Hiring Freelance Writers to Create Articles and Content for You
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 05:14PM If you've been following through our tutorials you've heard me mention that you can hire someone else to write your articles for you.
Up until now I have written all of my own articles and content, but I know of many successful marketers who have hired 'freelancers' to write articles that they have then used successfully in their marketing.
The two most well known resources to hire writers (as well as other outsourcing work) is: www.Elance.com and www.Guru.com
Tips:
The industry suggested standard is to pay no more than $10-$15 per article for a word count of 400-800 words; however, you will probably have to commit to purchasing more than one article to secure a freelancer. The min. bid is $50 at Elance.com, for example, which means you would want to propose they write several articles for you.
I have just done a test to see how this process works so I can better assist those of you who want to hire freelancers as an ongoing strategy. I contacted a freelancer at Elance.com and have asked for them to bid on doing 5 articles for me. I will report how this process works with you going forward. I will also do a live webinar (and record this) for a step-by-step visual tutorial for those of you at the Professional level at MarketingMerge.com
Tips to Keep in Mind when Hiring a Freelancer:
Again, the standard industry suggestion is pay no more than $10-$15 per article, for word counts of 400-800 words.
I would suggest hiring US companies -- or, if you're testing providers from other countries understand you are risking that they will not do well with the language (although they may charge much less).
Read the feedback that a particular writer has received from previous work.
Do a test with a provider (or several providers) to see who does the best work.
Again, I'll keep you posted as to the progress of my personal test with Elance.com, and I will take you through a step-by-step tutorial once I am satisfied with my own experience.
Elance.com and Guru.com have both been personally recommended by industry leaders in both the network marketing and Internet marketing communities.
Follow-up to this Article (March 21st): Hiring a Freelance Writer to Write Your Articles, Phase II
I mentioned that I'd keep you posted as to my personal testing of this service with Elance.com. I had posted a request for 5 articles on March 18th. On the 19th I received a bid by email for $75, meaning that this particular company will create my articles (on the topics I asked for) for $75. I can request other bids but I feel this is a fair price and will accept the bid.
I will do a tutorial on the 20th (available soon after at the Professional Training area) to show you what I've done so far. I'm doing this because there are certain 'steps' that have to be taken the first time you hire one of these freelance writers at Elance.com, and I want you to be able to follow my steps click-by-click.
I'll post here again once that tutorial is up, and I'll continue to share my personal experience with these articles. I'll also show you the articles they create and we can discuss our opinion of their quality. Then, I'll start to market those articles with you watching each step! This should be fun.
What Internet Marketing Training is Coming Up Next?
Mike Klingler
Update April 7th--Hiring Freelance Writers to Create Your Internet Content
OK, I fell behind on this one--well, dropped the ball... we got slammed with some things that needed to be addressed with system optimization and so here we are, April 7th, and those tutorials are up in your training area, under 'Social Marketing' just above the Phase II area.
I wasn't exactly sure the best place to stick those tutorials since not everyone will be hiring writers to create content. Heck, this is the first time I've needed to hire writers and I'm already attracting 10-30 leads per day. Still, not everyone likes to pound on the keyboard like I seem to so I think many will enjoy the process of having someone else do the 'dirty' work.
I plan to totally stat leveraging my time with others doing much of my writing from here on out. There's just no way I could get to the goals I have if I had to create all my own Internet content (of course, my goals are a little obnoxious but after 14 years of doing MLM the old way I think I deserve a big reward--and I bet you do too! So let's leverage the heck out of these freelance writers, what do ya' say?!
So in the first 3 tutorials on 'hiring a writer' I first show ya' how to set up your account with Elance and then how to post your first job request. Then, in the second Elance tutorial I show you how log back in and find the job you've posted. If someone has bid on your request you'll now know how to award them the job.
The the 3rd 'supplement Elance tutorial' I show where you go to 'verify' or 'authenticate' your bank account or payment information. You have to pay a $10 deposit (which Elance gives back 10 days later) to prove you're real and there to do business. I show you how to do that in the 3rd tutorial.
I'll keep following up on this and providing more information going forward. I've just taken the next step (as you'll see in the tutorials) and awarded someone the job of writing 5 articles for me. If this works out well I'm going to really leverage this method. I'll share my process with you step by step.
If you have a Marketing Merge 'Professional' account go check out the tutorials in your Social Marketing area (Log into your account at Marketing Merge and click on 'Renegade Professional' Login. Then, click on 'Attraction Marketing' icon, and then on Social Marketing icon... then look just above Phase II for the Elance tutorials).
To get an account at Marketing Merge you must first Find an Internet Marketing Guide.
Mike Klingler
April 8th Follow up - Paying for the Project
I received an email from Elance asking me to put in the funds (to Elance, which they would hold until I am satisfied with the articles and they are completed). It's a nice set up that I don't have to pay the person writing the articles directly and that they see the money is in there so that I won't be wasting their time.
So I will hear back from Elance when my 5 articles have been written.
I've posted another quick visual tutorial so you could see how I paid for the project click-by-click. Of course, you'll find that tutorial with the rest at Marketing Merge 'Renegade Professional' area, under Social Marketing section. Pretty slick and easy process so far. If they do good work this is going to get fun!
Mike Klingler
OK, I received the articles (actually quite some time ago... just got to this). He worked pretty fast. I looked over the 5 articles he sent and can't say they are excellent, but they're usable. What I would do in hindsight is spend a lot more time describing what I want... giving links to articles I find on the net on related topics, etc.
But this was a quick test to see if this was a viable strategy (hiring someone to create your content for you)... I'd say it definitely is. The more time you put into directing them the better results you'll get.
They seem more than willing to go back and work on your project if you're unhappy with it. Be fair. These are people working hard for you. If you didn't give good instructions don't penalize them. They want to give you a great product though because they want a good review (or, at least, they don't want a bad review). So this is definitely a great set up.
I have posted the last tutorial in this series in the Professional training area at www.MarketingMerge.com... showing the email that I received with my 5 articles and showing how I released the funds to pay for the project.
I recommend this service based on my experience, but every provider can be different so you may have to try a few different people before having the results you're after.
This is a great way to leverage your time and create content for your blog, squidoo, hub, articles, etc.
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