Outsourcing in Philippines = Not Successful So Far

Are you paying for this test article? If not, that could be your problem right there.

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Sorry but I couldn't help it, "Asian continents?" :confused:

I don't want to drift the thread into a different direction, but it seems to me that people in the western part of the world just think they can outsource whatever they want to Asia for a few pennies and still expect to get good responses - an approach which I think is bad for business if you don't think of several other factors like the country you're outsourcing to, the culture, the type of work, etc.

To the OP, although it has been said already, I think you're advertising in the wrong place. It never would have crossed my mind to use Craiglist for writing.

When I hire people from the philippines, I do the following:

I write out a complete job description explaining the kind of content that I need and a summary of expected tasks. I emphasize that the most important skill is written and spoken english. Everything else I am willing to train.

As part of their application, I ask for 1 paragraph explaining why their qualifications are a good match for the job description. This accomplishes two things:

1. It gives me an idea of their knowledge and experience that their resume might not show.
2. It shows me how well they can write (assuming someone else didn't write it for them).

That one paragraph is short and reasonable enough to them to prove I'm not going to make money off of a freebie article, but is still long enough to allow them to articulate why they are a good fit for the job.


Those people that write well are then invited to a video interview using Skype. I ask them where they live, expected power outages, internet connection issues, and explain to them in more detail what is expected of them. I particularly ask if they are personally knowledgeable in a specific niche. This usually means they are passionate enough about the niche to do regular article writing for me with little fuss.




Leading up to the video interview, I sometimes ask my candidates to briefly research a topic, and then summarize the topic for me in the interview.


The skype interview does three things:

1. Establish that they understand what I am saying and they are not going through some translator
2. They can relatively quickly understand my instructions and description--communication matters.
3. They have a fast enough internet connection if it can support a skype video chat.

Using my 'funnel' I go from 50 candidates to 3-4, and I usually hire 2. As is often the case, one of those two workers will disappear on me for no good reason.


Most people I hire are paid 10k-15k PHP / month. The first month I pay weekly, and the second month and onward I pay monthly. I have given some of my workers raises. Most of the people I hire are the kind of people who work the machine. As they grow with me, I hope to get them advanced enough so they can build up the machine even further.

@Gentryliving - This is the exact same thing that happened to me. After that experience, I promised to myself that I would rather close my business if everyone is this world is looking for a FREE TEST ARTICLE.

This is the same scenario that caused me to write my terms and conditions for refund and revision requests. I don't accept a revision request UNLESS and UNTIL client sends me a VERY DETAILED email, preferably with bullet points, on what we missed and how he wants it to be corrected.

I am a victim (though better to be called as a nightmare survivor) of around 5 clients who told me that I delivered rubbish articles. Good thing I was not born yesterday. I checked the articles in CopyScape and found them published. I took a screenshot and made those clients eat them. I didn't hear any single word from them after that. Rubbish? Will you put a "rubbish" post on your money-making site? I don't think so.

With my Terms and Conditions on Refund and Revision Requests, I have ensured that anyone who wants a revision or refund will exert some effort so I can weed out those who are using the technique of being seemingly angry so any poor provider, who's new in this business, will get scared and release a refund right away, from the ones who truly deserve a revision.

Ok, my opinion is not going to be popular but it is going to be honest and TRUE.

I am an American that often visits the Philippines and I have hired many filipino writers. You can get some good ones, very good ones, but it is not easy to do.

Even if they are VERY fluent in English the way they phrase certain things can be quite different than how we phrase things.

As an example, just a minor one: If we were to go to our moms house for Mothers Day we would most likely say : We went to my moms house for Mothers Day.

A filipino MANY times would say: We went to the house of my mom for Mothers Day.

Of course this does not sound like what an American would say at all.

There are so many instances of this. Again, you can hire really really good writers but you have to search and pay them at least a bit to write a test article.

I will tell you this...if you find a good filipino to work for you, you will NEVER regret it. Treat them with courtesy and respect and they are extremely loyal and hard working. And very talented.

FNHPWR11 is correct! I don't advise my clients to put in bulk orders if it's their first order. I want them to order just 1 to 2 articles to see if our style and tone in writing are what they're looking for.

I never had the intention of having people working for free. I just wanted to try out a different approach and willing to pay if I use the article. Several workers I hired previously didn't work out, as the result I lost money and time with them.

Thank you to all who gave feedback constructively.

Agree...they could be great for the technical stuff but you need to really look very hard to find good writers.

How do you get their skype IDs? Most of freelance site prohibit contact detail exchange. Which ones do you use that allow?

Oh boy, you got to blow your horn. Toot! Toot!

I'm a Filipino - 100% proud Filipino. I've been running my writing services since 2005 and my company's revenue getting stronger and stronger. What does it mean? In your experience working with Filipino writers, you must have gotten some bad eggs. Bad and good writers are everywhere. Being a native English speaker does not always guarantee that the person can write well in English. Oh man, believe me. I worked for Blockbuster Online's Email Support Team. Obviously, you know who we were supporting but I rarely received an email written in a perfect English grammar with coherent structure. Same thing goes for Filipinos. Our national language is Filipino but not everyone gets the highest mark in their college score card for this subject.

That said, I believe you already got what I was trying to put across.

Cheers!

JC

EpicMarketier - Do you have a writing services, too? Please email me at mindreader.writer@gmail.com. I'm looking to train some writers.

What are you planning to do with the articles? Post them on your blog/site, guest pots, build backlinks?

I would suggest it has to do with what they are willing to spend. I personally wouldn't do any writing for anyone for less than $0.10/word. Here on the WF, as well as other places, many US writers will write for 1/10th that rate at $0.01/word (that or they'll sell you spun crap or PLR for that rate).

A lot of these folks want to cut that penny in half and get $0.005/word.

So, they are looking for 'quality' content at up to 1/20th the price of what a skilled writer should be charging and think they can get it in the Philippines.

Compelling writing is not defined by perfect grammar, alone or entirely. Especially on da net where it is more conversational and 'dumbed down'.

Know what I am talking about?

Oops.

Do you understand that about which I am talking?

Not many people, aside from those that fancy themselves writers, will read that first rendition and think, "Wow, that dude just ended a sentence with a preposition. His grammar, and by extrapolation his writing, sucks." They probably will, however, assume the latter sentence to sound weird to their ears and penned by a bloke straight out of Victorian England, which will result in a lack of continuity.

But for those hell bent on plastering the net with the largest volume of content they can, regardless of the actual writing skill/style of the author or the experience level of the writer as it pertains to the subject matter, and demand perfect grammar and use that as their benchmark to judge the writing, I would see if you can find any Filipinos that had grammar taught to them by a Catholic nun. I will put any 15 year old US kid's grammar who has been educated in the Catholic school system up against any average college graduate who received their K-12 education in our public school system. All day, everyday.

Them ladies like to beat grammar into ya. Or at least they used to be able to beat it into you. Now they are relegated to nothing more than the use of a red pen.

I don't know if the Philippines has just one school system or has parochial schools too. But, it is the first thing I would look into when screening a writer from there, considering how prevalent catholicism is in the Philippines.