Outsourcing is subcontracting work to a third-party company, either for product creation, design or some service. Outsourcing has always been carried out by many major businesses as well as smaller companies. As far as corporations go, this means business process outsourcing (BPO.)

Internet has long been bitten by the outsourcing bug and most online businesses tend to allot most of their product creation and some have started outsourcing their marketing as well. Internet marketers outsource ebook creation, article writing, web development and designing, software development, making lists of affiliate programs with all the details, sorting particular information into lists and every other job that is either time consuming or requires expertise.

Outsourcing is being described by some as an unfortunate byproduct of a global economy. The thinking is simply that when the same work can be done by someone else cheaper, get it done. While this is certainly a more profitable way of conducting a business, it does have its negative side too.

It is said to be for people who have little patience and a lot of money. There may be people who think that looking at the disadvantages of outsourcing amounts to thinking negatively; however, it is always better to consider all the disadvantages in advance to avoid any future surprises or should we says shocks.

One of the most crucial facts of life is that no third person or company can understand the product better than the owner. In spite of their best efforts, they may not be able to help business owners reach their goals.

Communication gap is said to be one of the demerits of outsourcing, where the person who the work is outsourced to may not be familiar with a particular culture and that lack of understanding could reflect in the work performed.

When confidential data is outsourced, it raises the question of data protection, as data protection policies differ and many countries may not even have proper controls in place.

When work is outsourced, the need for internet access is essential and if there happens to be a problem or an outage at the place where some emergency work is outsourced, that could lead to losses for the person outsourcing.

If it is marketing that is being outsourced, the feedback from the customers is routed through other channels, making the owner lose the power of control. Another thing to consider is that even companies who perform outsourcing work have their own way of doing things and it is not possible to bring them to think any differently.

The lack of insight of a business is the drawback with outsourcing marketing. Irrespective of the level of qualification of the professionals being outsourced to, they certainly cannot be as good at it as the owner. These companies or individuals that one is outsourcing to may be efficient in their ability to contact a huge number of customers, but it must be remembered that they are not representing any one client exclusively.

Many people who have outsourced to new companies or individuals complain of being burned, due to making advance payments and losing money from absconding virtual assistants, which is in fact a common phenomenon online.

Sometimes, it so happens that the third-party companies start demanding more money than was agreed upon, as they realize that the person outsourcing is totally dependent on their services. Major companies may not resort to this; however, it has been seen to happen in the outsourcing world. This problem arises because the web in most cases has no face.

Last but not the least, when offshore outsourcing is given, the difference in time zones can be a potential hazard.

Another negative aspect to offshore outsourcing that has been under discussion for a long while now, both online and offline, revolves around the loss of work to people from that country. They consider it a threat to their economy, even if it is online outsourcing. If an American is outsourcing work offshore, this is believed to be taken away from another American who could have done that work for them.

In spite of all these disadvantages, the outsource boom is on and steadily increasing with more and more webmasters looking for ways to get the job done cheaper and better, and save in terms of money and effort.