Līve Ambitions

In today’s economy, it’s not easy for small businesses to find a good SEO or Internet Marketer.  There are many hurdles to overcome when choosing to outsource some of your work.  Here are some of them:

• finding a provider within your budget
• finding a provider who is skilled enough
• finding a provider who is meticulous
• finding a provider who cares about quality
• avoiding SEO scams and rip-offs

The SEO market is so saturated, it’s gotten to be quite difficult to find the right one for the job.  You see the resumes and service offerings at nearly every job employment site, freelance job site, classified ads site, forums and even blogs.  So, from all these options, what is a small business owner to do with the little to no hiring experience they have?

Well, unfortunately there is no easy answer.  It comes down to how much time/effort you’re willing to put into the search, and also how much you’re willing to fork out.  I’m not saying you always get what you pay for, but pricing does play a role in the level of service you receive.

Here are some effective ways to find a good provider:

• Employment/Job sites are good for finding highly-qualified job seekers.  However for contract-type positions, you may be better off using a freelance job site.  Employment sites like Monster and Careerbuilder are better suited for businesses seeking a permanent, in-house employee.  And, you’ll mostlikely pay a premium if you hire someone from one of these sites.
• Freelance job sites like oDesk and eLance are ideal places for finding freelance or contract workers.  For some business owners, they like the ability to scan through provider reviews and ratings, portfolios, and being able to see the provider rates up-front.  Because so many service providers are from less developed countries, you can often find bargains.  However, for many others, the process of using a freelance site (middle man) can be quite daunting.  There is usually a learning curve before you can effectively use their system.
• Classified ads sites like Craigslist and Backpage are also good for finding local SEOs and Internet Marketers.  You’ll get a ton of responses, however you may spend a lot of time weeding through emails before you come across potential candidates.  With classified ad sites, you really need to watch out for scams and rip-offs.
• Forums like DP and Sitepoint are great places to find affordable labor.  Start by checking out their marketplace sections, since this is where most freelancers hang out.  Then, try to find a SEO or Internet Marketer who is a regular and trusted by other members.  Many forums have a ratings feature for its members, so you can see how they conduct business and if they’re trustworthy.
• Some popular blogs actually provide a section in their blog where they offer job listings.  The quality of providers is pretty good, but their rates may be on the higher end.

So, the bottom line is you can find legitimate help at most of the job/freelancing sources out there.  The hard part is avoiding scams and screening for the right person.

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