Outsourcing is like kissing frogs. You just have to keep on going until you find your prince.

We've long used elance and guru. I'd say we have a 20% success rate on finding PROFESSIONAL, TIMELY individuals/companies that are also AFFORDABLE. (the emphasis is for any freelancers reading this).

One trick we use is to put in timelines. For website rebuilds/revamps, we count the pages, and make them complete portions bound to a weekly timeline. They get paid a portion of the agreed price each week they perform to standard.

Once they miss a deadline, they're given ONE chance to redeem themselves. If they fail redemption, we cut off their access to our client's data immediately and go with the next bidder and try again.

Sure, it slows down the process but at least you are always making progress and not waiting to be disappointed. Plus, you'll have weekly updates to show your client and have them give input on the process, look, feel etc.

By having a pre-agreed project timeline with a payment schedule you eliminate many of the problems associated with freelancers. It can be a simple one page agreement, but it can also save you from dealing with an upset client.

Best,

Sasha.

That's great advice above. Outsourcing web development is difficult in my opinion. Every gig can be different so it's extremely hard to find someone that can handle anything thrown at them. When in deal with offline clients, I only provide services i know like the back of my hand and can deliver in a known timeframe and at a known cost.

I have had much better luck outsourcing small tasks that are easily done with a fiverr gig or two. That way, i can hire several for the same task and i have a backup already in the works if one fails to deliver.

I have also created a very large collection of training videos that i make available to people i hire. Nearly 100% of what i do, though, is done by my full time staff, but it definitely took time to get them up to speed.

I guess what I've learned is that you need to create a system that you can run like a well-oiled machine... Get the customer into the system and turn out great product. It does take time to build that machine, though, so don't give up.

When You outsourcing on Fiverr always go with highly rated gigs by other users.
These gigs are tried and tested.

Odesk is the best for me. I always use the hourly rate feature so that I can keep them on task with their work instead of just a set rate. It keeps them motivated knowing that I can see a screenshot of what they are doing at random times, plus I don't have to put the money up at first without seeing any work. Always works the best for me.

I work in odesk as a contractor. I also have elance and freelancer accounts but I use odesk more often. You can try hiring people at odesk because you can check their work and even keyboard and mouse clicks are checked.

Wow... I didn't know odesk had those features. That's very slick. Wouldn't be good for me. I like to listen to YouTube while I work =\

I was in the same stage as you Ehanson and I know how it feels but then I found these top notch guys who I use for all my development work. Found them through a freelance site where they were one of the highest rating people and have been using them since last 2 years. All I can is I have been fully satisfied with their work and they deliver the work on the given time frame and of top notch quality.
Its all about finding the right individual who you can trust and who is reliable.

You got some good info already here. what i would add is that if you are going to do this more frequently you need to learn more about project management in general. That's what outsourcing is... you're just managing a project for someone else.

There's a ton to learn to do it right but here's some basics...

When starting the project break it up into milestones and deliverables and make the outsourced vendor agree to those in the PM prior to awarding. then your payment schedule tracks along with the dev milestones. if the outsourcer disappears you have whatever work they have completed up until that point and your monetary loss is capped. Get someone else to pick it up from there.

On the other side of that is account management (client facing). Because you have these milestones you can show incremental progress to the client and get them to sign off on pieces of it as you progress.

Also this way you don't have long periods where they never hear from you and don't know what's going on, etc... so even if your outsourced vendor drops out at the 3rd milestone and you have to scramble to find someone else the client has been seeing incremental progress (1st two milestones) so they have no clue and feel the project is still progressing smoothly.

again there is TONS to learn with project management as a whole and a lot more you can do but that basic info should help...

Outsourcing is like kissing frogs? Lol, yea, well its good to have a list of frogs you know will turn into a prince before going into some swampy lagoon and giving those frogs a special treat.

Ask around, there are members on the WF that actually have list of individuals they use and trust on Fiverr for all their outsourcing needs.
A lot of people have already gone through this phase and are able to help you out by providing individuals they like to go to, especially those that come from Fiverr.

Timaay also has a good point, just to emphasize. Project management skills are essential when you reach this point of your business.

Dan Kennedy refers to this interchangeably with time management in his No BS Time Management book.

You need to be very careful with odesk. There are many workers on there that do no know the first thing about SEO or other work but hold themselves out as experts. Many have false feedback and work up false hours. Then when you take them to ask over work not done properly many turn nasty and threaten.

Recently had an issue with an Abhishek Gaumat from odesk.

I employed this person to do a job for me. They did not do the job correctly at all but still billed the hours. I gave them a chance to remedy the job. They did not but offered to refund. I accepted to be refunded. They then insisted that they would only refund outside of odesk. I refused. I got no refund. I chased them up a couple of weeks later and was again told they would only refund through paypal. So I agreed.

I was the sent an email demanding exactly what to write with 5 star feedback. I said I would write my own feedback. They then got very nasty and sent me an email threatening to ruin my site, make illegal postings to get my site penalised by Google etc, if I did not refund the money they had refunded to me and give 5 star feedback.

You can report these people to odesk but not sure they take any action.

Odesk will not take action. I had one contractor bill me for work he did for someone else. When I asked him he said "OOps...I made a mistake. I will pay you back when my other employer pays me since I don't have that money."

This was unacceptable to me so I contacted Odesk about being billed for work that was not done. Their response was "Sorry, you authorized billing on a weekly basis." I argued with them for a while but they refused to charge the contractors account.

In the end, he was honest and paid me back so it worked out but I had about $600 tied up for a few weeks.

You must treat Odesk (or any freelancing) like any other business item. Create parameters that your contractors agree to, set firm schedules, pay for performance, track results, and get regular updates. Think of your contractors as your employees.

For example:
Some tasks, if you had an employee, would require a daily update and status meeting. Do this with your contractors. Other tasks would require status meetings weekly or upon reaching certain milestones which should have a due date.

Stay on top of your contract team. Use your management skills with them like any other employee. Give bonuses for good performance, and correction for poor performance. Motivate, guide, and lead them to work for your company according to your rules.

Don't for one minute think you can just give them a project and say "C-ya later" because this will lead to unhappiness for you AND for them. If done correctly, contractors will really appreciate regular guidance and feedback and will be motivated to do their best work for you.