Below are FIVE of the best and most effective methods web professionals can use to outsource their projects! Within each method I’ve provided only the best companies that were researched for this article. These companies are outlets for web professionals to carry out the top five outsourcing methods.
1 - Post to a Professional Marketplace
Professional marketplaces connect customers or web professionals to web professionals. They are extremely powerful for other web professionals that are outsourcing too! The best way to get acquainted with professional marketplaces is to sign up so here are a few marketplaces we suggest joining:
RentACoder.com was one of the first powerful professional marketplaces to hit the net. Many of the developers on this site are from parts of Asia and the Middle East so if your on a budget this is the professional marketplace for you!
This is better than Elance for two reasons:
- Projects posted are automatically connected to Non-Disclosure Agreements that are legally binding by anyone that views your posted project
- NO monthly cost to bid on projects!
Elance.com is a great professional marketplace. It is extremely functional and has a great user interface. Needless to say the user experience is great! Also, displaying your business services & portfolio is easy. Although, it can be tedious to bid for project after project so we suggest you take a look at other bidders that make a lot of money on the site (elance displays how much your company has made in the past 6 months and total money made since joining) and mimic their approach.
Odesk.com is as professional as they come. Their site is extremely functional. Also, their user interface is great, making it easy to navigate for both buyer and provider. Their approach to job outsourcing is different than the other sites. Instead of finding projects posted by anyone you’re finding projects that are from other web professionals seeking to outsource or vise verse. Instead of bidding on a project you apply for it, get interviewed, and stay on board with that company until the project is up (the project will say how long in the listing). What a fantastic tool! Expect a full review of odesk.com on our blog in the future!
2 - Photoshop to Compliant XHTML/CSS
Are you good at Photoshop or Illustrator but no the sharpest when it comes to converting your designs into standard compliant, technically sound XHTML/CSS? Well SliceIt is for you!
This is a little known but highly used service of smarter web professionals that have outsourcing in their business model. We highly recommend it.
Worpress & many other Blogs Integration! This is a fantastic resource based on this aspect alone! take a look at a few other reasons why they rock:
- They provide discounts on large scale orders and for clients seeking a long term partnership.
- They will work with the client for free incorporating changes to the design they might want even after having finished the coding.
- They provide creative criticism of the design, if required, or if we feel that the design actively hinders accessibility.
htmlBlender.com is another great resource for converting your photoshop designs into XHTML/CSS. They pride themselves on quality and customer service. In fact, they offer a 100% money-back guarantee.
Both services offer competitive prices and the code they provide is technically sound and compliant with standards and all browsers. Take a look at them both and see which one you like!
3 - Customize Out of The Box Solutions
Many times you can find what you’re looking for in a pre-made solution. Even better, there are typically free versions (open-source) of the solution you’re searching for. The drawbacks — out of the box solutions will often have generic layout & design features so it will take a bit of customizing to get it to your liking and provide a custom experience. Still, it’s worth the time and stress saved. Here are some examples of some great out of the box solutions that allow for a great amount of customization.
The Best WEB 2.0 Shopping Cart by Interspire
This shopping cart makes it extremely easy for us web designers to provide our clients an amazing shopping cart that truly stands out among the many other shopping carts. It will require very little customization or training if any at all for your clients because it comes with all that. This is a true WEB 2.0 Shopping Cart!
Take a look at their interactive demo… This will say it all!
Konsort is a powerful social networking website. At its core it is a myspace clone but has a lot of unique features that makes it stand apart from myspace. How many clients do you get asking you for something similar to myspace/facebook? Probably a lot… this is the best out of box solution that will save you the most time and allow for the most customization. Take a look at their site demo and administration demo!
4 - Pass The Project To A Friendly Competitor
What? why would I freely give business to my competition? Well you wouldn’t give the project to them for free–there is a finder’s fee. Also, depending on the size of your company you may not be able to handle the scope of the project given your current workload. Perhaps it’s a project that you don’t focus on such as corporate identity but your friendly competitor has a primary focus on identity work — I highly suggest you try to find friends that only focus on work that is related to your core and do not cross-over to your territory so they are not a direct competitor. This way they will send work your way from time to time… if they don’t then drop them and find someone that will.
5 - Subcontract
Simply put, build up a preferred list of freelancers and subcontract the entire project. This of course allows you to keep your name on the project and keep the client!
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