Getting started with the help of Crowdsourcing
Often driven by their commitment and enthusiasm, founders are usually willing to put in a night’s work to prepare and launch their new existence.
Legal issues have been clarified, financing is available and the business concept has been worked out or the service has been developed. This is when most founders realize that the time needed has been greatly underestimated and reaches the limits of their resources.
Yet a major part of the work still lies ahead: marketing. The logo hasn’t been designed, the products / services haven’t been tested by «users» yet, a lot of competitor data hasn’t been researched, address data of potential customers for distribution campaigns hasn’t been gathered, the website and possible online shops haven’t been designed and the 2000 product/service descriptions for the catalog and/or online shop haven’t been written, let alone translated into the four languages and search engine optimized, etc.
These projects have to be completed as soon as possible. However financial resources are tight and manpower is scarce.
The solution could be «Crowdsourcing».
With the help of thousands of Internet users.
Crowdsourcing is a word combination that comes from crowd and outsourcing. Tasks and projects are divided among the manpower and intelligence of a crowd of Internet users (outsourcing). The most well known example is «Wikipedia» the Internet encyclopedia in which Internet users make their knowledge and contributions available free of charge.
In paid Crowdsourcing Internet users, so-called Clickworkers, are paid for their services.
Creative tasks are generally offered in the form of tenders in which only the winner receives payment. Tasks such as the creation of short texts, translations, tagging, categorization and web research are divided into micro jobs. Every Clickworker who has completed the task correctly will receive a predetermined fee.
What crowdsourcing can achieve
Crowdsourcing offers a large variety of options and opportunities. The following are only a small list of the services crowdsourcing offers to founders of business start-ups in particular.
Crowdsourcing-Services:
Texts
Translations
Tagging and categorization
Web research
Surveys and tests
Graphic design
Solutions for various problems
Images and photos
An overview of the providers is available at www.crowdsourcing.org
Order process procedure
Order process procedures can vary significantly on crowdsourcing platforms. Here is an example of a possible order procedure in which Clickworkers handle micro jobs.
- Placing a personal order for larger and more complex tasks
Clickworker draft an individual and customized solution for the project according to the specifications of the client.
Clickworker break the project down into individual micro-jobs and place them on their platorm. - Job allocation and handling
All of the jobs are allocated and quickly handled by the large and international network of clickworkers (freelancers registered with clickworker.com) with the qualifications required to fulfil the task. - Controls
The results can be checked by a second clickworker.
The texts are checked for plagiarism. - Acceptance of the results
The results will be sent for approval and release to the client.
The uses of crowdsourcing platforms are almost unlimited. Any business start-up can decide, irrespective of the services listed above, whether it can use crowdsourcing to promote its own requirements and ideas. Many crowdsourcing platforms provide individual solutions
