Looking for outsourcing solutions (beyond the b/s/t section here). Anyone use oDesk? Experiences? Any other good places to find quality people to outsource functions to (content, link building, design, php etc)?
oDesk
- Thread starter nvanprooyen
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I tried to be all american, you know. help out my fellow americans. found the foreigners to be thankful for a job at a affordable rate.
i would use odesk again. just look at people reviews, interview and don't pay upfront.
i used odesk for article writing, and some data entry work. was burned once. it was only a few bucks, still the principle
i would use odesk again. just look at people reviews, interview and don't pay upfront.
i used odesk for article writing, and some data entry work. was burned once. it was only a few bucks, still the principle
Odesk is horseshit to be honest. At the point where you bypass the cheapo fucktards, it's just as expensive to hire someone off of rentacoder.com, getafreelancer.com, or off of craigslist.
I've hired 30+ people in the past year off of odesk, and unless it's stupid simple shit, even if you have an INSANE documentation tutorial/video, they still do horseshit work.
I've hired 30+ people in the past year off of odesk, and unless it's stupid simple shit, even if you have an INSANE documentation tutorial/video, they still do horseshit work.
I found an outsourcer there that has become my personal assistant and basically does any job that I send to him for less than $200.00 a month so that I can keep building my business, explore new opps, finish up old projects, and more.
BANGO!! Odesk, if you have the patience to interview people can really be a great asset.
BANGO!! Odesk, if you have the patience to interview people can really be a great asset.
I've never had a good experience with Odesk. A lot of the top companies on there appear to manipulate their ratings by creating new employees with no ratings, then if that particular employee gets a couple good ratings they keep them on to make the company itself look good. However, if the employee gets a bad rating, they simply remove that persons account from the company and create them a new one. (at least that's what I believe they're doing because I've had some really shit workers before from companies that were supposed to be the "best" on ODesk)
From my experiences staff leasing (depending on if you need a full-time guy) has been the way to go. Most staffing companies charge roughly $500-$600 on top of the employee's actual cost which takes care of everything such as management, a place to work, HR, a workstation, legal compliance and taxes. It seems semi-pricy especially if you're hiring a content writer, but for a developer or designer for a small business it's been the way to go. Again you could always save about $600 if you hire someone yourself and have them work remotely from home but then you have to deal with all the headaches.
Here's some staffing companies I have some experience with.
Philippines
RemoteStaff (www.remotestaff.com.au) - This company is an Australian company who hires Filipino staff that's been pretty solid for us, although we currently only have 1 employee through them. Most of their employees work from home and you can monitor their work progress much like ODesk. However, their overhead seems a bit steep for people working from home, so we're about to continue our hiring through another company (see below)
MicroSourcing (www.microsourcing.com) - I just recently visited this company's offices in Manila, Philippines. I met with the owner Philip (Dutch Filipino), and this is a way solid staff leasing company. The office was huge, 2 cafes, everyone was working off new computers and what looked to be 24-26 inch LCDs. Plus if you ever visit the actual office it's in a very nice techpark which you'd never have to leave if you're scared of venturing outside the "bubble". I'm intending to hire all our future staff through this company. They charge a flat fee on top of the employee they hire for you. So it's all transparent. The employee works in their office, and when I was there, I think I saw 10 people or so in the lobby waiting to be interviewed. Again I haven't actually hired anyone with them yet, but from what I saw, I'm sold
Offshoring.com - This company is overpriced, stay away! They may be good, but $2200 for an intermediate PHP developer in the Philippines is absolutely absurd. At least the last I checked them out. You're paying for their conference appearances IMO. Screw that.
India
IndusNet Technologies (www.talash.net) - I visited this company's office in India. For India itself their office was nice but from what I remember everyone was still working on CRTs and the business model is screwed up. They assign developers to you rather than hiring for your needs. The graphic designer I got from them was pretty solid, but the developer and the content writer were terrible and WAY overpriced.
Last piece of advice, a Filipino content writer should run in the Philippines roughly $300-$500 per month plus any overhead costs. So hiring content writers through staff leasing may not make sense for you because you'd be paying more in overhead costs than the actual employee. However, for developers and graphic designers, staff leasing is the only way I'd recommend to go, because the hiring they do for you is going to get you the best bang for your buck.
From my experiences staff leasing (depending on if you need a full-time guy) has been the way to go. Most staffing companies charge roughly $500-$600 on top of the employee's actual cost which takes care of everything such as management, a place to work, HR, a workstation, legal compliance and taxes. It seems semi-pricy especially if you're hiring a content writer, but for a developer or designer for a small business it's been the way to go. Again you could always save about $600 if you hire someone yourself and have them work remotely from home but then you have to deal with all the headaches.
Here's some staffing companies I have some experience with.
Philippines
RemoteStaff (www.remotestaff.com.au) - This company is an Australian company who hires Filipino staff that's been pretty solid for us, although we currently only have 1 employee through them. Most of their employees work from home and you can monitor their work progress much like ODesk. However, their overhead seems a bit steep for people working from home, so we're about to continue our hiring through another company (see below)
MicroSourcing (www.microsourcing.com) - I just recently visited this company's offices in Manila, Philippines. I met with the owner Philip (Dutch Filipino), and this is a way solid staff leasing company. The office was huge, 2 cafes, everyone was working off new computers and what looked to be 24-26 inch LCDs. Plus if you ever visit the actual office it's in a very nice techpark which you'd never have to leave if you're scared of venturing outside the "bubble". I'm intending to hire all our future staff through this company. They charge a flat fee on top of the employee they hire for you. So it's all transparent. The employee works in their office, and when I was there, I think I saw 10 people or so in the lobby waiting to be interviewed. Again I haven't actually hired anyone with them yet, but from what I saw, I'm sold
Offshoring.com - This company is overpriced, stay away! They may be good, but $2200 for an intermediate PHP developer in the Philippines is absolutely absurd. At least the last I checked them out. You're paying for their conference appearances IMO. Screw that.
India
IndusNet Technologies (www.talash.net) - I visited this company's office in India. For India itself their office was nice but from what I remember everyone was still working on CRTs and the business model is screwed up. They assign developers to you rather than hiring for your needs. The graphic designer I got from them was pretty solid, but the developer and the content writer were terrible and WAY overpriced.
Last piece of advice, a Filipino content writer should run in the Philippines roughly $300-$500 per month plus any overhead costs. So hiring content writers through staff leasing may not make sense for you because you'd be paying more in overhead costs than the actual employee. However, for developers and graphic designers, staff leasing is the only way I'd recommend to go, because the hiring they do for you is going to get you the best bang for your buck.
I've had great experiences with Odesk, but I never went for outsourcing companies, just individuals. It really makes you see how fucked the American economy is... Many of the Filipinos on Odesk are willing to work hard and go the extra mile for $3 an hour, and many of them are better than Americans who won't work for anything less than $10 an hour.
We currently have a team of 4 working part time through Odesk(content rewriting, design, coding), and I have no complaints. I really like that you get screenshots of what they're doing every 10 minutes.
You just have to be proactive and interview/vet outsourcers just like you would a regular employee and you'll be fine.
We currently have a team of 4 working part time through Odesk(content rewriting, design, coding), and I have no complaints. I really like that you get screenshots of what they're doing every 10 minutes.
You just have to be proactive and interview/vet outsourcers just like you would a regular employee and you'll be fine.
I've only hired a handful of individuals through Odesk and so far it has been good. Just carefully look at the credentials and don't go for the lowest price.
It's a bitch to navigate around that site sometimes though, I don't know why but I find it confusing. Is it just me? I go in circles sometimes when I try to do something on there, makes me feel like a retard.
It's a bitch to navigate around that site sometimes though, I don't know why but I find it confusing. Is it just me? I go in circles sometimes when I try to do something on there, makes me feel like a retard.
Odesk's interface sucks.
The ability to see what people are doing while they're billing hours is awesome. I have caught many employees doing things wrong - not necessarily yanking it to porn while supposedly working for me, but actually doing the job wrong.
I usually hire Americans, however. For me, the trouble involved in working with non-native English speakers is too annoying.
The ability to see what people are doing while they're billing hours is awesome. I have caught many employees doing things wrong - not necessarily yanking it to porn while supposedly working for me, but actually doing the job wrong.
I usually hire Americans, however. For me, the trouble involved in working with non-native English speakers is too annoying.
Hated Odesk when I tried it, all project responses became a 'who can copy/paste the longest prewritten garbage sales letter' contest even when I specifically said any of those would get insta-deleted.
Elance however, found some really solid workers on there.
Elance however, found some really solid workers on there.
What's the WickedFire - Odesk connection?
I was surprised to see the WF logo in an Odesk pomotion email today:
"Featured Affiliate Resource:
WickedFire.com
WickedFire.com is one of the most popular forums where affiliate marketers can network and share ideas.
Click the logo below to check it out!"
I was surprised to see the WF logo in an Odesk pomotion email today:
"Featured Affiliate Resource:
WickedFire.com
WickedFire.com is one of the most popular forums where affiliate marketers can network and share ideas.
Click the logo below to check it out!"
Hmm, not sure.
I didn't get anything from them today. Can you fwd the email to me?
Brandon
I didn't get anything from them today. Can you fwd the email to me?
Brandon
ODesk is awesome... I don't know what you guys are crying about but I have hired some of the most talented programmers I have ever encountered through there.
here's what you can expect:
- Extremely professional outsourced workers
- Very talented coders
- Cheap rates (hourly or fixed price)
- ODesk screen captures hourly projects so you know you are getting what you pay for
- Talent in every programming field
tips:
- Create a lengthy document that explains the project in it's entirety with VERY detailed explanations of every function of your project
- Hire people with 4/5 English score or higher
- Hire people with 100 hours or more
- Hire people who generally sound like they know what they are talkinga bout right off the bat.. if they "have to look into it" then ignore them
- Interview every person who looks promising and chat with them on Skype to clarify details
ODesk is outsourcing at its finest - my business has grown tremendously through outsourcing most of my projects through sites like ODesk and the foreign barrier is not much of a hassle at all.. these are freelancers who know what they are doing, have a lot of experience, and deliver on time.
seriously - if you have a beef with ODesk you are just DOING IT WRONG.
here's what you can expect:
- Extremely professional outsourced workers
- Very talented coders
- Cheap rates (hourly or fixed price)
- ODesk screen captures hourly projects so you know you are getting what you pay for
- Talent in every programming field
tips:
- Create a lengthy document that explains the project in it's entirety with VERY detailed explanations of every function of your project
- Hire people with 4/5 English score or higher
- Hire people with 100 hours or more
- Hire people who generally sound like they know what they are talkinga bout right off the bat.. if they "have to look into it" then ignore them
- Interview every person who looks promising and chat with them on Skype to clarify details
ODesk is outsourcing at its finest - my business has grown tremendously through outsourcing most of my projects through sites like ODesk and the foreign barrier is not much of a hassle at all.. these are freelancers who know what they are doing, have a lot of experience, and deliver on time.
seriously - if you have a beef with ODesk you are just DOING IT WRONG.
I've had good mostly good experiences with Odesk, but as some other people have mentioned I stay away from the "Companies" and only hire individuals.
I might have got lucky with my first hire there, found a filipino girl who has been rock solid and works as my VA now. Had a couple of bad hires, but they very quickly reveal themselves to have no idea, so you just get rid of them and move on.
I might have got lucky with my first hire there, found a filipino girl who has been rock solid and works as my VA now. Had a couple of bad hires, but they very quickly reveal themselves to have no idea, so you just get rid of them and move on.