Business in the online world involves a spectrum of services that may require outsourcing. By outsourcing, I mean online contract work for specific projects rather than hiring on new people. Depending on your business, you may find a need for the following services:

• programming/development
• graphic design
• article writing
• SEO
• Search Engine Marketing

Good business sense tells you to outsource these tasks for cheaper, rather than to hire someone outright. The reason for this is simple. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the online contract market. Thousand of people are willing to take on your project from every corner of the world. Now, how do you find them, and perhaps more important, how do you find someone reliable?

These are some of the top sites to look for freelancers on the Web:

• Elance
• ODesk
• Guru
• Hot Gigs
• Work Stir

A recent post on ReadWriteEnterprise notes that “Elance reports that they are seeing a 46% increase in hiring for contract work, compared to a year ago.” The recession has definitely contributed to a surge in the online marketplace.

I began my contract work on Elance several years ago. I’ve worked on both sides; hiring and being hired.

So, let’s say you want to hire, manage, and pay experts to do your work. Elance is the most reliable site for this. Before you post a job, you might want to search the category of work you are looking for.

In the “Find Experts” box, type in the online contract work you are looking for. Narrow it down by category. As an exercise, I entered “blogging” under the “Writing and Translation” service. Now I can see a full page of professionals who blog for pay. The professionals with the most earned income and the highest ratings will appear at the top of the page.

You can examine their profiles and portfolios on Elance. If you would like to hire them, you simply press “Get a Proposal”. You can also conduct an online interview with them.

But let’s say you want to post a job instead. Posting a job will get many more eyeballs to your project. Moreover, the bidding process involves professionals telling you their lowest rate for the job. The bidders cannot see each other’s quotes. You must enter in a ballpark figure for what you are willing to pay.

If you are looking for work, you post a description of your project and categorize it accordingly. Be descriptive in your job post–tell your potential bidders exactly what you are looking for. This includes the time length of the project, whether you will pay hourly or a fixed rate, and if there are more opportunities after this project is complete.

In the next step, professionals will make bids on your job. You may receive twenty-five bids on a project or more, so be prepared in the next couple days to comb through the bids.

The private message board allows you to ask questions to a potential bidder. This feature can help give you a better idea of the services the professional is able to offer you.

The public message board allows you to make announcements to your bidders about the overall project. Maybe you had to modify the job post or add some details; you can notify your potential bidders through the public message board. In addition, the bidders themselves can use the public message board.

Online contract work can be a huge benefit to your business. But it’s important to do your research on each service provider, and take your time in the process of hiring the right company for the job.