I am always trying and testing different methods to reduce my outsourcing costs – while no affecting quality. The other day I created a job on oDesk to outsource link building and I may have found an extremely low cost method.
As the title suggests, I have decided to outsource link building for one of my sites to a worker in the Phillipines for just 83cents an hour! That is right - less that $1 an hour for an employee means I could have a full-time staff for under $40 a week.
If you have used oDesk or Elance then you will know that the wage range for workers can be extremely diverse. Today I want to give you some tips on how you can outsource your link building for under $1/hr!
1. Make Your Maximum Price Known
If you came though a Google search for ‘outsource link building‘ you may have seen an advertisement for oDesk that says the following:
Inexpensive Link Building
Hire Link Building Gurus $10-25/hr.
Interview Experts for Free Now!
www.oDesk.com
Maybe $10-25/hr is cheap seo for businesses, but if I had to pay that much for a link builder I would just do it myself. I needed cheaper – so I asked!
When you create a new job in oDesk you are asked to place a maximum bid (per hr) that you will accept. However the minimum you can place in that field is $3. That is a good start, but I still wanted cheaper.
So what I did was, in the job description I placed a line of text simply saying that I would only accept bids under $2/hr and all other bids would be automatically deleted – it doesn’t stop people bidding more – but it does make some of them lower their price.
This got me down to $2/hr to outsource link building – but I still wanted to see if I could pay less.
2. Give New Workers A Chance
You would be surprised how many of the people who submit for our jobs have done no work on oDesk and have no feedback. Usually I disregard them because I like to know their skill level and that they have happy customers – but sometimes they are significantly cheaper.
Think about it, if you were trying to break into a market where they was a heap of competition and you know you needed feedback to get a competitive price, what would you do? Lower your price!
And that is exactly what they do, you will get brand new link builders from about 80Cents – $$1.50. But how do you know they are any good?
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Did They Follow Your Directions
I always put specific instructions into my job descriptions specifically to see if people can follow basic instructions. Such as:
- Include the phrase ‘A&P Link Builder’ in your application
(this is to weed out the people who don’t even read your job description.
- Have You Done (Inset Link Building Type Here) Before
This is to gauge their knowledge
- What Is Your Internet Connection Speed
Workers with broadband (cable) internet will build links quicker
- Will You Keep A Record Of All Links
So I can check their work (especially important with beginners)
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Did They Show Knowledge
While they may not be able to give you testimonials from past clients, I think it is important that they at least show a basic understanding of how link building works.
This is not totally necessary because it isn’t complex (so you could teach them), but to save on training – I prefer them to have at least some past experience.
The worker I decided to outsource my link building to was just starting his oDesk account I mine was one of the first jobs that he had bid on. However he mentioned that he had done ‘Angela & Paul Link Building‘ through his cousins account and had the packets from January 09 – present – and was willing to work for 83 cents an hour!
Give Them A Trial
It is important when you outsource link building to a new worker that you do not commit to large quantities of work before you can gauge their skill level. For me I thought:
At 83Cents an hour, I an get my worker building links for 10 hours and if he completely stuffs it up – I’m out $9! But if he does well, I can bump his up to full-time for less than $40/week.
So what I did was accept his bid, and offered him a maximum of 10 hours a week and let him know that he had a one week trial and if I liked his work he could have full-time hours if he is interested.
This is a win-win situation for both of us, because I get to sample his work, and he has the incentive of full-time work if he provides quality work.
Are You Ready To Outsource Link Building?
If this sounds like something that interests you and you’d like to begin to outsource link building for your websites then there is nothing stopping you! All you have to do is sign up for a free ‘Provider Account’ with oDesk (or Elance – I just prefer oDesk), and then post your first job!
Follow the steps above and I am sure you will find an extremely low cost link builder and for under $10 you can trial them for 10 hours!
