Advice on hiring internet research/analysis assistant

[kiore]

I hope nobody will be offended if I say I believe there are different personality types and each type is better suited to some jobs than others. For example there are those who are natural entrepreneurs, people who can clearly express a breathtaking vision yet who are completely oblivious to minor details, there are those who can tirelessly trace through hundreds of lines of computer code enjoying tracing the elusive bug, there are detail people who love getting the figures right.

I have about 1600 domain names registered and am planning on developing a minimum of 500 of them into small sites in the near future. To get this right I need a reasonable amount of data in summary form.

I'm a bit entrepreneur and a bit software developer I have the vision but also like to see the facts, then again I am not so good at actually researching the detailed information I want to make the right decisions. I would benefit from having someone who can take my ideas and validate them by looking up information on the Internet. Detailed work like running keywords against the adsense keyword tool, searching through image libraries looking for images appropriate for the site or page I'm developing that I can legally reuse and accurately record all the copyright and licence information. These are today's needs, but as I expand my business there will be more tasks like this. Tasks that I can clearly define but haven't the time to do on a regular basis even if I had the personality that suited the task.

I've been thinking of hiring someone in India or Sri Lanka to do this work for me, looking at sites like Times Jobs, Click India and Sri Lanka Sale convince me I could find someone who matches my parameters & I even have a reasonable idea of what I'd have to offer in Sri Lanka, but I need some more information and hope someone can offer some useful advice.

If you've ever attempted something even vaguely like this I'd be interested hearing what your experience was.

Otherwise my specific questions are

• Is there any simple and reliable way to pay someone in Sri Lanka from outside the country?
• For India Paypal seems the best payment option to me. Are there better options?
• What kind of monthly salary should I offer someone in India for this task?
• My preference is salary rather than piecework as piecework encourages cutting corners to get quantity up. Am I wrong here?
• Other than salary am I likely to have to cover any unexpected charges?
• Are there better venues for finding people than the sites I mentioned?
• Any general comments?

Many thanks for your help

Bruce

 

[thx1138ga]

Hello Kiore,

I have sent you a PM, have you received it? as it isn't showing up in my outbox.

All the best.

 

[kathirvel]

My preference is salary rather than piecework as piecework encourages cutting corners to get quantity up. Am I wrong here?

I prefer paying on piecework basis. You just check for quality once and give approval for it.
Wish you good luck with your venture Kiore.

 

[NetOctave]

[*]My preference is salary rather than piecework as piecework encourages cutting corners to get quantity up. Am I wrong here?
[*]Other than salary am I likely to have to cover any unexpected charges?
[*]Are there better venues for finding people than the sites I mentioned?
[*]Any general comments?

Many thanks for your help

[*] I would suggest going for piecework initially and then later proceed to salary. Maybe 5-6 domains initially and then judge the quality of work before handing them the rest and paying a salary.
[*] I don't think you might face any other charges.
[*] If you have any local contacts, that would be the best. You will get reliable and quality people with low cost.

Good luck with your venture.

 

[kiore]

Thanks for the advice on using or starting with piecework nmridul and kathirvel.

I could start with it, but I wouldn't want to stay with piecework long term as I have a lot of names to investigate and if I had to check every one it would take me about 1/4 of the time it would to do the job itself .. so I might as well not get someone doing it if I can't rely on the answer. I guess I could do statistical sampling, and will fall back on that if I have to.

When I want the person finding reusable images, the problem's even worse, a pieceworker is naturally going to go with the first image they find that is close enough to the specification and not take a couple of minutes checking to see if there is a much better one just around the corner. I can't blame them for this, I'd do the same myself.

Can anyone see ways around these problems?

 

[kathirvel]

Thanks for the advice on using or starting with piecework nmridul and kathirvel.

I could start with it, but I wouldn't want to stay with piecework long term as I have a lot of names to investigate and if I had to check every one it would take me about 1/4 of the time it would to do the job itself .. so I might as well not get someone doing it if I can't rely on the answer. I guess I could do statistical sampling, and will fall back on that if I have to.

I agree to the point of piecework earlier and then shifting to a reasonable salary based on their work.

When I want the person finding reusable images, the problem's even worse, a pieceworker is naturally going to go with the first image they find that is close enough to the specification and not take a couple of minutes checking to see if there is a much better one just around the corner. I can't blame them for this, I'd do the same myself.

Can anyone see ways around these problems?

I feel it doesn't depend on whether he is a salaried employee or a pieceworker.
I depends on the understanding level & Working Ethics of the individual.
From our side we need to ensure that we have given the right instructions.

 

[kiore]

feel it doesn't depend on whether he is a salaried employee or a pieceworker.
I depends on the understanding level & Working Ethics of the individual.

I agree with you to a large extent, but it's just human nature to act in a way that produces maximum reward according to the established rules.

I believe that without being unethical at all, when you are paid piecework for results you put out acceptable results as fast as you can so you can do more tasks, when you are paid for time you put out the best results you can in the time allocated.