My name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer.
For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...
Of all outsourcing tasks, I feel this is the one that I know most about!
For most, this should be one of the soonest tasks you start to outsource because writing content for your website or articles can be:
Time consuming
Not cost effective
And well, most writers can write better than you
The question is where do you go [...]
Of all outsourcing tasks, I feel this is the one that I know most about!
For most, this should be one of the soonest tasks you start to outsource because writing content for your website or articles can be:
- Time consuming
- Not cost effective
- And well, most writers can write better than you
The question is where do you go to find a good writer?
At the beginning, I went to places like eLance and Guru.com to find writers. My experience has been rather mixed. In some cases I have gotten great writing for less than $7/article while in other cases I have gotten mediocre (at best!) for $15/article. The process was fairly simple, but retaining the writers that did “the best” for me was not an option. Most of them worked on one-time bases and as I started to use the service more and more, I found the quality of my article writing continue to drop (and in some cases, they were writers who were just “spinning” other articles). Also, I was spending much time “teaching” each writer the way that *I* like articles written. Therefore, I was spending a lot of time and money for mediocre quality (which was unacceptable).
At this point, I felt I needed someone committed to writing articles for me: someone I can train once and someone that would consistantly produce quality content (without costing me a fortune!). So I went to an outsourcing service who hired overseas writers for full-time position, but at a very (very!) low cost! At first I was skeptical at the quality, but after “interviewing” a few candidates, I thought one really stood out.
And let me tell you, the quality of her articles were OUTSTANDING! The problem was after 3 months of training her, the maximum output was approximately 5 articles PER WEEK. Understand that this person was working FULL TIME (40 hours) for me and was averaging one article PER DAY. I did the breakdown and found I was paying approximately $30 per article! YIKES! Yes, my hourly pay was less than $4/hour, but the production was DISMAL!
KISS -”Keep It Simple, Stupid”
At this point I realized that you get what you pay for. I went to the forums (in my niche) and started to post requests for $20 articles. I couldn’t believe the response! I had DOZENS of offers within one hour. I chose 5 to provide samples and at the end, I ended up choosing not one, but two (since they both stood out and I assumed one would not work out for me).
That was about a year ago.
I still have both writers and both of them require little guidence into what they need to do. Having two writers makes managing them easy, too, since vacations and “other matters” can very easily thwart a consistent article writing effort. Not in this case, though. Having both of them provides me with unique views and unique styles that only makes my business stronger.
I may pay a slight premium to them both, but I ultimately receive what I paid for:
- Quality Content
- Dependability
- Little Management and Supervision
This is why we outsource, right?
The moral of this story is:
- You usually get what you pay for
- When outsouring, focus on the future and longetivity of the relationship
And to my writers, Dana and Jessica…You guys (or gals, for that matter) are THE BEST!!! Keep rocking and thanks for a wonderful year!
cheers…matt
Also see 10 Tips For Outsourcing a Writer
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Awe shucks! I’m all vaklempt and goose pimply over here. In all seriousness and at the risk of sounding gushy, you are a pleasure to do business with and as I’ve told you in the past I consider ours a very symbiotic relationship. You know your stuff and you know what you want. You also know how to communicate that effectively which helps a writer deliver what you want as well as learn along the way.
In the last year that I’ve been writing for you I have learned a vast amount about internet marketing and technology and entrepreneurship and I really enjoy the fact that I get to evolve with you as your business grows. With your great attitude and generous nature I am not at all surprised by your continued success!
Thanks very much for the recognition
August 12th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Dana’s a terrific writer, but she’s also right - it helps a great deal to have a congenial client, and especially one who knows what he wants and can communicate that clearly! May I say, too, its uplifting to read a “success story” about content outsourcing, when one normally hears about only the grumbles and frustrations.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Finding a good writer to two-folded:
1) Developers want a lot of content but don’t want to pay for it.
2) Writers don’t want to put much effort into it (because they don’t get paid for it).
I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. And we NEED to remember that content is driving the internet. And up until recently, GOOD, NOVEL, QUALITY content is a must.
I’ve been one of those “grumblers” before because I just felt I was always getting screwed. Investing the time and money into finding the “right” writers is well worth it. And if you don’t have the money to invest in quality, you really are not ready to be outsourcing the task yet.
cheers…matt
August 13th, 2008 at 9:42 am
How is it that I am just now reading this? I’m finally catching up on all of my reading and was delighted to find this blog entry. Like Dana, I appreciate the kind words and also agree you are a top-notch client. It’s been a pleasure to write for you and learn from you during the past year. Thanks, Matt.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:44 pm