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Outsourcing: the Secret to Blogging Success

Posted By Guest Blogger 24th of February 2011 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

This guest post is by Mark Collier is the author of Link Building Mastery.

As an Internet entrepreneur, it’s easy to develop this sense of single mindedness—the if-I-can’t-do-it-no-one-can attitude. I call it RTODIY (refuse to outsource; do it yourself). Although the name does need a bit of work. Maybe I should outsource it…

The symptoms are: excessive DIY, penny pinching when you could outsource for little or nothing, and learning the basics of advanced theories in a vain attempt to save money.

RTODIY is also the major obstacle between your self-created job and a successful business that runs independent of you. As Keith Cunningham puts it, job is just an abbreviation for Just Over Broke.

Overcoming RTODIY

I have certainly done my fair share of RTODIYing, most recently with my experience in launching my relatively new website and writing and launching a new ebook.

I wrote all the content for my website myself and learned all I needed to know to create a website myself. While this is pretty common, this was only the beginning. I decided to write an ebook, and once it was finished, I knew I needed to create a sales landing page for my product.

Now for those who don’t know about landing pages, let me fill you in. Landing pages are designed to make all your ebook sales. Sure, promotion is crucial, and you need a great product, but without a great landing page, you’re wasting your time.

I recognized the value of a landing page and went about buying a template and customizing it, after, of course, I learned the basics of CSS.

This is what my landing page looked like:
Outsourcing: the Secret to Blogging Success

That’s exactly what I expected would sell my $47 ebook! And I actually believed it would sell.

That was until I received the best business advice I have ever received from Glen Allsopp. I sent out an email to the 15 people I interviewed for the ebook, informing them of the new sales page. Glen said, “I hope you don’t take offence, but I really don’t think you’ll get a single sale with that landing page.”

And he was right. Not a single sale came from the first 300 people who visited the page.

So I decided to go and outsource—yes, I said outsource—the sales page design to a professional and the results were and are absolutely incredible:

Outsourcing: the Secret to Blogging Success

What a turnaround! I certainly would be more likely to buy from a sales page that looked like this.

The results

When I talk about results, I mean money. While the orders certainly haven’t been unbelievable, they are far better than nothing, which is what my original page generated.

In the month since I launched the ebook—and I have no reputation or marketing budget—I have made seven sales. Okay, that’s not a mind blowing amount, but it’s $327 in sales, and the email sign up box has captured 120 email addresses.

I am more than happy with these results, having had no experience in launching a product, and no email subscriber list that I could promote the launch to. In fact, I didn’t even bother having a launch.

I expect sales to continue to grow, and my initial investment in that web designer to continue to pay off.

My learnings, your learnings

My reluctance to outsource to a professional web designer for $150 would have cost me $327 today, and what could be thousands in future earnings. I’ve learned that spending that extra bit up front distinguishes you from the competition, and is well worth the investment.

But I understand that not everyone will launch an eBook or create a sales page. So how can these learnings be applied to your blog, especially if you are a solo blogger?

If you find yourself doing all the work—and I literally mean all of it—you’re a class one RTODIYer, and you may need help. You need to learn the art of delegation and to commit to investing that extra bit into your blog that will come back and reward you many times over.

You need to stop acting like a one-person blog and starting acting like ProBlogger. After all, that’s how ProBlogger has been so successful: outsourcing and hiring (for free or otherwise) the best to do the work for them. Guest posts are just one example of that.

You wouldn’t have seen W.K Kelloggs out in the field growing the corn for his Corn Flakes, you wouldn’t see Michael Dell personally handling customer complaints against Dell, and you wouldn’t see Richard Branson micro-managing the 200 companies he has controlling stakes in.

All these great business people have committed to outsourcing. They have committed to investing in and trusting others, and ultimately they have overcome a human’s natural instinct to Refuse To Outsource and Do It Yourself.
That’s what your blog is, right? A business?

As a blogger, you should give up you RTODIY ways and move forward with your business in a more profitable direction. Trust in others and be prepared to invest in your blog, and you will reap the rewards. Here are a couple of ideas I know you’ll like:

  • Open your site up for guest posts. It’s a great, free way to take the writing pressures off you, while retaining full editorial rights.
  • Get a custom design made by a designer, or at least have a blog brand with logo and color scheme that’s consistent throughout your blog, Twitter, and Facebook page.
  • If you really want to step up to the next level and be an outsourcing master, why not hire a part-time writer or regular columnist? You can pitch their work to the big names in your industry and get a lot of exposure from them.

The general rule of thumb is to try to outsource your weaknesses (my big one is design), and give yourself more time to focus on your strengths. To control of your RTODIY and your blog will only go from strength to strength.

Have you outsourced any part of your blog, or are you a RTODIYer? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Mark Collier is the author of Link Building Mastery, the best ethical guide to link building available on the web. With 86 powerful link building strategies and 15 interviews with link building interviews, including an interview with Yaro Starak. You can join the ethical link building revolution now.

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Comments
  1. Naturally, no one is going to do the job exactly the same as you would – that is just something you have to be able to overcome. Outsourcing gives you more time to develop products or spend time on other areas of your blog apart from writing, though if your blog has the readership then accepting guest posts from readers can often be just as good an option – it’s free and they generally write to a high standard to get their posts accepted.

  2. Make sure not to lose the main focus of your blog as you look to outsource and bring on others. You still must be “hands on” to make sure your blog still best represents you, especially if you outsource post writing.

  3. I am on the receiving of this outsourcing thing. I was offered to become a regular contributor of a job-related website. I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Initially, it was totally free. But eventually, the site owner and me become good friends that he offered shared ad spots.

  4. If writing is a chore for you, outsource it! Ghostwriters like me will work with you to maintain your voice, your focus and your message. You’re right, Mark: Mr. Kellogg didn’t spend his time out in the fields. And, I’ll bet you a bowl of corn flakes that he hired someone to help write his speeches and correspondence, too!

  5. Great post. I’m just starting the process of writing an e-book myself and one of the questions going through my head has been, “How am I going to create my pitch page?”. After your reading about your experience I’ve made up my mind and will be outsourcing the work. Thanks for the info.

  6. I just started to outsource as well. It’s an amazing inexpensive process and it allows me to really go after new business and spend my time wisely. I realized that it was much easier to pay someone $10 an hour for a 5 hour job then to spend my 7 distracted hours doing it. Especially when one hour of my time is worth far more than what I pay to outsource.

    Sometimes it’s hard as a small or new business owner to see the long term benefits of outsourcing, but in the end you’ll be glad you did! (I recently wrote a blog post about outsourcing as well)

  7. I am interested to find out who you outsourced to. Who designed this for you?

    Have you outsourced anything to the Philippines? I wrote a couple articles about an outsourcing expert named John Jonas who has successfully outsourced his business to the Philippines and really likes it because:

    1) They speak English fluently
    2) They come from a culture that is willing to help others
    3) Their cost is low (a few hundred dollars per month for full-time work for you)

  8. Definitely great advice and something I’ve been working on. I’m in the process of hiring a designer because I am really convinced that my RTODIY has been holding me back! I am going to do a complete site redesign and I am going to pay for it, and it’s not going to be cheap. That hurts. I’m not going to lie. Design is not my strength though. I hope the investment pays me back as well as yours has done for you!

    As far as outsourcing guest posts and other work…I wish it was that easy. I’ve had my share of guest posters on my site…but by no means a steady stream. Do you have any tips on making it clear you are “guest post” friendly?

  9. Amen for outsourcing!

    We just launched our new educational product which is a video e-course and we outsourced the following jobs:

    * graphic design
    * web design
    * copy editing
    * creationg of power point slides
    * creation of look and feel for facebook fan page
    * management of facebook fan page
    * creation of welcome video for facebook fan page
    * admin work
    * posting to forums relating to Work at Home Moms
    * reaching out to site owners (our VA does that)

    Most of these jobs didn’t cost us much to outsource and had we done the work ourselves, it would have been more costly because we would have had to learn certain functions.

    Outsourcing is important in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

    I’d recommend bloggers check out Fiverr.com … you can find amazing talent there for only $5/job!

    Mark congratulations on your launch and thanks for this great discussion!

    Krizia

  10. @ Brent,

    You say ” no one is going to do the job exactly the same as you would ” – true, but they may actually be able to do it better because that is their specialty.

    If you limit yourself to that then you don’t outsource at all and do all the work on your own and that’s just a killer.

    Krizia

    • I was simply reiterating what Mark said in the opening lines of his post. Most bloggers take time to develop their own style and grow a readership that enjoys that so it can often lead them to be hesitant to hire someone else who won’t write in the same exact style. I wasn’t implying that they wouldn’t be able to write to as high a standard.

  11. I would have bought the book from the first sales idea but not at that price.

  12. When I saw the title I was thinking outsourcing in the sense of having someone just pound out articles for you. But, this is a great time-saver too, and well worth it if you can’t make a landing page convert. I do most of my own design stuff, which isn’t great, but I learned it all from Lynda.com’s tutorials which are really good.

  13. RTODIY :) A new term and it’s convincing.
    Bottomline as you say “outsource your weaknesses (my big one is design), and give yourself more time to focus on your strengths.” summarizes the post well. I am new to blogging but I’ll remember your tips & may implement it some day…

  14. Outsourcing is one of the way out to make our online business run better. However, we have to search for the right people to handle the jobs..

  15. I must say i have outsourced a lot of my work and couldn’t rate it highly enough (i appreciate this not be the same for everyone). However outsourcing manual and very labor intensive tasks have benefited me greatly, it frees me up to go out and interact with potential and existing clients

  16. Hi Mark,

    I’m a big believer in outsourcing so I can spend more time on what I need to however I have yet to start asking for guest posts, which I really want to do! I’ve written guest posts myself, but have yet to feature them on my blog. (My bad.) I like Heather’s question which is “Do you have any tips on making it clear you are “guest post” friendly?” That would be a great post!

  17. Great post! Which web designer company/person did you use? Seems to be a great idea to outsource!

  18. There are lots of different areas where you might outsource small parts of your work, not just the writing or design. I hadn’t even thought about the sales landing page much, yet I am preparing to launch an e-book.
    This has been helpful and got me to thinking!
    Bernice
    Are we there yet?

  19. I’m a little confused. In the first sales page, the book is $47. In the 2nd, it’s free? If that’s the case, sure, I’d buy the free one!

  20. Great advice. Outsourcing is a great way to build your blog. It’s like the old saying goes:
    “It’s better to work on your business, than in your business.”

  21. Great points here. When you have built something from the ground up it can be hard to let go and get help. In the end we need to focus on what we do best and let others do what they so best.

  22. Outsourcing is important and considered necessary for most of the successful online marketers is because of its characteristic of professionalism and efficiency. If you are really comfortable with what you’re doing, content writing, design, then great ! Otherwise, outsourcing is a great way of time saving, and you can even get lots of things unexpected.

  23. Okay- who did the landing page and how much did it cost? That would seem like a relevant part of the analysis. I like the point overall, but this info is critical.

    • Chris, I agree. I would like this information too! In fact, after reading this post I did a Google search for “create landing page” or something like that, and all I could find were templates. I don’t want a template; I want to hire someone to create a landing page FOR me! If I knew the name of Mark’s designer, that would at least give me a place to start.

      Mark, can you share this information with us?

  24. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Normally a very focused person, the last week my brain has just felt scrambled and I now realize I’ve fallen into “I’m overwhelmed and don’t know what to do next!” mode. I’ve always been something of a control freak – time to losen the strangle hold a bit and get some help.

  25. Thanks for sharing your experience with outsourcing.
    Great analysis and I like howyou summarisedthe end point about focusing onyour strengths and outsourcing the rest.
    I’m with you – think I’ll leavethe design elements to someone else (or a plugin LOL)

  26. Rich Dad – Poor Dad shows the same business idea. That is, if you have to be there every day, if it’s all you, it’s a job. Don’t have a job, have a business.

    I’ve found finding the right guest poster is a lot of work. I’ve been approached by a few that have wanted to, I turned them down. They wanted to embed all kinds of links for hotels, flights, even taxi companies in the text. They didn’t need a blog to guest post on. They needed a commercial!

  27. I bought my design and logo. One can call that outsourcing I guess , or is that just shopping?

  28. Great post! When outsourcing business owners should never hesitate to screen their potential outsourcing partners not only to make sure that they can actually complete the requested project but also that the companies or individuals that they intend to work with are a match with regard to personality and work style.

    This is very important if the business owner intends to build a long term relationship. Outsourcing does not need to be difficult nor stressful and by qualifying the company or individual you intend to work with in advance, you can avoid such potential problems later down the road.

  29. Why outsource only one’s blog? Why not outsource your marriage, your love making, your everything? :P

  30. I think the principle here is great. Get the best that is out there. Being able to have that best on our sites will mean that there is no compromise.

    Unfortunately, for me, my budget is so tight that it was a stretch to get the domain name and hosting. Not that I am complaining.

    I am glad that it is working for you, Mark, and that sales are coming in. I was also relieved to read you made 7 sales and not 7000 sales. Only because it shows that this is real life and not exaggerated. I hope you get many more though!!

  31. Great post.

    Who did the design for the eBook landing page? My eBook has just come back from the editor. You made me realize – I need a landing page now!

  32. Outsourcing a healthy principle any business that wants to grow should adapt. Blog, graphic design business, like I run, whatever.

    In my line of business we call our outsourcing hiring a freelancer. I haven’t hired a freelancer to help me with my graphic design blog, yet. But once I get to the point of earning some money from it I will as I already know the areas I want to improve in.

  33. I like the fact that you say “Outsource your weakness.” All too often I see blog owners with terrible designs but great content. If only they could fix the eye strain, they’d have a great site.

  34. Hi Mark

    Interesting post, outsourcing is a huge subject with a lot of pitfalls if you jump in without planning. I agree with you that we need to outsource our weaknesses however, this way we will never improve on them.

    Elias

  35. Thanks for the tip. I am very close to outsourcing my blog and social work for both sites http://www.accentgold.com and http://www.crmsolutioncomparison.com. I am leaning strongly toward the Philippines, but am unsure about the grammar meeting my standards. But I am just getting too busy to keep up all the work myself.

  36. Outsourcing is something for people who call themselves as bloggers who are actually lazy. The concept of blogging is lost. Outsourcing is only good if its your business not your passion. Because you do not do most of the work.

  37. Actually, the biggest factor that makes me hesitant to outsource is find the correct people and the correct price. For example, i wanna make logo, but i don’t know how much the standard price for my own size. So yeah, that’s the biggest spectacle for me..

  38. Of course, the truly clever thing about this article is that it is basically one massive advertisement for the author.

    I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. Just that not only does the author get their byline right at the end but the entire article including images are an ad for the author’s product.

    That’s a lesson in marketing in itself.

  39. Great advice Mark, thanks. I’ve been thinking about outsourcing for a while now, but probably suffered from the same issues you’ve mentioned above. Hehe. The tip with focusing on landing pages is pushing me. But, one thing about sales pages confuses me: They might convert well, but they often look badly designed. Colors are often terrible and the overall outlook is really 1999ish. I think a good landing page also needs a proper design; transparent, fresh colors and often less is more. K, will def outsource some tasks anytime soon. Cheers mark.

  40. Great point! I think I definitely fall in the afraid-to-outsource category, but with a family to take care of during the day, outsourcing just might save me my sanity!

  41. Love it there are so many ways and areas to outsource. Sometimes when you don’t have the funds you may be able to barter with another that needs what you offer. That may take some time initially, but it will be worth it. I’d love to barter some administrative time for graphics design. @Marie I agree excellent Marketing..often guest posting seems to that right? I am inspired I need to outsource.

  42. i’m a webdeveloper and yes i used to get all things done myself. After sometimes i realized that eventhough i can do all about web technics stuff by myself, it will be lot easier to get someone else do things so i have time to think more on business aspects.

    This posting encourages me to keep on trusting people do their best for my sake. Thanks :)

  43. Mark, loved this man, as it again reminded me that ‘it pays to pay’.

    When I started my blog a little over a year ago, it was an aesthetic train wreck. Just didn’t grab you at all. So eventually I paid someone who was really good at WordPress to make it happen, and the results have been tremendous. I wonder how many blogs and great products get lost in the shuffle simply because their image stinks…

    Thanks for a great GP Mark.

    Marcus

  44. I outsource and it has lead to tremendous growth. I hired a designer to completely overhaul the site–traffic has doubled–I’d say it was a good investment. I also outsource ad sales, I have a marketing guru on commission. This pay for performance structure works very well for me. I also give my writers bonuses for promoting posts on social media and for top ranked posts.

  45. Hi Mark

    Nice article. I agree with your overall point about the importance of outsourcing for entrepreneurs.

    (In fact, I posted a video about “Do It Yourself Disease” just last week: http://bit.ly/hBEoB5 )

    But it’s kind of hard to evaluate your case study without knowing how long it took you to find the designer, negotiate, get the new page produced, installed, and tested, and especially how much you paid. If it took you 6 months and $6000 it’s not such a good deal…

    A DIY strategy isn’t always wrong, it’s often the fastest and most cost-effective way to get things done. The trick is being open to delegating and knowing when it’s time (or not).

  46. In response to Kyle Logue: That is very true! But i’ve also seen a great page but with terrible content! Outsource you weaknesses is great advice, just make sure your content isn’t your weakness.

  47. I do some outsourcing for SEO purposes, but stick to a Do it yourself kind of approach for the rest of activities involved in maintaining my blogs. I have some bad experience when outsourcing content creation…

  48. Top post and with an inspiring story too thanks.

  49. why can’t you RTODIY if you possess all the skills what an outsource organization have? By the way there are positive things which happen if you outsource, the people who do outsource work may be more experienced than the outsourcer.

  50. Thanks for your post. Your idea of outsourcing is great. For me, it means that we shift ourselves from an “employee” to manager, or business owner. We don’t do everything by ourselves. We just manage our “company”… thanks.. really inspiring.

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