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

virtual assitantI’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

Administrative VAsAn 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 VATechnical 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 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

Creative VAsOnce 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 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

Social media VAsIn 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 you 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

how much you can saveBy 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 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 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 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.

Need Help?

Ready to get started?
Next week I will be telling you where and how to source Filipino Va’s
In the mean time if you have any questions shoot me an email

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