Last week I said the I was planning on writing several posts on lessons learned in creating my Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress project. Well, here is a really important one — don't try to do everything. Some stuff you should simply hire out.
But I Can't Afford That!
I know what you are saying. You cannot afford to hire someone. You are not making any money right now, and until you do, you have to do everything yourself. I know the feeling, but I am going to argue that you cannot afford not to hire stuff out.
What Is Your Time Worth?
See, you are making the assumption that your time is not worth anything — that it is cheaper to do it yourself (whatever it is). Well, what is your time worth? Let's say you normally make $50,000 per year. If you do, your time is worth about $25/hour. Seriously, when you spend an hour on your business, your business, you are essentially investing $25.
Let's say that you had an employee named Joe that you were paying $25/hour, and that Joe was very busy. So busy, in fact, that really important stuff was not getting done. If everything does not get done, your business does not make money. Problem is, some of the stuff that Joe is doing can easily be done by a $10 high school student. But you are paying Joe $25/hour to do that work, and not getting other stuff done at the same time. You are paying Joe too much for non-critical work, and more important stuff is not getting done.
You are Joe
Guess what. You are Joe. So am I. There were a couple of things that I needed done for Niche Adsense Themes that I could have done if I wanted to, but it would cost me more to do them myself than have them done. And, I did not want to do them. I did not want to do the theme graphics, and I did not want to do the HTML version of the templates. I also needed some CSS help. Cost to me was under $200. The Themes generated $1000 of revenue in the first 10 days (and it was a simple narrow product with a bad sales letter — more on this later). And, the time saved was measured in DAYS (or maybe weeks).
How to Outsource
I recommend that you try outsourcing right away with something (anything) simple. Give it a try, and you can get a feeling about what is possible. I personally perfer ScriptLance.com, but there are tons of services out there, including eLance.com and RentaCoder.com.
Software is a really good thing to outsource. I outsourced the creation of www.thebigworldproject.com, for example. I knew how to code that project, but I did not have the time. Likewise, anything that sounds like WordPress maintenance is easily outsourced.
Just go to scriptlance.com, sign up, post your project and see who bids and how much. Read their qualifications, talk to them on the private message board, make sure they understand the requirements (good specs are critical to outsourcing) and let it fly. You will enjoy the freedom of having some guy in Malaysia work for you while you sleep for $5/hour. He will be thrilled to have the work, and you will be thrilled to have the work done — win/win.
If there is interest, I will post a “how to use scriptlance” video to the Free Stuff area.
What are your experiences with outsourcing? Let me know by dropping a comment.
Regards,
Mark
photo credit: Aaron Escobar
Hey Mark – what is your take on Site flipping? I’m wondering if there’s merit to it? Let’s say you spend $50 outsourcing a site totally turn-key and then flip it for $100. You walk away with $50 cash just for putting it all together and turning on the switch. I frankly don’t understand the point of spending $100 on a site not generating revenue, but apparently some are doing it.
Mark, that is precisely what I’m struggling with — the need to get something done, but not have the time or especially the money to do it.
So what do I resort to? Yep — doing it myself. The upside is that I’m learning so that next time I’ll get better at doing it and it hopefully won’t take as long. But of course, the downside is my wife and kids asking for identification when I enter the house. 🙂
What I wish — what I think we all wish — is to know if we could make $1,000 in the first 10 days with our product as well, we wouldn’t be so concerned about spending (investing) the money into what we’re building. I can just imagine the look on my wife’s face when I can tell her I just made enough to pay for my kids school books or we can buy that [insert product here] we’ve been wanting to get.
That’s where I want to be. Financial freedom, my friend. I will get there. Perhaps these freelancers can help, so I’ll go check them out.
@Kent — I think that site flipping should be a key part of an AdSense empire strategy
1. Spin up sites very fast
2. Do some marketing for each site
3. Wait (wait while repeating #1 and #2)
4. Identify profitable sites
5. Sell the ones that are not profitable.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark,
One psycological obstacle which I face when trying to outsource some coding on sites like Rentacoder is that, as long as you have to make very detailed specifications on what you whant (in order to be sure to get a good result), I’m afraid that somebody else could copy my idea.
Would love to hear your opinion.
ciao
alex
You’re right: better to hammer out more projects (with the low risk that once in a year get copied), rather than be stucked and not getting done nothing.
Thanks for your reply.
ciao
alex
I sent you a PM this morning on the address of your mailinglist (not sure if it was right to use that).
ciao
alex
Mark i noticed you don’t have any adsense ads yourself, why not?
@Big Blogger — Definitely a risk, but not one that I worry about. Here is the deal. If you have a great small idea – just do it, get it out there, be first and promote it. The internet it enormous, and there will be plenty of hits to go around. In some cases (possibly not yours 😉 ), people use this worry as an excuse to procrastinate. Just take massive action and outrun the competition.
If, on the other hand, your idea is a big idea or theft of the idea would harm your business directly, you can have the developer sign a NDA. For example, if you just invented Twitter or MySpace, get an NDA. Make sure you involve a reputable programmer and consult an IP atty to discuss protection of trade secrets and patents.
Note that the above does not constitute legal advice, I am not an atty (I do not even play an atty on TV).
@MMOSafely — I have lots of AdSense on other sites. I have found that adsense does not convert well in the IM niche on blog home pages.
However, on blog pages that get SE traffic (like tag pages), it does better. You can see an example here: http://www.masonworld.com/tag/make-money-online/
Hope that helps, Mark
Sure Alex — my pleasure.
My one piece of advice across all niches, markets and industries is “Take Massive Action.”
Regards,
Mark
Thanks for letting me know. I will find it and reply.
@Mark — I definately recommend that you think about ROI each and every time that you consider outsourcing. Just be careful to consider the value of your time in the equation.
For example, you and I were struggling with HTML the other night (do you remember that IM conversation). The creation of squeeze pages is a perfect example of something to outsource. You write the copy in word or something and give it to a html guy….he does it while you sleep and you pay him $5-$50 bucks depending on what you need.
Regards,
Mark
Personally, I think flipping sites isn’t worth it, you will be able to make much more from actually earning from the site.
Outsourcing could be really big help for your company. it is not only a time saving and money saving but you will be able to hire a professionals that having a highly competitive skills that can make your businesses improve.