Stomper Update (Finally!)
1. Outsourcing, insourcing and why you need a cash flow problem.
One of the challenges we face as internet entrepreneurs, like most businesses, is the constant challenge of “finding good people” to hire. But one problem I’ve noticed particularly affects us as a group.
Too many of us are literally trying to do it all ourselves. The problem with internet marketing is that . . . you can. I know many people who work from home, alone, and make a great living online.
But most of us are constantly trying to grow our business, and soon we find that you can’t do it all alone. For all the dreams of working at home, when you want, and getting up in the morning to check your inbox to see how much money you made while you were sleeping, I think that internet entrepreneurs are some of the hardest working people around.
The problem with internet marketing is that there is always more to do. Unlike other businesses where the workload depends on various factors, with an internet business, there is always more you could be doing.
You can always put up another web site. You can always get more links. You can always check your AdWords campaign and write more ads to split test. You can always write more articles to distribute. There are always more newsletters to read, etc., etc.
(When is the last time you distributed a press release on PR Web? I know you’ve been meaning to, but . . . .)
But if you really want to take your business to the next level, you have to grow. By definition, if you want to grow beyond what you are capable of doing yourself, you have to hire more people to do more work than you can do alone.
Ron LeGrande, the successful real estate investor and direct marketer is famous for saying, and rumming into the heads of his students, “The less I do, the more I make.”
Usually, it makes sense for us to do this on an outsourced basis — hiring part-time contractors for various projects, rather than taking on full-time employees.
If you feel like getting the right people on your team is one of your biggest challenges, you’re not alone. In fact, Larry Bossidy, the hugely successful CEO of Honeywell and author of “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done,” wrote that under normal circumstances, he spends 20% of his time on hiring the right people. In a growth or rebuilding stage, he spends 40% of his time on recruiting.
How many of us are so busy doing things that we don’t have time to focus on building our team and finding the right resources to give outsourced work?
If you need more people to help you get more done, here are some recommended resources for finding outsourced team members.
1. Monster.com
For a few hundred bucks, you can run a national ad on Monster. For example, if you’re looking for help with web design, programming, copywriting, bookkeeping, etc., if you run one ad you will get tons of replies. Many of these people will be looking for full-time employment, but many are looking for hourly work as well. I recently hired a full-time web designer from Monster, but I also received tons of inquiries from great designers looking for more projects.
2. Classified ads in your local paper
If you live in a decent sized city, don’t overlook your local paper. For a couple hundred bucks, you can be overrun with resumes from people looking for work. Many of whom are currently unemployed who would love the chance to work on some of your projects to prove what they can do.
I recently hired an excellent full-time copywriter from an ad in the local paper. And I’m always amazed at the number of resumes that come in from a single ad. There are always a bunch of people that are looking for hourly work.
3. Elance.com
To get the lowest prices on outsourced services, you really need to make contact with people in other countries that are looking for work and willing to do it for much less than American service providers. There are excellent copywriters, programmers, designers, etc. in India, the Philippines and many Eastern European countries.
Elance can be good for everything from copywriting (sales letters, articles, ebooks, press releases etc.) to programming to link getters.
Rentacoder is usually thought of as a place to find programmers for short term projects. But my sources tell me that it can be a good place to find copywriters as well.
This service has been developing an excellent reputation. Sylvie Charrier is the president, and she was at the Internet Marketing Main Event in Phoenix that I was speaking at this weekend. Many of the conference speakers are still recommending her service as an excellent resource to get more done while doing less yourself.
In addition to the better known resources above, check out:
Guru.com - 160 categories of service providers, free access. You pay 5-10% of the project at the end.
FreelanceWriting.com - A site that freelance writers frequent. Be specific in your ads as to exactly what you want. There are all kinds of writers there.
SmarterWork.com - Free signup.
FreelanceWorkExchange.com - You can post unlimited job with no transaction fees.
Accurate 800 - An inbound call center that can answer the phone for all of your web sites 24/7. Regardless of what you sell (including info products) your conversion rate will probably increase significantly if you answer the phone better or at all. (More on this in future issues.)
If you know of other good resources, post a comment below, and feel free to comment on any of the vendors above with which you may have personal experience.
Many of us don’t grow our business as fast as we can because we don’t have a “cash flow problem.” For example, if you are an information marketer or affiliate marketer, it may be the case that almost 100% of every dollar that comes into your business is pure net profit.
Many people work at home, do all the work themselves, and in return keep all the money that is made. So unlike owners of larger businesses, they never have to worry about cash flow. Their overhead is pretty much zero.
But if you want your business to grow, faster, consider how much time you are spending on building your team.
Yes, finding the right resources can be difficult, and you may have to try several to find a good ones. But don’t be daunted by the task, and don’t give up too early! Rather than thinking just about what needs to be done, think about how you are spending your time — which is really your most precious resource — particularly in this business.
Following Larry Bossidy’s advice, I’ve been spending about 40% of my time on finding and recruiting the best people I can. That may be way too much for you with everything you have to get done every day.
But think about how much time you are spending on building your team, decide how much makes sense, and carve out the time.
Remember that finding just one excellent human resource can make a huge impact on your business. Picture what it would be like if you had the perfect ___________ to help you with __________. Then set aside a certain percentage of your time to make it happen.
Hiring the right person is just like finding the right customers. Often, it’s a marketing problem. The more you advertise and get the word out for exactly what you need, and the more time you devote to finding them, the better your team will be!
And speaking of getting the word out . . . .
2. We are looking for a full time affiliate manager.
If you are interested in coming to Atlanta, GA (a great town) and working with me personally, we are currently looking for a full-time affiliate manager. This person will be a key member of our organization. If you are interested in working with us for a period of time (to learn a lot) or for a long term opportunity, email ceo@bradfallon.com
If you know of anyone who would be good for this, we’ll pay you $1,000 for the referral if we hire the person and they work out for at least 30 days.
3. Virtual Conferences and eComXpo
I posted on my blog recently about the successful conference that Jack Humphrey et. al pulled off in the wake of the Katrina disaster. Originally, I was scheduled to speak last weekend at the event in New Orleans. When it got cancelled, the organizers decided to host it as a virtual event. And it turned out great!
I even met one of the attendees this weekend at the live event in Phoenix. He was able to listen to all of the speakers and view their presentions without ever having to leave home and buy a plane ticket or a hotel. Nice!
I predict there will be a lot more opportunities like these in the coming months. A good example is eComXpo which is coming up in October. There are going to be a ton of great speakers including Seth Godin, Bruce Clay and many others. Visit eComXpo.com to learn more and the list of speakers is on the home page. (I hope I’m still on the list — I’m late getting my presentation to them. Maybe I need to outsource more.) And click here to listen to my interview on SEO Radio with the event director.
Until next time,
Keep on Stompin’!
Brad Fallon
P.S. Post your comments or questions below. Perhaps I can find the time to publish a little more often if there are some specific questions, etc. If you have a question or issue for a future newsletter, send them to questions(at)bradfallon(d-o-t)com.
Posted by 
Hiring can be a difficult task. Recently I started giving exercises to potential employees as part of their interview.
It has been very beneficial. Several of the applicants, that looked good on paper and in initial conversations, have bombed during this process.
I’m currently looking for an apprentice copywriter. Here’s an example of a great exercise that I am using:
First I explain one of my proprietary copywriting techniques,
“Indirect “Persuasion”, then I ask the applicants to go to my site at http://www.DynamicResponseMarketing.com and tell me where they think I have used the technique.
It is readily apparent who ‘gets it’ and who doesn’t. Knowing in advance who would be better able to learn this is making the process much more efficient.
Shaune
I cannot get ranked. I think it is because my URL is very similar to another “wreathgarden” and the products we are selling are identical. I did not discover this until after I had completed my site and then only by accident. I am using Chris Malta’s drop ship catalog. Would be nice if you would address this very basic problem and let us “greenies” know how we might have avoided this problem and how we can correct it. I have some ideas but am tired of guessing. Many thanks
All good suggestions, Brad. I recently hired a fulfillment service to handle book orders for me, and it made a huge difference in my day. Those little things that don’t seem to take much time can be day-killers.
A suggestion you did not include in your post was getting a college intern to handle projects. It is a great way to get help on a short-term basis at a reasonable cost. It is also a good way to give potential employees a trial run. Many interns end up staying long after the internship is completed. I have an article with more info at my site: http://www.idealady.com/intern.htm
Thanks for a great post with lots of food for thought.
Cathy Stucker
Free Marketing Tips
Brad I am slightly confused
You talk about outsourcing, yet you specify you want the affiliate manager to work in-house!
Wouldn’t it be easier to just work with someone like Mike Merz over at im4newbies.com who runs the Jvnotifypro mailing list?
Andy,
Good point about outsourcing, heh. We’re up to 35 employees, so we’re using some of each. We have a bunch of sites of all different products, so that’s why I want one full-time affiliate manager. But since I don’t have any right now, I’m very open to suggestions for someone to outsource to - thanks!
Brad
Cathy,
Great suggestion about interns! We had three this summer and they were all a tremendous asset. See their blog here: SEO Interns.
I very much endorse the idea of getting interns. Internet marketing can be the perfect internship for students.
Brad
Hi Brad,
Mike Taylor from JobsInSearch.com, we met in Chicago in May of this year at the System Seminar.
Be glad to have a conversation with you about how our job site could help.
Thanks
Mike Taylor
Director
http://www.JobsInSearch.com
Just curious… what was the process like for hiring interns? How did you find a good one (my dad had to suffer through a summer with a terrible one)? Thanks for all the resources, Brad!
Hi. Which functions should be the first to be outsourced? I was thinking if you could outsource customer service and order fulfillment, then you could focus entirely on marketing. But then again, if you outsource the link building, then that might be good too because that can become tedious. Any tips on hiring would be great too because finding the right people is very important, particularly when hiring people that will interact with your customers. Thanks!
Brian
Baby shower diaper cakes
I agree with Brad’s suggestions on having others do work for you. The two biggest issues I am having with the concept is number 1 - Money. It cost money to have other do work for you. Your plan is to have their activities make money for you in the long run. However it does not always work out that way.
I have brought on folks in the past who ultimately end up costing me money instead of helping make more money. With limited capital, it is difficult to overcome mistakes like this.
One area which I have not take very good advantage of is online press releases. What are your experiences with the value of place free online press releases and paid online press releases?
Keith Blythe
Imprint and Embroidery Specialists
Brad,
A great article and most helpful… thanks for reminding me AGAIN that I need to outsource to make my business grow. The initial investment, tho initially may seem like a hardship, will profit in the long run - in growing my SEO consultint buisness.
Thanks,
Valerie
Thanks for the links. I have 7 different web sites and I’m planning 2 more, but I can’t keep up with creating enough content. I guess it’s time to outsource.
ecoquest international
Hi Brad,
One thing I was going crazy with was photographing all my items myself. Way too time consuming. I went onto Craigslist and posted an ad for my city and I was very very immpressed with the responses. Free classified ads and at least 15 responses.
I think one thing I’d like to learn more about is how to go about teaching the new hiree what to do. For example, with shipping. Do you have a full writeup of how to do the job or do you just sit them down and show them? for all your wedding products do you have them all organized in bins with numbers for the employee to find? I sell clothing and I know what each item is but a new person brought in wouldn’t. These are a few obstacles I have that may be in the way for others as well.
Thanks Brad for a great article!
Pam
Hi Brad:
Terrific advice to anyone getting buried by their business, which most of us have from time to time.
Following our session in Atlanta I came back and interviewed a bunch of people for different positions. Spent time training one to do most of my RL building. We are now training others. I built Camtasia lessons to be able to make a one time investment of my time.
Also followed up on your suggestion on students. I went to the local college here and will be utilizing some of their students this fall and winter.
I am also building a resource team for other associates who may wish to have some of the same things available to them.
I have used elance successfully for 3 years. The key to me is to know what you want before you start interviewing. You must prepare a structured funnel to bring people through to find what you want.
I look forward to your thoughts on the 800 as I was thinking of outsourcing that for several of my businesses.
Best wishes
Bill Taylor
Brad -
If you want to hire local college students, which I’ve done quite successfully, try monstertrak.com. They charge $25 per college.
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My experience with Monster is a deluge of people who are not really looking for a job, but looking to see if the grass is greener. You will get a ton of responses. Obviously the local paper should get you someone locally. As you can tell by Brad’s request, a referral of someone is HUGE and my preferred way to hire people.
Home Office
Brad, hello, can you tell me, please, 2 things:
WHEN VIDEO STOMPER WILL BE ON?
I HEAR FROM ANDY YENKINS THAT IT WILL BE SOON BUT IT IS BIG TIME SINCE THAT TIME.
AND I ALSO WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT (GET LINK FROM PR7 PAGE IN JENS BIRTHDAY)
THANKS,
Sandis
rentacoder has an array of ghost writers for articles aswell. thumbs up for this site.
college search, skin care
What a great opportunity…
Keeping up with businesses online is tough. With all the newest things going on and everyone trying to get the upper edge it gets very tough!
Beauty Directory
Sandis, you may as well give up on the video stomper. Even if it were to come out soon, you’d have to assume the information in it is WAYYYYYY out of date. They filmed it near the beginning of the year, so there’s no doubt things have changed big time since then. I know I wouldn’t buy it now
From our experiance elance.com is the best one.
Thanks for all the information brad!
- Are you wasting time with manual link exchanges? Save time by using our Automated link exchange program!
Good posts about outsourcing. Once I got a couple of good writers lined up, content production and profits went up quickly.
I always start a new person out on a small job and then work them up if they’re any good.
Can anyone answer me this question please.
One of my sites hgome page currently is a ggle PR5 (has been 4+ for over a year now), but the does not even show in google at all for the primary keyword on the homepage and many subpages. The homepage once ranked in the high 800’s in google, but for a long time was #1 in yahoo, msn, and others.
I’m pretty careful about the sites I link with, although I don’t have a ton of links (about 70 according to google). I can understand not being top 10-20 (or even 100), but I don’t understand why the homepage has basically NEVER been in google, after nearly 2 years.
You can visit the site here: Norton Clean Sweep
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Eric
HI Brad,
Certainly got my mind ticking over. I’ve never thought of outsourcing but it makes a lot of sense for a small business
Risk Factors for Heart Disease
Great article Brad. Outsourcing would definitely eaze the workload. But, one thing I’d like to see is an article on what the pay scale should be for different outsourcing projects. Like what would I pay a copywriter… what would be the payscale or terms be for something like this? Same thing for other jobs… how would I go about figuring out what to pay different people for different jobs they would do for me?
Wow! I was thinking about this today. It seems like I have too much too do, but it’s all so tedious work. I’ve only heard of e-lance. I’ll check into the others.
By the way, I gave my mom STSE’s for her birthday and SHE’S HOOKED! She’s anxious to start a Yahoo Store. Do you or Andy Jenkin recommend a particular wholesale directory?
Revenue Site
I have used Scriptlance.com before and I was pleased with the site. However, I must add that there are difficulties in outsourcing to other countries. While prices may be really inexpensive, it may cost you more time and frustration. I am currently paying a US programmer 4 times what I was paying for oversees help. And, it’s worth it to me because I can sit down at a table and hammer things out…quickly with no language barriers. Just a thought.
Cool tip on the 800 number call center solutions. I think this is exactly what I was looking for…
Darn, I want to work with you some time Brad. Just can’t make it to Atlanta! Maybe some other time, pal.
Garrett
JC Whitney
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Great information here Brad. Thanks for the links on outsourcing as well.
Duffel Bags and More
Outsource what you can before hiring. If it becomes necessary, it’s easier to fire a company than a real person. Also, if business takes a downturn or if your business is seasonal like ours, idle employees can be a real drain on profits.
When you hire, put together the best team you can even if it costs more. Try to match personalities to jobs. Creative types can be awful at business, and business types can be as creative as dirt.
Brad,
You ROCK! Loved listening to STSE and am always learning from your posts. I’ve got a site with 700 plus items and could definately use a copywriter. Elance here I come!
Thx!
Greg
Women’s Lingerie
I agree, just wait till you try to cover all the “bases” for a remodeling - contracting company , Yes, there are growing pains!!Good luck, you should be able to find a good one.
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Great comments!! Man, I wish I could move to Atlanta, I would looooove that affiliate manager position :)!
Would be a great way to learn more about web biz…
Credit Repair Central
Hi Brad,
Time is the most important factor in anyone in the internet.
Your idea of outsourcing and getting good people to do the work is excellent.
May be I can add a rough guideline on how to decide whether to delegate/outsource or not. I follow this guideline to outsource my needs.
a.I have calculated that my one hour’s worth is close to $60
b. I look at what needs to be done and if I dont add value to that extent, I outsource it to a college kid who can do it on whatever we work out basis.
Hope this helps,
Johncy Edward
http://your-credit-score-n-you.blogspot.com/
Hi,
I am a new comer to this and find website building requires a multitude of skills. Having some of these sites availabe will certainly help reduce the work load and hopefully provide a better finished product
as you grow, one of the most complicated parts of your business is managing a warehouse, inventory, returns etc. A good product fulfillment company can make life a lot easier, but you must be careful who you use…I have personally toured the facilites of Moulton Logistics and must say they are first class. Many of the big infomercials that you see on TV ship out of Moulton…like Body by Jake, Disney, Warner Brothers to name a few.
Matt
I just used rentacoder for a project and they do great work.
Impressive Weddings
Well, Steve, I understand your doubt, thats why i didn’t bought original stomper, but waited like a month or two in this video version. Anyway, I think the basic still are the same, there are no quick tricks to success.
Will see what Brad and Andy will tell us
It is hard finding the right people, especially in tech - I’ve been hiring independent contractors this year and have not been getting good results. Out of 80 resumes I screened, the end result is that I have found one (1) independent contractor who is both reliable and knowledgeable.
So I can believe that it takes alot of time to find the “right stuff”. It sure is for me.
Irene
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No Need to look any further! Here is THE great resource for marketing! Check out my blog, its full of great marketing ideas… RMI (my company) can also handle your creative marketing material production, ie. Websites, marketing videos + DVDs, print materials and more… check us out!
Brad, as always, excellent commentary. I know I’ve been struggling with trying to get everything done that needs to get done in a day, and I’ve come to realize I can’t do it alone so your advice is very timely.
Thanks for sharing the resources as well!
chestin
Lawn Care Marketing Magic
Brad or fellow website owners: What I need to know is which link exchange website do you all consider is one of the best. I use Links Manager and Link Market (Brad uses them too) but is there another one or two good ones you can recommend? Thank you!
http://www.audreysmotherofthebride.com
I agree with everyone. The key to small business success is to use resources of others already in the business. Learn from how they have succeeded.
Belt Buckles
If you have business-related work for an intern, I have found that a good way to find quality help is at your local business school.
Find a nearby university with a business school and either post a few flyers, talk to the placement office, or find an ecommerce professor and ask if she/he can mention your need for help in class. You will find that most business school students are very capable as long as you give them meaningful work to do!
Brad, go newsletter. I am a huge fan of outsourcing and have had great success using eLance.
We contracted with a company to build http://www.jenslist.com and saved thousands of dollars.
We have now hired a new company to build our new discount golf clubs web site.
We bought the stomper product and are looking forward to implementing all of the strategies.
Dave
Thanks Brad for the resources. I’ve been trying to add content to our web site by writing articles myself, which is very time consuming. The resources will be a big help in taking some of the load of operating an internet business off my shoulders.
Thanks again,
John Prow
http://www.powertradesystem.com
The SEO interns must be too busy to make many posts to their blog.
Home Office
I’m looking to grab a few marketing students to help out in the copywriting area and have them manage an Adwords account or two. No better way to learn marketing than down in the trenches.
HIPAA Audit
Did the SEO Interns get paid?
Macon Real Estate
Even though the stomper videos will be slightly dated I’m still looking forward them. Watching SEO in action is always great motivation.
I have been using the new features of TOP and it seems like link manager only allows yo a certain amount of link exchanges within their system before it shuts you out. Happened to me today.
Ghillie suits
The information that you have given is very practical and I think it adequately describes where alot of us are in our struggle to grow this business… hats of to you, this is very helpful.
Ear Infection
I personally had good luck with Rent a Coder.
The name is actually misleading.
You can find pretty much somebody for any task
- coding -content- etc.ect…
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Backpacks and Wine Picnic Baskets
Does anyone know much about a San Francisco SEO crew called Marketleap? We were thinking of spending some money and having someone professional look at our site and optimize it for certain key phases. Marketleap will only speak with someone willing to spend $25,000 and up.
Any comments, or fresh leads would be appreciated.
Thanks
Sean
http://www.pacificdisc.com/
Another sorce of Outsourcing : http://www.scriptlance.com
Have used it serveral times.
Paul
Dog Coats | Dog Sweaters
Great Newsletter Brad. We really apreciate all the info
I’m still waiting for the Stomper videos.
Where oh where can they be..?
I agree - great newsletter.
http://www.veassociates.com
Fantastic site!