The Luxury of Paying A Decent Price For Work

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When I started outsourcing stuff on my website almost 5 years ago, I would pretty much always go with the cheapest of the cheap. I would pay $3-$5 per hour for any kind of 'job', and about the same for a 500 word article.

The work got done, but there were always problems.

In the writing, there were always English mistakes that I had to correct, or sentences that I just had to delete because they didn't make any sense and I couldn't figure out what they were trying to say.

With jobs, the project would always get slammed out, and then the contractors got an attitude when I asked for corrections or told them I wasn't happy with the work that was done.

So I started paying a little more.

I'd still go for cheap labor, but not the cheapest of the cheap. I'd look for work hours logged, experience in the field, and ask some engaging questions in the interview. In the end, it would cost me a bit more money, but there would be less work to get done on my part, meaning I would save money by saving time.

I still ran into a few issues here and there, but overall I was much happier.

Last week I needed two big jobs done. This time around I had a full budget, and to be honest, I didn't care what the cost was. I just wanted it done, and done right. For the infographic I wanted done, I hired the guy with the best portfolio - not the cheapest price. For the ebook I wanted formatted, I chose the guy that asked me the most questions and was able to answer my own - even though he was 4x more expensive than anyone else.

The graphic is done, and I'm completely happy with it. The book is being worked on, and the contractor is very communicative and professional. I get the feeling when you pay people a decent wage, they tend to be happier about getting the job done up to specs!

I know a lot of you are on a tight budget, and don't have the money to outsource work. That's understandable! It just means you need to be more dedicated to learning what's taught here in WA. Everything I know about Wordpress now is because I was forced to learn while going through the training inside Wealthy Affiliate.

But after you start making money from your site, take some time to learn how to outsource properly and pay people smarter/more skilled than you to take care of some parts of your business. Sometimes, it's faster/easier/more profitable to pay someone to do it rather than spend the time to learn it and actually do it well.

Where do I outsource work? I use Upwork.com (previously oDesk).

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Recent Comments

35

Excellent post Nathaniell - thank you for the insight as well as your go to store.

ROCK ON!
E

Thanks Nathaniel !!!
... very helpful and bookmarked!

ps - hope your trip was a good one; very glad to see you back full time though - we missed you!

Thanks!

Nathaniell, thanks for this post. I will keep it in mind whenever I have to outsource. I didn't know oDesk was now Upwork.com.

Good to know that you had a good experience with upwork.com. I have some stuff I'd love to pay someone for but can't afford it right now so I'll have to continue going through the growing pains until I do. I'll keep upwork.com in mind if I ever get that far! ;)

Thanks for sharing this post man,

I'm curious, how does outsourcing work on the WordPress dashboard side of things?

For example, if I hire someone to write a 1,000 word article, would I make them a new user to my website as a writer or would I just copy paste the text that they would write for me into a blog post?

Thanks!

It depends. You can have them deliver the article via email, then you publish the post with images, links, etc. Or you can add them as an editor or author, and have them publish the posts directly to your site (or save as drafts for approval) https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

Thank you very much for the information ... I will keep it in mind .... cheers ... Michel

Greetings Nathaniell!

Some time ago you asked for ideas for a tutorial - and this blog tickled an idea that's been hovering in my subconscious for a while.

Could you do a tutorial about the questions to ask, the qualifications to consider, and the expectations to have when outsourcing work for your blog(s) - whether as piecework or outright hiring a VA?

I'd be all over it!

Dennis

That's a good idea. Jay used to have a webinar on this, but it seems to have disappeared.

Thanks Nathaniëll, I am working towards the position I will not care about what it cost:)

good to know!

like we always knew "pay peanuts, get monkeys" lol

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