Now, I typically don’t "toot my own horn" in my blog that often, but I have to tell you about the Graphic Design Contest we entered a few weeks back. Internet Business Mogul, Rick Raddatz was seeking to have his homepage re-designed so he got creative and launched a contest fo seeking the best web designers to create a winning page for him. In return, he would promote the Web Designers to his rather large optin list of web business as well as on his home page.

Well, I am thrilled to report that one of the designs we submitted from ESalesGuru.com was selected as one of the nine finalists and is currently being showcased at his site, Xiosoft.com. Here is a shot of our winning design….

At ESalesGuru.com, we have built up a nice base of skilled Web Designers and related Intenet Marketing Professionals, so definitely consider our Outsourcing Marketplace for your upcoming marketing and design projects!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

As some of you know, I occassionally feature new innovative Start-ups in my blog, but I thought it was due time to do some "shameless self promotion" (for a brief moment) of our own exciting new Start-up, ESalesGuru.com! I will try to be as objective as possible in my analysis of this company.

The recent launch of our Outsourcing and Consulting Marketplace for the Internet Marketing Industry was the 2nd most exciting and emotionally charged event in our household last week, next to my oldest daughter starting Kindergarten!

To give you a quick snapshot of our business, we have created an Outsourcing Solution that brings together businesses with skilled and pre-screened Internet Marketing Specialists and Firms across a whole variety of niche skill areas such as: Business Blogging, Affiliate Marketing, Web Copywriting, Podcasting, Social media and much more. Our management team is actually comprised of Internet Marketers who had been outsourcing for a while and and saw the great demand for creating a one-stop platform focussed purely on the evolving Internet Marketing landscape. Many Internet businesses today are experiencing in-house skill and service shortages, ongoing fast growth situations and are in desperate need of highly skilled Internet Marketing and ebusiness professionals to accomplish their important projects when they need them done!

In our Outsourcing Marketplace, Employers and businesses can search skill specific profiles, access set service packages as well as post an unlimited number of projects across 13 skill categories and over 60 sub categories. This industry is moving at such a crazy pace, that we have plans to add three new categories in the next month, including one focussed on Web Analytics.

For Professionals and Firms, ESalesGuru offers an excellent channel for accessing new project and contract opportunities, building up the client base and growing new income streams. The freelancing market will continue to grow at rapid rates, so this is an ideal time for skilled Professionals to set-up their own Internet consulting and contracting businesses.

Ultimately the end goal of  our start-up is to provide an easy avenue for building effective Virtual Internet Marketing teams and healthy outsourcing relationships that will contribute to the successful long-term growth of web businesses! How’s that for a compelling vision!

Okay, so enough shameless self promotion. I promise I won’t start a 10 part blog series on "the Virtues, Values and Power of the ESalesGuru Marketplace".   But, I do recommend checking us out when you have a sec!

Here is a copy of our Press Release and podcast through PRweb that went out today.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/outsourcing/internet-marketing/prweb552241.htm

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

A couple days back, I was on a very interesting call put on by Entrepreneur Coach, Melanie Benson Strick, called "Seven Simple Steps to Building Virtual Teams". She really spoke to the many Internet Entrepreneurs out there who are attempting to wear ALL the many hats of their company and as a result are less effective and are ultimately tied to their business 24/7. The inability to put the right systems and team in place for your business can be a serious limiting factor to your success and freedom!

The one thing that really resonated with me from the call was the idea of "Defining your Highest Payout Activities." So often, I find myself in the trenches spending way too much time on activities that do not yield a high payout! So, at the top of my daily To Do list, I have been writing this question: "What are my highest payout activities that I need to get done today?" This simple step is helping me to better focus on my top priority tasks!

I would definitely take an hour out of your busy schedule to listen to her call with Jack Humphrey - check it out here. I would definitely recommend checking out Melanie’s upcoming Virtual Team Building Bootcamp - could be worthwhile investment!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

As we all know, the practice of outsourcing is rapidly filtering into all aspect of business and life. Over the last few weeks, my wife and I personally experienced the great benefit in "Outsourcing your Health". My wife had been quite ill for a number of weeks and our Doctor (in Canada) had run a bunch of the standard tests and everything was checking out normal. He had referred my wife to see a specialist, but given the dynamic of the Universal Medical Care system in Canada, my wife was going to wait for two-three months to even get an initial consult with a specialist.

Now, since there are really no private clinics in Canada, we pondered the possiblity of heading to the States to see a specialist, but of course the sheer cost of medical care in the US is astronomical (if you are uninsured). So, dealing with time lags in Canada and not willing to incur the great expense to go the States, we started to explore other options. My wife’s brother and family who live year round in Thailand then told us about a world-class Private Hospital, called Bumrungrad. At first we were a little skeptical, but once we checked out the site and started to review the different articles in Time, Forbes and a Wall Journal Publication that referenced this hospital as well as other world class hospitals in Asia and India, we decided to head to Thailand!

My wife and her mom spent a week in Thailand and provided us (back home) with daily updates on their experience at the Bumrungrad hospital. They said that the sophistication, organization and service of the hospital was like nothing they had ever experienced. They were so very efficient, accomodating, not to mention thorough in all their examinations and tests. In a span of about three days, my wife had received a full health screening, CT scan and a number of other procedures to help pinpoint the particular problem she was experiencing. Sure enough, they found the particular issue, provided some medication and her condition has begun to improve.

So, after being sick for many weeks, in a span of just a few days, my wife had flown to Thailand, received a diagnosis and treatment and started to feel better by the end of the week. To have the procedures and tests she had in Canada would have taken months on waiting list to get in and big bucks in the States.

In mentioning our experience to an "older relative", their comment was, "She went to a 3rd world country to see a Doctor?" Isn’t that the irony? The  highly qualified pool of medical professionals overseas continues to grow at a meteoric pace. It seems at least in Canada, that our system is being left behind. While there is certainly some good points about our medical system, the limitations will certainly cause more and more people seek other medical options overseas. Outsourcing Your Health may not be for everyone, but it is certainly becoming a more attractive option in this "Flat World" we find ourselves in!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ironically, in the last week, I stumbled upon three different sites that are promoting Outsourcing Strategies and Tips gleaned from successful web entrepreneurs. With the roaring success of such books as "The 4 Hour Work Week", it seems that a number of new resources are emerging to capitalize on the Outsourcing boom we are seeing take place on the Web.  The reality is that many SMBs (Small/medium Businesses) are quickly recognizing the power that effective outsourcing has for taking their web endeavors to the next level.

Here are the three resources I stumbled upon this week:

1. Outsourcing Outtakes - This resource is set-up as a Online Video Ezine which provides short video interviews of Successful Web Entrepreneurs sharing some different Outsourcing tips and strategies. Look like an interesting resource. I have viewed one of the videos thus far and to be honest the tips weren’t ground shattering, but I have subscribed and will continue to see if these video interviews have good value.

2. TheOutsourceCode - Now, this is a new series of CDs by Dr Mike that again provide some tips and strategies for leveraging the power of outsourcing for any new or existing web business. I see that their site now says that their tool has been sold out. The tool was retailing for $497  (as my memory recollects), which seems a bit pricy, but I haven’t fully reviewed the series, so can’t comment on whether it is worth the investment.

3. OutsourceandDelegate - I had a review of the Sales Letter for this new tool and I think this one could have some good value. The author, Dan Lok talks about the Ceiling effect that all to often occurs with small businesses who are trying to be "all things" for their business and not effectively delegating or outsourcing tasks. He illustrates this phenomenon with a nice little "organizational flowchart" image, which includes "YOU" as the CEO, VP of Marketing, Affiliate Marketer, Customer Service Rep, SEO Strategist etc….Wearing too many hats and taking on too many tasks can cause your business to hit a "Critical Mass" bringing your success to a grinding halt. The cost of this tool is $47 (pretty cheap) and he actually offers a Free Audio series that you can test drive before you buy the product which is nice.  I am going to buy this one and will send some more feedback later!

Being a SMB ourselves, we are always looking at ways to better delegate and outsource those tasks that are pulling us away from our core (revenue-generating) responsibilities.

It is cool to see this growing interest and demand in the outsourcing realm as it bodes well for Outsourcing Solutions like ESalesGuru.com which we are slated to launch at the beginning of August!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I don’t know about you, but I have studied the most current SEO principles and practices quite extensively over the last many months and I still find it mind-boggling as to the evolving activities and analysis required to keeping our SEO efforts at an optimal level! I am a busy web entrepreneur with multiple things on the go, so it is virtually impossible for myself to continually implement new SEO initiatives.

As you also know, I am a HUGE proponent of outsourcing and the reality is even if I decided I wanted to try to hire an SEO guru in house, the likelihood of being able to find them and afford them for that matter would be rather challenging!

So, I firmly believe in having a team of consultants that tweak the various aspects of our SEO efforts as well as other areas. For example, I like to enlist a Website Analytics specialist, Affilate Marketing Consultant, Social Media Consultant and others that provide ongoing advice and strategies that help to leverage the potential of my web marketing efforts.

Lee Odden had a great post last  week on the Advantages of Ongoing SEO Consulting which I concur wholeheartedly - a good read!

The bottomline for me is that the the Internet Marketing Space is evolving at such a rapid pace that is easy to get lost in the shuffle and lose ground on your competitors. I believe Outsourcing is one of the remedies to keeping your Web marketing efforts as current and competitive as possible. This is one of the big reasons why we decided to create ESalesGuru.com, which is slated to go live this summer!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Well, as you know I have been talking a fair amount about Tim Ferriss’ new book, 4 Hour Work Week over the last couple posts. Now, if you have read the book, you will know that Tim introduces the "Outsourcing your Life" principle and firmly believes that most parts of your life can be outsourced and has even went as far (as part of a bet) to outsource his dating planning and scheduling through various online dating sites!

Well, I read an article in Time last week that kind of raised an eyebrow for me…. Being an Outsourcing evangelist myself, I am always keenly interested to see what new market segments and industries are experiencing Outsourcing growth. Well, it is official… The Outsourcing of Breast Feeding is seeing some augmented growth right now (Sorry, couldn’t help myself::))

The article in Time speaks to a number of moms that are outsourcing breast-feeding in order to return to work and are paying upwards of $1000/week to Outsource their breast feeding duties to a "Wet Nurse" (AKA Outsourced Breast-feeding Professional). A staffing company, Certifiedhouseholdstaffing.com supplies wet nurses for these moms and has seen a growing trend in oursourced breast feeding over the past few years.

Now naturally I am sure you are thinking of a few puns and jokes at this point when considering a staffing pool of breast-feeders, but you know - I most certainly do not want to judge these mom’s decision to employ a wet nurse. As you read the article, you will see there are definitely strong opinions on both sides, but again it just goes to show you that Outsourcing is quickly filtering into all aspects of life!

I wonder if I could outsource my ‘exercise" to someone and still see the same results:) Well, maybe you can’t outsource everything!

More

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

As most of you know, I am an outsourcing evangelist through and through, primarily due to the positive effects it has had on my current business as well as previous web endeavors! Not to mention, our business, ESalesGuru.com is heavily focussed on the Outsourcing Field specifically as it relates to Internet Marketing.

Another fellow web entrepreneur ( A Canadian too!) who runs the site, ArtofMoney.org posted a very insightful commentary on 10 ways of Overcoming Outsourcing Objections. While Outsourcing endeavors do not always go perfectly according to plan (such is life), Jon provides some realistic and helpful ideas on making the most out of outsourcing - a good read!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I want to share with you a brief excerpt from a report I wrote a few months again on Outsourcing Best Practices. From my own experience, I have learned that finding the right Outsourcing Partner ALWAYS begins with asking the right questions……

• Has the Professional / Firm been specifically working with your industry type and providing services you are seeking to outsource?

• What is their track record or experience in working with companies within your market segment? (Important question as one company might be great in one segment, but a fish out of water in the next!)

• How many business clients have they had had in the last 12-18 months? How do current and past clients rate them?

• What is the quality (not quantity) of the Professional’s clients?

• Does the Professional/Firm appear to exhibit a good handle on the latest and greatest trends in the respective industry? (i.e. SE Marketing)

• Do they present themselves in a professional manner? Do they ask questions of you to get a clear understanding of your project expectations?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Well, I am officially in mourning…… My Canucks (NHL Hockey Playoffs) suffered a gut-wrenching defeat in overtime to go down 3-1 in the best of 7 series. But life must go on:)

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the practice of Outsourcing for Internet businesses has become an inevitable reality as they seek to meet budgets and remain competitive in a quickly change Internet landscape. I would say approximately 85% of the time, I have been very satisfied with my outsourcing endeavors and have been pleased with the results.

But, I want to chat about the 15% today! I recently suffered a set-back with a web application that I had outsourced to an International Firm. The overall performance and productivity of the company had started to spiral downward over the past couple months, which led me to the tough, but inevitable decision of letting this development team go. While this was a difficult process to deal with and costly from a time and invesment standpoint, it was also a great learning experience!

Many of you may have had an opportunity to read my report, Six Success Strategies for building Effective Outsourcing Partnerships. You can access the report at ESalesGuru.com.  My sixth strategy is to establish realistic and specific performance measures. I see that in my recent Outsourced project, I faltered on this particular strategy and let the performance measures get blurred.  The development firm repeatedly missed the mark on our agreed upon performance measures and yet I delayed the tough decision of pulling the project.  Yes, once again I did not follow my own strategies and advice that I always preach about!

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being a pro-active Project Manager that continually evaluates the project progress against the original performance measures and time-frames that were established.

Well, I am happy to report that the "Outsourcing Blues" are behind me. I have moved on and selected a talented firm and have laid out clear expectations for the completion of our project.  Again, if you haven’t had a chance to review my above report, I highly encourage to to take a read as it may just help you avoid some of those pitfalls that I have personally experienced. Here is a quick summary of the Six Strategies:

1. Define for motivations/objectives for Outsourcing.

2. Know your Core Competencies.

3.  Choose the Right Outsourced Professional/Firm (The report includes a good evaluative process to help in your selection)

4. Build an effective project management Process.

5. Communicate effectively with your Outsourced Partners.

6. Establish realistic and specific performance measures.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!