Why I Completely Reversed My Direction on Hiring Article Writers
Just an FYI here... sharing in case it helps someone.
Let me say right here at the start... this blog post represents my recent firsthand experience in hiring article writers. It is not intended as an attack against article writers. It is simply my experience and observations. The challenges I faced and my thoughts on how article writers can deliver a better experience when they accept work to write articles for pay.
I was all gung-ho on outsourcing article writing and I was even doing it. Using two different article writing services in fact.
I identified topics that would benefit my niche audience, I created an article skeleton showing the key point and sub points (basically answer these questions), etc.
And it worked, of course, as far as receiving articles. Or at least I received documents with a bunch of writing on them.
Okay, So What Was the Problem?
When reflecting on the past week I can see where this actually slowed me down instead of helping me.
Why?
Despite iteratively updating my article project template in an attempt to help the writers to give me exactly what I wanted I found they simply cannot do it.
Nope! And, as I mentioned above, I even provided the skeleton for the articles... key point, sub points, etc.
Every article I ended up basically completely rewriting... from scratch. Because what I received was the same kind of stuff I have seen on countless other websites and completely not me at all.
Why?
I saw no passion, no real experience or knowledge shown in the areas, it was like they basically researched the web and then tried to write everything bringing a bunch of different ideas and facts together but, lacking any real understanding, they were unable to do so.
Basically, I discovered there seem to be a lot of people writing articles 100% to make money. Many seem to have no interest, no passion, no knowledge or skills in the area... other than making money from their homes.
And, of course, I don't knock anyone having that dream to make money from their home! I just think, in my personal opinion, if a person is going to write articles... choose only topics you actually KNOW something about personally and / or at least have a good degree of INTEREST in. Not choosing simply because "oh hey! This looks like one I can knock out easily and make some quick cash!".
Overall, my experience this past week was a huge difference to how it was when I outsourced article writing more than a decade ago!
So... to recap... I spent all the time updating my project posting template, the time actually posting the projects, the time reading the articles and then time spent writing the articles over "as they should be" imo. Lol
So... am I done with outsourcing?
Of course not! I still recognize the value of it in general. And the necessity of it to scale up.
So what I am doing now is focusing on defining a new plan and new processes to flip things around.
I will personally focus on doing all article writing and hire Internet Information Researchers, artists, etc to help me.
I greatly enjoy doing experiments. I did an experiment. I got some results. And now I am changing things around based on those results. And to me this is the one true way to succeed...
Try. Fail. Learn. (using what you learned...) Try again. I don't agree with the term fail there but the process and mindset that is described is accurate.
Recent Comments
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There is some fantastic training at WA on outsourcing article writing. Unfortunately it's only available to those with a yearly membership. I do know from my own experience that you need to be either, willing to pay more money for the better writers, or get lucky and land someone that's new but brilliant. Jim
In my experience it's more the latter. Not so much tied to how much is being charged but more just "getting lucky" which of course we can't control so that becomes test, test, test.
If I kept hiring different writers and say 20 or more different writers wrote an article... one of those would be much much better than the other 19.
So it can be done for sure.
I was just surprised at the number of writers who seem to struggle writing a smooth interesting informative article even at the Premium and Elite level rankings on the article writing services sites
I see very little, if any, difference between the amount being charged per article and the overall quality of the article. I imagine if a person was going super cheap like $5 per 1,000 word article sure then the difference be noticeable. That is ridiculous to expect anyway.
I enjoy writing so this is another reason my new plan and process should work better for me. I find it very easy to write an article of 500+ words in about 10 minutes or so. 1,500+ words be more like 40 or more minutes. Really just depends on the amount of interest I have in the topic, the amount of understanding I have of the topic, and if I am focused on it.
I actually have a plan of becoming an article writer myself for a direct income and just to have that experience. A good experiment I think to reverse the roles and see what it is like from the other side.
I suspect writers have many challenges especially in the form of bad hiring people.
Many years ago, I manage an outsourcing project and concluded you cannot outsource everything. You still need to keep a core competence for competitive advantage.
I like plan, do, check, action (PDCA), an iterative cycle for continuous improvement. There is no fail. Do, Check the results, whatever it is, take action. Then next cycle, do better.
So right... DIY is more rewarding, if you can.
A personal.touch and style, hard to imitate
Perhaps that is why they are called copywriters
Copying each other, over and over again
;-)
Enjoying your writing
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Hi - as a professional writer and proofreader, I am not in the least bit surprised as to your experience. Unfortunately, writers who sign up to the likes of iwriter, Fiverr, freelancer etc are accepted automatically.
Should you consider outsourcing again, I would be happy to recommend some reputable agencies, where the work is thoroughly checked by editors before being released. To join these agencies, writers have to pass a spelling and grammar test, and produce a piece of content on a given subject within a time limit.