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Forum Name: The New MadBomber Marketing and SEO Forum
Topic ID: 635
#0, My Outsourcing experience
Posted by blue_sky on Oct-31-07 at 04:56 AM
I am pretty sure most of you already got some kind of experience when it comes to outsourcing!
I just "outsourced" some account creation and it looks that even this easy kind of job could cause some trouble.
I do not have a huge experience just got a couple of jobs done in the past.

One rule of thumb here (which could be easily found in every outsource ebook)if there is any problem already at the beginning it does not get any better )) and it either works great or not at all!
At the beginning I took this personal but after reading some other experiences I found that this is just part of the game...(offline as online)


#1, RE: My Outsourcing experience
Posted by Kurt on Oct-31-07 at 01:11 PM
In response to message #0
Hey Karsten,

I was just talking with Top Hat Bob about outsourcing account creation and he's had the same problems as you.

I haven't tried outsourcing account creation, but have tried outsourcing many other things, outsourcing isn't as easy as the gurus say it is...

Here's the TYPICAL outsource schedule:

They say it will be done in a few days.

After a few days, I write them asking for an ETA.

They say it will be next week.

Next week I write asking for an ETA.

They say their Great Aunt Maude died and it will be next month.

I write back saying "never mind" and get a new outsourcer.

Repeat.


It isn't that outsourcers are rip-offs...They just never get things done and the next thing you know, months have passed and no progress has been made.

I greatly increase my success rate when I follow this advice:

Understand that outsourcers are mercenaries. They will work for whoever is paying them the most. Just like all of use would.

I give large bonuses for getting the work done before the deadline.

For setting up accounts, it may be a case of where outsourcing is actually more work that doing the grunt work ourselves.

It's this "grunt work" that will seperate us from our compitition. Sure, it's boring and repetitive, but this is our edge. Re-read my post on "Boring = Success".

If you find this stuff boring, so does your competition.


#2, RE: My Outsourcing experience
Posted by Top Hat Bob on Oct-31-07 at 06:21 PM
In response to message #1
A couple additional tips for outsourcing:

If you are posting an account creation type project, make sure you get the prospective coders to submit a sample created account before you select a coder (and verify it!).

That will eliminate over 50% the bidders and 75% of your problems before you begin.

Always escrow the payment.

And as Kurt noted, sometimes outsourcing will take more time than doing it yourself.

A recent account creation project took me longer to verify the accounts than to enter the captchas myself.



#3, RE: My Outsourcing experience
Posted by blue_sky on Nov-01-07 at 03:31 AM
In response to message #2
@ THB "A recent account creation project took me longer to verify the accounts than to enter the captchas myself."

LOL I was thinking the same yesterday myself.
I just got the reply from the outsourcers the problem was that there was a "blank" when pasting the userid and password LOL LOL LOL...

@Kurt, I will try your "bonus" idea next time!