I Love my Job as a Virtual Assistant

For today's article, I am sharing with you what I do as a Virtual Assistant. You might be wondering, as a Filipino holding a third-world passport, how was I able to travel to different countries? As someone who is very active on Facebook sharing my travel blogs with different travel groups, one commenter was like, "I've seen your blogs and you've been to a lot of countries. What is your job?"

Since 2009, I've been working as a Virtual Assistant. If you want to know what is a Virtual Assistant or we simply say VA, Virtual Assistant is like a personal assistant but done virtually. Virtually can be done through a laptop or a desktop as long as there is an Internet connection.

Many times, many people asked me this kind of question as they are not familiar with what I actually do. It's a long explanation to do so I love to write about it.

Working on my laptop as a digital nomad in Bohol, Philippines

What do I do as a VA or a Virtual Assistant?

Here are some tasks I did for different clients.

Writing

I started as a writer on Odesk when a friend of mine hired me on the platform. I started so low just to get my first 5-star feedback.

I've done different writing jobs in the past. I wrote about travel, sports, exercise and workout, weeds, massage, and other weird and funny topics.

Here's my Upwork Profile looks like

Research

Being a good researcher is an essential part to be a writer because you need to study and understand what the topic is all about.

My home office back in Cebu year 2011 using a desktop, we used to have a little store in front of my parents' house

SEO or Search Engine Optimization

In writing content for certain topics, you need a keyword or keywords that are visible in the article. When you search on Google for 'how to be a good writer' that is already a keyword and various websites will appear on your tab.

Or 'how to travel to Boracay' then various travel blogs to choose from and read information about their experience in Boracay.

The aim of SEO is how to land your website to be number 1 on Google pages.

WordPress updates and setup

You need to be a technical person to do this and be familiar with WordPress. If you own a blog using WordPress even the free one, you will be happy with how to get around using this CMS.

Using a little MSI netbook as a backup gadget for my online job

Setting up a website means making a website from scratch. My client gave me some instructions on how to set up a WordPress website.

If the client has existing websites, you are assigned to update articles and photos to make the article look good when it is published.

Web designer

After setting up WordPress or other CMS platforms, you need to beautify the website with appropriate designs.

Graphic designer

Using Adobe Photoshop or Canva, you can create graphic designs for logos, flyers, menus, brochures, e-books or magazine covers, invitations, social media images, and many more.

Upgraded to a Lenovo laptop and worked on my MSI netbook at the same time

Photo editor

I edit photos using Adobe Photoshop and there are so many things you can do with your photo, making it look new when it's old. You can colorize a black-and-white photo. You can restore old photos from damage. Manipulate photos and create a digital scrapbook.

Transcription

You need to be a fast typist to do this job as you need to listen to a recording and transcribe it on a document. For example, if you are listening to a podcast and the podcasters provide you with a document for something you can read the information instead of listening.

Social media management

You handle social media pages like FB page, Instagram, and Twitter to promote a business or services of your client. You are responsible for growing its followers which leads to making the followers to be paying customers.

I quit my office job in 2010, and that's when I decided to work full-time at home so I don't have to spend my time commuting to the office. I started for US$1 per hour until I keep on increasing my rate.

How much is the salary for working in the Philippines?

To give you an idea how much is the salary working in the Philippines, it's about less than US$200. I used to earn that amount and it never gave me the freedom to save money and to travel.

Working as a freelance virtual assistant gave me so much freedom to earn, save, and invest money.

I used to work 8-12 hours a day

When I was young back in 2010, I used to work 8-12 hours a day. For a month, I could earn about US$500. When I looked for other clients, I could earn more than that. The downside, I was sitting the whole day and had no exercise. Somehow, it resulted in an eye problem that lead me to wear eyeglasses. I got astigmatism.

Working at home from 2010 to 2014

I used to wake up at 6 AM so that I could start working. I was very excited to work and earn a lot of money. Indeed, I was happy to save a lot of money by putting it in my savings account, investing it on time deposit, and the stock market. I was 22 years old.

I started as a Digital Nomad in 2015

I read a lot of travel blogs on how to travel while working on the road. That was also the first time I heard the term Digital Nomad. Sounds fancy, eh?

2015 Travel Goals

Visionary of my 2015 Travel Goals

Posted this on Facebook dated January 4, 2015:

Because it's already 2015, please grant me a visa to Japan. 😃

Vision: To travel to these countries for the year 2015...

Mission: budget traveling, Couchsurfing, SEA backpacking, go with the flow, adventure, crossing the borders, solo travel while meeting new people on the road, volunteer, digital nomad...

Results: Learning new lessons outside the classroom, cultural exchange, awareness, life values, and appreciation, discovering one's self, opportunities, independence, freedom, and a lot more!

Thank you for reading and for the support you've done to my previous articles. That's it for today as a little to get to know more about me.

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