Urgent Need help: First time hiring a freelancer for articles

I would ask for an example of their works, I would then give them a topic and ask them to write about it.

Check it through with the forum in the Test section to see hwo they feel, if that article is up to scratch and good enough and unique.

I would then purchase more.

Regards
Owen

2. Check the articles using CopyScape if you want to make sure.

3. Wow, it could be dirt cheap at only $2/article, or $10/article, or even more.... Ask yourself a better question. What is the value in your marketing efforts of each blog post?

Choose a value you are comfortable with spending and then look for the best writer in the price range. For a blog I would be a little more worried about getting high quality content than if you were just feeding article directories for backlinks.

4. I'd ask them to show you a portfolio or samples of their writing. This is an excellent time to check them with CopyScape to make sure a new writer did not grab some article off the internet for their portfolio. (Yes, I had someone submit samples to me they had pulled from another person's site.)

What happened to 1? I hope 2-4 took care of it.

One other suggestion, do not overlook the Warriors for Hire section of this forum. There are some great writers in here, too.

There are many excellent writers in this forum. It all depends on your budget.

The list is endless but I have to mention these two names because they are excellent native English article writers:

Alexa Smith and Zabrina.

Others can be found in Warrior For Hire section but like I said in depends on how fat or lean your credit card is?

I agree with what others have said - check out some writing samples and CopyScape is a great way to check to see if the work is original.

Being a writer myself I have to say that you should consider what the content is worth to you - the purpose it is going to serve, etc. If you just need someone to get something on paper (computer screen), then going the cheap route might suffice. For example, if you plan on reworking the article to put your own touches and personality into them, you can save money on the work you hire out. But if you are planning to use the content 'as is' you will want to buy quality from the start. This can save you frustration and even money in the long run.

When you do assign a writing project it is important to remember that the writer is not a mind reader. I just mean that the more information you can supply the more likely the end result will be what you want and expect. If you have a preference about word count, keyword density, article format, style of writing, or anything else, that information should be shared with the writer.

Truth: no luck finding a ong term HIGH quality writer. I've got several people that are able to chrun out articles I consider suitable for article subs for link building, but I've yet to find a person who can deliver the high quality content I want for my main blogs.

For the most part, I've given up on individuals and just use TextBroker.com. A bit more expensive than outsourcing to an article write, but the quality has been very consistent.

Outsourcing is really not easy at all. I think "with a lot of trial and error" is probably the only honest answer. Unless you just get very, very lucky.

You can - but I wouldn't. It's difficult enough finding someone decent out of the ones who do have reviews/ratings.

You may be better off looking here, in the "Warriors for hire" folder. Still no guarantee of anything, but you may be able to follow up some references more easily and form a better impression.

"Really good" is very subjective ... but it's always difficult buying something if you're unable to judge what you're buying (I have the same problem buying cars, and get help from my father - you may be able to get help from someone able to judge writing?).

Regarding "not copied", there are a couple of things you can do:-

(i) Check with a site called "Copyscape" (have a look at it: it's fairly self-explanatory, I'm told - I admit I've never actually looked at it, myself! )

(ii) You can put "chunks of words" (not "sentences" - it's better to use the end of one sentence and the start of the next) in inverted commas into Google and it will show you whether that part has been indexed online before.

The maximum is 100%. (I never took work from new clients without payment in full, in advance). But I believe that 50% in advance is common.

Or are you asking about prices? They vary dramatically. Literally between about $4 and $400 for an article. If you want "backlink-fodder" (just chunks of original, keyword-relevant text to which to attach your link, to spin and mass submit), you'll probably be looking in the $4/$5 region for an article. At the other end of the scale, if you want longer articles aimed specifically at ensuring widespread syndication for targeted backlinks, traffic and sales, you won't find much under $100 and nothing at all under about $60, because these require a completely different skill-set. And everything in-between the two, as well.

It's not easy. But with articles, specifically, there are two things you can do to protect yourself to some extent:-

(i) Insist on EZA acceptance as a condition of payment/non-refund (a "writer" not willing to agree to this isn't worthy of the name, and it's a potentially useful benchmark even if you weren't really planning to submit your articles to EZA, because one can fairly reasonably assume that if they're accepted there, they'll be accepted in most other directories - it's kind of "objective" - well, almost!)

(ii) Start off by ordering a small number of articles, and see what you (and others) think of them when you get them: there's no point in contracting to buy 15 articles from a writer if the first 3 are going to be useless.

Good luck!

(Please note I'm not accepting any new clients at all at the moment, and not posting "looking for work". As mentioned above, Zabrina is certainly an excellent writer!).

I just wrote an ebook for a giveaway about finding a good article writer. Drop me a PM and I'll link you to it.

@King Shiloh and Alexa Smith: Thanks to both of you for the recommendation, I truly appreciate it! I'm also not accepting new clients at the moment. However, I know an excellent writer who does work as good as mine. She works by referral alone right now, so I'm passing her most of my clients and will pass her email address along to anyone else who contacts me. I'll hire her myself when I need articles.

thank u every 1:this is a very helpful place