I thought it would be interesting to start a thread about outsourcing BH techniques. I notice that a few of the "big hitters" on this forum often talk about how they outsource a lot of the menial work they have to do.

So, where do you go to find good reliable outsourcers ?

I know about Elance, Scriptlance, Rentacoder, etc
Maybe Craigslist or Gumtree ?

Any other good places to find cheap staff ?

Secondly, what hourly rate do you offer them ?

In UK the minimum wage is over 5 pounds (around $11). For countries like India/China/Philippines that rate would be a fortune.

Thirdly, how do you organise your staff in terms of daily contact and tasks. Employ someone full time or employ for set tasks ? How strict are you if they fcuk up - one strike and out ?

Fuck that. Find a hungry Indian cruising Scriptlance and offer him communion.

On a more serious note, I have hired some great help, and I have hired some help that are still on my hitman's to-do list. Make them call you though. Voice to Voice.

If they give you any shit "me indian, me gots no phonie" you say "Well, you speak english motherfucker, go to Walmart and spend $20"....

Don't let them push you around. The paki's work like velecaraptors. They will bid with each other to drive the whole thing up on you. What you do is offer the lowest guy a bid thru a personal message or email and tell him this "Yo, fuck your friend, I got the money right here, tell him your going to bed, and we will do some business, and you will make some money, he won't even know and we are all happy".

I hate that it's come to this.

Thanks Ruck. Are you willing to share what sort of hourly rate you pay your guys ?

are you looking for a job?

__________________

Nope, Im looking for cheap reliable off-shore staff.

I also outsource much off my work.

It depends on what you want them to do.
There are people there that work for $50 per week.........

Michel

Does it make any difference to you?

I guess not but it might give me an idea as to how much I should expect to pay these guys. I have employed people in the past for around $3-4ph with very mixed results. I was interested to know whether that was a high or low amount.

Although Michel makes a very good point that it depends on what the task is.

$50pw sound good to me though - can you reveal where you find your guys Michel ?

I use RAC quite a bit and I post small jobs and hire the top 3 - 5 coders/writers.

The ones who do a good small job get invited to the bigger jobs.

I NEVER give the whole project to just one coder/writer - I break things down into modules or phases and they only get paid when the job is finished and TESTED.

Don't let anyone pressure you for the cash unless and until you've fully tested everything.

When writing specifications be sure to make sure that you provide as much detail as possible, get someone else who knows the job read it through to make sure you don't miss out any important details. NEVER give a coder/writer any wriggle room, you gotta pin them down in the detail.

Finally - make sure you tell coders that every single file must be fully commented and written in ENGLISH

Yes, all that came from making my own dumbass mistakes!

I would suggest paying per job instead of by the hour. There is no way for you to tell how long they work. Minimum wage in India is very low.. Like under $1 per hour.

I have used getafreelancerDOTcom before. What I did was make a post and then messaged each one asking for their email address. I ended up filtering through about 80 of them that way until I got a handful. Most of them did not have the right os/software/dotnet framework/etc which was required. Also not everyone can get paypal. I would pay by the job but it ended up being around $3-4 per hour.

My bottom line is, yes you can outsource work for a good price. But it all depends what kind of work it is really.

can somebody post some reliable people that can do work like typin captcha's for low pay? i mean there is too much beating around the bush.
everybody posting wants to be pointed into a direction of where to get these workers from. i don't need coders i just need people that can type.

try ---- domystuff dot com
I've had good luck with finding US helpers who love to make a few bucks and are cheaper than Indians and Pakistanis.

For the easy stuff, use local high school kids. Trust me, you don't need eLance to get stuff done.