Content Creation Sent Offshore?

offshore dev advertising

[Clickstream]

Does anyone ever pay people offshore where 1USD is worth five times more to do work to build a content site? Like , for example, dare I say, INDIA. And do people in these countries have the opportunity to join affiliate programs, or is it a problem because they can't cash , or get mail delivery for, US checks.

In 1999 when I was the "partnership manager" for the site with rank 150 for page views, I began to believe that the real beneficiaries of entrepreneurial Web work would be people in poor countries. It's a truly level playing field, or so I thought. I was seeing quite a few very heavy traffic English sites in places run from places like Indonesia.

I don't know to what extent this is true today, because I was tossed out of the dotcom world when the bubble burst in 2001. I’m back in the and have a lot of catching up to do.

[brickwall]

Your analysis is right. A lot people do offload a lot web work offshore. At Elance, for example, a 500 word article can be had for $5. Its mostly educated guys from India who does the writing.

Affiliate marketing has a lot of potential for webmasters and content providers from poor countries because the dollar has more value there. Language is a major hindrance though so English speaking third world countries have a definite edge. Myself, coming from the Philippines, the main problem so far is getting accepted into the big aff networks. Iam mostly with small networks because my country is not listed in say ClickBank. Then there's the problem with payment. PayPal is not an option. If ever you get paid in checks, your check takes longer to arrive, longer to cash in banks, and you will have to pay very high clearing fees.

By and large, its harder to become an affiliate yet more lucrative because of exchange rate differences. In my opinion, this pros and cons just evens out the field regardless of where you are based.

[howiejs]

We have had some GREAT experiences having content, etc worked on offshore. A few bad apples but nothing too damaging - as I always give a few articles to start and see how they do. The good ones, I assign tons of work to.

[Clickstream]

If any of you were to take a guess, what percent of people that are earning money through affiliate programs or ad programs and that are registered members of Webmasterworld.com are having a significant amount of their work done offshore?

Full disclosure: I intend to have a content site built with myself and others I personally have worked with in the Philippines. We may also take English language “submissions” from others in the same city.

The trend of programming being done ofshore is very visable, but web site design or content creation is "under the radar screen".