Intending to hire writers? Here are some guidelines
In this digital era, you require an immense amount of writing to maintain your business. It goes beyond just a website, advertisements, social media posts, and also includes newsletters, your blog, sales copy, guest posts, to mention but a few. Who will do the entirety of that composition?
And that is not all. Have you thought about keyword research, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), editing, publishing, and distribution? It is highly unlikely that you will be able to set aside over 15 hours out of your week to work on all this. So what are you planning to do to achieve your writing needs?
It’s high time you hired a content author!
And here’s why:
Precisely, because writing is not a piece of cake.
With a proficient writer, all your ads, brochures and catalogs will be worked on well. Excellent content creation not only enhances lead generation but also makes sales copy more effective and improves online visibility. Outsourcing a freelance writer to create specialized content, press releases, and advertising copy has a major effect on how clients see you.
Crafting high-quality copy is excessively strenuous. Quite a number of our very own blog posts take at least five hours to compose, edit and issue. Having to do that alone thrice a week means losing 15 hours of your time which could have been spent on making sales, networking or team building, and this is absolutely why you ought to contract-out content writing.
The content marketing process which includes keyword research, strategizing, performing Search Engine Optimization, distribution of posts, and building networks also requires a huge investment of time and effort. Have you got time for the entirety of that? In the event that you do, are you certain that you can create significant valuable content with a premium touch of class? If not, then you need to hire a professional writer as soon as possible.
Benefits of hiring a professional writer
Once you issue top quality valuable information, many readers will flock your site. This information also shows them how valuable your product is and can transform these viewers into loyal clients. By offering something to them i.e. valuable information, they give back to you by purchasing your product or service and you can really gauge how significant that is. We wrote an itemized post on how we determine the ROI of our own content marketing so you can also do the same.
Just like you have observed, we’ve relentlessly been drawing a bigger audience to our site. Previously in August 2015, our regular page views spiked up to 1750 in a day. As of January 2017, there was a day with over 5,300 page views which shows that we significantly increased our peak traffic. How?
This is through continuously delivering content of great value that our viewers want. It requires plenty of time and effort but it greatly works and this is why we recruit freelance writers to assist us out.
Hubs for freelance writers
You are definitely certain that you need to hire a writer, but do you know where to begin from or even how to discover content writers on the internet? Well, here are 10 wonderful sites you can start off with:
- Hubstaff Talent. In the event that you need to outsource content creation and are not ready to pay charges, Hubstaff Talent is the site for you. Besides having a great number of writers, this site is completely free.
- Upwork. With over 12 million freelancers, Upwork makes more than one billion dollars in business every year. Your fees grant you access to a completely vast talent pool.
- Freelancer. Here, the fees are a little bit higher than Upwork’s. The site also features a monstrous pool of writers from its enlisted participants of over 23 million people.
- Scripted. What makes Scripted different from all other platforms where freelance writers can be found is the fact that it puts emphasis on content marketing. However, you are also required to pay a monthly charge besides your freelance payments.
- ProBlogger. Are you in need of a blogger? If so, then this is the ideal forum to check out. All you have to do is make a one-time payment to have your job opportunity featured and right after, freelance bloggers will contact you.
- Blogging Pro. Similar to ProBlogger, Blogging Pro is a forum for proficient bloggers. By posting an ad on their job board, you will obtain several responses from bloggers.
- PeoplePerHour. Besides being able to look for the specific article writers you need, PeoplePerHour also gives you an opportunity to look through Hourlies, prepackaged deals such as “Compose an article on any subject (400 to 800 words) and earn $24.” A4444
- Writer Access. Writer Access is a home for only US-based writers which not only makes it different from many other sites but also makes it favorable for individuals who want writers that are native English speakers.
- Textbroker. Rather than hustling to look for a particular content creator, Textbroker makes it easy for you by finding the exact writer you need. All you have to do is present your request.
- Craigslist. Often, numerous experts check the Gigs and Jobs sections of Craigslist, thus making it a great way to discover a writer once you post a job opportunity there.
Outsourcing content writing is not just limited to the above places.
One of the other most ideal techniques you can use is to contact a writer on a blog that you really like. Regardless of whether the blogger is unavailable for extra work at that particular time, they are likely to connect you to somebody who is.
Inquiring from other individuals within your work field for suggestions and checking on social media platforms are also both wonderful methods of discovering writers as well.
The process of hiring a content writer
Since you are now aware of the places to find writers, let’s look at hiring one. This process goes beyond the basics of just telling someone what they have to do, how to do it and paying them. Here are a couple of reasons why:
- Horrible writers are quite many out there
- Not every writer knows about content advertising and SEO
- Quite a number of writers will not have the style or tone you need
- Some content creators are terrible with communication and meeting deadlines
The good thing is once you start off with this information; the whole process is a lot simpler for you. On freelance platforms such as Hubstaff or Upwork, you are allowed to post your job opening and call upon freelancers to respond to this regard. At this point, writers place their bid on the job or submit a rationale of why they would be the best option.
From that point onward, it’s dependent upon you to select from a very large pool of candidates and come up with a short appropriate list. You’ll have to take a gander at their profiles, websites, and portfolios. It’s ideal for them to do a test project right after that and this lets you see what kind of content they can deliver.
Thereafter, you can definitely hire your writer.
The entirety of this process may take quite a while but having an excellent writer for your business is really worthwhile, especially if you are able to establish a relationship in the long run. Try not to focus on having a content creator for a one time deal, instead find someone who does incredible work and work with them on a regular basis as this is truly important.
Given that we have greatly been involved with freelancers, we’ve compiled a list of guidelines that will assist you to recruit top-notch writers. Take note of these 5 things as you go through the process:
- Make use of a variety of forums and outreach methodologies to access writers. There are numerous authors available on different sites; therefore sticking to only one may not be a good thing as you might miss out on the ideal writer who might be on another site.
- Be extremely explicit in your instructions and expectations. All the relevant qualifications, skills, and experience that you expect your writer to have should be included in the job ad so that they are aware, for example, if you want a writer with a strong portfolio, one who can perform SEO and self-edit, state it clearly.
- Make research. Take a look at authors’ portfolios, references and find out if they are also displayed on other platforms in your field. In addition, once the writers do not have any great write-ups in the past, take heed as you hire them or look somewhere else.
- Be particular in your prerequisites. Your job posting ought to be quite specific and do not forget to avail information on how to respond to the ad. Inform the applicants to submit three samples or a link to their portfolio or whatever else to ensure they read through the whole ad.
- Ensure that you assess your applicants to determine their abilities. Having them do a paid test article or two is the most logical option to determine whether a writer will be a solid match for your organization. Although it requires some time and money, recruiting the ideal writer is really worth it.
Getting a writer who delivers top-notch copy as well as bonuses like research, website optimization and publishing is probably going to be costly, however, hiring a content writer isn’t easy on the pocketbook but it is way easier than doing it yourself ( that’s if you could do it yourself).
Great tips on recruiting the ideal writer
In the process of growing our company and blog, we’ve contracted numerous writers, so we have a lot of ideas on what you ought to do in order to get a good one. For the fact that you are going to hire an external content writing service, you are relying on someone else to craft content that is going to have your company name on it and this implies a lot.
- Quality content is vital. It goes beyond just good writing. You need writing that surpasses the ordinary, one that’s captivating and gets the readers intrigued by your organization. Do your best to find the best writer you can, pay them what they are worth and you will not regret it.
- Don’t be hesitant to pay for quality. High-quality content creators come at a price. Well, you may decide to offer $50 for a 1,000-word article, but why not pay a little more for excellent content? At the original $50, you might take on a writer with terrible English skills, who isn’t good at adhering to guidelines and is inexperienced. This will make you spend at least a couple hundred bucks’ worth of time editing the article before it can go out yet you could have paid more somewhere else to have it done right the first time.
- Prioritize your readers before anything else. SEO should not be the reason you choose topics and hire writers. First, think about your readers and what kind of content they consider important and beneficial.
- Don’t forget that content marketing is more than just writing. It also includes article formatting, editing, web optimization, publication, distribution and so on. It might not seem like such a big challenge if your writer isn’t good with all this, but remember that someone needs to do all this and that might mean contracting another specialist.
Start hiring now
As you have come to the end of this article, you could be assuming that recruiting a specialist is more difficult than it’s worth. However, it goes without saying that contracting-out your content writing is vital. If you have a large internal team that is devoted to doing all the work such as writing, editing, researching, optimizing and publishing, then you are good to go but otherwise, outsourcing is really the best option for your business.
By hiring writers, our blog has developed greatly and you too can achieve this. It requires an investment of time and effort but it’s more than justified, despite all the trouble.