How best to choose copy-writer? - Bad experience on eLance

[GraemeSutherland]

Hi all,

Can I ask for advice on how best to hire a copy-writer for basic Internet Marketing material?

Had a bad experience, a complete waste of my time really, communicating with someone on eLance back and forward... no material delivered.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks.

Graeme

[MontelloMarketing]

Originally Posted by GraemeSutherland

Hi all,

Can I ask for advice on how best to hire a copy-writer for basic Internet Marketing material?

Had a bad experience, a complete waste of my time really, communicating with someone on eLance back and forward... no material delivered.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks.

Graeme

Graeme,

Rule 1: Stay off elance. Most (not all) are either brand new with no experience making sales... or article writers who think they can write sales letters.

Rule 2: Look around. There are a ton of real copywriters on this board and on the copywritingboard.com. I'm guessing since you were on elance you were looking for cheap writers (Probably rule 3 should be: Don't cheap out on the words that make you money.)... you might find a couple here and there.

Additionally: I coach a few great new copywriters a couple of which are still affordable (In the 3K per sales letter range).

Good luck.

[JustDean]

You get what you pay for is the lesson, I am just how much skill is involved in writing a sales letter (since I havn't attempted to write one I dough I have the skill)

[Eric Johnson]

Let me tell ya a story about Elance... Mine.

I wrote articles for people on elance and started to notice that the people who were doing copywriting were making more money so I decided to bid on a job. I got it.

Well, here I was with a dilemma: I had a copywriting job and not a clue how to write a sales letter. Well, I did some research and ended up creating a passable sales letter for the price.

Only reason I could do that is that I'm pretty good with words and I have a sales background so this stuff came pretty quickly for me. But I suspect that a lot of "copywriters" on Elance are like me and from what I've read they lack the ability to quickly get up to speed that I have.

By the way, that was a long time ago and since then I have learned how to do it right. I'm even being mentored by, arguably, the greatest copywriting teacher in the word. I take it seriously now.

The moral of my story is simply what Montello said... Run, don't walk from Elance for copy jobs.

[MontelloMarketing]

Who's your mentor, Eric?

[Dean Dhuli]

I'm even being mentored by, arguably, the greatest copywriting teacher in the word.

Garfinkel???

[Eric Johnson]

Yea, Garfinkel. The guy is an amazing teacher and a good man too.

[dbarnum]

I like Elance and have been a service provider as well as buy there for a few years now. That's actually the best freelance site around for trust, support from the company itself, Elance, and plenty of service providers who bid and work hard. Sure there are some poor candidates, but overall Elance rocks, in my humble opinion, both for service prodivers and buyers.


OK, tips for help are on my Warrior blog. Here are some of the outsourcing / VA posts with tips:


http://www.warriorforum.com/blogs/db...tant-team.html


WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums - Personal Assistant, Virtual Assistant, Outsourcing (a few more are off this main category link)


We write copy here for many Warriors, too, by the way. So happy to take a look at your project and submit a proposal, if you'd like. Just give a shout!


Thanks and good luck with your projects!

[Tekstar]

I'll give props to Sherice Jacob, I am using her for a sales letter to mail out to brick and mortar business's and I just got a draft and all I can say is WOW. I found her in a WSO and I am more than pleased. She was more than reasonable thanks to the WSO and I'm sure I will use her in the future.

-Bob

[Fender85]

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Do you have any friends/acquaintances with businesses that you could ask? A good bit of my copywriting projects are referral-based, at the moment. Makes the clients feel right at home - me too, as a matter of fact. lol

[MontelloMarketing]

I was lucky enough to be taught by david also. And there is no "maybe" about it. Garfinkel is the world's greatest copywriting coach.

[Collette]

Graeme -
What is your primary determining factor for hiring? If it's the price (as your reference to eLance suggests), you are going to run the risk of an unsatisfactory experience.

Copywriters who are in the low end of the range are generally either:

1) inexperienced, or
2) under-valued.

This doesn't mean that low-priced copywriters are inherently bad copywriters. It means you have a 50/50 chance of getting a good, under-valued writer - or getting crap.

As someone else mentioned, lots of copywriters here on the WF. I'd suggest checking out their web sites, WF posts, etc. and contacting those who seem like a good fit for you.

Even if budget is an overriding consideration, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find someone here who can do a competent, if not excellent, job for you.

[Raydal]

What ever happened to that sticky post that was here in the copywriting section? There was a list of all of the copywriters with their web sites and contact information.

Was this in the old warrior forum? Maybe I am mistaken.

-Ray

[wordwizard]

about "affordable copywriters"...

I'd like to add another option to "inexperienced" and "undervalued," though I
suppose it might combine the two to some degree:

"working his/her way up" and building a client base and portfolio...

For the prices you pay for those kinds of copywriters (as compared to the
experienced and appropriately priced ones), you may be able to hire two
or three "junior" ones and split test their copy ;-)

About elance... I have very mixed feelings about it. The cut-throat pricing
makes it so easy to underprice oneself that it can leave a bidder stuck with
a big job for sub-McDonalds wages (which has happened to me, and yes,
it was due to a momentary lapse of my own judgment that made me take
it on).

If people live in a place where it's possible to survive on that kind of income,
that might work out, but if they have a mortgage and other U.S. level expenses,
they'll have to either do too many of those kinds of gigs or do the job as a labor
of love while doing other work that actually pays the bills.

Best of luck with finding the right copywriter for your needs.

Elisabeth

[bambi211]

What a bad experience you got there. The thing is that it's so hard to find a good writer in markets like Elance.

[TamaraAspeling]

Hi there,

I am a writer - new to this forum, and to Elance, and I can tell you EXACTLY what the problem is - buyers on these forums don't usually make decisions based on quality of work, or experience, they choose suppliers based on cost.

Bottom line - you pay peanuts you get monkeys! End of story. If you are looking for a decent writer, find me on oDesk, and I will make sure your next experience with outsourcing platforms is a good one!

Regards,

Tamara

[cd928]

I completely agree with you here. Which is probably how it became possible to pay writers $0.005-0.01 per word. And yes, that's half a cent.

Originally Posted by TamaraAspeling

Hi there,

I am a writer - new to this forum, and to Elance, and I can tell you EXACTLY what the problem is - buyers on these forums don't usually make decisions based on quality of work, or experience, they choose suppliers based on cost.

[Sybiz]

You'll find most elance-type places will be the same. They're great when it comes to getting e-books, articles, etc. ghost-written but a lot of the so-called copywriters there will be relatively inexperienced. There's a big difference between writing a good e-book and writing good sales copy. That's not to say all are bad but the good ones are hard to find.

As someone else mentioned a lot of the good copywriters have up & coming students they mentor who can write good copy for a lot cheaper then the big names. You should try contacting some of them.

If you are going to go the elance way at least try to get verifiable testimonials on results they have gotten for their clients and possibly samples of their copy. At least then you can get some idea of their ability levels.

[wordwizard]

Originally Posted by Raydal

What ever happened to that sticky post that was here in the copywriting section? There was a list of all of the copywriters with their web sites and contact information.

Was this in the old warrior forum? Maybe I am mistaken.

-Ray

Ray,

about the copywriting sticky ---

maybe that has been replaced with he new (at least I think it's new) services section...

Elisabeth

[power88]

Too many people are too cheap to pay for a real copywriter who can get results for them. I have people come to my site and read my portfolio. Then they go to elance and put in their ad they want someone to write just like that. Yea, right. And pigs fly!

If you want great copy, hire a great copywriter. You end out with more sales and copy that will work hard for you.

[Collette]

Originally Posted by cd928

I completely agree with you here. Which is probably how it became possible to pay writers $0.005-0.01 per word. And yes, that's half a cent.

Actually, I found some guy on eLance who had done a project for .004 per word.

Unfortunately, his portfolio samples were worth less than that.

Caveat emptor.

[Paul Elliott]

Ask for and check references!

Paul