Public Announcement:

What I have in mind is releasing a brandable free application that semi automates submissions to a reviewed- by- you collection of directories, blogs, article and press release sites. You could offer this to your visitors to generate those all-important, (and more importantly FREE), natural links. You can populate the database with your own list of perfect submission sites and then brand it as the Viagra on steroids of reviewed submission sites.  HMMMMM, not sounding too bad is it?

If you are interested in beta testing this and helping us make it as good as it can get, send an email to seopackage@techndu.com and we’ll send you instruction of how to download it and get you access to the beta tester’s forum.

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 It's Nothing Fancy but It Is Effective

We represent a wide range of clients and have for over a decade.  Most, very conservative while others, ------ well ----- not so much. Many clients, (too many in my personal opinion), are more worried about running afoul of Google than they are about their own success. My philosophy has never been to tell the client what they want, but rather to advise of risk/reward ratios based on experience and then do what I’m asked to do. So, over the years we have had to develop specific tools and applications to speed up specific processes for servicing specific clients’ requirements. Most of those techniques needed to be EXTREMELY GGC, (google guideline compliant).

A little over a month ago, I inadvertently mentioned that we were thinking of releasing a little tool we use to submit to directories, article distribution sites and press release sites for our more conservative clients. We use this tool strictly for our ultra conservative clients to help cover the basics of SEO and link generation without breaking rules or guidelines and with virtually no risk.

It is nothing fancy but it is effective. The basic premise was to speed up tedious tasks through semi- automating  processes of submissions by simply filling a form out and installing it into a database based on project sensitive criteria. Entering the target details for a specific project into a database so that for dozens or even hundreds  of submissions or posts or distribution sites, we could just pull up the submission page into our script and then hit enter, all the details such as name, email, keywords and title etc. would automatically be entered. We then fill in the captchas, generate a report and we’re ready to move to the next client’s project for the day.

The biggest problem we had was getting  entry level employees to avoid the temptation of just submitting to everything without spending any time to determine the quality or even the category of submission targets. This, far too often, resulted in mixing the good, well themed links in with the junk which basically meant having to monitor each employees submissions, (having to pay a guy just to watch the other guyL), and then do it over correctly.

Necessity may the mother of invention but clients pitching a bitch is a pretty good motivator as well. And bearing in mind that we had some clients who strongly believe that if one is good then a million must be better and they would bitch about NOT having low quality links as vehemently as others would bitch about having them, we came up with the idea of having two different databases of sources. We called one the basics and the other the premiums. This idea enabled us to identify exactly which set of directories or article sites to authorize which employee to submit which client to. Problem solved right?

Ha!

Like relevancy, Quality is Subjective

Like relevancy, it seems that quality is completely subjective and each client seemed to have their own list of criteria for determining what and how much they were willing to pay for each possible combination of submissions. We finally came to the conclusion that we could not develop a separate database for each client at a price point that provided a reasonable return,  so for a long time we simply offered a basic and a premium as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. BUT, the concept of client specific databases never roamed far from my mind. I felt there was a tool there that could be a real time-saver to a lot of people.

Things like submitting to directories and article distribution sites is NOT marketing  yet it is a part of online promotion and needs to be done but every second spent doing it is a second that could have been spent on the things that actually generate revenue. If you spend a lot of time hunting good directories and then hunting them again for the next project and THEN submitting manually to each one, my guess is you are not making a lot of money. If you are doing that, you don’t have the time to make a lot of money.

Smart online marketers know this so their answer was simply submitting to everything fast. If you are happy with that approach, there are a lot of tools online to do just that BUT, with so many linkstinkers calling themselves directories getting tagged and bagged this past year, it makes a customized submission tool allowing you to pick and choose each submission target according to YOUR criteria sound like a pretty good idea.

I had always intended at some point to release a free version of our in-house submission tool but I lacked the resources to do anything more than create the same problem for the public that I was trying to solve privately.

Then I came to India where I was able to hire highly skilled developers at a cost that made a lot of impossible things suddenly very possible. One of our team leaders liked the concept and when he had extra time he began doing the coding to allow each user to create their own databases.

We have some features we would like to add but it is time to get a few people involved as beta testers to help us identify bugs and decide on which features would be the most beneficial to include  before it is released as freebie to the general public.

Mukesh, the developer I mentioned above, named the project the SEO package. I HATE that name and will announce it’s real name as soon as it is ready for prime time but for now, seo package will do.

A Brandable Free Application

What I have in mind is releasing  a brandable free application that semi automates submissions to a reviewed by you collection of directories, article and press release sites. You could offer this to your visitors to generate those all-important, (and more importantly FREE), natural links. You can populate the database with your own list of perfect submission sites and then brand it as the Viagra on steroids of reviewed submission sites.  HMMMMM, not sounding too bad is it?

If you are interested in beta testing this and helping us make it as good as it can get for a freebie, send an email to seopackage@techndu.com and we’ll send you instruction of how to download it and get you access to the forums.

Peace Y’all

G

Either get in or get out but quit slammin the damn door!

PROLOGUE:

There are far more people I owe a debt of gratitude to than I can mention here. All across the globe I have learned so much from so many that I can only hope to someday repay. But before I start this post I would like to acknowledge two people in particular for their unknowing contribution. Two people who helped me make the decisions to enable me to offer this announcement.

They did not help me because of me. They had no way of knowing what I took from them. They did it because of who they are and the incredible talent they have for sharing of themselves, asking little in return.

The first is Aaron Wall for his marketing savvy and for turning me on to Seth Godin, the second person I need to acknowledge. Had it not been for The Purple Cow and subsequent books and posts, I would not have had the insight or the courage to lead my outsourcing company to become remarkable.

I believe the post I am about to make has the opportunity to change the small corner of the world I can influence for the better. I believe it can help to eliminate prejudice and teach those who want to learn to “see” the world through the eyes of others.

Recently Aaron Wall made a post asking for drupal developers, http://www.seobook.com/jobs/view/5841 but he then said this:

We recently had another project outsourced to India and are not likely to go that route again soon, if ever. If we build trust in each other and work well together we have a lot of fun ideas for creating additional sites and adding features and tools to SEO Book.

In case you didn’t know, I just opened my own outsourcing company in July of last year so naturally, a statement like that from someone as respected as Aaron is a huge concern to me. I realize that India has a bad reputation with many American and European companies and I can understand why Aaron might feel the way he does but I KNOW it can be different and now my livelihood depends on changing that perception.

Online Marketing IS the Real World

Few people have all the in-house resources needed to compete successfully online without making such large investments that profit margins quickly become difficult to maintain. That makes the idea of outsourcing attractive.

But the problem with outsourcing is trust. How can you trust someone on the other side of the globe to do the work you need done, honestly, professionally and with your best interests at heart? How can you hand over your hard earned money and be confident you didn’t just throw it away? 

OUTSOURCING IS SMART BUSINESS. HERE’S THE SECRET TO NOT GETTING RIPPED OFF           

My outsourcing business is brand new. I just opened it in July’07. It is a very competitive field and not everyone I’m competing against is trustworthy.  I WANT YOUR BUSINESS because without it, I lose and so do you because we really are capable of producing value and we are committed to your success. So how can I earn your trust? How do you know you can trust me?

Because I’m not going ask you to pay me until AFTER we do the work. You do not have to risk feeling like you were taken advantage of !

I know that is remarkable. I WANT it to be remarkable because for me to succeed I HAVE to gain your trust so I can gain your business so that you can tell others. I have a lot of world class resources and offer a lot of services. I want you using my company for a lot of things for a long time and telling people of your good experiences but I will never have that chance if you can’t trust me enough to give me that first shot.

I’m asking you now for that shot.

I can have my development staff create custom widgets for you that generate free inbound links. I can have them build you custom database applications. I can have them install and/or modify joomla. We can develop php, .asp and are proficient in drupal, mambo, video applications and we can install and/or modify just about ANY open source scripts. There is no development job too big or too small.

I can have my design people create a new, updated site including logos, banner ads and templates. We are fast and affordable and we will prove it BEFORE you have to pay a dime.   

I can have my seo staff do any kind of on-site optimization  and my link masters secure links from everything from the SEO  basics to the more advanced techniques.

If you can see the value of adding some really nice scripts to your site for those natural links, for more visitors or for more revenue, or you are just tired of spending more time and money for the stuff you know outsourcing would be better for but didn’t want to take the chance of being ripped off, then just  send me an email or call my people on live chat, (an open source program you can add to your site too BTW). Let us show you what we can do for you and only AFTER we prove you can trust us to do what we say we will do, will we expect you to pay us.

I don’t mean to oversell. I’ve been in the internet business long enough to know that no one company has all the answers for everyone. We may not be a good fit or the right choice for you. But what makes this remarkable is that is a risk that you don’t have to take because I’m willing to take it.

We will try hard to exceed your expectations. If we do, tell your friends. If we don’t – tell me!

I am fully aware that not everyone online is honest and some use technology to mask their true intent.   But I have always had the philosophy that you worry most about the people who DO pay you instead of spending all your time worrying about those who don ‘t. Besides, I’ve been doing this kind of work a long time and I don’t claim to know all the tricks but I know enough that I’m confident I can tell the people who really do need help finding a service provider online they can trust opposed to someone wanting to steal a few links or scripts to spam one more dope site. If you are full of crap and can convince me you’re not, then you’re pretty damn good and probably deserve some freebies on my dime for your unique presentation at least.

The idea is not to give away free work. The idea is to give you the opportunity to evaluate for yourself if we are going to be able to contribute effectively to your overall objectives and provide a positive return. I have the confidence in my staff that they can more often than they can not. So confident that I am willing to take all the risk! That is remarkable and should be a start to killing the in-house, out-source debate.

The contention within that debate has always been centered around trust and I am certainly raising the bar on that issue and now with me having the guts to go for it, it puts pressure on other outsourcing companies to either follow suit or explain why they are not willing to accept the same risks as Techndu.

EXPECT MORE AND YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO GET IT.

http://outsource.techndu.com

For open source scripts

http://toolstore.techndu.com

The Upside

Lower labor costs – you can save as much as 75% compared to US and European wages

Wide range of resources to draw from – we have a staff of 16 people covering a lot of disciplines

No employment taxes – the hourly rate is only a portion of the true labor costs when you figure in taxes

No fixed labor costs – when the project is over the expense stops

Frees your time to do what you are good at – spend your time selling more services and making more money

Stay ahead of the technology curve- add new stuff fast

Outsourcing company can be invisible to your clients – we do the work and you take the credit

No increased office expense for additional staff – you don’t have to buy my people a desk and a computer

The Downside

Time difference – for half of the planet, your day is our night. A 24 hour response is common

Language barrier – everyone on staff speaks English BUT it is their second language. Accents are a problem and often email, skype and messenger are the best ways.

If you can live with the downside to gain the benefits of the upside, outsourcing can be a smart move for your business.

Peace Y’all

G

Get cleaned up for supper and this time do more than just get your hands wet!