Quality, Quantity, Speed - Pick Two: The IM Triangle

In my physical line of work there exists something called the Project Management Triangle, or the triple constraint. The three points in the triangle are scope, time, and cost. Each side represents a constraint, such that pulling more out of one of the points causes the other points to get smaller. Pull at two, and the same occurs.

In Internet Marketing, regarding sales and services, there exists what I affectionately call the IM Triangle. The points for this are quality, quantity, and speed. When you become aware of this triangle when evaluating service providers, you can pick two favorable constraints for your situation and utilize this knowledge to determine how the output of the product/service will play out.

Let's check out an example.

We have three providers for content. Their stats are as follows:

• Provider 1 has a Master's in English from an Ivy League college, charges $7 per 100 words, and has no set turnaround time listed in his sales thread, but has glowing reviews from high-dollar members and requires a PM for samples.
• Provider 2 is from a third world country, has an average at best sales thread, and is offering ten 500 word articles with a 24-hour turnaround time for $1 per 100 words. They have been in business for a year or so and have 1,000+ replies in their sales thread with hundreds of "not bad" style reviews.
• Provider 3 is charging $4 per 100 words. They are offering one-time 500 word articles, and are presenting a 24 hour turnaround time for smaller orders of one to two article batches.

Do some of these profiles ring any bells for sales threads on BHW? They should, as an overwhelming percentage of threads fit into one of these three categories. So where do these three providers fall?

Provider 1 is offering quality and quantity. Don't expect to order ten 1,000 word articles and receive them in five days. They will likely refuse your order in general. They are not offering speed. I would approach quality/quantity service providers for things such as money site landing pages, PDF ebooks as incentive to sign up for an email list, and blog posts that I plan on hyping up. Expect them to edit the article multiple times before it reaches you, the end consumer.

Provider 2 is offering quantity and speed. With this provider you will receive a good number of articles, but don't expect to be wowed by them. They are usually written by some content churning human getting paid bottom dollar, with a slight grasp of the English language. I would approach quantity/speed service providers for things such as articles on PBN sites, quick articles for backlink building purposes, and times when I need a lot of content fast. Expect misspellings and errors and a grammatical nightmare, but lots and lots of content in a short amount of time.

Provider 3 is offering quality and speed. You will receive articles of comparable quality to Provider 1 with the speed of Provider 2, but not for a good amount of articles. Service providers falling into this category will usually have nice-looking sales threads and work alone, will love gigs for just a few articles, and will balk at larger projects, as they don't have the capacity to run at that quantity level. I would approach quality/speed service providers for things such as high-priority single posts, quick content needs for money sites, and articles for backlink building purposes when the availability of a high-profile link arises.

From what I have seen, at least with content providers here on BHW, is that you are typically looking at 75% quantity/speed, 20% quantity/quality, and 5% quality/speed. Keep this in mind the next time you are looking for content providers (and consider this a tl;dr):

Quality, Quantity, Speed - Pick Two

This will make the content providers happy, and assist in building relationships and meeting deadlines. I've got a provider for quantity/quality and another for quality/speed. When I need quantity/speed, I write it myself. It has worked out well, and I suggest you do the same. It's not just for content. It can be applied to all areas of the Marketplace and beyond.

-SH

You can apply this not only on content, but link building as well. Good read Sherb.

Aatrox said:

You can apply this not only on content, but link building as well. Good read Sherb.

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It can be applied basically anywhere you purchase goods or services from and there is actual labor involved. I identify my online reputation management firm as a quality/quantity approach. I'm a one man show running on a side gig, but I provide the highest quality and most detail-oriented and complete ORM approach available. And for that reason my prices start at $2,500 per month for a minimum of 12 months nowadays.

If you are a service provider, the trick is figuring out how to utilize this triangle to the advantage of your target market.

This triangle would assume that cost is held constant when that's a variable and a constraint as well. If you're willing to front enough money you can get quality, quantity, and even speed using multiple higher quality sources delivering at lower quality quickly. So this is more of a square than a triangle with respect to the purchaser.

CrescentSkies said:

This triangle would assume that cost is held constant when that's a variable and a constraint as well. If you're willing to front enough money you can get quality, quantity, and even speed using multiple higher quality sources delivering at lower quality quickly. So this is more of a square than a triangle with respect to the purchaser.

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This is true. At which point you would revert to the Project Management triangle of scope, time, and cost. This is more geared towards the constant question asked on here and other IM forums of "I have $250 and two weeks, what should I do?" content-wise. At that points it's whether you want two 2,500 word articles at $5 per 100 words, twenty 500 word articles at $2.50 per 100 words (but only five can be sent in the two week timeframe), or 50 barely-readable 500 word articles at $1 per 100 words, delivered in two weeks.

Nice observation. I would probably choose quality and speed most of the time, as quantity could be fulfilled by additional service providers if needed.

I don't get why people don't understand this concept. I'm a content writer and it just irks me when someone wants all three. Do you have any idea how much time it takes to properly research and format these articles? To make them completely unique? Let's not forget that some people want their articles written in their "tone."

You want it to be cheap? You need to sacrifice.
You want to put a rush on it? You're really going to need to sacrifice.
You want more than one within a 72 hour period? You need a content mill.

Well articulated to say the least. I struggle myself to make these cash commitments for content, and my projects suffer as a result. This overall view of evaluating ones needs in the moment and focusing on maximizing two aspects of content acquisition as opposed to all three provides me a much more realistic view of this process, and should aide me in moving forward on a few projects.

I have to make some leaps of faith out there, or get moving on writing my own content. Can't thank you enough for a push in the right direction SherbertHoover.