Things To Look Out For In Your Outsourcing Partners

Outsourcing is one of the hottest topics in the affiliate marketing these days. Good old affiliates would spend hours in front of computer trying to make a decent living, but most successful affiliate marketers outsource their non-core processes to India or China these days and spend their time strategizing and working on their core capabilities.

Outsourcing is a complex process that should not be taken lightly. It’s more than hiring the first person you can find online and you should prepare for the unexpected and hedge your risks. Here are a few tips on how to go about outsourcing a process to an outsourcing partner:

• Do not outsource mission critical and core processes: if you are very good at a process, you should not outsource it. Your core capabilities are what help you get a leg up on your competitors. If you outsource your core mission critical processes, you will leave yourself open to too much risk, which is not recommended.
• Know your outsourcing partner: do the proper due diligence before getting into a relationship with an outsourcing partner. Take a look at their past clients’ experiences with them. Try to figure out if they stick to their deadlines and finish things up in timely fashion. Take a look at client complaints to find out the weak areas in your partner.
• Don’t fall for too good to be true trap: if something is too good too be true, it probably is. If someone is offering to work for you for $2 an hour, you should be concerned. Also, if someone offers to complete a project for you for only $20 when others are offering to get it done on average for $1000, then there may be a problem.
• Agree on the communication details beforehand: being in constant communication with your outsourcing partner is a must. You should talk to potential partners about ways to stay in touch via phone calls, email, chat, and weekly reports. You can also use collaboration software packages such as Groove to keep things on track.
• Take it one step at a time: do not throw too much at your outsourcing partner. Take it one step at a time. In addition, make sure you ask them about whether they will provide you with a project manager. If not, you will have to manage the project yourself (get Microsoft Project).
• Understand the challenges: understanding the potential challenges ahead can help you set your expectation level. You should find out if there are any language barriers between your team and the outsourcing partners’ team. You should do your best to clarify your requirements for the outsourcing partner (using diagrams and visual aids). Expect misunderstandings and work hard to resolve them.
• Don’t put your eggs in one basket: working with multiple outsourcing teams will help you face the most difficult challenges more easily. If you put all your eggs in one basket and work with only one outsourcing team, you may find yourself in a spot of hurt if that team disappears or does not perform as you expect them to. I always try to go with two or more teams for each of my project to make sure something’s getting done even if one of the teams is under-performing. There will be more red tape, but you can hedge your risks by asking multiple teams to take on your projects.

Outsourcing sounds easy on the paper, but it is a difficult process (especially if you go international). You should do your due diligence before jumping into outsourcing waters. That way you can hedge your risks and get things done more quickly. Stay tuned for my take on outsourcing do’s and don’ts in the upcoming days.

P.S. how’s been your experience with web-sites such as rentacoder or Guru.com?