Outsourcing Website Design & More On Elance - Un-American?
user
- by Aaron, on Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:01am PDT
Times have changed dramatically over the past 5 years. I don’t work
for
Elance, but I am fond of their system
because it works very well and is an extremely good value. A couple
examples. 3 days ago I was stuck on a website coding problem (I
sell
wholesale
silver jewelry online) I just could not figure out. I had spent
about 4 hours already and could not solve and was very frustrated.
On a whim I posted a project on Elance which took all of 5 minutes.
Within 2 hours I had about 5 bids. Four of those were from
contractors in India and other Asian countries. Believe it or not
the bid I selected was a guy in Pennsylvania. He was not the
cheapest but was easiest to communicate with and reasonably priced
and understood the context of the problem. The next day we spoke on
the phone and within 2 hours I had my solution (the search feature
on the site currently). Cost: $75 and it probably saved me an
entire day of programming. American or European contractors will
cost maybe $40/ hour vs. $10 for those based in India, Bangladesh
or other developing countries. But whoever you choose be sure
to communicate directly, preferably by phone, before you make your
choice. In the end, don’t be too enamored by the crazy-low prices
you see from the guy in Mongolia. You need someone who you can
connect and communicate with effectively.
Other types of work that you can outsource very effectively on
elance include helping others setup Google Adwords campaigns. Many
of my customers ask me about online advertising. Google is a
great place to start and it is very easy to get going. Although it
is not usually economical for retail jewellry, it is worth a shot
if you have a niche in some other product or service. I wrote a
Google Adwords white paper that may be useful if
you are considering Adwords - providing some tips and guidelines.
Let me know if you find it useful.
My personal belief - Outsourcing some of your business overseas
does not make you un-patriotic! It just means you are pragmatic. We
are now in the throws of a truly global economy. Anyone who is an
entreprenuer or even a salaried worker has to re-tool themeslves
every so often in this area. That is a fact of life. That means in
a global sense to succeed we all have to find ways to add value to
the world, literally. There is value in the service provided by the
little guy in India who does your programming. There is also great
value in the the services provided by the graphic designer in
Oregon who is there at your beck and call and in the same time
zone!
The key is to find a niche, and establish yourself if you are a
contractor. And if you are an entrepreneur then don't hesitate
to exploit the global marketplace to get the biggest bang for your
buck.
Aaron Rome
Wholesalegemshop.com
