If you’ve been around for long, you know I tend to emphasize skills over the “technique of the day.” The basics, as it were. There’s a reason for that. Let’s take a look at the WSO section of the Warrior Forum to see why that’s so important.

While we do, keep the online success formula in mind:

Traffic x Conversion = Profits

It’s probably a good idea to keep that in mind no matter what online business activity you’re messing with, but we’re going to focus on the WSO section for a moment.

This great post from Paul Myers will open your eyes to lessons that can be learnt *anywhere*.

Enjoy -

Warrior Forum WSO Lessons

The forum is growing at a fairly steady rate. Of the new members coming in, only a relatively small percentage will make a regular habit of visiting the WSO section as potential customers.

At the same time, a lot of people are signing up because they’ve read somewhere that the forum, and especially the WSO section, are places they can make money. And some of the most popular WSOs over the past year have been about selling products through WSOs.

The ratio of sellers to buyers is getting more and more skewed. That creates more competitive pressure, which translates among the WSO crowd to “price competition.” Down, down, down.

At the same time, the folks who’ve run a number of successful WSOs in the past control a fair bit of the traffic. Those same people have figured out the conversion factors in that environment, so they have an easier time getting affiliates. They can run up the visitor numbers, sales and comments so quickly that their offers catch fire almost every time.

That attracts the attention of the casual browsers who weren’t sent directly to an offer by an affiliate, and are just looking around the place. Over time, that gives the established sellers an even bigger chunk of the group to email, adding further to their edge in that market.

If you know how to craft an offer that converts, and network well with existing or potential affiliates, you can start to play in the deeper end of the pool. If not, you’re left with whatever you can manage from the casual browsers until you learn.

For all the hype about the various “WSO Success” systems, it really all comes down to basic skills.

That’s the open secret most of these guys never tell you.

It’s tempting to learn in the WSO section. I mean, the traffic is already there, and it’s targeted, right?

Sure, if you sell to the sellers. Or if you can create something useful for them. Bill Guthrie, a WordPress expert, did just that recently. The product was so good that he got some affiliates, made a bunch of them happy, and showed a lot of customers that his products really were worth a lot more than he asked for them.

But what if you can’t make your products fit? Or what if you just don’t want to play in that market space?

You can still learn a lot from watching the WSO section. It’s a miniature version of every market out there. And the progression of players from newbie to “power seller” is the same in all of them. With one major exception:

Very few markets move as fast as the WSO section.

If you develop the skill needed to make offers that convert better than the competition’s, you can walk into almost any market and grab the lion’s share of affiliates. Make them money, and they’ll keep coming back and promoting your stuff. Which gets you more exposure, and more customers, and more affiliates.

From there, it’s just a matter of how far you want to take it.

Every one of those people you see raking it in with offers in the WSO section have a big advantage: They know how to make their offers convert. It doesn’t matter if they’re selling backlinks, or pushing WP themes, or rolling out mini-reports on the cheap. If they’re doing well, they’ve learned to sell.

That’s their real edge. If you can sell, traffic becomes easy.

And if you can attract affiliates or make a profit on paid ads, you can ignore Google and the rest. You can quit worrying about search engine changes, or spending time and money on backlinks and optimization strategies that may or may not work.

That gives you real control over your own business.

THAT is why I emphasize skills. That is why I stay away from most of the “flavor of the day/week/month” uber-hyped promos. If you can’t convert those visitors, or you can’t get the visitors in the first place, the rest is pointless.

Quality traffic is what matters in terms of visitors. People who already want what you’re selling. That’s why most of the automated traffic systems end up being such huge disappointments. If they work at all, they usually attract random visitors, with little enthusiasm for the offer before they land on your page.

If you really want to take things up a level or four this year, work on your skills. Master the basics. And start with learning how to sell.

Paul Myers
http://talkbiz.com

Note from Paul Barrs: If you’re one of those online marketers who enjoys BS free zones on the internet, then I strongly suggest that you take a look at Paul’s Talkbiz Newsletter. You won’t get blasted with ads, but you will LEARN STUFF that can help you make money online.

Are you looking to get started on your new business adventure? Those trying to sell you “something” will tell you that it’s going to be exciting, rewarding and your path to golden dreams. Well, yes…. it *can* be that, but it can also be difficult, hazardous, and fraught with financial risk. In today’s guest post by Evan Fischer of HirePulse.com.au you’ll get an insight to the most common mistakes that new businesses make… and how to avoid them! Enjoy -

Starting a business is no easy undertaking at any time, but given our current economic environment, it’s even riskier. This means that new business owners need to be twice as diligent in order to ensure that they can remain afloat long enough to gain a following, turn a profit, and ultimately, succeed where so many competitors fail. However, there are a lot of challenges facing the uninitiated in the world of business ownership, and if you don’t know what hurdles you could be facing you can’t hope to be prepared to overcome them. But you aren’t reinventing the wheel here; many feet have tread this path before and you can learn from their mistakes.

Here are just a few common blunders that you’ll definitely want to avoid.

1. Spending snafus. There are two ways that businesses fail when it comes to spending accordingly at the outset: overspending and under-spending. And both can ruin your business before you even start. The ramifications of overspending are pretty obvious; you’ll end up with unmanageable debt that your business simply can’t support. Under-spending is a bit more difficult to nail down, as you are probably inclined to assume that saving every penny is a smart move. However, failing to properly promote your business or compromising quality because you’re afraid to spend is just as certain to end in failure. Spending smart means knowing which costs are an investment and which are a waste of money.

2. Borrowing snafus. Again, the problem here is twofold: borrowing too little or borrowing too much. If you fail to account for all possible costs, you could find yourself with overhead that you simply can’t pay. On the other hand, a huge influx of cash (say, from investors) often requires that you give up some measure of control over your operation and potentially get forced into growing faster than you’re prepared to. Each can be equally fraught with peril for your business and its prospects for success.

3. Being generic. This is a major problem for many startups. You want to stick to tried and true products and services, but there are probably already plenty of established brands doing it better than you. For this reason it is imperative to find your own niche. You can certainly offer something that people have seen before as long as you spin it so that you’re offering innovation and added value. That’s how you’re going to get the attention of consumers and beat out the competition.

4. Failing to reinvest. Have you ever heard the old adage “you have to spend money to make money”? Because you are a business owner, it’s easy to assume that the money coming into the business is yours. Wrong! Anything the business earns belongs to the business. You get a salary which provides for your personal needs, but anything left over should go to the needs of the business. If you treat your company like your personal piggy bank you’ll soon find that you’re getting out exactly what you put in (which is to say, nothing).

5. Under-planning. You can absolutely NEVER be too prepared. So start off with a comprehensive (but flexible) business plan that accounts for possible failures (and successes, for that matter) and stay up-to-date with changes and advances in your industry to ensure that you’re ready to face any situation that may arise. Being prepared for any outcome is paramount to success in business.

Evan Fischer is a contributing writer for HirePulse, an online service that allows employers to select an independent contractor that meets their business needs.

We’re getting really close to wrapping everything up here with only a couple more days to go…

If you’re not using OutVeo yet to help you manage your outsourced workers and the projects you give them I highly recommend taking a look.

Yesterday I showed where to go to find the best people to outsource your projects to…

Today is all about knowing which people to choose (the most important lesson of all!)

How To Evaluate Your Candidates…

You’ve got your list of freelancers.

But don’t hire anyone just yet.

That’s because the next thing you need to do is sort through these prospective candidates in order to uncover those who’re most suitable for the job.

Before we get into the details of this process, let me make a couple points:

1. Spending time upfront saves you time and money down the road…

Yes, this process does take some time upfront as you do your due diligence and perhaps even go through an interview process.

However, the time you spend now will save you time, money and frustration down the road.

You see, some business owners simply skip this process and instead assume that anyone advertising as a professional freelancer must be reputable professional who’ll produce good work.

However, that’s not always true.

Some freelancers can’t seem to keep projects on track, meaning they’re always missing deadlines (and thus derailing major parts of your business).

Some freelancers simply aren’t very good at what they do.

And worse yet, some freelancers are actually scammers, meaning their goal is to take your money without any intention of doing the work.

As such, it’s extremely important that you go through the due diligence process. Consider it a good investment of your time.

2. Make the process proportionate to the job and the relationship…

You’ll want to do your research and due diligence every time you hire a freelancer.

However, you don’t necessarily need to do the same amount of research for every freelancer.

Instead, you’ll need to keep the amount of research you do in proportion to the relationship you expect to have as well as the cost of the project.

Example: Let’s say you’re hiring someone to do a one-off task, such as fixing a graphic for $10. Obviously, you’re not going to spend hours researching this person’s background.

Instead, you’ll spend maybe five minutes checking the person’s portfolio and feedback ratings.

On the other hand, let’s suppose you’re hiring a customer service representative to work with you on an ongoing basis.

In this case, you may go through a full due diligence process. You may even spend a few minutes on Skype interviewing the person.

That’s because you want to hire the best person for the job right away so that they can do a good job for you in the long term.

3. Good freelancers for others may not be good for you…

Another thing to keep in mind is that just because a freelancer has great feedback and comes highly recommended, that doesn’t mean this person will work well with you. You’ll learn more about this important factor just a bit later.

4. Don’t shop around based on price alone…

Finally, don’t base your research on price alone. High prices don’t necessarily mean better quality work. Low prices don’t necessarily mean inferior work.

You’ll need to do your full due diligence and research in order to determine how well suited a particular candidate is for your specific project.

Tip: It’s true, sometimes you can find someone who produces extremely high-quality work at a low price. Possible reasons include:

* The person is just getting started and trying to build his portfolio. He may even specifically advertise that his prices are going up once he’s built up his portfolio.

* The person lives in a place with a low cost of living and is trying to be competitive.

This is especially true of someone who’s mainly working with business owners in a local area.

However, if this person expands and starts working globally, he may raise his prices to reflect his skill level.

* The person doesn’t yet know his or her worth in relation to others in the marketplace.

Some freelancers who’re fairly new simply don’t yet realize their worth and/or they think they’ll lose business if they raise their prices.

If they truly are good at what they do, then they’ll have a LOT of business. If they over-schedule themselves, the quality of their work will go down.

Alternatively, they may just eventually start raising their prices.

Point is, while there are legitimate reasons for spectacular freelancers to have dirt- cheap prices, there’s a good chance that the prices won’t stay low forever.

So, that means you either need to be prepared to pay higher prices or you need to spend an incredible amount of time constantly looking for new freelancers at discounted rates.

Truth is, you waste a lot of time and money if your freelancing team is constantly turning over.

It’s better to either find a good freelancer upfront (even if she/he charges more) or pay a good freelancer’s higher prices if she/he starts raising them. In other words, it’s not always a good deal to constantly be seeking out low-price freelancers.

Evaluating Freelancers…

Okay, so now you know why you should invest time upfront to do your research and find the best candidates.

Now let’s look at some of the steps involved in the actual due diligence process…

Check feedback ratings…

If you’re hiring a freelancer from a freelancing site (like Elance), then you have the advantage of checking the person’s feedback and ratings from other business owners.

Ask around…

Whether you’re hiring offline or online, you can ask around to see if anyone has any good or bad experiences with this freelancer.

Example: Let’s suppose that you notice a local business owner has a “designed by” tag at the bottom of his website. You can ask him if he was satisfied with the quality of the work.

Review the portfolio. This is actually one of the first things you should do if you’re hiring certain types of freelancers like writers, graphic designers and similar.

Point is, you want to make sure that your freelancer is capable of handling the type of work you require.

Example: If you’re hiring someone to create an ebook, you should look for a sample ebook in the person’s portfolio.

That’s because a person may do a great job writing articles or blog posts, but perhaps he falls short when pulling together a well-researched ebook.

Look at testimonials. Don’t believe everything you read, though, as a testimonial is easy enough to fake.

Use Google.

Finally, one of the best ways to do your due diligence is to research the freelancer’s business history and background in Google.

Do NOT just cherry pick one or two of the above methods while ignoring the others, especially if you’re looking for a freelancer for a big, expensive and/or ongoing project.

Instead, go through all the steps above (where applicable) so that you get a clear picture of the freelancer’s:

* Ability to produce great work…
* Ability to meet deadlines…
* Ability to be professional…

Once you’ve done your due diligence, you’ll find that your big list of prospective freelancers very quickly gets whittled down to a select group.

All the best!

Brian Terry and Paul Barrs

P.S. Want a little secret? The easiest way to manage your outsourced workers and make sure you get 100% output from them is through this unique software program.

This makes outsourcing a breeze…

==> http://OutVeo.com

If you’ve been online for any time now you’ll know that without doubt the best and potentially most successful strategy for generating income is through Joint Ventures.

The problem however for most is that the idea of “contacting the top performers” (so-called Guru’s) is completely out of the question. I mean, even if you spark up the courage to actually try to contact them, 99 out of 100 times you never hear back from them do you. That of course means that you most likely *never* hear back from them because you’ve given up well before 99 attempts; this is OK, after all, we can only handle so much rejection before it gets to us.

These problems have faced people working in the sales industry for decades. There’s nothing new about it, it’s just the way it is.

But –

Even though almost everyone out there says that ‘you have to contact the big guns’ to access the big lists to get a successful joint venture, I’m here to ask you… do you? Really?

Sure, it is true that one successful JV with a big list is going to put you in front of more people, and because of this you shouldn’t ever give up on that strategy, but perhaps you could also consider this one –

Let’s say for example that it takes 99 strike-outs to get that one, and you get access to a list of 50,000 or more. OK. Well, at the same time you could hunt around for the ‘small to medium players’ who have been established online for a year or two and probably have lists in the 1000 – 5000 range (I’m talking QUALITY here, not tens of thousands of pointless email addresses).

In this second example you’re more likely to get a successful ‘home run’ each 4 out of 5 times when you approach them. Doing some simple maths, for the 99 attempts it takes to pull in the big one, assuming only 3 in 4 wins and an average list size of 2,500 – that would give you the opportunity to put your offer in front of over 180,000 people… nice.

That now out of the way; where do you find them? Well, gazillions of places – eZine directories, article directories, online forums, and targeted keyword searches etc. The list is endless.

An opportunity that’s also good is through the use of Google Alerts.

I came across this one recently because I keep track of what’s happening online with my name and my products, and by using Google Alerts, each time there’s a change made to a page with contains my “Google Alert” search criteria, I get a notification about it sent in summary form each evening.

So how can we find Joint Venture Partners in this? Easy. The Google Alert system allows me to input any type of search parameter from which it will then send me an update on. So you could use your name… or your favourite “guru’s” name, or your targeted search term for your website / product or whatever. When you get the alert, you simply go to the relevant website, make sure that it all looks OK and contact them. Tel them how you came across their site and compliment them on it, then offer your JV.

What makes it really work though is this – consistency!

Sometimes you’ll only get 2 or 3 updates in your alert. If this happens continually, don’t get disheartened, be happy. Because it’s far easier to research and contact 2 or three people a day than 20 or 30. One of the biggest mistakes I see in business both online and offline is the setting of unrealistic goals. Be careful not to let yourself fall into that trap.

Your goal here is to plug people into your affiliate program through a specific joint venture invitation – people who may never have found you otherwise. Do it regularly, slowly and consistently; after a short period of time you’ll have a dynamic JV affiliate list that produces powerful results every time you mail to them.

Have fun!

- Paul Barrs

This easy guide for outsourcing will help you make the most from your time and your business. From a personal perspective I believe that you should never ask someone to do something for you that you yourself do not at least have a basic understanding of – so that you can CHECK the work – or have someone whom you trust who CAN check the work for you.

It’s a simple strategy and it can save a whole ton of heart-ache. Enjoy!

Plan the Week’s Outsourcing

Before you can run out and start posting jobs, you need to evaluate your needs. This means figuring out what jobs you need done both in the short term and long term in a variety of areas.

Now before we get into the details of evaluating your specific needs, let’s go over the three main categories of outsourcing.

Each of the jobs you need done will fall into one of these categories:

1. One-Off Tasks

This is where you hire someone to complete a fairly quick “one off” task. That means that once they’ve completed the task, they’re done with it.

While you may hire them again in the future to do something similar, there’s no guarantee that you will need their services again.

Example: Let’s suppose you just completed an ebook. You can hire a graphics designer to create the ecover graphic. You may get a turnaround on this task in as quickly as a few days.

Then once the task is done, your relationship with the designer ends. Maybe in another few months you’ll contact the designer again.

2. Ongoing Tasks (End Date in Mind)

This is where you hire someone to work on a very large project and/or for a fairly lengthy amount of time.

However, generally there is an end date in mind. That is, your relationship with the freelancer may go on for months, but in most cases it will end on a specific date.

Example: You’ve hired a freelance programmer to create software for you. This is a big project which will likely take four to six months to complete the initial coding.

After the initial coding is done, you’ll retain the programmer for another six months in order to do tweaks, work out bugs, patch security flaws, etc.

In other words, you plan to work with the freelancer for at least a year, but unless another big project comes up, your business relationship will likely end in about 12 months.

3. Long-Term Projects (Indefinitely)

This last category is where you hire a freelancer to work with you on an ongoing basis for the foreseeable future.

In this case there is no definite end date in mind.

There isn’t some project that, when wrapped up, will signal the end of your relationship with the freelancer.

Usually, the relationship ends for other reasons (e.g., the freelancer moves on, you fire the freelancer, you retire from the business, etc).

Example: One good example of this is a customer service representative. This person works for you for as long as you need a representative and/or as long as he needs a job.

Depending on the size of your business, the representative may work as little as a few hours per week.

But you expect to work together for the foreseeable future.

Those are the three main categories.

Naturally, any freelancer can float between these three categories as your business grows and your needs change.

Example: You might hire a programmer to customize a script (a one- off task). Then you may re-hire him to hand code a new piece of software (ongoing).

Then you may decide to go into the business of developing software, in which case you retain him indefinitely to create new products and fix bugs on existing products.

Here’s my point:

You can’t evaluate your needs once and be done with it.

You’ll need to evaluate them constantly, especially as your business grows.

The second thing you need to keep in mind is what type of relationship you’ll be developing with the various types of freelancers.

If you’re hiring someone to do a one-off task, then generally you’ll just hire them, they’ll complete the task, you pay them and your relationship ends.

As such, you don’t need to spend a whole of time motivating them or, for that matter, managing them.

However, whenever you start working long-term with someone, you need to take into consideration such issues as management and motivation. Since you want to retain your long-term freelancers, you need to keep them happy.

One way of getting great results from your freelancers is managing them more effectively. And for that I recommend you get a copy of OutVeo.

Later on you’ll learn a bit more about motivation and management. For now, just keep it in mind.

Brainstorm and Evaluate Your Needs

Your next step is to take out a clean piece of paper or open a new word processing document on your computer. Then I want you to list ALL the tasks you do in your business.

This includes your daily tasks (like customer service) to the tasks you do regularly, but less often (like your quarterly taxes).
Point is, list everything.

To help you get started, here’s a list of some of the more common tasks (especially for those who create and sell information):

• Copywriting. This includes sales letters, ads, brochures and other marketing collateral.
• Content writing. This includes ebooks, reports, blog posts, articles, newsletter content, press releases, social media posts and more.
• Graphics and design. This includes web design, ecover graphics, creating or tweaking blog themes and templates and more.
• Programming. This includes everything from script installation to script customization to custom software creation to mobile apps.
• Web technical. This includes things like managing your servers and databases.
• Marketing. This is a big area, which includes activities like joint venture partner recruitment, affiliate recruitment, affiliate management, affiliate motivation, pay per click (PPC) management, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing (newsletter management), publicity and press release distribution… and so on.

The above list is far from complete, as I didn’t even touch on things like accounting, customer service, product creation and all the other things you need done on a daily, weekly or ongoing basis.

So be sure to take your time to really figure out what tasks you do to keep your business running.

Once you have your list, then you need to ask yourself WHAT to outsource. Read on…

Decide What to Outsource

You’ve got a big list of tasks in front of you.

But the question is, which of these tasks should you outsource?

If you already have a big business budget in place, then the answer is you can outsource almost everything.

This allows you to work just a few hours a week. You’ll use that time to plan your business and hire/manage your freelancing team. Then you’ll have the rest of your time free to do as you please.

If you’re not yet prepared to start outsourcing your entire business, then you will need to pick and choose which tasks to outsource.

Generally, you should ask yourself a few questions with relation to how cost effective it is to outsource a particular task, whether it makes sense to hire a professional… and similar questions.

Now that you’ve drawn up a list of tasks you’d like to outsource, your next step is to begin the process of finding suitable candidates.

Brian Terry

P.S. Want a little secret? The easiest way to manage your outsourced workers and make sure you get 100% output from them is through this unique software program.

This makes outsourcing a breeze…

==> http://OutVeo.com

This is the kind of eMail I LOVE to send and I know that customer LOVE to receive. Notice that word “LOVE”… it shows that you *care*.

Sending a note of thanks is so easy and so simple to do that I often wonder why so many people STILL don’t do it! And I’m not just talking about in the ‘online world‘, I’m talking about offline as well… if you do a job for someone in the physical world you should still take the time to say “thank you”, maybe even send them a ‘card’. It will pay you back 100 x over in the future.

However, in the world of online automation it’s essential that you set up a system, that sends an automated “thank you” back to your customers, and there are many different ways to do this.

Most commonly you plug your customer into some kind of auto-responder system which  not only sends them a thank you, but also automated follow up messages as well. Ideally you want for your customer to be transferred to your “VIP Customer List” immediately after purchase.

The problem with this however is that if your customer was on your “prospect list”  then they ALSO get added to your customer list… it’s not too hard to embarrass yourself if your automated prospect list sends them a ‘why haven’t you ordered yet?’ message, lol.

And yes, THIS happens!

I proposed this scenario to my internet marketing program students at MSU a while back and a number of questions back last time asking… “But what if we don’t have a system that will transfer a buying customer off the non-buying customer list”?

Simple – if you’re using a good old fashioned auto-responder for your customer mail outs, just make sure that your eMails are neither one way nor the other – focus them on customer service and satisfaction and you’ll meet the needs of both.

This would be the confirmation email after the initial subscription (the one that the ‘system’ automatically sends after purchase).

“Hi John; thanks for placing your order for XYZ at www.website.com . In order to receive a special unannounced bonus for all customers, you will need to confirm your email address by clicking on the following link… (LINK – z)”

Sound a little familiar?

That link (link-Z) then confirms them into your double opt-in email auto responder which is hidden exclusively on pages that only *paying customers* have access to.

Two days later you follow up with this message… “Hi John, just wanted to make sure that all went well with your order and download…. If there were any problems please contact us (support desk) or click here to re-enter your order if for some reason it wasn’t completed properly on your end (link to order page and / OTO ).”

This first “follow up” is worded to make it look like it was written *for* customers, but if someone who is not a paying customer ends up on this list, it will work for them as well (and possibly generate extra sales also!)

Doing this will build for you a very warm list of both buyers and interested prospects. These are the BEST type of people for marketing further products later on.

- Paul Barrs

** Learn more about High Income Email Marketing Strategies with the “Email Marketing Success Strategies” free report.

This terrific guest post if from Brian Terry, developer of Outveo Outsourcing Software. Enjoy!

Is there possibly any hotter topic these days than “How do I get traffic from Google?” Well, for those who are still locked into the mindset that Google is the only traffic source out there, today’s guest post will help set the myths straight for you (it doesn’t get much easier than this!).

“Free Google Traffic BluePrint”…

Getting traffic from Google is easy when you know how.

Here are a few simple steps for you to follow…

Step 1:

• You first need to target the right keywords.
• Keep in mind that not all keywords are created equal.
• Some keywords people use just to research, whilst others they’ll type in when they’re ready to buy.

Step 2:

• Get the domain name with your target keyword either as a .com, .org or .net
• It’s critical that your domain name starts with your keyword…

Step 3:

• Install WordPress on your domain…

Step 4:

• Once you have WordPress installed install these plugins…

1. Platinum SEO Pack
2. GoCodes
3. Easy WP SEO

Step 5:

• Change your WordPress permalink structure to: /%postname%/

Step 6:

• Install a clean theme with lots of white space. I recommend and use WooThemes Canvas

Step 7:

• On-page optimization…

• Your websites home page should be optimized for the root keyword. This is the keyword phrase you found in your niche with the most searches.

Write a blog post on this subject optimizing it for that keyword phrase using the Easy WP SEO WordPress plugin.

Make this article post sticky so it remains at the top of your blogs home page.

• Then write at least 6 other blog posts on your site with each one optimized for a more descriptive keyword phrase based on your root keyword phrase.

For example:

how to quit smoking cold turkey, how to quit smoking and not gain weight — (you get the idea).

Step 8:

Internal page linking…

• Each blog post contains 2 text links back to the home page. One uses the keyword phrase how to quit smoking and the other link uses the keyword phrase for that page.
• Repeat this process for all your blog post pages using your keyword phrases.

So there you have it.

It’s a simple blueprint to follow that works exceptionally well for low-competition keyword phrases.

When you’re targeting more competitive keywords you then need to focus on backlinking.

This involves getting links to your home page and internal pages from authority sites.

The links to each of your blog posts must always use the same anchor text as the keyword for the page being linked to.

=============================================

BTW, if you really want to go great guns at this, I strongly suggest that you start looking at outsourcing; and the best outsourcing management software currently available is OutVeo.

- Paul

Now that you know what you’re going to be outsourcing (even if it’s only getting traffic to your site) here’s how to post your projects and find the best people…. This is a continuation of the previous post on outsourcing.

Let’s look at the Outveo Software a little closer and what you can do with it -

How To Post Your Projects…

It’s finally time to start advertising your need for these various freelancers by posting projects and/or contacting suitable candidates.

Tip: Today you’re merely casting your net to create a big list of prospective freelancers.

But don’t hire anyone just yet, because you first need to evaluate their suitability and do your due diligence (which you’ll learn about in the next section).

There are two main types of freelancers that you’ll uncover in your search:

a. Local freelancers. These are the ones who live right in your own city.

Not only that, but some of these folks are willing and able to meet with you face to face.

b. Remote freelancers. These are people who live too far away in order to meet them in person.

They may live a couple hundred miles away or they may live halfway around the world.

It’s generally impossible to meet these folks face to face.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each of these categories….

1. Local Freelancers

Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of working with local freelancers:

Language…

Unless you’re working with someone who just recently moved from a foreign country to your local area, the vast majority of the time there should be no language barriers between you and your local freelancer.

Ability to meet face to face or work closely together…

First off, let me start by saying that not all local freelancers are willing or able to meet face to face with you.

Indeed, some of them prefer telecommuting precisely for the reason that they don’t need to leave the comfort of their home.

Point is, don’t assume that just because someone is local that they’ll meet with you. When in doubt, ask.

However, some local freelancers will happily meet with you, which means you can interview them in person. Some of these freelancers will also meet with you occasionally for face-to-face meetings.

And some of these local freelancers will even agree to work in your office for the duration of a project.

Tip: If you’re hiring any type of freelancer for a long- term project or an ongoing project – and especially if this freelancer is actually working alongside you in your office – be sure to consult with your tax attorney or other professional.

That’s because you want to make absolutely sure that any freelancer you hire is indeed going to be classified as an independent contractor and NOT an employee.

You see, even if you consider the person an independent contractor, the government may not see it that way.

This can lead to additional tax implications for you, including back taxes, fees and fines if this person has worked for you for some time and is later re-classified as a regular employee.

So, consult with a tax professional first.

Comfort factor (due diligence)…

If you’re hiring someone locally, often the due diligence process is easier and you feel more comfortable with the person.

This is particularly true if you’re hiring someone who has an established business and good reputation, such as a web designer who’s worked with many businesses in your area.

Pricing…

Whether this is a pro or con really depends on where you live.

If you live in an area with a high cost of living (like New York City or London), then generally you can expect a local freelancer’s services to be more expensive than if you lived in a rural area with a lower cost of living.

Tip: Remember, that the freelancer’s pricing isn’t solely determined just based on where he or she lives.

Obviously, skill and reliability are two other big factors that come into play.

Example: A very good copywriter living in a rural area (low cost of living) may charge two or three times more than an average copywriter living in an area with a high cost of living.

2. Remote Freelancers

Now let’s go over some of these same factors in relation to remote freelancers…

Language barriers…

If you’re outsourcing to a foreign country, then you need to be absolutely certain that you and your prospective freelancer won’t have any language barriers.

Several emails between you will help you figure this out.

A Skype call would be even better (where possible).

No personal meetings…

Obviously you can’t work together in your office.

However, some freelancers (not all) are agreeable to talking live on the phone or via Skype.

If you go this route, just be sure to respect the freelancer’s time, meaning don’t tie him up for an hour.

Time zone differences…

Keep in mind that if you’re working with someone who lives thousands of miles away from you (especially around the world), you may be dealing with time zone differences.

Thus even if a person works regular “business hours,” the bulk of this person’s business day may be completed while you’re still sleeping.

As such, you can’t expect rapid communication, even if a particular freelancer is known for answering inquiries promptly.

Pricing…

As mentioned just a bit ago, there are a lot of factors that come into play when it comes to pricing.

However, one factor is the freelancer’s location – and that means you may be able to get a similar quality of work at lower prices if you outsource to a region of the world with a lower cost of living (like the Philippines).

OK, now you know the pros and cons of hiring a local freelancer versus a remote freelancer (which includes foreign freelancers).

Read on to learn how to find these freelancers (and outsourced workers)…

Posting Projects and Ads…

Obviously, the way you approach finding a freelancer is going to depend, in part, on whether you’re seeking a local freelancer, a remote freelancer (or perhaps either one).

So let’s have a look at five of the most popular ways to find these freelancers…

Post projects on freelancing sites…

One of the most well-known freelancing sites is Elance, but there are others.

And some of them are better for certain types of tasks (like programming and other technical tasks).

Here’s how it works: You post a project, your prospective freelancers bid on the project and then you select one vendor from among the applicants.

Post advertisements.

You can post advertisements both online and offline, such as in your local newspaper and on CraigsList.

You can also post flyers around your local area.

Browse advertisements…

Yet another way to uncover prospective freelancers is to read their advertisements.

Example: If you’re looking for a local freelancer then you might check out your local newspaper in the classified “Services” section.

Search Google…

Whether you’re looking for a remote or local freelancer, Google can help you uncover dozens of suitable candidates.

Run your search and then check out both the regular search results as well as the sponsored (paid) results that appear at the top of the natural results as well as on the right side of your screen.

Ask around…

Finally, if you have trusted business colleagues who’re outsourcing, then you’ll want to ask for their recommendations.

Example: You can ask a local business owner about his recommendations for web design.

Or you can go online to a business forum to get recommendations for ghostwriters.

Note: These are just a few of the most popular methods.

The key to your success is to cast a wide net, thereby attracting as many suitable candidates as possible.

The reason you want such a big list of prospective freelancers is because once you start doing your due diligence and research, this list is going to get whittled down fairly quickly.

You’ll learn how to evaluate your candidates tomorrow, so look out…

All the best!

Brian Terry and Paul Barrs

P.S. Want a little secret? The easiest way to manage your outsourced workers and make sure you get 100% output from them is through this unique software program.

This makes outsourcing a breeze…

==> http://OutVeo.com

You’ll also get Backlink Booster Volume 1 – this is a ready made set of assignments giving your freelancer full step-by-step instructions for building backinks to your sites.

A quick question from Paul Barrs…

And yes, before anyone in the US asks… We spell summarize with an ‘S’ in Australia…  “Summarise”

So here’s my question: I use Feedburner to process my site feed and deliver it to my feed subscribers (some by email others by RSS). Over the last week I’ve sent some out FULL TEXT others just a SUMMARY. Feedburner gives you the choice.

Now, personally I’d rather send you the summar and have you click on the feed title to then stop back at Paulbarrs.com to read the full article But as a feed subscriber to half a dozen *other* website feeds, I prefer the Full Text so I can read it right there and then – if I want to make a comment, *then* I’ll visit the site and comment.

What do YOU want?

You’re reading this now because you’ve either (1) visited my website and are reading it online or (2) are reading it as a subscriber. Either way, YOUR OPINION is more important to me and what I do with this website than my opinion.

What do YOU PREFER? Full text in the RSS or eMail or just a SUMMARY?

Please LEAVE A COMMENT here to let me know (and feed subscribers will have to come back the site to leave a comment). I really want to know what you preference is.

Thanks,

Paul Barrs

Hi Folks… over the next week or two I’m going to bring you some tips on outsourcing management. This is something which I’ve had to learn “the hard way” if you know what I mean And you, you’ve heard “the outsourcing dream” haven’t you? The one that the “Guru’s” peddle along with their $2000 + training programs, LOL. Yeah, OK, follow that if you think you must, but allow me the opportunity in partnership with my online friend Brian Terry to share with you the EASY WAY to successful outsourcing.

Outsourcing (when done right) is an incredible game changer and can literally multiply your hourly work week five, ten, even fifty-fold if you want it to.

The problem is, it’s so easy to become frustrated…

Outsourcing has become required in today’s Internet, but managing workers is a PAIN in the butt!

All the tools to help you outsource are either too complicated to use or just plain expensive (usually both).

There’s nothing I could find for the home based entrepreneur on a tight budget, who needs to move FAST to capture new opportunities before the competition does.

Using email gets confusing and complicated, especially when you need to outsource more to new workers. (This solution actually slows down your business growth.)

Spreadsheets are just the same, it’s too easy for them to “explode” into an a total mess of rows and columns.

You could use online project management applications…

But the best ones have an extortionate monthly fee which ties you into them too closely. And usually come with a huge user manual that makes War And Peace look like a quick read

Then I discovered OutVeo… And I mean that, “discovered” literally. I wasn’t looking for it, I didn’t know about it. But Brian contacted me and told me about it.

The problem was it seems to be the IDEAL solution and I was skeptical at first because it promised made to make outsourcing easy… *real* easy. I’ve got this thing about things that make stuff “real easy”… I don’t believe it!

But it soon became clear the promises were very real and using OutVeo will be a huge game changer for me and my business.

What I especially love about OutVeo is it gives you only the tools you need to get the job done.

There’s nothing complicated about it at all…

• You install it on your website (it’s is as easy as installing WordPress)…
• Then choose your username and password.
• You set up an assignment by including text and video instructions.
• You add a checklist that your outsourced workers follow (this tracks the progress of all your projects).
• Finally, you invite your outsourced worker into their own staff members of OutVeo area where they then pick up and work on your projects. Simple.

It’s incredibly intuitive to use and if I ever get stuck I know I can just check out the tutorial videos, search the knowledegbase or just send in a support ticket.

There’s no doubt in my mind that OutVeo is designed just for solo entrepreneurs or anyone working by themselves who needs to outsource quickly and efficiently.

The only real downside I could find is OutVeo doesn’t have multiple levels of access privileges, like so many other (more complicated) project management apps. Instead it works like this…

There’s just a single login page for you where you can oversee and control all the details of your projects.

Then there’s another login page for each of your outsourced workers where they can go and pick up their projects.

I give OutVeo my highest recommendation because it really does make outsourcing easy.

You can pick it up here…

==> http://outveo.com

The icing on the cake for me is you also get these bonuses…

• A link building assignment (just upload it into OutVeo)
• Where to find great outsourced workers and how to hire them
• Ad templates you can copy and paste to help you recruite all the outsourced workers you need.

The ready made link building assignment is a real time saver and works like gangbusters at getting your sites more traffic.

There’s no doubt in my mind that OutVeo gives you a complete outsourcing solution. (It’s a much better solution than Basecamp

Go check it out: ==> http://outveo.com

All the best!

Paul Barrs

Here’s what Internet Lifestyle Mentor, Terry Dean said…
“Outsourcing is how you break from the dollars for hours trap.
Outveo is how you outsource simply, easily, and quickly.”