6 Facts about Outsourcing Content to the Philippines
 

This isn't a self promote your service thread. I know we have people on here who are from this part of the world who provide content services. Please read this blog post first before responding. You may want to add more tips.

Continued at: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/bl...ilippines.html

Let's keep this a friendly thread and not bash any companies in the Philippines. Not all of us are gifted writers and tend to outsource work.

Hey, it's my country! lol

It's true that in Craigslist, Elance and Odesk you can find great Filipino writers, but there those who wish to remain employed in outsourcing firms.

If I may add, clients around the globe are getting really smarter when it comes to bidding. There are those that bid reeaaaaally low but want superb quality (who doesn't?), but that's not fair... You don't get to order a $100 worth of meal in a restaurant and decide to pay only $10 because that's what you want! Clients must understand that.

Also, clients must consider this, before outsourcing a project in any part of the world, please state your project requirements as CLEARLY as you can because this is where most problems start.

I've seen clients wasting hundreds of dollars paying for what's not necessary, and I've seen lots of writers getting overworked but underpaid.

I agree the Philippines is a great place to outsource content writing. Yet I normally do not outsource until I have put in a bit of work myself into a site. This gives me a better idea of who I would like to hire for the sites I am building.

It's true that there are lots of gifted content writers, SEO, web developers and progmamers based in the Philippines. However, one must be cautious on where and who to hire. Yes, some may carry out the tasks and projects that the client will give but some freelancers aren't well equipped with the experience to get things done perfectly. Some, on the other hand, needs some training before giving them the tasks. In our company, we make sure that we hire the best people from top universities to ensure quality work in order not to disappoint clients. It's a matte of give and take actually. The client gives what the agent ones then the agent performs the work flawlessly and vice versa. :)

I outsource work to the Philippines all the time and the best part about it is that I can hire a writer to write me an article and then I pay somebody else to correct it. I think I would be lost without them.

I couldn't agree more.

Philippines is one of the world's most popular outsourcing destinations with some distinct advantages over countries like India and China.

I had 2 projects outsourced to Filipino writers. One turned out just perfect, but the other one was very disappointing, the articles were not at all readable. As in any other field, there is some good and some bad.

I also had a similar experience.

Pinoy Pride!
 

As I read the topic title I can't help it to feel proud yet tense for what is written on the article. I have read the whole article and here is my opinion (no bias, swear!)

I'm a proud Filipino as I always do. Reading / hearing something about my country make me feel good (though bad or good news). The article say some fact I nod and some which I have to comment.
Scam? It was all over the world, not just here in Philippines. The key is have a good job description and clear contract.
True, the conversion is minimum of 3-5 USD per article (from my writer friend). Of course you can't bait experienced writers with such price, however it's not necessarily means you can't get quality articles from not so experience ones, we Filipinos are writing based on experience and our daily lives which can be used as relevant content to any topic the contractor required.
Again, we gotta have something in return for our time and ideas. Sending samples are good as basis if you are qualified or not. If only you know the unemployment rate in our country. :(
Correct. Paypal is our preferred way of payment transaction, it's proven for being safe, reliable and fast. Let's be Pal? LOL
We want to know if we satisfied our clients. Most of us can speak English, so I think language barrier is not a major problem.
Precisely. You can find experienced writers with various specialties on the said outsourcing sites. And you might get shock how Filipino work. ;)
That's normal, you will find top performing and under performing people. I hope this won't affect the whole image of Filipino work etiquette.
I leave you the judgement what you'll do to them.

Thanks,
MrSS

Writing is not a new craft for Filipinos, it is already in their blood. Even during the Spanish era, Filipino writers are really exceptional, aside from the fact that Filipinos are good in English language. I only hoped that Filipino writers were not being generalized as like this and like that because we have what we call "individual differences theory."

I think the writer of that article should have added a 7th Fact.

English is one of the official languages of the Phillipines. A lot of potential clients may not be aware of that.

If I ever get to the point where I don't have time to write my own content and need to outsource, the Phillipines was already near the top of my list before I read this.

Indian writers are even more better than Filipino writers.

I have worked with writers from Philippines, India, Ireland, USA and Pakistan. I faced similar issues with each of the countries. Cant pick out a clear winner.

One could argue that USA and Ireland would be more expensive, but their turnaround time is much lower and they require less instructions.

One tip I can give to fellow members trying out different countries is that dont use same set of instructions/guidelines for different countries. Infact spend good amount of time understanding cultural issues or take help from people from these countries. This small thing can go long way in building longer, fruitful relationships.

Justify it
 

Why? Am not asking because I am a Filipino, it's because for I know we should backup our opinion to prove our point.

I have hired a Filipino writer in the past and was happy with the quality of the article. I'll admit that i was shocked on how well written the article was. This writer actually did her homework before writing and it was not a spun article.

The service was a little on the cheap side but i'm from the USA and things are more expensive in my country compaired to other countries. Sometimes people see a writing service from a Filipino writer and the low price set's off some red flags. I don't stero-type people from other countries. When i research there work and like what i see, i'll buy that service.

Can you explain why you say it's good?

Please try to backup your response.

Haha, nice catch, Seven3...

I think the Filipinos on this thread are turning this topic into a 'who's better' contest. I don't think that should be the case. I said that the Philippines is a top destination for outsourcing tasks.

I prefer working with Filipino writers, and I believe that there are many outstanding online workers from the Philippines, but I don't mean that holding a Philippine passport makes them better than the rest. There's just a good chance of finding a talented worker to outsource to.

When outsourcing, I prefer outsourcing writing tasks to Filipinos and web development tasks to Indians.

My point is, when outsourcing, don't let where a person is from dictate their status as workers. Talent rules when it comes to online work. It just so happens that many on my team are Filipinos, and I'm happy with their output...but I had to go through a ton of lesser writers before I got the team I have now.

Hmmm, maybe you guys should read this new post. This talks about how much you should pay for a decent article, and it also has some tips on hiring/outsourcing writers.

Hehehe. I think what people here really mean, but don't say outright, is that Filipinos have a high quality for price ratio. The fact is, there are great writers all over the world. May he or she be Filipino, Indian, Chinese, or Haitian. However, it just so happens that Filipinos produce great quality for the price.

I don't mean to be bias but I also think Filipinos are great on writing. We also have a good attitude when it comes to work. I have been in odesk for quite some time now and what I noticed was lots of employers appreciate Filipino workers not just for doing a great job, but for being honest as well.

But what I can say for people who is thinking of outsourcing in general (not just in the Philippines) that to be able to gain your staffs respect, you should make sure you're all accountable. Make sure you’re just as accountable as everyone else. That is one tip on effective outsourcing.
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Here is how to outsource content creation to Philippine Virtual Assistants
 

When it comes to content creation, even though you are outsourcing parts of it, you want the overall tone or voice of the content to be yours!

This best way that I have found to do this is to Create videos answering questions that your potential clients might have and then embedding these videos onto your website plus a transcript of the video for those who want to read it (and also for SEO reasons as well).

Now regarding outsourcing parts of the process, you can hire a Philippine Virtual Assistant to help you with:

1. editing the video, transcribing the video
2. embedding the video and transcript onto your blog
3. turning the transcripts into original articles that you can use for backlinking purposes