Back when I originally read the 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss I thought outsourcing was the coolest thing. Pay someone to do those things that you don’t really want to do - especially when you can get them done cheap! Well, that was months ago, and I never really did much with it, or really got a handle on how it could help me in my business.
I should mention that I keep a spreadsheet that tracks my affiliate activities, and I’ve updated it every day for the last few years. I’ve always wanted a program that would basically do that for me. So I thought, why not outsource the creation of such a thing, at least to see how much it would cost?
If you’ve followed this blog at all you’ll know I’ve dabbled in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. That was my first experience with outsourcing, and it went fairly well. It was also extremely cheap. So I thought I would take a step up, and try out another site, Scriptlance.com. Last week I posted this project on Scriptlance, to see what the cost would be. I’m currently a member of an online service which does something similar to what I wanted, and I’m paying $100 a month there. So I figured if I could get it done for a few hundred bucks, I’d be ahead, right? Well I ended up selecting a bid for $325. The guy has lots of great reviews, and many people have even paid him bonuses, so I figured he would be a good choice to build my software.
Anyways, we’re just now getting into the process of starting this, so I’ll keep you updated as we go along. However, the whole concept of outsourcing has seriously made a come back into my brain. Now I’m thinking of all kinds of things that I can outsource.
Link building, for instance. My web store needs some serious, dedicated link building and SEO work to attain a top position, and I’m no longer certain I want to be the one doing it. As I’ve written in previous posts, I want to learn how to do SEO, but that doesn’t mean I want to do it! I mean, link building is seriously boring work! Try it for a few hours and tell me otherwise!
So I came across this other site, called AgentsOfValue.com, and I’m considering now whether or not to hire a person through them. The idea goes beyond project based outsourcing; you’re actually hiring a full time employee! In the flimsy business development timeline I had in my head, I had never really considered hiring a full time employee, especially not so early in the game. I had an idea that hiring an employee would likely mean having someone working for me, possibly out of the basement in my house. It seemed like it represented a huge step in the evolution of my business… one that would likely take a few years to achieve.
And yet here I am, seriously considering taking on a full time employee, from the Philippines. I can get a full time (yes, we’re talking 40 hours a week) link builder for about $675 a month. Do the math. That is $5.63 an hour, for skilled labour. And for them, that’s higher than average pay, locally.
I sat back for a few minutes, thinking to myself: “Can I realistically keep such a person occupied on a full time basis?” ie - is it worth it?
So we get to the core of the question - what is YOUR time worth? In other words, presumably this work you’re thinking of outsourcing is worth doing, right? Well, how long would it take you to do it?
In my case, I probably can’t do the work a whole lot faster than someone else can, who is skilled and trained in link building and other SEO work. So you’re basically looking a the bulk of my time being used on this. And that is only for one web store, and I’ve got several other projects that I really want to start spending time on! So how much is my time worth? Well I won’t tell you what I’m making right now but let’s just use $20/hr as a nice round number. I think you can see where this is going…
If my time is worth $20 an hour, and their time is worth $5.63 an hour, then the choice is easy; pay them to do the work. This frees me up to start other projects and hopefully generate some new income streams.
You see, the whole question is about opportunity cost. Yes, I CAN do the work. But if I do, then I can’t do anything else while I’m doing it. What is the cost of that lost opportunity? Now, I’ll quit freely admit that I’m somewhat lazy and don’t exactly work like a mule at my business, but there again is a lifestyle choice that I value. I don’t want to be overworked, in fact I don’t even want to be working 40 hours a week, necessarily! So if I can outsource that work, why not?
As I’ve been writing this, more ideas have popped into my head. I might go so far as to outsource the entire creation of a new webstore, then the SEO after that. The part that I really don’t like - researching dropshippers… why not outsource the research? Pay someone by the hour to sit there and find every possible option, compile a list and essentially do the dirty work for me?
Product creation, customer support, graphic design, web design, writing, link building, programming; the list goes on and on as to what you can successfully outsource these days. The question is, are you ready for it? Can you make efficient use of someone else’s time?
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. As my time is freed up, I will start new projects, which I have no doubt will create new tasks to throw at my personal link builder / SEO expert. I’m starting to think that it will be a leap of faith, but I can see it turning out to be an incredible step in my business development.
I’ve been waiting a while for the iPhone to officially be available in Canada. Ever since I got myself an Airport Express and realized there was a strong possibility of being able to control my home stereo (room by room) through an iPhone I thought it would be uber-cool to get one. Plus I really like the iTouch, so it would make a sweet mp3 player. I’m sure nobody needs selling on these points.
Anyways, today the Steve announced that on July 11th, 2008, Canada will be getting the new iPhone 2.0, which runs on the fast 3G network. Apparently the original iPhones are going up for sale all over on Craigslist, so now might be the time to act if you’re not too picky about the 3G compatibility.
Speaking of 3G, apparently it will double browsing speed, nearly rivaling wi-fi. I think the data plan is going to be the kicker though.
Other improvements: longer battery life, assisted-gps functionality, slimmer case, big price but (8GB for $199 USD), better support for third party apps.
Do any of you have an iPhone, and are you looking forward to the new one? Is it reason enough to upgrade?
I bought a Dell XPS 1530 about three months ago (February ‘08), and I’ve been using it as my main computer since then. I use it basically all day long, in a wide variety of applications, so I thought I would write a bit of a review of my experiences with it so far. Hopefully someone finds this useful. If you’ve got one of these or are thinking of getting one, please leave a comment at the bottom! Cheers.
First off, here are my specs:
Dell XPS 1530
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache)
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
High Resolution glossy widescreen 15.4″ LCD (1680×1050) & 2MP Camera
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
Windows Vista Premium
250GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capacity
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
6 cell primary and 9 cell additional Lithium Ion battery
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+EDR)
1 Yr Return to Depot Service, Complete Care, Tech Support with Lojack
First let me say that I received my laptop sooner than I expected - I guess Dell operates by the age-old “keep expectations low, then over deliver” adage. Compared to their timeline I think I got it a week early. Which was good, because we promptly took it to Hawaii.
Traveling
It is fairly easy to travel with the XPS 1530 because it is very slim, and reasonably light. Included in the package was a slim nylon covering for the laptop with a magnetic flap. This helps protect it if you plan on throwing it in a backpack or something. On the plane, the XPS 1530 was great, because it has dual audio outputs, enabling both my wife and I to plug in and listen to movies. I think pretty much any 15″ laptop is going to be somewhat awkward on a plane (unless you fly first class everywhere), but this one fit fairly well on the tray in front of me. A major bonus was the fact that I had ordered both the 6 cell standard battery and a 9 cell backup battery. Using them together, I was able to watch movies for the duration of the 6+ hr flight. Having traveled quite a lot in the past, I can truly say it is a joy to not have to worry about where I’ll find the next electrical outlet and time to charge!
Appearance
The appearance of the Dell XPS 1530 is really quite sweet. I got the Tuxedo black model; you can also get it in blue or crimson. It is a mixture of brushed aluminum (looks like it at least) and black plastic. I don’t think you’ll find too many other laptops that look as good as Dell’s XPS series; they’ve won a few awards for that as well I believe. The hinges on the side are nice, they don’t look weak like some other laptops and they really anchor the screen quite securely from flexing. One complaint I have is that the built-in speakers are hidden under a perforated plastic grille that tends to collect dust and grime, and isn’t easy to clean. The media buttons are kind of cool; they light up when you touch them. I know some people have complained about the placement of the mouse pad (its off-center), however I find it is in just the right place when you’re typing properly. The keyboard itself feels good to the touch, though mine seems to have a slight upward bow in the center. Maybe it is my imagination though because I can’t see it from every angle. The fingerprint reader is a bit of a gimmick I suppose, though it is handy as a faster way to login to windows than typing your password. I’ve been known to use this feature to login while walking down the hallway booting up my laptop…
Display
I have my display set at max resolution (1680 x 1050) and it looks great. Colors are vibrant, everything is sharp and I find it a comfortable size to work at. Additionally, I also have a second monitor that I run off the VGA output, as an extended desktop. This works great, except for the fact that every single time I login to windows or resume from sleep mode I have to reset which side of the computer the monitor is on! (default is to extend to the right, but my monitor is on the left). This is sometimes infuriating, though I expect it is more a shortcoming of Vista / NVidia drivers than the fault of the XPS 1530. I’ve also used the XPS 1530 quite a bit with my projector (using the HDMI output) and it works well. However, another gripe with the drivers - the computer doesn’t always properly detect which secondary display is hooked up, and it screws up my custom video settings. One time after using the projector my laptop display was perpetually bright (60% or so) and every time I changed it, it would pop back a few minutes later!!! ARGH!
Network / Wireless
I don’t like Vista’s wireless admin tool. I think it sucks. They took too much control away. XP was better. That said, I use my wireless card all the time, and I haven’t noticed any slowdown as a result of my connection speed. I’m often downloading things and I often get in excess of 500kb/s download speeds. The range also seems very good (must have a very good antenna in the monitor) and my laptop far outperforms two other wireless computers I have in the house (a desktop and a Compaq laptop), both in terms of connection strength, range, and speed. Once again though, Vista sucks at handling network connections (IMHO).
I recently bought an AirPort Express, which is capable of 802.11n (draft) and the two are working beautifully together. I frequently get wireless download speeds around the 600kb/s mark. Now I just need to upgrade the other wireless cards on the network.
Audio
I got the upgraded audio option - the Sound Blaster Audigy. I notice there is a “Software Edition” tagged on the end of the line item - I’m not sure exactly what this means, but I can tell you I’m not super impressed. I’ve done some audio recording on my XPS 1530 and so far it hasn’t been able to compare to my previous desktop. Sometimes during playback (I often play music while I’m working) the sound cracks up - almost like it’s losing reception! Typically, this happens under periods of heavier stress on the CPU; using Photoshop or something of the like, but unnervingly, it also happens reasonably frequently when I am doing nothing more than scrolling my mouse! It makes me wonder if there is an IRQ conflict or something (I haven’t had to deal with with those in 10 years!!). So I’m not sure if this is a Vista configuration issue, or if it is actually a hardware problem. Nevertheless, I’m underwhelmed with the audio capabilites. The two audio outputs, as I mentioned previously, work great while traveling; when in use as a desktop the laptop automatically uses both connections so you can run a 5.1 system, which is cool. The only problem is that the connections are in front, which is annoying this time as now I’ve always got a pair of nice white speaker cables going to the front of the laptop.
Another problem related to recording is I’ve been unable to run any of my higher-end software applications like Cakewalk Sonar, due to hardware problems. I know most people probably don’t run that on a laptop, but it would sure be nice for what I’m doing. Also, I haven’t been able to monitor what I’m recording, without playing it back. That really sucks, as it is far better to monitor a live audio stream than have to play it back every 2 seconds to isolate a problem!
Miscellaneous
Dell ships a cool little remote control in the ExpressCard slot. This works great from across a room to control the laptop for music or movies. The range isn’t great, but props to Dell for including this inexpensive perk with the XPS 1530. Many times my friends have commented on the cool factor of this little remote.
Ability to run OS-X Leopard
When I was looking into what laptop to buy I seriously considered getting a Mac. The tipping factor was price. For about $1000 less at the time I was able to get a machine that was spec’d out almost EXACTLY the same as the MacBook Pro. The other thing was that I have several little programs that are only made for Windows, so even if I got used to running in OSX I’d still have to use Windows on occassion, which kind of defeats the purpose. Plus I like games.
So I looked into it, and realized that the Dell XPS 1530 had pretty much exactly the same hardware as the MacBook Pro. Right down to many of the model numbers. So I looked into it, and after spending an often frustrating Saturday afternoon on the issue I got OSX “running” on my XPS 1530, dual booted with Vista. Unfortunately, the sound doesn’t work, likewise the network drivers. I managed to get video drivers off the net, and probably by now someone has done the audio and network. I suppose if these issues could be resolved, there would be serious potential to kill the entire Vista installation and go straight from OSX Leopard, perhaps with XP as the Windows option inside of Leopard. For now though, I’m sticking with Vista. Leopard sure looks pretty on my Dell though.
Other Issues
I think most of the other issues I’ve had with the laptop are Vista related. Unfortunately Vista is an incredible memory hog, even with my 3GB of RAM managing to go quite slowly quite frequently. I’ve got tons of programs installed, but I’ve had to shutdown most of the background processes to keep the thing running ok. When will Microsoft come out with a slimmer OS? LOL.
Lately, I’ve also been getting several Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) - something I haven’t had to deal with since the early days of XP or Me. I’d almost forgotten about these. I think this is again related to the IRQ issue and I’ve been meaning to contact Dell regarding them. I hope my hardward isn’t screwed. This brings up another issue - warranty. Lucky me, I live in Canada so I paid more for my unit than I would have in the States (I priced it out) and I only got 1 year, depot service, while the US offer was 3 years onsite!! Argh. I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt me. I heard though that transferring warranties or getting them serviced cross-border is an absolute nightmare so I shied away from that option.
Conclusion
The only real beef I have with the XPS 1530 is the low quality sound card. It would likely be more than adequate for your typical user, but for the things I want to be able to do with it (recording) it is inadequate. I might have to look into some external solution. All in all though, I’ve really enjoyed the Dell XPS 1530, and I think that without the nastiness of Vista, I would recommend it to anyone.
You know in the movies when they’ve always has this cool laptop with some program on there that seemingly lets him rule the world? You know, they can access whatever they want, hack into things and do cool-looking stuff. Well the little techno-control-geek in me has always wanted something like that, and I’ve got a built in sucker button for anything that looks remotely close.
Well I just got my very own blogosphere-ruling software. It’s called Woopra.
Woopra is the Chuck Norris of Site Analytics.
Woopra makes Google Analytics look like a old donkey pulling a wooden cart with square wheels.
Woopra is free. I am led to believe it is going to remain free as well.
So you’re asking yourself right now, what in the world could be so cool about blog analytics that elicits Chuck Norris-isms? Here’s a screenshot from the dashboard, and then I’ll explain a bit more.
What you see here is the live dashboard in Woopra. That’s right, I said live. You get to see who your visitors are, right then and there as they are reading your posts, in real time. You see IP, city, country, browser, OS, language, viewed pages, time spent on pages etc. You can tag visitors with nicknames, and you can even initiate chat with them! I tried this just now with a friend and it pops up a chat window in their browser. Very, very cool.
WARNING - If you’re reading this I might randomly start chatting with you!
Please be a good sport! =)
A couple more things about the screenshot above… As you can see at the time it was taken there were 21 people reading my blog, simultaneously. From the graphic under the 21 (to the right) you can see this all happened rather suddenly, and traffic was building at that point. In fact it ended up being about a 20 minute spike of around 45 people in total, nearly all from StumbleUpon. I’d like to know if I somehow made front page or something. So the graphic gives you yet another realtime measure of your traffic volume.
There is a ticker tape that runs along the bottom of the screen, displaying your current, once again, I’ll emphasize current, blog stats. It scrolls along quite happily, just like a stock ticker, giving you the key stats of the day, while also telling you if they are up on the day, or down, and by what percentage.
At the click of a mouse all sort of information is immediately available, and all in a very nice user interface. Popular pages, landing pages, exit pages, outgoing links, downloads, custom events and way more. Woopra even has a full screen mode, which brought out my little Mission Impossible wannabe ideas. It truly is fun to watch a full screen map of the world flickering with hundreds of dots (I’m optimistic) showing the locations of who is on your site, worldwide.
Woopra also has search functionality built into it, so you can search for pretty much any event or thing you can dream of that was recorded. With over 40 different statistics recorded in real time, this should be enough to keep you happy!
How To Install Woopra
Woopra is very easy to install. There is a tiny snippet of code, similar to the Google Analytics code we’re all so familiar with that needs to go into your Wordpress blog. To make it even easier, they have turned this into a plugin. So, install the plugin as you would any other, and configure it with your site ID. Now you need to install the Woopra software on your computer. They currently have beta versions for Windows, Mac and Linux, so no sad faces today!
Because the software runs locally on your computer it is very quick - no more logging in and then waiting for slow servers at Google to generate some report or other. Everything is instantly accessible, which adds to the fun.
The Way of the Future
I can only imagine the ways in which this revolutionary software is going to be used in the future. Webmasters can now respond to traffic spikes in real time. I know there must be many good uses out there, especially from a marketing perspective, to being able to initiate a chat with a visitor viewing a certain page. Plus, the sheer fun of being so in touch with your blog and your audience is much more stimulating, even for the average blogger!
If you’ve got a Wordpress blog - why not sign up at Woopra.com? It’s free!
If you liked this post, please Digg it, or leave a comment!
Inserting a YouTube video into Wordpress 2.5 is really, really simple, and here’s how:
Five Simple Steps to Adding a YouTube Video in Wordpress 2.5
1. Go to the YouTube page you want to use,
2. Find the text box on the right side with the code in it to embed the clip.
3. Copy that whole line of code.
4. Go into your blog post editor, switch to html view, and paste the embed code in where you want it to appear in the post.
5. Publish the post, and you’re done!
If you want to play with the positioning or other aspects of the clip, feel free to go back to Visual view and do so. The updated editor won’t screw up your code.
This is a little clip I took of my puppy, Fraser, howling along with me while I played my guitar. I know, it’s completely irrelevant to internet marketing but hey - this is my blog! Anyways, he’s done many more “duets” since this clip was taken, and one day perhaps I’ll post more. Cheers.
I quit my 8-5 job pushing paper at the end of January ‘08. Since then I’ve had my nose down, trying to grow my online business. Today I decided work could wait. I went over to a friend’s place for breakfast, then we took my canoe out and explored nearby Ruskin Lake for the better part of the afternoon. The weather was perfect, no one else was out there, there was tons of wildlife all over the place, and in general I had a great time. It was good exercise and mentally relaxing.
That is the benefit of working from home.
In the summer I read a book called the 4-Hr Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss. I highly recommend it. That book and the ideas it presents started an intense period of introspection that ultimately prompted me to quit my job. It also helped that my affiliate campaign was taking off like a rocket during the fall. Here are some of the questions that I pondered prior to pulling the plug on my boss. Think hard about them; they’re not the gimme’s you think they might be.
Do you live to work or work to live? If you work to live, are you working as efficiently as possible? If not, why not work more efficiently (therefore less hours) so as to “live” more?
Are there non-economic benefits to work? Are you getting these at your current job? Do they outweigh the economic inefficiencies created by working a 9-5? Excluding the paycheck, why do you go to work? Again excluding the paycheck, what is your dream job?
When you meet someone on the street, and they ask you about yourself, what do you tell them? Is your job the defining element in your life? If so, is that your desire?
What is the worst possible outcome from quitting your job and starting your own business? Write it down, visualize it in exquisite detail. Make a YouTube video about it. Then think of ways you could regain your current lifestyle from that position. The worst (assuming it doesn’t include death or dismemberment!) might not be as bad as you think!
These and others are questions that lead to change. Change occurs when you become dissatisfied with the status quo, and start looking for alternatives. Believe me, there are alternatives to the 9-5 out there.
Back to my first paragraph: one of the biggest reasons I started my own business was for freedom of schedule. The ability to work from anywhere, anytime I wanted was tremendously appealing. Now I am free to work those hours in the day when I know I am most productive, and when I’m not being productive (there’s usually not a lot that will remedy that) I can just leave work and go canoeing, or do something else! This leads to much higher job/life satisfaction.
I’ll be posting more on this topic in the coming months, especially as I get things sorted out for myself. If you’ve got a similar story I’d love to hear it.
Do headlines like these grab your attention? I have to admit, I am a bit of a sucker for these things, and to a degree I think that is human nature. Yet over time, you start to get desensitized to the endless “The Widget To End ALL Widgets” type of claims.
I realize that an effective sales letter is absolutely crucial to the success of a product; however at what point do ethics come into play? Personally, I am trying to learn how to write a better (well, better is irrelevant because I haven’t written one of my own yet) sales letter, in fact I’m attending a webinar this afternoon on the very topic.
You see topics discussed like “Writing Hypnotic Sales Letters.” Now, persuasive is one thing, but do you want people to buy against their will? Do you really want them to turn in their will at the door and mindlessly get your next product? Well, the pocketbook screams a unequivocal and resounding YES!
What if your product sucks. You know it and I know it, however we write a sales letter saying that this thing is going to be the silver bullet that takes away the client’s widget-related misery. Sure, it might get them to buy, and sure, they’ll probably be too lazy to return the thing when it doesn’t live up to their expectations, but they won’t likely buy another from you. Then again like good cattle, once they’re on your mailing list they just might. Is that the kind of business we want to be in?
I guess the place to start is with a great product; then you really can make some serious claims about it in good conscience. However, even for some of the truly impressive products that I’ve purchased, I’ve still been let down after the incredible hype of the sales letter.
Is it possible to “over-wow” your customer? I know that when I see a sales page now, credibility is one of the first things I look for. If I don’t see that in seconds, I’m out of there. Credibility though, is a funny thing. It’s like a gut instinct that I can’t peg down to any one or two items. I can’t say “If the headline is blue, I’m outta there” or “If they don’t have testimonials, I’m outta there” because credibility is more complicated than that.
I guess the whole point of this post is in regards to the ethics of sales letters. I do not seek to dispute what works and what doesn’t in terms of getting the sale. There’s time for that later and plenty of others have done that as well. However, if you can write a sales letter that will make you a cool million, guaranteed, at the expense of violating your morals (perhaps by making unsubstantiated claims about your product) then should you? I know many people do. It is the same argument that led to the creation of the nuclear bomb and pursuing human cloning. Just because you can, does it mean you have to?
I’m not going to answer this question because I can think of all kinds of “what if’s” that make it hard to just say yes or no in such a short space; however I’m interested in having the conversation.
Hello everyone. Well I’m now officially self-employed as a self-declared internet marketer. I know many of you have wondered what the heck that really means, so the purpose of this site is to share some of the marketing tactics I’m experimenting with, and possibly to function as a bit of a resource for those of you who want to start up something of your own.
The other reason I’m doing this is more selfish: I wanted to have a single page that I could go to with all the links to useful things that I use often. I know there are many great pages out there loaded with these things, but hey, its cool if its your own right? I hope you find them useful too.
but let’s just use $20/hr as a nice round number. I think you can see where this is going…
, by Timothy Ferriss. I highly recommend it. That book and the ideas it presents started an intense period of introspection that ultimately prompted me to quit my job. It also helped that my affiliate campaign was taking off like a rocket during the fall. Here are some of the questions that I pondered prior to pulling the plug on my boss. Think hard about them; they’re not the gimme’s you think they might be.