The Difficulties of Outsourcing Jobs

I’ve been outsourcing jobs, on and off, for the past 7 years.  Projects ranging from logos and banners to entire websites and articles were on my list for outsourcing.  In the beginning, I relied on services like Elance.com and Guru.com.  Then, for a little while, I looked to forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint to outsource my work.

In those 7 years of searching, I’ve never ended up hiring someone that wowed me.  Maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, but with so many resources out there, it’s hard to believe that there aren’t more skilled dependable freelancers.  You name it, I’ve tried looking for all types of freelancers – from writers and SEOs, to programmers and designers.

I know the saying “you get what you pay for,” applies to most things in life, but this is sometimes not the case when outsourcing work.  Sometimes you can pay a lot of money, and get poor quality in return.  And, other times, you can spend a little money and get good value for your money.  One thing I always do before hiring someone is to check out their portfolio – whether it be sample articles or demo websites.  But, sometimes you just don’t know what you’re getting until you actually try out the service.  For example, when hiring a writer, why does it always seem like their sample articles are so much better quality than the articles they produce for you?

Here are some of the problems I’ve run into in the past.

Problems with outsourcing writing jobs:

• Poorly written articles – bad wording and flow
• Poor grammar
• Factual errors
• Lack of dedication – loss of interest
• Difficulties in finding a writer with your style
• Difficulties in finding a writer with research skills
• Difficulties in finding a writer who specializes in various niches

Problems with outsourcing SEO jobs:

• SEOs that overcharge
• SEOs that are not reliable
• SEOs that talk big game, but can’t deliver

Problems with outsourcing programming jobs:

• Poor communications – hard to get a hold of
• Programming full of bugs and errors
• Excuses for delays. I once had a programmer go on vacation for 2 weeks without telling me.

Outsourcing design jobs:
Finding a designer is one that I’ve not had much issues with. There’s a ton of great designers out there, and they’re usually not hard to find.

Outsourcing can be a pain in the ass, especially if you’re anal like me. Wow, that didn’t sound right.  Let me rephrase that – If you’re really uptight about the quality of work, outsourcing can be difficult.  You really have to spend some time into searching for the right service provider.  I think the first step is to determine how much you’re willing to spend on a project, then it’s the process of elimination.

Here are some known sites where you can find freelancers:

• Guru.com
• Elance.com
• Odesk.com
• Rentacoder.com
• Craigslist.com – under gigs
• DigitalPoint Forums – under buy, sell or trade