How To Find Good Content Writers
Posted in Ask Amin on May 6th, 2008 by Amin29/06/2008 update: Unfortunately, many misinterpreted this post and thought I was recommending foreign writers solely because of the cheaper rates they usually offer. Just to clarify, I very rarely hire a writer who isn’t fully fluent in english. I do however, have no problems hiring a foreign writer who is an expert with real credentials in the niche I want content written.
This is the first post in the new ‘Ask Amin’ category.
This question was asked by Nick from Illeat.com (a blog which he claims to rarely update), the man behind AdGridWork .
Hey Amin
Got your contact info from nickycakes and while I was chatting with him on the phone today, he mentioned that you had a guy that you get decent quality articles from. I was curious if you’d mind sharing as I’ve burned through about a dozen writers in the past month and all have had the literacy of 12 year olds. If not, maybe point me in the area that you hired your writer at?
Thanks in advance,
Nick
Hey Nick
I outsource most of my content from elance.com - and because of elance’s system which allows you to really look into the providers background (what projects they’ve done, how much they’ve earned, the feedback they’ve received, where they’re based, what skills they have, etc), the content I end up with tends to be of a good quality, as I make sure I choose a provider that is well qualified to do the work I require.
There are a few writers I go back to if I need more content in a specific niche, but I normally don’t use the same writer to write content for more than one niche.
It may be a good idea to hire foreign content writers with expertise but relatively poor writing skills who charge much less than their western counterparts, and then get another writer that is fluent in english to make changes to the content so that it reads well. If you’re picky with the content you receive (like I am), try and find at least one good writer you can rely on to go over your content and edit it so that it reads well. If not, be prepared to either edit all the content you receive yourself, or accept it as it is.
For example, I recently posted a project on elance requesting a large amount of content on a health related niche. Out of the 10+ bids, one provider really caught my eye. The amount they wanted was roughly the same as the other bids, but they claimed to have over 9 years experience as a professional healthcare writer. So I checked their profile, went over to their feedback page, and sure enough, they had completed a large number of health related projects with consistant ratings of more than 4/5. I took the provider on for my project and I received the content by the deadline I had set. The one problem I did have with the finished content was that although the english was fine, it didn’t really feel good to read. In this case, I actually edited the content myself. I’m normally too lazy to do this all the time, so I usually just pay another writer to edit the content.
I’d like to also add that with elance you can really formalise the whole process: include business terms which must be agreed upon before the project begins and set ‘milestones’ where certain work must be sent. Elance also has an escrow system which means that the provider will not get your money until you release it to them, which you can do once you have received and reviewed all your work.
Digitalpoint is also a great place to get super cheap but (all too often) super poor content. I wouldn’t recommend outsourcing your content on forums unless the provider is clearly established or unless you simply want to use the content for SEO purposes.
Cheers,
Amin
May 6th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Hey Amin -
Thanks again for your help … I actually just got a batch of articles from a new writer, and they aren’t half bad after giving them a quick one over. I ordered a pack of 10 from http://www.seoarticlewritingservice.com/ and although there were a few spelling errors, they were definitely usable. I’ll be trying out some of the writers on eLance like you’ve mentioned in hopes of finding that golden copywriter
Nick
May 9th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I find it very sad that you are suggesting that people hire poor writers on purpose in order to save money. As a content writer and online copywriter, I pride myself on the quality of my work, and it is very frustrating to be lowballed by foreign writers with crappy English.
I hope at least some of your readers will see that the quality of a website’s content is worth far more than the quantity of its pages.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Hey Katharine,
It depends what your definition of a ‘poor writer’ is. I work with a writer who definitely knows his stuff, but has trouble expressing it as well as other writers with english as their main language. All because they have ‘crappy english’ does not mean that the quality of the content is no good.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Hi Amin:
I am puzzled by you response to Katharine. Someone who knows his stuff and can’t express it in writing is therefore, by definition, NOT a writer. He may be a technician, he may be an expert, but he is NOT a writer. A writer is someone who can express a concept well IN WRITING with few if any grammatical or spelling errors.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:10 am
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.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
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?
May 10th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Sorry, here’s the correct link to my blog.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
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.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:05 am
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.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:18 am
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.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
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.
May 31st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
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?
June 12th, 2008 at 7:59 am
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.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
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…