Module 10 - Where & How To Find Outsource Workers We have used all the sites in the video and resources box to hire freelancers to help with tasks including programming, writing, link building and research. During that time we have with have experienced great freelancers, nightmare freelancers, problems with money being held in Escrow you name it and so we can hopefully help you avoid many pitfalls. When you post a job on any of these sites it is recommended that you are exact in your requirements so that the freelancer cannot turn around and say you didn't say you wanted this or that. However, if your project is perhaps for a new venture that you don't want everyone and their brother knowing about, just give them an overview of what’s required and only give them full details once you have picked a winner. It's best not to mention your website URL at all in any of your posts as you may find competitors look at what you’re doing and copy your strategies. Always pick someone who has great feedback rather than a new person no matter how enthusiastic they are as you don't want to be the guinea pig here let others find out who's good and who's not. Odesk is very good in that it allows you to organise a virtual interview with any of your bidders and I will often ask them to contact me on Skype to speak further about the job. If they contact you quickly, that's a good sign and shows that they will probably be easily contactable when work commences. Ask for examples of similar work they have carried out where possible to check for quality and don't be afraid to tell them if they are not suitable. Sometimes the cheapest bid is not the best so take a good look at all the entries before diving in to award the cheapest. In my experience, the Eastern Europeans and Russians are very good programmers but they are not as cheap as they used to be but hopefully, still cheaper than a western worker. With Odesk you can actually specify where you would like to recruit your freelancer from which can be a useful feature.
There are Indians who will do everything and I have had both good and bad experiences with them. Often they are very enthusiastic, hard working but they quality of the job may not be to the required standard or their English isn't great. I have found the Philippines to have some excellent English speakers and they are also very polite and easy to deal with. Also they seem to have many good experienced graphic designers - I put a job on a Website called www.BestJobs.ph sometime ago for a full time graphic designer and had some 40 applications, many of which were excellent. If you need a job doing urgently, if you can afford it, hire 2 different workers to do the same task. There is nothing more annoying than hiring someone to do an urgent job only to find out that they can't actually do it or they are uncontactable etc. Hiring 2 different people at once doubles your chances of finding one decent worker and getting the job done on time. When you find a good worker, keep in touch with them as it will save you all the time and hassle of having to go through the process of finding another one. I have been working with some of my outsourced workers for 5 years or more! Most of the Freelancer Websites allow you to use their Escrow service to pay people. The idea of Escrow is that you have your money safe with a middleman and if you are not happy with the work or the freelancer doesn't respond to your emails you can get your money back. However, I can tell you from experience that even Escrow is not foolproof as I had my money awarded to the freelancer even though they did a criminally bad job for me. Hopefully this advise will increase your chances of hiring some great workers and make you aware of potential problems you may face, but certainly don't let me put you off outsourcing people because it works out great more often than not.
