I’ve been writing for years and it’s actually pretty easy…. for me.
When it comes to digital marketing and things I know, I can write for hours and have thousands of words on a page without even having to research.
Does it take you hours to write only a few hundreds words? If so, it’s not really the best use of your time to write all your own content.
Not only does it take you too much time, the content won’t be that great either.
If you struggle to write effective copy, in this article I’ll show you how to find writers who can without breaking the bank.
Hire writers who focus on a niche
You won’t see me writing about cars, lawnmowers, real estate or any other niche outside of digital marketing.
Why?
For a number of reasons, such as:
I’m not an expert – I don’t want to write about topics I have little clue about. I’ll spend way too much time researching which hinders my creative process and the article doesn’t come out as free-flowing or informative because it’s a hash of other articles.
I don’t like to – Nobody enjoys doing things they don’t like or are uninterested about. There is no passion which can clearly be seen in the work.
I don’t increase my competitive edge – by focusing on a single niche and spending time improving my writing, I’ll have a greater chance of winning clients in digital marketing opposed to someone who about everything under the sun.
When you’re looking for a content writer, focus on hiring someone who writes only in your niche. A good way to identify candidates is to ask them for 10-15 samples of work in your niche.
If they can only provide 2-3 then they are not experts.
Find students on LinkedIn
You can find thousands of students on LinkedIn who are trying to build up their work history and portfolio. With little experience many will be happy to write pieces for your website for free or discounted rates to build up their profile.
The biggest benefit to this option is you can hire native English speakers who have university degrees and are experts in their field for pretty darn cheap.
Use the search feature and look for students, you can target by industry which allows you to niche in easily.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are an undervalued commodity for marketers. As well as helping bring more targeted traffic to your website, they also contain dozens of experts within each group.
For example, if you were starting a travel site about backpacking around Asia, there are hundreds of Facebook groups with people dispensing advice.
Join a few groups, find the key members who are answering questions in depth and reach out.
Freelancer Sites
I prefer LinkedIn and Facebook Groups over freelancer sites because over recent months sites have been increasing their fees for freelancers and clients.
For example, if you hire a content writer on Upwork, 22.75% of the actual cost goes to Upwork, resulting in writers increasing their rates to off-set the costs.
This means you the client is can be paying an extra 22.75% for work.
You can still find very good writers’ on these platforms but I do believe there is better value off these sites nowadays.
How much should you pay for content?
I’ve already mentioned in another blog post that to get the best freelancers you have to pay for quality. As a general thumb of thumb, here’s what I think is a fair amount receive okay articles these days:
- Product review articles – $1-$5 per 100 words
- Blog posts on a niche topic – $3-$10 per 100 words
- Landing pages – $9+ per 100 words
- eBooks – $2-$7 per 100 words
- Webpage content – $4-$12 per 100 words
This is just a general guideline for pricing.
If you want to grab the top influencers in your industry or the best writers for your niche, it’s not uncommon to pay as much as $20-$150 per 100 words.
Summary
Anyone can start tapping on a keyboard and write articles, but to write something that people actually want to read is a different ball game.
If you can’t write or it takes you too long to create content, save yourself the trouble and start hiring content writers to do it for you.
If you do have content writers, where do you go to find them and what tips would you give to new marketers starting out?
