My Top Tips For Outsourcing Work on The Internet
My first foray into outsourcing was before I even knew anything about internet marketing.
I had read a blog post and it blew my mind that I could hire people in
India to work for me…all without leaving my apartment.
I had an internship at the time for a gym down in and one of my assignments was to create a calendar of all upcoming gym-related events.
In a moment of genius (or laziness), I decided to try out this whole “outsourcing” thing to create our events calendar.
I gave instructions patiently and waited for my calendar to be completed.
48 hours later, it was done — and done EXACTLY to my specifications. Which was awesome. I know that a lot of people have outsourcing horror stories
but my first experience was flawless. Needless to say – I was hooked.
I am happy with the outsourcing hundreds of projects to people all over the world, from Romania, to the Philippines, and to India.
I’ve had logos designed, websites created, apps coded, linkbuilding done, and so much more that I can’t even remember at this point.
In the “Art” of outsourcing I have become experienced – and because of that,he asked me to write you guys a post on some tips for
better outsourcing — how to make sure you avoid a nightmare experience, and enjoy the true benefits that outsourcing can offer to you and your business.
Know What You Want
To outsource successfully the most important key is knowing EXACTLY what you want.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they outsource is that they give vague instructions, and expect the person they are
outsourcing as well as understand exactly what it is that they want.
The simple fact is this: no one is going to understand your vision unless you tell them explicitly what your vision is.
just the saying “Make it kind of look this” without providing specifics, you are likely to be disappointed with the results.
This mistake usually ends with you wasting a ton of time trying to get your project right.
So, in order to avoid this, you need to figure out exactly what it is that you want done.
If you want a website designed in a certain way – do a wireframe (I will literally draw it out on a piece of paper, scan it,
and e-mail it to my designer). If you want a piece of software or an app to provide a certain function, make sure that it is outlined completely
before you ask the outsourcer to do the work. For logos, provide examples of what you’re looking for with specific instructions.
When they start outsourcing a lot of people make this mistake — and it almost always ends poorly.
So make sure that you take the time to figure out exactly what it is that you want your outsourcer to do, before you ask them to do anything.
And, along these lines, you want to make sure you’re very specific in your job description as to what you are looking for.
Where To Find People To Work For You
There’s a couple of great sources to find employees online, and I’ll outline a few here:
- While my experience is relatively limited, I have had quite a bit of success with the
employees I’ve hired from there. They are usually the cheapest, but they provide good quality work. It also has internal time tracking,
and will take screenshots of your employees desktop while they work, so that you know they are on task.
- I’ve had the most experience with people, and out of all of the sites that I’ve worked with,
it’s been consistently the highest quality. While the workers here are usually on the more expensive side, you
definitely get what you pay for. I’ve never had a bad experience with anyone that I’ve hired from this work.
- While not really “Outsourcing” as is generally local people,
I still list it here as it is a very, very useful resource for finding employees. You can still get cheap work, and depending on how
big of a city you live in, you can usually get responses very quickly. However, I will say that this is best for finding employees that are local
(that you will see face-to-face) as does not protect you like if you are just hiring someone to work for you online.
