Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

[conran]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

@kinky_jack;145258

I’ve consulted with several and while it never cost me any money (I don’t part with any funds unless I know exactly what I’m getting into), I usually wasn’t very impressed. Most of the time I knew more than they did. Or they still referred to cliches and knowledge that was relevant 3-5 years ago.

I’m the same, I’ve spent years trying to work things out for myself and heard conflicting things from almost every source. One site will suggest one thing, another will suggest the complete opposite.

I’ve actually just paid a little to have ClickSubmit do a check (I was curious, and skeptical, because it’s another one of those companies that basically crawls through your pages and tells you what they think you need to change) but although it was basically a form response, they did actually offer me some advice about things that I hadn’t considered yet.

I’m now looking into link building. I was determined not to submit to this before and attempt to do absolutely everything organically, but even though Google DEMANDS this, the stats of the competition doesn’t lie. High PR links on other sites are what is getting them top position, with weak on-page content. I can work my fingers to the absolute bone writing original content for BlokeToys and it will never compete with the big players unless I buy links.

Porn is a different matter. If I could get traffic to BlokeToys the same way I can get traffic to an affiliate blog of mine or a client site, I would be a millionaire already. But, when it comes to selling physical goods from an eCommerce site, Google utterly destroys you if you play by their rules.

[CindaT]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

Good points and great advice Conran. Thanks. I was actually thinking of starting a toy store. Until Google started fucking around with all these tweaks.

At the moment, for me at least, even getting decent blog traffic is tough. I do manage but it’s not the kind of traffic I’d like to be seeing.

I’m sending you a PM.

[dannyz_zbuckz]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

@Stocky Dudes;145266

$20/hr they are doing themselves a disservice. Anyway, just passing my educated advice.

Well, it’s all relative isn’t it? $20 per hour is a lot more to someone in, say, Arkansas then in San Francisco. It doesn’t mean they are any less skilled. It’s all what you are willing to pay, or what you are willing to work for, as supply and demand dictates.

[conran]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

@dannyz;145278

Well, it’s all relative isn’t it? $20 per hour is a lot more to someone in, say, Arkansas then in San Francisco. It doesn’t mean they are any less skilled. It’s all what you are willing to pay, or what you are willing to work for, as supply and demand dictates.

It’s basically relative to your economic environment.

Perfect example of this… a guy I knew moved north with his wife to be near her family and was raving about how cheap it was. He didn’t really talk to anyone before he moved, if he did they would have told him that it’s cheap because the pay is shit. So, for the next six months he was commuting back down to work for decent money, wasting it all on fuel, while trying to find a decent paying job where he’d moved to.

If you’re in an area where the average working wage is $15 an hour, and you’re earning $20 working from home from clients around the country/world, that’s a good deal. This is why it’s so profitable for Indian SEO’s. They live in regions where $10 a DAY is considered good money.

[conran]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

@kinky_jack;145277

Good points and great advice Conran. Thanks. I was actually thinking of starting a toy store. Until Google started fucking around with all these tweaks.

It depends what your competition is like where you are. In the UK I really only have two gay competitors to speak of, but two straight ones that dominate for main keywords. You can do it relatively cheaply - domain, hosting, slap an eCommerce cart on there and link through to PayPal. The real work is in the promotion of it and the text content.

I went the wrong way from the start, bought a “hosted cart solution”, and I think the url’s are the main issue.

I did get your PM and I will take you up on that, but I’ll have to get back to you tomorrow as it’s quite late here and my caffeine drip just fell out

[pocoloco]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

I am late to the party but I will add another DON’T DO IT

I hired a guy from India (it was actually a company with several staff members) through Freelancer.com

It took me a very long time before they finally understood what I was looking for, they did a poor job, they were rude and when I paid them after the job was finished, I found out that they had screwed up something which was causing errors. I asked them to look into that and I was even willing to pay them extra as long as they could help me out. They have never replied to any of my messages.

[CindaT]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

[QUOTE=conran;145282]It depends what your competition is like where you are. In the UK I really only have two gay competitors to speak of, but two straight ones that dominate for main keywords. You can do it relatively cheaply - domain, hosting, slap an eCommerce cart on there and link through to PayPal. The real work is in the promotion of it and the text content.

I went the wrong way from the start, bought a “hosted cart solution”, and I think the url’s are the main issue.

I did get your PM and I will take you up on that, but I’ll have to get back to you tomorrow as it’s quite late here and my caffeine drip just fell out ;)[/QUOTE]

Yes, using a hosted cart doesn’t usually give you the results you want. I’m currently learning how to code a PHP shopping cart, putting one together for my partner. They’re into craft items and supplies and that kind of thing. So far, so good. It’s a great learning experience and something quite priceless once you have it under the hood.

Looking forward to talking with you Conran. Have a good rest.

[QUOTE=pocoloco;145285]I am late to the party but I will add another DON’T DO IT

I hired a guy from India (it was actually a company with several staff members) through Freelancer.com

It took me a very long time before they finally understood what I was looking for, they did a poor job, they were rude and when I paid them after the job was finished, I found out that they had screwed up something which was causing errors. I asked them to look into that and I was even willing to pay them extra as long as they could help me out. They have never replied to any of my messages.[/QUOTE]

Sorry to hear that Poco. That sucks. It doesn’t surprise me one bit though. I really try not to generalize about certain people or ethnic groups, but we have a large East Indian population in my area of Canada and the majority of them aren’t very pleasant to deal with. You do meet some very nice South Asian folks, but most of them come from backgrounds where they don’t trust anyone. In particular, Caucasians. Britain did rule Indian for a number of years, after all. And things didn’t go very well when they did. So there you go.

Anyway, I’m way off topic here. Although I am trying to somewhat understand why Indians can be so hard to deal with. There is no excuse for bad behavior of course, but sometimes we have to look at the source and the dynamics behind where they live etc. And it’s for these reasons why I won’t deal with Indian people in a business situation. Most are desperate and will resort to pretty much anything in order to survive.

Just my meager few pennies worth CAD

[BabyMaker]

Re: Have you ever hired a freelancer from India?

Filapinos are usually ok, try creationcrew.com i know carl has a killer team of designers and think they do good coding too, or Loreen from GFY or definetly Fris from GFY for WP something simple he might not even charge, and he definetly knows what he’s doing.