Outsourcing - split it up or find one person to do it all...?

Just take the first step and start hiring.

Learn as you go.

I use Odesk and at the moment I have 4 contractors all working for less than $2 - and they still call me "sir"!

I started with 1.

It's really easy to manage using Odesk.com

=]

Honestly, if you can afford it, it would probably be easier to have one person do all of this work for you. That way you don't have to worry about communication wires getting crossed or delays as you wait for each person's response.

Of course you would need to find someone reliable if you choose to do this because the flip side of using only one person is that, if that person flakes on you then you are kind of screwed.

Hint: I'm reliable

While it would likely be easier to have one person do it all, it would also be much much more expensive. To find someone so highly qualified, would mean a much larger price tag.

David,

I kind of agree with you. I would try and find someone from Odesk.com that is really qualified to make your websites. You can also find someone that is really qualified at writing articles. Although there is the argument that you should focus on one project at a time, I think it's kind of hard to find someone that is good at web programming/design AND writing content. Odesk offers pretty cheap employees so it's not too much of a gamble.

Hope that helps,
Piyush

David, that is a tough one to answer because outsourcing is NOT an easy decision and can be a headache if not handled correctly. Let me explain why.

1- You may find a person willing to do it all and it MIGHT save you money in the long run. YET, that does not guarantee that this person will be proficient enough in ALL of the areas you are seeking help in. Because of this you may end up having to do a lot of correcting, editing, and work yourself.
2- If you are looking to save money you are probably going to hire overseas and THAT entails a lot of risks. It will pretty much be trail and error. With web design I have used Indians, and other SouthEast Asians, but when it comes to content I do not budge and I ONLY hire US writers. I have had too much bad luck with foreigners who promise good English and when they deliver the articles or the content it leaves much to be desired. The downside to hiring an American writer, PRICE. So you have to be willing to pay for quality if that is what you are expecting.
3- One freelancer, if he/she makes their living out of IM, will probably have other clients and may not have the time to allocate to all of your sites. On the other hand, dealing with multiple designers, writers, etc can lead to confusion and problems if you are NOT organized.

So, I suggest you start out with a small project and test the waters before you venture out full blast. It will save you a lot of headaches and save you money in the long run. You want to try to avoid as much as you can, having to hire someone to fix the mistakes of others. And when you are talking about 71 domains, that is quite a hefty task.

Decide which of all the sites you bought you think will give you the most ROI once you launch, and start with that one or ones if it is more than one. Then move on to the rest. You may discover that the first freelancer does a phenomenal job and you can then make a deal for him/her to work on the rest of the sites.

Good Luck!

David, how you are planning on doing it is exactly how I would go about it as well. If you have never outsourced before, just be cautious. When you find the first guy, have him do just one or two so you can critique and adjust, and see if he is capable of doing all of them. Do the same with the person you hire for the content. Good luck!

Bill

Good luck with the outsourcing. It is something I have considered often, but never done for anything other than specialist stuff like logo creation.

I agree that you should split it. Setting up the sites and plugins is just donkey-work (No offense intended) and repetitive, but you need someone you can trust to do it well. It may even be worth paying a second person to check the results (a tester) if you dont have time to look at each one yourself.

As for the content, I would keep that seperate. Just get the first guy to set up a guest account with writer priveleges, which you can then give to the second guy to use. He doesnt need access to the admin console etc, just Create post priveleges.

Let us know what you decide and how you get on.

Go for 2+3 only.

Make one of the blogs how you want it, buy a wordpress cloner, clone the main site to all of the other 71. (Shouldn't take too long?)

Then find/hire the writers and teach them how to add the content. (Many of them probably already know. Just create a contributor account in wordpress for each of them. No risk)

- Preben

Honestly speaking, the three stages are fine for me, you just have to measure how long will be your hiring process will be to how you want the project to get started. Outsourcing isn't really easy at the start but I recommend you do look for referrals from friends for you to find the suitable staff or team for you to get the job done. That's the easiest way otherwise, look through virtual staff from the Philippines here: Best Jobs Philippines :: Philippine job search, job bank, employment and recruitment and I assure these people are great as well when it comes to quality service.

The best way to get this done is hire a team of web professionals who can take the complete project at one go for an affordable pricing.
Hiring a separate content writer would be a lot of shifting work plus extra money spend. Bulk orders are always the best to reduce your investment.

Lemme know if you're looking for a team of web-pros. I can get your work done for really cheap.

-Abhi

I would have to agree that oDesk is easy to manage. Start with the design first before the content. Definitely you'll find someone qualified who'd be able to come up with quality sites.