Having quality blogs published to your website does many things; drives traffic, creates brand awareness, helps to boost your reputation as an industry leader and gives your clients a reason to keep returning to your website.
However, employing a full-time writer is an expense usually reserved for larger companies and many small business owners squeeze in the time to write their own monthly blog. If you need quality content but don’t have the budget or the time, there are other ways you can provide your audience with high-quality content, but first, you need to plan.
Blogging Tools
Blog Planner
A blog plan would include your entire marketing team discussing ideas for the blog on a regular basis. From there each person is issued their tasks and the team can work with deadlines.
AHREFS
Ahrefs is a software that allows us to find keywords and linking opportunities. This tool can be essential to your SEO strategy.
Yoast SEO
Yoast is a free WordPress plugin that gives users the ability to edit title tags and meta descriptions, which helps businesses rank higher in Google searches because they can control what visitors see when they search for keywords.
Where to Hire a Freelance Writer
Freelance writers sign on to websites that outsource them. The writers are issued assignments according to the areas that they specify they are capable in, such as scientific writing or historical research.
There are several online marketplaces and websites that make it easier for businesses to connect with writing professionals, exchange information and decide whether they’d like to work together.
The list below is a good place to start. However, know that the quality of the writing will be dependant on how much you are willing to spend.
Upwork
Upwork is the largest freelance platform in the world. Odesk and Elance merged to become Upwork.com and the leader in hiring freelancers and remote tracking software.
Through Upwork, you can find a wide range of writers. There are filters and skill requirements that help you find candidates based on expertise, rates and number of previous clients.
Upwork enables you to look for writers all around the world. You can find writers fluent in specific languages so you can provide a more diverse range of content.
However, the platform has thousands of freelancers with varying levels of talent and experience. This means that some writers are professionals with years of experience and skill, while others are people who are wanting to make extra cash doing something they might not be talented in, or understand.
Guru
Guru is a platform that’s dedicated to various types of freelance fields. According to Guru, it has 1.5 million members worldwide. Using this platform you can manage your content creation project using their built-in project manager app.
The site gives you an editorial platform as well as writers who can create agreements, review white papers, publish your research and other writing jobs required for content creation.
Posting a job on Guru is free of charge, but they deducted a fee from the freelancer you use. Depending on the type of membership plan the freelancer has chosen, this fee can range from 5 to 10 percent of the total cost of the project.
You can find a writer based on price, experience, and reputation.
Textbroker
Textbroker is dedicated to finding writers and content creators. It is designed specifically for businesses who need customised content to help create an online presence.
Textbroker provides multiple options at multiple price points for small business owners. You can purchase content by quality which is ranked on a scale of two to five stars. The more experienced the writer is, the more you pay per word.
You can also purchase content either by commissioning an individual author, by hiring a team of writers, or by making your order available to over 100,000 proven, qualified authors.
Within Textbroker, you’re able to get extremely specific about the type of content you wish to create. You can choose to have a 3-star blog post between 400 and 600 words delivered in 3 days.
WriterAccess
WriterAccess is where business owners can find freelance writers in the US. The website also allows you to manage the workflow of your project and place new orders for writers who meet certain criteria.
At the lowest level of the payment structure is the pay per word fee starting at 2 cents per word. For higher quality work, you can pay as much as $2 per word, depending on how much research is required to complete your content request.
To get started on WriterAccess, you need to create a membership account and then you can place an ad for a job.
ProBlogger
ProBlogger is one of the most popular and authoritative sites about blogging. The blog makes money through its job board, where writers looking for jobs and companies looking for content meet.
ProBlogger is a paid job listing website, not an online marketplace like Upwork. It costs $50 dollars for 30 days to advertise. The quality of the writers is high and the rates depend on the topic and the experience of the writer.
ProBlogger also attracts professionals that specialize in design, web consulting, web development and marketing.
AllIndieWriters
This is another freelance job board entirely dedicated to writing. As a business owner, you have two options when looking for a writer.
The first is to post a job ad which will cost about $10. The writing is of high quality and suits a wide array of budgets. You can pay as little as $10 for a low-level email, or you can pay over $1,000 for a well written and highly researched white paper.
The second way to use the site is to hire a writer directly. There are a few dozen writers to choose from who specialize in a wide array of topics. The quotes vary on the basis of the writer’s experience and the specific parameters of the job.
Indeed
This is a job board that features more traditional jobs rather than freelance opportunities. The site attracts numerous professionals and you can browse through their resumes and learn more about the writers using the site for job opportunities.
Final Word
One of the important things you need to know when hiring people from some of the larger sites, rather than a job ad, is that the sites take a large cut of what you pay. Many writers struggle to make enough money from listing on just one site, so they work on many platforms and try to produce a large volume of work. If you find a writer who captures your brand, provides the quality you are looking for and delivers in all the ways that really matter to content production, you should consider if they would be better contracted directly to your business, rather than going through a platform, for ongoing work.
Welcome to Our Blog
We want to share our expert knowledge with you, and that is why we want you to know that all of our blogs are written by our in-house writing team.
Our writers do the research, discuss the topics and form their own opinions. They do not write for a commission from any sites, products or services mentioned, and we do not publish advertorials or paid reviews.
We enjoy writing for you and will continue to be transparent about our blogs, which are only opinion pieces.
