Outsourcing FAQ for Internet Marketers

When you see the word outsourcing in the newspaper it is often covered in a negative tone. While it does have some negative impact on some groups of people outsourcing has its own place in the business world. In the world of internet marketing outsourcing has been proven as a mean to reduce cost, increase efficiency and also the bottom line. This article answers some frequently asked questions by internet marketers related to outsourcing.

What is outsourcing anyway?

Simply put outsourcing means to get someone else (usually a freelancer) to do a job you won't/can't handle yourself.

What is the difference between outsourcing and hiring an employee?

Outsourcing is a "no-commitment" kind of thing. You find someone to do a task and pay him when it's completed. If you want him to do more then you just pay more. If you hire an employee you're obliged to pay him regularly regardless of the workload. Not to mention taking care of this pension, health insurance, taxes, etc.

Which part of the job should I outsource?

The most boring part on your job and/or the one that you just can't handle yourself. For example, I love making websites. I love researching for new niches, building the websites from scratch and adding all the bells and whistles. However, when it is time to build links I outsource as much workload as I can. Why? Because it's the most boring task in the whole website-building game. I don't mind spending hours researching for niches and even more hours on adding the content but link building is just not my thing. It is time consuming and incredibly boring. I'd rather pay someone else to spread my links than doing it on my own.

Why do I have to outsource?

You don't have to, outsourcing is a choice. The whole point of outsourcing is to let you spend more time on your core competencies and to free you from boring and mundane tasks. If you feel that you can gain more by outsourcing then go ahead but if you can handle everything on your own then there's no reason for you to outsource anything.

I've heard somewhere that outsourcing sucks. Is it true?

Yes, some times bad things happen but it usually happens when you don't use enough common sense when hiring a freelancer. For example for content writing in English you better hire people from countries where English is the main language. Lots of freelancers say they will write a 500-words article for as low as $1. Those who fall for it end up disappointed after they see the articles are full of grammatical and semantic errors.

If I decided to outsource my web programming tasks how much money will I need to spend to pay the freelancer?

That depends on a number of things like the complexity of the job, how long will it take to complete it and the expertise level of the freelancer. One interesting fact that you should note is that on freelancer websites a lot of highly qualified freelancers are willing to complete a job for very low rates as long as you give them a positive review. If you're low on budget you can really take an advantage from this. Actually even if you aren't low in budget you can still take advantage from this simple fact.

Conclusion

When done correctly outsourcing can be very profitable from an internet marketer. When you can focus on the stuff you master the most your productivity will soar. Do remember to use your common sense before outsourcing a task to a freelancer. If his claim is too good to be true then find other freelancer with a more believable claim.