Unfortunately, I have mostly negative results to report. Don't get me wrong - some positive link building has been completed by my virtual assistant - though barely enough to make a difference in the SERPS (search engine results pages). The thing is, I had to fire my virtual assistant only a week in to the project.

One of the perks of using oDesk is that you can view screenshots and annotations of the work that has been completed by the contractor. While viewing the screenshots, I noticed that link building was being performed, only not to my project. So, I was paying for hours of work that was being performed for other clients of my virtual assistant. The reasoning behind this was apparently due to the fact that my virtual assistant went out of town and let a family member do the work for them. Whatever the reason, I should not have to pay for hours of work that was not spent on my project. Am I right?

So, the project hit a little snag. I closed the project and officially disputed the payment. Thankfully, my virtual assistant admitted to all of this and allowed the dispute to go through unhindered, essentially refunding the money to me.

I have since reopened the project and so far I have more than 15 applicants to take over the job. Hopefully next week I'll have a more positive update!