the PPC Book|Pay Per Click Blog | Long Tail Thoughts in a Short Tail World

I’m a small business person in the Internet Marketing industry. I don’t work for a ‘company’ or other people for 2 reasons:

1. Corporate ceilings - If you aren’t one of the first 2 or 3 people at a company, you aren’t going anywhere.
2. I’m a bad manager. I’ve got none of the qualities of an effective corporate shmoe. I’m impatient, will tell you exactly what I think, I’m relatively nice, I trust everyone, don’t like to hurt people’s feelings, and worst of all, I’m terrible at politics and am often very frank (especially with a couple beers in me).

As a result, I really enjoy working on my own. I set my own hours, my own clients, and can generally make as much money as I feel like working for. (not bad, huh?). What’s the downside? I can’t scale unless I get help.

For the past couple years I’ve managed quite a bit of outsourcing on web development and SEM-related projects. Let me tell you, it doesn’t always go smoothly. In fact, at times it can be quite frustrating. Flaky programmers (my dog died), inept service providers (you didn’t get my email?), bad code (can you take a screenshot of that error?), and poor execution (duh) are just a few of the problems one can encounter. If you are a small startup, there are a handful of reasons you may want to reconsider handing out important pieces of your project.

1. You get what you pay for - If you’re outsourcing for financial reasons, it’s best you take a hard look at the quality of work being done by your vendors. Ask for examples, testimonials, portfolios, and whatever else is relevant to your project before starting work.

2. Communication gaps - Outsourcing overseas can create challenges in relation to timezone coverage. Many of my programmers are sleeping during the great majority of my day. Sometimes I wonder if they are ever ‘awake’. When sourcing your project, it may be beneficial to pay a little more for companies that operate during your business hours. Communication via IM and email is difficult enough, much less having 2 or 3 day conversations because you can’t hash out an issue right away.

3. It’s just too important - Many people outsource the very lifeblood of their business, marketing. If you plan on outsourcing this key component - in our world it’s Search Engine Marketing, you best know who you are dealing with how exactly they plan on achieving your goals. Get references and case studies where available. General rule of thumb:

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

There are no guarantees in search marketing. Period.

Define your most important metric (revenue per visitor?) and make them accountable.

Lesson for the day:

Last night as I crawled into bed mumbling an unholy rant against “the inept people I have surrounded myself with”, my wife asked what is wrong. I replied, I can’t get anything done with “these people”. My wife reminded me, in the most diplomatically gentle way, that I chose these people, and I’m free to hire whomever I please.

Bottom line: Today I start defining expectations more clearly and outline project details at the beginning, and I start holding people accountable.

Here are some resources I’ve had success with, primarily because they allow for some degree of measurement. Pay close attention to the vendor ratings and reviews:

Elance
Scriptlance
Joomlancer (for joomla opensource)
Sitepoint Marketplace