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I know there are those who have had bad experiences with outsourcing. I’ve read horror stories in blogs and forums and I completely empathize with the narrators. Few people understand better than I do what a let down it is to go into a relationship with such high hopes only to be left feeling disappointed.

There are two things I feel it is important to remember when considering negative experience posts about outsourcing.

#1. Experience is what you get when you are expecting something else.

#2. It takes at least two people to make a deal go bad.

For the purposes of this blog, when it comes to discussion of the economy, I don’t see the issue of a recession as being the challenge for the seo community. I see the biggest issue the industry faces, (and the best argument for outsourcing), is the fact that the industry is an increasingly more difficult and more competitive environment of which to attempt to maintain profit margins in.

It is taking more and more time, effort and resources almost daily to satisfy marketing objectives in this every expanding tech world. Each aspect of electronic  marketing takes a pretty hefty investment of educational capital. So when you consider having to be proficient in on site optimization, then off site, then analytics, then writing good copy, social media marketing, branding, conversions, PPC, pod casts, videos, mobile apps, etc. etc. etc. AND, online marketing is just now starting to come of age. It ain’t gonna get any easier kids.

There is real money online and that brings real companies with real assets who don’t give a damn that you are just a 5 man company. They see your market share as theirs and they kind of have a point.

So, you are left facing an ever dwindling list of choices.

Specialize on just one or two aspects and become an expert at those.

 I believe this is the best option for most small SME's. Especially those not comfortable with the concept of outsourcing or expanding their labor force in-house.

Allocate more of your time to read, study and learn to become good enough at more areas of online marketing to expand your offerings.

The problem here is you have to keep spending the time you are spending now to maintain the level of profits you have PLUS spend more time on education. Doesn’t leave a lot of time for enjoying the fruits of your labors.  Puts a new spin on the old adage, "you can't take it with you".  Spending all your time working AND going to cyber school begs the question to be re-phrased to "why have it in the first place if you don't have time to spend it ?"

Recruit, hire, train, supply and manage new employees.  

The problem here is not in the hourly wage or salary with benefits. The problem here is the expense in time and capital. You have a sizeable investment for each aspect of this process and you have to cover the risk for quite some time before you can expect a reasonable return. Then if they have to be let go, they quit or they get stolen by a competitor with deeper pockets, you lose!

There is no question that outsourcing can be a good solution to two of those problems that could limit growth. So, if you are considering outsourcing as an option, let me offer the benefit of my experience in the form of a couple of tips.

It’s not about the cost, it is about the quality.

There is nothing in this world that another can not produce cheaper with less quality. Those who consider price alone are this man’s legal prey.

There are a lot of smart people in India working at running outsourcing and BPO companies. Smart you want. You want someone who has the resources to recruit, hire, train and most importantly, MONITOR FOR QUALITY CONTROL.

No matter what you pay, if the quality is not there your profits will suffer. Value is the only commodity that will maintain profits. Quality is value whereas cheap is not. This is why I have never had any sympathy for those who buy 1000 links for $39 and then complain they got screwed.

Know What You Want.

If you could not hire a new person and provide a detailed job description, then you are likely going to be disappointed in your outsourcing company. They can not read your mind and can only provide what they understand you want.

In spite of popular misconception, India is not a country full of people who set up companies just to rip you off. The vast majority of outsourcing, BPO and KPO, (knowledge process outsourcing), are hard-working, honest businessmen who want nothing more than to provide you with the kind of service that keeps your business coming to them. They WANT to do a good job and will as long as you define what that job is.

Communication and Patience is the Key

If you can write a job description that a new hire could effectively execute, then you can find an outsourcing company that will do the same. The trick is in being able to communicate exactly what it is you want and if you are not getting what you want then accept that not only have THEY failed to provide what you were looking for, but also YOU failed to effectively communicate what you were wanting.

There are a lot of very well educated people in India and educated people speak and write English. However it is still a second language to them and there is also the issue of accents and culture. BUT in my experience it is not that different than hiring people in America.

I have had a lot of difficulties over the years with getting poor performance out of employees and blaming myself for not being clear as to what I had expected of them. That is certainly a problem because I always seem to have 15 things on my mind at any given time.

But I don’t have nearly as much of a problem with performance from employees here yet I explain myself in pretty much the same way as I always have. What is the difference?

Then difference is that even though English is a second language, they listen because they WANT to understand and perform above my expectations. That is a part of the culture here. Doing a good job is an honor and to do poorly reflects badly not only on you but on your family as well.

In India, the majority of people who have a college degree got that degree through the sacrifices made by their parents and family. Often those sacrifices can be extreme. To earn a degree and then perform poorly is a kind of slap in the face to all the people who worked very hard to give you the opportunity in the first place.

Of course there are exception and people are people all over the world. But the point is simply that if you know what you want and can communicate that honestly and clearly you can expect to get quality results.

There are a LOT of good reasons that most of the largest corporations on the planet use outsourcing to grow their business, and so can you by using outsourcing as a way to keep up with the ever changing face of online marketing.

SME's are now in a position to capitalize on the same things the big boys have been getting for a long time now. And that thing is not just cost savings. It is quality that can only be gained by recruiting, training and managing smart people who can produce superior results.

Peace Y’all

G

It seems we’re all so busy trying to give our kids all the things we DIDN’T have that we forget to give them the things we did.

A few months back I had a lapse of almost a month between posts. I was chastised severely by thousands of avid Guru readers, (ok, ok 4 avid guru readers), and knew that I was not accepting that launching a blog and expecting to build a following comes with a responsibility beyond just posting whenever you feel like it.

Ok I accept. I've taken up valuable time from busy people by insinuating there would be fresh content to learn from or at least engage with, on some kind of regular basis and now I have a responsibility to deliver.

When I had that month long lapse and finally returned, I made some lame excuse about being busy and not having time and the blog not being a source of income and my dog ate my homework and my grandmother got sick and I had a flat and -----------

Nothing more than excuses. Later after some reflection and with the taste of foot still lingering in my mouth, I realized that we're all busy. It's a busy world and if I expect people to give me some of their time I better be willing to give them some of mine as well.

So I started thinking about how to arrange my schedule so I could devote more time to blogging while still providing some unique, informational, educational and entertaining,(or at least a way to kill time while looking busy), value to the reader.

Of course desire holds no sway over time and time is the enemy in this instance because while I accept my responsibility to my readers there is no denying that still my first duty lies with paying clients. I have taken their time AND money so what’s s stressed SEO to do?

I have resources. 11 years of promoting websites for profit has afforded me some value assets that I can bring to bear when the need arises. In fact I have one of those assets that most SEO’s would cut off another’s’ right arm for. A very smart, well educated, holding a degree in journalism content developer. A good friend, a long term employee and a man who can put out 1000 words of optimized, well researched, quality content in an hour. His name is Jake Lowery.

Meet Jake Lowery

Jake is a news hound. He has more rss feeds than Google has zeros. He is a man of wide and varied interests and knowledgeable in a LOT of areas including online marketing and SEO. So it dawned on me he would be very useful to me if I asked him to browse through the plethora of SEO/Marketing articles produced every day and send me the ones that he felt would be of the most interest to the seo community at large in the form of a question. He’ll feed me the meat of an  article and formulate it into a question asking my opinion.

I will still write my weekly articles as I always have but now I will have an additional offering to my blog with a more direct editorial flair as well. If you have a question you are still free to send them to me massa@techndu.com and if I choose yours I will post it, (complete with links to you), along with my "editorial" answer.

Questions for the week of 4-11-08

1. Jim Boykin says he has been asked to speak at a conference on Buying Websites for SEO. http://www.jimboykin.com/buying-websites-seo/

He says he’s not sure if he wants to talk about the subject in public, although he has posted on it before.http://www.jimboykin.com/screw-the-sandbox-buy-and-old-site/ 

Guru, you have never been shy about sharing your secrets, so I’d like to know if you think it is wiser, and faster, to buy an old site with lots of back links, or to work on a new site and build you own links.

Guru: Jim has been doing this stuff a long time and  knows more about search engines and the tools that help dominate the results of those engines than just about anybody. Jim is also a world class SEO and knows how to take a site with existing links pointing to existing content and still convert the traffic that would generate to a new topic, service or product that may or may not be totally, closely or not at all related to the old content.

In my opinion, if you are not confident of your own skills to do relatively the same thing, then I believe you are wasting your time and a valuable resource to someone who does know. I believe that placement without conversion it the epitome of futility. To get a top placement just for the sake of generating non-converting traffic is a complete waste of time and money. To do it with old domains that you purchase for the placement benefit without knowing how to convert, you just made less than no money. Now you also wasted the money you spent on the domain. If you are one of those people, ---- call me. I’ve got some great old domains I’d let go pretty cheap.

Jim hesitates to discuss it publicly because he knows that when he does, far too many people who don’t know what they are doing and are simply looking for a quick buck, (which this is not by the way), will be competing with him for the domains that he could have monetized. He is not actually referring to those who do know what they are doing because most of them are his friends and peers and he knows that they will feel much like he does and pretty much keep their mouth shut and make their money.

He also knows that when a technique is found that does offer an advantage to the technically capable, it does not pose a great threat to Google as long as it appears relevant and they have little motivation to be overly concerned. Meaning that there is a technique that may be available for a long time. He also knows that as long as the ignoratti doesn’t start posting on every SEO forum and blog, (making it appear that Google is not in control of their results), there would be plenty of resources out there for him and all the SEO’s that understand how to use it to go around. He also knows that when it becomes a public relations thorn in the side of Google, you can bet that technique is not long for this world. 

Next  Question

3. I received an email advertising a service offering a talking avatar as a way to increase sales from your site. Do gimmicks like this really work? http://www.sitepal.com/

Those things seem soo real don’t they? So warm, so caring. NOT!

Would you buy something from a cartoon?

The only benefit they have in my opinion is if they can add some entertainment value to the site. But even then I think a handy widget would still produce more sales. If anything, they distract from your message.

If you do feel they add some intrinsic value to your site and you want to use them, I recommend at least staying focused on a benefit and NOT a feature.

Have the little cartoon say things THEY want to hear.

It’ll make you skinny

It’ll make your hair grow

It’ll make your momma love you

It’ll make your friends jealous

No one will be able to tell how small your --------

Well, you get the idea.

A perfect illustration of my point is a success story I found at the sitepal site itself. It took me to a carpet cleaning site in New York. When you click the scarry little womans head she starts telling you how long they been in business, what tools they use, how cute they are and how they enjoy long walks on the beach, (I don't know what she said actually. It didn't interest me enough to keep listening.)

I think it would be more effective if the little head said things like

We'll make your house quit stinking

Don't get crap on your fingers, let us pick up the poop

See for yourself if you think they increase sales http://carpet-cleaning-ny-nj.com/ Then come back and tell me if you stayed awake through the entire cartoon.

Peace Y’all

G

How the hell did you get a bean stuck up your nose in the first place dammit!

I've mentioned before how I find it strange that I get more questions by email than by comments on the Ask the SEO Guru blog but at the end of the day, I'm just glad to be getting asked anything by anybody from anywhere.

I recommend that you never be afraid to ask anything from anyone if you're sincere. Most people are flattered that you respect them enough to ask their advice or opinion and if you've read anything from the Guru's blog you already know how I feel about flattery.

When asking for something you want from someone else, always appeal to their own self-interest and never to their mercy or gratitude.

Well, today I got an email from someone who was sincere and the Guru was flattered that he had a question he thought I could help with. After replying and answering his question it occured to me that there are probably a lot of other people who may have the same type of question. And it is the kind of question that you would have a difficult time finding answers for in a search so I think it's important that someone post this kind of info.

It doesn't have to be very good to be the best when  you're the only one. THAT is the secret behind the value proposition of unique content.

So today I'm going to post the email exchange in the hopes that it helps more than just the person asking me specifically. I'll remove names to protect the guilty. The Guru's responses are in bold.

{note: The reference to The Google Story comes from this blog post http://massa.techndu.com/2008/03/17/TheGoogleStory.aspx}

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I've enjoyed reading The Google Story - it was a real good recommendation. Are there others that you would recommend that might help to understand the industry and help me to get better at this stuff?

The Cluetrain Manifesto --- by 4 guys I don't remember their names right now
Don't Make Me Think -- by Steve Krug
The Purple Cow ---- by Seth godin
The Tipping Point ---- by Malcolm Gladwell
The Long Tail --by Chris Anderson
Marketing Warfare by Jack Trout and Al Ries

Also Guru, I was wondering if you had any recommendations with regard to how to start a SEO business... I've considered starting a big PPC push with little campaign on AdCenter, Yahoo, and AdWords to try to get a few leads and hopefully develop a couple decent sized PPC clients - I figure if I can get a couple good PPC clients then in time I can upsell them to SEO services. Hell, maybe I should be trying to sell them SEO first... I dunno. I sure know that if I can get a couple of decent clients then it could mean some more work for you guys too.

I can tell you how I did it in 5 easy steps! (except for the RSS stuff. they didn't have that stuff when I started out. in fact when I started out we had to walk to the library to use a computer and it was uphill all the way. BOTH WAYS!)