What details to give when outsourcing articles?

Definitely more details will help the writer better understand what you want done.

At a minimum, when I'm writing for a client, I like to have a "working title", the main keyword, 2 or 3 secondary keywords to flesh out the article, article length, the reading level of the intended audience, an idea of writer's tone, and the overall purpose/destination for the article.

On that last, I'm wondering where it is ultimately going to be used. An article for an article directory to stir up a backlink and some traffic is totally different from an article on your professional "engineering" website that boosts your reputation versus a guest blog article or an article like a review which is intended to drive sales.

All of these purposes require different approaches and writing styles. And that's critical to knowing how much time it will take to research and write (oh, and giving me research info before I write is really helpful and nice) so I can make a profit but also not overcharge the client.

Hope that helps. Again, depending on the intent of the article, it's basically that the more punch the article needs or the more it impacts your reputation, the more info you want to give the writer. With something as simple as a 100 word abstract or short blog post on a topic, you could probably get away with the link to the data you are abstracting, your primary keyword, and a quick stab at a working title.

Thanks, you made the job lots more easier.