Outsourcing - What Country has the Cheapest Labor?

hmmm...labour for what (if you don't mind saying). This one might need to be questioned ethically...

I know for sure that 1US$ in Vietnam, is somewhere around 17,800.00 VND. and if you got a 100US$ instantly you become a millionare. :-)

If you want to outsource writing to someone in a third world country, good luck with that. My only advice is that you get what you pay for. Cheap price, cheap quality.

I have been outsourcing from Bangladesh with great success. The standard of living (=prices) are cheaper there than India or Pakistan.

not to sure on the country...but Scriptlance has some great deals as to what I have seen.

I would recommened Bangladesh
They are good and cheap also

I would say India has the least expensive going rates, but buyer beware.

I'd support what primeoutsourcing said. Not that I have done it yet myself, but I am learning heaps about IM and Philippines has been repeatedly mentioned as the best place for outsourcing - their level of education is very high and English skills are great.

indonesia is pretty cheap over at elance but everyone there hikes everything up outragously I paid over 200 for 15 500 word post on adsense just last week then the week prior I had to pay another 1200 for a new site of mine since I look at it this way why do the work myself when i can pay someone to build it for me with out the hassles

I just read a post on here about outsourcing to New Zealand: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-students.html

Do you mean what is the buying power of a U.S. dollar in other countries? If so, that's a bloody hard question to answer, as it depends on so many factors.

If you're looking to pay someone outside the U.S. to do IM-type activities for you, it would be an easier question to answer if you mentioned what country they are in?

In much of Europe, a dollar will buy you less than it would even in the U.S. but in, say, Sub-Saharan Africa, it might buy you an amount of goods or services that might cost $10 or $20 or even more in the U.S.

The best answer is: it depends.

Tommy.

Well I guess Philippines is one of the best and cheapest place to outsource

I definitely agree that the Philippines is probably your best bet. Try searching for people to actually work for you instead of just hiring them from elance or RAC.

Look on actual Philippines job boards.

Hope this helps

My copywriter is from Philippines. I must admit her english is excellent. Far better than mine. Ironic isn't it? LOL.

Hi everyone,

I think the question to ask is what is the best value of labour for your money?

Cause as people have pointed out, there are going to be cheap labour throughout the world, India, China, Philippines and so forth.

In my personal experience I've personally been only hiring from the Philippines and it's because yes their labour is cheaper in comparison to 1st world countries, but their ethics, loyalty and their English, especially is of high value. Which means that the work is done properly and on time.

I've been able to hire full-time staff for $250 per month as well and they do an exceptional job. Though I know you can hire people for less from India, but from personal experience, the work has not been of the same standard.

In saying this, I recommend seeking people in the Philippines and finding people with good English verbal and written skills. With this you should get good value out of your money and in return great work completed.

I think Philippenes

I think Philippenes has least.

I think India is a good place to outsource your work. I don't know whether it is the cheapest place around but you can get most of your work done for a cheaper price. But be cautious when you dealing.....

India is a good country to outsource some departments to ... but I don't think this discussion can be held ethically, really. Cheapest labor for US Dollar? How about a sweatshop in Taiwan? I know NIKE likes these kinds of practices.

On a site called freelancer.com there are people offering $1-$2 per 500 word article which seems very cheap. I am not sure what the quality is like though.

yeah, Philippines is one.

Well we are educated and can do things pretty good if instructed very well.

I don't know if I'd be looking for the cheapest necessarily (you'll see offers for under $1 an hour from places like Pakistan) but the quality/price is what is important to me. For that, it's hard to beat the Philippines in my experience.

I have to agree with Alexa, it is a matter of rhetoric and interpretation. Cheap to us in the US may not be cheap to others, with regards to cost of life, etc. And does not necessarily mean cheap quality.

It also depends very much on WHAT you are outsourcing, and what your particular needs are. I have to also say that is a matter of trial and error. I have hired quite a few different programmers, and SEO people from India, and Southern Asian countries and the quality has VARIED dramatically. I have had GREAT quality as well as terrible work which I have had to pay even more money to have someone else fix it. I have hired a lot of my freelancers through scriptlance and getafreelancer and I have to say that although I continue to use programmers from India, when it comes to my writing, I stick to native English speakers and writers, even if it entails having to spend $15 or more on an article.

The two are TOTALLY different! HECK, a dollar has ALWAYS bought a dollar in the US. EVEN after inflation, a dollar would have bought FAR more labor in the 60s! JAPANs currency has always been FAR less than the dollar. A yen is besically like our PENNY, and worth about the same. Apparently they get paid VERY well though, and prices are just that much higher.

You can buy 18,994.9 vietnamese dongs for a dollar though. I don't know if that is the lowest, but it is LOW! I hear they DO have low labor costs also.

Steve

I can recommend VMG BPO they are fast, relable and cheap and have foreigners working there so the english skills are no problem. Very good payment thru paypal etc...

I have no connection with them but they are helping me Oilman.

You can find cheap labor in almost any country. Keep in mind that as people develop they become worth more, so if they are cheap, that usually mean they are not all that well developed in their business yet. If they are good, eventually they will charge more.

Philippines and India was good for freelancer,..its worthed price for their job..

The answer to the first part of that question is going to vary from minute to minute. Check any forex site or Yahoo finance to see how much any currency pair can fluctuate on any given day.

I notice you mentioned "cheap labour", and not "the best value". Two entirely different things. As others have pointed out, ya gets what ya pays for.

My experience is that the cheapest deals require more time, effort and yes, money to make things right than it would've taken to do it properly in the first place.

Philippines is said to have quality workers who are not only good with their English but have high work ethics also.

I am from India and I do recommend India for a balance of quality and price. I have tried a few countries and I outsource many of the works to my own country. Some jobs like logo design etc. I outsource to USA.

In the big picture, internet is like a single country... just see the price and quality and do what suits you. It does not matter whether the person working for you is in North Pole or New York.

I tried that link to that job center in New Zealand and gotr refused as your not allowed to hire per job and only $12.50 minimum per hour!

Also no out of country.... but still sounds like a good country to outsource too in order to get a english speaking worker.

Anyone got any other sites similar?

Mark Blaze

For outsourcing writing, web design, virtual assistance, and customer service, Philippines would be your best bet. They've got highly talented people there for pennies on a dollar.

Ethical? Yes, cause it's a win-win situation. You make money, and they get paid.

There are cheaper outsourcing companies than Philippines but you won't get the quality you are expecting.

I have 2 full time guys in India. And i pay them much more than you would expect, plus the top guy gets a % of profits. I always like to have both a minimum salary and a incentive for them to do better.

Those 2 do a great job, but i never had much luck hiring part time programmers from India through Scirptlance and i have dozens of completed projects there. My best value in programmers came from Canada and Russia. Right now i have a part time programmer in Indonesia that is both good and very affordable.

I have expansion plans and yesterday offered 2 more guys and one girl in India, jobs. I also found a guy in Philippines that i am talking to and hope to hire him full time too.

I live in the USA and i was grown before i seen a person of hispanic decent in my area, and now some small towns have over half the kids as Mexicans. And as a group, they are the nicest, hardest working people i know. Of course for our purposes we need them to speak English and many don't, but i bet they are a good place to look too.

In the future i plan to check out Bangladesh as someone here recommended and focus on India and Philippines. Some of those Central American countries should be good too.

And lastly, it depends on if the person already has skills and can step right in and start making you money, or if they have to learn things and it's going to be a speculative play if the ever earn a roi.

Peace

I have to recommend Eastern Europe. Their English is good and they provide good results. It really depends on what type of work are you offering and what do you consider as cheap. Average salary in Croatia (if payed by hour) is 4USD per hour and they will consider it great for a home job as very few people are familiar with working online.

'Money' is more than what you pay upfront.

It's about having reliability, quality and consistency with your worker.

That's not an easy thing to find in any country to be honest.

Pro-active, forward thinking people are few and rare, and you can find highly qualified English speaking workers from both South East Asian Countries + Eastern European ones.

Just remember that outsourcing is the equivalent of multiply your success or failure ... so unless your making money online don't do it regardless of what the Guru's said.

Writing - Philippines
Coding - India

Reason
Philippines has an Excellent English language compared to other non-English speaking countries. Not too many software engineers though.

India has massive programmers due to technology advancement and population but I doubt their English skills. They are good in coding and design though.

So it depends on what you need.

Right now, I have 8 full time writers (4 Filipinos, 2 Americans, and 2 Romanians) and a Filipino VA who do the linkbuilding. I'm planning to have another full time VA this week.

I don't get it....

i would say the asian countries...such as pakistan, india etc...

but you dont know what kind of people you are dealing it so pay attention!

Well this is all interesting, I have been using someone in Thailand but it sounds like the Philippines might be a better option!

yes some of the asian countries like to work for pennies becuase $1 over there, is the same as about earning $50 here.

It is all realative in todays standard of living. But you have to find some hard workders. I have been scammed in the past, but I now have a good team of hard ass get off their ass works and they bring in good traffic without me having to baby them.

You know, asbout 6 years ago, HERE, some people said OH, any indian from college, REGARDLESS of studies could do this! They could do it in a few WEEKS, and for like a few hundred dollars. $5o was collected from each person, IIRC, and it was THOUSANDS of dollars, IIRC. I said "YEAH RIGHT", "DREAM ON", etc.... But I STILL donated money.

The first version was a DISASTER! OH, SURE, it LOOKED OK, but had NO logic behind it. NONE! MONTHS later, it STILL wasn't that great. I left for YEARS and when I came back I asked several people what happened with it. They said "NOTHING"! And I see NOTHING that looks like it on the market, etc...

And one of those guys, the guy in charge, ran an indian programming firm!

So don't believe all you hear. Most is BUNK!

Steve

I think India is the cheapest. You may need to weed through a few employees until you find the best match though.

I kinda took the word 'cheap' negative...well India will be my best bet for this as I have seen lots of people from there apply in freelancing sites. But Im pretty aware that US dollars is worth more in other countries, not sure which country from Asia though.

Andrea

Philippines for sure, it's not just about how cheap you can get it, it's about the quality of the work they deliver and they're definitely up to standards with that.

Phillipines

Cheapest can also turn out to be the most expensive if you hire the wrong people.

I don't know, maybe Haiti or Darfur...

I don't know that I would hire anyone there to do my web work though.

Based on my experiences thus far...

A moron is a moron regardless of which country they work from. Some morons are cheaper than others.

Same goes for idiots. The only difference between a cheap idiot and and expensive idiot is the price.

A $3 per hour worker who knows nothing about IM or direct sales is inevitably more expensive than a $20 per hour worker who does.

Same goes for writers.

The question then becomes: How much do you value your own hourly rate at?

Are you happy to spend 10 hours of your time to train and train a moron who just doesn't get it?

Think about it.

I would say Caveat Emptor buyer beware, in my experience, I have bought cheap, and got what I deserved a cheap and totally unusable product.

So I would recommend any of the big outsourcing companies, and pay for someone with a good track record.

for writing, the best deals on quality material are found by just outsourcing to students in the U.S.

students in creative writing programs will be willing to offer stuff for cheap in order to build up a portfolio.

india is fine for SEO content that isn't meant to be read by a human audience, and probably also fine for basic news articles. however, you really don't want to hire them for sales copy or any kind of persuasive article meant to convince someone of something, no matter how low a price they give you. there are two reasons for this:

1, the stereotypical $2 article guy in india really is not selling something anyone is going to be able to read. now, i'm aware that some people are willing to take this because they just want keyword stuffing for SEO, but in the era of panda, you really want to think twice about the value of a keyword packed article that nobody is going to find interesting. if you're really dead set on getting articles on the cheap, you stand a better chance of finding a decent content from a u.s. student on fiverr who's looking to build a portfolio.

2) you straight up won't find any persuasive content coming out of developing countries. a lot of Indians have very good technical English, but even the best writers there can't write sales copy that'll convert well with a U.S. audience. I've seen what their stuff looks like, and the attempts to use u.s. english casually (as in, with informal turns of phrase, witty lines, sayings, etc) just seem really stiff and forced. It's hard to describe, but you'll start to recognize this when you see enough of it. Like instead of saying "hire me and you'll get a smokin' hot sales letter that "sells the sizzle" and gets the sale every time," they'd say something like "if you hire me you will be guaranteed to get a successful sales letter that sells the sizzle, not the steak, and is effective in getting sales."

Philippines has good workers, but not the cheapest. Bangladesh has cheap workers and some other countries I dont remember. I've had people in philipines apply to jobs for .50-1.00/hr

I've had people apply to my job for as low as $0.10/hr in other countries. The work was simple research so it comes down to the ability to hire the right person and train them as far as work quality goes.

Most people don't know how to hire/train people to get acceptable workers. I love outsourcing and have spent over $10,000 in a month on workers, so I have a little bit of experience.

IMO - for the most part... poor quality workers is the employers fault, not the employees.

Parts In China, Philippines, India, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova

I have had a bad experience with Indians as they got money and ran away.Philippines are the cheapest in price and quality.The best quality and price combination is in Pakistani Market.Have a great experience.

I would advise for India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"I want to get to the top, by working as close to the bottom as possible" :rolleyes:

You May use oDesk for hire Freelance Contractor, you will find there cheapest contractor over all country

I've tried outsourcing to Indians a number of times and every time had a disapointing outcome. The last time was to a phillipina and she was very good.
So as much as I like Indian people in general (and we have a lot here in the Uk) and appreciate how industrious they tend to be, I will not be trying them again for outsourcing!

And sometimes thats all you need to get the job done efficently.

A highly trained monkey

For some jobs I can hire people at $0.25/hr and hire 10 people at that price. Instead of the price of one person to do it at $2.50/hr. Which does work just as well as the $0.25/hr person.

And i'll get more than 10 times the amount of work done for the same price per hour.

I have found outsourcing to the phillipines
has been cheaper in price but the quality
is still good.

India has been bad either.

As a content writer with staff I have to say that you cant compete with Aus, US, UK and Canada. I myself am an Aussie, I have only One developing world writer and that is a Kenyan man that I have actually meet, worked with, and really liked his writing. He has a degree and writes with an intelligence that is easy to read. I would not ask him to write sales copy though.

If you want converting sales copy, I always say you get what you pay for. Myself, I am a bit more expensive than other guys. However my writers know how to write copy that hits the right note and gets the customer buying, clicking and satying on the page. Conversion is what matters in copy, if you want to spend .10c per 100 words on what is basically representing your business, then the risk is yours.

Its been shown that unique content is great for SEO and SERP, so my advice is dont scrimp on it. Find a writer you like, pay them what they are worth, enjoy the results.

I would recommend you to use providers from Bangladesh and Philippines. Philippians English skill is good but not really good at technology. Bangladeshis are good in both but not as cheap as Philippians.

Indians are not really reliable. I see lots of frauds from India!

I would suggest, India or Sri Lanka - the better place to outsource, Specially, I think in Sri Lanka you can get better offer, We used some people over there and really worked well.