Many people who are just getting started online and are new to internet marketing think that they can just hire a writer to write content for them and the money will just start flowing. This may seem like an easy way out for some people, but today I want to talk with you about why this is a bad idea and how this can actually hurt you when you are starting out in the online world.
Why It’s Not A Good Idea To Outsource When You First Start Out Online
To be completely honest with everyone here today, this is one of the first things that popped in my head as well, 3 years ago when I first started. There are many reasons why people think this way and I will go into detail and list them below.
- Their writing and grammar sucks and they think they aren’t capable of writing engaging articles
- They don’t have time
- They lack the confidence
- They have likely been brainwashed by IM gurus who promise instant money for NO work
When you make the decision to hire a writer there are quite a few things you need to consider if you want to have a successful website that ranks for lots of awesome low hanging fruit keywords.
- Your writer needs some guidance from you so that he/she knows what you expect from them (Lay out some rules)
- You need to know a little about SEO and Internet marketing so you know what mistakes to look for
- You need to have a budget of how much you want to spend each month (Don’t go over your budget)
- You’ll still need to format the content and add relevant images so that it’s ready to publish so this takes some time
Now guess what? If you are new and not that experienced with any of this then you’ll likely end up spending lots of money and seeing little to NO return on your investment. It’s always good to learn new skills that will help you earn more money later on.
Here Are A Few Things To Keep In Mind Before Hiring Anyone To Do Work On Your Site
When you make the decision to start an online business it’s up to you to build a good reputation and build a solid relationship with your future visitors. Remember, behind every search online there is a real person who is looking for help and searching for answers to their initial search query.
Do you really want to trust someone from Fiverr or some inexperienced writer to build that reputation for you? You need to do some thorough and in depth research on where to find experienced and high quality writers who have lots of knowledge about your particular niche.
They also need to be able to provide value and be able to help you build an awesome first impression when people visit your website.
The main problem I seem to have with the few writers that I’ve given a chance to write for my website is:
- They love to overuse the keyword(Keyword Stuffing)
- They copy images from other websites(Plagiarism)
- They aren’t writing in a conversational tone(Engaging with my audience)
- They don’t come up with a catchy or interesting headline. You only have a couple of seconds to grab your readers attention.
- They lack the basic skills required to write a good article that will get ranked on the first page of Google
Do you really want to pay someone to write an article, only to have to spend a couple hours going over all of their mistakes and getting it ready to be published?
When Is The Best Time To Hire A Writer And Start Outsourcing Your Work?
Based purely off my personal experience I would say that you should give yourself at least a year before you start outsourcing your content. This way you have a pretty good understanding of how SEO works and what Google expects from you as a webmaster. You should also have successfully ranked multiple web pages on the first page of Google and have a decent amount of revenue coming in each and every month.
There’s no sense in paying out money if you aren’t making money right? After you have accomplished these things you could start searching for a writer for your website. A good place to start would be somewhere like upwork.com (Formally Odesk) or Freelancer.com. Another thing you could do once you are getting a good deal of traffic to your site is put up an ad like I have done on your website asking for experienced writers to do some work for you.
I have had a few hits from doing this but still haven’t found a writer that I like and who meets my requirements.
Where’s The Best Place To Learn How To Be A Great Writer And How To Build A Website Step By Step?
I have always recommended Wealthy Affiliate to everyone who asks me the question above for the simple fact that
- It’s Free to get started
- You are surrounded by like-minded people who have already been successful building websites who would love to help you out and share their experience with you(Myself included)
- Anyone can learn how to build a website and learn how to get awesome rankings in Google, regardless of how bad of a writer you may think you are, if you are computer illiterate, or if the thought of building a website scares you.
- Their training is so simple and easy to follow that a kindergartener can follow it and become successful with it
Trust me when I first started out in this business I knew how to check my facebook, email, and do a few other simple tasks online. In the 2 and a half years that I have been making money online, I have shown hundreds of people how to build a website from scratch and gain multiple first page rankings on Google and I would love to help you do the same thing.
Before you can be successful with outsourcing your work to other people, you first need to understand how everything works and the purpose of creating content in the first place. Once you get a better understanding of online marketing and website building in general you’ll be in a much better position to hire other people to work for you.
I really hope this has helped everyone out today and hopefully I have been able to answer any questions you may have had surrounding this topic. If there was anything I wasn’t clear on, or if I happened to skip over something and you still have questions about outsourcing when you first start out, please leave them for me in the comments below this article.
I want to hear everyone’s thoughts on this subject. Have you thought about outsourcing your entire website to someone else when you first started out in this business? Did you actually go through with it, and if so how did it turn out?
I would love to hear about your experience and I’m sure other people would as well. Leave it for me below and I will get back to you A.S.A.P
Cheers
Your Friend, Scott
Tom
Hi Scott- It is tempting to want to go right out and find a content writer, however after reading your article I think I will continue writing my own for a while longer. To have some additional help would be most welcome, but as you mention finding a quality content writer takes time and diligence, as well as someone who can speak to your audience about your niche in a conversational tone
I appreciate you going into detail as to what to look for in a good quality content writer and what to expect, so when the time does come I will be prepared.
Well done.
~Tom
Scott Newkirk
Hi Tom,
I agree with you and I had wanted to do the same thing when I first started as well, but I’m glad that I got the confidence I needed to overcome my fear of writing and just get out there and do it. If you believe that you can do something you can conquer the world.
If it wasn’t for the awesome training that I got at Wealthy Affiliate I would have never been able to create this awesome website that you are visiting right now. Once you get your website established and you have some basic knowledge of SEO you should definitely hire a writer to help you with the workload so that you can focus on building out your business in other ways and leave the writing to someone else.
Like I said in the above article and like you have also mentioned, It’s hard to find a good quality writer but once you do then you have got it made. I do want to thank you for stopping by Tom and sharing your thoughts on this with everyone today. It really means alot to me man.
Cheers,
Your Friend, Scott
Leo Emery
Hi Scott,
For the most part (95%) I write my own content. I do outsource some of my content.
But I gotta tell you finding a quality writer is a full time job in itself.
I can’t tell you how many useless lousy writers are out there. Even in outsourcing sites like Vworker, Freelancer and Odesk you find crap writers.
And for god sakes stay away from Fivver. Absolute worst place to find a quality writer.
You’re NEVER going to find a good writer for $5 per 400 or 500 word article, I don’t care what they say.
You need to spend money for a quality writer. My current writer charges me $20 for a 1200 – 1400 word article. This price could be higher but I buy 10 or 20 articles at a time so I get a deal.
If you do outsource, one thing you must do is ask the writer to show you samples and provide you with URL’s where their writing appears.
If they can’t or won’t – move on. I can guarantee you their work probably sucks and they don’t want you to see it.
After many years I have a few writers that I use on a regular basis. And we now have a relationship and they know exactly what I want.
I also provide them with the title of the article I want written. This title is created by me and is my keyword phrase.
But I have to agree with you. Don’t outsource right away. Write for yourself first. This not only helps you become a better writer it establishes your personal brand.
Don’t be quick to outsource, it can cause you more headaches the help.
Cheers
Leo
Scott Newkirk
Hi Leo,
I write most of my content as well and I encourage every newbie out there to do the same thing. I know they may be tempted to outsource their work thinking that this is the easy way out, but it will end up doing more harm than good based on the facts I have listed above. Trust me I have spent a good part of the summer trying to find a good QUALITY writer myself for this website with NO luck as of yet.
Like you, I have also had some bad experiences with Fiverr and I wouldn’t recommend that anyone use them if they are looking to get some quality work done. They are the absolute worst! Like the saying goes, you get what you pay for and nobody is going to spend time researching an article for you just to make a lousy 5 or 10 bucks.
I agree that you are going to need to invest a good amount of money into a high quality writer and one that will be able to provide your readers with value as well as producing content that you can be proud to publish on your website. I have come up with a list of requirements that every potential writer needs to abide by if they want to be a writer for this website.
Based off of my personal experience, you need to have much more than a sample of work you have done in the past. I have seen some really great samples from writers that looked great, but after I had them write a sample article for me it wasn’t so great. You need to have some experience in the niche and have a basic understanding of the topic you are writing about.
If you have no idea about the topic then chances are your not going to be able to produce a high quality article. I also agree that providing your writers with a title and the keyword you want them to write about is essential.
Outsourcing can be a great way to build your business and your overall brand, but first you need to learn how to write for yourself and expand from there. I really do want to thank you for stopping by Leo and sharing your thoughts on outsourcing and some experiences you have had with this.
Cheers,
Your Friend, Scott