Article Writers – A Love Hate Relationship
October 23, 2010
This post is going to be more of a rant than something educational.
I’m always on the lookout for an article writers who can develop exceptional copy. Anyway, on Monday just gone I thought I’d found someone who sounded pretty good. She charged decent rates per article and I thought I’d take a punt. I’ve already got a team of writers who I’ve been using for almost a ayear now but recently I havent been too happy with what they’ve been churning out, more filler content and waffle than ‘meat’.
Anyway, so I decided that although this ‘Warrior’ was new, I’d give her a try. I sent her a pretty tight brief for 5 articles and as to what I needed and even told her how I am looking for someone to work with long-term etc etc etc.
She told me, it’ll be done in 2-3 days. 4 days later I’m still waiting for my articles. Ok, so I ‘ll give her the benefit of the doubt, whats 1 day I hear you say? I just sent her an email (its like 2.37am here) and she’s replied with the folllwing;
“Hello
Sorry for the delay my computer crashed. 2 more days and Ill send the articles. Thanks”
I mean how many of you are going to fall for this old chestnut? I don’t like to judge or assume but c’mon, thats a complete load of tosh! Its the oldest one in the book.
Guess I’ll just wait for my articles and IF they’re any good I mgiht think about keeping her although she hasn’t done herself any favours.
The point I’m trying to make here which has been reinforced by this episode is that always trust your gut feeling AND try to use where possible a team of writers as opposed to individuals UNLESS you have a good relationship with them. At least you have someone hwo is accountable and is going to be at least a little bit professional!
Finding quality writers is a pretty tough job, so when you do find one, keep hold of them and don’t let go.
The search continues……..
I am still quite new to this game of article writing and website building to generate income however what I learnt early on is content is a must and to be honest its a pain to write.
I therefore hired some of my uni mates to write articles for a few dollars here and there all it cost is a price of a beer yes I guess I can get the articles more cheaper online however at least I know the articles are of high quality and the grammer and subtance is there.
Hey Matt,
Thanks for stopping by. If I had the choice of hiring online and getting a few mates to write copy for me then it would certainly be the latter. Unfortunately most of them aren’t that good at writing..lol
I’m actually thinking about also speaking to some local college students who may want to earn some extra cash. The only problem is that I can get some ‘decent’ content from the States at a good rate. The UK is probably if not the most expensive place on Earth for services so need to weigh up the pros and cons.
When you’re writing content, its always a good idea to think of a good title which encapsulates your keyword and try and think of a theme beforehand.
With article writers, you need to provide them with much info as possible to ensure that what you get back isn’t useless drivel, even WITH the right info it can be a challenge.
If you’ve got friends to do it for you then more power to you.
DO let me know how you get on.
Zaheer
I can see how frustrating this must be. There are a lot of people out there writing articles for others. But quite often they are poor writers and/or unreliable!
I haven’t ever paid someone else to write stuff for me. And I don’t think I will for these reasons. I know it will take a lot longer to make decent money, but that’s the price I’ll have to pay, I think.
Hi Matt,
Good to have your feedback, I’m also going down the route of writing my own content. Maybe not churning out so much but focussing on ‘heavier’ content which targets long-tails. I’ve had some success already and can certainly see the benefits.
Zaheer