Genesis DaviesFreelance Writer

These days, if you frequent any type of online business forum, you will find people are raving about the low, low prices of writers in India. With bids of just a dollar or even cents per article, it can seem pretty appealing to hire someone from a third world country! But what are you really getting?

While it is true that hiring a writer from a country with a low cost of living means you will pay drastically less per article, there are some problems with this.

First of all, you have to consider the quality that you will be getting if you are paying only fifty cents an article. No one, not even in a 3rd world country, is going to work very hard for that amount. That means the articles will be done as hastily as possible, which almost always results in lower quality work.

The other thing to consider is the English. Indian writers may have a decent grasp of English, but it is their second language and they WILL make mistakes. It’s inevitable. Unfortunately, the less you pay per article, the worse the English will be.

Even if the writer you hire has fairly good English skills, they will tend to use British English. Which is fine if you are in Europe, but since a vast number of people reading this blog are American, that means the articles will need to be adjusted.

In the end, you will likely have a stack of articles that need extensive editing and rewriting . . . not exactly a time saver.

By hiring a native English speaking writer, you instantly save yourself a lot of time. You shouldn’t have to edit the articles you order . . . they should be ready to go when you receive them and in perfect English for the country you live in. Make sure you don’t waste your money on subpar writers (of which there are plenty right in the US, not just India!) and take the time to look through the writer’s portfolio before ordering.

Not sure what you could use a writer for? Well, let me give you a few ideas.

1. Article marketing. It’s virtually impossible to run a business AND turn out as many articles as you need for successful article marketing, so this is ideal for outsourcing to a freelance writer.
2. Emails. Have you been thinking of starting up a newsletter for your business, but just don’t have the time? Well, get someone else to do it for you.
3. Online courses. Offering a free course online is an excellent way to get people on your mailing list. There is nothing like repeated opt in emails to sell people what they need.
4. Ebooks/reports. Every single business could benefit from an ebook or even a short report. You might want to give it away for free to help promote your products or services, or you may want an ebook that you can sell. Either way, a freelance writer should be able to turn one out easily for a decent price.
5. Website copy. You have a website, but now what? You need content to draw in the search engines and that takes time to turn out . . . unless you outsource. A good writer will be able to give you all the website content you need. If you are looking at more than10 webpages, you might want to consider asking for a discount.
6. Sales pages. It really does help to have a professional work on your sales page. If you don’t have the experience necessary, then you won’t get the conversion rates you’re looking for.
7. Blog posts. Did you know that 120,000 blogs are started every day? The vast majority of those die out after just a few posts, though. Don’t let your business blog be a statistic, get a writer to provide monthly blog posts that you can set to publish automatically, eliminating the stress of keeping up a blog.

Outsourcing your writing is the best way to save yourself time and continue to grow your business without investing too much time in the writing. Not only that, but you will find that hiring a professional to do this type of work for you is usually far more efficient. After all, someone who is already experienced in web copy and SEO writing will probably do everything quite a bit faster and even better than someone who is learning as they go.

When you are just starting out in online business, it can be pretty tempting to do everything yourself. After all, it’s a great way to save money, right?

Not so much.

You have to look at the big picture. If you take five hours to turn out ten great articles, you have just lost five hours of your time. Could you have been doing something to actually earn money in that amount of time? Chances are, you could.

If you are running a business that pays you, say $50 an hour, is it really worth your time to be writing your own blog posts or articles? If you can get them for $12 each, professionally written, while you are still working on earning money . . . that works. In fact, that`s smart business!

Not sure about the whole outsourcing your writing thing? Why not give it a try? You can order even just three or four articles and see how you feel about getting that tedious work done for you, by a professional writer. Let me assure you, it feels great to know that you can get things done while focusing on the areas of your business that earn more money and that you really enjoy.

As a professional SEO writer, I frequently find myself presented with lists of keywords that might not necessarily sound like they go together. Since I have experience with this type of writing, I can take these keywords and turn them into a quality article to promote my client’s website, but not all writers are able to do this.

If you are looking to incorporate a large number of keywords or some very awkward keywords and phrases into your articles, then I suggest that you make sure the writer can handle this type of writing. Most who have any time writing for SEO will be able to do this without problems, but in many cases, it is difficult for a writer who is new to SEO to work those keywords naturally into the documents.

How can you be sure that the writer will be able to handle the job? First of all, look for someone who has experience in this type of writing. 3 or more years is best, since this means the writer will have seen the various trends in keyword writing, but more is always better, of course. Also, you will probably want to order just one or two articles as a test to begin with. Once you are happy with these, you  can continue on.

Business owners are constantly busy and often find themselves putting off tasks that they either don’t enjoy or that they just don’t excel at. One of the best ways to clear your plate and ease stress is to outsource some of your more menial tasks.

When it comes to writing, it can take up a lot of your time and that´s time better spent on other aspects of your business. While a good writer can take over the writing or blogging for you, there are areas where only YOU can do things the right way. Chances are, these are also the areas that earn you more money, so it makes sense to hire someone else to do the things that aren`t actively bringing in money, yet take up too much of your time.

Writing is one of these tasks that is fairly easy to outsource because there are a large number of writers for every type of writing. If you need product descriptions, there are people to do this. Want a kick ass sales letter? Then you can outsource that, as well. It really does pay to hire a writer and outsource your duller work. Not to mention, it will free you up to do other things, earn more money and get everything done in far less time.