One of the big differences between a successful blogger and a blogger who struggles is … outsourcing.
You simply won’t find a successful blog whose owner doesn’t outsource tasks and responsibilities. You have way too much on your plate if you attempt to run your blog by yourself. Unless you start out blogging with a couple of years of living expense capital in your pocket, you will be blogging part-time.
This means you have to work a full-time job while you try to build your presence online. You also have time-consuming commitments and responsibilities which include your friends and family. Perhaps you volunteer or donate your time to a worthy cause. You may be the one in charge of running your household, which is another huge time investment.
(More on effective time-management for bloggers in the next section)
On top of all that, think about your tasks as a blogger. Listed below are just a few of the recurring duties you have to take care of as a blog owner.
- Answer, interact with comments on your blog.
- Research new blog posts.
- Write new blog posts.
- Record videos, find royalty free images for your posts.
- Send out emails to your list.
- Comment on other blogs relative to your industry.
- Clean out your in-box, and respond to emails.
- Respond to mentions on Twitter, shoot out some Tweets.
- Check in on your Facebook page.
- Pin pics and images on your blog to Pinterest.
- Republish your new blog post to LinkedIn’s free blogging platform.
- Publish videos to YouTube linking back to your blog.
- Check and analyze your blog traffic and statistics.
- Check your SEO by Yoast plug-in and update titles, meta-descriptions, etc. for SEO throughout your blog.
- Contact other blog owners in your field for trading backlinks.
- Write guest blog posts.
- Update old posts to make them relevant.
- Plan and produce content for webinars and teleconference calls.
- Attend live conferences and seminars.
- Repeat many of these activities again tomorrow.
Now take a minute, go back through these tasks, which are certainly not all the blogging responsibilities you have, and assign a daily and weekly amount of time to them. You will probably stop more than halfway down the list because the time investment looks so overwhelming.
The takeaway here? You need help.
What Exactly Does “Outsourcing” Mean?
The trusted Merriam-Webster dictionary defines outsourcing as:
“Obtaining goods or a service from an outside or foreign
supplier, especially in place of an internal source.”
For more of a business-minded definition, Investopedia tells us that outsourcing is:
“A practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing them internally. Outsourcing is an effective cost-saving strategy when used properly.”
You will notice that neither one of those definitions mentions saving valuable time. The second definition does talk about saving money. This is important, because as the old saying goes, time is money. Time is your most valuable resource. It cannot be replaced. The most successful business-people on the planet understand this. That is why they multiply their time exponentially, by getting hundreds and even thousands of people to work for them.
You don’t have to hire hundreds, or even dozens, of employees to reap the rewards of time multiplication. Adding just 1 or 2 freelancers or virtual assistants on a part-time or full-time basis can do wonders for freeing up valuable time, as well as put your blog on the path to success.
What Is Your Time Worth?
What is 1 hour of your time really worth? Figure out what your dream salary from your blog would be. Then divide by how many hours of work you want to put in each week. If you need $52,000 to replace your current income, your business needs to generate $1,000 per week. If you plan on working 40 hours each week, that equates to $25 per hour.
Refer to the list of blogging activities listed above. If you spend 2 hours a week with your social media tasks, that is a recurring $50 time cost. Is this really an effective use of your time? There are freelancers and virtual assistants (VAs) who are experts with social media who will happily handle that weekly work for a fraction of your time investment dollar figure.
Freelancers living in second and third world countries do not require the income that you do to live comfortably. There are communities around the world where you can find talented outsourcers that are literally begging for work. For 10% to 25% of what you may charge someone for a particular task, these VA’s are happy to handle the job for you.
Why Beginning Bloggers Don’t Outsource
The above example brings to light why unsuccessful and beginning bloggers don’t outsource. They don’t think they can afford it. In actuality, a high-quality, full-time VA can be hired for $200 to $400 per month. Having a part-time VA work for you requires a smaller investment, anywhere from $20 to $100 per month. You can also choose to select a freelancer on a periodic basis, just hiring one whenever the need arises.
These are specialists. Rather than you trying to accomplish a multitude of tasks, some of which you are not very good at, doesn’t it make sense to free up your time while simultaneously upgrading your productivity and the quality of the content that is created or the task that is accomplished? Of course it does.
How Can I Find a Competent Freelancer or VA?
When you make a decision to outsource the low hanging fruit on your recurring blogger’s to-do list, how do you ensure that you get quality help? First, you need to work through a reputable, high quality freelancer’s website. As of 2016, the following sites offered talented VAs and freelancers in a number of blogging-related areas of expertise.
- Freelancer
- Upwork (formerly ODesk and Elance)
- Guru
- Toptal
- Craigslist
- Crowded
- 99Designs
- PeoplePerHour
- FlexJobs
- Simply Hired
- Fiverr *
* At Fiverr, you pay as little as $5 to have a single task accomplished. There are Fiverr VAs who are expert in every field imaginable (and plenty you would not have imagined). For just $5 you can have an original 400 word article or blog post written, have multiple Tweets and social media updates handled for you, and outsource many other tasks as well.
How to Hire the Right VA Every Time
With the exception of Craigslist, the outsourcing sites listed above act as a go-between. Once you locate a VA to handle some work for you, you place the money in escrow for that job. The freelancer is paid no money up front. This guarantees they work as quickly as possible, and they only get paid after you accept the work they deliver. This process protects both you and the freelancer.
There is one really simple way to make sure you are hiring a competent freelancer. After listing your job description, you can give instructions for exactly how someone is supposed to apply for that job. It is here that you add a simple set of directions. Mention that the applicant must reply with a certain code word or phrase, or they will be instantly disqualified.
Some freelancers apply to every job they see.
They have a rubber stamp system for applications, and very seldom do they read any instructions you give them about a specific application process. The VA’s and freelancers who are worth their weight in gold (several times over) will always respond to your instructions perfectly. You can also ask for work samples, and the top freelance sites have sections dedicated in a freelancer’s profile where they can link to samples that show their skills.
All of the top freelance sites display ratings and scores for their workers. It is easy to sort through those who have done hundreds or thousands of jobs in the past, and are rated highly by bloggers just like yourself. Don’t be scared to outsource a small job for two, just to get your feet wet.
This is a great way to free up your time.
It also allows you to focus on those tasks which you need to handle personally, while delegating everything else. English speaking Filipino freelancers can live quite comfortably on a fraction of the income required to live the same lifestyle in the US, the UK, Canada and other first world countries. In this way, you help a self-starting entrepreneur make a living, and you and your blog benefit as well.
Finding Help in Online Forums
Using reputable freelance websites to locate a talented VA makes sense in almost every case. However, there is another virtual hangout where you can sometimes find competent help for your blogging tasks. These are internet marketing forums.
- Warrior Forum
- Digital Point
- SitePoint Forums
- V7N.com
- WickedFire
- UK Business Forums
The sites listed above are a few of the biggest internet marketing forums on the net. They are free to join, requiring nothing more than an email address to get started. Aside from the ability to find skillful freelancers and others to handle blogging work for you, they are great for establishing backlinks to your blog. You can set up a signature file that points back to your blog, and every time you make a post on the forum, you establish a new backlink that could help with SEO and ranking.
You can also learn a great deal about successful blogging by talking with other members of these forms.
Most of the sites have dedicated areas for freelancers and other web service providers to advertise their skills. On the Warrior Forum, you can advertise for help. Expect to pay more than you do when you hire someone from an internet marketing forum, rather than a popular freelance website. Type “internet marketing forum” or “blogging forum” into your favorite search engine to reveal more outsourcing possibilities.
