Integrating outsourcing into your business can be mentally tough. It can be especially difficult when you have to worry about the level of quality you will be receiving for your money. You can increase your chances of receiving high quality content by not working with new providers, but you lose the benefits of diversity. This article discusses the positives and negatives of hiring familiar freelancers compared to hiring new contacts.

Familiar Outsourcing

One proven way to ensure that you are only paying for high quality work is to build up a large list of contacts that you have worked with before. While outsourcing, you will undoubtedly encounter terrible providers, excellent providers, and providers everywhere in between. By building relationships with the great providers, and throwing out the bad ones, you can develop a large list workers that you have confidence in. Whenever you need a job done, you will already know who to contact.

In addition to hiring freelancers that you have worked with before, you can ask your friends if they can recommend anyone. Doing so will greatly reduce your chances of having a bad experience.

This type of “familiarity” system is great for specialized jobs. Of the five types of jobs listed in my which tasks to outsource article, four and a half of them are great for hiring providers that you have worked with before or that have been personally recommended to you.

• Great designers can create designs on virtually any subject material.
• Great copywriters can create winning sales copy for any market
• Great programmers can develop applications for virtually any use.
• Great promoters can implement promotion strategies for virtually any business.
• Great researchers can gather information on any topic you can think of.

Every time you find a great provider, make sure to hold onto them. If they did great work for you in the past, they will probably do good work for you on any similar projects you send their way.

Diverse Outsourcing

In contrast to hiring freelancers that you are familiar with, you can also hire freelancers that you have had no prior contact with. While you are always taking some risk when doing this, there are ways to minimize your risks and benefits that outweigh them.

If you haven’t guessed yet, the one outsourcing job that I like incorporating diversity into is content writing. You can (and will) find great content writers. But while they may be experts in writing, they can’t possibly be experts in every niche you are involved with. Because of this, it is probably in your best interest to hire a new provider who is an expert in both.

Note: I am only referring to content writing here. Copy writing (sales writing) would definitely belong in the above category of proven providers only.

Whenever I need a batch of articles written, I head over to Elance and post a new project. In the project specifications, I include that I am looking for someone who is a great writer and is passionate about [niche]. As the bids come in, I decline those who are clearly not into the topic or don’t appear to be great writers.

There are always 2-4 bids that I am amazed with. I have hired freelancers who have been published in market specific magazines, have spent the last 20 years involved in the market, have been the head of clubs for the market, and more. After the final project is delivered, it is usually obvious that they knew the market well and that I could not have gotten the same expertise from a “generic” writer.

Screening New Providers

I mentioned above that there were ways to reduce the risks of hiring new providers. Basically, just ask for plenty of writing samples, review their feedback, and verify everything that they tell you. Also spend some time corresponding with them before actually agreeing to work with them. As long as everything checks out, and nothing seems odd, you shouldn’t have any problems.