Im looking to outsource work to the phillipine or maybe india and i want to know if someone here already did that? how was you experience, what advice would you give to someone new to this. Any good website?

Basically anything you know about outsourcing would be very appreciated. Thank you.

i use odesk and i prefer to search for users that fit certain criteria as opposed to opening up jobs. The downside of this approach is that you'll often find people who will already have several jobs in progress and they may or may not have time to squeeze you in (or they might overload themselves and not deliver on promises).

Sometimes I will just open a job and put a lot of very specific things I'm lookign for in a worker. Also I'll type out a big long description of what I need and in the middle somewhere I'll add in a random question or instruction to find out if they are actually reading the job posting or just auto applying. Something like "if you apply for this job, you must begin your application with 'hello wiltontilt'.

Narrow down your search to maybe 5-8 people. Usually 20-30% of them won't respond to you. Have a list of questions to message them to begin with. Add in some questions that they won't already have standard form answers for, such as "explain your work environment" or "what do you like to do for fun?" and judge their typing/english/professionalism skills based on that. After you narrow some of them down, ask to talk or chat with them on skype and see how they communicate. Hopefully then you can narrow down to 1-3 choices.

While you're doing all of this, create a screen cast with instructions on what you need done. This way when the guy you've hired mysteriously disappears off the face of the earth (happens to me about 1 time in 4 or 5 so far, but i might be running hot) then you won't have to re-explain as much stuff for the next person on your list.

Hope that helps

Used a few sites, but I'm pretty happy using freelancer.com right now.

I put up jobs, think long and hard about setting correct milestones, and review the people who bid. Generally, I cut out anyone from India - never had a good experience with Indian freelancers online. My preference is for Russians/Former Soviet republics, and occasionally Vietnam/Malaysia... That's been working well for me. Not very scientific, but somehow works.

I spent a good chunk of the year in India in 2011 and have met tons of IT people... I'm using 2 of them for occasional projects and that is working great. However, it seems like only the most brainless Indians end up on these freelancer sites. It's like beating your head against the door trying to deal with them.

What type of work do you want to outsource? This will play a huge role in how the answer to this question is approached. I have used Elance a ton and rarely have had a problem. I have even found plenty of Americans that are working for similar rates as foreign competitors while providing more value (i.e. working in the same time zone, no language barrier, in tune with north american business etc.).

For Example - Say you need a personal assistant. There are lots of talented American personal assistants that will work for $6 - $8 hr (after Elance fees they are making like $4 -$5 and hour while providing very high levels of service). Not sure how much cheaper you would want someone to work but when you get into the $3-$4 an hour range I think you are just asking for trouble.

Why limit your work sourcing to the phillipines or india? I think you might be surprised how many hungry North American people there are (even talented programmers, writers, marketers etc.) who are willing to grind for similar rates as there foreign counterparts. Sometimes it might take a bit more time/skill or a few more proposals to find them but there out there for sure and the wait/hunt can really pay off if your working from the states as well. Elance does not charge for proposals either so its a semi-risk free challenge.

I actually work for a firm, Genweb2 that sets up developers for you depending on your needs. Our developers sit in India and Bangladesh, so we have very competitive rates, and the quality is high because we have a reputation to uphold. Our clients include startups all the way up to US Department of Defense.

If you are interested in discussing, check out our website and contact us by email for example. Ask for Mikko, that's me, I don't think I can post my email address here. I'll be happy to share some references with you.

I like Odesk to I usually 'scout' contractors from portfolios and feedback number of jobs etc only get design and some basic web stuff done though no large projects. But it's good for what I need.

I have had a pretty decent experience working with oDesk. I've hired Russian/Ukraine guys for design work and android app development. I would give them a B+ for the work done. Also hired a Malaysian fellow for some pptx animation. A+

For contract workers, you can look at oDesk and elance. For full time workers, you can look at the database of experts at Staff.com. They've got a lot of good and relatively cheap ones there.

thank you all very helpful information