Whether you are new to website flipping or have a lot of experience, sooner or later you’ll need help if you want to scale your Internet business. You’re only one person and you can only accomplish so much in a day. The easiest and most affordable way to scale your business is to outsource some of your work.
Anything you currently do yourself can be outsourced but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. In fact, you should take an inventory on what your strengths and weaknesses are and what you enjoy doing the most. Anything that falls under the “weakness column” or under the column of, “things you don’t really enjoy doing,” should be outsourced. You should only do things yourself that you are good at or enjoy doing.
A lot of people new to Internet Marketing and flipping websites have the impression that you have to be a big company or have deep pockets to outsource. Nothing could be further from the truth. I started outsourcing when my business was barely making $1,000 per month. I knew if I wanted to make “real” money, I would need help to scale my business and my income.
The first thing I outsourced was article writing because even though I enjoyed writing, I knew I couldn’t write the number of articles needed to build new websites. The other thing I outsourced in the beginning was my graphic work such as the headers for my websites and ebook covers. I would also outsource some backlinking projects on occasion.
Now today, I operate more like a high-level manager. In fact, maintaining this blog and writing for it is the only day-to-day stuff I do myself. Almost everything else that is done for my business is done by outsourced workers.
As I mentioned, you don’t have to be a big-time player to outsource either. My online business does well but I’m far from being some kind of millionaire Internet Marketing “guru.” With all the outsourcing I do (and I do a lot of it), it only costs me about $1,000 a month. That may sound like a lot but it isn’t when you consider I make much more than that and I’m not doing any of the day-to-day tasks either. Also keep in mind I didn’t start at this point. When I first started I maybe spent $100-$150 per month outsourcing my projects.
The two most common things you’ll likely outsource in the beginning are article writing and design work (i.e. headers, logos, banners, etc.). You can find ghostwriters to write quality 500-word articles for about $8 per article. For design work, you should be able to get a header designed for around $50 at the most. These are just general guidelines so prices will vary but I personally wouldn’t pay that much more than what I’ve outlined.
Here are the 12 places you can go to outsource work on the cheap…
1. vWorker.com – formerly named Rentacoder.com
I’ve been using vWorker since I started with Internet Marketing back in 2005. I have never had a bad experience there and I use this resource almost exclusively today. You can find writers who will write articles for $5 each and developers that will build complex websites for just a couple hundred dollars. I love vWorker!! If you go only one place to outsource your projects, this one should be it.
2. Odesk.com
Odesk has been a godsend to me. I use it strictly to recruit long-term virtual assistants and writers. The talent pool here is amazing and many of the workers you’ll find here are incredibly loyal. The virtual assistant I have today was found on oDesk and she’s been my right-hand women now for almost two years! I also found a ghostwriter there who wrote for me for almost a year. If you are looking for long-term, loyal workers, look no further than Odesk.
3. Digital Point Forum
Here you’ll want to visit the Buy, Sell, or Trade section of the forum. You’ll be able to find anything you need here from pre-written articles and PLR material to designers and developers to link exchange partners. It’s a smorgasbord of opportunities. Some of it’s good and some of it’s crap so you’ll want to be sure you know what you’re getting before you fork over any money.
4. Warrior Forum
This is another good place to go to find affordable help on a variety of projects. You’ll want to visit the Warriors For Hire section of the forum.
5. NamePros.com
You can find content (i.e. articles and article writers) and affordable designers and developers at this forum – specifically the Web Development section of the forum.
6. HumanRewriter.com
HumanRewriter.com is a great resource for having PLR material rewritten as well as having original content written.
7. TalkFreeLance.com
You can find many freelance writers as well as graphic designers at TalkFreeLance.com that will help you to create a polished blog at affordable prices.
Here are other places to find outsourced workers…
8. Guru.com
9. Elance.com
10. Scriptlance.com (for development projects only)
11. Content-Kingdom.com (strictly for article writing)
12. Craigslist
Another resource you can try is Craigslist. I was working on a local website and I needed a writer to blog about something specific to the area so I recruited a writer in the area from Craiglist. I have to warn you, though, finding workers through Craiglist is a pain in the butt and requires a lot of work and effort to find a good worker. I would only use Craiglist when you need writers for a specific local area.
I’m sure there are other resources so feel free to add them in the comments below, but these are the main ones and are more than enough to get you started. Like I said, when it comes to outsourcing start out small and only outsource those things at first that you are either no good at or don’t enjoy doing. After your business starts to take off, then gradually outsource more. It’s really that easy!
