I am a service buyer at several popular outsourcing websites that is patronized by many freelancers. It has been nearly a decade since I became interested in the art of winning clients and influencing potential purchasers of high-end web services. Let me put it this way that I act as an agency supplying A to Z solutions for almost any problem on the Internet. How do I do that? Simply by outsourcing all my work to proficient and affordable freelancers in the stipulated field! I draw a commission that varies from 1 percent to over 10 percent on the jobs undertaken. Just to clarify this statement, the commission is from both the buyer of services and the freelancer who does my work! Please do not consider this as unethical since business is business and my efforts are quite substantial in securing execution of the jobs. You would have realized by now that what I do could be quite stressful and it is imperative to ensure a smooth processing of the projects to keep the orders coming in! It is therefore good to share some experiences on how to arrange a stress-free outsourcing for all projects.

Freelancers are many - but there are only a "Few Good Men"!

Oh, by the way, please read this title as …"Few Good Persons" - lest the fair ones consider me a MCP! One can notice that there are many freelancers in the world market and it becomes difficult on many occasions to choose between them. Depending on your project, you can look for some specifics amongst these for outsourcing your favorite project. The most important criteria is turn around time and the person's dedication to what they promise to the buyer. It is very easy to make an excuse and very difficult to control or follow up from a distance! Therefore try to communicate as much as possible on Instant Messengers, emails, telephone etc to remain abreast of the freelancer's progress. Take time to shortlist the bidders since this is the most important step in outsourcing. I have seen many buyers failing in this methodology, and then spending a lot of extra money or time to get their job done. The handicap of distance, not knowing the freelancer at all, control and monitoring of the work and other aspects can be quite frustrating.

Very few freelancers understand the significance of a project. The service buyers have real need of some work and that is why they are taking the step of locating a good provider and outsourcing the job to them. For freelancers, the message must be driven home that their buyer is all important - just like "the customer is King" and a proper orientation with agreed delivery schedules will go a long way in securing more and more lucrative jobs. Freelancers must be at least with the equals if not exactly "first among equals"!

Stress-free Outsourcing - does it really exist?

It surely does in this wide world of the web - and outside the Internet as well. The bottom line is not how many jobs a freelancer has executed. It is the quality of those jobs and the credentials amassed that really matter! Freelancing does not mean that one is free from all encumbrances - it truly signifies that a person is free to work on their favorite hobbies or career and the decisions they can take are responsible for their success. Remember Danny de Vito's famous sentence in "Renaissance Man" - "Where you are today is the result of all the choices and actions that you have made in your life"! With such noble thoughts both the buyer and the freelancer can reach pinnacles of success in their respective enterprise.