Sharing The Workload – Chapter 2

<–This is Chapter 2. To read the first chapter, click here.–>

OUTSOURCING: The affiliate does not make partnerships or hire employees – they instead outsource certain aspects of their work to others. This work can range from image/website design to unique content to building link exchanges or promoting the affiliates site.

This is an option I’m seeing more and more affiliates using. Can’t design a website? Get someone else to do it! Don’t know how to do search engine optimization? Head over to RentACoder.com and you’re good to go! Can’t be bothered e-mailing people about link exchanges, or promoting(without spamming!) your site on forums? Pay some people to do it for you.

However, there are a lot of problems in regard to outsourcing. First, it requires start-up capital, and I know most affiliates don’t want to invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars when first starting out. Second, you won’t always get what you pay for. I know I’ve tried this before – I paid someone to market a promotion I was doing on poker forums out there. I gave him instructions on how to actually market something on a forum without it coming off as spam, and he ended up ignoring everything I requested and basically spammed the forum. Also I’ve found the turnover high in this regard – one person who is doing freelance search engine optimization one minute, will be working for a company or going into business by themselves the next.

Third, and most importantly – outsourcing is just a short-term option, and is not a good idea in the long run. If you want to be successful, you eventually will have to learn the majority of this yourself, rather than relying on others to do the job for you.

PARTNERSHIP: The affiliate works on a team of more than one person – with each individual on the team focusing on a certain aspect of the site(or aspects) – for example one person handles correspondence, another works on link exchanges.

On paper, this is an excellent option. Maybe you start out with a friend, or even with a team of 4-5 people. You all split the duties. One person runs the mailing list and newsletter, another focuses on search engine optimization. Another member of the team works on link exchanges, while a fourth handles all content. Or if it’s just two people, you split all the duties evenly. Working as a team can also be great when it comes to brainstorming sessions, and if a team member critiques your work it’s a lot easier to handle because you’re all working towards the same goal: making money.

Unfortunately, this can end up being the worst option to choose from. You of course have to profit share, most likely on an even percentage. This usually leads to problems however. While at the beginning everyone will be motivated and seem inspired, as time goes on it’s very common for at least one team member to get disillusioned with the operation, and start slacking when it comes to work. This then can create lots of problems because it affects the other team members who are working hard, and wondering why the slacker should make the same amount of money as them, who are working harder.

Or it can even work the other way: one team member does a lot of work, becomes exceptional in their duties, and wonders why he should have to share the profits with the others, when he feels he is the main reason for their income. This can lead to that person going into business for themselves, causing a gap in one or more departments and requiring turnover.

PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT: The affiliate hires employee(s) on a permanent basis, to work under them and do any duties assigned to them.

This one seems fairly simple – hire someone to do jobs that you assign on a permanent basis. Perhaps it’s to cover a certain area, ie: writing all the content for your site. You can pay them either a base monthly salary, a goal orientated salary, or even give them a reduced percentage of your income. The latter is appealing because it requires no capital when starting up – they make money when you make money, and it can help motivate them to do a better job.

However there will come a time when the permanent employee asks themselves – why are they doing this? Why are they writing the content for your site and only making 20% of the overall profit? Couldn’t they outsource themselves to various other sites, or even better, start up their own site? And as you grow, the employee will often realize that, and start making more and more demands for their work, knowing that you rely on them, and would be lost(at least temporarily) without them.