Skip to main content

21 Reasons Why There Are So Many Virtual Assistants from the Philippines

Google Alerts is one of the best tools you can use to get regular updates based on your targeted niche. Last week, I got an email update from Google Alert about Filipino virtual assistant. I hopped into the site, actually the website is a forum called Warriorforum, the number one internet marketing forum since 1997. Someone asked, "Why There Are So Many Virtual Assistants from the Philippines?". It became viral and majority of the responses are also positive. 
There could be additional responses there in the forum but as of this writing, I tried capturing some of the responses and came up with this summary from the question raised by Christiani, an HyperActive warrior. 


So far, the following are the 21 reasons why there are so many Virtual Assistants from the Philippines:
  1. English is one of the universal languages of the Philippines. So, there would no problem when it comes to communicating with them.
  2. The cost of living in Philippines is considerably low when compared to US and UK.
  3. Availability of Filipino Virtual Assistant Training or seminar in the Philippines
  4. Filipinos are excellent worker and have wonderful work ethics
  5. Majority of the Filipino VAs are college graduate.
  6. Filipinos work hard and diligently
  7. In the Philippines, there’s operational cost advantage, with costs competitive with any supplier country in the world
  8. Filipino virtual assistant know how to SEO
  9. The best Filipino VAs are from top universities of the Philippines
  10. Filipino virtual assistant are easy to learn
  11. Hiring a Filipino virtual assistant is worth the investment
  12. Filipino VA are everywhere online (name it Odesk, Freelance or other online job hunting site)
  13. The boom industry BPO (Business Processing Offices) in the Philippines
  14. High unemployment rate that resulted to hunt for a VA job.
  15. Filipinos are richly deserved reputation for excellence in communication skills
  16. Filipino virtual assistant are customer-service orientation, with problem-solving capabilities, and cultural affinity with Western markets and customs
  17. Filipinos have a positive mindset and attitude which brings out the quality work.
  18. Proficient English content developers of written and non-written onsite and offsite materials are easier to find in the Philippines
  19. Most Filipino Virtual Assistants are pleasure and fun to work with.
  20. Virtual assistant in the Philippines are quite consistent with the level of work they do
  21. Filipinos do a great job and they are very friendly

On the actual forum you’ll read that majority of the responses are positive. To tell a few, the following are the sample or actual responses on "Why There Are So Many Virtual Assistants from the Philippines?":

Warrior Forum: "Why There Are So Many Virtual Assistants from the Philippines?
Two main reasons:

1. English is one of the official languages of the Philippines

2. The cost of living is low

Therefore people can find english-speaking VA's who are happy to work for much lower rates than english-speaking people from places like the US and UK. 
Actual experiences with VA's are mixed. They may learn to read and write in English from a young age but are generally not completely fluent. This means that you need to be very clear and specific in your instructions and check up on them regularly (especially when you just started working with them.- Dana Gaus 
~~~~

Yep, cost of living is low and they speak english thus they can do work for a lot less. I heard at a seminar that they also have schools there where they train people to be virtual assistants, so maybe they're better qualified as well? - GeoMasters 
~~~~

We have hired a number of VA's from the Philippines (and thankfully they are all OK after the horrible storm this weekend). And while we have had a few who didn't work out the majority of them have done excellent work and have a wonderful work ethic. Like any employee you have to expect to do some training and hand-holding in the beginning, but it has all been well worth it and has paid back in the high quality of work we receive from them.  
In fact I have a new fellow just starting tonight (there is a 13 hour time difference between the East coast and the Philippines) and in the few hours he's been on he has already proved his worth! So I'd highly recommend those in the market for a VA to look there. 

And that includes honoring the Philippines custom of the "13th month", a bonus paid at the end of the year equivalent to one months salary (prorated of course, so those who worked for you for 6 months would get 1/2 a months salary). Well worth the investment. - Bill (mywebwork) 
~~~~

They have a very low cost of living so they're able to do jobs at a lower rate. I've had mixed experiences but there are some gems out there if you know how to find them. 

I'll usually have them do a screen recording with Jing for something simple like creating a gmail account just to get a gauge of what they know. Also be sure to take care of them when they do a great job - it's a nice incentive for them to continue to work hard for you. - Brendan Vraibel 
~~~~

I have one from there that works very diligently. They'll gladly do whatever you ask them to do and mines even gives me advise on SEO stuff.. 

One thing I will say though. Make sure you give them something to do and be specific. I didn't keep up with her and just kept on doing just what I told her to do in the beginning. LOL.. I was losing money but we worked everything out. They just want to work. They dont really care what the job calls for. Just have to train them. Every now and again you get one that knows the job already and all you have to do is check up on them. 

Try them out and I suggest you use oDesk. I haven't used any other VA service but I like how oDesk takes snap shots of the screen while they're working so you can keep an eye on them. Very good feature.. best of luck - Dennisknows (Pro Blogger) 
~~~~

Call center industry first boomed in our country and then the Home-based Online Job (Internet Marketing) industry follows. Well, for how many years now, the Philippines is recognized as one of the top and ideal countries when it comes to global outsourcing industry. 

This industry has developed speedily since it covers the elements critical to outsourcing for both service providers and customers. To name a few, these comprise large-scale people resources, with an estimate of half-a-million English-speaking students graduating from colleges and universities yearly, interpersonal warmth, a richly deserved reputation for excellence in communication skills, customer-service orientation, problem-solving capabilities, and cultural affinity with Western markets and customs, and an operational cost advantage, with costs competitive with any supplier country in the world. - Magiclouie 

Now, If you want to add additional response, go to this link http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/506738-why-so-many-virtual-assistants-philippines.html and put your two cents there.

On my future post, I will try to include a simple tutorial on how to use Google Alerts for your online business. Below is a sample snap shot of an update from Google Alert.
Snap Shot of Google Alerts Update on Filipino Virtual Assistant

To receive FREE Tips and Tutorials, just enter your email and be the first to get an update:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Comments

  1. Good list and most important to the point. A keeper when considering to hire a VA

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post Red, thank you for sharing this list with us it is very helpful. Employers who are planning to hire virtual assistant can use this as guidelines in searching for a competent virtual assistant for a low cost. It can also help boost business opportunity to Filipino workers. Even though US President Barack Obama opposed to outsourcing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Question about number 9. So does that mean guys from not so popular schools aren't any good?

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Anonymous: As stated, it's just a compilation from the warriorforum, I think you already know your answer to the question. If you're good, you're good, if you're not, your not, irregardless of what school, college or university your came from. It's not your institution, it's all about your skills and what you can deliver as a VA.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Being a remarkable and dependable virtual assistant is not on the schools, universities or colleges you came from, it's on the skills that you can provide.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have a great post mate, I like it its very informative thanks to this. I'll definitely share this to my friends.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It can also be seen as, virtual assistant job is also a good job to go for. It has lots of benefits too.

    virtual assistant services

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Media Philippines and the Google+ (Plus) Experience

What is the status of social media in the Philippines ? Are there many Filipinos already using Google Plus? Will this baby social media really kills the giant Facebook? Who knows? Let’s wait a few more months. It’s a battle between +1 and Like. Nowadays, the need to connect with other people through online or mobile is not anymore a wants, it’s now part of your basic needs, aside from foods, clothes and shelter. Connection could not only be made through personal or active acquaintances, it could also be through online or via virtual acquaintances. The joy of being free to express our feelings, emotions and ideas are maybe the reasons why there are so many Filipinos now joining on major social media or social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and now, even on Google Plus. Currently there are over 24 million Filipinos in Facebook. In fact the Philippines were even tagged as the social networking capital of the world because of Facebook. That’s not impossibl

4 Ways to Earn From the Internet the Right Way [Part 2 of 2]

This is the second part series of my post about the “4 Ways to Earn From the Internet the Right Way”: Lessons I learned from my internet marketing mentor Jomar Hilario. On the first part I discussed the first two which are (1) Through blogging and (2) Being an internet marketer. If you haven’t read it yet, you can read that previous post, before you start reading this one. Here’s the link: 4 Ways to Earn From the Internet the Right Way [Part 1 of 2] .  Now, let me discuss you the other two. These are through affiliate marketing and being a virtual assistant. Let’s continue. 3.  Through Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is marketing and selling other people’s product. Jomar mentioned that the idea of “get product, sell to people” is the wrong approach. He said you build your database first (and this is the common advice of a lot of gurus). Build your audience list database first and then sell to people later. Some people might ask, “But when are we going to sell?” Wr

4 Ways to Earn From the Internet the Right Way [Part 1 of 2]

Do you want to earn from the internet the right way? Do you want to earn in dollars while spending in Philippine Peso? How about $500 to $4000 per month doing it on the side? Sweet, right? Let’s stop keep asking basic questions like, “how to use the internet” or “Is it true that we can earn from the internet?” Stop it. Now, let’s start asking question like how to earn from the internet . 4 Ways to Earn From the Internet the Right Way Learn and then earn. Allow me to show you how we can do it too. Just last Sunday I attended a free live webinar conducted by my online marketing mentor Jomar Hilario . His topic is about how to create income from the internet. He said there are four ways on how to earn money online. You can select from this four ways. Let's do it! 1. Earn Through Blogging Blogging is not the fastest way to earn money online . Actually it’s the slowest way particularly if you don’t know what you are doing and if you are not using the rig