The Care and Feeding of the North American Content Writer
There've been a lot of posts lately about finding the best writers and good writers, so I thought I'd give some perspective from the other side. I've worked with more than a hundred clients, many of them from the Warrior Forum and most of them involved in IM, and this is what I think you need to do to get a writer you're going to be happy with:
Know What You Need
Do you want content that's meant to establish authority? Do you want to amuse and inform your readers? Do want link bait? Do you want something that will pass the bare minimum standards for article directories?
You need to know what you want your content to do. If you're trying to become the number one authority in your niche, then you need a different kind of content than if you're just trying for backlinks.
So before you even start looking for a writer, you need to have a clear idea of what you want that content to do. This will allow you to find the writer who can actually do what it is that you need done, which will save you a lot of time and hassle down the road. And probably money.
Know Your Limitations
Clint Eastwood was right - you do need to know your limitations.
When you're looking for someone to write for you, you're going to need to evaluate the quality of their writing. If you don't speak English as a first language, this can be a problem. If you know you're not great at grammar and writing, ask someone to help you with finding the right writer.
This is probably the toughest thing on this list. People are, as a rule, not great at knowing what they're not good at. If you can't read, for instance, you'll know that, but with common things like writing, we're so used to doing it that we don't actually know how good or bad we are at it.
Bargain Shop, But Be Realistic
We're all in business to make money. I am, you are. There's nothing wrong with looking for the best value for your money when hiring a writer, but you need to be realistic. I see ads fairly regularly looking for native English speakers to write articles for three or four dollars apiece. This is nuts.
Most people (and yes, there are exceptions) can't produce more than 1000 or so words an hour of writing, especially when they have to do research on it. If you're expecting people to write for three dollars an article, they're going to be making less than minimum wage in any English speaking country.
Flipping burger is a minimum wage job. It requires next to no skill or training, because everything that needs done is all there in the manual. Writing is a job that requires skill if you want to do it well. Skill means money.
If you can't pay more than minimum wage, don't expect quality. Yes, there are exceptions, but generally speaking any writer who is even minimally competent - they produce articles that coherent, grammatically correct and not stolen from someone else - is going to find out that they can charge more than that and still have more work than they can handle.
Look At The Ad
Easy tip: if the writing on their ad or response is terrible, don't expect their actual work to be any better. That said, the reverse isn't necessarily true: don't assume that because the writing in the ad (or whatever your point of contact with the writer is) is good that the work will be. A great many people outsource work to people that are less skilled or have someone better write their ad copy.
Look For Samples
I'm always kind of surprised when I see people advertising their writing service and they don't have samples. It's not that there people aren't necessarily any good, but why spend time looking at people without samples when there are so many that do.
When you look at the samples, keep in mind what you're hiring them to do. Are they good at the things you need? This is why knowing what you want your content to do is important.
Look For Testimonials
But take them with a grain of salt. A lot of people are looking for something that is minimally readable for a cheap price, and if it hits those standards, they'll say the writer is great. Which is true, if that's what you're looking for, but it's not as helpful if you want interesting content that sells the reader.
A rule of thumb is to look at the writing quality of the person giving the testimonial. If the writing in the testimonial is bad, there's a decent chance the person doesn't have the experience necessary to know whether the writing is really good or bad. This isn't always true, but it's something to keep in mind.
What you're looking for in testimonials is how other view the quality of the writing, how the person is to work with and whether there are any complaints. A lot of people are good at writing but bad at things like time management, and that will probably be reflected in testimonials.
Buy One Article
Once you found some writers that you like and seem to fit all of the above criteria, get them to write one article for you. Make sure that you give them specific instructions and that they follow them. Samples and testimonials are great, but the real test is the work they do for you.
If they're good and are getting the work done on time, buy more. The key is that you shouldn't invest a bunch of money into articles with someone you haven't worked with, even if they give you a great deal on bulk orders. Take the time to establish a relationship so you know what you're getting.
So that's getting a writer, but what about getting the best from the writer after you've lured them into your trap...er...hired them.
Be Specific About What You Want
The more specific you are about what you want, the better the results you are going to get. At a minimum length, subject, keywords (if any). Specific ideas about article topics is better than none.
More Information Is Better
Related to the above, it's good to let your pet writer know what you're using the content for. A good writer is going to write differently if the article is meant to build authority than if it's meant to get someone to click a link in a resource box. Likewise, if you're promoting a product, it's good to let them know which one so they can structure the content towards it.
Have Specific Deadlines
Confession: I used to struggle with time management. I've gotten a lot better at it, but I do a lot better if I have a specific deadline from the client. Now that's me, but it's an issue that seems incredibly common with writers, so working with them to set a deadline is a good idea.
However, be realistic: if you want ten high quality five hundred word articles, the deadline should not be tomorrow.
Don't Go Keyword Crazy
I've seen people ask for five percent keyword density. This is almost certainly going to produce a bad piece of content. Honestly, even three percent is going to demand some tricky writing to avoid sounding terrible, although it can be done.
Try to keep the number of keywords you want in an article manageable, too. Twenty keywords in a five hundred word article is going to be tough. Twenty keywords at any kind of density is going to be impossible
Make Good Use Of Your Content
This isn't specifically about the writer, but I think it's good advice: use your content in as many places as possible. If you hire a writer to write ten article for you, you can (and should) place that on your website or blog, distribute it for syndication, turn it into a video and distribute it, turn it into audio and distribute it and turn it into a document and distribute it. There's more, actually, but you get the idea. If you get the right content, all of this will translate to more money.
Content is an investment. If you do your due diligence, it will make you multiples of what you spend getting it. This is an area where people looking for bargain basement writing are going wrong. Cheap barely readable content is maybe useful once, but good content keeps earning.
Okay, that was longer than expected, but hopefully at least halfway useful.
Occasionally Relevant.
Occasionally Relevant.