Am I Hiring?
This will be kinda introspective (had to look that up to make sure I was using it right). Ok, so I have a bunch of internet projects. Some are successful and some are major flops. But I have a pretty decent system for going from idea to implementation to profit (or loss). At this point it is really just a matter of copying it over and over to scale things. [and no it isn't a huge secret. pick a niche, research, build, test, repeat until you have success (or fail) and move onto the next one].
This puts me in the spot of looking to hire. I have been watching and learning from others who outsource outside the US. There are horror stories and success stories. If I hire outside the US, I don’t have to worry about office space, extra taxes, employee benefits, extra taxes (did I say that one already? 
). But it also means that I will have a significant amount of turnover (not too bad if I have everything documented rather well) but still something to deal with. As far as hiring in the US, I’ve thought of taking someone who is honest, smart and hardworking and just training them in the skills they will need. Trust and smartness are way more important then skills (you can learn what you need in this business).
Thats where I am at. Hire someone? Keep writing computer programs to do things for me? Hire someone to write my programs to do things for me (plus all the other cool stuff I do)? (Some things can’t be done automatically — but lots of repetitive things can) If I do hire someone, do I hire local, mid west us or foreign? Hire someone local who I can trust and teach them what they need to know (or pay for their training)? I don’t expect to have an answer right away, I am still mulling things over. Feel free to offer advice.
PS. I haven’t forgotten about that free PPC app. I work on it while I am flying in a plane (which only happens twice a week).
It’s really a tough one for any affiliate marketer out there, and tougher since you’re a one man operation. You do not want to give up your secret recipe to anyone, whatever it’s about keyword research, building sites, finding niches or managing paid search.
The best thing that ‘could’ happen is finding a business partner, someone who would bring in as much as you do, but complement your business activity in areas where you need.
Otherwise, I’d try outsourcing for a while, small projects, maybe in your local area and if the relationship works out, then see if it’d be worth hiring that person.
hire me! im like local - local in the US that is anyways. i had my share of poor freelancers. I hate elance for that I rather be in forums where it is more active and has provided me with a great source of things that I would do but had others do for cheap
Ian Fernando is for hire….
hey Ian, what kind of specific jobs have you outsourced through elance that you had a bad experience with?
My advice is this: Take me under your wing. I live right here in Utah - Springville, we have a mutual friend (Mr. Knox - we work together), and I’m soooooooo ready to get going in PPC/Affiliated Marketing. I have so much information in my brain, but don’t quite know how to apply it. I’m not sure you’re holding an official contest for this, but you should really give me shot. Besides the ability to absorb and apply everything you could teach me, I’m positive I can bring a good amount of skill to the table as well. Anyway, think about it and let me know.
Nate
Greetings, John. If you did some investigation, please tell what is the attitude to Russian elancers?
Hello John,
I took that leap into building a staff.
Let me tell you that managing people is a whole new and time consuming art.
They save you some drudgery time, but create all kinds of other time drains (management, book keeping, checking work).
Make sure to buy and read some books about management before you go much further down this road.
Good luck!