How-To Hire Quality Freelance Writers to Develop Your Web Content

by Matthew Rotterman

Published on this site: June 10th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

Choosing a freelance writer to write your articles and web content can be one of the most painstaking and painful processes that a webmaster can undertake. Webmasters understand the value of creating good content for their sites and understand how this content can increase their search engine rankings. Keyword articles are a common example of how webmasters utilize article content to increase their traffic and search engine rankings.

How Do You Choose A Writer?

Many webmasters are turning to the bidding war on sites such as http://www.elance.com and http://www.freelance.com to find a writer that will do their job quickly and inexpensively. This can be more work than the webmaster could have ever imagined. Some of the difficulties with these sites are that the webmaster must manage the whole project, the quality of the work, rewrites, deadlines, payment, etc. This creates a situation where the webmaster could have probably wrote the articles themselves in the same amount of time that it takes to manage the project, and if they had just done it themselves, they would not have needed to pay out any money. Fielding messages from the potential writers about the project, signing up with the site, and choosing the best writers from a bidding process can be quite time consuming.

Problems with Bidding Sites

Some of the problems with the writers at these sites are that most bidders claim to be "professional" writers. What does this mean to the person who is making the claim? Does it mean that they have been paid once for one article? Some claim to be very well thought of by their writing clients. If this is truly the case, then why are they still writing articles at $5.00 or $10.00 a piece?

In my experience of dealing with writers, I have learned that you generally get what you pay for. A webmaster can save money by going to one of these bidding sites, but whom is the webmaster getting as a writer? Many of the bidders on these sites do not use English as their first language and this results in many problems. Not knowing the difference between "there", "their" and "they’re" is an example of a common problem when using cheap overseas labor.

Understanding the Complexities of the Project Management Process

The mistake most webmasters make, when they list a project on the bidding sites, is to underestimate the amount of time that the process will require of them. Once you list your project at the bidding website, you will be bombarded with people bidding on your project. On the surface, this may seem like a good thing, but it is only the beginning of your headaches.

Which of this multitude of bidders is best able to perform the task you desire to have completed?

When employing unknown writers, many clients want to read samples from the bidders to ensure the quality of the work that the writer is able to provide. The best way to describe this process is TIME-CONSUMING and sometimes scary. You would be shocked to see what some people are trying to pass off as "professional" writing!

Once writers are selected, sometimes you can find yourself ensnared by an individual who submitted someone else’s work as their samples. You will know you have been duped when you look at a final product that does not present the same skill level that the writer’s samples promised to you. And then when you refuse to pay for shoddy work, the bidder proceeds to smear your company’s name in any way he can see fit to do.

And, suppose you just don’t like the work or would like the content to be edited or polished? Sometimes, this part of the process can be like getting blood from a turnip. In the end, you will often find yourself doing the editing and polishing work yourself. This is the point where many people dig out the aspirin bottles.

Alternative Solutions

There are companies that have been designed to help webmasters create keyword optimized content, without all of the headaches and frustrations of using the bidding sites to complete your project.

These companies often employ their own writers who have already proven their skills to the company editors and managers. These proven writers are not writers who will work for a mere $5.00 or $10.00 an article, because "they know the value of their work."

If you are seeking quality content that reads well and captures the attention of your prospective clients, then you are going to pay a bit more money for that kind of quality. As always, you will get the kind of quality you have paid to receive.

By eliminating the bidding process and employing people who have proven their skills as writers, these content creation companies will permit you to receive a better quality informational product. The content that they create for your website will deliver better search results, higher traffic to your website, and better visitor retention rates. All of these factors contribute to your website’s ability to sell more products and services.

At the end of the day, there are many reasons to employ a content creation service to develop keyword optimized articles for your website.

• You will save yourself time and frustration in getting your content developed.
  
  
• You will not need to manage the project while trying to maintain your normal work schedule.
  
  
• You will know that you can count on the content creation company to deliver a good quality product.
  
  
• You will know that the finished informational product will build and maintain the good image of your company.
  
  
• You will be able to trust that your finished and deployed content will deliver tightly targeted visitors to your website, with higher visitor retention rates.
  
  
• You will be dealing with a vendor who has proven his commitment to your needs, since most content creation service companies will guarantee their work.
  
  
• You will know that your service provider will be able to complete the project within your schedule requirements. Most of these providers can deliver your project on a quick turn-around, pre-determined time schedule.

Many webmasters consider content creation services such as these to be a real good value. When they calculate the time that they will save by handing the project over to people who engage in this kind of work on a daily basis, the time savings is usually enough to justify the added cost of hiring one of these value-added services to do the tasks for them. When webmasters consider the additional value of having hired writers who were interested in creating content that goes beyond attracting search engine traffic, to creating content that increases reader retention and visitor conversion, then they know that the have made a very good investment into the profitability of their web enterprise.

Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com.
"Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content and Reprint Articles. Keyword Text also offers very attractive Volume discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html