For most starters, joining the biggest online talent marketplaces such as Elance, Guru, Odesk, Freelancer or Getacoder is not ideal. In these marketplaces, it is very important to establish a good reputation or gather positive feedback or reviews before you get really noticed by buyers or clients. If you are new to being a virtual assistant guide and still gaining experience, tendency is you may not fully satisfy a client and you may end up getting negative feedback. This is what you do not want to have in your accounts in these marketplaces. A single negative feedback can cost you much. You may hardly win a bid if your account is tainted with a negative review from a previous client.

How can a Virtual Assistant that is just starting, become more marketable in these online talent marketplaces? This is a good question. When I started as a VA, I already had some experiences in writing although most were offline writing. I wrote articles for someone else and got paid. Also, I had background in the call center industry. I used to work in a BPO company as a Customer Service Representative and a Call Center Sales Agent. I have done medical transcription and other data entry projects too. So I combined all those experiences, used them as I leveled up my online working ventures. Along the way, I have added new skills like search engine optimization, although I am not yet that expert in here. I am working on it though.

Back to getting noticed in marketplaces when you are just new to this virtual assistant job. For starters, I suggest they start getting small or short term project like writing articles, forum posting, data entry and research and blog commenting. You can search for available jobs in craigslist.org, forums.digitalpoint.com, backpage.com and other free classified ad or forum sites. By doing small projects, you gain experience slowly. As you gain experience, you get more confident and effective doing more challenging and bigger projects. You need to be patient if you want to become successful as a Virtual Admin Assistant. You need to know more things to be an effective VA to your client.

When you feel you are already equipped with reasonable amount of experience in online jobs, you can now enter the marketplaces and start bidding for jobs. Once you get awarded a project, take advantage of it and do not take it for granted. Your first project would be the most critical one. Once you fail, you get a negative feedback and your chances of getting another project would be very dim. If you have the experience even in small projects, you are more confident to do the work the right way. Once you get a positive feedback, you can feel projects start rolling. If you are consistent with your work and feedback, getting a Virtual assistant job wouldn’t be that hard anymore. Your reviews will speak for you.

I hope I have provided you some helpful tips and ideas on your way to becoming a virtual assistant guide.