Outsourcing:

Outsourcing is the delegation of activities to outside sources, i.e. not doing work oneself but having it done by someone else for a pre-arranged fee. This is usually done with activities that one either cannot or doesn’t want to do oneself, to free up one’s own time for more creative or effective work or if one has realized that another could do it cheaper and more effectively.

In other words, if you have planned a project you can either do all parts yourself or hire someone who does the whole project or parts of it for you for a agreed compensation.

Outsourcing can be done not only on the basis of a employer-employee relationship but also as some sort of joint venture, for example one partner taking care for the product  creation, the other for the product marketing  and both share the profits.

For larger business companies Outsourcing is the daily bread and a steadily increasing trend. With complex and multifold individual production cycles to finally come up with a completed product it is often more economical to concentrate on the core business and not waste valuable resources and manpower in an effort to keep everything within the company.

For the individual Internet marketer, especially a beginning one with a low budget, it might be a problem to Outsource parts of his project because, if he cannot Outsource on the basis of a joint venture agreement, it requires upfront expenses which can only be compensated at the end of the project when the sales process is already running and income is generated. On the other hand there might be no other choice when the marketer is e.g. a programmer who is able to create a great software product but might not be proficient in basic marketing skills and thus cannot build a sales website , write a highly converting sales letter or generate traffic  to his site.

The solution in such a case can be to hire a freelancer on sites like Rent A Coder, Elanceor Guru . There he can act as employer, post a description of his project and what exactly he wants done. Members of the site’s professionals network can post bids to the project, i.e. how much they would charge for completing the work as per the description. The employer then can pick the bid which he thinks suits him best. Either the lowest one or the bid of the professional who would do the best job according to testimonials  of former employers.

When the job is completed by the chosen bidder and the employer is satisfied with the result the employer pays the bid price via the freelance site. Most provide an escrow service to make it safe for both parties.

There is another closely related business term called Outtasking. The difference between these two being that Outsourcing relates to the delegation of one specific project to someone else. The business relationship then usually lasts for this project and ends when the project is completed (of course, it could also be renewed for another separate project).

Outtasking refers to delegating work that has to be done again and again. For example an Internet marketer finding himself spending several hours every day to answer support questions from his customers might want to find someone who can do this for him.

[Source goes back to Latin surgere = to spring up, rise]

 

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