Archives – February, 2011
However, none of these websites are directories per se. There’s a key difference between search engines and online directories. An online directory is largely maintained by people who determine how the directory’s information is ranked and displayed. Search engines are largely maintained by software programs. These software programs are designed to continually seek out new web pages, index each new page’s information, and rank each page in terms of what information the page contains and it’s perceived relevance to a given topic. For a given topic (eg. Toronto real estate) search engines rank the page and/or site with the greatest perceived relevance first, and all other sites and pages according to their relevance in relation to one another. So a search results page for the search “Toronto real estate” will reflect this hierarchy of ranking: the best page/site will be ranked first, the second best page/site ranked second, and so on.
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Wikipedia defines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as (more…)
February 28, 2011
Here are the number people who searched for the following keyword phrases in June 2009 for Google, the world’s most popular search engine:
“Toronto real estate” – 60,500 searches
“Toronto condos” – 40,500 searches
“Toronto homes” – 22,200 searches
“Toronto property” – 14,800 searches
The following are how many people did those exact Google searches in March 2011:
“Toronto real estate” – 90,500 searches
“Toronto condos” – 60,500 searches
“Toronto homes” – 40,500 searches
“Toronto property” – 27,100 searches
That’s a 50%-100% increase in people doing these searches less than 2 years later! If your website was on page one of Google for the search phrase “Toronto real estate”, your website link would have (more…)
February 25, 2011
Part 1 – Search Engine Basics – Getting Started
What Are Search Engines?
The easiest way of understanding internet search engines is this: they are today’s evolved Yellow Pages and White pages rolled into one. For decades people used the traditional print Yellow Pages directory for finding businesses and the White Pages (IE phone book) for finding people. Today, most people rely on search engines for finding virtually any information they want.
Why Are Search Engines So Important Today?
Ssearch engines are now (more…)
February 23, 2011
Steady work has lots of clout for workers in the outsourcing world, but so does money. A well paid, happy worker will more likely remain productive and loyal to you. A minimally paid worker may get disgruntled and will probably be continually looking for better opportunities. If they find one, they may drop you fast and without a second thought.
Don’t Micro Manage Your Workers
Some freelancer sites actually allow you to require workers to have a webcam recording them while they work along with software which tracks their activities on their computer. The idea is this allows you to (more…)
February 21, 2011
The work relationships where you can justifiably ask for a price reduction in return for a long-term work commitment are with teams of workers. As mentioned earlier, teams usually ask for $12-$25 per hour for short term contracts. That’s a princely sum in many of these foreign countries: the equivalent of making anywhere from $45-$200 per hour in North America.
Typically teams are organized by single person whose value add is offering a one stop shop for all your needs but who may be paying their team members $4-$5 per hour as lone wolf workers typically make. So be sure to ask these team leaders what advantage there is in working with their team vs. individual workers. (more…)
February 18, 2011
Negotiate Long Term Relationships
Competition among overseas workers for North American projects can be just as cutthroat as competition amongst domestic workers applying for domestic jobs. Remember that developing countries like China and India have colossal populations: 40% of the world’s population comes from China, India, and Pakistan alone. Oddly, in all the projects I’ve posted I’ve seen mostly bids from India and Pakistan yet virtually no bids from China.
At any rate, as an employer you have the ball firmly in your court when it comes to negotiating power for workers in these countries, especially when it comes to administrative positions or any jobs or projects requiring minimal skills. If you post a project it’s normally considered by workers to be a short term project lasting several weeks max unless you specify otherwise in the project description. (more…)
February 17, 2011
Background Checks
A huge part of hiring domestic employees is obviously the in-person job interview. Many employers rely solely on one or more interviews in deciding who to hire. Since that isn’t possible with offshore workers you should definitely use other ways of assessing candidates, whether they be individuals or teams.
The freelancer site you use should have a rating system whereby past employers of that worker or team can rate their satisfaction level in working with them on a scale (eg. 1-10 rating: 1 worst, 10 best) and then provide an average rating amongst all employers they’ve worked with. Ideally your freelancer site should also allow employers to write comments about their experience in working with each worker or team. (more…)
February 16, 2011
Use Milestones For Projects
Just as you pay hourly workers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, so too should you pay project based workers periodically during a project. Negotiate with your worker before a project starts and establish milestones for their work rather than paying in a single lump sum at the project’s conclusion. These milestones should be more than just particular deadline dates; there should be certain pre-specified deliverables due at each deadline date along with worker payment paid that’s commensurate with the amount of work they’ve accomplished between each milestone.
Working with milestones helps ensure (more…)
February 15, 2011
Simplified Accounting
Whenever you hire a local assistant you must keep all necessary records of their employment as any other employer would: hours worked, wages paid including any overtime, any government training subsidies accounted for, ensure all proper government deductions are made on each paycheck and pay your accountant to handle this work.
Things are very different with offshore freelancers. They are contractors, not employees, so they are responsible for keeping their own financial records and doing their own tax returns in their own country. You will not have to do this for them, which can save you a fair bit of paperwork and extra expense with your accountant. (more…)
February 14, 2011
Diversification
With MLS deregulation now a reality across North America many real estate professionals are being asked by clients to provide their service a la carte rather than the traditional full service package. In doing this many are finding certain services that are the same from one sales rep to another (eg. posting a home on MLS for a flat fee) must be priced at a very low fee to be competetive, particularly now that some companies are now actively promoting this particular service to For Sale By Owner (FSBO) properties.
So some real estate professionals are seeing the importance of adding new services to their portfolio as a way of diversifying their business and clientele, being more competitive and having new revenue streams. Since offshore workers’ time and skills can be offered in such a timely, fluid way, you can effectively make any of them you choose a part of your service portfolio by subcontracting them to your clients. For instance, you could offer any of the following services to your listing prospects or For Sale By Owner (FSBO) properties by tapping offshore workers: (more…)
February 11, 2011
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