Outsourcing – Letting go of some control
Today I made the decision to outsource a lot of my blog content and article work. The reason? I find article marketing very time consuming and I just get way too caught up in the details of the article (such as keyword density, questions like “does this article sound right?”) that I just don’t get anywhere with it. I try so hard to shake all those doubts, and the reality is that it does not matter; but the result is that it takes too much time to get the articles (and blogs) out there.
I am soooo glad that I started off doing it the hard way at the beginning. I was and still am proud of what I achieved with the articles that I did write; but if I am to move my business forward I have got to get the sites out there; not faff about with things that I worry about that don’t need worrying about.
How does it feel? Not good. I like to be in control, do things my way. However, I have chosen an outsourcer that is based in the UK, is reasonably priced (around $7 for a 350 word article) and I am reasonably confident they can get the articles back to me in a decent amount of time (although it is a Bank Holiday here in the UK so i’m expecting a little bit of a delay). From what I understand people are very pleased with the service they have received, which I am happy about.
I requested 5 articles from them for now (just testing the waters) which would cost around $35. If I am happy with the service they will get more work from me.
So, if this outsourcing project goes well I can concentrate on the things that I enjoy such as market research. I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Other News
I am planning to move this blog over to my Hostgator account, along with cancelling addon services for a domain that I no longer use. It is just a waste of money paying for hosting on another hosting company when I can get unlimited websites set up on hostgator for a minimal monthly charge. All my domain names will remain with the other company as it costs no more to keep them there, and transferring them is just too much hassle. I expect a little disruption to the service, and I will let you know nearer the time when this move is likely to happen.
The past four months has also been a great time for commissions. Every month in 2010 has seen commissions over £100. I never thought I would EVER see results like this! I am starting to see a little drop in visitor numbers to the site that is earning the commissions, but looking back on the trends over the past year it happened this time last year. Just got to ride with it and hope it picks up again.
