Freelance
Writers' Series
Career & Business
Development Help
SEO content writing is a hot niche in freelance writing right now, and you can quickly become overwhelmed, as one freelancer recently learned. To give some background on this article, this post is a direct result of one freelance writer’s recently foray into SEO writing. Briefly, she bought my ebook on SEO writing, and started to get queries before she even started to market. Read about that here. She was afraid she’d get overwhelmed quickly, and as she worked full-time, I advised that she should consider outsourcing.
I directed her
to an article I’d written before on
how to go about hiring outsourcers, and told
her I’d write one specifically as it pertains to the SEO industry today. So,
here goes: 7 Tips on How to Grow Your SEO Writing Business Through Outsourcing Following are three things to keep in mind when hiring outsourcers to help you grow your SEO writing business.
1. Pre-qualify: Many freelance writers are hungry for work and
will apply to any and every job listing – even if they have no experience in it.
Hey, sign me up, so do I! I’m not knocking that. Most freelance writers who don’t understand SEO will either not respond, or will respond with questions. If they respond with questions, then you know they don’t understand SEO, because this is a basic SEO article request. 2. SEO Training: Only you can decide if you’re willing to train a writer. I had to give a few basic guidelines when I first started hiring writers. But, you don’t want it to be so detailed that it takes too much of your time. Some writers can cost you money, if you’re not careful. Most should know basic terminology, eg, terms like keyword density, long-tail keywords, optimization, labels and tags. More industry specific terms like silos, tag clouds and categorization are not widely used yet, so it’s okay if they don’t know these. It’s easily explainable and “graspable” if they have the basics in place.
So, I’d limit the
amount of training I’m willing to do. And, I say this from first-hand experience
of having to learn on my own. Nobody taught me SEO. I did a lot of reading about
it on my own and through various conversations with clients just picked up more
and more. It truly was a lot of trial and error at first. 3. Hire in Small Doses: What I mean by this is, hire one or two writers first that you can keep busy all the time. These can be your “foundation writers.” Then, if they happen to be busy, outsource to others. I call this cultivating a sense of loyalty. To explain, most freelancers like steady work from a few sources. They don’t want “hit and run clients,” eg, those clients that call you at the last minute every two to three months to bail them out. Sometimes, even when I can do the work myself, I will outsource it just to pass some work on to freelancers who can use it. One freelancer I use on a consistent basis contacts me once or twice a week, going, “Yuwanda if you need anything this week, just remember I’m around.” And you know what, sometimes her email hits my inbox just when I’m bleary-eyed and can’t look at the screen anymore. Even though I could finish the project the next day, I send a few articles her way to get them off my plate and off to the client a day or two early. I have three writers I work with consistently. This helps me to keep the deadline monster at bay and still have a life. 4. Test Project: A few freelancers I’ve used only one time. This was because the quality of their work was so much lower than other freelancers I’ve worked with. And you know what, on their own, the work would have been fine. But, when compared side by side to other freelancers, some writing just stands out. Mind you, this was for the same rate, so it wasn’t a price thing. When you find a superior writer, latch on to them. They will save you so much money in the long run because you don’t have to go through their work with a fine-toothed comb. You can essentially scan it, and send it along to the client. 5. Tweaking Work: It’s rare that you’ll find a freelancer who will turn in a perfect project every time. I invariably tweak the articles I get back from even my best writers. BUT, it’s usually due to the way I would have written something as opposed to bad writing. Words of advice – GET OVER THIS! If it’s done well, try not to get in the habit of tweaking because you know what, the client probably tweaks it when they get it too. This makes it redundant; a waste of time. 6. BONUS TIP: What to Do About Clients Who Don’t Want You To Outsource Their Project. Some clients only want you – and nobody but you to write their copy. Especially if they fall in love with your writing style.
Don’t be held
hostage like this. I recently made the mistake of telling a client that I might
have to outsource some of his articles to make the deadline (I truly was tired
because I never make this kind of gaffe). He was like, “Oh no, I want you to do
it. I love the last pieces and I want that same kind of writing for the rest of
the pages.” My advice on this, never ever mention who will be doing the writing work – unless a client asks directly. Most clients will assume it’s going to be you and won’t even inquire about this. On the rare occasions they ask, of course, I tell them that I work with other freelance writers and do outsource some projects. But, most clients only care about two things – the quality of the work and the deadline. If you can guarantee those, you won’t have a problem. 7. How to Properly “Fire” a Client: If you have clients who insist on you and only you working on their project, you can do one of two things: (i) agree to it; or (ii) refuse it. If you’re just starting out and can guarantee this, then by all means, do so. But, if there ever comes a time when you can’t, don’t outsource it without telling the client first. That’s dishonest. Tell them that your business has grown to the point that you’ve now moved into a more managerial role. Assure them that you can still maintain the same quality and meet their deadlines, but you can’t guarantee that you will be the one doing the actual work. Don’t be afraid to let go of a client who refuses to work with you under these terms because this is limiting your ability to grow; to expand your business. In cases where you have to “cut a client loose,” offer to refer them to someone else (you should have several competent freelancers you can comfortably refer to him/her) and wish them good luck, letting them know that it’s been a sheer pleasure to work with them. Remember, time is money. Get in the habit of maximizing yours so that you can exponentially grow your SEO writing business! Follow these tips and you can easily grow your business to the point where you're making 5, 6 or 7K a month relatively easily. Good luck.
Sincerely,
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