How to Outsource?

In my earlier post with my income report I have mentioned that I have hired a few freelancers to outsource parts of my projects. Just after publishing it I got quite a few emails with questions about outsourcing. It is why I have decided to write a short summary with most important thoughts about hiring freelancers. You must be very careful when choosing people or companies to make a work for you as you may be very disappointed with the results. Freelancers may be very helpful and can do a lot of work for you but you must know what do you expect and you must be able to describe it very well.

What to outsource...?

If you are asking what kind of work may be outsourced most probably this subject is very new for you. You may outsource almost anything! There are thousands of freelancers (see Freelancer Portal) that are only waiting for ANY job! Really! Any work you may imagine may be outsourced!

Most commonly freelancing and outsourcing in the Internet is recognized as building some websites or doing some other on-line jobs. But you may found much more kind of jobs. Just take a look on the categories on the mentioned before website. You will find there "Website, IT & Software" category but looking further you will be surprised with such jobs as "Architecture", "Engineering & Science" or even "Psychology" & "Weddings" category!

When to outsource...?

There are many possible reasons that can make you want to outsource some job. The most common are following:

• Lack of knowledge in some small parts of your project...
• Lack of time to do it yourself...
• Shortening project duration by outsourcing some parts of it...
• Expecting a clearly described complete product/service

Those are good reasons to outsource. There is a one very bad reason that should not be used at all. You should not try outsourcing if you completely don't know anything about the subject. You can not outsource something when you don't know what do you exactly expect.

The result from outsourcing must be very clearly described before the project even starts! Or you will get a product/service that is not worth anything and won't bring you any profit/satisfaction.

And on more thing to remember! If you know the subject well you will always do the job better that a freelancer! That can make you always unhappy with the achieved results as well! So treat it as the cost of outsourcing!

How to find a freelancer..?

In my case I am always outsourcing only some parts of the project. I like to be a manager and I am just giving some smaller jobs that can not be easily done by myself or are very time consuming. I am always using Freelancer Portal as it helps me get a choice from a lot of freelancers offers. After registration you just describe your work and freelancers are bidding (just like on the eBay) with the lowest time duration and cost.

When you will decide that you have enough offers you are choosing the best one. You may ask questions and usually you are getting very fast responses (as all of those guys want to work for you so badly...). When you decide to choose someone to do the job - the project starts. You may create the escrow payment (full or partial) so both parts of the project would be sure about finishing it when they are satisfied.

How much does it cost? (real examples)

It depends on the service quality that you expect. You will get a lot of offers and you must choose just a one. So you should ask as much questions as possible! Just to make sure that the job will be done the way that you really expect it!

Here are examples of projects that has been done by freelancers on my request:

• Rewriting 30 technical articles - Cost 30 USD
• Writing 20 articles - Cost 35 USD
• Building 500 backlinks - Cost 50 USD

You should calculate by yourself how much is your time worth and if you can do it by yourself. In my case it was better to pay to freelancers and do another more profitable tasks in the meanwhile.

Is it worth to outsource...?

I have paid for a lot of work just once and it is returning continuously for many weeks or even months. In most cases it has already earned much more than it costs so you can maximize your profit by outsourcing and multiplying your current income streams.

So if you know what to do to make money and you have more work than you can manage by yourself - outsourcing work to freelancers is a really good choice. And it is as easy as posting a job on Freelancer portal and choosing the best offer!