I will be getting together a report to go with the call, so that I can go into more detail about it, and I did sit down and start writing it, but it just kept getting longer and longer and longer.  It was CRAZY!!!  So I have asked over at wordpress goldmine what people want to know about hiring an outsourcer, and I am calling on my readers here to comment… what do you want to know about outsourcing and I will base my report on those questions…

In the meantime listen to the podcast

And here are some basics to get you started.

Replacemyself.com is a super valuable resource for getting started with outsourcing to the Philippines.  It is not super cheap at $97 a month, but I would say that you only need it for about 1 or 2 months to get started.   Jon Jonas provides a ton of valuable information about Philippino culture and hiring practices.  His training for “your people” is also good, but I prefer to train my own folks, so I didn’t keep going with the program.  But for initial start up it is quite good, and their support is awesome.

I also have my outsourcer post a lot of content to postrunner (for backlinks), which is part of the Keyword Academy.  The Keyword Academy has some top notch training as well, but postrunner is why I stay there.  It is a network of around 600 blogs that you can “guest post” on.  All of the blogs are privately owned and all content that goes on them must be original.  Because of this I have found that posting to this network results in rankings increases pretty quickly.

My strategy is to look at what I am ranking on page two for and post 3 to 5 posts with that anchor text as the backlink.  I have found that this usually results in a front page ranking within 1 to 2 weeks of the posts being approved.  You can get access to postrunner by joining the keyword academy.  The link to postrunner is on the right hand side of the members area about halfway down. They just lowered their price to 33 dollars a month (quite a bargain) and still have a FREE trial to join.

Click here to get the FREE  trial and access to postrunner through keyword academy.

I think that is is for now.  I wanted to make sure I gave you the links for the places I talked about in the conference call.   I will be posting more on this subject, especially when my kids get back into school, and I have a bit more time to work.

But to go on this trip I had to have half of Friday off and all of Saturday.   This isn’t a big deal for most people, but I used to be a retail manager, so it is a huge big deal for me.  In my former job I had to work every Friday and Saturday.  Now I can give myself the time off.  I am so thankful that I get to earn money online, because it lets me keep my time expenditures in line with my values.

So back to camping… when we arrived it was pouring.  Which wouldn’t be a problem, but this is a troop of Brownies (2nd graders) on their first campout, and we wanted them to want to go camping again.  We had to think on our feet and fast.  Thankfully the Girl Scout camp was flexible and let us change our plans last minute.

We got to stay in this fabulous lodge where we threw mattresses on the floor and had one giant slumber party.  It was pretty cool.  It was also an awesome time with my kiddo.   So after chopping and cooking and hiking and building fires, I am pretty tired.  But I am happy, my time is spent in line with my values and what I think is important and working online makes that work for me.

I’ve tried outsourcing with Odesk, and that was an OK experience.  I’ve outsourced with TheContentAuthority.com, which is actually a good operation – I recommend them for content.  I’ve also had a sales letter outsourced (thanks Shaun) and some great looking graphics at good prices from getminisite.com.  So you could say that I am not exactly new to outsourcing.

But none of that solved my main problem…..  Which is that I don’t like copying and pasting content.  In fact I hate it!  Even as I am typing this post, I am doing it inside this wordpress blog control panel, so that I don’t have to copy and paste.  Sad, I know.  Also, unless you have a relationship with your freelancer you may find yourself teaching the same thing over and over again.  Because the freelancer doesn’t know your business.

So about two weeks ago I made a decision that I believe will revolutionize my business – and let me focus on the things I like to do.  You see what I really like is developing new ideas and finding opportunities.  Of course when you are working in your business instead of on your business that leaves you little time for those functions.   So to take over some of the day to day work, I hired someone using one of the international outsourcing services, replacemyself.com.

Now before I go and tell you that I have found the holy grail of marketing and that I will now be able to work a 4 hour work week after just two weeks of developing and training, let me just say loud and clear, anyone who feeds you that line is full of bull.  Eventually do I see myself working less because I have a staff? – YES.  But that is not what is going to happen right now, because training people takes work and a time investment.

In my eyes though, hiring full time people (and this is more possible than you may think) has several big benefits over hiring freelancers.  Although this is silly, for me, a big thing is that I don’t have to copy and paste. -Cue the angels singing-   My guy, Richard, can post directly to web 2.0 sites and my private blog network sites for me.  I don’t have to do it myself.   Also, as I develop a relationship with him, he becomes invested in my business.  Which is great because Richard has really good ideas allready.

But hiring people is not for wimps and not for everyone…  If you are considering outsourcing then here are some things you should know.  This is based on both my experiences so far with Richard through replacemyself.com, and from my experience of hiring hundreds of people over my career as a retail manager.  By the way I asked Richard’s permission before I posted his name – see third bullet point.

• Don’t hire people if you don’t know how to make money online yet, because they won’t know either.
• Don’t hire people if you don’t like to teach.  The beginning part of training someone is pretty intense.
• Do treat the people you hire with respect.
• Do expect to give vacation time and holidays.
• Do give the people you hire increasing responsibilities.
• Do ask your people for their opinion and then listen.
• Think about how you like to be treated in a job, and treat people that way.
• Do realize that managing people is a unique skill and something you need to be willing to learn if you haven’t done it before.

I also asked Richard, what advice he would give to Americans hiring from the Philippines and he said that  ”Phillipinos enjoy working for a boss with a sense of humor.”  Personally I think that is great advice all around – whether you manage people offline or online.

So, do I think everyone should go out and hire a full time worker?  No, absolutely not.  BUT, if your business is at a point where you want to focus more on the idea side of your business and less on the link building, content creating, site building side, it may be the right move for you to go with one of the international  outsourcing  services.  Be careful though, some of these places are just fronts for management groups.  You want a service that allows you to hire real people.   I personally really like replacemyself.com as they are very thorough in what to expect from your people and how to treat them (VERY important to me).    In addition they answered all of my support emails very promptly, and I had someone hired within three days of using their resources.  So a good experience all around.

If you aren’t ready to take that step yet, but are interested in outsourcing, I highly recommend the In House Writer’s Forum and Services For Sale Section at WordPress Goldmine.  They are exclusive offers to the Wordpress Goldmine community and there are some excellent deals in there.  You do have to join the membership, but it’s only $1 to start right now, so you have nothing to lose.