You might be a company owner looking to use outsourcers? Maybe you are planning to start a firm offers outsourced services? In the business idea development stage and looking for more info? The 7 FAQs below may help you see this industry with a fresh perspective.

Is the market stable?

The market is more than stable. In 2000, the US industry value for outsourced services was around $45bn. By the end of 2012, this grew to $99.1bn (Statista). If you are entering the market, then the opportunity is growing in size. If you are looking to use a company within the industry, then you have plenty of options.

Will outsourcing increase business capacity?

If you have picked the right outsourcing company, you can increase and decrease your capacity on demand. Better still, you can increase and decrease your business expenses on demand at the same time. Essentially, you have created a business that is flexible to market conditions.

Does outsourcing mean going offshore?

It’s true; the majority of outsourcing companies do base themselves in China, India and Indonesia (Statisticbrain). That is not to say that you have to go that way. Outsourcing in the UK, US or Australia is still a feasible and efficient option.

If you are worried about a language barrier or security issues, keeping your business on home turf might be the best route forward.

How will I need to adapt my business?

There is no doubt that outsourcing means that will you will need to adapt your overall business operation slightly. You may be outsourcing tasks that are part of your every day routine. In that respect, you become more of a project manager than a worker. You’ll need to develop a strong relationship with your service provider to ensure that they understand exactly what you need.

Is the influx in companies using outsourcers due to the recent recession?  

Although the recession might have pushed some companies towards outsourcing, most companies were already heading that way anyway. Companies shouldn’t just spend time increasing revenue, but also, cutting costs; increasing their ROI. HP was able to save over 25% on office processes – Outsourcing Delivers Savings of 25%-50% on back office costs.

How do I pick a company?

We wrote an article that explains exactly what to do and don’t do when you are picking a company – How To Outsource – 12 Dos and Don’ts.

How do I retain control of business processes?

Choosing a company does not mean you will be stuck with that one company. You need to be flexible, but an outsourcer should meet agreed deadlines with a project that is to specification.

Are you just another number to them? Do they go out of their way to help you? It is easy to feel like you have lost control of business processes if an outsourcing company is not experienced. An experienced company will aid each business process, not hinder it.

Monitor every business process and compare it to how an employee would complete this process. If the business process is not completed to a certain standard, it is time to change outsourcers, or bring that particular task in house to ensure that you retain business control.

There are so many social media outlets to utilise in a marketing plan, almost too many, it can become overwhelming!

If you do some background research on a few competitors, you’ll see them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn Pinterest, Orkut, Ning, not to mention multiple forums. Do some more research and you’ll see that they are using none or only the minority of these platforms effectively.

If you are going to do something, do it properly. Don’t feel like you have to be involved with a social networking website, just for the sake of it.

Forums have been a successful part of our marketing plan, right from the start. Unlike many of the other social networking websites, forums have and still are a place where people participate daily. A well maintained forum can give you help, advice and extra revenue. People ask real questions, because they want a real answer, not just because they want people to see their signature link below.

It’s free, all you need, is some time!

Surely, you could just save yourself time and effort, by paying for forum banners, right? Wrong! Forum banners are nowhere near as effective as actively participating in a forum. We have tried banners on multiple forums. Whilst some brought in new clients, most of our forum related clients come directly from our participation with that forum rather than banner advertisements.

#1 Selecting Forums And Signing Up

Finding forums is not a problem. Assuming you are looking for business forums:

• Type “business forums” into Google. By default, the first 4-5 forums will be the ones with the highest traffic.
• Check through posts to see if the replies are high quality. Some forums that are high in the search results have millions of posts, but they are spammy and low quality; avoid!
• Sign up to just 1 forum for the time being.

#2 Filling Out Your Profile & Signature

If you use forum marketing the right way, you’ll start to rack up profile and signature views. You need to ensure that both are filled out.

Profile

• Your name should be your business name.
• Include URL and social media links.
• Explain what your business does in a few sentences.
• Fill out a blog post every now and then, if that is one of the forum options.

Signature

• Make it to the point, using anchor text to shorten where possible.
• Make it stand out with bold/different coloured text.
• Link to an exclusive offer if possible, to catch the eye of forum users.

#3 The Introduction

Don’t just lurk around the forums; forum marketing is about getting involved. Most forums will have an “Introductions” section, which is designed for this very purpose. Don’t just say “Hi!”, give it a bit of thought. Explain why you are using the forum (networking with other business owners, give/receive advice and so on) and explain your business (no need to be spammy).

#4 Adding Value

This is where most people fail with forum marketing; they don’t add value. If you don’t think you can add any value to a post, don’t post. A lot of forum members will post, simply to get their links out there; fail!

You need people to notice you. If they notice your links, it builds trust, they will notice your links. After you have created a great, informative topic or insightful reply, you will see your profile count grow and your signature URL clicks follow. Establish yourself as someone that is there to improve the community, not to destroy it.

#5 Avoiding Spam

Although this has been mentioned, don’t get involved with posting for the sake of signature link clicks. Most likely, the clicks you are getting from the Admin, who is about to ban you. Of course, you can reply to some posts, to say thanks, or to agree, but don’t make a habit of posting unless you are involving yourself in the conversation in a value-added way.

On the spam note, do not employ any kind of service that offers to build profile links, signature links and the likes, without speaking to them first. Most likely, their “forum marketing” campaigns will consist of spamming forums, on your behalf. Worst of all, you’ll be paying for them to ruin your image. That said some SEO companies will build profile links and the likes in a natural and organic way.

#6 Building Up Feedback

Most business forums will have a feedback system. Like eBay, Amazon and similar sites, when you sell or buy, you can give/receive feedback. Don’t let an opportunity pass. If you get involved in a deal, ask for feedback and provide the same. It helps to establish your business as a reputable member of the forum. Better still, if someone is looking for services that you offer, they will come to you, over a new member with no reputation.

#7 Offer Something Spectacular

We wrote a post recently on Search Engine People – Freebie Marketing. You can see what we did there. Yes, it was a loss leader, but it worked. We got new contacts, feedback and a few long term clients from a simplistic offer that offered people value.

#8 Keep In Touch

Don’t log onto a forum, post an offer, and then stop posting just because you haven’t been successful. The key to successful forum marketing is to keep involved.

Regularly post, think up new offers, build up your feedback and reputation; become a forum marketing pro!

If you try and aim to post at least 2-3 times per week, this should start to build up your overall credibility.

Good luck!

 

 

Whether you like it or not, outsourcing is here to stay. If you are avoiding this as a corporate process, you are only hindering your long term business progress. It’s a cost effective form of delegation!

Whether you are looking to outsource affiliate marketing campaigns, payroll, web design, email list building, writing or recruitment, here is why it makes sense:

• You get the core skill set you need, without having to employ multiple members of staff.
• Reduce costs and financial commitments.
• Ability to increase capacity on demand.
• Pay-as-you-go!

Read our Dos & Don’ts guide, which will give you a few things to look out for.

Remember, there are hundreds of services that can be outsourced.  As an example, SEO outsourcing is huge at the moment. If you are looking to outsource marketing online, then SEO outsourcing could be the first place to look. However, if you are looking for outsourcing companies related to web design, writing or even recruitment, the same principles apply.

Do	Don’t
1. Monitor costs associated with outsourcing.	Assume that employing this as a business process leads to automatic efficiency.
2. Understand your business requirements from this process before paying for any services; make a list.	Be tempted to pay for services based on an impressive offer without analysing whether these services are really required.
3. Experiment with different service providers.	Stick with the first service provider you find, simply due to price.
4. Downsize certain departments.	Keep a physical operation (premises, staff and so on) at the same size if not necessary.
5. Compile a large list of potential outsourcing service providers and cross reference the offers.	Limit yourself to the first 2-3 providers you find on Google.
6. Negotiate on price and service features.	Assume that the package offered is the only package available.
7. Outsource tasks that your business employees are not completing in an efficient manner.	Outsource tasks if you or another employee has the required skill set to complete it.
8. Go through the necessary due diligence procedures to locate a reputable, experience and reasonably priced service provider.	Be under the illusion that all service providers have your best intentions at heart; they are simply trying to sell a service.
9. Test out the customer support team via online chat, email and phone; this is a sign of things to come.	Be impressed by an “award” they have won for customer service that might not even exist.
10. Find a service provider that will offer a cost effective solution.Remember, not every outsourcing process needs to be offshore.	Assume that cost effective means the cheapest. Often the cheapest things in life are cheap for a reason. In this case: lack of experience, customer service issues and communication barriers.
11. Always look for alternatives. These companies may get a larger and higher paying project in, at which point, you might be left behind.	Think that you will be their first priority as a loyal customer; business is business and not every company adopts the same principles.
12. Be too eager to scale up an operation if you are acting as a middle-man.	Take things slow and build up a relationship with your outsourcing company.

 

A quality service provider will be able to offer help and advice, making your business even more efficient than it ever is. If you are looking to outsource marketing processes, are they able to produce a better ROI than you currently are? If you are looking for an SEO outsourcing company, can they improve your rankings faster?

Whether you operate on a freelance or have office locations across the globe, this is a process that can help your business.

In this 7 step blogging tutorial, we are going to walk you through what helps to form a good blog post. Blogs are cheap to run and are great for everyone from the guy looking to earn money from home right through to large corporations.

If you are struggling to install WordPress or even generate ideas to content; read on!

Step 1 – Get a free blog!

The first step in this blogging tutorial is to get a business blog set-up on your domain. You might want to choose a separate domain, but if you want to contain SEO value, it is better to keep it on your current site

There are lots of free blogging platforms to choose from. Personally, we prefer WordPress. It is easy to use and there are 1,000s of great plug-ins available.

You have 2 options when it comes to installing WordPress on your domain…

1. Use this guide which has full details on how to install WordPress.
2. Use a Free WordPress Installation Service.

Step 2 – Installing Plug-ins

So you have figured how to install WordPress? Great! The next step is to make the most out of some of the best WP plug-ins available. There are thousands, so don’t get too overwhelmed. As you gain knowledge about blogging over time, you’ll figure out some extra plug-ins that are suited to your site.

Here is what we consider to be the top 5 WordPress plug-ins:

1. Contact Coldform – The easy way to make contact forms!
2. Shareaholic – Feel the power of social media!
3. Google XML Maps – Make sure Google can find your website content!
4. WordPress SEO by Yoast – Start ranking for your top keywords!
5. Akismet – Fight spam the easy way!

Step 3 – Choosing a Theme

There are a few options when it comes to choosing a theme. You can run inline with your current theme/web design, use free WordPress themes or purchase a premium theme from the likes of Monster Templates.

Step 4 Developing Content

A blog can be a great way to make consistent money online if you offer people the chance to view great content. The first part of how to write blog posts is thinking of snappy titles. You don’t have to spend hours going through the thesaurus and incorporate huge words. All you need to do is:

• Make sure it is to the point
• Ensure that the title is directly related to what is inside the content

Learning how to blog takes time. You need to read relevant blogs and see what sort of topics they are coming up with. The main things you should consider before even writing the post title are:

• Will this post have any relevance to the potential customers you are trying to attract?
• Will these people really be impressed what they have read and feel like they are going away with actionable VALUE?

Step 5 – Structuring Blog Posts

You don’t need to structure a blog post in the same way, although it will allow your blog to have some kind of unique feel to it. Blocks of text are NOT easy on the eye.

Here are some things that are easy on the eye for you to try out:

• Tutorials & How To Posts
• Numbered lists
• Bulleted lists
• Info graphics
• Top Tips
• FAQs
• Top Resources

Step 6 – Using Images

Following on from blog post structure, try and include images where possible. If you have a high quality camera, take a picture of something that is included in the post. If not, then you can search OpenClipArt instead.

Step 7 – Finding Great Resources

Even opinion based blog posts should link out to other resources. Don’t be afraid of linking out. It adds value to your content. We have a top 5 WordPress plug-in list within the content of this blog post and we have linked to all 5!