Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Some of you might have looked at this title and thought, “Why would a blogger even be considering blog writing services?” If you’re a business you’re probably already outsourcing some or all of your content writing, and if you treat your blog as a business, you might want to start considering the same.
If you’re like most bloggers, the main reason your blog exists is that you love to write. Either that, or your blog is a repository of content marketing greatness that makes people want to hire you or your company or buy your products and services right now. No matter how big your readership gets, this personal touch is an important aspect of drawing a crowd.
Unfortunately, for most of us there’s only a limited amount of time which can be spent on blogging each week. As the professional responsibilities and guest posting requests increase, you might find the pace of blogging unsustainable. Or, you might decide that it’s time to scale your blog into something bigger. Perhaps you find that in order to compete for higher search engine rankings, you need to accelerate your blogging cadence. In any of these cases, it might be advantageous to bring in outsiders to perform blog writing services.
It is possible to have external support and keep your personal touch on blogging. If you are used to doing research on the Internet for your blogging, hiring someone to help you do that work and create a blog draft for you can bring amazing improvements to your productivity and save you time to actually write better blog posts.
As we discuss these services, it’s important to note that there are several approaches you can take to hiring someone. Each of them also has a different way to pay for the blog writing services you’ve selected.
Approach #1: Find and Manage a Writer through an Open Freelancer Marketplace
If you wanted to start experimenting with outsourcing some of your content creation, this is where I would start, as you can retain as much control as possible. While you will have to do most of the hiring and management yourself, one of the advantages of this approach, of course, is the high level of control.
Typically, you’ll post a job and accept “applications” for it. Interview each writer that seems promising, then hire him or her to get the job done. On the other hand, you don’t have much formal pre-screening. Most of the time the marketplace will have some reviews for this person, which does help. But the approach is primarily self-service.
Fiverr was originally known for small gigs, initially priced at five dollars, hence the name. However, nowadays you can buy blog writing services at every price point. Besides writing services, you can get help with your WordPress site, and a lot of other services. From that standpoint, therefore, Fiverr is a versatile talent hiring platform.
To hire a freelancer this way, you’ll create an account and then post a gig. Freelancers will bid on it. Then, you’ll get to look at applicant’s portfolio and site reviews. If this person looks promising, you can hire them. Hiring is super easy, and involves “no surprises” pricing. Money is deposited into escrow, then the freelancer gets to work. Once you’re happy with the job, you release payment to the freelancer.
Upwork works similarly to Fiverr, in that the freelancer is hired and paid through the platform. Unlike Fiverr, you can pay by the piece or the hour. Again, you post a job and get bids on it. Depending on your choices, applications can be limited to your country of residence. You can also indicate if a freelancer must have a minimum level of customer satisfaction, called a Job Success Score (JSS).
Once again, you will review freelancer applications. There’s a significant amount of customer satisfaction information available on their profiles, and you can also ask for portfolio items. Upwork allows direct messaging with freelancers before retaining them to provide blog writing services. In addition, Upwork encourages long-term client-freelancer relationships. This is a plus, because less turnover means a smaller amount of drama.
PeoplePerHour uses the power of artificial intelligence to help you choose the right person for blog writing services. The way it works is that you post a job, and then the AI algorithms go to work. As potential freelancers are identified, the platform invites them to submit a bid. Then, you can review the ones who compete for your business, interview the ones you want to, and hire. On the flip side, you can also do a search through the platform and directly engage with writers that look interesting.
Payments are done through escrow, ensuring that neither side gets cheated. Finally, you can leave reviews for your freelancer. These are visible to potential clients too, which helps you choose wisely.
Guru is a newer platform, but it does much the same thing. You can join the platform, then post a job. Payments are handled through the platform, and you have several ways to manage these: either put money in escrow and release manually, or set up automatic payments. In addition, you can pay for your project one piece at a time. Finally, the platform handles much of the communication, and freelancer reviews are available.
Approach #2: Use a Freelance Writer Marketplace to Search for and Find a Vetted Writer
Unlike the unvetted options above, these marketplaces do more background work on your potential freelancers. Typically, they do quality evaluations. And in some situations, the platform will check the immigration status of a freelancer. The advantage of this approach is that you’re less likely to get poor-quality freelancers who barely speak English. On the other hand, with some platforms you may have less control over who performs your blog writing services. Either way, there’s less direct management of your freelancer and you are relying a bit more that the service has placed the right writer at an appropriate rank in their system, because you are often paying according to their rank.
Textbroker offers several ways to hire and pay for your blog writing services. One way is to pay a flat fee to the company. This rate is based on your desired writing quality and includes everything but a small processing fee. Another option is to hire individual freelancers, who are then paid according to a rate you negotiate with them. Unlike many other ways of finding a freelancer, this one only works with writers.
Here, you have two basic options: hire and manage the freelancer direct through the platform or pay for managed blog writing services. Either way, the freelancers have been vetted and pre-approved to work there. For the managed services, the Writer Access staff selects the best freelancers and recommends them to you. On approval, they’ll manage the freelancer. All you have to do is pay the bill. WriterAccess has a few specialties beyond just writing. For instance, they have content strategists, photographers, and other creatives. However, all of the options focus on content marketing.
Scripted is another writing-only talent platform. With Scripted, you can get blog writing services, but they’ll also do much more. For instance, new customers can get an SEO audit of their site. This helps identify strengths and weaknesses. Then, you can hire freelancers to help improve your SEO. Ideally this should always be considered with blogs. However, Scripted also has people who can write website copy as necessary. This service vets writers, then shows you the ones which are potentially suitable for your project.
Keep in mind, this one is relatively different from other platforms in that it has a hefty monthly fee. While the fee includes some writing credits, it also has in-dept perks such as editorial review and plagiarism checks. If you go with many of the other options, you’ll end up doing these things yourself.
Constant Content has a slightly different approach to blog writing services. Rather than offering exclusively custom content, they let writers post already written content. Then, you’d buy the rights from the author. This has the advantage of providing instant content if you need it for some reason. On the other hand, you won’t have the chance to express exactly what you want. Besides simple writing though, Constant Content has a partnership with Shutterstock. This allows you to purchase a license for one of their pictures, with the purchase of an article. Want custom-written content? You can pick your freelancer to work with.
Approach #3: Use an A La Carte Blog Writing Service
If you aren’t picky about who performs the blog writing services, you can try one of these a la carte writing services. With these, you typically place an order for the content you need, and it’ll appear when finished. Some services let you review items as they’re being written, such as by approving an outline. In addition, you’ll typically be allowed to request some changes as appropriate. Choose this approach if you’re busy and just want something written on time. However, you’ll be passing up the relationship with your writer and placing trust that these services have properly vetted the people that they allow on their platform.
SEMrush Content Marketplace
If you’re comfortable with just ordering up content and waiting for it to arrive, this is a good option. You can place the order, and the writer will send you a title and meta-description. From this, you can approve the topic. A week or so later, you’ll get the finished article. Need revisions? You’re allowed to do this three times. In addition, premium marketplace members can ask to work with the same author again. In this way, they incentivize repeat business. Finally, if you want your content SEO optimized this is possible, so long as the keywords are provided.
With iWriter, there are two basic ways to order content. The first one would remind you of ordering a pair of pants: list your specifications such as SEO keywords, select length, and decide on the writing quality. You then name your price, within certain minimums. From there, the order would be placed and a writer would pick it up from the queue. Your other option is to find a specific writer through searches or top rated lists. In that case, you hire the writer directly. If you’ve ordered something before, there’s also an option to rehire the person for more blog writing services. No matter which way you go though, iWriter handles all the payments. There’s also relatively limited communication with your writer.
The Hoth is a full-service content marketing and SEO firm. In addition, they have a pool of writers who can create blogs for you. In this case, you don’t get to pick who does the writing. Instead, you place an order and wait for the content. Then, you can approve it or request some revisions. Either way, the content isn’t done until you are happy. As an added bonus, if your site is on WordPress they’ll even do the posting for you. Photo and banners included.
If you want quality content delivered quickly, this is an excellent resource. What Express Writers does is take an order, then send it to their writing team. Writers are carefully vetted, and everything is edited by a qualified editor. This means that only quality content comes back. Best of all, turnaround times for most blog writing services are fairly quick. The only drawback is that, typical of a full-service content agency, it can get expensive on a per-word basis.
FatJoe is a comprehensive content marketing agency, primarily focused on blog writing services and branded content. With any content that you order, it has been expertly optimized for SEO. This is one reason why they are a major supplier for many marketing agencies. In addition, they have a presence across the English-speaking world. Finally, their services also include link building and blogger outreach, both of which help boost SEO on their own.
Approach #4: Use a Monthly Managed Blog Writing Service
At this service level, you’re pretty much ordering content and waiting for it to show up. You still can request edits or reject content, but most of the writer selection and management are done for you. The advantage is that you won’t spend much time on blog writing services. On the other hand, it’s relatively impersonal from the standpoint of the writer. And as a business or blogger you are placing 100% of your trust into the organization.
Verblio lets you order content, and then it is given to their writers to create. There’s a monthly subscription charge, but most of it goes towards the cost of content. This way, you don’t have to pay each writer individually. Instead, Verblio does this for you. On the plus side, you can “save” writers if they do a good job, then request them later.
Finally, let’s look at Human Proof Designs. This is a website content service that will either build your site from the ground up, or let you buy article packs. Unlike some other blog writing services, you pretty much buy the content and wait for it to show up. Although you can reject an article, there’s little evidence that you can request a writer to do more for you.
Blogging is time-consuming, and for most of us it isn’t our core business. So, when it comes time to scale our blogs, hiring specialist writers is often the way to go. There are various options for service levels and management requirements, depending on your needs and budget. At the end of the day, your options are almost unlimited.
Have you tried one of these blog writing services? Are there others that you used that should have made the list? Feel free to comment below.
Photo by Tyler Franta on Unsplash
Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.