There comes a day and you think it is time to hire extra help. You do not cope with all your websites and you need some time to think about new directions of your current projects, to consider new opportunities and new websites to start.

So, you look for the outside help. I will describe my way – I realize that the quality of help needed depends on the type, amount, scale of the projects you run.

I outsource all my work at the moment – I do not rent an office and do not manage any in-house staff.

When I need a new developer I refer to ‘20 good questions to ask’ checklist and it works for me in an efficient way to find what I need. I guess my projects are quite simple – a mediocre developer (PHP, HTML, CSS) easily handles my tasks.

When it comes to copywriter/ blogger, forum moderator or search marketer to promote a website I have, as a rule, to start from zero explaining university graduates and students what I mean and need. Yes, they all are familiar with forums and blogs, but as consumers, not makers of the product. So, I have developed a sort of ‘Training kit’ that I periodically revise. I include links to the articles and posts that are, from my point of view, best published on the subject and that will help the staff to fully grasp what I need from them.

Here comes the selection of the links I send to any person I hire to help me with running websites:

Forum/ community management:

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12527

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum103/81.htm

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6783

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum103/71.htm

Moderator’s manual:

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=105&d=1088338022

Copywriting/ writing for the web:

http://performancing.com/node/3288

http://www.retrospector.com/2006/05/30/the-50-habits-of-highly-effective-blogging

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/how_to_get_traf.html

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-web-site-or-blog

http://performancing.com/node/2600

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_perfect_article

http://www.paulgraham.com/writing44.html

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=61811

http://mistersnitch.blogspot.com/2005/11/blogging-styles-and-traffic-stats.html

Summary: I do not think that it fits everyone’s needs, but it should help you as well to fill in some gaps (I hope so) – when I revise the training kit I re-read the articles myself and as a rule discover some missing points. And you can select just those links that are applicable in your case and send them to your helpers.

It is difficult for me to state how effective the training kit for my hired help, but I observe the progress and am quite satisfied with what I see.

I would be glad if you share your own way to train staff.

[eminimall]

[tags]staff training, training kit, freelance jobs, how to get a job, telecommuting, networking, online communities, forums, web forums, traffic, links bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, text-link-ads, links buying, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, duplicate content, earn your living online[/tags]

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