Having a virtual presence is an important aspect of any business. Building a blog will allow you to build a community and attract new customers. In this article, we consider the need to hire a blogger and how to find the right blogger for your site.
Should you outsource a Blogger for your site?
The answer is – it depends. As a business owner, you know the business inside out, and you are the best source to describe what your company is, what services it provides, and what advantages your business offers your customers. When it comes to content writing, you need
Consistency
The major factor when it comes to SEO is consistency. If you maintain a blog, you will need to create content at a constant pace. If you don’t have time to do it consistently, your best option is outsourcing Blogging.
SEO Knowledge
To get the best benefit out of your blog, you need some basic understanding of SEO. Still (do you mean It ?) will help you attract the right people for google search results. Writing content is one piece of the puzzle. You can have a lot of content but rank very poorly on
Search results.
Quality
Writing is an art. Just like painting and sculpting, not everyone is born with the skill. To get right in content writing, you need practice, the more you do it, the better you get overtime. It is also essential that you become confident writing in the language of your customer user base. If you are not native to the language, it would be best to get someone else to write the articles.
If you lack all these attributes, the best option is to focus on finding a good blogger that will help build an online presence.
How to find a perfect blogger for your site?
Before searching for a blogger, is it important that your identity criteria that will match your business needs?
- Language. The blogger must have good writing skills in the language of the blog.
- Quality. Validate the quality of the blogger. The best approach is to ask for a sample of his work that is published work.
- Availability. Make sure that the blogger can match the volume of content you need. Consistency is important for google ranking and your audience.
- Unique Content. The blogger will need to generate unique content based on your instructions. He must have research skills to produce unique blogs for you.
- Ghostwriting. You must clearly indicate that the chosen blogger will have to be a ghostwriter. ie. The credit on the content that you will purchase goes to you or your company. This is crucial since you might not want to tie your blog with the blogger. If you have to replace the blogger, the client following your blog will not
look at it positively. - Knowledge of the business. Having a content writer who has written or has experience on the subject will improve the quality of the blogs. If the blog is technical in a specific area, make sure that the blogger has a good understanding of the subject. Knowledge of the business will also have an impact on the cost.
- Cost. Cost is an essential factor when it comes to choosing a blogger. Bloggers will charge you for each piece of content according to the number of words written or by the hour. If you have a small budget, it would be best to find someone who will charge as per word count or article. Paying by word count will allow you to manage costs more easily. If the blog will require a lot of research, opt for someone with an hourly rate that matches your budget.
- Basic Understanding of SEO. The blogger needs to have some basic understanding of SEO to build the blog using good practices so it will be easier to rank on Google.
How to locate a perfect Blogger?
Once you listed the requirements, you are halfway into the process of finding a good blogger. The next part of the process is to get access to a list of candidates. The best portals to find bloggers are Fiverr and Upwork.
Both portals will provide access to a list of candidates from around the globe.
To find a candidate, you have two approaches.
- Filtering through the bloggers and identifying the right individuals. Following that, contacting them to check availability.
- Posting a job and let candidates apply for the job.
Filtering through the candidates is time-consuming. If you are short on time, post a job request, and let candidates apply for the job. For each job applicant, check that they match your requirements. If they do add them to a shortlist.
When posting a job request, its very important that you are not vague and explain the content requirements that are needed. Try to be short and concise to avoid any bloggers being overwhelmed by your job advert. Try to be specific and mention what type of blogger is needed such as technical or business blogger.
Here are some tips to post an ad that attracts bloggers:
Open with an informative headline
The headline must be distinct and informative. To stand out from multiple bloggers viewing your ad, you need to immediately write what type of blogger you are looking for and how many posts you require in the headline. It’s best to filter out any bloggers that don’t fit your requirements. A good example would be “a Business blogger for 5-8 posts monthly”.
Include your project requirements in the listing
The blogger must understand immediately what needs to be done. For instance, the blogger should know the topics you need them to write about. By providing snippets of your other blogs can help the freelancer be aware of the content you want.
Other examples include the number of articles needed per month and the average word count. The blogger needs to understand the commitment you need and if your blogs require research. Longer articles of 2000 or more words usually require preliminary research to be done.
It’s also essential for the blogger to know if you only require them to write or if you need them also to deliver interviews, upload media and share posts via social media.
Add qualifications required
To filter out the bad from the good, it’s recommended that you include the list of necessary qualifications. Some examples may include having a relevant educational background, expertise in your industry, certifications or licenses relevant to your industry and samples to showcase their writing style and expertise.
Pay rate (Optional)
Although this option is sometimes omitted, it’s actually quite important to add. Most bloggers will skip through your post if you don’t show your pay rate. High-quality writers are in demand and are usually very picky about which clients to choose. Not listing a rate may result in a missed opportunity of finding your ideal blogger.
To minimize this possibility, it’s recommended you write down your pay rate or range or at least ask bloggers to add their pay rate in their application.
Now that we went through the factors needed to post your vacancy to find the ideal blogger, let’s take a look at what needs to be done next.
Once you shortlisted the candidates, select the top three candidates. Ask each candidate to write a blog based on your requirements to validate their quality. Some bloggers will do it for free, some will charge you for the test.
Validate the quality of the blogger and grade each article. The top marker gets the job. If you are unhappy with the results, restart the process until you get the perfect candidate.
What happens when you find the perfect blogger?
Once you have decided on the perfect blogger, there are still some steps that you need to take to ensure you work well together. These include:
Check out their work
Check out their website or blog and overview their content. You can get an idea of what type of blogger they are by reading their work.
Their work can tell you whether they write as a personal hobby or as part of their business. For instance, the more the blog is updated regularly, the more the chances are they are treating their blog as a business. Checking if their blog is already established or new is also a good indication of their professionalism and expertise as a writer.
Another way of getting a feel of the blogger is by analyzing their engagement levels. The blogger can choose to allow comments and shares. An even more engagement is having a blogger that actually responds to comments. Better yet, having readers sharing their content multiple times is a great indication of good quality work that has high engagement.
The most important aspect to look out for bloggers is their writing style. Do they draw their users in? Does the blogger know how to write to keep the readers interested enough to read on?
Lastly, you need to figure out if the freelance blogger has a niche blog or whether their blog posts are random topics. Having a certain niche is great if it’s the topics you need the blogger to write about. However, at the same time if the blogger is capable of writing interesting articles regardless of the topic, gives a better indication that they are capable of being an all-rounder.
By taking the time to look at their blogs, you can get a clear indication of their quality of writing, social network skills, and whether they will be a good fit for your business.
Ask for referrals
A word-of-mouth approach is usually the most reliable way of getting a freelance blogger you can trust. The best way is to look through your network of colleagues and other bloggers in your staff. Usually, writers form part of a community and may be aware of certain writers. Similarly, you can also look for entrepreneurs in the areas you are interested, to see if they are knowledgeable of your potential blogger. LinkedIn is also a great hub to check for any referrals that colleagues and friends may have left on their profile page.
Start small with a paid test project
Investing in a test project to test potential bloggers is a simple yet effective way of completing the hiring process. In this way, you can test their skills at first hand.
Create a project with potential keywords to write about and see what the blogger comes up with. Think of it as a beta phase to decide whether you can work well with the blogger without introducing them into the core of your business immediately.
Ask for feedback
Once you’ve found the right blogger, it’s actually a good idea to ask them for opinions and insights they may have that can help your business. Finding a writer is all well and good, but finding someone who knows the right content to write about to help improve and optimize your website, is a great asset to have.
Moreover, someone who actually gives a critique on some of your previous articles not only shows you they are knowledgable but also shows you that they are interested in your brand and niche.
Final thoughts and recommendation
Finding a good blogger for your business is a critical decision you should not take lightly. SEO is a long term investment, and you need to make sure that you will invest your time and money on the best-written content.
At Gainchanger we automate the tedious part of SEO to allow you to scale your results exponentially and focus on what really matters.
Get in touch for a free 5-minute consultation or to start scaling your strategies today.
Simon Bonello is Co-founder of Gain Changer. His main area of focus is Business Process Automation, Software Technical Architecture and Technical SEO
