Earning Money

One of the things that crosses a lot of people’s mind when they hear about outsourcing is American companies having someone in another country with poor English picking up the phone when they call for technical support. While we all hate that, there are reasons companies do this. However, what I want to touch on is not the profitability to hiring people out of the nation, but instead of why it is better to outsource your work instead of doing it all by yourself. I’ve compiled five reasons that this is important. If you have any other after, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know. So, here are my five reasons why it is sometimes better to outsource instead of do the work yourself.

1. Focus on the Important Things: Assume you are building a string of content sites within a similar niche. Let’s say that it is central nervous diseases. Now, you are working on these content sites and really want to get them up in a week’s time because you have been preparing for a good wave of marketing. Instead of focusing on the content and the design, outsource it. Get it done for you relatively cheaply so that as each site is accomplished, you don’t have to worry about the next one; instead, you can worry about working on the current one. As the contractors get the design and the content done, you can be working on getting the first site indexed and all of that. It allows you to really grow each of the individual sites.
2. It’s Cheaper to Get Someone to Do It Rather than Waste Time Trying: I’m not really a technical kind of person. I don’t know how to do very much of anything when it comes to technical things. For instance, I had no idea for a long time how to update my blogs. While I could have learned how to do it (and I am learning now), I instead paid my friend five bucks to do it for me. Now, some would say that this is stupid because it is such a small task. But, let’s consider you learning how to write code for a particular script you want. Would it be more cost effective to pay someone $500.00 to do it or to take two weeks of your time and learn how to do it? Which is better for you? I think spending $500.00 is better.
3. Get More Things Done at Once: Like I said in number one, if others are writing the content and designing for you, you can get other things done at the same time. Everything is about time management. I run four websites and I have an incredibly hard time getting everything done for them. A lot of the time, I slack. Now, if you had more people doing things such as updating your blogs to the latest versions and working on adding new things to your sites, you could focus on ensuring that they stayed in firm place on the search engines. While it may cost you some money, the fact you are getting three (more or less) things done at once means that you will be MAKING more money in the future.
4. Do More Projects: Like I said, I run four sites and I consider them all big projects. Now, if I outsourced, each of these projects would work a lot better. Unfortunately, I don’t have the money. Regardless, by outsourcing, what I am doing is freeing myself of the minute tasks such as writing a new article everyday for a content site. While someone else is getting paid $10.00 (or less) to do this, I am working on another idea. By doing this, it allows me to continue to expand without worries of getting bogged down with the boring things.
5. Everyone Else is Doing It: Look at big companies…They outsource all the time because it is easier for them to hire a contractor to get the work done than to train their staff to do it. If what you are doing is creating an awesome site about kangaroos, instead of trying to learn how to code the site, design it, and even SEO it, you can instead hire different people to do it so that you are able to devote your time to what you’re good at. Perhaps it’s writing the content. But, sometimes it makes more sense to just have other people do something rather than do it yourself and waste precious time.

Now, that may seem like I am saying the same thing over and over again, but that’s because it is really quite true. When I sit down, I ask myself how much money I could potentially make in a day. Then I ask myself how much I am worth a day. Now, when I do that, I begin to put things into perspective and say to myself, “is trying to learn how to design this site worth it or can I make more money hiring someone else and then doing something else?” Time is money. While you may think that you are wasting money by hiring someone else, what you are doing instead, is focusing on what you are GOOD at. So, perhaps I should just put the ONE reason to outsource is so that you can get more things done at once, I wanted to give different perspectives. Outsourcing means more money if done right.

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This is a question asked by Jeff over at PYSIH.com. If you have any questions that you wanted answered, feel free to drop me an e-mail at: jacob [at] dormearning [dot] com.

After discussing a particular idea with Jeff, he asked me if he should put up a blog or a forum. Now, I am not going to give away his secrets, so I am not going to so much base this on his idea as much as I intend on giving you my opinion on the two and which I think is better. Blogs are, as you know, this site for instance. It’s run by me and I update it regularly with new articles. If you want, you can comment and that’s how it works. A forum is run by me, such as my debate forum, but instead of me being the sole content provider (or sometimes with Rose), there are tons of content providers. But, which is really better?

• With a blog, you are the sole provider of content and it is much easier to get people to show interest. Since you are the sole provider, people aren’t ‘worried’ about joining. Starting a forum can be hard because of this fear of being ‘the first one in.’ In the same respect, though, having a forum allows for tons and tons of indexed pages which can bring a considerable amount of traffic to your forum. More indexed pages = better.
• In my personal opinion, it is easier to monetize a blog than it is a forum. There are limited places that can really get a forum reader to see the ads while on a blog, there are numerous places that it can go: a block in the text, after the text, in the sidebar, at the footer, etc etc. However, since most of your readers are return readers, it can be difficult to get them to click the ads while on forums, a lot of new people might cross by just because there are so many indexed pages.
• On a forum, you are getting so many different people posting content which takes the stress off of you. However, starting off can be extremely stressful. Trust me, I know. On a blog, since you are the only provider, you blog twice a day and you are doing a good job. On a forum, when you start, you need to throw tons of threads so people want to sign up and join.

As you can see, I prefer a blog over a forum. I have had so much more success with a blog than with a forum, but in the end, it depends entirely on your niche. The best way to go if you want a blog and a forum is to have BOTH. There’s nothing wrong with having both. It expands the possibility for the search engines to index you. And if you can get enough regular blog readers, you may just get more people to sign up for the forum. I can say from personal experience that getting people to sign up to a forum is tough. But, if people know you and know your blog, they may sign up to your forum. So, I say blog over forum, or just use both.

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