Crowdsourcing: Outsourcing on Steroids

Recently, I wrote about crowdsourcing for one of my clients, a small business-focused site called Business on Main, on the MSN network. It’s fun for me to write about how the Internet continues to change everything including business models and how work gets done. Crowdsourcing isn't for every business, but it does seem to apply to many diverse business tasks.

I answered a question on the site about how crowdsourcing can help a small business, which I'm reprinting below. I'd love to learn more about how small businesses, even consultants like me, are using crowdsourcing:

• Is crowdsourcing appropriate for activities such as PR, marketing communications, and even, journalism? What cool examples have you seen?
• Is the crowdsourcing "member" (a.k.a. worker) getting screwed financially from these arrangements?

It seems hard to believe that some of these contractors aren't losing money -- but others, if they are smart, might be getting more volume in exchange for a lower project fee, and coming out on top.

 If only I could use crowdsourcing to get my house in order and laundry done every day.

 Anyhow, here is how I responded to the Business on Main question. What do you think?

 [Reprinted from MSN Business on Main]

Sites such as CrowdFlower, crowdSPRING, Trada and uTest enable a business to complete projects using the collective intelligence of a knowledgeable and skilled community. Instead of spending hours finding the right contractor to do a job, such as designing your website or translating copy into Japanese, post your project on a crowdsourcing site and then review the bids from people who have been pre-qualified.

Crowdsourcing can save you time looking for skilled workers, and may be more affordable, too. “It is usually cheaper, up to 30 percent less than offshoring,” says Matt Johnston, vice president of marketing and community at uTest, a site for software testing.

Companies often find they get as good or better quality results with crowdsourcing. Depending on your needs, you may have a virtual team of people working for you on one or many projects. "Crowdsourcing allows you to tap into the creativity and diversity of an entire community," Johnston says.

Sarah Harris, marketing manager for Norman’s Rare Guitars, says she had mediocre results with freelancers before using crowdsourcing. She used crowdSPRING to source a logo design and Web design project, and was delighted with the result and the service. “I had a lot of revisions for the designers and they were all receptive and completed everything so quickly,” she says.

As crowdsourcing has evolved, there seems to be an unlimited number of ways a business can use it. Beyond Web design, marketing and software development, companies are using crowdsourcing to make videos, do fundraising, conduct market research, transcribe audio files, take customer orders and provide customer support, and even to solicit ideas for new products and services.

Crowdsourcing is a novel and efficient way to hire experts for short- or long-term projects. Give it a try, but don't shortchange the processes you use for hiring contractors on your own. Provide ample guidance up front about your business and goals when requesting bids for a project, says Niel Robertson, CEO of Trada, a site for paid search advertising experts. “If you frame the problem better, you can get much better results," he says.

Consultants and Writers: Be Transparent, Avoid Conflict of Interest

As a freelance writer who also has PR and marketing clients, I have to be transparent in my work. I do not cover companies that I represent, for instance. I do not contact interview subjects for marketing work. However, if they contact me: great. And I will never interview them again. A good friend and former colleague of mine once said: "Keep everything in the sunshine." That's a good rule of thumb, to avoid potential conflict of interest.

Today, whether you are a consumer of online information, a creator of online information, or both, there are risks. Can you trust the source that you are reading for objectivity? (Blogs with generic names are often co-sponsored or owned by companies. Look for the fine print.)

Random bloggers with "news" sites are often just rewriting press releases. Read carefully.

Freelance journalists are not always what they seem.

Anyway, I do believe it's possible to write objective articles and also do PR and marketing work, as long as those two activities remain separate. I've been doing this for several years now. Check out the blog that delves deeper on this which I wrote for TGPR, a virtual PR agency in Menlo Park, California, whom I have been working for since 2009.

I'd love to get your thoughts about how lines are blurring and how this affects your work.

Santa gave me an iPad

And I didn't even ask for one. How about that? It's genius simplicity. Nothing more to say. I know 2011 will be even more productive...and fun. Happy New Year!

The End of Summer: At last, I can work in peace again.

It's been a long summer. Yet, it went by so quickly and the kids are back in school and busy with homework and activities like it never even happened. Thank God.

The older I get, the more I realize that summer is like Christmas. So much anticipation, a blur of excitement and chaos, and then a large sigh of silent gratitude when it's over. September has become my new favorite month.

I didn't always used to feel that way. For my entire life, summer has been my favorite season. For one, my birthday is in June. Then there’s swimming, hiking, trail running, lounging by the pool with a book, biking, dining al fresco, margaritas on the patio, barbecues with friends, warm evenings and long days, ice cream, fireworks, festivals and outdoor concerts.

Funny though, how my opinion has changed now that my children have become of school age. Now, summer is a constant juggling act of trying to maintain the steady flow of deadlines (clients don’t take summer off, nor do the bills, after all) while managing the babysitter, the changing daily schedules, changing daily activities, camps and all of their unique requirements, and young children who must stay up until all the other neighborhood kids finally go inside at 9:30 PM. Or later.

Yes, summer’s over, but I’m getting tired just thinking about it again. The last few weeks of summer vacation are particularly straining. They remind me of the final days before my wedding: Oh, we forgot to do that! Shoot, we forgot to invite them! And then of course, the kids complain about their rotten choices for the day (no amusement park? no movie? no three-ring circus?) or fight over silly bands and who got the largest scoop of ice cream. They fret that school is about to start again -- yet secretly, they're about as excited as the parents. Secretly, the kids wonder what happened to their parents, who now look like walking zombies from staying up late every night due to their incredible lack of focus during the day.

We are three weeks into the school year now and for the parent who works at home, it's heavenly. For a solid seven hours, the house is blessedly quiet. There are no children storming into my office demanding better snacks or worse, better babysitters. Productivity is at an all-time high. The kids are in bed at 8:30, no questions asked.

There is just one small problem: the weather is still quite summerlike, and my bike and running shoes are close at hand.

Until next summer arrives, may peace, quiet and productivity reign!