Although there's lots of Internet marketers proclaiming the advantages of outsourcing, not many share the disadvantages of outsourcing.

This article is the first of two that will cover the major disadvantages of outsourcing. This article covers three disadvantages. Part 2 covers four more.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing 1: You Can Spend As Much Time On Outsourcing As It Takes To Complete The Job

Outsourcing requires that you do considerable planning before you post your job for vendors. You also have to review bids, eliminate the bids you don't want, investigate the ones that interest you, and select the winning bidder.

Outsourcing also requires time to determine benchmarks for the job, to select a reasonable final deadline, and to communicate with vendors on your short-list.

Once your selected vendor completes your job, you still have to review the work, assure that it meets your specifications, is free of errors or works properly. Then you have to approve payment for the vendor.

So outsourcing doesn't necessarily save you time. You're just spending your time on the outsourcing process instead of on doing the job yourself. Sometimes it's actually faster, and definitely cheaper to just do it yourself.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing 2: You May Experience Communication Problems

If your selected vendor doesn't speak English as a first language, you may find it difficult to communicate instructions, to answer questions, and to determine the progress of your job.

Add to this the fact that the outsource services don't want their vendors to communicate with you except through their site, and you have a real communication problem.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing 3: You Don't Know How Much Time The Vendor Is Spending On Your Job

If your vendor doesn't keep you informed about the job's progress, there's not much you can do except leave a message on the outsource service site. You may hear back from the vendor promptly or you may not hear back for days.

Your vendor may not check that site frequently, or may just not reply because no progress is being made. Either way you're kept waiting. Of course you can be working on other projects, but sometimes your other projects are tied to the job. So you can't move forward with the project until the outsource job is completed.

You can learn more disadvantages of outsourcing in Part 2 of this two-part article.