Where And How To Outsource
March 14th, 2008 | by Chris |Since we talked at the last two posts about why you need to outsource let’s see how you can do it, where and what to avoid.
First you need to know precisely what do you want. The more specific you are and the more directions you give the better and cheaper they can satisfy your needs and give you exactly what you are looking for.
Second if you use a site like elance or rentacoder after you sign up you post what do you want and wait for freelancers to bid for your work.
If you use a forum read their rules first and then post your project and wait for replies. There are message boards like digital point that are offering sections where users can offer or request various services.
And of course, there are freelancers with their own websites that you can find with the help of a search engine and contact them directly to negotiate for the job.
As a word of caution when you post your project don’t reveal too many things. There are some things that are your trade secrets and don’t want them in public view. For example you may have found a long tail keyword through research with a lot of traffic and little competition. You don’t want to tip off your competitors, so you don’t reveal that in your post but only to the writer after he gets the work.
Third, you always check samples and references. In sites like elance is easy to do, it’s within the system. In the other cases ask directly.
Fourth, if you are to pay a large amount of money use an escrow service or pay him at stages after completion of specific parts of the project. Some sites are offering escrow but some may not, so be careful, if not lose your money you may end up waiting for ages for the work to be completed.
As a good rule, try to break your projects to smaller parts so you can test your freelance worker at every stage or if possible give each part to different professional for faster completion.
Fifth, if you are outsourcing content when you post the work clarify from the beginning that you are asking for unique content that you would have all the rights to it. Upon completion always check with http://www.copyscape.com that your article actually is unique and cannot be found a similar on the web.
Sixth, don’t go for the smaller bid not unless he is offering the best value. That’s why you need samples to decide if it can give the quality you want.
A good advice is over the time to find people that do the jobs you want at the standards you want and rely more on them for your projects. Cultivate a business relationship with them and if they worth it pay them something extra in order to retain them, but always keep your eyes on the market and test new ones. You may find better ones to replace them.
Cartoon by Geek and Poke
Where to outsource?
The following list are of sites that you can post your project and have people bid for taking the job.
http://www.getafreelancer.com/
Those are the biggest ones but you can found smaller ones that cover every trade or may be specializing in specific categories.
You can also try the digital point forum, the buy, sell or trade services section.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=60
As a homework try to visit some of the above sites and browse how people are posting for their projects. That can help you get a better feel and understanding of how they work, now that you have the knowledge fresh.
Technorati Tags: Outsource, Freelance, List Of Websites
- Related Post
- Related Post
