Outsourcing for Affiliation 101

Where To Outsource: 

Some great resources for outsourcing are the following websites: Elance.com, Scriptlance.com, VWorker.com, Freelancer.com, Guru.com, and oDesk.com fiverr.com . 

Each has their pros and cons depending on the task you need accomplished. 

oDesk is great because of their time tracking features that will record the screens of those you outsource too. 

Elance is an amazing source of exceptional contractors and providers who cover a wide range of experience and costs. 

Fiverr is one of the best tools for newbie affiliates. Each job will usually not cost more than $5 (unless you want a more advanced project) and most contractors are skilled in affiliate marketing tasks and provide a wide range of portfolios of completed works. If you need a task done on the cheap with okay results 

Fiverr is your best choice. Just keep in mind you will often get what you paid for. 

What To Outsource:

Below are some great options for outsources that can be done for less than $5 a hour. While the result might vary( based on how complicated the task) these affordable options will help you get started in affiliation in no time. 

• Having mock-ups for a website designed 

• Simple Link-building for SEO 

• Designing customer banner ads 

• Commissioning high quality articles to be written with SEO rich text 

• Creating a custom WordPress plugin 

• Development of a WordPress site 

• Development of a custom landing page 

• Finding/creating 100s of images for split-testing in Facebook advertising 

• On-page SEO 

• Flash animation 

You can even hire people to teach you how to accomplish these tasks. Most of these jobs are relatively simple and with a minimal amount of study and explanations you too can learn how to do them. Tools Skype – Real time communication via chat that will save everything you say back farther than six months. Also important for easy and cheap communication with both video and voice. Jing – A free screen capture surface that will a;low you to create simple videos for many different projects and communicate with whom your outsourcing to 

A Few Tips: 

Before you get started, here are a few outsourcing tips based working with oDesk 

• Be direct in the amount you are willing to pay (usually I set it to $3/hour, and often mention an even lower limit in the written description) – otherwise you’ll get people bidding too high which will raise the “average bid” and may encourage additional high bids. If you do get a bid that is too high, reject that contractor quickly so they no longer appear on the list for other contractors to see. 

• Look for contractors located in countries like India, Bangladesh or the Philippines. They are often the best contractors and at the best prices. You can not necessarily search for these regions specifically but you can target East Asia 

• Do not hesitate to invite people to apply for your job. You will be able to generate a greater amount of interest in your project and increase the likely hood of finding the right person for the job. • Before you hire someone for a larger job do not be afraid to hire a few people for small jobs to find if they will be up for a bigger test. There is not a better way to find a good contractor that is right for you than working with the previously. Hiring many contractors has the additional benefit of providing positive reviews for your account profile! 

• When a job is complete be sure to provide a positive review of their work. People will appreciate this and provide you with a good review as well which will draw better and more contractors your future jobs. 

8 Important Rules to Follow in Outsourcing: 

1. Clearly define the project and schedule 

The most important set of outsourcing web-development and affiliations projects is to set up clear goals and plans for the project. Explain clearly and documenting your requirements for the project at the beginning will save you an exceptional amount of time. Be very specific about what you want the end result to be and what you are willing to pay for this task to be accomplished. The only way you will receive a product that you are happy with is to explain as directly as possible what you want and be clear when something that you do not like is provided. Also, have realistic expectations for when your project will be finished. This can be effected by how much you are paying for the services and the sources that the work is coming from It’s important to have clear and direct lines of communication about goals and expectations. For your outsourcing to be successful, clearly communicate exactly what you need and provide your vendor or employees with a description of their roles. Be as detailed and specific as possible when expressing what goals are to be meet and what the final product should look like. You should provide feedback to your provider directly. However be sure to focus on the positive as well as the negative, they’ll appreciate the direction and be more cooperative. 

 2. Treat contractors like would be employees 

When picking someone to create a project for you it is vital that you do not hesitate to ask questions of your potential hire. Do not be afraid to ask questions, this is how you know that potential service provider will be up to accomplishing the task they way you want and in the agreed about of time. Ask for examples of their previous work or references. 

3. More expensive does not mean better, but cheapest is not always the best 

Service providers come from all over the world and have different work rates based upon experience and location. A graphic designer in India or the Philippians will be much cheaper to hire than someone in the United States or Western Europe. Experienced people who have outsourced many projects and evaluated many proposals will almost always discard the highest-priced and lowest-priced bid. It is important to judge your service request appropriately to establish who will be able to accomplish the task set at the right price. Do you really need a college graduate with 5 years of experience to develop a simple HTML email or landing page? Most likely not. 44

Pick the person that is right for the job; several less expensive works can cost less than one expensive one and will grow your profile of tools but the opposite can also be true. You get what you pay for. While the most expensive option might be tempting, the pay a worker requires is often a reflection of education, experience, and work quality. 

You don’t have to break the bank don’t skimp too much either – you will regret it. 

4. Review portfolios and samples 

Examine the vendor’s previous work (their “portfolio”) and make sure that their previous work meets your expectations for quality and style. If you’ve evaluated a vendor’s portfolio, references and previous experience and are still unsure of their capabilities, consider asking them to do a quick mock-up or provide a basic outline of a work plan. A service provider who really wants to win your business might be able to give you a rough concept so you can better understand their approach to solving your problem. But never cross the line between asking for a mock-up and insisting that a vendor provide you with finished work “on spec.” No qualified professional expects to work for free. 

5. Start with a small project 

When you start outsourcing to providers for the first time, start with a project that is relatively simple or small. This will provide you with a clear idea for how the provider will perform and teach you how to manage your new task. Large project require more time and management, if you are not experience in handling this task it will negatively reflect in your finished product. 

6. Ensure Ownership 

For any project you decided to outsource it is very important that you are clear about who owns the resulting work any components of that product. Make sure the service provider understands how you intend to use the delivered that they are agreeing to provide. 

For effective web-development it is important to own website. It is an easy mistake to let a webhosts or providers control your domain. When someone else owns (or registers) your domain name, your site could be taken down by any number of people who technically run your site. A great and easy way to avoid this is to registered as the owner of the domain by using a service such as www.whois.net, find out who currently is the registrar and be certain that you too are included. Never share your registry level access with a programmer. Even the most complex of changes can be easily coordinated via registry support, or by coordinating a team viewer session with the programmer so you can see what they are doing. 

7. Secure support for completed projects 

It is key to specify a certain level of support after a projected is completed. For example, website development might require additional assistance in problems or modifications that were missed during the projects development. It is easier to negotiate a support before the service provider begins work, instead of after the completion of the project. Creative project services can benefit from and will greatly improve with the negotiation of a support clause. Maybe you find that you need to change which offer your are promoting and update to a new to be implemented. Specifying some amount of free support or a discount for future changes will save you money and frustration latter on. 

8. Never Delete an Email and Write Everything Down 

It will be very common not to have much face to face contact with the people you are outsourcing with. This can make clear communication tricky. Meetings by telephone and Skype are a good idea to get a personal connection with people and building a rapport but they by far are not the best way to pass along important information. Technical difficulties, memories and misunderstandings will too often get in the way. 

Written communication, whether it is a text chat or an e-mail, has the crucial benefit of leaving behind a clear record. Having the ability to always refer back to a previous conversation, agreement, or explanation will be vital to success of any project and avoiding misunderstandings. This means that anything you have previously discussed should be easily referred back to in writing. Talking face to face is an excellent way to build relationships, but important information should always be written down and no email should ever be deleted.