Friday, February 24, 2012

The Work of an Executive Assistant

An executive assistant is a high-end administrative assistant that works with officers at the corporate level. Executive assistants are often responsible for caring after one or two professionals in an office, not a huge set of them like administrative assistants. This line of work comes with immense responsibility, and it is certainly not for everyone. Before you consider becoming an executive assistant, you may want to figure out if this job is right for you. Listed below are some common job duties and pay rates that you can use to figure out the appropriateness of this job for your life.


Job Duties of an Executive Assistant

Executive assistants are the go-to workers at the corporate level. They take on the roles that most other people do not have time for at the executive level, and they are often in charge of all the leftover duties for one specific board member in a company. The job duties that you may have to tackle as an executive assistant will vary based on the specific employer you work for. Here is an overview of some of the basics:

  • Doing whatever the boss needs done (literally)
  • Managing administrative assistants in an office
  • Preparing the minutes at corporate board meetings
  • Performing all the clerical duties for an executive's office
  • Organizing paperwork for the office
  • Scheduling appointments with executive officers

You may have to take on many other job duties as an executive assistant, so be prepared to learn a lot in a short period of time. If you can be flexible enough to pick up on new skills at all times, you should do quite well in executive assistance.

Salary Levels for Executive Assistants

Executive assistants make more money than administrative assistants, but that does not mean they are rolling in the dough. Most of them do not make really good money until they have been in their positions for a long time, and even then, they may be under paid for their work. There are tons of different factors that go into determining a person's executive assistant salary, like location, education, experience, industry, and employer type. You will not know how much you can make in this position until you actually get into your career. Here are some average pay rates that you can use to approximate your future salary.

Salary by Years of Experience
  • Less than 1 year: $25,145 - $48,693 a year
  • 1-4 years: $28,219 - $54,890 a year
  • 5-9 years: $31,588 - $64,390 a year
  • 10-19 years: $36,261 - $70,030 a year
  • 20 years or more: $37,128 - $73,352 a year

Salary by Company Size
  • 1-9: $27,599 - $59,233 a year
  • 10-49: $29,348 - $65,872 a year
  • 50-199: $32,018 - $65,722 a year
  • 200-599: $34,937 - $66,901 a year
  • 600-1999: $35,785 - $69,815 a year
  • 2000-4999: $36,925 - $71,868 a year
  • 5000-19999: $38,240 - $72,353 a year
  • 20000-49999: $40,144 - $74,584 a year
  • 50000+: $41,818 - $71,872 a year

How to Become an Executive Assistant

To become an executive assistant, you must first learn how to become an administrative assistant. You can get a business administration degree of some sort, or you could just start working as an administrative assistant and move up from there. The college degree will give you the best possible chance at finding a job quickly, especially if you have a master's degree. With the right education, all you will have to do is apply for work and hope you are selected for the position. Think hard about whether or not this is the right career for you, and then do whatever it takes to get the job done in the end.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Making Money as an Article Spinner

Article spinning is a unique sector of article marketing that takes regular articles and "spins" them so they can generate different versions of the same content time and time again. An article spinner is a person that can manipulate articles to produce these different versions in a natural-sounding way. This is not an easy task to do, but it is something that can lead to a decent paycheck if you know what you are doing. If you have a firm grasp on the English language and a desire to earn some extra cash, article spinning may be a great career opportunity for you. Here is a look at how the process works so you can determine if it is a good path for you.


The Basics of Article Spinning

Article spinning all happens through the use of spintax and article generators. A writer takes and article and converts it to spintax, and then his or her spintaxed article is put into a generator to produce hundreds or even thousands of articles for the web. Here is an example of spintax:

Original sentence – "Article spinning is great."
Spun sentence – "Article spinning is {great|awesome|terrific}."

The spun version could go into an article generator to produce "Article spinning is great," "Article spinning is awesome," and "Article spinning is terrific." The changes can grow exponentially based on the number of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs you spin . Nevertheless, that gives you a brief idea of how the job works.

The Pay of Article Spinning

The amount of money that you can make as an article spinner will depend on what someone is willing to pay you. If you decide to work by the hour, you can probably expect to make $10 to $20 an hour, depending on how experienced you are. If you work in a fixed price situation, then it is really hard to say what you can make as a spinner. I usually figure out how many extra words I'm going to be adding to a piece, and then I charge 25% higher than my normal per word rate to accommodate for the time I spend actually spinning the article. You can try to figure out how much time it would take for you to spin an article to your client's specifications, and then you can determine how much your time is worth.

The Craziness of Article Spinning

Some clients expect their work to be more spun than others, so you have to expect to come across some complicated projects if you make this a career. Here is a short sample of an article I had to do for a client once, just to show you the complexity you could run into:

{On the other side of the {fragrance|aroma|scent} spectrum is the powerful aroma of vanilla.|Vanilla{, on the other hand,|} is {desired|wanted|preferred} for its {high potency|potency|strong smell}.|Vanilla is {quite|} the {opposite|contrast}, {desired|wanted|preferred} for its {high level of aroma|potency|powerful aroma}.} {Vanilla has a lot more {kick|power |strength} to it than lavender, and its {fragrance|aroma|scent} is more associated with cooking than serenity. |Vanilla is much {stronger|more powerful|more potent} than lavendar and far less calming.|Vanilla is the {powerful big {brother|sibling}|big {brother|sibling}|older {brother|sibling}} to lavender, much {stronger|more powerful|more potent} and demanding than the little purple flower.} {Vanilla candles are just as {desired|wanted|preferred} as lavender candles, but for {different|other|differing} reasons.|Vanilla candles are {desired|wanted|preferred} {just|} as much as lavender ones, but for different reasons.} {The {scent|oder|aroma|fragrance} of vanilla is {universally|widely|internationally} accepted and is used in lotions and perfumes as well.|Vanilla has not only been used in candles, but {its|it is|it's} also employed in {lotion and perfumes|perfumes and body wash|bath products and body spray} as well.} Vanilla candles though seem to {turn|come|show} up in every {household|home|house}, and {they have a timelessness about their {scent|oder|aroma|fragrance} that is pure {intoxication|utopia|perfection}.|they {are seemingly|seem to be|are almost} everlasting.|they are more {recognized|recognizable|accepted} than a lot of other candles.}

Is your head spinning yet? Yes that was a pun. Now you can laugh and contemplate if you are fit for this job. Sound like a plan? Good. See you later!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Can You Make a Lot of Money on eBay?

eBay used to be a site where people could put up their old junk and hope other people would bid on it. Nowadays though, it is actually a venue for money making online. If you have been looking for a new career at home, you may think about selling products on eBay. There are pros and cons that come along with this, so you need to be really careful about jumping into that kind of work. It may not be as profitable as you think it is. Here is an overview of the money you could logically make on eBay, courtesy of someone who has gone through this process herself.


The Fees on eBay

There are tons of fees on eBay any time you make a post, more so than most people realize. Here are just some of the many fees that you could come across with your eBay business:

  • Posting fees: you have to pay a certain amount of money for posting an item on eBay, regardless of whether or not it sells. The more you do with the posting, the more money you will have to pay. Little things like adding a purple border to it or adding a Buy It Now option will boost the cost of your posting. If you consistently struggle to make a sale, you will be forced to pay out without making any money in return.
  • Selling fees: If you happen to sell an item on eBay, you will be charged with a percentage of the sale price. This is a sum of money on top of your posting fee. The value of your selling fee will depend on the cost of your item, but it will quickly eat away at your profits.
  • PayPal fees: If you manage your money through PayPal, you may have to pay a fee for the money you transfer. This will depend on the type of PayPal account you have and the amount of money that you are transferring from place to place. For instance, you may have to pay a fee to send your money to your bank account if you need it sent instantly. You can look into PayPal's terms of use for more information on that regard.
  • Shipping fees: You will obviously have to pay money to ship out whatever item you sell. This will probably cost more than you think it should. My husband and I once sold a single trading card, and it cost more to ship the damn thing than it did for someone else to buy it from us. All of this adds up over time.
  • Taxes: On top of all of the fees above, you will have to pay taxes on the amount of money you make from eBay, assuming you turn this into a career. Self-employed taxes are 15.3%, so kiss 1/6 of your money goodbye from the start.

As you can see, there are a ton of costs that come along with selling items on eBay. You have to factor in all of those fees in order to make anything close to an executive assistant salary in the future.

Can You Make Money on eBay?

Yes, you can make money on eBay. You just have to buy items at a really low price so you can sell them high enough to still make a profit. If you overprice the items, you will lose the customers. If you underprice them, you will lose your revenue. Keep all of this in mind, and you can determine if you want to venture into eBay sales or not.