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Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant agency?

After reading some articles about virtual personal assistants, I want to ask the community, if they know of any good site to find me an assistant paid on an hourly basis for some research tasks I have to get done(i.e. finding tables of measurement data in a certain format). The tasks are not as simple as ordering food, but on a level low enough, so that they can be done by any half-way intelligent person without any previous knowledge on the topic.

I would really like to source some things out. Can you help me?

Edit: After doing some research, I found oDesk almost fits my needs, they are only missing one key feature: Searching for people speaking other languages than English.

( 16 comments | 44 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by joshkaufman on Sunday October 03, 2010 @04:39PM (#1753552)
I use TimeSvr.com - wrote a detailed post about them here: http://personalmba.com/delegation-outsourcing-timesvr/
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by Brajeshwar on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:13PM (#1753231)
One of my author wrote a rather nice article with relevant links to services that provides Virtual Assistants. Here is the link to the article

http://brajeshwar.com/2010/virtual-assistants-managing-busin...

I've also heard someone said Indonesian's (from oDesk) are pretty good and easier to interact.

I suggest trying out few with small task and figuring out the best which suits you.

Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by newyorker on Sunday October 03, 2010 @03:18PM (#1753387)
I know a lady that is a Personal Assistant. Her website is here (be careful the PA link is messed up): http://www.whyorganizingworks.com/services.php

She knows a little of some languages. Which are you looking for?

Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by eli on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:36PM (#1753282)
I've heard good things about https://getfriday.com/
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by c1sc0 on Sunday October 03, 2010 @06:45PM (#1753865)
I've been using them for almost two months now & strongly recommend them. It is worth asking for someone with a technical background and then giving him/her some breathing space to get to know you.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by mseebach on Sunday October 03, 2010 @03:57PM (#1753463)
This is one of the two (IIRC) recommended in 4 hr workweek.

I've just signed up, I'll let you if they're good in a month.

Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by iworkforthem on Sunday October 03, 2010 @10:21PM (#1754344)
I have been using www.onlinejobs.ph to find VAs. My criteria are; able to speak basic English and not more than USD$5/hr. I does take up quite a while to find the right person, at the end of the day it's worth it.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by bobds on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:14PM (#1753236)
If you want people that speak a certain language, you could try looking at some translation communities, such as ProZ.com.

http://www.proz.com/

Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by mike_holland on Monday October 04, 2010 @12:16AM (#1754581)
I use a virtual assistant service called Rent A Smile http://www.rentasmile.com - they're specially good for research work.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by lorenzsell on Sunday October 03, 2010 @03:54PM (#1753454)
i've been using filcan (http://www.filcancommunications.biz/) for the last three years. they've done everything from data entry to data collection to telephone research for me. they're based in the philippines. pricing is around $6/hour.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by mlevey on Monday October 04, 2010 @03:35PM (#1757003)
I co-run fancyhands.com - we can help you. Feel free to contact us if you have questions about our service.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by mkuhn on Sunday October 03, 2010 @01:55PM (#1753187)
What about oDesk et al.? There is a huge amount of people offering to work as your personal assistant.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by conflagration on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:01PM (#1753201)
Thank you for the recommendation. Some of my tasks are language specific, so I would like to find people capable of speaking a certain language.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by paulsingh on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:23PM (#1753252)
I'm using ContemporaryVa and am very happy with it.
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by makmanalp on Sunday October 03, 2010 @03:05PM (#1753352)
Why not use amazon mechanical turk?
Re:Ask HN: Can you recommend a virtual personal assistant ag... by jamesshamenski on Sunday October 03, 2010 @03:25PM (#1753404)
mech turk is best at yes/no questions.