OutsourceSurvival.com

This article discusses one of the major problems encountered by inexperienced entrepreneurs in using international freelancers- project turn around time.

Many entrepreneur’s first and only freelance experience ends with them feeling deeply disappointed by either the speed or the quality of the work. They hear about guys you can hire for $4/hr, and rush off and splash some cash on the next big thing. Like many of the internet pot-o-gold stories, it turns out to be less successful then the flier suggested so they return to lurk in forums with their stories of woe.

Sometimes projects are so slow!

I am all for hiring freelancers in developing nations… but…

It can be very, very, time consuming. What you save in $$$ you need to invest in time. There is no way around it… at least not that I’ve found. Be prepared to invest a lot of time on the first few projects. You can’t leave them on autopilot, they will crash. With practice you’ll get faster, better results, but it will never be the same as buying services from your shop down the street. Read the rest of this entry

Welcome to Part II of how to use customer feedback to select a freelancer. This article covers how to analyse and vet customer comments, as well as how to do a simple web background check.

This article is part of a series on How to Select a Great Freelancer Online.

You can find Part 1 here.

Read the recent positive comments

Don’t just take an average rating as your guide, jump in and read customer comments. In particular, find jobs that sound like yours and see what customers had to say. Were they ecstatic or just so-so? Check the English quality in the posts, if you find recurring grammatical errors, or strangely recurring comments. Not everyone is an English major, but sometimes these little things can help you identify falsified comments, or at least suspect ones.

Customer’s Seem to Have a Positive Review Bias

Be aware that customers are often coerced, begged, cajoled by their freelancer to leave favourable comments. The freelancer may also try and use their personal relationship with the customer as leverage to ensure that ‘minor issues’ are left out of reviews. Some flippant examples…

“Look how hard we worked for you, it COST ME money to finish your work!”

“Hugh my friend, it has been an honour to work with you. I will leave excellent feedback for you. I would be privileged if you would do the same!

Why mention this? Are they bad people for trying to sway your grade? No… it’s just business. A bit of a gentle squeeze can add a few points to their average rating, and a few extra dollars in their pocket.

The point I want to make is that glossy reviews are more the norm than the exception. Average providers with charismatic ‘front men’ will have very similar high positive ratings, to technically excellent providers. You need to look very closely to see the difference.

An average quality freelancer will provide a worse experience then an excellent one; but they’ll do a better job convincing you that there were good reasons why you had trouble! The fact that there is a positive bias in customer reviews is another reason why outsourcers with bad ratings should generally be avoided. Read the rest of this entry

This post is the first of a series on How to Select a Great Freelancer Online. It specifically discusses how to use past customer feedback and work histories to ‘read between the lines’ and reveal a freelancer’s real performance. You can find the index for the series and the first article here.

Part 1 of How to use customer feedback/ratings covers:

• How to use the average feedback rating (or score) to weed out under-performers
• How to assess past work performance and determine a freelancer’s credibility
• How to avoid being Scammed

Part II of How to use customer feedback/ratings (find it here) covers:

• How to analyse customer comments, what they mean, and reading between the lines
• How to do a background check on your potential outsourcer

So, On With Part 1. Customer Feedback, Past History = Future Performance?

The only way to verify someone’s past performance and identity online is by reviewing their customer feedback and interaction within outsourcing websites. All freelance/online outsource sites have customer feedback because it’s extremely useful for filtering out the trash (scammers, fly-by-nighters, psychos etc.). When using feedback and ratings it’s essential to remember that it isn’t perfect. As any investor will sorely tell you, past history is no guarantee of future performance! Add to this the fact that feedback histories can be gamed/manipulated, you’re left with an information source which is only useful if it’s used with care.

How to analyse customer feedback:

All feedback is not created equal, some reviews should be given more weight then others, and there are hidden stories in the data. Here are a few things to look for to keep you safe. Read the rest of this entry

This series of articles will help you achieve a much higher success rate on your projects by discussing how you can determine a good outsourcer/freelancer from a bad one. While it’s not 100% perfect, using my approach will dramatically improve your chances. I’ve used this approach on dozens of projects, and found that it has a excellent success rate.

When hiring a freelancer, we’re looking for someone who is adequately skilled, can communicate effectively, and who is going to take an interest in your work. It can be frustratingly difficult to find all of these qualities.

It’s also pretty common knowledge amongst freelancer’s that this is what most entrepreneurs are looking for. So it’s not surprising that on any given project, many of the bids received are designed to convince you that the bidder has all of these qualities… some bidders even go to the extreme of not addressing your project criteria at all; and instead focus on the touchy-feely ‘look how friendly I am’ stuff.

If you’re new to outsourcing, it’s normal to be drawn to the happy-friendly-feel good bidder. They make you feel comfortable and they always seen nice. I made this mistake early on, believing that many of these bidders must be so experienced, so smart, so great, that they need not concern themselves with the details of my project. I’ve had some major disasters (projects breaking down once the details are worked out) as a result, and I implore you to ignore feel good bidders and focus on my criteria below. Getting someone you can work with is important, but it’s essential that you don’t get drawn into the empty sales pitch!

So how do you pick a good freelancer? Read the rest of this entry