How to successfully hire your first outsourcer...

I agree, ODesk.com is a great way to find workers to do tasks for you at a reasonable price.

I know what I'm about to say will sound a bit harsh, so let me say I think you're one of the good guys-and have bought from you, but I believe you have not thought this through enough, and when you do, I think (and hope) you will adjust your thinking to reflect that people from privileged countries should pay for any work they request from third world people, even if it is an hour or less. It won't even make a dent in your budget.

It's a nice sentiment that you shouldn't do this "just to get free work", but you shouldn't be asking for free work at all-regardless of why.

In my view, that is immoral-basically the rich (by comparison) begging for unearned favors from the poor-in many cases, taking full advantage of the desperation they might feel for the opportunity to work for you.

Even if you fix it up in your head that it's justified because of the opportunity-that would only apply to the one you hire-the rest are sh** out of luck, and just gave you an hour (or whatever) of work for nothing in return. Spend the freakin $2 and make your own coffee one time, so they can have a meal for the effort they put in at your request (most likely, your cup of coffee is worth a good meal where they live). It is definitely not cool in my book for the rich to beg from the poor, and you needn't do it to have success.

I've been doing some outsourcing from the Philippines, and it costs me $2 an hour (which is more than many people pay) to hire a variety of workers with various skills there. They are not all up to speed right away, and not all are great or efficient, but the price is so great that I really don't mind having to try out several workers to find one that I really like. I pay them for every hour, and the worst that ever happens is someone takes way too long on a task-but I still get the work done for less than if I hired a fellow American. For example, I had a graphics guy create some custom profiles for me that should have been done in 1/2 a day (I think), but took him closer to a week-so I got it done for about $80-a fraction of the $300 that a fellow American offered it for. When hiring so cheaply, what would otherwise have been a disaster, turns out to be a decent deal-there is so much room for error.

So don't be cheap and stiff your applicants-you don't have to in order to win at this easy game. The cards are already stacked so far in your favor that you can screw up big time, and still come out in the black, but you can do it with a cleaner conscience if you refrain from asking for freebies-even a small task should be compensated.

If you feel you must see work samples, simply discard the resumes that don't include them-in my experience, about 1/2 the resumes I receive inlude samples. If I want a sample of something that isn't included, I will hire the best prospects for 1/2 a day-for $8. If your business can't support that, you aren't ready for outsourcing.

You should also consider these more friendly techniques. Set up filters for the hours they have worked and their ratings. Say more than 200 hours and 4.5 star rating. One problem you will find is these guys (and gals) don't read the job requirements. It wastes your time to read the response and see if they are qualified. So, place a line at the bottom of the job posting that says (or something to this effect) refer to "penguin" in the first line of your response. If the word "penguin" is not in the first line you will be rejected. While this does not qualify them you at least know they read the entire job requirement. If they can't read the requirement and respond accordingly then I think that is a good indicator they are not a fit. I have also talked with many folks who do the test. This is less of an imperialistic approach ;-)

I am pleased to yet again force someone to spit out their drink.