Recently, the topic of personal outsourcing made it into the news when a software developer doing security work for Verizon outsourced his own job to China, earning praises for his apparent superhuman productivity while he actually spent his days browsing Reddit and Facebook, and keeping atop the latest lolcat memes.
While the security implications of outsourcing your work to an unknown 3rd party are probably dire enough to get most anyone fired from their day job, there is something to be said for the availability of cheap, skilled labor within a few clicks from a google search. Arguably the most popular of these sites is Fiverr, offering – as its name implies – almost any service you can imagine for $5.
Some of the unique offerings that caught my attention included:
- Graphic designers – custom logos, banners and even basic website designs.
- Proofreading services – Hire a professional copy editor to proof your essay or article of up to 10,000 words.
- Need a .edu email address? There’s always someone selling them for those who want Amazon Prime for $10/year.
- Referrals – Have someone do the dirty work of boosting your free dropbox account to 18GB.
- Transcription – Google’s voice-to text not cutting it? Hire someone to type out 15min of dictation for you.
- Video clips – custom intros for your YouTube channel etc…
One of the great things about Fiverr compared to its numerous competitors is that it really incentivises value for your dollar by capping the cost of everything at $5. Many of the services simply save time doing a tedious task, but there is a surprising amount of talent out there as well.