Often on my blog, I’ve talked about how you can work as a writer in order to make money. I quite enjoy doing writing work for other people as I enjoy writing, although nowadays I prefer to write for myself. But, it may surprise you to know that I also outsource writing work to others. Not for this blog or for any of the main places you might associate me with, but particular for niche sites or where I publish under a pen name.
If you’re not particularly keen on writing and you just have a large amount which needs to be completed, you may have decided the most cost effective strategy for you is to outsource your writing needs rather than trying and complete the work yourself. This can be a very valid strategy depending on your particular needs.
But outsourcing writing has its own challenges. You need to make sure that the person you employ to do the work is going to do a good job. After all, if they give you back writing which is not of the standard required then this will reflect badly on your business. It may even mean that the writing is not usable or you have to pay for the person to proofread it and correct all the errors. This need not happen to you. You can follow some simple steps to make sure of the outsourcing your writing to a competent professional.
When you’re trying to decide between a number of different writers, the first thing you should always do is to look at their samples. These may be articles or e-books they’ve written for their own use. They may be ones they’ve written for clients with the client’s permission for these to be reprinted and shown to you. Most potential writers will have samples readily available on their website or they’ll send them to you without you needing to ask.
If they don’t, this could be a warning sign that the person you’re looking at is very new. However, you may still wish to ask them for writing samples. When you do, it’s sometimes a good idea just to check what they send you is indeed original and it does meet your needs. After all, you may have a very specific in-house writing style and you want to make sure that the potential writer can meet this.
You should always make sure that the person you’re hiring is a native English speaker or they have skills comparable with one. Generally, you may be able to save some money by somebody who doesn’t speak or write the best English but this is not a good long term strategy if you’re wanting to give an aura of professionalism on your site.
Instead, you should be trying to find people who speak English as a first language. They will usually have better writing skills than somebody who speaks English as a second language. This will be reflected in the greater vocabulary, better use of grammar, and on overall better flow to the writing.
Now, occasionally you can consider a non-native English speaker. After all, some foreign workers do have very high standard of English and you should be able to address that by talking to them and looking at the standard of their emails before you write. But as a rule of thumb, you would generally go to a native English writer if you’re looking for high quality writing.
The final thing you need to make sure is that the writing being given to you is 100% original. That means it does not contain any plagiarism, any words or phrases used without permission. After all, it’s both morally and ethically wrong to steal the hard work of somebody else. You know it yourself how difficult writing can be.
Always check the articles or writing. Get back to see if it contains any plagiarism. You can use the service like Copyscape. If you don’t want to spend any money, you can simply type a phrase from the article into Google. If it comes back with matches then it’s almost sure this writing isn’t original and you should consider another worker.
These three simple ideas will help you when you’re trying to outsource writing. First of all, check the writing samples of the potential worker to see if they’re up to scratch how to use this house style you prefer. Secondly, highly consider taking on a native English speaker. Finally, make sure that the work which is returned is 100% plagiarism-free before bringing it on the web. Otherwise, you’re associating yourself with unoriginal writing and this can lead to legal problems for you down the line.
If you follow these three simple tactics, you can make sure that you’re getting hold of an excellent worker to write for you.