I’d like to run a quick poll in this post that examine the idea of outsourcing.
You see more and more I’m talking to bloggers (big and small) and am hearing that they outsource at least some of their blogging activities.
Perhaps the most common of these is hiring designers or writers – but there are many other activities that I see blogger outsource.
Here are some of those that I’ve seen bloggers do as well as a few suggestions from my followers on Twitter:
Please note – I’m talking about ‘paid outsourcing’ – not guest posts or getting a friend to help you with some aspect of your blog or even buying a blog template – but paying others to do some aspect of your blogging.
- Blog Design
- SEO
- Paid Blog Writing
- Comment Moderation
- Selling Advertising
- Administrative Tasks (like managing email)
- Post Editing
- Tech – Looking after the Back End
- Creation of Products (E-Books)
I’m sure there are many other things that could be added to this list (and I invite you to do so below).
So now you know the type of things I’m talking about – do you outsource any aspect of your blogging?
PS: again, I’m talking about outsourcing to freelancers or paid staff in some way and not buying a blog template or getting someone to do some of these things for free.
Wow. This is a pretty new concept of outsourcing parts of my blogging to me personally. I’m interested to see how many bloggers do it. Also, if you outsource some of the actual writing does that effect the authenticity of your blog?
Interesting poll.
I never outsource any aspect of my blogging.Its because I apply my knowledge and skills and do the work
I think it is a good idea to outsource some tasks that are mundane and take away valuable time that should be used creating content. Tasks like managing the backend (software updates, patches and such), user management, and email management.
But I think that the content creation itself should remain with the blogger. The audience identifies and shows up everyday for you, not the freelance guy you found on craigslist. It think that the post quality will suffer and eventually the traffic.
Interesting post, I outsource a number of things at the moment. The first was product creation ebook, design etc. From there I decided to get my hands in on the blogging world and had my design created and now outsource my advertising as well.
I will tell you after I voted I was very suprised at the results it was 7 yes and 23 no! I would have expected a much higher number on the yes side.
well..
I dont outsource, but we have many people comes to us to write content for their blog and seo.
so I am 100% agree with you and one more thing I want to add here is day by day such outsourcing is increasing as popularity of blogging is increasing.
Hello,
Some people definitely are. I’m a journalist by day, ghost-blog-writer by night.
There’s real demand for personable, good quality blog posts and it’s a great second job for me. Obviously, you have to guarantee you’ll never reveal your clients.
Some people offer really low quality blog posts and I think that damages brands.
I’ve written for the nationals and apply that same quality to my blog customers – it’s not the cheapest content but it is good. In the long run, that’s what works.
Felicity
I mostly outsource content creations for my niche blogs.
There are always certain niche that you are not comfortable writing about.
Time is another factor.
I have no problem with outsourcing, although I think I am too proud to do it ;-). It seems like the ‘romantic’ days of blogging are over. Outsourcing stuff you don’t have the skills for, like web design or marketing, I can understand, but I feel a bit reluctant to outsource the actual writing.
Darren, I don’t but I’d like to. Each post begets a ton of other back posts that I’d like to write. From definition articles to product reviews. Any hints on how to get started on that? My first attempts via Elance failed.
While I don’t outsource currently, it is something that I plan on doing in the future. As I begin to develop more websites, I am going to need to have people who can handle the things I can’t. I write on two sites right now, but there a few other ideas in my notebook that I am just unable to work on full time. I’d outsource to get some of the tedious work out of the way and, more importantly, get some of the content out of the way.
Well i think .. U should outsource when u yourself are unable to find time for the work u have in your hands .. and that’s way i do it …
I gives others a fair chance to earn as well
I outsource some writing cause I got in over my head with 30 blogs and can’t write that much.
I decided to outsource a new design for my blog a few months ago. After doing some research and hiring someone (within my modest budget limits) I’ve decided to do it my self.
In conclusion… If you want to outsource and you need quality, you need a high income blog. For the rest of us… we just have to it ourselves!
I could never make nearly as much money as I do without outsourcing. I mostly outsource content, but it’s ghostwritten and I edit it to fit my own writing style before publishing. In that way, it takes me 10 minutes to create a post rather than 2 hours.
I’m planning to outsource marketing, but even I’ll keep working on it, as their can be double sided effect. I had expect such results in this polls, as most bloggers do not have enough capital to outsource their work, so they’d prefer to work hard and save money.
http://dumblittleblogger.com/
For me, the wise thing to do is we should make best use of resources in terms of time, cash and energy while deciding on outsourcing.
It is because different person has different environment and condition. Some of us who have great sites plus huge traffics will find that to outsource comment moderation is justifiable due to the volume and time save can be well used for other important purposes.
It is because comment moderation not really a value added process.
However, if we simply outsource it due our laziness, it is totally plain stupid and waste of money.
For me, there is no exact yes or no answer. It all depends on us i.e. depends on how brilliant or stupid we are?
Cheers!
I’m “teamsourcing”. Technically, I’m not yet paying the other members of the staff, but we have a formal profit sharing agreement in place for the time when profits begin to flow.
Since my site is non-niche (more like a full-featured magazine) this allows me to publish a broader array of content while also having fresh content every single day.
I look forward to the day when I would need to pay someone to moderate comments :)
Darren, I and a few other friends who are loyal readers of your blog were wondering if you could write a post on outsourcing SEO. Most of are tired of working hard and building backlinks, Google’s policies have made it almost impossible to reach PR 5, so we don’t mind spending a bit on SEO.
http://dumblittleblogger.com/
We don’t outsource anything… We’re not opposed to outsourcing things we can’t/ don’t know how to do on our own.
We feel if we have content and we’re posting it as our work, it should be our work.
I don’t outsource anything for my blog, but I have several clients that outsource tasks to me…mostly Tech – fixing or managing things on the backend, customizing design elements or helping with SEO and CSS. I usually stay in touch with my biggest clients by Skype…I’m always on, so they send me a message to change something or take a look at a problem they’re having, then I’m able to take care of it immediately. Works for us.
I don’t outsource yet, but it’s on my radar. I’m looking at options to move the miscellaneous administrative tasks, tech upkeep, and some content creation to another person.
I outsource 1 article a day. Before I post however, I make sure “I couldn’t have said it better”. I provide the keywords and the just of what I want to communicate to my audience. The best outsourcing topics are on “how to” and “why you want to” kind of stuff. I outsource because I enjoy time with my family and it’s difficult to get everything in that I need to do to keep up with my social media marketing. I find that my time is better spent building relationships one on one with people online while an excellent writer is composing for my review. I do write much of my own content as well.
I have bought in some content for the first time recently, not on my “main” site, but on some of my other projects.
It is too early to guage whether the ROI will mean I do it again, so we’ll see.
I don’t outsource anything currently. Couldn’t afford to at this point with a new blog and no job. I even designed my own template from scratch. But, I can see many tasks being outsourced in the future, with the exception of the writing as that’s what I want to focus on.
I think outsourcing can become needed if your site outgrows your ability to do it all yourself, mine isn’t there YET, but if it did get there I am sure I would have enough income from it to outsource some of it so that I could concentrate on content and community in the comments etc..
For a professional like me who is just trying to use his blog as an extra resource for his customers, outsourcing makes total sense.
I’d love to talk to someone who knows how to maximize a blog while I simply add the content.
I’ve been doing more and more non-blog work (because of my blog, so it’s a good thing), so I recently three bloggers to write a post each week. I’m still having a bit of a hard time relinquishing control, but I’m also really happy with all the time it has freed up (and the job they’re doing)!
I have outsourced blog layouts in the past and am currently in the process of outsourcing the layouts of one of the blogs I run for a custom look.
I have to outsource design cause I suck at design, Im a techi not a designer. I can tweak a bit with css or play around with images in photoshop but making an eyecatching design hell no!
Im too small to outsource anything else. Perhaps when I am finished writing my ebook I will get someone to do it, but I have no idea who. Who did you use for your ebook?
@Keith: I agree with you that it all depends on how big the blog has become, but I personally like to be in full control of whatever I do so it’s the same thing with my blog. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to get SEO professionals to help me out sometime in the future once I make some money.
Post editing is an interesting idea. I’ve noticed that some blogs with compelling content sometimes contain grammatical, spelling, or other writing errors. Some readers don’t mind, but for others, this could be a turn-off.
I have an interest (and a degree) in English, so I guess I’m in the “turn-off” camp. I would love to help others to improve their writing skills, but I am not aware of any way to connect with people on this. Does anyone out there have any ideas?
I tried and either I did not advertise the job correctly or people are stupid.
I wanted to find someone who would increase my blog traffic via social media since my SEO is already near perfect. My deal was simple: I did a calculation of how much each ‘real’ visitor on my site was worth and offered about half of that money to the person who would be able to bring me the traffic.
For example, if 1000 visitor = 10$, I was willing to pay him 5$ for each thousand visitors for the rolling next few months. It is basic prift sharing without even having to write the content!
Yet, couldnt find anyone I could trust.
BTW, if any Social Expert wants to give it a try, contact me. Maybe this blog audience would be better than what I have experienced so far
I think outsourcing is critical once you get big enough to be able to justify it. You will have to pay for the work either with your time or your money. Nothing comes for free. Eventually you will want to enjoy the fruits fo your labor and have other people do the dirty work.
However, that being said, you should never outsource your marketing strategy or your true content. No one knows your business like you do and those things need to stay close to the hip.
I have outsourced in the past, mainly design work. No ongoing outsourcing tasks though.
At the time of my vote out of 103 people 71 people were saying that they do not outsource and only 32 people were saying that they outsource.
So this one is really surprising to see.
I do believe that if you want to get success than you will have to outsource your those work in which you are not expert.
Well I guess I didn’t realize it, but I have been outsourcing! I paid someone else to design my blog and I’m glad she did, it is beautiful. I do not know graphic design and would rather focus on what I do know.
I also just accepted three contributors that will write a monthly post, so I guess I’m outsourcing some of the writing as well, but it’s not paid. I’d love to outsource someone to do all the advertising, money-earning stuff for me, so I could just write, but I’m not making enough to do that. :)
@ Joshua Black… Exactly… I couldn’t agree with you more…
I outsource some content creation on some of my blogs. It’s actually hard to find half decent writers, so when I do find them I like to keep them.
I really enjoy the puzzle of building a blog but my time is too valuable not to outsource some aspects of my blogs. When I have mundane tasks that do not require much creativity then I usually outsource them.
If I do not enjoy the task I usually do not do it. What did Leo say, ‘The easiest way to complete a task is to just strike it off the to-do list.’
I clicked yes, but then I read the addendums below. My web deisgner is like half free, so i don’t know.
Now its the generation to outsource. If you do not outsource, you will be lack behind time and money.
So many successful when started, did not outsource. They only started when they have been making constant income, then they outsource out.
When they start to outsource, their business was better than when they DIY themselves.
I also follow this path, so if you want to bring your internet business to the next level, outsource is a MUST.
We had a web designer build us a custom design for our WordPress blog initially, which we also use on our website and store. This was beyond our capability and we wanted to have a unique design to build our brand around.
It has worked out great for us and provides us with flexibility to incoporate other ideas into our overall site as well as our blog, using the same design.
I do not outsource anything. I have been doing technical stuffs myself and building traffic, writing posts, creating video tutorials, uploading them into various video tutorials myself.
No outsourcing.
Outsourcing made you dumb. You can’t learn. The one who do not learn things related to blogging will not able to get much success. Atleast until you become success and busy in blogging, you should not outsource things.
My posts are based on interviews I conduct – I record the interviews because it’s easier for me to pay closer attention to the interviewee and I also get more material. However, those recorded interviews have to be transcribed and I do outsource this – it’s time-consuming work, it’s my least favorite job and outsourcing gives me more time to focus on the actual writing.
I am also looking at creating a brand image for my blog and am currently in the process of hiring a graphic designer to help me with that. That’s not the sort of creativity I’m good at.
I write my own content but what I find takes time is adding the links to my own earlier posts, adding external links, adding an image and then the keywords. At some point, if I found the right person to work with I could see outsourcing this.
Sometimes other technicians will post in our blog.
I outsourced my logo design (and am glad I did).
Yeah i did. But only on a blog design as i don’t know much yet about coding.
I have plenty of time and only 1 blog to run, so there is no need to outsource anything. However, this year I will be moving to Worpress and self-hosted blogging for sure. And probably I would need to outsource things like logo creation and on-site SEO.
I think outsourcing is common in some aspect or another. Many of my clients like to focus on providing content and not worry about design or site functionality. And some of the larger/popular sites have several contributors for content, photography and ect. In some form or fashion they treat their blog as a online magazine. Outsourcing is common as sites grow and diversify.
I do not outsource anything from my blog right. The main reason is that it is not big enough and it is not generating any income, so doing either of those things would make no sense to me.
However, I can see how more prominent bloggers could make good use of outsourcing certain aspects on their blog so that they can focus only on the things that matter. And I think they should.
Mundane tasks take up too much time and do not generate the required return on the time invested.
To me, blogging right now is creative experience as much as running a small business. I am learning many ways of how to do business in real life.
Many strategies and techniques applied in blogging can be actually successfully be used in real life to achieve financial success.
Best,
Tomas