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I’ve just stumbled upon a story about how it’s better for web startups & web companies to focus on post-google VCs  & SEO professionals than those who were in business before Google (late 90-ties etc.). The basic idea being that Google controls web traffic distribution (and changed the rules of the “Internet” game) so much , that to be successful you have to know & follow their rules. From the article:

“Many entrepreneurs are so focussing on building such a great offering that they also assume virality of distribution is inherent or inevitable.  Unfortunately its not that easy, and Nikolaj is dead right to warn that getting help from people who “get it” is crucial.”

I couldn’t agree more with this remark. Many web startups are aiming at revolutionary service not thinking how the heck will they get traffic. They assume their idea is so great, that people will just flood to the site.

That’s not really going to  happen, unfortunatelly.

So instead of inventing a new facebook, isn’t it better to focus on more niche projects - with less potential incomes BUT much lower barriers when it comes to  SEO and PPC spendings? Would you prefer to target a general market and compete with all the big boys, or a niche market and compete with few folks who don’t really know much about SEO (read: “easy win”)?

Conclusion? Unless you have really revolutionary idea (and those are VERY rare - whatever you think about your project) it might be better to test it first on some niche market - OR target only niche markets. They might not be as lucrative as you would want, but they are still more lucrative than what you probably think.

A company I know for a long time told me recently that they decided not to be interested in offshore development and managed outsourcing. The main reason behind? Their CTO was not convinced outsourcing was a good idea, mainly because of bad past experience as well as preferring to work with in-house people.

I generally disagree with the above reasoning (I believe its possible to guarantee comfortable level of interactivity between in-house and off-shore teams), but I had to give up when it came to the argument that its extremely hard to find good offshore developers. Take the following cite from a story featured recently on slashdot:

“Just to give one example: we opened a test center in China. The first time we asked them to do release testing, they asked us what the test results were. Hm. We didn’t know. We hired them to run tests. How could we know what the results were if they hadn’t run the tests yet? Turns out that it’s not always a good idea to report that tests have failed when management has already decided that they’ve passed, so they weren’t willing to give us the test results from the software until we gave them the test results from the management meeting. How much is it worth to be able to tell your testers to test something and have them give you the actual test results?”

The more you search on web, the more similar stories you will find. There’s a growing group of people convinced that if their project #1 which they run through some semi-amateur team in India of China didn’t work - then all of the outsourcing companies out there must be just one big mess.

I couldn’t disagree more.

The business world is half-full of success outsourcing stories - just like it is half-full of horror outsourcing stories. The real question therefore is not if to outsource but what (low level data-entry? high-level development and supporting?) and with whom. In world that is getting more and more “flat” and connected, where more and more developers from countries like India, China or Pakistan are able to compete for global IT jobs, what will really become a crucial skill is ability to select the right business partner for the job.

But how to do that? Obviously, the easiest route here (and the most common in business world, I guess) is to… ask for recommendation from other businesses which are successful with their outsourcing activity. Search for offshore companies who can show you portfolio of happy clients and serious skills. Never hire offshore developers (or companies) without testing their abilities first (e.g. by giving them first a small projects or skills tests). Think if you want to loose control on your applications - maybe its better to outsource just low-level jobs like quality assurance and simple development? Find a good outsourcing management consultant and ask for some help organizing interaction between your in-house and off-shore teams.

Outsourcing is here and it is not going away anywhere. So better learn how to make a proper use of it before others do.