The dark side of cheap labour part 3 - Escrow is your friend
June 20, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Practical tips | 1 Comment
When getting your projects done through online marketplaces it is essential for you to make use of the Escrow function. What is escrow?
“The holding of funds, documents, securities, or other property by an impartial third party for the other two participants in a business transaction. When the transaction is completed, the escrow agent releases the entrusted property.” - American Trust definition.
By using escrow you do not need to send money until the project is completed to your satisfaction. I am a friendly chap, I like to trust people, but in business transactions there are so many things that can go wrong.
The script from hell
I had a web script assignment that got posted to Scriptlance. A programmer from India won the project for $350. He had received good reviews for his previous projects, so I thought he was a good match. Unfortunelately, the script he delivered me was infected with minor and major bugs. Not all bugs were discovered instantly or at the same time so the communication between me and him went back and forth a few times.
After he had made some fixes and I had requested additional bug fixes he told me this :
“I want to complete the payment before do these fixes.”
Time to get tough?
I’ve found it no use to make enemies just for the cause of it. I replied in a friendly manner explaining that: “I do not feel confident paying for a script that does not work.”
Things got sour and after a few days of communication I received this outburst from my programmer:
“On my server NOT problem!
…
I not think that i MUST change my script. Why you not change your host?
I REALLY WONT TO COMPLETE MY PAYMENT OR YOU STEAL MY SCRIPT”
I was getting angry with this but I kept my diplomatic tone: “I am a extremely worried by the language in your emails. Please stop with the accusations and try to be constructive.”
Googled the solution
After this I started to do some Google research and found some links that I sent him to check out.
Voila!
A few days after his last outburst the error was discovered and fixed. The error? The script could simply not handle files with CAPS LOCK extensions like .HTML, .JPG and .GIF. I received a new e-mail with the completed script attached and a more businesslike way of writing e-mails:
“This is fix for uppercase extensions.”
Then I released the $350 in the escrow account.
Anyone have similar experiences with Escrow accounts?
Earlier parts in this series:
The dark side of cheap labour part 1 - Introduction
The dark side of cheap labour part 2 - Dirty tricks
The dark side of cheap labour part 2 - A haven for dirty tricks?
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing | 1 Comment
Internet Marketing Consultant Nick Wilsdon has posted about the illegal/unethical/dirty jobs advertised at Scriptlance and other marketplaces for online jobs.
The listings he refers to are seem to be straight out stupid (in addition to “illegal”) and will probably offer a low ROI no matter how cheap this kind of labour is!
Remember the old quote: “If you can not do it right, do not do it.” If you have a great idea, the idea should be strong enough to be marketed and accepted by the web community without needing to spam and steal. I suspect people that post these type of job ads are bottom fishers that have no real urge to become “filthy rich”, but just want a few dollars to buy beer and burgers.
How to hire a worker through Craigslist.org
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Practical tips | 4 Comments
Craigslist, the internet heaven of classifieds ranging from prostitutes to rental apartments.
I was most interested in the jobs section.
Free to hire
Yes, I am a cheapo. I was going to hire a part time worker for 5-15 hours a week to do some html work and other basic things. Unfortunelately I discovered that ScriptLance & GetAFreelancer charged you $30-100 to search for employees throught their sites. Then I discovered Craigslist and their “jobs category.” There is no costs to publish a job ad in their system.
Where to post it?
Craigslist is a huge site divided into different cities or areas. Where should I put my job ad? On the New York part of the site? Well, since I am a cheapo and this work was something you could do from anywhere in the world I kind of looked into where my dollars could reach the furthest. I decided to try my luck by posting it in the Web design / HTML job category at the Buenos Aires part of the site.
How to write it?
I wrote an ad with detailed descriptions of the work involved. I also told applicants to attach their CV and the hourly wage they thought they were worth.
Responses?
After 14 days I had received 11 responses to the ad. By judging of what the different applicants wrote in their e-mail, all of them could do the work I offered. When it came to the requirements stated in the ad. I was a bit disappointed.
7 of 11 attached CVs.
5 of 11 mentioned a desired hourly wage in addition to attaching the CV.
It was also a bit surprising to discover that there were North Americans applying for the job even though it was listed on the Buenos Aires part of the site.
How did I choose?
In the end I had plenty of candidates to choose from, so I did it the easy way. The 5 applicants who listed a hourly wage requirement ranged from $5-15. I picked the one who wanted $5 an hour.
Things to do after you have selected your candidate
After I had found my man I replied to all the applicants telling them that the job opening was now filled. I also thanked them for their application.
I think this is the simplest thing in the world to do. Yet, when I was younger and applied for jobs I often did not hear back from the employers.
Update: How to get filthy rich this way?
Well, one thing that comes to mind is start ups. If you are launcing an online business and can use remote employees you can effectively have 10 workers working for you. If everybody is at $5 an hour and works 50 hours a week that gives you monthly wage costs of:
50 hours a week x 4 weeks a month = 200 hours
200 hours x 10 employees = 2000 hours a month.
2000 hours x $5 = $10 000 in monthly wages.
There you go. An easy and affordable way to get an armada of employees to eg, write Adsense content for you.
The dark side of cheap labour
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Practical tips | 1 Comment
(No, the title is not referring to the latest Naomi Klein book.)
Let’s talk about sites like Scriptlance.com and GetaFreelancer.com. You do not follow me? I have written an introduction post to these online marketplace services.
Cheap labour! Yes, save money! Get it done cheaply! That is what I initially thought as well, but my experiences from 5-6 projects may drift you in the other direction.
Project management skills are essential
For small projects like “Make a cartoon for me - max $20″ these services set you up with people in low cost countries that can do the job cheap and of OK quality. You can not go much wrong with such small and easy tasks. I strongly recommend you to try it out by posting some easy peasy job and getting it done.
For more complicated projects you need to be extremely detailed on what you want to get out of the project. You need to supervise the work very closely. My experience as a buyer of various projects is that you can not and should not expect that the seller of the services posess such a thing as “common sense.” Everything needs to be spelled out so that nothing at all is unclear. The less things that are left open to the designer/programmers judgement, the better.
Also, I need to acknowledge that from a seller’s point of view, they probably prefer clear instructions of what to do in order to do it fast and without the need for consulting you on every little detail.
Bugfixing may be usual activity
On several occassions I have received pieces of programming that once I installed it to a server, would not work. You would think that the programmer maybe tested the solutions before he send off the completed job. This is in many cases not the case. After I received the scripts I found that there would be an awful lot of bug testing to do before the job was done with decent quality and I could pay for the script.
Dear Matador.. but there are so many snowflakes in the world.. not everyone is like this
Of course not. You may strike lucky and find people that genuinly do great work and at a decent price. I have found people like this on several occasions. Once I find someone really good in a particular area, I will get their direct contact details like MSN username, phone number or e-mail. Then contact them directly for the next project.
Using services like Scriptlance, Getafreelancer and RentACoder to get work done cheaply
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Start ups, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips | 8 Comments
This type of service is facilitating buyers of services like coding, programming, website design to get in contact with sellers/providers of this type of work. The buyer post a project outline together with a maximum budget and sellers outbid each other in order to get awarded the job.
There are a lot of Indian and Russian programmers bidding for the projects available. These are countries known for cheap hourly wages. “Yes! Cheap labour to do my projects! I wil stop using my fellow countrymen’s expensive services!”
If the project management and selection process is done right, it is no doubt that these services may give you a cost efficient way to build and launch your online enterprise. In a few days, I will return with some posts about my experiences in this area. Until then, check out the services: