There are plenty of writers who don’t need their hands held as they complete their writing projects. Unfortunately, there are just as many who do. Here’s how to make it easier to hire article writers who will understand what you ask of them and complete their work without blowing up your inbox with questions.
Go For Experience
A lot of people want to do content writing these days. It can be done from home, the income is unlimited and you can eat Doritos while you do it. That doesn’t, however, mean that anyone who offers to write your content knows how to do it. There are a lot of people who stick their toe in the content writing pool without knowing how to swim in it. Look for a writer with substantial experience—even if it costs you more.
Look at the Type of Experience
Ok, so a writer has years of writing experience. Great! They should be perfect at writing your 150-word product descriptions, right? That’s a pervasive idea, but it’s one that gets you holding the virtual hand of your writer up until the minute the work is due. The experience that your writer has may be academic writing, looking up facts and creating long diatribes that use facts and figures. What would a writer like that do when faced with product descriptions? Ask questions, that’s what.
You don’t need to make sure that your writer has experience writing descriptions of fuzzy toilet seat covers in order to write your descriptions of fuzzy toilet seat covers. As long as they understand how to write short pieces of sales copy, you’re golden. The copy itself doesn’t have to be about the same subject you want written, but it should be in the same general type of writing and for the same type of use. Does your writer have experience writing magazine articles? Great! …If you have a magazine. Web content articles are unlike any other type of writing. If your writer has experience with it, you will have much better results.
Put Together Instructions That Make Sense
Of course my instructions make sense, you’re saying right now. That’s right. I can hear you. Every client thinks they have instructions that explain everything, but not all of them do. Therefore, some clients are kidding themselves. Your instructions should explain the scope, tone and purpose of the work you need done. If you haven’t put a word count on it or said whether it will be casual, formal or written full of pre-teen slang, you may get a lot of questions. Is it for adults? Should it use a lower reading level for mass appeal?
Put together instructions that will answer these common questions to avoid spending all day answering them one at a time for your writer. Instructions that say nothing but “write something about oranges” do not make sense. Instructions that say “write 400 words in a casual tone for grocery buyers with families about buying oranges” do.
Lizz S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
