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OUTSOURCING How to outsource and get quality, optimized unique articles

by Adam Roy
16 replies
I hear a lot about outsourcing to the philipines.

Why am I imagining getting terrible articles written in bad english?

How do you pay these people for outsourcing, and how do you find them?

Is it worth it to pay out $20 to have a few good articles written that will rank well when submitted to article websites like ezine?
#articles #optimized #outsource #outsourcing #quality #unique
  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    You're hearing a lot about that because there's an IMer selling a course who also runs an outsourcing site for Philippines workers. Nothing wrong with that, but it's the reason why you're seeing that country mentioned.

    Most IMers I've met in person have teams in India and I've used teams from many countries including eastern Europe with no problems.

    I pay with Paypal usually and find them by trial and error using the common outsourcing sites. Odesk is my favourite but I use most of the others too depending on the job required and who I've had good results with previously.

    Just make sure you are clear about what you want and use a site that has an escrow facility to ensure you don't pay until you get your project delivered.

    Andy
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  • Profile picture of the author P.Sharma
    phillipines and India are the places I outsource to. Just make sure you give them a small assignment to complete and have them under a strict time constraint. That way you will come to know about the quality of their work without having to take the unneccesaaty risk of assigning a big important job to an amateur team who cannot even spell correctly
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  • Profile picture of the author Karen Connell
    Before I decided to offer writing services myself I tried outsourcing.

    I tried five different 'article writers' but found myself having to do extensive re-writing to make them understandable.

    Ok, so I was only paying around $3 per article so I guess I got what I paid for.

    I would not consider putting my name to any of the articles that I received so I began to write my own.

    The rest, as they say, is history.

    It really depends on how much you want to pay and how much editing you need to do to the articles.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
    Outsourcing to the Philippines is amazing for a lot of tasks.

    Article writing is one that is harder to find. I have had good article writers, but find that most are what you pay for. Also take into consideration the rewriting of there articles. If you are spending 2 hours re-writing, maybe another approach is better.

    Also keep in mind that India is more expensive and uses British English. The Philippines uses American english.

    If you find a good writer, do what it takes to keep them (I made that mistake).

    Cheers,
    Mukul
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    • Profile picture of the author cscarpero
      Content is one area where I pay a little more and hire Americans. Well worth it! I'll do most other things in the Ph though.

      My advice. Ask for samples before hiring.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rachel Goodchild
    I'm a writer- but I've also outsourced.
    I'm happy to pay anyone anything if it gets me results. And I've found often there is a lifespan with even good writers, where the first few batches are good, and then they start to get slack.
    I have used some pretty cheap writers, but find that they tend to have shorter lifespans than some of the mid range ones I've used. The expensive ones are generally the best- but even with them I've found some start to rip you off and cheat on quality after you've been using them for a while.
    I find with ANY writers (me included) that it's a good idea to monitor the quality in an ongoing way, and the moment you notice it's started to slip to ask them to improve on the next batch- and I'll often send a reworked one of theirs to show them what I mean.
    That seems to help (and if it doesn't, I consider they were warned and they get ditched )
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    I'm outsourcing to the Philippines. It is working out very well. It's not perfect, nor is it super-easy at the beginning, so you MUST be willing to train people.

    I have a full time writer and I recently moved her onto article writing for me to promote some new websites. I didn't want to proof read all of her articles because I didn't have time. I didn't want to use my existing EZA account either in case her stuff wasn't good enough.

    I had her create a new account. We submitted 10 articles. They were all approved on the first shot and they upgraded the account to platinum instantly.

    That should tell you what you need to know about the quality you can get.

    See my blog in my sig file for more info, lessons, stories, etc. It's really not that hard.
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  • Profile picture of the author JTor
    Ask for samples prior hiring. You always get what you pay for. Remember it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
      Originally Posted by JTor View Post

      Ask for samples prior hiring. You always get what you pay for. Remember it.
      Totally agree that you MUST ask for samples of writing before you hire anyone. One caveat to the "get what you pay for" thing is that you get what you pay for ON A RELATIVE BASIS

      I'm getting very decent articles for about $3 from a Filipina writer. If I hired an american writer at $5 per article they would be unlikely to have higher quality. They'd probably be junk.

      If I paid $5 per article in the Philippines, they would probably be exceptional provided I did my homework to recruit a qualified writer at that price.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarah Russell
    Honestly, I think asking for samples ahead of time is overrated - I've worked with a lot of writers who have a few really good articles in their portfolios (likely not written themselves) and then send crappy outsourced articles once we've begun a project. A better option, in my opinion, is to begin with a small, paid project - maybe 1-5 articles at most. This will give you a better idea of what the writer's work is really like, although you may wind up with a few pieces that you can't really use.

    Really, though, I have yet to see a piece of content written in the $3-5/page range that didn't require substantial edits. Maybe it's just that my standards are too high...
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    • Profile picture of the author jennypitts
      Originally Posted by Sarah Russell View Post

      Honestly, I think asking for samples ahead of time is overrated - I've worked with a lot of writers who have a few really good articles in their portfolios (likely not written themselves) and then send crappy outsourced articles once we've begun a project. A better option, in my opinion, is to begin with a small, paid project - maybe 1-5 articles at most. This will give you a better idea of what the writer's work is really like, although you may wind up with a few pieces that you can't really use.

      Really, though, I have yet to see a piece of content written in the $3-5/page range that didn't require substantial edits. Maybe it's just that my standards are too high...

      NO Sarah, your standards aren't too high. I outsource a lot of work, but for my articles I have said it once and will say it again, I stay local. I use a native speaker. She is actually here on the WF, although I have been working with her since before. I rather pay her prices which are higher than that $5 you have paid, then outsource to a non-native speaker and have to send back articles for rewriting. I know many people prefer to outsource to the Philippines, but I won't budge when it comes to my articles. Besides, Americans need the money just as much as other countries do.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
        Regarding local vs low-cost countries: It all depends on what your needs are and how much you are willing to pay.

        I found a guy in the Philippines who speaks PERFECT english and in a different niche, which I'm not expanding into today, he would have been an insanely amazing resource for $10 / hour. He would have easily cranked out some of the best (technical) articles you could get at that rate, and I know because I read his blog and follow him on Twitter. He KNOWS his stuff and it would cost me $20/30 per hour in the USA.

        Also - if you are looking for writers to get you backlinks (setting up blog networks, posting to article directories mainly for links), then you do NOT need perfect quality.

        You must define your needs first, then find the appropriate person.

        I've used CDarklock on these forums here ... he's great! His articles are top notch and worth every penny when I need to have my name on them and when I want to use them for click throughs.
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  • Profile picture of the author jedz
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    Hi there friend,

    Philippines is one of the world's most popular outsourcing destinations with some distinct advantages over other outsourcing providers. We have been in this business for almost 4 years now and we have handled different clients and worked on various projects. Most of them are full time clients and been using our services for over a year now.

    Please check my sig for more information. Hope to hear from you.
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    • Profile picture of the author SeanFromSoCal
      Thanks for everyone sharing their experiences on outsourcing. I'm still a little weary about oursourcing articles for a valued website (not just a blog that is for affiliate/amazon commission). No harm in doing some 1-3 article tests like some have suggested. But I'm willing to definitely give the designing and link building a shot.

      Word of advice from a developer...I would be very weary about hiring outsourced programmers/coders. I've seen a lot of junk code floating around. Some ridden with basic security vulnerabilities. Plus if you do not know the language yourself there is a chance you might get trojan code where they are stealing your database, adding hidden backlinks to their spam/internet marketing site, etc.
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