Knowing When to Hire a Professional

Knowing When to Hire a Professional

by Seth · 43 comments

There comes a time when you are up against an insur­mount­able task or dead­line and there is noth­ing you can do but face defeat.  At least that’s what it seems like when you don’t know what or who to turn to for help.

Find­ing the right help and under­stand­ing when its time to use the resources you have avail­able are impor­tant.  There is has never been more free con­tent and excel­lent tips online to teach you exactly when and how to accom­plish your task at hand.  Maybe you have a school project, dead­line at work or more rel­e­vant a new blog you have to have ready.  What do you do when you are not sure where to go and feel like you hit a dead end?  — To a Professional

Great Free Resources

Now I am a pretty prac­ti­cal guy and spend very cau­tiously.  I read reviews, talk about the prod­ucts with oth­ers, and try to demo as much as I can before every buy­ing any­thing.  So let me first tell you about all the great “free” resources avail­able online.  If you have ques­tions you can try to find answers with some of these great resources.  The best part is that all of the free resources listed have search bars.  So if you don’t see what you are look­ing for imme­di­ately just search for it.

Blog Tips

If you are try­ing to learn how to start a blog, how to make money blog­ging, or how to cus­tomize the­sis theme then stick around.  We have lots of great resources like our Blog­ging Guide to help you get through what­ever dead ends your fac­ing.  If you don’t see it then just ask and we at Blo­gus­sion will either write up a tuto­r­ial for you or show you where else you can find it.  So for blog­ging tips, Blo­gus­sion is a great place to be.  We also rec­om­mend look­ing at many of our read­ers blogs because they offer excel­lent resources on how to blog better.

Writ­ing

For those inter­ested in writ­ing I would rec­om­mend learn­ing from the mas­ters over at Copy­blog­ger.  Not only are the arti­cles extremely good qual­ity but they are also very enter­tain­ing.  I leave 90% of the arti­cles hav­ing learned some­thing new.  Most of the time you just can’t say that about a site.  If you want to write bet­ter head­lines (which I rec­om­mend :) ) then check out an excel­lent resource Alex put together on 18 Resources for Writ­ing Bet­ter Head­lines.  In no time your writ­ing will improve and you’ll be fin­ish­ing your work faster.

Design

Many blog­gers strug­gle to either find a suit­able theme/template or cus­tomize it once they find some­thing they like.  As you might know Blo­gus­sion was design and cus­tomized off of the The­sis Theme which we would rec­om­mend you buy if you want a very robust frame­work to cus­tomize.  For help with this check out Asnio.

If you are look­ing to do a lot of design work your­self then I would rec­om­mend you start with a few very trust­wor­thy and high qual­ity blogs.  First I would rec­om­mend you check out the Tut­sPlus pro­gram.  The blogs in par­tic­u­lar you should see are PSDTUTS (pho­to­shop) and NETTUTS (Code).  In addi­tion to these sites the blog WebDesignerDepot.com is an incred­i­ble resource.

Get­ting Pro­fes­sional Help

No I’m not talk­ing about for your cur­rent men­tal state but rather for your blog! Blog­ging is hard work and get­ting some help every once in a while goes a long ways towards being suc­cess­ful.  Oth­er­wise we spend months work­ing on some­thing we don’t even know if we are doing correctly!

Think about the major prob­lems that you have and how impor­tant it is to use a pro­fes­sional.  The last time you were sick you prob­a­bly led you to a doc­tor.  Or the last time your car’s engine blew you went to a mechanic.  When­ever you are try­ing to do some­thing right you should check into using pro­fes­sional help.

The major ques­tion is.. when is the right time?  To that I would answer as soon as pos­si­ble.  Find a con­sul­tant, designer, or pro­fes­sional to get you started on the right track and mov­ing towards suc­cess.  If I were a new blog­ger again I would have hired a con­sul­tant to teach me about mar­ket­ing my blog and got an excel­lent designer to pro­duce a blog I could be proud of.

Then with their help I would be sure I was not wast­ing months of my time try­ing strate­gies that don’t work and designs I am never pleased with.  Think about this from a mon­e­tary per­spec­tive.  You could try and spend months of your time doing it your­self and most likely not get­ting it right, or spend some money to get it right imme­di­ately and start your blog­ging on the right foot.

Find­ing a Professional

The key to find­ing the right help is by first know­ing what your goals are.  As a Blog Pro­mo­tion Con­sul­tant my first ques­tion before I ever start is “What are your goals?”  Then I try to find out what they are cur­rently doing so I can explain what is right and wrong.  By the end of the con­ver­sa­tion not only does the client have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of what to do, but more impor­tantly where they are going.

Look­ing for the right pro­fes­sional can some­times be tough.  My first bet would be to look to those that are doing it right.  What are they doing right? Do I like their style? How could I get their help? Then just be a lit­tle coura­geous and ask them for help in an email or even a tweet!

The best thing to do is offer what you are most will­ing to pay for and explain­ing what and why you need them.  In return do not be afraid to ask them ques­tions about what they will be offer­ing you and how you will pay them.  If you are get­ting design work does the money all have to be upfront? Ask those impor­tant ques­tions before you get involved.

If you are look­ing for a blog pro­mo­tion or The­sis theme designer then you came to the right place.  Alex and I do those very well and have a num­ber of cur­rent clients we work with.  Just con­tact us and let us know how we can help.

If your look­ing for addi­tional help from writ­ers or other free­lancers then check­ing out Free­lance Switch would be a good idea.  They have hun­dreds of qual­ity pro­fes­sion­als who know what they are doing.

Con­clu­sion

Doing things your­self is great but when it comes time to get­ting an almost impos­si­ble job done, hire a pro­fes­sional.  Also be sure to do it right the first time and don’t spend wasted hours on some­thing that will fail.

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Article by Seth

You just read an article from a seasoned blogger and web consultant. Besides blogging, stumbling, and twittering I enjoy road bikes, basketball and Razorback football. I am one of Blogussion's biggest fans!

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air diffuser November 19, 2009 at 1:33 am

thanks for sharing!!!!
like this post!fighting!!!

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Eric C November 19, 2009 at 2:04 am

Rare is the blogger who knows design, SEO, marketing, writing, and copy editing. For our blog, my brother and I “hired” a friend, and I’m happy with our design. We focus mostly on content and marketing.

Two last things. Great widget that shows our most recent blog post. That is cool. And when are you going to follow me back on twitter Seth?
Eric C´s last blog ..A DMV, A Contractor and A Captain Walk Into a Bar…

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 8:44 am

I am following you on Twitter.. now and you are right, “hiring” a friend makes you happy!
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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Phaoloo November 19, 2009 at 2:10 am

I like this post. We all are human and we have our strengths and weaknesses. Focus on what we are good at and outsource insurmountable tasks to professionals is a smarter way to succeed.
Phaoloo´s last blog ..Top 19 Tools To Hide Folders On Windows

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 9:28 am

Focusing on our strengths leads to happiness and much better results. We also save a lot of time.
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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Teen Blogger November 19, 2009 at 8:32 am

Everyone needs to hire someone to do a certain job they cant do. Of course it will cost some cash, but what doesn’t cost money. We bloggers can do most stuff our selves like, writing, promoting and maybe even coding, but at a certain point you will want to hire or outsource your work.

Hiring pro’s can also give you valuble time to get other stuff done.

Nice Post.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..7 Killer Ways To Get Free Targeted Traffic

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 9:27 am

Right producing content is the number one priority for bloggers. If you focus on that and have the resources… a lot of other things can be outsourced very easily.
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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Gordie Rogers November 19, 2009 at 9:06 am

I find I suck at design. I have a friend who isn’t too bad, but now I want to create a professional logo and a T-shirt print in future.

Thanks for this.
Gordie Rogers´s last blog ..Confessions Of A Coke Addict.

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 9:26 am

Finding the right help to offset our own weakness is important.

One of the best things I pay for is education – because then you get the benefits of the expert while learning the skills and knowledge yourself. I think it would be almost worth paying someone to tutor you in design so that you can do future projects alone. It all depends on your goals though.
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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David Walker November 19, 2009 at 9:20 am

I’m all for hiring professionals for the right job. We might choose not believe it but amateurism shows, and drives traffic away from the blog/site. There’s also outsourcing small tasks to freelancers to free up time that would be better spent focusing on more important matters. It’s not as hard as it sounds, and makes you look more professional since everything is clean and very well done. After all, you are paying for it and should expect value for your money.

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 9:25 am

You are right about both points you brought up:

1. Amateurism shows – ever seen a blogger.com default blog? Would you buy something from one?
2. Freelancers often can do the job much faster and require less time. The old adage is time is money right?
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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David Walker November 22, 2009 at 5:33 am

Buy? I wouldn’t take what’s for free :) Years ago, I set up a blog there, registered and never went back. I might be wrong to think this way, but we do it all the time; judging a book (in this case, blog) by its ‘cover’. Therefore, if the site looks terrible, then people assume the content and blogger are terrible too. Why risk that?
David Walker´s last blog ..Live Webinar – Tuesday 24 November 5pm EST

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John Paul November 19, 2009 at 10:59 am

Outsourcing things I’m not good at has saved me time money and headaches.
Just be careful who hire, you can go local in states and pay more, but they will be able to follow directions better.

You can save big money going with sources out the country but the language barrior and culture differences makes it hard for them to “get” what your trying to do.

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 8:07 pm

Being careful about who you hire is really important if you want to be sure to get your monies worth!
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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Arafat Hossain Piyada November 19, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Usually I try to do thing myself even if I hire someone to do certain thing. That really a self learning process and help me to increase my depth on that subject. I don’t like to take a chair and rest on it when someone doing my work.
Arafat Hossain Piyada´s last blog ..Attention: Hacker invent simplest way to hack your Gmail account

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David Walker November 22, 2009 at 5:48 am

Hi Arafat,
I understand your concern but it’s not the way you imagine it. We don’t want to sit on our laurels while others do our work , but use the time we get to focus on other more important things we can do, and which only we can do about our blogs. That way, you get quality work done by two people in half the time it would take you to do them both yourself.
As an example, let’s say your blog is your car. It’s all yours and you love it, but when you want a paint job done, you look for a professional to do it, and when you want it washed, you ask the neighbor’s kid to do it for a few bucks.
At the end of it all, the car’s still yours and you had time for other important things, like spending quality time with your loved ones :)
David Walker´s last blog ..Live Webinar – Tuesday 24 November 5pm EST

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Seth November 23, 2009 at 9:48 am

Great explanation David. There is a time and place for purchasing services that will not only be helpful but make you lots more money in a lot quicker of a time.
Seth´s last blog ..How Being Happy can Make you a Better Blogger

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Arafat Hossain Piyada December 20, 2009 at 10:14 am

I am not against hiring professional after all they are professional and specialized to do something better than us; what I want to point is, don’t depend on professional too much, try to learn thing. That will help you to hire a better person.
Arafat Hossain Piyada´s last blog ..Download Vodafone ZooZoo Calendar 2010 (New Year Gift)

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Ms. Freeman November 19, 2009 at 12:51 pm

A professional would most definitely be of great help, but it is kind of a catch 22. Need money to hire one, need to make money to have money.

Hiring a pro is certainly a great goal to strive for, and it is on my list to do.

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 8:08 pm

Yes it does take money, but often its an investment worth trying. Especially if you have clear goals ahead of you.
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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Blog Tips November 20, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Yes, it takes you money to hire a pro but it gives you more to time on focusing how to market or promote your site.In the end, you earn more than how much you spend ;-)
Blog Tips´s last blog ..Blogging Tips and Techniques

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Gabe | freebloghelp.com November 19, 2009 at 1:06 pm

Hiring a pro doesn’t always mean paying for one. Exchanging your core competency for theirs is usually a good start.

So if you’re good at SEO, offer those services in exchange for something you suck at, say a design tweak to your home page.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..The top 3 biggest myths of FTC disclosure

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Seth November 19, 2009 at 8:21 pm

I really like the idea of exchanging strengths with other professionals. Great idea!
Seth´s last blog ..Knowing When to Hire a Professional

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Dennis Edell November 22, 2009 at 8:38 am

Just be darn sure it is of equal value and neither parry is being taken advantage of…this is easy to do, even unintentionally.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Home Business Site For Sale! (Not Mine Don’t Panic)

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Annabel Candy November 19, 2009 at 10:54 pm

I wish everyone would hire a professional to help them. Website design is a team skill and most of us need to outsource some of it:)

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Seth November 23, 2009 at 9:49 am

Right. It takes a village to raise a child* and it takes a community to make a blog!
Seth´s last blog ..How Being Happy can Make you a Better Blogger

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Sara November 19, 2009 at 11:56 pm

I love this blog. You guys always have great ideas and great resources. Thanks for all your help!

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Seth November 23, 2009 at 9:49 am

Thanks for your compliment! We will keep working on helping you the best way we can.
Seth´s last blog ..How Being Happy can Make you a Better Blogger

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Dana @ Online Knowledge November 20, 2009 at 1:30 am

Yeah, it is better to leave the thing in pro hand sometime.
Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Get Benefit from FeedBurner

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izzat aziz November 20, 2009 at 6:15 am

Doing everything our self is just like crafty management style.. yes it good we can anything we want. But every thing has it limit, something our blog expand beyond our target at that time you might need to call for emergency support.. you no longer can do what you need to do because you just don’t have time to do or simply you don’t know how to do it.

If you think you blog ready for the next level, call professional. :)
izzat aziz´s last blog ..Free Themes vs Premium Themes

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Blog Tips November 20, 2009 at 2:09 pm

I just did hire someone on my site and outcome is great! i have never had to learn web designing anymore lol
Blog Tips´s last blog ..Blogging Tips and Techniques

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Seth November 23, 2009 at 10:31 am

That’s the idea! You can focus on what you are good at. Problogger does not worry about designing his own blogs, just putting great content on them.
Seth´s last blog ..How Being Happy can Make you a Better Blogger

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Dennis Edell November 22, 2009 at 8:41 am

Rule ONE – be well aware of your limitation and stop trying to be the all important one (wo)man show…as I think everyone starts out.

Not only do you waste tons of time defining insanity, but you leaves loads of cash on the table before you realize it.

Definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over thinking you’ll get different results. ;)
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Home Business Site For Sale! (Not Mine Don’t Panic)

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Seth November 23, 2009 at 10:29 am

Dennis this is the best way to put it! Its not only terribly ineffective but INSANE to try and do everything yourself. Otherwise you are left with some major element of your blog that you cannot do adequately.

Alex and I are partners for this very reason. We are in effect “paying” each other by partnering up so that we can divide the work and responsibilities. I do the marketing and Alex does the design. We divide and conquer!
Seth´s last blog ..How Being Happy can Make you a Better Blogger

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Dennis Edell November 24, 2009 at 11:09 am

An upcoming post featuring the magic of partnerships. ;)
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Feel About A Static Homepage On A Blog?

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Seth November 24, 2009 at 11:52 am

Haha perhaps! We did write a bit about it a few months ago when the relationship was still very new!
Seth´s last blog ..Customizing Your Wordpress Back-End

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Dennis Edell November 24, 2009 at 2:55 pm

Actually Seth, I meant on my blog. ;)
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Feel About A Static Homepage On A Blog?

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The Blog Builder Guy November 23, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Congratulations on not mentioning outsourcing work to foreign countries. Lets keep it at home.

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DavidMitchel December 3, 2009 at 9:23 am

If we feel the pressure in the work then we do hire someone to complete the work on time.We should choose such a personality who is good at attitude and behavior rather than knowledge and skill. This applies to all the fields .

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pc-spiele December 4, 2009 at 5:48 am

Hi,
No I dont agree with David.How can we take work by pressure.There are some cases only ,need arises to use pressure but not always.We should know how to take work from others .And again we cant hire person having no knowledge.Will that fullfill our requirements,never.I agree that attitude is required but knowledge and skills are must.

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scheng1 December 12, 2009 at 9:21 am

Guess what cross my mind when I read the title? I think of the leaking toilet pipe. That is definitely an area I need professional help.
scheng1´s last blog ..Writing book reviews to make money

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