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A growing trend around the world both online and off is the shift from in-house employees to outsourced foreign contracted employees. Both sectors online and off have discovered that utilizing outsourced employees for various tasks can save them a large portion of their allocated payroll that can now be dedicated to other aspects of their business.

One of the scariest issues with outsourcing is the loss of jobs within your own country. By utilizing outsourced companies it is no different than a farm owner or factory owner hiring illegal immigrants to work at a fraction of the cost. The only difference is you are not bringing the employee into your place of business. Lower cost laborers who are willing to work for a fraction of a trained and skilled employee are displacing people around the world. Outsourcing is devastating to specific industries like telemarketing, telecommunications, web design, textual work, customer service and technical support. The people that formerly worked in these jobs earning low amounts of pay have now been displaced by people in other countries earning obscenely low amounts of pay and sometimes for only dollars per day. There are two trends in outsourcing. One type of outsourcing company is a U.S. based outsourcing that uses student, housewives and other personnel that don't require a high paycheck as their work force. The other is a foreign outsourced employee that makes such a small amount of money that you can hire them for just a few hundred dollars a month. The U.S. based companies are few and far between with the largest population of outsourced workers being outside the U.S.

Adult webmasters have jumped on the outsourcing bandwagon for several reasons. One is to keep their overhead costs down and the other is to attempt to get the work done as quickly as possible and they are able to hire multiple workers with what they would regularly pay an in-house employee. There are two forms of outsourcing that are favored by adult webmasters. One is to have a dedicated employee that works for you exclusively full time. The other form of outsourcing is to hire an individual to complete short-term projects at a fraction of the cost an in-house employee would cost. There are advantages to having outsourced employees with the largest advantage being the impact on the bottom line. The business owner or Webmaster no longer has to pay taxes on this employee, benefits, vacation, workers comp insurance or even a minimum wage that would typically apply to in-house employees. They are removing the laborer and sometimes the skilled employee from the workforce and replacing them with cheap, fast and often poor quality employees. The largest potential problem with having a dedicated employee is that you are not directly able to supervise them and they are often in a completely different time zone than you are thus making it difficult to communicate with them during your regular work hours. One large problem with individual outsourcing companies is that you run the risk of encountering a scam artist that misrepresents him or herself or even just disappears after you have paid them for a particular project. It is also almost impossible to track down the scam artists and they reinvent themselves time and again to continue this easy moneymaking venture.

One of the largest issues and complaints that I have witnessed with respect to webmasters outsourcing work is the communications breakdown that occurs. Foreign outsourced employees are hired for design but the tour text comes back full of grammatical and spelling flaws. Text is probably the worst project that you can outsource if you intend to cater to a largely English speaking audience. The outsourced employees have a shallow grasp of the English language but are not really able to create text that flows well due to grammatical and spelling errors and even the lack of knowledge of English slang. Another huge issue is that the outsourced employees seem to have a library of excuses for missing work. I've seen threads on the various forums that refer to this subject. People get so frustrated that they inevitably have to joke about their outsourced employee's aunt has died for the 13th time this month. It is a sad reality though that you cannot monitor an employee that's 2,000 miles away in another country. You can always fire them but there is not a shortage of opportunities for these outsourced employees. One alarming trend I see is that outsourced employees typically are hired based upon the company owner's popularity within the industry. The opportunity to have your very own employee for only $400 a month gives people the chance to sound important and have someone at their beck and call at a very inexpensive price. But hey, the good ole boy that you have seen post on the boards owns the company so it must really be worth having your very own dedicated employee. But, what many fail to realize is that if you aren't utilizing their time to its full capacity your employee can also be assigned to other tasks. They also may be assigned to other companies without your knowledge and thus the outsourcing company is receiving dual pay for individual employees.

You do have to remember that not all outsourcing companies are incapable or poorly trained. There are some fantastic outsourced companies but they are a very minor percentage of the total outsourcing companies. I also am not saying that any one region or country has poor outsourcing companies. An outsourced company can be anywhere from New Delhi to New England. It really doesn't matter where the company is located. What matters is the quality of work that you receive from them. When searching for an outsourced employee there are several questions that you can ask prior to making a commitment. If you are dealing with a company that provides outsourced employees you should find out precisely who your employee is going to be and ask for specific references of other industry people they have worked for in the past. When those references are given don't just accept that they are valid. Check them out and ask about the quality, speed and consistency of their work. Ask about attendance and compensation for any absences as well as having a backup employee should your employee's aunt die for the 13th time in a month. You also have the right to see a portfolio or examples of any additional work that the employee has done themselves. These are not questions or requests that are unreasonable. After all, you are the one paying for the employee and the company makes a profit from each employee. When dealing with individuals you should also check references, see portfolios and other examples of their work. One important point to remember when dealing with individuals is that you should not put more than a 50% deposit down. You have every right to ask for 50% of your project prior to paying the final balance but you should not put the outsourcer in the position of providing you with everything upfront before they receive a penny from you. It is not a fair situation when they could have taken other projects that would have paid a deposit or at least paid them when the project is finished and prior to final delivery. Of course, this is dependent on their terms and conditions but if they ask for a deposit of 50% or less then you should be willing to put your trust in them as they are in you. It is difficult for an outsourced employee to spend two weeks on a project with no deposit and then get stiffed on the final payment in the end.

Unfortunately this is a business where you must trust those you deal with or you will never be able to get anywhere. You must trust everyone from affiliates to sponsors to designers to outsourced employees. But, that is not saying you have to accept that they are good. The Internet is your friend. You can search by name, company, projects, etc. before committing yourself to an outsourced employee. Use the forums, the search engines and references provided to ensure that you are going to have a good outsourced experience if that is the direction you choose to go.