Outsourcing Tips? (9)
I'm wondering if there are any guides or sage advice when it comes to outsourcing?
Are there designers/coders that work on a monthly rate? Certain sites that have talent catering to LP's? Sites/Countries to stay away with?
Outsourcing is my next obstacle to climb and would appreciate any insight to get on the right path 
Best thing would be to hire people that have worked for partners of yours,
so you don't have to waste time filtering..
There are several sites that allow you to hire people such as oDesk,
I like to look for the job I'll want to outsource, find the people that were hired for the most similar job,
and contact them myself based on their ratings.
This way I don't hire lazy ass / unqualified people.
Worst thing in outsourcing is training the people.. If they have some experience in this field,
you should be okay paying them +$1 per hour above average hourly rate for "data entry" applicants.
Recording videos has been the easiest/fastest way for me to give my workers directions.
I would be careful with outsourcing, unless you have a lot of time to hold hands. PHP Developers are better than your standard "virtual assistant" however and usually have fairly good work ethic. I have some friends in the dynamite circle that run outsourcing firms in Manila, I know their rates for full time PHP Developers start at $1000 a month and go up to around $4000 a month. If you would like some contact info let me know.
Lately however, I'm coming to the conclusion that its actually cheaper to find someone who knows exactly what they are doing and has general knowhow in the industry. For example, a seasoned PHP developer may cost $25-40 an hour, but can get your task done in 2-3 hours as opposed to most "outsource firm" guys who charge $15 an hour, but take 5-10 hours to complete the project.
I found this guys blog really useful when I started looking into outsourcing.
http://www.jonasblog.com/
He sells some coaching packages on his site, but he gives out so much good info for free you don't need to purchase any of them to understand how to start outsourcing properly.
I currently have 2 full time people working for me. They have been with me for almost a year now and it has been great. It takes a lot of time and patience in the beginning, but once you get them trained it makes your life a lot easier.
Some awesome info guys.. I've run a small 4 agent call center and have an assistant helping me right now but am new at outsourcing the tech/design.. I've always done this myself but I need to learn delegation to work smart.
I like the idea of having a coder/designer available on a monthly basis but I don't want to drop $1k on a coder only to have him respond 2 days after I email him.. I'll check out that blog and just get my hands dirty on oDesk..
Looking forward to mastering this next step.
Bro it's pretty simple. The hard part is interviewing and it's the most time consuming. Let me know because some of these workers can do hourly and will stay with your company as long as you have constant work for them
You need to thoroughly vet these guys, I've had numerous unreliable and unmotivated people that I've hired.
I had a full-time team of 3 employees and I found this really helpful when I was going through the process of hiring etc., hope it helps: http://media2.replacemyself.com/Phil...StartGuide.pdf
Have a good intranet with instructions on everything the worker needs to know/do.
Each task should be very detailed and easy to understand. Best use a project manager like Basecamp or sth similar.
It's hard in the beginning (to define everything) but once it's setup it's smooth sailing.
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