Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 6:45 am Post subject: My Tips on Selecting $5 Writers
Everytime I use this forum I'm searching for help so I thought for once I would give back to this forum that continues to give so much!
I love to write but I'm too much of a perfectionist so it takes me 2 hours to write a simple 500 word article! At that rate, it would have taken me years to get my site up. I had to find another way so I decided to hire writers so I could concentrate on marketing, building traffic, content strategy, etc. etc. Let me warn you, hiring writers is not as easy as it seems but it can be done for as little as $5 per article/page and I hope to walk you through the process in this post. I have been using writers for the past year now so I have a pretty good handle on this whole process.
$5 per article/page may seem like a lot to those that write their own content, but for folks like me, it's a bargain. When I started my site, my strategy was simple - get my "foundation pages" up first by hiring a writer and then roll out my own pages afterwards while still using writers to roll out "bulk pages" at a time to fill out various sections of my site.
90% of the content on my website (check my signature for the address) has been written by other writers. You'll get an idea of what $5/page buys you. There are a few pages that I had written for as much as $50 but most of the pages have been written for $5. If some of the pages don't read that well, there is a reason. I haven't had a chance yet to go through and edit their work. I just wanted the pages up and on the web so I loaded them "as is" but you'll get a great idea of what to expect in terms of quality. On with my tips...
The first thing you need to do is grab a copy of Gary Antosh's eBook called, "How To Create Website Content Fast." I think it sells for about $30 but if you use SBI, it's free.
After reading that book, you'll be putting bids for writers on Elance and RentACoder (at least those are the two sites I use). You will not pay a single penny to post your bid requests on either site - that's the best part! The writers pay all fees. Follow the guidelines and suggestions offered in the eBook as far as how to write your bid request. You will get a lot more bids on RentACoder (RAC) than Elance. In fact, I get about 3-4 bids on RAC to every one I get on Elance. The better writers are found at Elance but they are also more expensive. That is why you don't get as many bids for $5 articles on Elance as you do on RentACoder.
As your bids start rolling in, the first thing you want to do is ask every writer to submit a brief sample for a specific keyword. You choose the keyword (that obviously fits with your website theme) and give them any directions necessary. For example, for my site I would tell them to submit a brief sample on the keyword, "treadmills" and it should talk about what to look for when buying a treadmill. Give this exact request to every writer. You don't want to give each writer a different keyword because you want to compare apples to apples.
Here's where things get interesting. For those writers that don't reply or aren't willing to submit a sample, you take them off your list of considerations. As your samples start rolling in, here are things you should be judging: How long did it take the writers to get the sample back to you? Were they courteous and did they show enthusiasm for the job? How about spelling errors? How is their grammar and overall writing style?
In addition to those things, you want to check out their profiles. What are they ranked? How many rankings do they have? Check their feedback. What have other people said about these writers? You'll be able to check all of this information for every writer on both of the sites.
As you begin to narrow your selection down to 3-5 writers, respond to your "finalists" by letting them know that you enjoyed their sample and you have narrowed down your potential writers to them and a couple other writers. Ask them how they handle rewrites, what experience they have writing SEO articles, what is their general workload (will they be able to meet your deadlines), etc. etc. The purpose of this message is two-fold. You want to get more information, obviously, but you also want to see how quickly they respond to this message (and if they respond at all). By taking this additional step, you will easily narrow your choice to 1 or 2 writers at which point you'll have to take everything you've learned about them into consideration to make your final decision.
So you've hired the writer but the work isn't done yet (sorry). When you send the writer your instructions, be DETAILED! This is the most crucial step in the process! I believe most people that hire writers just give the writer a keyword and wait for the article to come back. I give the writer my keyword and I tell them what the purpose of the article is. In addition, I give them links to 3-4 sites that they should use for resources/information. I also highlight the important points I want the writer to hit on in the article. This is the most important step in the entire process!!
So now you have your writer, the content has been written, but you're still not done! If all goes well, you actually are done. Hang on to that writer for dear life because you've worked hard to find him/her and trust me, good writers are very hard to come by at $5/article. If you are lucky, the articles you get will be fine as is, but I have yet to find a writer at this price point that can deliver material that good. Often times you'll have to either edit the work yourself (which for me is much easier than writing from scratch) or you'll have to send the work back for revisions.
Once you've established rapport with the writer and you trust them, ask them if they'll work with you outside of Elance or RAC. They love it because they don't have to pay any fees so they get a raise and yet you're still only paying them $5! Paying them through PayPal is the best way to do this. As an added incentive, I give my writers a small bonus for turning around projects early - typically a few dollars. For example, if the total for the project was $25, I might pay them $30 if the project was done quickly and the articles were pretty good. The writers love it and they'll work extra hard for you and will always make time for your projects!
I have gone through 4 writers in the past year, which isn't bad considering the price point. I had to "fire" two writers and the other two aren't the greatest writers but they're fast and their work is easy to edit. I'm in the process of working with yet another writer but I am paying $7/article to see if the couple extra dollars buys me better quality writing. If it does, then I'll pay that rate moving forward. If it doesn't, I'll be back looking for another $5 writer!
I hope this post helps those of you considering hiring a writer or those of you like me who had trouble just getting out of the gate! If you're stuck and just need a little head start, get 20 or so pages up for $100 and you'll be on your way! Good luck!
***If anyone has any specific questions on anything I've discussed, feel free to reply. I'll check this post frequently to answer any questions in a timely manner!*** _________________ http://www.mens-total-fitness.com
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5815 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 10:21 am Post subject:
Hi tvanslooten, Many thanks for all the useful tips.
In my experience, the quality of writers varies hugely, so if anyone has a bad experience or two, it might worth while trying again. _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 569 Location: Kamloops, Canada
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:55 pm Post subject:
I just had a series or articles written of a number of subjects. I used 4 different writters.
The first did a poor job the first time around but after I told him that all the articles would need to be improved they came back good. Needed some editing but were worth the price.
The second writter did a horrible job and needed to be let go.
The third writter did very well but missed some deadlines.
The fourth writter is slow but does good work.
It is really a guess as to what kinds of experience you will have when hiring out article writting.
Sometimes you will hire bad writters and other time you will get good.
I have noticed that the quality of the sample articles tends to be better then what I recieve back. I wonder if some of the writters, especially those who English is not their first language, have someone in their business who writes their samples articles. _________________ Dave
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One of my fears about using a writer is that they'll use the "copy and paste" method of writing.
How can you determine if they haven't just scraped somebody else's page, changed a few words around etc.
I would hate to get penalized for duplicate content. _________________ Clickbank & Affiliate product reviews & blog
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For example, if you go to that site and type in this URL
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/adsense.shtml
and wait a few moments, Copyscape will show you the web pages of thieves who have stolen large chunks of material from my site.
You won't want to buy anything from those website owners! _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Hey AllanGardyne, thanks....
My question is a little deeper than that.
Using copyscape is sort of an after the fact thing to do.
I guess the only way to protect yourself is to have the writer sign off on an agreement saying that if the copy doesn't meet non-duplicate standards, they won't get paid.
I can't imagine people are going to sign a contract for $5 per article. _________________ Clickbank & Affiliate product reviews & blog
www.express-marketing.com
Now available. The KLT Factors ebook. Free download.
Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 3:03 pm Post subject: Checking for plagiarism
I've been checking the content of my writers by taking sentences and searching for them in yahoo. The SE will feed you back webpages with partial or full results of your sentence. This has been effictive for me in finding plagiarism. I generally check 1 sentence out of every paragraph.
This is the first time I've heard of the web site above. Here is what I came up with for checking content using it:
1. Make a dummy page with the content on it.
2. Run that page through their program.
3. Check for copies.
Maybe this would work? If not, you could always check the sentences like I do.
HC
Monty Loree wrote:
Hey AllanGardyne, thanks....
My question is a little deeper than that.
Using copyscape is sort of an after the fact thing to do.
I guess the only way to protect yourself is to have the writer sign off on an agreement saying that if the copy doesn't meet non-duplicate standards, they won't get paid.
I can't imagine people are going to sign a contract for $5 per article.
Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 8 Location: Anderson IN
Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:01 pm Post subject: writers do sign an agreement.
Hey guys,
I hire alot of content writing through rentacoder and the money is escrowed until you are satisfied with their work, and sign off on it.
As soon as I receive articles I upload them on test pages and run them through copyscape.com. They will show how much if any is copied and from where it is copied.
Then after I see it is original I will sign off the project is complete and the writer gets paid.
Your post is a real helpful one - especially for people who have never hired a ghostwriter to write for them.
And you are right, finding a ghostwriter to write content for your site is not an easy task. That's why at my site - RentAGhostWriter.com, I've gone to great extent to recruit some top-notch American, British, Canadian and Australlian writers - as well as writers from other countries. Many of these writers are published writers, magazine and newspaper writers.
Another thing to consider when hiring ghostwriters, is to try to give your writer an appropriate amount of time that suits the project you're giving him or her.
For example, hiring a writer to write a 100 page ebook in 7 days is not enough time in my opinion. I think that this may put too much pressure on the writer to complete the project which might lead to plagarism and poor quality work.
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