In my opinion, there are two possibilities. If development is something you’re good at or passionate about then sure, go ahead. If not however, then you’re better off letting those who are do it for you. At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of crunching some numbers.
For example, a 500-word article costs 10 bucks over at MegaSites.com (my development service, I blogged about it a few days ago). Would you be better off writing articles yourself?
Most likely not.
As a person who doesn’t write articles for a living, it might take you let’s say one hour and 30 minutes to write a 500-word article (people who write articles for a living are obviously able to do it faster and in most cases better). In other words, you’d invest 90 minutes of your time writing that article instead of paying someone 10 bucks to do it, essentially earning a little over $6.5/hour (you’d earn 10 bucks for 90 minutes or in other words, a little over 6.5 dollars per hour).
If $6.5/hour is more than you make through your current occupation (domaining, your day job if you have one or anything else) then sure, go for it. If however you currently earn more than $6.5 per hour, you’re better off letting someone else write the articles.
Capital/time allocation 101 🙂
The same principle is valid when it comes to design.
Perhaps in your case, the numbers are different. Maybe it takes you less than 90 minutes to write an article, maybe it takes you more but I’m sure you get the point.
Again, if you want to treat development as a hobby or if you’re good at it then yes, developing domains yourself make sense. If however you want to be pragmatic and maximize revenue, let someone else develop them.
A lot of you guys make considerably more than $6.5 per hour, so building websites yourself just doesn’t make sense. Some domainers are used to operating as a “one man show” but it you truly want to maximize revenue, you have to start letting other people take care of the tasks it’s not economically rational to handle yourself.
April 23rd, 2014 at 7:13 am
good point.. its very affordable and you need to price your own time into in and compare teh difference..
April 23rd, 2014 at 7:14 am
Domainers are not necessarily experts at development, writing, photography, design, SEO or video production. So some outsourcing makes sense if one chooses to go the development route. Just don’t forget the magnitude of the undertaking. Also, with writing, don’t just hire somebody to write who writes for a living but someone who is knowledgable about the topic. I once tried outsourcing an article for a fitness website and it was very obvious from what I got back the person writing the article had never set foot in a gym. I had to go back a couple of times to get something which even made sense and even then I didn’t use it.
April 23rd, 2014 at 10:47 am
I have completed the online form @ MegaSites, let me know about writters I need someone for at least one article per day for one of my sites.
Regards,
Robbie
April 23rd, 2014 at 12:27 pm
Definitely outsourcing is the way to go if you want to throw away hard earned money on amateur content writers. I’ve worked with hundreds of content writers over the years and very rarely have I found one that’s anywhere close to what I desire for my sites. As a result, I have built my own content writing team and have saved loads of money in the process. Over 3000 sites later, I think that I made a pretty good decision.
MegaSites.com seems like an excellent place to go for your content writing needs. I suggest that some samples be published (covering different topics) online so that prospective clients can get a little taste of your team’s writing skills. $10 per article is a bit steep for little guys like me. And there are thousands of little guys like me in the website development arena. Reduce your prices, sell your skills on sites like DigitalPoint.com and Fiverr.com since those platforms really help you get the orders. Of course, that’s if your team’s content writing skills are good to begin with.
On the other hand, there are several places where one can get decent articles written for $3 per 500 words. Fiverr and DigitalPoint are among the top places to go to for good content writers. Do your research, find a few good content writers, and then let them do the job for you.
April 24th, 2014 at 1:06 am
Thanks for the info Andrei.
Great points Savio D’Silva.
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