MakeUseOf » assistant http://www.makeuseof.com Cool Websites, Software and Internet Tips Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:31:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The 5 Best Websites To Find A Virtual Assistant http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-find-virtual-assistant/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-find-virtual-assistant/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:31:24 +0000 Tina Sieber http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=81823 virtual assistantA virtual assistant is a real person that supports you or your business remotely from their home office. They can virtually be anywhere and the services they provide range from professional administrative, technical, personal, or creative assistance. Since virtual assistants are entrepreneurs and freelance workers, you as their ‘employer’ do not have to worry about employee-related costs.

The best way to find a virtual assistant obviously is the Internet. In this article I will show you five different websites that will help you track down the perfect candidate. All of these services are free, until you decide to hire a virtual assistant who meets your criteria.

Twitter

virtual assistant

Virtual assistants looking for work will find you, if you post a brief request and job description on Twitter. You can virtually extend the 140 character limit by adding a link to a more through description of what you are looking for. Moreover, you may want to search Twitter for virtual assistants yourself and get in touch with them directly.

Here are some Twitter tips:

CraigsList

virtual office assistant

If you would like to post an anonymous job offer or add a few more details than what will fit into 140 characters, CraigsList is an excellent alternative to Twitter. Moreover, you can find an assistant who lives in a desired location, including your own city. The advantage with CraigsList is that you are in direct touch with the candidate without a middle man to worry about.

Curious about CraigsList?

VA Networking

virtual office assistant

VA Networking is a social network for virtual assistants. It provides people starting out in the business with resources to improve their business. If you are looking to hire a virtual assistant, tap into this network and find the perfect match. You can submit a ‘request for proposal’ (RFP) to hire a VA and your RFP will be posted on the virtual assistant job board of VAinsiders.

Elance

virtual office assistant

Elance is a platform for online employment. You can post a job offer for free and candidates will apply or rather bid on your project. The chief attraction with Elance is that you can review the profiles and portfolios of applicants and evaluate how they have performed previously.

Guru Employer

virtual assistant

This service is similar to Elance. You post a project, receive offers, and can browse the profiles and websites of candidates. When you select a freelancer, you deposit the funds for the project with Guru. Once the agreed work was received, you release the funds and your assistant gets paid. You can also browse all virtual assistants that offer their services through Guru by keywords or country.

Conclusion

There are many free and creative ways to find employees online. You will find that people with various backgrounds, skills, and from around the world will apply to your job posting. Candidates will quote hourly rates from as low as $5 or as high as $50. Keep in mind that there are no educational standards for virtual assistants. Moreover, you may encounter language or cultural barriers. It’s your job as the potential employer to evaluate whether an applicant will be able to perform the duties you expect and is worth the pay they request.

Have you ever hired someone online? What website or service did you use and what have your experiences been?

Image credits: sellingpix

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-find-virtual-assistant/feed/ 10 Alfred – A Free Alternative Launcher To Quicksilver & QSB [Mac] http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alfred-free-alternative-launcher-quicksilver-qsb-mac/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alfred-free-alternative-launcher-quicksilver-qsb-mac/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 17:31:52 +0000 Jeffry Thurana http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=43616 alternative to quicksilverIf there’s one kind of application that I can’t live without, it would be an application launcher. The comfort of opening applications/files with only a few keystrokes has made it hard for the keyboard guy like me to do it any other way.

So far, my favorite free launchers for Mac are QuickSilver and Google’s Quick Search Box (QSB). While both have their own differences and pluses and minuses, they are siblings which come from the same source.

But now there’s a new alternative to Quicksilver on the field. The name’s Alfred.

The Butler In The Background

Everytime I hear the name Alfred, my mind goes straight to the image of the English butler of Marlinspike Hall that I read in the pages of Tintin. My wild guess is, that might be the same image that the developers of this app have after finding out that the name “Butler” had been taken by another Mac app.

Anyway, if you are willing to give this new assistant a look, you can visit the site and download the app. After a short installation, you’ll have a hat sitting on your menubar. You can access the Preferences from that hat.

alternative to quicksilver

Activating the basic functionality of Alfred requires you to hit a combination of keystrokes. By default it is “Option + Spacebar“, but you can change it to anything you like.

alternative to quicksilver

The first thing that will greet you upon installation is the Preferences window. This is basically the place where the developer asks the users to help the development process of this app by reporting bugs and requesting new features.

quicksilver alternative

But there are more things that you can customize via the Preferences window. Let’s look at some of them.

Defining The Butler’s Tasks

Let’s start with the “General” tab. The “Essential” part lets users customize the key combination to summon Alfred.

quicksilver alternative

The “Result” area deals with other shortcuts that you can use to further utilize Alfred. For example, if you go with the default setting, hitting Control + Return after opening Alfred will open a search window in Finder.

quicksilver alternative

And the “Updates” area is for, well, updates. Users can also access the update checking functionality from the menubar icon.

02c Alfred Preferences - General - Updates.jpg

Similar to the General tab, the “Local” tab also has three areas. They deal with the behavior of Alfred’s local searches. The areas are: Default Search, File Search and Search Scope.

03b Alfred Preferences.jpg

The “Web” tab consists of links to websites accessible from Alfred along with their keywords. Users can edit the keywords simply by clicking on them and typing in the new ones.

04a Alfred Preferences.jpg

These sites will be accessible from Alfred by typing in the keywords. This functionality is similar to Quix, but without the need of a browser.

Users can also add more sites to the list by going to the “Custom Sites” area and clicking on the “plus” sign. Write down the URL, text to display, and the keyword. Then click “Add”

04b Alfred Preferences.jpg

The “Appearance” tab deals with matters related to Alfred’s look, the way it acts and the number of result items to show.

05 Alfred Preferences.jpg

And last but not the least, the “Experimental” tab. As the name already tells us, the tab consists of experimental items that might be turned into regular items in the future.

06 Alfred Preferences.jpg

More Butler For The Bread

There you go, a quick look inside the Preferences of the new launcher for Mac – an alternative to Quicksilver. We’ll dig deeper into how Alfred works and what it can do in the next discussion.

Until then, feel free to try and play along with Alfred and share your thoughts and opinions about the app using the comments below.

Editor’s note: We’re giving away 10 copies of Hazel for Mac. You might want to check it out.

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alfred-free-alternative-launcher-quicksilver-qsb-mac/feed/ 3 Use Your Voice To Get Things Done With Dial2Do http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-your-voice-to-get-things-done-with-dial2do/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-your-voice-to-get-things-done-with-dial2do/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:01:21 +0000 David Pierce http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=12193 Computer junkie that I am, there are still times I’m not near my computer to enter ideas into my system.

Just about my whole life is computer-based, so when I’m out, emails, tasks, calendar events, and the like can all fall by the wayside.

Or, I can just pick up the phone, dial a number, say a few words, and everything gets done for free, using Dial2Do.

Dial2Do is providing a great way for users to use their voice to do all kinds of things, and interact with all kinds of services – it’s like what Jott used to do, but without the sudden added cost.

d2d

Here are just a few of the many things you can do with Dial2Do: add stuff to Evernote, add tasks to Remember the Milk, send emails, send text messages, add calendar events to Google Calendar, listen to your email or RSS feeds, or post updates to your Twitter account. And that’s only a few of the choices.

Once you create a free account with Dial2Do, and associate your phone number with your account, all you have to do is dial a given phone number (the service is available in 24 countries, each one with a different phone number).

A voice comes on the phone and says “What would you like to do?” You tell it, say, “Calendar.” You’re prompted then to speak your calendar event, like “lunch with Bill, today, 2pm.” There’s a brief pause, and that same voice comes back and says “that’s done.” Either hang up or stay on the line to record more. Once you hang up, you’re done! Your event shows up in your Calendar, your Twitter, or wherever you told it to go.

The true usefulness of Dial2Do is that it does interact with so many services – there’s nothing new to learn or check with Dial2Do, because it already integrates with the services you already use.

commands

Even if you’re not a user of all the services though, Dial2Do still offers a bunch of great features. By adding contacts to your account, you can send emails or text messages on the fly without typing a thing. Contacts can be added manually, or imported from a number of different services – Google, Yahoo, Outlook and the like. Texting while driving’s a dangerous, but popular, enterprise – Dial2Do makes that both easier and safer.

The transcription service is one of the most accurate I’ve seen in a service like this, better even than Jott. In all of my first few transcriptions, the only mistake Dial2Do made was to transcribe “parliamentary” as “polimentary.” Apparently polimentary is a word in Dial2Do’s world, but still – the success rate was impressively high.

The biggest drawback to Dial2Do, and one that’s common to applications like this, is that every service and contact you use has to be set up beforehand. If you decide “oh, I need to email John,” but John’s not in your contacts list, you’re out of luck. Same goes for adding to calendars, or checking email, or anything – whatever you want to do, it needs to be done at your computer.

My advice would be to set up every service you might possibly use (they’re simple and quick to set up), and add every contact you can (Dial2Do allows 100) – you’ll be surprised how often you use them, especially given how good the transcription is.

If Jott is any indication, Dial2Do won’t be free forever. For now, though, it’s a totally free, totally useful service that helps you get all kinds of things done with a simple phone call. Use voice-activated dialing, and you may never touch your phone keyboard again.

How do you, or how do you wish you could, get things done with your voice?

Photo Credit: PartsnPieces

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-your-voice-to-get-things-done-with-dial2do/feed/ 10 Smarterchild as Your Virtual Personal Assistant http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smarterchild-as-your-virtual-personal-assistant/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smarterchild-as-your-virtual-personal-assistant/#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:33:37 +0000 Karl L. Gechlik http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smarterchild-as-your-virtual-personal-assistant/ By Karl L. Gechlik

I have made a new friend – well actually I am becoming reacquainted with an old friend. Have you heard of Smarterchild? Smarterchild is an AimBot, an automated assistant that can be added to your instant messenger contacts. It can help you remember things, lookup headlines, find out about local movies, and so on. Now that AIM has been integrated into Gmail this might be a great combination for making SmarterChild into your virtual Personal Assistant.

Aimbot

Smarterchild can not only shoot the breeze with you it can grab data for you, remind you to do things and be a smart ass. So from anywhere you are connected via AIM you can add SmarterChild to your buddy list and but him to work. The first time you connect to SmarterChild he will ask you a few questions and then you are ready to roll. Math, Definitions and a news aggregator? Oh and so much more. Sure you could use Google or Yahoo for searching but this is so much more fun… Check out our conversations with SmarterChild.

    KarlGeeZBT (6:59:30 AM): Hello There Again SmarterChild
    SmarterChild (6:59:31 AM): Hi again, Admin!Let’s talk!

    KarlGeeZBT (7:00:42 AM): basic help
    KarlGeeZBT (7:00:59 PM): order me a pizza
    SmarterChild (7:01:00 PM): I know about pizza! It’s a food!>>> If you need to know the capital of South Dakota for some crazy reason – ask me.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:01:19 PM): hmm how about get me a beer
    SmarterChild (7:01:19 PM): I don’t know.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:02:21 PM): what do you mean you dont know son
    SmarterChild (7:02:21 PM): What do I mean I don’t know son? I’m not sure.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:02:29 PM): a wise guy eh
    SmarterChild (7:02:31 PM): 1 wise guy what?
    KarlGeeZBT (7:02:44 PM): never mimd
    SmarterChild (7:02:48 PM): No prob.>>> I bet you don’t know the capital of Suriname. Ask me.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:11:32 PM): I love AskTheAdmin.com
    SmarterChild (7:11:37 PM): I know about love. It’s hard to describe what love is.>>> What are your friends thinking? Type pollmaker and crunch the numbers.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:04 PM): Hello
    SmarterChild (7:13:05 PM): Nice to see you again, Admin. What would you like to do?
    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:12 PM): Set reminder
    SmarterChild (7:13:13 PM): That right?
    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:25 PM): help
    SmarterChild (7:13:26 PM): OK, please tell me what you’re trying to do.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:32 PM): reminder
    SmarterChild (7:13:32 PM): What would you like me to remind you about?
    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:38 PM): Call the wife
    SmarterChild (7:13:39 PM): When would you like me to remind you about call the wife? (Type a time, date and time, number of minutes or number of hours.)
    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:50 PM): 7:14pm 12/22/2007
    SmarterChild (7:13:53 PM): No problem. I’ll remind you about call the wife at 7:14:00 pm ET.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:13:59 PM): awesome

    SmarterChild (7:14:00 PM): -)>>> Ask me for info such as news, sports and movies!
    KarlGeeZBT (7:14:03 PM): movies
    SmarterChild (7:14:03 PM): Movies playing in or near Brooklyn, NY (11235) on Saturday, December 22nd:
    1 National Treasure: Book of Secrets [PG]
    2 I Am Legend [PG13]
    3 Alvin and the Chipmunks [PG]
    4 The Golden Compass [PG13]
    5 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story [R]
    6 Charlie Wilson’s War [R]

    Type more for the next set of results.
    >>> Type nhl standings and I’ll show you who’s hot in hockey.

    SmarterChild (7:14:09 PM): Hey, don’t forget about call the wife.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:14:12 PM): nhl standings
    SmarterChild (7:14:12 PM): Select the standings you’d like to see:
    1 Atlantic Division
    2 Northeast Division
    3 Southeast Division
    4 Central Division
    5 Northwest Division
    6 Pacific Division
    7 Eastern Conference
    8 Western Conference
    9 Full NHL Standings

    KarlGeeZBT (7:14:29 PM): weather
    SmarterChild (7:14:30 PM): Current weather conditions for Brooklyn, NY:
    Currently: 40 F
    Condition: Overcast
    Wind Chill: 33 F
    Dewpoint: 33
    Humidity: 77 %
    Visibility: 10 mi
    Wind: ENE/10 mph

    To get the forecast for Brooklyn, NY, just type forecast.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:14:45 PM): find me a pizza restauraunt
    SmarterChild (7:14:50 PM): I’m sorry, I couldn’t find any Web search results for “me a pizza restauraunt.”>>> Type poll archive to take polls you missed or view updated results.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:15:03 PM): get me a pizza
    SmarterChild (7:15:05 PM): I know about pizza! It’s a food!

    KarlGeeZBT (7:15:37 PM): what is 137 times 379
    SmarterChild (7:15:41 PM): 137 * 379 = 51,923>>> Type word scrambles and we can really mix it up.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:16:02 PM): what is pi
    SmarterChild (7:16:03 PM): Which of the following do you mean?
    1 Look up “pi” in the encyclopedia
    2 Look up “pi” in the dictionary
    KarlGeeZBT (7:16:08 PM): pi =
    SmarterChild (7:16:09 PM): Who’s Pi?
    KarlGeeZBT (7:16:20 PM): how many ounces in a pound
    SmarterChild (7:16:22 PM): One pound is 16 ounces. (1 lb = 16 oz)>>> Remember, you can always see what my newest features are by typing what’s new.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:16:28 PM): how many grams in a pound
    SmarterChild (7:16:28 PM): One pound is 453.59237 grams. (1 lb = 453.59237 g)>>> Type calculator help to see a list of sample calculations I can perform.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:16:51 PM): go get me a pizza
    SmarterChild (7:16:51 PM): I’ll do nothing of the sort.
    KarlGeeZBT (7:17:00 PM): what good are you
    SmarterChild (7:17:01 PM): That’s crazy. I don’t know, Admin”¦>>> Wanna change my font and colors? Type colors now!

    KarlGeeZBT (7:17:29 PM): basic help
    SmarterChild (7:17:31 PM): OK. Basically, you make requests and I answer. Try it! Here are examples of basic requests you can make:
    1 What is my horoscope for today?
    2 Leave a message for (username).
    3 What movies are playing today?
    4 I want the top headlines.
    5 What is the definition of “romance”?

    Next time you want to see this, just type basic help.
    Type more for more basic help. To see shortcuts you can use, type shortcuts.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:17:38 PM): 4
    SmarterChild (7:17:39 PM): Headline news provided by Reuters, © 2007.
    1 Clinton targets women voters, rivals bicker (12/22/07 06:17 PM)
    2 Turkish planes bomb Kurds in northern Iraq (12/22/07 04:21 PM)

    Type more to see the next set of stories.>>> I’m a hoops fan. Type nba to see what I know.

    KarlGeeZBT (7:18:36 PM): what is the capital of new york
    SmarterChild (7:18:41 PM): The capital of New York is Albany. Do you want more information about New York?
    KarlGeeZBT (7:20:03 PM): nah son I’m out
    SmarterChild (7:20:04 PM): OK.

Are you ready to start? Add “SmarterChild” to your buddy list and give him a friendly Hey – how you doin?.

So as you can see this free service works and can give you a chuckle while you use it. But just like my real personal assistant – they have a smart mouth and talk back.

Do you use Aim Bots? What are you favorite? Do you use other similar services? Let us know in the comments!

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smarterchild-as-your-virtual-personal-assistant/feed/ 23 Get FREE 411 Directory Assistance with GOOG411 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-free-411-directory-assistance-with-goog411/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-free-411-directory-assistance-with-goog411/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:27:49 +0000 Karl L. Gechlik http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-free-411-directory-assistance-with-goog411/ Have you noticed that phone companies charge an arm and a leg for directory inquiries? Last I checked it was well over a dollar at AT&T and the other big boys. I couldn’t just stand around throwing my money away on frivolous things like information. Money should be spent on fun things like alcohol, partying and the such (unless my wife is reading this then lets replace those with Baby Formula, Gucci Bags and Car Payments).

For my first MakeUseOf post I will be taking you through the wonder that is Goog-411. You dial up 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any (US) phone. After you get a friendly Google hello you follow the voice prompts which are extremely intuitive.

GOOG411 - Free directory Inquiries from Google

Start by saying your city and state. You hear the Google engines spinning in the background and then you will be prompted to say what business listing you want (pizzeria, repair shop, Burger King, etc.). They understood me every time even when I put on various accents. I had previously tried out 800-free-411 and they never understood me – it was infuriating!

Now Goog411 will also complete your call for you FOR FREE or send you a text message FOR FREE with your listing, a link to their website, a link to a map and directions or any other information they have. For a list of all the commands check out this page here. This is all easily save-able on your mobile. The service is still in its beta stages and currently has NO ads! Suck it up while you can this is the way most services will be going in the near future. If you are interested in seeing a video demo go to GOOG411 on MUO Directory.

Goog411 currently only works from the US and we got mad love for our international readers so we have Google SMS for you. Well, for most of you. :-)

google-sms.gif Just save 466453 “Google” into your phone and text it with your query and Google will hit you back with all sorts of free information. How about dictionary definitions, calculations, curency exchange rates or movie listings (Google SMS -All Features). Give it a shot – its free minus the cost of the text messages of course.

Got to love the Google!

For other similar alternatives you can also check out Free411 Dial Directions and TellMe.

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-free-411-directory-assistance-with-goog411/feed/ 28 5 Contacts to SUPERCHARGE Your eMail http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-contacts-to-supercharge-your-email/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-contacts-to-supercharge-your-email/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:47:11 +0000 Aibek Esengulov http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-contacts-to-supercharge-your-email/ eMail Contacts for Productivity A bunch of really useful email contacts: PDF converter, invisible personal assistant, scanner (for real), quick document sharing, and an excellent group conversation starter.

(1) PDF@koolwire.com

Koolwire is a simple, no-login required PDF conversion service. Simply send the document (DOC, PPT, XLS, JPEG, GIF, RTF, and TXT.) to “˜PDF@koolwire.com’ and shortly after get it back as PDF.

(2) WHATEVER@drop.io

Drop.io lets you create so called drops and use them as private file storage boxes. Drops can be shared with others on a variety of access levels (viewer, contributor, etc.). Best of all, each drop gets its own email address, so everything emailed to that email will be added to the drop.

(3) DOC@scanr.com / WB@scanr.com

If you sign-up with Scanr you will be able to use your mobile or digicam as a scanner. You can send it a blurry capture of your notes and you will get back a cleaned up, decrapified and even OCRed PDF version of your image. (Register before)

(4) GO@9cays.com

9cays is a very cool service that allows you start group email conversations by emailing your thread to GO@9cays.com. Add participants by adding them to ‘Cc:’ field. Best part about it, all exchanged messages (and attachments) will be nicely embedded on a custom webpage. (Register before)

(5) DUTEOUS@your_username.iwantsandy.com

An invisible personal assistant that sits in your email program. You can ask it to remind you about something, or even help you organize meetings with friends. (Register before)

  • Schedule Reminders: Hey Sandy, remind me to do my laundry on Sunday. or Sandy, remember my haircut on 11/4 3-4pm.
  • Group Reminders: Just add others to ‘Cc:’ and reminders will be sent to everyone on the list.
  • Daily Digest: Morning email with everything you’ve got going for the day.
  • and more.

Got any another useful email contact? Share it in comments ;-)

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