Outsourcing for Online Business Owners

If you own your own online business, it may be time to start thinking about outsourcing various tasks. Since some of the tasks that you are performing now may not be the best use of your time, by outsourcing them instead, you can focus your attention on the tasks that you are best at that directly impact the bottom line of your company. Here’s a checklist of what you can outsource:

* Design – The process of creating a website that looks good. Typically it takes a very artistic kind of person to come up with a beautiful design.

* HTML/CSS – Although often rolled into the design process as one package, they are actually two different skills. The website coding process takes a different skill set and is also one that can be outsourced.

* Content Creation – If you run a content-based website and the content rests on your shoulders for creation, then at some point your ability to create content will be the bottleneck for your business. On the other hand, if you start outsourcing your content, you’ll be able to scale up your business and take your attention off a part of the business that’s both time and energy intensive.

* Backlink Building – The most fundamental aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) is building links, but the process of building links can be a very time-consuming process. Instead of doing it by hand, why not outsource it? What is great is that this process can often be outsourced to people in India or the Philippines for no loss in quality of work. What may be costing you $30 an hour in time can be outsourced for as little as $3 an hour.

* Answering Emails – If you tracked how much time you spend on your email, you may be very surprised at just how much time communicating by email really takes. You can outsource the checking of your business email so you read only the most essential emails.

* Customer Support – Customers with questions, comments, feedback, praise, refund requests, etc. can all be helped by an outsourcee instead of by you. Just make sure you hire someone with impeccable English, as your customer service is a representation of you and your company.

* Product Creation – The creation of informational products, audio products, digital products and multi-media products can all be outsourced to a third party.

* Sales Letter Writing – If you have great sales letter writing skills, you may want to write your own sales letters. However,, if you’re not a professional copywriter, then finding someone with experience writing for your industry to write your copy is generally a great idea and will more than pay for itself.

The truth is that  just about anything in your business can be outsourced. Keep your core competencies, excel at what sets you apart, and hand off the rest.

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Author: jm

Joan Mullally has been doing business online for more than 20 years and is a pioneer in the fields of online publishing, marketing, and ecommerce. She is the author of more than 200 guides and courses designed to help beginner and intermediate marketers make the most of the opportunities the Internet offers for running a successful business. A student and later teacher trainee of Frank McCourt’s, she has always appreciated the power of the word, and has used her knowledge for successful SEO and PPC campaigns, and powerful marketing copy. One computer science class at NYU was enough to spark her fascination with all things digital. In her spare time, she works with adult literacy, animal fostering and rescue, and teaching computer skills to women.