Yagua Piru

Nowadays financial issues seem to be a common problem, with everyone complaining about what difficult situations they’re in and how they have no money. Freelancers face the same problem as all other people. Projects are fewer, payments are very low and the request for work is enormous. To help freelancers in their search for work, here is a list of opportunities for everyone.

48hourslogo

Pros:

Even if a quality logo requires a lot of time and work (including research, sketches and drawing) here a logo can be ready in 48 hours (but a competition can last as long as 6 days). A customer writes some lines about his project and the freelancers submit a jpg picture of their work. At the end the customer selects the winner which gives him the original format of the logo.They take a flat commissioning of 29$ for each project, which is paid by the client. The designer is paid via PayPal.

Cons:

Too few projects, this website and the concept itself are good but need some ads and promo.

99designs

Pros:

In my opinion this website is the best. Here the process is like the one at 48hourslogo. There are a lot of projects, the filters are perfect and the prices are high. Here you can find some of the best designers in the world. Also the blog gives you a lot of resources. A few months ago they started a new concept: a freelancer posts his work, a customer likes it and buys it. The freelancer then customizes the project depending on the demands of client. Interesting right? If you are the winner, then depending on which way of payment you agree upon ,it is possible you will have no fees to pay or in the worst case no more than 25$.

Cons:

The website is only for designers, I believe that this platform will be the best once it has jobs for developers too. I hope that the team of 99designs will read this article.

Coroflot

Pros:

In my personal opinion a place that allows you as a freelancer to present a portfolio is better than one without this feature. I listed Coroflot because of this option, even if it is useful only for designers.

Cons:

Many projects are only for developers.Another con: in order to post a job here you have to pay a lot (265$) and freelancers are free to bid.

Elance

Pros:

Elance is one of the biggest freelancing job’s website and there are a lot of jobs for everyone..They restrict the number of bids, depending on the type of account. Here in order to be a provider/client you have to pass an exam (few question about how to pay or how to be paid, how litigations are resolved etc). The fee of Elance varies from 4-6% plus 2,75% for the payment processors.

Cons:

The number of bids is restricted, which is generally a negative point but for such an important site I believe that restricting the access of amateurs is a plus.

Freelancer

Pros

This is a huge place with a lot of jobs. This website presents a great advantage: the jobs are from various domains as: websites, IT, mobile phones, writing, content, design, engineering, science, sales, and business. All the jobs are very clearly categorized so it is very easy to browse and find out what tasks you want. The pay is good, depending on the complexity of each project.. Freelancers need to pay 10% or 5$ of the total funds received and gold members pay only 3%.The system for employers is very variable depending on their preferences.

Cons:

On the downside there is no blog or collection of articles to help you in your activity as a freelancer (tips &tricks).

Guru

Pros:

This website has two ways of navigation: one for employers where they list all the freelancers available (they have also some good filters to find the appropriate ones) and one for freelancers that also has a good layout of their projects and a helpful assortment of categories. There you can find jobs in all fields; soon a blog will help you in your freelancing career on Guru.Freelancers are charged 5% or 10% of the project value, depending on their membership level (basic 10%, guru members 5%).

Cons:

As I was navigating as an employer I saw this title “world’s smallest price”. I believe that as a freelancer that is offensive, they could as well write this ”we have a lot of losers, come on!”. I understand the importance of publicity but morality is a must not an option. For freelancers they posted an interesting title “Be one in a million, not one of millions”.

iFreelance

Pros:

Superb organization for employers and freelancers! With two or three clicks every job in your field is presented in great detail. As a personal opinion, the design of the website is very good. A very important advantage is that the offline contact is permitted, so a very long collaboration is encouraged.Surprise, everything is free!

Cons:

Freelancer and Guru take a small amount of money when you win a project, but to bid is free. iFreelance take a monthly charge for participation as a bidder.

LimeExchange

Pros:

There are interesting projects, many professional freelancers and trustful customers, tests to pass and show your skills. They also have a very interesting blog, full with very useful information. In the “pricing” you can find a very detailed explanation of how every member is charged depending on his/her membership plan (a very complex scheme).

Cons:

More projects would be welcomed.

oDesk

Pros:

It is one of the most famous marketplaces in the world. The jobs here are countless, the filters are very good so you’re instantly connected to the kind of jobs you’re looking for. They have a rich blog, which is an invaluable resource; they impress with their Help and Learning Center- it helps you a lot in the process of understanding how to successfully bid here. The video that explains this issue is very relevant.You will find that oDesk takes 10% of the total charge rate. (this is the only source of profit for they).

Cons:

The prices are somewhat low. (Of course, for employers that is a pro.)

Peopleperhour

Pros:

Here a freelancer with a standard account can bid only for ten projects so the amateurs that bid for everything but do nothing are scarce. A customer can post the job here for free so the projects are numerous. Here you can post a portfolio to show your skills.

Cons:

To be able to bid more than ten projects you must pay a monthly fee and the commissions are high even if you are a platinum member.

PureDesignResources

Pros:

This website presents a large array of jobs from a variety of websites. PureDesignResources impresses me because of the rich collection of trend&inspiration, tools&tutorials and articles&blogs. The jobs are from different sources so it is hard to describe them and their commissioning fees.

Cons:

They do not have their own database of jobs for freelancers, it is a compiler.

Rentacoder

Pros:

This website has a long history, I could say that RAC is a pioneer of freelancing. They do not support any ads, the projects are numerous and from various domains. Clients know that this is a home for good freelancers. Not a long time ago they adopted the model of oDesk and Elance regarding the possibilities of skill certification. Every provider can take a test to show his/her skills.

Cons:

The prices are too low, for a new YouTube project some bidders want 5$. This situation should be urgently resolved.The Rentacoder fees are slightly higher than those from other opponent sites (ranges from 6.5 to 15%).

Sitepoint

Pros:

It has the same feature as SmashingJobs, it is a part of the website Sitepoint. The jobs here are few but the articles, tutorials, tips&tricks are totally amazing. Also the books presented are great.

Cons:

The same remark as for SmashingJobs, they have too few jobs.

SmashingJobs

Pros:

SmashingJobs is a part of the well-known website SmashingMagazine. Here you can find some freelancing projects and also many full-time jobs. As a part of such an important online resource for designers and developers it is pointless to comment on the opportunities that can be found here. The prices are not shown, as they are agreed upon between client and provider. Also SmashingJobs has no profit from future contracts between freelancers and customers.

Cons:

SmashingJobs is perhaps not a market targeted at freelancers, but it has some jobs for them. Anyway if you can’t find jobs her, you can at least find very good resources, articles and tips.

Xemion

Pros:

You can catch a lot of breaks, there are many good jobs. They have jobs from various markets, it is a compiler. I honestly believe that it is impossible not to find a task that suits you.

Cons:

Xemion does not have its own market for freelancers, but that’s easily overlooked because of the great offer and the valuable resources.

In conclusion I want to mention that these are only a few of the places where you can find jobs. You can surely find more websites on the web. I believe that no matter the website, a good designer or developer will find enough tasks. Work and patience, this is the key to success!

1stwebdesigner

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Online marketing is complex, and it seems that the number of factors you need to consider to make sure you have the optimal strategy is only increasing. Therefore, it might be tempting to conclude that SEO, or more broadly, online marketing, is something that needs to be outsourced.

There is certainly a strong case to be made for hiring external expertise, but outsourcing your Social Media or your SEO strategy completely does have some disadvantages. On the other hand, bringing people in-house has some advantages, but requires in-house people to stay current with developments in the industry. Today’s column will investigate the pros and cons of each approach, and the case for doing a bit of both.

The outsourcing option

Whether outsourcing is best for you depends on your situation. Here are some of the pros and cons of taking this route:

Pros:

• Expertise. It can be easier (sometimes much easier) to find someone who has the expertise you need now.
• Leverage industry exposure. SEO consulting firms have visibility into many different projects across many different types of sites. This breadth of experience is very difficult to recreate in-house.
• Persuasive power of an external authority. In my last two columns I discussed how important it is to  sell management on the benefits of investing in SEO. Management may simply by more willing to believe the advice of a recognized industry authority over their in-house people. 

Cons:

• Lack of understanding of the internal company environment. Any external organization, no matter how skilled, is simply not going to understand your company as well as someone who lives and breathes your company culture every day.
• Less committed. SEO consulting firms are likely to have many clients. Losing one client is not desirable, but it is not a disaster either.

The in-house option

Here is a brief look at the pros and cons of hiring your own internal SEO talent:

Pros:

• Internal expertise. Consulting relationships are often designed to be temporary, and once a consultant is gone, so is a lot of the knowledge gained around a search marketing campaign. Of course, employee relationships come to an end too, but usually not as often, or as quickly, so the knowledge is retained by the organization for a longer period of time. If you have more than one internal SEO resources this risk is reduced even further.
• Better positioned to sell internally. Somewhat paradoxically, external authority can be helpful in selling the benefits of SEO, but an employee is in a better position to sell to many different stakeholders within an organization. There are many groups that are impacted by SEO, and they all need to be sold on the process.

Cons:

• Potentially more expensive. You can hire a consultant and engage only a portion of their time, but an employee generally requires full time work and benefits.
• Scarcity of top talent. You may need to train your in-house talent, because many of the top SEO consultants are making a lot of money, and bringing them in-house to work for you could cost you more than you might be willing to pay.
• Learning on the job. A corollary to the prior point is that to keep costs down you may need someone to learn the necessary skills on the job.

The argument for doing both

While there are compelling arguments for both outsourcing and hiring in-house talent, there are also some strong arguments for doing a bit of both. Given the challenges of staying current with developments in SEO and online marketing, consulting with a firm or individual who makes a living doing just that can be a big advantage. The consultant’s ability to work on different sites and with clients who have a wide range of needs can be a pretty compelling advantage.

On the other hand, hiring an in-house SEO position has advantages as well. As outlined above retaining knowledge and expertise, and the ability to sell across multiple departments in the company can be a huge benefit.

Of course, the needs of every organization are different, but SEO and online marketing are must-haves for your organization. For many, the best choice will be to decide on what expertise is essential to have in-house, and make a plan to build it or buy it. Then, supplement that with external expertise to make sure your in-house team can leverage all of the expertise of external SEO professionals.

Search Engine Land

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Let’s face it—we’re all looking for shortcuts to help manage our businesses and social media interactions more efficiently and effectively.  One of the best ways to make your social media activities run more smoothly is outsourcing—having someone manage certain tasks for you.

But when it comes right down to it, there are certain things that shouldn’t be outsourced, and there are really good reasons why “you” need to be a part of your social media strategy.

In fact, if you’re thinking of hiring someone to manage your social media accounts and handle your online networking, you may want to think again, because you might end up with exactly the opposite of what you’re

This article will look at social media tasks and what should and shouldn’t be outsourced, to see maximum results for your small business.

What Should You Outsource?

The short answer to this question is: You should outsource anything technical that doesn’t require your personality or involvement. Let’s look at some specifics:

Profile Setup:

Your profiles across social media platforms generally include the same standard details.  Your name, a short bio, web address and a standard-size photo. Provide your assistant with a short bio and a picture of you, and he or she can edit your image to the right size for each platform and set up your profiles pretty easily.

Twitter Background and Facebook Programming:

TwitterTwitter allows you to set up a background image on your profile (like the @marilyn_calvo or @stopdogbarking ). This background image is valuable real estate for branding and traffic generation.

Facebook allows you to set up custom programming in FBML on fan pages (Marilyn Calvo,DDS Fan Page), giving you the opportunity to share more about your business, express your branding, draw more traffic to your website and increase your subscriber list.

This is something you can easily outsource, and if you’ve got a solid team in place, it shouldn’t be too challenging for your designer and web developer to whip up something that expresses your branding, coordinates across your website and all of your social media profiles and captures leads.

Getting Listed:

There are several online Twitter directories where you’ll want to be listed to maximize visibility. On Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll want to find groups that align with your business interests and the interests of your target market. Your assistant should be able to find these groups and sites, know which ones make sense for you and set up your listings.

Automated Status Updates:

There are some status updates you want automated, and others you don’t. You definitely want your blog updates automatically submitted to social media sites. It just makes good sense to automate your blog RSS feed, so each time you add a post to your blog, it gets fed into your social media accounts.

As long as you’re providing valuable, authentic blog posts (versus salesy junk), broadcasting your blog will be seen as sharing interesting and useful content.

I’ve also had my assistant set up automated status updates and tweets for specific purposes. For example, during a product launch, we’ll schedule two or three automated posts at strategic times throughout the day to direct folks to the product site. We’ll include some other scheduled tweets with relevant, useful information that’s of interest to my followers.

But since this represents “broadcasting” (sending information into the Twittersphere and other social media without actually engaging), these automated tweets do not represent a substantial percentage of my overall tweets or status updates.

Automated Tasks:

Specifically related to Twitter, some third-party applications like TweetAdder and TweetSpinner allow me to research my target market, locate them on Twitter and automatically follow and unfollow various people.

Even though this is a relatively easy automated process, I don’t really want to let it run on its own, which means that I would normally have to check in now and again and tell the application to start and stop these processes. This is certainly something my assistant can handle.

So What Shouldn’t You Outsource?

There’s no big list here. The bottom line is that social media networking is about the conversation—so don’t outsource that!

The best way to build your social media networking strategy is to connect and engage. And you just can’t do that with by broadcasting an “I want to hire someone to do it all for me” mentality.

As Al Ferretti and Skeeter Hansen (of TwitterWatchdog.com and TweetFormula.com) (and similarly, Jason Falls in this interview) suggest, the benefit of Twitter (and likewise, of social media in general) is in the conversation, and if you simply broadcast without interacting, you’ll blend into the noise and lose followers when they get the feeling that you just don’t care about them.

Your followers and fans aren’t doing business with a computer or a feed, and you don’t want them to get the sense that you’re not really even there.

If you’re looking to economize your time, make your social media activities more efficient and see real results in the form of increased web traffic, brand visibility and lead generation, then automate everything but the part where you interact and engage with people.

It’s actually quite simple—automate the impersonal technical tasks, but spend 10-15 minutes two to three times throughout the day checking your Twitter and Facebook feeds, retweeting, sharing, replying to what people are putting out there and having conversations.

Share your followers and fans with other people and connect your followers to each other. Get involved and engaged, and get to know the people who are following you.  It’s all about the interactive experience, the conversation and engagement.

So when you look at your social media strategy, before you decide to hire someone to manage your social media accounts for you, remember that people do business with people they know, like and trust.

What are your experiences with outsourcing and automating social media? Have you tried having your tweets and status updates outsourced? What was the result?

Social Media Examiner

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