Finding employees?

BluAffiliate

BluAffiliate

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Sep 6, 2009
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For anyone who's hired employees to help them out with affiliate marketing...
Where did you find them?

At first I just considered hiring some of my friends who are now working at cafes or clothing stores, but then I realized it could kinda get awkward and that it's usually not that great of an idea to have friends as employees,

Then I considered going the whole VA route, but I prefer to have someone in my office with me instead of communicating over aim to someone with broken English having to explain everything 5 times.. and I'm afraid that the VAs in America/Canada would easily steal my campaigns.


Now I'm looking into possibly hiring people that have AA degrees or part time students. The jobs would be pretty simple, most likely just to keep their eye on campaigns, raise/lower cpc bids based on the time, to do day-parting data analysis, and to find or create creatives (This might be a cool job for someone.. "All I do all day is find pictures of hot chicks for dating ads!"). Pretty much the boring stuff, while I'd still be making new campaigns and testing them. I realize this probably doesn't require that much effort or understanding, but I'd feel more comfortable with someone who had at least a college degree or is going to college at the time. Another employee that I'd like to have in the future (by the end of 2011) who would focus entirely on SEO projects, which would probably require some experience in that field already.

I won't be able to provide them with any health insurance or whatever Obama wants me to buy for them these days so the job would probably be "under the table" so to speak. This would be cool if I was hiring one of my friends but do you think it's a legit concern or would most people be cool about it? Could my business get into serious trouble over this issue?

I see most of the networks hire cute girls, simply because they can.. Perhaps that's a route to take?

Anyway, you guys have any thoughts where to find relatively cheap employees that won't be able to bankroll or steal my campaigns themselves?
 


BluAffiliate said:
For anyone who's hired employees to help them out with affiliate marketing...
Where did you find them?

At first I just considered hiring some of my friends who are now working at cafes or clothing stores, but then I realized it could kinda get awkward and that it's usually not that great of an idea to have friends as employees,

Then I considered going the whole VA route, but I prefer to have someone in my office with me instead of communicating over aim to someone with broken English having to explain everything 5 times.. and I'm afraid that the VAs in America/Canada would easily steal my campaigns.


Now I'm looking into possibly hiring people that have AA degrees or part time students. The jobs would be pretty simple, most likely just to keep their eye on campaigns, raise/lower cpc bids based on the time, to do day-parting data analysis, and to find or create creatives (This might be a cool job for someone.. "All I do all day is find pictures of hot chicks for dating ads!"). Pretty much the boring stuff, while I'd still be making new campaigns and testing them. I realize this probably doesn't require that much effort or understanding, but I'd feel more comfortable with someone who had at least a college degree or is going to college at the time. Another employee that I'd like to have in the future (by the end of 2011) who would focus entirely on SEO projects, which would probably require some experience in that field already.

I won't be able to provide them with any health insurance or whatever Obama wants me to buy for them these days so the job would probably be "under the table" so to speak. This would be cool if I was hiring one of my friends but do you think it's a legit concern or would most people be cool about it? Could my business get into serious trouble over this issue?

I see most of the networks hire cute girls, simply because they can.. Perhaps that's a route to take?

Anyway, you guys have any thoughts where to find relatively cheap employees that won't be able to bankroll or steal my campaigns themselves?
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I really have no experience, but if you are going to 'contract' someone (1099) I'm pretty sure you don't have to offer them insurance or any benefits.

I've also been looking at hiring help for managing mainly my SEO campaigns.

I have been researching getting a VA, but going that route, I realized that it would probably be better to get a more expensive, English-native than a $3/hr Indian.

My last thought, go to college and offer an internship to sales/marketing students. This route would be ideal because you could either say 1. no pay, or 2. 100% commission and offer them 5% profits per campaign or something.

Just some of my thoughts on the issue :)
 
I'm actually a college dropout and I'm 21 years old, so I think it would be hard for me to justify going the whole internship route. When I had my internship at Smith Barney (wealth management), I had to jump through a ton of hoops and paperwork just so UCLA would certify it and let me do the internship. I guess I could go through the whole shady route but it would be hard for me to justify and I would prefer to pay someone for their time.

The commission system is interesting, gotta look into that.

And yeah I realize I don't have to pay them any insurance because of the 1099 stuff, but there might be laws against using someone as an employee without having them on your payroll... it's all paperwork and red tape.

As for Indian VAs, anyone who's ever used one always tells me that you're better off not using them.. I don't really care to try to prove them wrong. Then again, hiring an English speaking VA = expensive, plus they probably know a lot about affiliate marketing and are likely to steal your campaigns or fuck you over in other ways (blackmail, anyone?).
 
Most marketing/sales students understand that the business is largely commission based. Offering them the incentive to basically prove when they are worth through commission could be very valuable for both of you, I think.

As far as thinking it's hard to go the internship route because you are 21 - why? Go to a community college or another close school that might not be so intense on the requirements then. The point is, these students are many times desperate for work, and if you offer them something that sounds good, you are more than likely to hand pick the best candidate.

Talk to an accountant about getting an employee/contractor. I remember talking to one last year about potentially contracting people to do certain tasks for me. It also depends on your corporate structure (I think).

And worrying about someone stealing your campaigns - I know exactly how you feel. That's why you don't let them work on your top-notch stuff right away until you build that trust up. Give your employees a reason to stay with you.
 
You've got to also remember, not many people are self starters. You can use this to your benefit. The likelihood of them leaving their comfort zone and starting on their own shit is a lot lower. Like the above poster said, try them out on some sub-par campaigns before you let them on the good stuff. But this can back-fire on you too, cause they could just find ways to do a half ass'd job and make excuses.

You won't know till you try right?

Good luck Bro, let us know how it goes.
 
Right. I'm not afraid that some kid out of community college would steal my campaign. The prospect of #1 going behind your employers back, #2 applying or getting into networks, #3 getting the same offers and payouts that I do, and #4 being able to bankroll the campaigns that I do is enough to discourage 99% of people. Like Shoemoney put it, "We have guys that run our campaigns for us, but if they tried to do it they would be able to.. for about 15 minutes with their own money."

However, hiring an English speaking VA who's got experience in the AM field? Of course they would probably steal my campaigns without batting an eyelash. :)
 
If you're looking to hire local people versus VA's, I've found hiring students from local universities/colleges to be by far the best.

It's a much cheaper process to find candidates: Most colleges have their own career center these days which will allow you to post jobs for free, to help their students find jobs. I have received as much as 100 student application from one job posting.

More importantly, I've found that you can pay students minimum wage, and 1. they're thrilled and motivated to take the job. Don't sell your job short saying it's the easy/boring stuff they'll be doing. As students, they have very little on their resume's and their alternative is to work at the GAP, or WalMart and gain very little usable experience and skills - working for an "entrepreneurial start up" - or however you want to call it, is much more appealing. Help yourself out, by making the job sound reputable. 2. Especially for easy jobs...students, are way, way better employees than 40 year olds. If you're working for minimum or low wages, and your a student...it's because, well, that's what's usually available. If you're 40 and working for nothing...well there's a reason for that too...usually you have problems.

Regarding the health insurance...can't help you on that. I'm from Canada, so it's never been an issue.
 
I'd go the college route. Maybe even highschool, just make sure they're old enough in your state to legally work. Beats babysitting and mowing lawns.
 
Why not consider the other end of the spectrum? Retirees? Think about it - plenty of time on their hands and they are going to have a better work ethic than some kid juggling courses and living party to party and chasing pussy. Maybe hit up some adult ed program that offers computer courses to seniors or some shit.

As an aside - an interesting observation. I live in a small town and the local McD's has almost an exclusive senior staff in the morning. The place is absolutely spotless and the food comes out looking as good as the menu board photos - no shit.
 
Another idea is mom's with little ones in school. So their hours would be like 8-2. My cleaning lady is one of those. There's a ton out there who want to make some extra cash but can't have restricted hours of 9-5. In the summer you'll have to find someone new but that's when you can flip to the highschool/college kids.

Edit: Also you can be pretty selective here. There's a strong mass of highly educated women who now are stay at home moms.
 
I'm a registered employer with the college I used to attend. Already have listings to take on interns. Couple interested people so far - looks like it might work out.
 
turbolapp said:
Another idea is mom's with little ones in school. So their hours would be like 8-2. My cleaning lady is one of those. There's a ton out there who want to make some extra cash but can't have restricted hours of 9-5. In the summer you'll have to find someone new but that's when you can flip to the highschool/college kids.

Edit: Also you can be pretty selective here. There's a strong mass of highly educated women who now are stay at home moms.
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There are tons. They are showing up on places like oDesk more and more. And in a lot of cases they charge as little as an Indian worker because they just want to make a little cash and stay busy.
 
You just tell them exactly what to do and say nothing about the bigger picture. I think this becomes much easier to do the more your break down the tasks so that each one of your employees has a very specific task to focus on. The more responsibilities you give to each employee, the more likely it is that he'll figure out the big picture.

By the way, kind of beside the point but, just wanted to mention that I'm also a UCLA student, why did you decide to drop out?
 
I've been through my share of employees through friends to family. My advice is don't let anyone you don't trust 110%, which is most likely 1 best friends and your immediate family, have access to your "important" accounts, like advertising and publishers accounts.

1.Use them more for website design, research, ads, etc... Keep them in the dark.
2. Make sure you have a good system setup for yourself and enough work for your new employee, and of course the funds to supplement them(it will take them awhile if they don't know the business to start profiting your business.
 
Ben89 said:
You just tell them exactly what to do and say nothing about the bigger picture. I think this becomes much easier to do the more your break down the tasks so that each one of your employees has a very specific task to focus on. The more responsibilities you give to each employee, the more likely it is that he'll figure out the big picture.

By the way, kind of beside the point but, just wanted to mention that I'm also a UCLA student, why did you decide to drop out?
Click to expand...

I dropped out to make more cash money. I'm currently at "The Tower" on Wilshire. Hit me up, I'm still in the area.
 
I use Craigs List each time one of my Lackeys quits. Interview the top 2-3 and pick one.
 
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