optimized and it is in the first page of Google, the possibility of getting click by a searcher is higher. The chance of getting visitors is higher and this also means Increase in traffic is higher.

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