Hire a freelance writer

[DavidO]

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like writing... at all. Unfortunately in internet marketing that's about all that there is (well, podcasts and videos). So, I've decided to wade into hiring a freelance writer. I've not the first clue about things of this nature.

BUT I think I might know someone who does.

Where is a good place to find them? (I was told elance by some other forum dwellers)
What are some good things to ask them, and some bad things to watch out for?


I want to mainly focus on article marketing through directories or a service like article marketer. Do I get full rights to the piece (so for a service like article marketer I can submit it under my name as the author)?

I'm not rich, but I also don't want to get the bottom of the barrel either. Everything is in $ / hr. What does that work out to?

Thanks,
Dave

[Tel]

Dave, freelance writers usually go by a set price per 100 words or thereabouts. You can try elance or scriptlance as both have plenty of freelancers that are fairly cheap.

Ok, I write freelance too, but I'm more towards the expensive end and to give you some idea, the prices I advertise myself for on the blog are artificially high to keep the cheapies away! In reality though, I usually work for what I can get on Constant Content which is $26 per 500 words article. That's full rights, meaning you get totally unique content that you can put your name to and no need to link back to me in any way - the article becomes totally your property.

To actually buy a full rights article direct from CC will cost around $30-40 per 500 word article depending upon the author (I charge $40 but CC takes 35% commission leaving me $26).

I know you can get writers from the Philipines to work for considerably less, but you usually take a hit on quality.

You have to balance what you need for your sites, totally original good quality, or possibly duplicate lower quality.

[DavidO]

Constant content site seems useful for the future. My niche is far too 'niche' though, there was none on my subject, and only 3 on the broader subject. Oh, but I just noticed you can request articles. Which is larger elance or constant content?

I already put in a post to elance so we'll see how that goes.

One day I'll start paying this forward. I'm not leaving IM till I can quit my day job.

Thanks,
Dave

P.S. I found your Squidoo page on article directories - totally organic baby!
"Adsense Arbitrage Voodoo" what a freaking tease too

[Tel]

I think you missed my subtle hint there - why would you want to pay CC $40 for an article that you could get the same author (outside of CC) to write for $26?

[DavidO]

What can I say I'm dense, just ask my girlfriend.

I would gladly hire you (finally give some love back) but I doubt you have expertise in the niche I'm targeting.

I'm going to be sure my next project is something that I like and know about so I can at least write some of the articles. It stinks having to hire middle aged women to write for me.

Dave

[Tel]

Hehehe... one of the jobs of a freelance writer is research. Unless the topic is hight technically specialised, say writing a tutorial on C++ programming, writing a thesis on the chemical formulae of certain DNA strands or something, you might be surprised at what I know (or can find out)! I've been around for nearly half a century after all...

[lissie]

Well DavidO I'll bite I am probably what you think of as a middle-aged woman but I think Terry could research genital warts, menopause or how to deal with grumpy old men as well as I could! So I'll charge $30 an article

[Tel]

...maybe not grumpy old men

[lissie]

[aprilk]

I have been using contentwritingsolutions.com and have been generally pleased with the content. I have ordered a total of 89 articles with them and a couple of them have been declined by Article Marketer for being self-promotion but all I have to do is change it a bit and add in a negative point. It might be something worth mentioning before you get anyone to write articles because you know how picky AM can be about this sort of thing.

[writer-ros]

I happen to know the guy who runs this site: http://article-writer.team-schuman.com/ and he is very inexpensive, quick and good quality.

Ros