84% of B2B marketers say that they outsource blog writing. Having been on both the agency and freelancer side of this relationship, I can tell you that the process is fraught with peril.
At the beginning of my writing journey, I freelanced for a couple of SEO agencies. As far as I could tell, both their clients got decent results. However, their approaches to SEO, particularly to outsourcing blog writing, couldn’t have been more different.
The first agency I worked with ran a pretty tight ship, I can’t say anything negative about them. However, the second agency was a circus. Their lack of organization had a severe impact on the consistency of their deliverables and their ability to meet deadlines.
In this article from Cerebrum, I’m going to walk you through the lessons I learned about outsourcing blog writing while working in the trenches as a writer. Then, I’ll explain our approach to outsourcing blog writers, which I call the “Triangle Method”, to help you onboard writers and produce quality content at a rapid pace.
As I worked with more clients, I realized constant turnover was always the main obstacle when working with writers.
There are usually two main reasons for writer turnover:
At the “Circus Agency”, the first problem was the most common one. Whenever I started writing or editing an article, I was given 2 to 3 different SOPs and a brand cheat sheet. Plus, I was expected to review their client’s website and articles beforehand.
Often, these SOPs contained conflicting information, as did the cheat sheet and the website. If I asked a question about the irregularities, I would get a vague answer several hours later.
Eventually, I realized that there was a lot more implicit information about the writing that was important but went unspoken. I figured it out, but those who didn’t would eventually get cast aside.
Let me be clear, this agency was hiring and firing new writers every single month. I’d estimate their turnover rate, month-over-month was about 30%. After a year, maybe 10-20% of their employees would stick with them.
SEO is a long-term game. How are you supposed to uphold any writing standards when you run things like that? Basically, the guy who ran the agency wasn’t speaking with his writers enough.
And it goes back to a saying I coined:
“Marketing is empathy”
Want to get your brand message across? Make sure your writers understand it first.
You must empathize with your writers to understand their pain points, not just your target audience. Otherwise, you’ll be spinning your wheels forever.
You need a way to outsource blog writing that conserves as much of your energy as possible. That means you’ll need to put a bit more effort into the process upfront.
I call my outsourcing method the “Triangle Method” because we’re always going to do things in threes. It’s the best way to vet writers thoroughly and effectively.
Basically, throughout the hiring and vetting process, 2 is never enough, and 4 takes too much time. I’ve found that when comparing writers or assigning tasks, 3 is a good middle-ground. It’s enough time to detect consistency issues without breaking the bank.
Here's a quick summary of how the Triangle Method works:
Now, let's explore each step.
Before you think about hiring writers, you need to think about what you want them to do.
Remember the 3 SOPs and conflicting information I mentioned earlier? Yeah, don’t do that.
Instead, you will let the writer know in no uncertain terms how you want them to write. You’ll include information about:
To elaborate on that last point, writers are lazy. Don’t send them 5 sample articles because they won’t read all of them. Moreover, don’t send them an article without an explanation because now you’re venturing into the land of implicit information where things get lost in translation.
When you send this document to writers, ask them if they have any questions. If you need to make any changes, make them immediately and let the writer know you changed them.
Here’s the template we use at Cerebrum to create branding documents for clients. I didn’t include every single detail. If you want the whole template with everything filled in, you can send me an email at nicolas@thecerebrum.co.
Brand Overview
Audience Overview
Writing Style
Content & Link Assets
If you outsource to an agency, then, of course, you’ll need to include even more information about keywords, etc.
Even before AI, writers were pretty disposable. I think that’s the source of many communication issues. You always think, “who cares? I could always hire someone else.”
This is irresponsible short-term thinking.
I get where it comes from, though. Most writers are frustrating.
That’s why you’re going to search through various writing platforms and create a shortlist of 3 writers. As I said before, 2 is too few, and 4 is a crowd.
When you’re searching for writers, you want to avoid the ones who can’t understand you. Hiring writers who are native English speakers is the bare minimum. That said, in the age of ChatGPT, anyone can fake sounding like a native English speaker.
Personally, I can immediately tell whether someone is writing with AI. If you can’t, you can try using an AI content detector, but I find that the free ones aren’t good at detecting it either.
On hiring platforms, you should filter for:
I admit this part is a bit of a crapshoot, but you should ensure that the reviews are fairly insightful and detailed. Moreover, it’s better if the reviewers come from an English-speaking country. Or at the very least, one with many English speakers (e.g. Germany or Sweden).
Finally, you can evaluate the seller based on their communication and samples. Naturally, both can be faked, so while you’re chatting with the writer, get them to explain some of their decisions to you. That will help you determine if the writer is worth working with.
Here’s a set of questions you can ask writers before you commission their first task.
You have basically unlimited options for hiring blog writers. Platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are the most common. I would recommend Upwork for its abundance of quality options. However, I understand that it might not be affordable for everyone.
Here’s a full list of platforms you can use to hire writers. You can try choosing 3 writers from one platform, or a single writer from 3 platforms. But don’t spread yourself too thin! At most, you should only consider 3 platforms. You want to narrow your options down to a manageable level.
Upwork: Ideal for finding professional freelancers; use filters to narrow down candidates based on job success rate and SEO-specific skills.
Fiverr: Good for finding inexpensive services; however, vetting for quality and consistency is necessary.
LinkedIn ProFinder: Helps locate freelance professionals in various niches, including writing and SEO.
ProBlogger Job Board: A reputable site for finding qualified bloggers and content creators, particularly in the blogging and media industry.
Contently: High-end content creation and marketing platform; best for companies looking for professional and vetted writers.
You could also hire an agency like Cerebrum to provide white-label writing services. After all, we vet writers ahead of time using the same processes I outlined here.
Of course, the elephant in the room is whether to use AI.
I think AI is good for specific tasks, but it’s not suitable for writing an entire blog article. For example, you could write a list of top platforms to hire writers using AI (using a very specific prompt). Outside of cases like that, I don’t think it’s useful, though. I speak in further detail about AI vs. human content in another article.
Now that you have a shortlist of 3 different writers, you’re going to assign them all the exact same writing task and compare the results.
You’ll have the branding document ahead of time which establishes a single source of truth for them to follow. You’ll be able to reference that in your initial communication. Of course, be available to answer any questions they have.
Your initial task should come with a firm deadline. To avoid wasting time and money, only assign a maximum of 1500 words and a 1-week deadline for this initial task. You should try to assign an article on a beginner topic in your niche. This will limit the chances that the writer makes mistakes.
The first article won’t be perfect. After the writer submits their delivery, you must go through the article and tell them every single thing they did wrong, even if it takes a while.
Here are some criteria that I use for evaluating writers. Feel free to steal them:
Ref flags:
These are the things I consider dealbreakers. I won’t work with a writer who makes these mistakes.
Green flags:
You can figure out the middle ground for these criteria yourself. For instance, if I request a 1500-word article, I’ll be happy with 1,600 words, but a 2,000-word article delivery is getting into sketchy territory. I want a writer who is efficient with their time and makes their point succinctly. That said, 2,000 words isn’t a dealbreaker.
You’ll also notice that I don’t consider erroneous information a dealbreaker the first time around. Frankly, it takes time for writers to gain familiarity with certain niches. Just make sure to point out their mistakes.
OK, here’s where the triangle comes back. Of the three writers who complete the assignment, I’m almost certain that one of them is going to screw it up. In fact, 2 of them may get the assignment wrong.
No matter what, select the best writer of the 3. If you like 2 or 3 of them, you can always save their names for later. You never know when you'll need to circle back.
If you have trouble choosing between 2 writers, I would recommend looking at these criteria for tie-breakers:
Once you’ve made your choice, you should assign 2 more articles to the writer. That makes for 3 articles in total. Evaluate the articles based on the same criteria as above. Additionally, try to make the deadline tighter than it was the last time, so you can see how they work under pressure, and whether they’re truly able to take on more work.
As long as you’re satisfied with the quality across all 3 articles, you can make them your go-to writer. Otherwise, you can circle back to one of the other writers, or start your search all over again if need be.
It’s time to come to an agreement with the writer.
You’ll notice that I haven’t spoken much about pricing. I said earlier to filter for a maximum price that you’re willing to pay. This price varies substantially depending on the budget.
However, at this stage, you must lock in the price of the writing tasks. Make sure to confirm that their prices are sustainable, and pay them every month based on that price.
Create a schedule for the articles for that month, and make sure that it stays consistent from month to month. Confirm with the writer that the schedule works ahead of time rather than dropping last-minute tasks on them. This helps the writer balance their writing tasks with their other ones. Predictability is key for both sides.
By the way, going for a cheaper writer isn’t necessarily a better idea, because I find that cheaper writers tend to be less motivated in the long term.
At this point, you’ve determined that the writer is good at what they do. On the other hand, every article is different. At the beginning of your collaboration, you’ll likely need to discuss accuracy issues from time to time.
Remember to keep referring back to the single source of truth (the branding cheat sheet) from earlier and update it based on your feedback. This will also help you get started on the right foot with writers that you hire in the future.
When you provide feedback to the writer, please do the following:
The first time a writer makes a mistake, be forgiving. However, if they repeat the same mistake across 2 or more articles, you might want to have a quick chat to ensure you’re on the same page. Take that opportunity to clarify why you want things done a certain way.
I recommend hiring only one writer in the first month because given that you must balance outsourced blog writing with all your other tasks, the hiring process can be a bit overwhelming.
Depending on how you outsource writing, there might be 3 or 4 people in between you and the actual writer.
Imagine this: you're an executive delegating the blog outsourcing to a content manager, then the content manager hires an agency, and then the agency hires a writer, and that writer is managed by an editor or a project manager. I’ve seen it happen before.
Try to minimize friction by making the number of people between you and the writer as small as possible, and confirm that your wishes are being followed by the actual writer. I.e., if you provide specific feedback, it’s preferable that whoever sends it to the writer is sending a screenshot of your feedback rather than something that’s paraphrased. And once again, make sure the "single source of truth" gets updated accordingly.
Understand that when you’re setting a maximum budget, you’ll probably end up pretty close to it. Choosing a slightly cheaper writer because they save you a hundred bucks is pointless, and a writer that saves you $1000 probably won’t get the job done properly.
If you pay low-ball prices, you'll get low-ball results. The writer may do a good job at first to get you on board. But later, the writer will try to cut as many corners as possible and you’ll be back at square one. Get the outsourcing right the first time.
This tip depends a lot on how many articles you want to write. Of course, managing a team of writers yourself can be tiring, and so is vetting every single article. Moreover, depending on your price point, your writers might require an editor to iron out the kinks. This could be a cheap yet sustainable option for you.
Consider that for every 1,000 words you have written, you’ll probably need to spend at least 15 minutes reviewing it carefully and providing feedback. So if you need 20,000+ words per month outsourced, you’re looking at close to a whole day each month just reviewing articles. Do you have that much time to sacrifice?
The more you try to take on yourself, the more bottlenecks you have.
Managing relationships with writers is a lengthy and tedious process. Especially if you don’t have any experience with it yourself.
To scale growth, you must be strategic with your time. Working with us at Cerebrum, you’ll only need to provide your brand information while we handle the rest. We already have vetted writers waiting to help you convert more visitors.
Reach out to us at nicolas@thecerebrum.co so we can outline the next steps for your blog and your overall SEO strategy.
