Need advice on what to look for (or ask for) when seeking freelance assistance

If you work with clients, I'd suggest you use the same information/method/process that you do with your clients for you as a client.

You decided what you need help with and how much intervention from the outside source you need/want/are willing to pay for. There's no rule for that. It is your workload to manage.

Gotcha, thanks for the feedback. :)

I agree with Ulises overall. You should know the scope of everything at each of those steps as you outlined it with your existing clients. I will add that I would group together what you have as "content writing" and "instructional design." I'm actually finishing up a course done that way myself, where I'm doing both of those roles. Just like you yourself can do it end-to-end, good IDs can too. For outsourcing purposes, I think it's easier to find separate Storyline developers.

You would probably have better results posting for the Storyline developer here in the job board than on Upwork. I suspect you'll get better quality applicants.

I would also hire Voice Over separately from a professional voice over person. Narrator Files is relatively inexpensive and pretty consistent. They're adequate for many courses. I have certainly found better quality at Narrator Files than on Upwork. I've had very mixed results with voice over from Upwork.

In general, Upwork is a challenging site for finding good quality people. The site has many clients offering absurdly low rates, and many freelancers accepting them. There are absolutely good people working there, but you have to filter through so much crap to find them.

Instead of posting the ID job on Upwork, I would post it here and the eLearning Guild job boards. I think you'll get a higher quality pool of applicants from those two sources. The ideal source, of course, would be other IDs and developers you know in your network. Don't forget to reach out to your network to people you trust from past jobs.

One final suggestion: You might be interested in joining the Online Network of Independent Learning Professionals. The LinkedIn group is the entry point, but most of the conversation happens during our virtual meetings and in Slack. We discuss a lot of these types of issues there. It would also help you build a network of people for future outsourcing. Personally, I know if I get overbooked and need help that I won't post a job online. I'll go to ONILP first. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8424180

Awesome!! Thank you so much.  I'm going to sign up for the Slack meeting!  Really appreciate the response.

I could pick up some of the slack. I'm similiar to you with multiple skill sets, but I'm looking for some additional work. SHoot me an email. HealtheDesigns@gmail.com

Rebecca,

I've sent you a DM. If you are still looking for assistance, I would be happy to assist.

Richard

Hi Rebecca - Welcome to the community and thanks for posting your discussion here!

Biting off more than we can chew - happens to the best of us :)

Here's an article I wrote on How to Find a Freelance ID or E-Learning Developer, hopefully there's a few tips there that can help you out!

Best of luck.

Hey, Rebecca!

As I work as a writer, I can share how I find my potential clients to work with. 

1. Publish a post on your social media where you describe what people you're looking for. On average, it allows you to contact great workers as they get a direct invitation from their friends, depending on their knowledge and experience.

2. Surf LinkedIn to find new people.

3. Use your email list to reach out people whom you know. 

Hope it can help.

Btw, you can write me directly as well :)

Cheers,
John

I would say it depends on what agreement you have with the client. I will usually do the scripting and voice over and subcontract out the storyline authoring, mainly because once I send them one example, they should just copy the style and most clients have hired me based on samples with my voice and my writing style, so I would want to keep that consistent.

We just launched a new freelance site called eLearningGigs.com.  It's fairly new but it's growing with new freelancers joining everyday.  It's similar to Upwork.com but the focus is only e-learning development work.