The Guide to Hiring Professional Writers

You’ve decided to step up your content marketing game and hire a writer.

Congrats! This is a big step, and it can make a massive difference in the quality and quantity of the content you produce. That’s a smart move, considering how important content marketing is these days.

Of course, being a savvy business owner, you know this process isn’t without its potential hurdles.

Making sure that you hire the right people is hard enough. Then, you’ve got to figure out how to manage those writers once you’ve brought them onto the team.

Let’s just say that hiring a freelance writer can get messy really quickly.

Fortunately, that’s where I come in.

I’ve put together this detailed article explaining all about hiring a professional writer.

Ready to find out more? Let’s go!

Tips for Hiring a Writer

Before we get in too deep with the whole process of hiring a blog writer, here are three tips to guide you.

1. Determine Your Writing Needs and Budget

Your first step toward hiring a professional writer is deciding on your writing needs and allocating a budget.

Your writing needs depend on the following:

What you want to achieve

The target audience you want to reach

The customer journey stage. For instance, if you’re writing for the discovery phase, you’d concentrate on blog posts and articles and perhaps throw some videos and social media into the mix.

You’ll also want to think about the tone and style that suits your brand. Maybe you want to use a playful tone, or you might want it to be more technical or business-like.

Thinking about all this helps you narrow down the type of writer to look for.

You’ll also need to consider whether you need a freelancer or a full-time writer.

A freelance writer can be ideal when you:

Have short-term projects or occasional assignments

Are looking to keep costs down

Want a niche-specific writer

Hiring a full-time writer could be a better choice if you:

Have a consistent workload

Want the stability of having a full-time employee on your staff

Can cover the higher costs (regular salary, pension contributions, health insurance, etc.)

Now, it’s time to think about your budget.

I know it’s tempting, but don’t just hire a writer based on price. Rates vary depending on experience, expertise, and complexity.

You’ll also want to consider any extra costs for revisions, editing, research, and adding images.

The bottom line here? Be realistic, and remember you often get what you pay for.

2. Find Where to Hunt for Talent

Okay, so at this point, you’ve established a series of goals to crush once you hire a writer.

So far, so good, right? Now, all you’ve got to do is go hunting for talent.

My first suggestion is to speak with friends, family, and colleagues.

It sounds cliche, but plenty of people in your immediate network probably know someone looking to take on new clients.

Beyond that, reach out to other businesses that feature writers you’ve enjoyed.

A great example of this? The Huffington Post. It has plenty of talented writers, and each article lets you connect directly with the authors.

You could also scan your favorite sites and reach out to the writers directly, with Medium being a great example.

Additionally, you could try the agency route.

These agencies can do just about anything you need them to.

Maybe you want to start with a few jobs to make sure things are a good fit. You can use a service like Creative Circle to hire a freelance writer online.

Services like these are great if you are hiring a writer for smaller gigs, but what if you want to skip the process of hiring individuals altogether?

In that case, you can reach out to businesses like Verblio for all your business blogging needs.

Working with an agency has plenty of perks, as long as you pick the right one.

You can also search for “content marketing agencies,” “writing agencies,” and “digital marketing agencies” and see what services they offer. Just remember you might have to commit to a monthly contract with set fees, though.

Another great way to find freelance writers for hire? LinkedIn! That’s where any marketing professionals are likely to be.

Talking of social media, you could also use Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). Search under hashtags like #writerforhire or #freelancewriterforhire. Alternatively, try Facebook freelance writer groups to discover people keen to find more writing work.

Then there’s Fiverr. You can easily find a writer within your budget or post an ad on an online job board, like ProBlogger.

You’ll get plenty of people applying for your position. That’s not the tricky part.

You know what is hard? Finding the right people.

3. Preparing for and Executing the Interview

You’ve done all your research, got a few hundred applicants, and are ready to hire someone.

There are only two steps left. The first is reducing the applicant pool, and the second is when you hire a writer.

When it comes to reducing the number of applications, you can use a few methods to save yourself a ton of time.

First, check for grammar.

Trust me, you’ll thank me later.

Once that’s taken care of, consider the writing samples.

Do they have experience in your industry? If so, how many years?

Is their tone a good match for your brand?

And finally, the most important aspect: Is their writing good?

Determining writing quality comes down to two simple aspects:

Did the article offer tangible value (in the form of education or entertainment)?

Was the article enjoyable to read?

Seriously, that’s it.

Now that you’ve narrowed it down, it’s time to start interviewing!

But before we get caught in the interview vortex and spend an entire day talking with people, take a moment to think about the interview process.

Do you remember the last time you had a job interview?

At a guess, I’d say that you were a bit nervous but eager to make the best impression possible, right?

Well, guess what? Things haven’t changed.

Just typing in the phrase “how to interview well” on Google brings up 1,830,000,000 results.

The people you interview likely know every trick in the book to ensure they’re making a dynamite first impression.

Every person you interview online will try their hardest to earn your attention and secure the job.

But remember that list of goals we made way back in the first section? Well, this is where it comes in handy.

Instead of getting caught up in how much you like a person during the interview process, focus on how well they answer your questions.

You’ll already have some information about the freelancer from their resumes, cover letters, and work examples. However, now’s the time to dig deeper.

Ask them about their preferred writing styles, how they approach research and editing, and revisions. Give the freelancer a chance to share their experience and get specific about how they can help you.

What about availability and deadlines? You need answers to that, too!

Pay attention to how well they communicate, and not just at the interview. How swift are they to respond to follow-up questions and interview requests? You’ll be collaborating, so you need to gauge their responsiveness.

Finally, don’t forget to discuss pay. Hiring a writer is one thing; paying them is another! Do their preferred payment methods match yours? Do you want to pay by word, piece, or project? How does the freelancer usually work?

The information you gain through those questions gives you much more to work with and helps make the right hiring decision easier.

Where to Hire Freelance Writers Online

So you’re ready to hire a writer? Freelance platforms are a great place to start. Here are three of my favorites:

Guru

With Guru, you can make a free post once you’ve signed up and compare quotes and pitches. From there, you can hire a professional writer based on the responses.

Once you’ve found a freelancer, just finalize the agreement on the site. You can pay your freelancer through SafePay, Autopay, credit/debit card, Paypal, or eCheck (United States only).

There’s a handling fee of 2.9 percent for each invoice, but you’ll get full cashback on this if you pay with eCheck or wire transfer.

To start your hunt for a freelancer, click on the “Post a Job Now” link.

Contently

Contently’s platform helps you hire and manage your freelance writers. Contently vets all writers, and it trains freelancers to use its system. It’s an excellent platform if you’re looking to hire a freelance writer with expertise on niche topics, like finance and legal, etc.

A good place to start is by filling out a short form and getting a content consultation.

Next, check out the site’s “Premium Creative Network,” where you can find writers and other creatives. Once you hire a writer, Contently manages your staffing, training, management, and invoicing.

Another tool Contently uses is StoryBook, which identifies what an audience wants with advanced insights and SEO-driven ideation.

In addition, you can use the enterprise content platform for social listening, documenting content goals, tracking and repurposing content, and more.

ContentGrow

ContentGrow offers a managed marketplace and curates and vets freelance writers for hire. You can hire a writer or journalist to work on your project.

If you’re hiring a writer, you must have a niche and budget in mind, then fill out a short form with your details and register with the site.

The team will then get back to you with some recommended freelancers, and you can commission a writer from there.

Regarding pay, the site can make recommendations on pricing if you’re unsure what you should be paying.

ContentGrow also offers a free weekly feed of story ideas unique to your project.

The site supports international currencies, and you can pay via Stripe, PayPal, and bank transfers.

3 Steps for the Management Process

Hey, you just hired your first writer!

And assuming you followed my guidelines, you probably managed to hire a writer with a solid background and niche expertise.

But I’ve got some bad news. The hiring part is the easiest part of this entire process.

Here’s the good news. You’ll be in good shape if you follow these next three guidelines for managing your new writer.

1. Communication Determines Success

The first step to managing a team of writers is mastering the art of communication.

I’ve already highlighted the importance of good communication from your writer, but it’s a two-way street.

Even if you’ve armed your writers with a thorough style guide, there will be situations where they need your guidance.

Believe me, freelancers don’t get any enjoyment from emailing you constantly. It’s mostly because they want to ensure you get what you want.

Once your writers have worked with you for a while, they’ll email you less frequently. However, if you want to make communication easier, consider something like Slack.

One of the reasons Slack is so powerful is it supports efficient workflow by removing as many communication barriers as possible.

In Slack, you can send out everything from major announcements to minor edits. Plus, you can instantly send files and images to your team.

This ensures your content gets finished quicker but also limits the chances of miscommunications about what the content should look like.

Another way to reduce the constant back and forth is to give the writer a clear brief. If you need help, Zapier has a writer’s brief template.

Good communication is about more than just speedy replies, though.

2. Give Consistent Feedback

As your writer creates content, you should help them tweak it.

Why?

Simple. It ensures that the content they’re working on will be much better.

Plus, it gives your writer an even deeper insight into the type of content you want to see in the future.

Most of the frustration in editorial situations comes down to radio silence.

If there’s a problem, you should address it.

Your freelancer might not hit the point on the first draft. That’s fine, it happens. Give them the feedback they need to steer them in the right direction and take it from there.

If you want to avoid any potential confusion between you and your team of writers, tools like Trello can be incredibly useful.

Trello provides two major benefits that can boost productivity with your writing team.

It prevents you from playing phone/email tag all day with different writers.

It helps you organize and label different projects that each writer is in charge of.

That last part is important because you must ensure that the feedback you give is easy to understand and consistent.

There’s no easier way to frustrate your new writer than by telling them to do one thing one day and another thing the next day.

This is exactly why we clearly defined your goals earlier. This ensures the feedback that you give your writers matches up perfectly with the well-established objectives.

Aside from being a frustrating experience, being unclear about what you want will also make it impossible for your writers to deliver satisfactory work.

3. Understand that Delegating Means Letting Go

You’ve found your ideal freelance writer for hire. You know what that means? It’s time to let go a little bit.

If you’ve done everything correctly, your writer should be ready to handle most of the content creation process.

You’ve made sure to hire a writer who is a good fit for your business.

You’ve created a style guide emphasizing the importance of telling compelling stories.

You even prepared goals to help inform the feedback you’ve given them.

Now you’re ready for the final step: embracing the nature of delegation and trusting your writers to work their magic.

FAQs

Why hire a freelance writer?

How to hire a freelance writer?

Conclusion

You need content. You might consider improving your writing or even trying one of the many AI copywriting tools.

However, you could also hire a writer.

I understand that hiring a freelance writer can seem intimidating at first glance.

There’s worry about compatibility, skill level, compensation, and plenty of other issues that can come up.

You can’t anticipate everything. The bigger your team is, the more likely you’ll always have a fire to put out.

But you can take steps now to prevent the situation from getting too out of hand.

Establish clear guidelines and goals, and figure out what you want this operation to look like.

Once you’ve handled that, start scouting for talent and find potential candidates.

Narrow down the applicant pool and prepare your questions for the interviews.

Once you hire a freelancer for your copywriting and content writing, ensure that speedy communication is the norm and embrace delegation.

Finally, keep the feedback you’re giving your writer consistent, both when it comes to timing and when it comes to the message you’re delivering.

What tips do you have for hiring a freelance writer?