What's my work...

I've been a freelance virtual admin assistant since 2010 but I started working in an online business in 2008. To mention a few of my responsibilities... I help my clients in managing and organizing their business, setup and maintenance of their website, email marketing management, developing marketing plans for their business, managing their social media networks, and other administrative tasks.

How I started... 

Before I got a work-from-home job I was struggling to find a job. I have worked as fast-food cashier, department store cashier, waitress, secretary of a small office with a salary that is not enough to pay for bills, food, and other expenses for a family of three. So during break time of my secretarial job, I have to walk around the city checking on establishments that has "Job Hiring" post. Submitted my resume and praying for a call for an interview. Until a friend recommended to apply at the outsourcing company where she is currently working. 

I started working online last December 2008. I was hired by a local outsourcing company here in our city. It's not a work from home, so I report to the office from 8 AM to 5PM on weekdays. I was assigned in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) team. My main task back then is doing backlinks for the websites of our foreign clienteles through forum posting. I research forums, sign-up, participate in a discussion and then post the client's website. I also do blog commenting. I search some related blogs and then post comments with the client's website attached to my comment. It might sound easy, but no you have a quota on how many forums post and comments to make and comments should be long, relevant, and unique.

Then as months passed, social media was added to my task. This is the reason why I joined Facebook. I remember how I used to add random foreigners to my friend list, for me to advertise and invite them to like the client's Facebook pages. Yes, that's how we do it back then. 😁

I also created accounts on other social networking sites. We were encouraged to use our personal profiles to promote our clienteles blogs and websites. This is the reason I have so many accounts in almost all social networking, I even forget the logins in some of them now. 

I also do the social bookmarking tasks. I don't know if these websites still exist, but I do know Reddit is still very active now.

January of 2010,  is when I nervously ventured on freelancing while I am still working at the office. After my office work, I go to a friend's internet cafe to work for my own client because I don't have a PC or laptop then. I found my first client who is from the United States while searching for an online job listing at OnlineJobs.ph. I'm working during his daytime which is nighttime for me, thats 6PM - 1 AM. The best thing about my first client is that he is okay with me still learning on the task. So most of my work back then is 50% training and 50% implementation. His business was my training ground on WordPress and hosting. From setting up several websites from scratch, managing the hosting, maintenance of the website, adding content. 

After 2 months of working with him, I  was able to buy my own laptop. All my hard work paid off, I no longer need to work long hours at the internet cafe and came home late. For a single mom, it was tough being out the whole day and don't have that much time to take care of my son. It was a blessing I have my mom who take care of my kid while I was out making a living for us. 

At this time as well, the local outsourcing company that I'm working with has some internal trouble with pioneering employees, things got so messy. After a long thinking and asking for advice from freelancers and bloggers friends, I decided to quit at the local outsourcing company and focus on my on client. As the cliche quote from Alexander Graham Bell goes... 

"When one door closes, another one opens." 

My work-from-home journey started...

While I am still working with my first client I found my second client who is from Switzerland. Luckily, when I started working for my second client he provided me a laptop and paid for my monthly internet bill for the first year. So I was off to a good start with my freelancing journey. 

My Swiss client was so happy and pleased that I am so eager and interested to learn something new in the online marketing business, so he enrolled me in so many training. He even bought software and tools to expand my knowledge and skills. And that's how I got my image editing and video editing skills. His business has been my training ground for marketing, project management, and business management. Experimenting with video marketing, social media, online advertising, and more. In his company, I learn to develop business tactics and marketing proposals. To understand clients and to learn the ability to make the client understand the project even if he isn't a technology-knowledgeable person.

15 years after, I am still using the PC that my Swiss client bought me back then when the laptop can no longer support the image and video editing task that I was working on. I just did some upgrades on it last year. 

Both clients were a blessing because they have helped me a lot in building my confidence in freelancing, honing my skills, letting me test and learn new software and tools, and provided me with lots of support to start my online job easily. 

Where to look for online jobs?

From my experience, I found most of my clients from OnlineJobs.ph (I recommend for beginners VA) and Virtual Staff Finder Careers (recommended for advance VA).

I have a friend who also works from home and she mostly gets clients from Upwork.com

I hope this will help you in starting a work-from-home career too. Best luck on your journey, have more patience and willingness to learn. You'll surely go a long way.