Finding professional content writers

Where do you find quality content writers

[jerseygirl]

I have read several discussions on this forum and others regarding the need for high quality content. Some of you mentioned freelance college students and using elance. Are there not professional writing firms that specialize in content development? Or do you find that is too expensive?

Seems like there is a large, unfilled need for quality content writers. Am I correct?

[engine]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

>Or do you find that is too expensive?

Expensive is not the phrase I'd use. It's all relative and cost is always an issue.

With an agency you get a greater pool of experience and capabilities.

Freelancers go on holiday at some point in time (or at at least they should).

Honestly, if you employed a student you would not get the experience of a senior freelancer or agency.

[jerseygirl]

engine, thanks for the reply. Do you find that it is difficult to find quality content writers? Any suggestions on where I could find one?

[georgeek]

What is the subject of the content? I have used elance a lot and now have a pool of very good ones that I use for specific topics.

[dragonlady7]

I think freelancers are just more customizable than large agencies. I actually don't know of any agencies; I'm a freelance writer and am just striking out on my own. It seems the most efficient to me. What's my overhead? Minimal.
Using an agency means you get a larger pool of writers to choose from (or that they can choose from for you).
Using freelancers means you have to do the finding and selection yourself.
So perhaps it's a trade-off-- if you have more money, use an agency. If you have more time, use freelancers. I don't think it would take all that long to find a good writer you worked well with, if you comb through the freelancers out there. I have seen it discussed elsewhere-- finding a copywriter you can really work with is essential. I'm not talking about their ability or professionalism, it's more a personality thing. if you see eye to eye on most things and generally understand each other, you'll have a happy working relationship. If you don't, you're going to have to both move on.
It depends on your needs, though. As with most things.

[rogerd]

Generally, a larger firm will cost more, but may have the advantage of being able to manage a project and assign additional or new resources if things get hairy. OTOH, content-writing is something that you should be able to outsource to an individual based on past projects and writing samples without too much difficulty.

If your budget is really limited, try fishing for interns from colleges or perhaps grad students struggling to get by on fellowships.

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Jerseygirl!

[seeber01]

You can also try subject specific forums, offer a price for say 4 articles on specific keyphrases. Set out length requirements, whether they retain copyright and get a link, or you take copyright, or rights to revise. I would recommend at least maintain a right to revise since you would likely need to modify for keyword density.

You could be surprised at what you get :)

Debs

[engine]

It is relatively easy to get good writers. The tough bit is to find good writers that can create a good balance for the search engines and site visitors.

You are unlikely to find a student capable of that.

[Hawkgirl]

And I think it's important to note that a person may be a terrific writer for some subject areas but may be awful in other subject areas. Not everyone can write all types of content equally well.

IMO, if you are looking for the highest quality content, your best bet is to find a writer who has written about your subject area (or a similar one) in the past (i.e., don't expect someone who is great at writing informational articles about new veterinary medications to be great at writing promotional copy about women's shoes. He/she might be able to cross over, but they might not.)

This also applies to the type of writing you're looking for. Some folks are great at how-to content, informational articles, FAQs, etc., but couldn't write a salesy-promotional paragraph to save their lives.

[dragonlady7]

On what Hawkgirl said, I'd add this:
A really good writer could probably cross over, or will have diverse experience, but will probably have to charge you more because it would take her longer to do background research so she could establish a credible voice in the style she's less accustomed to. This is where (for any writers reading this) having a really diverse portfolio is a great idea, and if you have spare time, seeking out a totally different genre to add to it on your own might be a good idea. In your free time, writing a volunteer article for a small publication on a new topic might be a good idea.
Don't necessarily rule out an individual writer because you don't see an example of the precise type of work you're looking for, but do ask them about it and ask them if it would cost them too much time to get up to speed on your industry.
Many clever writers don't bother diversifying, finding it more convenient, profitable, and enjoyable to simply focus on one particular field or type of writing, just as webdesigners may stick to an industry. So if you can find a writer you like who specializes in your niche, so much the better, if you have a niche.

[shasan]

How do you pay these guys? per article? I guess on elance they would bid per project.

[Hawkgirl]

Most of the time when freelancing I've usually been paid per article; however, once or twice I've been paid on an hourly basis.

I recommend that unless you know the writer really well, the per-article setup is the best. That way the writer has incentive to write quality work, but do it fairly quickly. (I had a four-year relationship with the company that paid me by the hour - they knew how much content I could crank out in an hour and they preferred to pay on an hourly scale. But it can be a bad idea to pay hourly because an unethical writer could really drag out the hours and drain your resources quickly with little to show for it.)

You then have to decide whether you want to pay a flat rate per article or on a per-word basis. There are pros and cons to both; these days it seems like more folks hiring writers want to pay per-article rather than per-word.

[dragonlady7]

Most writers I've seen have rates posted that are per-item, with a general wordcount (i.e. "per page, up to 400 words", "per article, up to 1000 words") and say that their rates are estimated and vary by the job.
But it seems that generally, they don't charge by the hour-- they take how fast they work into account and probably set their rates from that, but don't charge hourly. One I noticed had a notice posted that she charged an hourly rate if she had to perform research to do the writing. Which seems reasonable; if the client doesn't include information on their pet widget for the writer to be able to write intelligently, then somehow the writer's going to have to find out.
But that's the sort of thing I would discuss up front.
Most seemed also to recommend having a contract, that would lay out all these concerns so that everyone is on the same page and neither person is unpleasantly surprised come project-completion time.

[shasan]

What's the going rate you charge hawkgirl? How much is too much? does it depend on the content? have I asked enough questions?

[kloren]

Hi,

I'm new to this topic, and also bring in a rather contrary viewpoint.

Of the two, content and mechanical web design, I think content is more important. I would rather say that you need to achieve at least a minimum level of acceptability with web design, but then the real results depend on content.

I think any webmaster will be more successful if he starts with being his own content provider and learns the mechanics of web design.

The other way?

It's a highly skilled mechanic having to learn how to recognize and then find good content.

Goog content requires, I think, "Fire in the Belly," and is not just ordered by the page.

How does a good web mechanic, who thinks he or she is not a good writer -- how to become a good writer?

By writing.

If you don't think your writing skills are as good as you'd like I would say it is time to take a sabbatical from web design and "practice" writign.

How?

By writing.

There are tips and texts that might help, but the best writers wrote a lot of junk before they got better, then good.

I consider myself a good writer. I've had to learn how to design webs because THAT seemed too expensive to hire.

Oh, "Fire in the belly?" Also, I don't think a good writer puts on the humble cloak!

If there were some interest, in this forum, I could present some writing tips.

But, probably the first "writing" tips would be to reduce the clutter on so many pages and push for data that is truly valuable as well as interesting.

I've enjoyed Jacob Neilson, particularly back in the days when his advices were detailed and free. Now they are teases and the full volume is expensive.

But he gave early advices which I found very valuable -- somewhere between "writing" and "web design."

Well, enough, already.

One tip?

The mechanical level of web design, alone, without consideration of data content, should be sufficient to make people want to re-visit the site. That is the level of minimum acceptability you need to build on.

So, what do YOU think arouses EMOTION in terms of web design. It is an emotional reaction you want. It should be a positive emotion that brings the visitor back.

Karl

[irock]

Hawkgirl,

Say if you charge per-article and the publisher defines how many words you write, won't that end up with the same problem as that with pay-per-word?

[Hawkgirl]

Say if you charge per-article and the publisher defines how many words you write, won't that end up with the same problem as that with pay-per-word?

In my view, the whole idea of per-article rather than per-word is a step toward protecting the publisher. I've seen per-word contracts abused by writers. So if the per-article charge is there but the publisher specifies a word count, I don't see how that can hurt. The publisher is getting what he wants, the writer has agreed to a per-article rate, and assuming they agree on the approximate wordcount, it's probably good to go.

Dragonlady7 has the right idea - make sure that things are clearly laid out in the contract ... that will go along way in making sure that the pay for work performed is fair for both parties.

[irock]

Hawkgirl,

R u a technical copy writer? Do you know where to find this type of editor?

Thanks!

[rogerd]

In any discussion of so-called "content", it's important to recognize that there are multiple categories that fall under that umbrella term. One webmaster seeking content pages is merely looking for a barely literate vehicle to carry keywords and funnel visitors to another part of the site; another may be looking for well-written articles that will draw repeat visits and links from other sites. Beyond that, some sites may need articles that are not only well-written, but that convey a powerful marketing message - another type of writing entirely. In other cases, humor, sophistication, and entertainment value may be important. (At the other extreme, some spammers are able to make do with machine-generated nonsense pages that contain the desired keywords.) The various categories of writing will have greatly differing service providers and price levels.

Bottom line: if you are shopping for content and writers, be sure you know what you are looking for and what the writer is capable of producing. Technical writing, ad copy, and news articles are quite different, and most writers will be most comfortable in one or two categories.