If you ask some of the great business leaders of our time, and times past, what made them so successful (?), you will find very often their success was rooted in their ability to find people that were good at something, and then help match them with people who needed something. When it comes to taking a small site and making it larger and more popular, the solution will invariably involved many people.

So what goes into making a successful website? Let's think about it for a moment. We will need:

* Web designers who can make the site look nice, and tweak the html, and make continued improvements over time.

My wise grandfather told me that it is easy in the good times, but it is the people that can keep their wits in the down times that will do the best in business and in life. As we are heading into a time when many feel a recession is on the way, and the price of gas Worldwide is increasing, I think many will feel the pinch of these down times. What will be important is how we as business and website owners handle these times. So I want to ask you, do you have a plan for what you will do should you encounter a down time?

So we have to think about what we can do to make the most of our situation. Thinking back to my grandfather's time, and the Great Depression, the people with friends who helped each other through the tough times did better. People also learned how to "make do" with the little they had. There is lot that people can give thanks for having, including their friends, and their healthy well being. Could this be a time to get closer with friends and help each other?

Here's a new spin on outsourcing: A San Diego company called Sea Coder isw putting 600 coders on an old cruise ship and basing it 3 miles out from LA in international waters. In this way, they will be able to avoid H-1B visa problems as well as pay offshore-like wages. To learn more, visit the Sea Coder website.

It looks like the United States is starting to raise interest rates. While that not be good news for everyone, it does seem that it it making the US Dollar stronger. The fed said they were planning to continue to raise interest rates in the coming months, so I am predicting a continued strengthening of the US dollar, and that may be good for both buyers of outsourcing in the US (can buy more for the money), and providers of services (US dollars worth more).

So even though interest rates may not be good for all American consumers, it may very well be good for the outsourcing industry.

Ukraine has a bunch of cornfields, a bunch of old steel mills, and not much else. Right? Well, Ukraine also has a budding technology sector, and -- after the U.S., India, and Russia -- the fourth largest number of computer programmers in the world. It was a main center of the Soviet programming industry. The first computer built in continental Europe was made in Ukraine in 1951. Even today, scientific institutes each year churn out some 50,000 science or technology graduates. Not surprisingly, Ukrainians don't see why their country can't become a big player in the global technology market, like India. "We want Ukraine to become a technological country again, not just a country with agriculture and tank production," says Yuri Sivitsky, chairman of Softline, one of Ukraine's largest software producers.

The value of throwing up a bunch of database produced content of little or no value to the user just to increase search engine rankings has deacreased in 2004. Search engines are getting smarter, and are doing a better job of indexing unique content, so this means that more and more, webmasters are needing to find ways to add this unique content to their sites. There is a new market emerging for people with good language skills who can write articles on a wide range of topics by doing research on the internet or the public library. There are people offering to write 800 word articles for as low as $5 per article, but usually the quality is not as good at this price.

Finding an economical way to make payments to programmers living in other countries can be challenging. Usually, things like Paypal are not accepted in many countries and other methods like bank to bank transfer are too expensive. Western Union allows money to be sent to just about any country, but they are also expensive. From my experience, it usually costs about $30 to send $300. That's 10%...not good, but generally very dependable. There is another service that costs less called Ikobo. In order to use the service to send more than $200, they require you to provide many documents to prove your identity. Some people find this to be frustrating when trying to get approved, put the cost of sending money is the lowest around. They only charge $4 per $100.

Let's suppose you have just found a new person or firm to do outsourcing, but you are not sure whether or not they can deliver quality work or deliver the work promptly. The best advice is to start out slowly. Give them small jobs to do first, and slowly increase the amount of work. While there are many great people out there, it is quite possible you may get unlucky and find someone who is dishonest or under qualified. By starting out small you should be able to decide if this person or firm the right solution for you.

Welcome outsourcing buyers. This forum is to be used to exchange ideas and tips about outsourcing, such as writing good work proposals, paying coders overseas, and developing good business relationships with the people who help you.

Please do not suggest specific outsourcing firms or individuals ib this forum. We actually have two forums in the Trading Post section where you may place links, request bids on work or suggest outsourcing companies.