Task Army: blog

Things to remember when outsourcing an e-book writing project

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:56:43 +0000

While I am all for the traditional value of an actual book, I can't help but love the idea of e-books. Especially given the new technologies such as Kindle and iPad and what not, one can access and carry hundreds of books all the times. When writing a book, there are many advantages of choosing a digital version. It's cheaper since it doesn't involve publishing cost. Moreover, in the age of search engines and smart phones, people prefer to look it up online rather than to go out and actually buy it. An E-book can serve as a marketing tool, and it can also serve as an information product, yielding in some good profits if you can chose the right topic, but what if you don't know anything about the topic in hand, or you don't have the time to write an entire e-book because you are too busy managing your business. The solution is to find a freelance writer. This is a good option in many cases, provided the writer does indeed possess good writing skills. It can save you a lot of time and energy, and frankly if you had to do it yourself, it might take forever. When looking for a freelance writer to write an e-book for you, here are some things one must keep in mind:

Define a niche for your job posting

Even before you start to find for a freelancer, you have got to identify your niche. Why do people buy books? To acquire useful information on a topic that’s not commonly discuss over the Internet (in other words niche). So select a niche by researching the market and deciding on something that you know is in demand with little or no content available (any reasonable keyword research tools can help you in determining that). This should be a topic seldom touched on blogs and websites. Find something useful to offer to a certain group of internet users and they will buy it. Doing so will help you post a better job description and attract the writers with the right set of expertise.

Don't let the writer stray away from your outline

It's your book and therefore you should be having an idea of the outcome or the content your book is going to have. Define your outline and discuss it with your writer. Your task is not limited to simply deciding on what to put on the cover, it's always better to have a plan that the book needs to follow. Even if you don't know a niche like the back of your hand, you can still drive the results towards a point that you want. All it needs is a basic research of the market and people. Don't let the writer dominate your ideas, and especially the outcome. The writer may have excellent ideas, and even a predisposition about what the end result should be, but it's your dime, therefore you have got to roll it.

Experience matters

Finding a skillful writer who is also affordable is a difficult task, but when it comes to a project as extensive as an e-book, experience does pay off. Remember that E-book writing is a little different from simple article writing. It requires much more in terms of vocabulary, command, and expressions. Moreover, there is a great deal of research involved when one is writing an e-book. Find someone who knows this and can handle the entire project. The best option would be to go for someone who has a background of writing, or education in the subject you are planning to create a book on. This way his research requisite would be lessened and the command over the topic will show through the book.

Ascertain the credibility

An important factor is to ascertain the credibility of the writer in terms of ethics and conduct as well. Make sure that the writer will not run away with your ideas and information that you researched and spent hours defining. Make sure he won't run away with your money. Take a look at his/her portfolio to see if he is indeed capable of handling a large project. It will help if you hire a writer for a smaller project first; build trust, and then move on to larger projects like e-book. Also make sure that the writer knows the true meaning of ghostwriting and doesn't want credit or association at any point afterwards.
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Five Steps to Grow Your Business by Developing a Team of Independent Contractors

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:24:23 +0000

Are you a small business entrepreneur who has hit a wall in terms of growing your business? Perhaps you wear too many hats, but can't afford to hire employees and pay the related expenses and taxes that go along with it? In today's economy, more and more organizations are feeling the squeeze and having to get creative in dealing with these issues. I was in the same boat until I decided to reach out to professional online independent contractors to outsource a large amount of my tasks that didn't require them to be physically present at my place of business. The result? I not only grew my business, but I grew a cohesive, well-functioning, tight-knit team that will likely work together for a long time.

Step One - Develop Your Plan

One of the most important steps to take is spending time developing a plan, which includes identifying all of the functions that need to be covered immediately. It is also a good idea to identify the types of skills and bent needed to oversee each of these functions. Keep in mind there may be various key areas that need to be included, such as growth-related responsibilities, administrative and organizational activities, operational tasks, financial oversight, technical duties, etc. Once you list all of these major areas, you can start to break things down into tasks, and then identify those activities that would be easily outsourced.

Step Two - Create a Job Description

There are several reputable websites that act as a middle man for clients looking for independent contractors. This is a safe way of doing business for both parties, but you don't have to limit yourself to that arrangement either, if you have other ways of getting the word out about your outsourcing needs. But if you will be advertising online, it's important to have a very comprehensive, well-defined description of the job that you wish to outsource, including the skill-set and related experience necessary to step into the position. List some examples of both macro and more focused tasks that the candidate selected can expect to be doing. It's a good idea also to separate and communicate those skills that must be present now, as well those tasks you are willing to train the right candidate for. Ask a trusted colleague to take a look at your description to see if it is missing any key components that might hamper opening up constructive lines of communication.

Step Three - Post the Job Description and Screen Your Candidates

Every one of the first three steps needs to be approached with a lot of care and forethought, but it's noteworthy to mention that you really should take your time with this particular step, which is spending a lot of quality time in communication with those candidates that pique your interest. In my case, I was able to hire three individuals at the same time, and one of them rose to the top as a clear contender for the key operational position I had envisioned. If you don't have that luxury, you may want to agree upon a trial period that you define that enables you to see how you work with that individual. Keep the other candidates on the back burner in case it becomes clear the individual you selected will not work out. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is "be slow to hire, and quick to fire" when it becomes apparent that the relationship is not a good fit. The good news about engaging an independent contractor is that standard laws that protect employees do not apply, so you don't need to tiptoe around a difficult relationship for fear of litigation. In essence, the independent contractor owns their own business, and unless you sign specific contractual obligations with that independent contractor and then back out of the deal, it is simply a matter of choosing whether or not you wish to do business with them. In other words, you engage in a handshake agreement with the individual. They invoice you for work performed, and you pay them. When you decide it's not a good value, you ask them to stop doing their tasks and wash your hands of the problem.

Step Four - Set Up Clear Expectations Up Front, and Course Correct As Necessary

Not all independent contractors understand that they are not employees. Communicating up front that you will not be taking out any payroll taxes for them, and ensuring that they understand that they are their own company and are responsible for the tax burden will help with many issues that may crop up later on. Since you will be working virtually with your new team members, it's crucial to lay out expectations for work conduct, output, the meeting of deadlines, accountability, payment terms, and communication expectations. You may want to have them sign some non-disclosure or non-compete agreements if you will be sharing key, proprietary information with them. In our case, the job requires the writing of a lot of content, so we also ask our contractors to sign an agreement that they will not plagiarize, as that would be immediate grounds for termination of any arrangements. Look into what might work for you in terms of virtual communication. We use a combination of email, instant message during pre-set hours, and telephone. The bottom line is that all of these issues, when handled correctly by both parties, can develop a level of trust despite the absence of the human element gained by working together in the same location. One of the biggest issues I have had to deal with is people not showing up for work and thinking I won't notice. By setting up a system that rewards accountability and communication, you will identify any bad seeds quickly and be able to nip the problem in the bud. Finally, make sure you handsomely reward your superstars. There are all kinds of ways to do that: buying them equipment so that they don't have to do so out of their own pockets; paying for vacation days that are not part of any pre-set arrangements; bonuses, from a straight cash bonus, to purchasing them season passes to their favorite entertainment venue. The possibilities are endless.

Step Five - Wash, Rinse and Repeat

As you grow your organization, you will identify steps that are idiosyncratic to your particular needs, which will help you in your search for new candidates when it's time to expand. It's a good idea to standardize and document things so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel when it's time for the next round of hiring. Over time, as you identify the key players in your team, they will navigate to those areas they are best suited for if you task them for small projects and see how they do, rewarding them with more and more responsibility over time. The new rules of engagement in this economy mean that we all need to adapt. This is a positive and beneficial way for both employers and would-be employees to make the best of a tough situation.
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What It Takes To Be an Entrepreneur

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:28:15 +0000

There is no winning formula to be a top entrepreneur but as I’ve been reading a lot of blogs written by top online entrepreneurs, I found out a few common characteristics. Check out the list below to see if you’re cut out to be one… □ You grew up in a business-oriented environment. They say that looking for a job is a lot easier than starting your own business and people who strike it on their own are greatly influenced by family members who are entrepreneurs themselves. □ You are not cut to be an employee. Chances are you cannot keep a job or you jump from one job to another as you are the type of person who does not conform to an office setting. You are a self-started and have the ability to motivate and manage yourself. □ You understand that the economy is volatile and there is no such thing as “job security”. You understand that nowadays it’s very rare that a person can keep a job for 20 years. So for you “security” means having a fall-back when you lose your job. □ You have the support of your family and you understand that you cannot do it alone. Starting a business can be stressful, so you need the support of friends or loved-ones to make it bearable. Entrepreneurs also know their limitations and they are not afraid to ask for help. They understand that there are areas beyond their field of expertise and they are willing to delegate this to other people. □ You have done a little bit of research. You have an idea on what you want to sell and that you’ve done some initial studies on your market. You know what your audience needs and you know how to fill that need. Not only is your idea cool but you also know that it’s profitable. □ You think outside the box and hate everything that’s orthodox. When you encounter roadblocks, you go around it rather than be stuck with it. You’re a thinker at the same time a thinker, you like action but you are also practical. You like to keep on reinventing your products or services since you understand that completion is stiff. □ You are a visionary and you have a great desire to succeed. You know how to dream big and your entrepreneurial spirit is rooted on the desire of wanting to help other people, money is not your prime motivator. □ You would first conduct research, study the market and test your ideas before investing a lot of time and effort into it. If you’d like to be a top entrepreneur then you should be a moderate risk taker rather than a gambler. □ You should have passion for what you’re doing and at the same time have fun with what you’re doing. Starting out as an entrepreneur means you won’t immediately get an ROI, so you should also know how to persevere. As the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” When you don’t know how to persevere, chances are you’d take the easy way out and simply go back to finding an “8 to 5” job. Many people are tempted to start their own business because of its appeal: being your own boss, working in your own time, no office politics and the possibility of earning millions. However, not all people are cut for it – others thrive in an office environment while others enjoy working with a community of people. These are not a guaranteed formula for success but it’s a good start of evaluating yourself whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. All these coupled with right timing, finances, technology, hard work, a few trial & error, and you’ll surely find your own winning formula!
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Help Sendong flood victims (Philippines)

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:50:31 +0000

You probably have heard of the floods that happened in the Philippines. Many of the best freelancers listed on TaskArmy come from the Philippines and I feel personally grateful to many people of this country. If you want to brighten the flood victims' end of year, have a look at this page that explains how you can do it: http://www.interaksyon.com/article/19904/ways-to-help-sendong-flood-victims If you are a freelancer on TaskArmy who got touched by the floods, please contact me directly (aymeric[at]taskarmy.com) to discuss how I can help. Thank you, Aymeric
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Looking for video testimonials

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:24:05 +0000

TaskArmy needs you! We are looking for people who would be willing to record a 10s video about what they think of TaskArmy. It is all done online, no software needed. Click here to leave a testimonial: http://userlove.net/products/8/testimonials/new Thanks!
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Outsourcing content proofreading – The challenges and how to deal with them

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:49:59 +0000

If you are running an online business that needs a regular supply of unique and quality content, you are in loads and loads of problems (especially if you are on a tight budget). From managing writers to checking for plagiarism; from editing written content to checking for factual errors, there’s a lot you need to do on regular basis. Very few businesses can afford to hire in-house staff of writers and editors, and when you go for outsourcing, it’s a hell of a task to be able to find good sensible writers as well as editors. In fact, it’s easier to find and hire writers as compared to sourcing good editors, for many reasons. There are a number of hindrances that you can expect when outsourcing task of editing. Here are some issues that you might face, and you must consider before you outsource content for editing.

It’s difficult to Find Credible Editors

When it comes to editing jobs, it’s quite hard to find someone who is credible and has the experience. Problem is, a good editor is inevitably a good writer, which means they are almost always booked. It’s hard to locate experienced editors as very few of them are actually interested in working as an editor. Problem is, editing jobs are sometimes more hectic than simply writing the entire thing and securing the entire amount. So, you either have to hire flawless writers to write and proofread content, or you have to do it yourself.

Cost Factor

If you’re hiring the best quality writers to work as editors, they will surely charge more than the amount they will get for writing – and that would ruin your budget. Remember that good writers know their worth and if you are asking them to do something as important as editing, they will definitely lay down a strong demand. If you are hiring from online outsourcing platforms, you should consider yourself lucky, if you can get a good editor at a budget price, otherwise, for most entrepreneurs it’s often a long search before they find someone good enough.

Slow Processing

Here is how it works: your client assigns you tasks – you allocate it to writers – writers submit to you – you forward it to editors – editors submit to you and you take a final look (if you are meticulous). Err…. Not a very quick process, is it? This will slower down your productivity and could cause you more loss than profit. And we haven’t even considered the time it will take in searching, short listing, interviewing and then keeping the editors on trial basis.

No Teamwork

The editor doesn’t know what your client demands and therefore he/she may end up editing only grammatical flaws or sentence structure. Most of the time it’s written concept or subject matter rather than technical or grammatical glitches. There is no team element, as with outsourcing, everyone works at their own feasible time. You’ll have to invest twice as much time in conveying the requirements to writers and editors.

What can be the Solution?

If you really need editing work, try picking your best writers and distribute equal amount of writing as well as editing work between all of them, instead of hiring someone solely for editing because they will soon get burned out. You can pay these writers a fixed amount every month for doing a specific amount of article writing along with editing. However, make sure that you team up with writers who understand your requirement and know what is demanded from the content. Finally, if you have no option but to do it yourself, then edit articles at certain time intervals, rather than taking them all together. Because once you’ve gone through 5 - 10 articles, it becomes extremely difficult to find mistakes. Therefore, relax, sit back and edit one or two articles after an interval of 3 to 4 hours.
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Need to record screencasts to train your online workers?

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:00:07 +0000

I recommend you to use the following two services: http://screenr.com used to be my favourite until I wanted to mark a video as private. It wanted me to pay $19/month which was too costly for the few private videos I needed. I then found http://screencast-o-matic.com which works the same way (no software to install) but also allows you to keep your videos private. Super cool!
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Disposable email addresses

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:09:57 +0000

Every day I need to provide my email address to get something in return. More often that not, I don't want to take the risk to be spammed. Instead of using my true email address, I use the free disposable email address service Yopmail. When I need to provide an email address I can give noiwontgiveyoumyemailaddress@yopmail.com (or any alias I can think of) and any email sent to that address will be available publicly on yopmail.com No need to create any account on yopmail.com by the way, all the email addresses are created on the fly.
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What you need to address before you start outsourcing

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:07:55 +0000

Someone recently purchased one of the services here on TaskArmy – contacting 30 bloggers for a specific niche and I noticed that the person is fairly new to outsourcing based on the information he provided. To make this task easier for us the provider, we would normally ask for more information on the buyer’s niche or some examples of the type of blogs that one wants to contact and the guy was unable to provide this information. Second, the guy mentioned that he really doesn’t know what to do once he has the list of 30 bloggers and he was asking me information on what he can do with it. As a service provider, it is a little difficult working with someone who is totally new to online outsourcing so I’m compiling a short list on the basic information one needs to know before hiring someone to help you out.

Do you really know your niche or the product that you’re selling?

It may sound funny that someone who is doing online business is not familiar with his niche but I have encountered a lot of instances that one would just promote a product because it’s popular without really understanding the product or the market. When your service provider would ask you more information about your niche, tendency is that you’d give out some vague information or none at all. If you’re an expert of your niche, you’d be able to explain your product inside and out, you know your competitors and you’d be able to explain what makes you different from the rest. In other words if you’re looking for someone to help you sell your business, you can sell your business to that person and that person can help you better sell your product.

What is the purpose that you’re outsourcing such task?

Are you simply outsourcing because it’s popular or do you really need it? Take the case mentioned earlier, the guy wants a list of 30 bloggers on his niche but he doesn’t really know what he wants to do with the list. Do you need such list because you want to exchange links with those bloggers, do you want to guest post or want the list to simply connect with fellow bloggers on your niche?

Do you have an understanding of how the online industry works?

If you have a website, you cannot simply say that you want more customers for your website. Of course, it is every business’ goal to have more customers and earn more profit but at least have a fair understand of how the online industry works in relation to what you need. So instead of hiring a virtual assistant and telling that person that you want more traffic to your website, you can be more specific by telling that person that you want to advertise on Adwords to get more traffic. Understanding how the online industry works allows you to understand its limitations and would also keep you from asking for the moon and the stars. If you have anything to add to the list that can help people who are new to outsourcing, please leave a comment below :)
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Need to send a big file?

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:07:25 +0000

I found this little free tool a few weeks ago and since I can't live without: http://ge.tt It is free and simple to use if you need to send big files that emails won't accept.
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