Tips on Buying Web Content & Freelance Services - An Outsourcing Guide for Small Business

Getting the most benefit from buying web content, marketing articles and other outsourced services means ensuring you spend some time thinking about the details of what you want, setting a realistic budget and doing some pre-planning before you hire a writer or other freelance worker.

Just a little pre-planning can ensure that you get the most from outsourcing, help you to on your way to achieving a four hour work week and actually save the money and time that makes outsourcing web content writing and administrative jobs such an attractive way to do business.

The following list gives some pointers to what you need to think about before you choose where to buy your content and start hiring but if you're already at the stage of choosing an online venue to get your work outsourced, here are my favorite places to buy content and other freelance services.

This outsourcing guide is geared towards getting the most from outsourcing writing work, but it will still be helpful no matter what type of work you want to outsource. The key to successful outsourcing is this - when you are clear about what you want it makes the process of hiring freelancers so much easier and will ensure that you actually get what you want.

1. Do Your Keyword Research

For some this will be a misnomer - "Of course I'll do my keyword research first you silly woman!" I hear you cry. Well, as someone who regularly writes articles and web content for clients and also receives many queries about pricing writing jobs, it's not that uncommon at all for a client to come along who hasn't done any keyword research or who failed to do it properly.

Unless your also outsourcing your keyword research and buying keyword lists from someone who knows what they're doing, it's a job you'll need to put quite a lot of time into yourself. You'll need 1-3 keyphrases (possibly more for long articles) for each article or web page you want written.

2. How Much Web Content Do You Need?

What word count are you looking for for your web content, marketing articles or blog posts? Since we all know that Google loves content, making sure you have enough of it is important. As a rough guide, web pages will require 500 - 700 words minimum per page, marketing articles 500 - 1000 words and blog posts anywhere between 300 - 800 words.

3. Number of Articles, Web Pages or Blog Posts

How many web pages or articles do you want written? If you're starting a web site from scratch you might need 40 or more well targeted and well optimized pages to bring in the organic search traffic. If you're adding to an existing web site or you want marketing articles then you may well need less. You might decide that the number you want depends on the amount of keyphrases you want to rank for.

4. Set a Realistic Budget

Now you know how much content you need it's time to do some sums. You can pay anywhere between 50 cents to well over $25 per 100 words depending on the subject and skill level of the writer. With outsourcing writing you often do get what you pay for. If you're only willing to pay $1 per 100 words, then be prepared to get back content and articles that reflect the low price. For well written sales copy or technical writing expect to pay a lot more.

5. Where Would You Like Keywords Within the Article?

Well optimized web pages, articles or blog posts will usually have the keyphrase in the Title, with the first paragraph, a few times within the body of the article and in the closing summary. It makes life easier when buying web content if you are explicit to the writer about how you would like the article optimized and if you want a specific keyword density.

6. Style or Tone of Articles

Do you have a particular angle you'd like the pages or articles to come from? A particular style or tone? Who is your target audience and how would they like to be "spoken" to? Make sure you tell your writer these kinds of details when buying web content and don't make the mistake of thinking that these things are obvious. They maybe to you because it's something you've probably been involved with and have spent time thinking about for some while. Your writer won't have and will be coming in fresh. If you assume anything assume it's that they know nothing. Questioning your own assumptions in this way will ensure you get the web content you want and save time on re-writes and editing.

7. Who Will Post the Articles?

If your buying marketing articles it's important to think about who is going to post them and where they are going to be posted. It can often save time if the writer you hire posts the articles because they can do quick edits if need be to make sure they meet the requirements at human reviewed article websites. If you decide to take this aspect on yourself be aware that you may well have to do quite a bit of editing to meet them (some are easier than others). Sites such as Ezine have strict limits for things like keyword density and require tight article titles. It can save you time and therefore money if your writer does this aspect of the work for you as part of the price.

8. Native and Non-native English

This is a factor to consider before you create a job posting or hire a writer. If you want a native English speaker then be clear about it in your job posting. This will save you time reading through bids that are more than likley going to be rejected. If you're happy to go with a non native English writer because they are cheaper, then expect to do a little editing to the articles or web content.

9. Time Frame and Deadlines

Be realistic and clear about your deadlines. It takes a long time to write 100 articles! If you want them done fast then hire several writers at once and split the work up into batches of 20 articles. Managing 5 writers at once can be intensive in terms of time, but the whole job will be completed faster. If you want the same "voice" for all your web content then set a reasonable time frame for your writer and remember that writers like to have the odd weekend off as well! Also be a bit wary of hiring those who promise a lot of articles in a very short time frame - you may not get the quality you want or need.

10. Payments

Expect to pay a deposit or certainly a midway payment to your writer so that you share any potential risk. Writers are worried that the client may do a runner with the work they've slaved over if the whole payment is promised on delivery. Web content buyers worry that they will pay out some money and then not receive the work. Share the risk as this will create trust between the writer and the buyer.

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Outsourcing your writing work and other tasks is a great way to do business online - it saves so much time and allows you to get on with other aspects of the business enabling you to build your business faster than if you did every task yourself. One major advantage of buying web content and related services is that there are no worries about employer related laws when hiring freelancers and of course this way of working costs far less than having a physical office and ongoing wage bills.

Get Quality Outsourced Writing Services at Constant Content