Today, people have understood the importance of engaging content. Earlier, content marketing was given a less important but today, content is the king. Every company produces content in their day to day life. Be in social media, brochures or interviews, content is everywhere.
Although, it is understood that only an engaging content survives in the market. Why? No one on this planet will read a boring content. Everyone wants to read a content that gives them valuable information in return. But that comes at a huge cost. You will have to hire a content team that will produce valuable content for your business. Hiring means paying salary in return and most companies especially startups can’t afford to hire full-time content writers. Why? They have a limited amount of money and if you want a great content, you will have to hire an expert content writer who will charge a fortune from you.
You can’t ignore content marketing but you also can’t pay a fortune to your full-time content writers. So, what’s the solution? Why not hire a freelance writer. Wait, what? That’s a great idea. A freelancer is a self-employed person who has multiple numbers of clients. A freelance writer charges a less amount of money as compared to a full-time content writer. So, how can an entrepreneur benefit from it? Well, a freelance writer will give you the same quality as compared to a full-time content writer but at a low cost. Startups can benefit from it a lot. Many people have certain misconceptions about freelancers. Don’t be one of them.
But is it easy to hire a freelancer? No. Many of my friends have faced problems while hiring a freelance writer. Either they were facing a problem during the hiring process or they hired a wrong freelancer altogether.
So, if you have experienced such an issue or if you want to avoid it in the future, here are some steps that can help you hire a right freelance writer for your business.
What are the tips to hire a right freelancer for your business?
Decide whether you need a writer or not
Why will your business require a writer? There can be many reasons for the same such as you want to start blogging, the content of your website is obsolete, you want to start social media marketing etc. Find out the actual reason for hiring a writer. If you are paying someone your hard earned money, there should be a perfect reason for the same.
Start exploring
Once you have a reason to hire a writer, you will have to start searching for the same. But where to start from? Of course, the internet. It will offer a huge variety of sites to you. To make things easier for you, the most reputable sites for you are Fiverr and Zerys. You can also take help from your local buddies, print publications, colleges, social media etc.
Search for proper attributes
When you will start exploring, you will obviously come across a huge number of freelance writers but how will you judge whether a writer is perfect for your business or not? Here are a few important attributes that you need to make sure of.
- A writer should be interested to know about you and your company in detail. But why is that important? Well, only then he/she will completely understand your demands and the kind of work that you will accept from him/her.
- A writer should take your deadlines seriously. He/she should have a past experience in completing the work on/before deadlines.
- A writer should have creative skills. The content which that writer produces should be worth reading whether the content is written about gadgets or weddings.
Decide compensation
After you have decided a suitable writer for your business, it’s time to choose the best way to pay the writer. Generally, the compensation of the writers is decided on the basis of few parameters such as rate per word, the rate per article and rate per hour. Each parameter has its pros & cons. Today, the rate per word is the most commonly used parameter in the market. It offers benefits to both (the company and the writer).
Test the writer
After you have decided the compensation parameter, it’s time to test the writer. But how can you do that? Well, ask the person to write an article on a particular topic. That topic should be related to your business so that you are able to judge him/her according to your parameters. If you like that writer’s work then bingo! Hire that writer.
Build relationships
Once you have hired a writer, you need to start building long-lasting relationships with him. But why is that necessary? You have hired a writer to represent your company by telling the world about your story. You can’t expect a writer to produce great content if you are only communicating with him through the internet. You have to treat a writer as a part of your company. Make the writer welcome in your company and introduce him/her to your team members. Great content requires motivation and an awesome working environment, which the writer will get if he/she is a part of your team.
The above mentioned are some golden steps to hire a freelance writer. Make sure to remember these steps during the hiring process. Let’s know in the comments section whether these steps were useful for you or not.