Comments on: How To Find Good Content Writers

By: groneg

groneg — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:55:39 +0000

What I’ve found as a band-aid to the above issue is to find the content yourself and then hire elance to rewrite the content for you. It takes an hour’s worth of your time to find decent content but it makes the final product a close approximation of what you’re looking for…

By: Jannalou

Jannalou — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:59:32 +0000

Also, a good writer will do research on a topic with which they are not well-versed. I wrote a short (450 words or less) article for a local parenting publication about autism, which is a topic that I am incredibly familiar with (I work with autistic children and have many autistic friends), and I still researched to find the right definitions and the right angle for the piece. The article was about a particular organization and its work with autistic children; I was lucky enough to have personal connections so that a phone interview with the director was possible, and I found local people to interview about it as well. The finished piece (edited daily for a week once I had all my information together) was of high quality and got across the point I wanted to make. It was also interesting reading and imparted new knowledge to those who read it.

While I wouldn’t bid on a project about, say, quantum physics (my boyfriend loves it but I barely understand what it is), I wouldn’t hesitate to put my name in for any number of other topics that I am able to research well - anything from pet care to child care to disabilities to cooking to writing or reading to movies. That’s just scratching the surface of the myriad interests I have. Coupled with my writing ability, I could conceivably write almost any article.

Of course, my first love is writing fiction. But that takes research, too.

By: Carol

Carol — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:40:38 +0000

In defense of paying a professional wage for professional services, let me first say I have, among other qualifications, five years experience as a technical editor for a major, international company who successfully competes in a global market against companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman. In this capacity, I edited documents written by experts in their field. I’ve had numerous discussions with those experts about what they’ve written. Almost without fail, they had written something that, had I edited the grammar errors, etc., without discussing the edit with those experts, I would have edited the document to contain inaccurate information. Why? Because, as you’ve pointed out, they are not writers. They write, in my experience, the way they talk. That writing, when read as it means not as the “writer” meant, is not understood as it was intended to be. Numerous times, my experts would respond with, “That’s not what I meant.” And when I asked them to read it as someone else might, they suddenly understood how what they wrote could be misinterpreted.
That is one difference between what a professional writer brings to the table vs. experts and typists. How worse do you think your foreign experts who don’t really understand English very well would do? Another difference, and this is the one that should make you sit up and take notice, professional writers have ethics and behave in a professional manner, which means you run very little risk of being sued for copyright infringement, plagiarism, invasion of privacy and/or libel. Professional writers may not be experts in the particular subject that is the topic of their copy, but they know how to research and vet their sources. I’ve come across a forum where web designers discuss copying information from other websites and using it for their own purposes. And if the original writer happens to come across those sites, the writer won’t sue, they advise, because it would be too expensive. Don’t bet on it. I would and every writer I know would sue.
What if your information is incorrect? What if it’s been “edited” into being incorrect? What if you get sued? Where is your $2 writer then? What about the comma placement that cost a major company $2.13 million? Google “Rogers Communications Inc.” and “Aliant Inc.” and see what you get. And you think all you have to worry about is a spelling error. Wait until you get sued and lose your business, your house and any other property you may have. Do you truly understand your liability as the “disseminator” of what you publish?

By: LS

LS — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:03:09 +0000

This is pretty frustrating to read. Someone who knows about something isn’t a writer. Someone who can express an idea so that it flows well and is interesting and factual is a writer. If you have to go back and correct things in the copy you receive, you are seriously wasting your time. Time is money, and that’s particularly true for Web businesses. Things are changing at a rapid pace. If your time is spent digging up cheap typists (not writers) and then correcting that work, you’ll be left in the dust.

If you think hiring foreign writers with bad English skills is just as good as hiring an English-speaking professional, take a look at http://outsourcemess.com.

By: Star

Star — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:18:46 +0000

The word “english” should have been capped. Maybe you can hire someone to clean it up. The fact that you think someone who writes crappy English, as you put it, is a good writer is flabbergasting. My flabber is often gasted by the business these days. Thanks for revealing so much about how the new breed of “employers” thinks.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:05:58 +0000

Amin, with all respect, I don’t think you really do understand what you’re doing. If this is not a topic area you are personally familiar with, you cannot judge the expertise of the writer - only the delivery method.

It’s quite easy to spot a site loaded with “bulk” content. Usually the information is watered down, the grammar, spelling, and/or punctuation is bad, and there are little, if any, transitions and cohesiveness to the content. If that site is a serious venture for you, I urge you to consider seriously paying a professional writer what he/she is worth to provide you with targeted, well-written copy that aligns more closely with your business goals.

By: Amin

Amin — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:43:43 +0000

Kathy, why do you assume I only work with cheap content writers? It all depends on the project and what is required. And I want to repeat once again, poor writing skills does not make the content less quality.

Let me use another example:

I needed an eBook written on a very specific topic. I took on an American writer. The content read well, but it sucked. It lacked depth. It was useless.

I posted the project again, and this time took someone from the netherlands. Their english sucked. But the content had depth - it was great. I paid them exactly the same amount as I paid the American writer, although I have to say it was a steal for the quality I got. I had to go over it and make many changes - the guy had poor spelling and bad grammar, but it was worth it, because the information was valuable.

In regards to your side note, no, I don’t lose more money, because I know what I’m doing.

By: IrreverentFreelancer

IrreverentFreelancer — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:07:47 +0000

Sorry, here’s the correct link to my blog.

By: IrreverentFreelancer

IrreverentFreelancer — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:06:27 +0000

When you tell potential clients, “If you’re looking for content, contact me and I’ll see if I can hook you up with a top notch writer / content provider,” are you hooking them up with someone with “relatively poor writing skills who charge much less than their western counterparts”? If so, in case you haven’t realized it yet, that’s a poor reflection on you. Perhaps you should send those clients MY way. I’ve completed nearly 300 projects at Elance with a current 100% satisfaction rate AND I charge and receive what I’m worth.

On a side note, have you ever considered how much money you’re actually losing by passing your copy through two writers, first a poor one and then a competent one who fixes all the mistakes? When time and frustration are factored in, it might be more cost-effective to just go with the competent copywriter in the first place, don’t you think?

By: Amin

Amin — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:10:50 +0000

Chris, perhaps not a good writer, but definitely a writer.

A good writing style is not all there is to being a good content writer. The content itself needs to be quality. In the example I used in my post, the content writer had over 9 years experience in the particular area I wanted content written. All the other bids were by people who write about everything and anything. I would rather hire someone who is clearly experienced than someone who can simply write something which reads well yet not have any real background in the topic.