Outsource Link Building: For 83Cents an Hour!

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. [Read more...]

3 Ways Your ‘I Will Do It’ Attitude is Ruining Your Business!

Isn’t it funny how when it comes to our business, we always feel the need to do everything ourselves. The constant excuses given for this type of behavior is, ‘ But no one can do it as well as I can.‘ or ‘If I do it, then I know it will be done right.’

While this may be the case in a few situations, the majority of the time you are doing yourself (and your business) a dis-services by having to do everything – all the time!

3 Ways Your ‘I Will Do It’ Attitude is Ruining Your Business!

  1. It Gives Small Tasks Priority

    As a small business owner your focus needs to be on delivering the best results for your customers. If you are babying your employees (or currently  still a one person show), you are not able to give your full attention to customer satisfaction. Each small task that you take on, shifts your focus from running your business to working in your business.

    And with all your time taken up in doing these small tasks (and let’s face it, anyone can do them -  stop needing to be needed!), you are limiting the time that you can spend on developing your business and where you see it heading.

  2. It Shuts Down Creativity and Excellence

    Each time you take over a task that you do not have an expertise in, you are creating an ‘atmosphere of average’. By saying, ‘I will do it’ to things that you  really can’t do great, you are letting your staff and customers know that you are willing to settle for second best.

  3. It Destroys Growth

    And what happens when you get that big job that you pitched for, or you get a sudden influx of new customers? Do you decide to start work earlier and finish later (longer days means more work done), or do you begin rejecting customers because you can’t handle the workload (and ‘no one can do it as well as you!’).

    The problem with this mentality is that you become the star of your business, and while this may be good for your ego – it makes terrible business sense. If you are your business, what happens when it comes time to move on? You will never be able to sell it (well at least not for a decent amount), because you can’t really sell yourself with your business. AND you could never expand your business, because where would you find the time to look over 10 people shoulders at the same time.

What I am trying to get at is YOU CAN’T DO IT ALL!

And once you start to understand this, you will realize how liberating that statement really is.

Doing everything yourself can become so tiring, so let me throw you a rope  by saying ‘Let someone else do it!’

I know it will be hard at first and your mind will fight you the whole way, but once you start letting other people do your work you will come to realize:

  • Other People Can Do Things Better Than You
  • Other People Can Work Faster Than You
  • Other People Can Work Cheaper Than You

Don’t Stop Doing Everything Straight Away

This would definitely be overload!

What I would suggest is to start outsourcing little, simple jobs and wean yourself away from needing to do everything. Slowly, as you become more comfortable transfer more of your work to other workers and free up your time to focus on leading your business into a successful future!

What Is Geoarbitrage?

With the launch of my latest ebook, GEO Arbitrage, I have been getting a lot of questions from readers asking my to explain exactly what geoarbitrage is.

Now I could easily say, ‘Download My Free eBook‘ because there is a section in it that explains the whole concept. But to make it easier for you, let me explain it here.

A Quick Economics Lesson

Now I am sure that you have already worked out that geoarbitrage is made up of two root words. ‘geo‘ and ‘arbitage‘. Now we all know that geo is location – but what exactly is arbitrage?
Arbitrage Is: According To Wikipedia (link)

the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices.

Successful stock market traders and professional gamblers use this technique to make large profits – and with geoarbitrage, everyday people can use arbitrage to work a lot smarter.

So What Is Geoarbitrage?

Well if geo means location, and arbitrage is taking advantage of the price difference between two or more markets, then geo arbitrage is simply:

the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more geographical markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance.

A typical example of geoarbitrage is wages.

We all know that wages are different all around the world for the same jobs. So why not capitalize on this difference and hire staff from a cheaper country.

Now I know this isn’t possible in all industries – but why not take advantage of geoarbitrage in as many areas as you can!

But Isn’t Unethical?

I get this argument a lot when I tell people about how I utilize geoarbitrage to build my online business. For some reason people feel wrong people people as little as $2/hr (or less), because they are so used the the price of wages in the country that they live.

But the simple fact of the matter is, that you set your maximum price, but it is up to the market to decide if anyone will work for you. And in some countries $2/hr is a good wage.

A Local Example

Remember back to when you were a kid and your parents asked if you would mow the lawn for $10?

This is a perfect example of arbitrage!

The $10 is good money for you, and your parents are saving the extra $30-40 they would have had to pay a lawn mowing business. It is the exact same concept, but I don’t see anyone complaining about the ethics in this case.

Learn More About Geoarbitrage

If this sounds exciting (and it should), then you can download my ebook GEO Arbitrage – free of charge, and it will take you through the exact steps that you need to take to start out in geoarbitrage today!

Communicating With Offshore Programmers

If you are visiting this page because you are looking for a place to find offshore programmers – I use and recommend oDesk.

Well I am sure you will be glad to know that I did find a fantastic ebook cover designer on oDesk for exactly $10. There were a lot of applications that were cheaper than $10, but I made the decision as usual based on portfolio and feedback – and the designer I chose had 4.98 (out of 5) feedback after 34 jobs and a portfolio that included some fantastic ebook covers.

My new employee is based in Pakistan, so I can take a guess that English is not his first language. So the key to working with oDesk offshore programmers is the way that you communicate with them.

Tips for Communicating With Offshore Programmers

In my communications with my designer I was reminded of a couple of tips when dealing with people who do not speak English as a first language. I will use this experience as an example and you will also get a sneak preview of the design process of the GEO Arbitrage ebook cover. [Read more...]

Find An Ebook Cover Designer For Less Than $10

As internet marketers all of us at one point are going to be on the search for a great ebook cover designer at least once .

Whether it is for a paid product, or a free giveaway for building your email list. Whatever the case it’s a sure bet that you want to find the best ebook cover designer – without the expert price tag!

While a lot of people are scared of accepting low quotes for fear of inferior quality, I accept them on the basis of the background and previous results – and that is why I am able to outsource work at a much lower rate than most people believe.

Why Pay $50 Or $100 For An Ebook Cover Designer?

Now I am all for making sure that I get the best result, because I believe that excellence is an important trait to have in any form of business. But I am very much opposed to the thinking of

‘If it is expensive, it is good. And if it is cheap, then obviously it must be of lower quality.’

It is all about finding great quality for the very best price ebook cover designer (in this case) – and it’s all thanks to GEO Arbitrage. [Read more...]

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