Our digital marketing experts have known for a while that the overall size of a website impacts its ability to rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs). We’re also confident that most websites get a boost from regularly publishing content, and that publishing content with higher word counts can help with search traffic as well.
Taking these factors into account, we can conclude the following:
Websites that want to succeed in organic search need a steady flow of newly published, unique content every month.
At Directive, our customers often ask us how to find blog writers that can meet their needs and keep the content flowing. Some of our partners have spent months looking for someone with the writing ability, knowledge of SEO and subject matter expertise necessary to effectively communicate with their potential customers (and make Google happy).
To help out, we’re publishing this short guide on how to find blog writers. We’ll show you exactly how to break down your content marketing budget and where you should look to find the best writers that can meet your needs.
How to Find Writers for Your Blog
Our goal with this resource is to help you find professional and freelance writers who can create content that meets their needs for quality, service and price.
How to Use This Resource
The best starting point for hiring a writer is to figure out a project scope and a budget. You want to find a writer with enough capacity or bandwidth to deliver the work you need to be done in the desired time-frame and within your set budget. The more specific you are about your needs, the easier it will be to create a job posting or social media post that attracts the right candidate. Here’s a step-by-step process you can follow:
- Decide how frequently you would like your website updated with new content
- Decide how much content should be included with each update
- Quantify your monthly content marketing budget
- Calculate your target monthly cost-per-word
- Use our guide to find a writer that meets your needs
Here’s a quick example.
- I want to update my website 4 times per month (once weekly).
- Each new post should be at least 1500 words, for a total of 6000 words each month.
- I can afford to pay $700 per month for a writer.
- $700 for 6000 words works out to around $0.116 per word.
- Look for a medium-cost writer using the resources below.
How to Find Free Blog Writers
As you might expect, finding someone who is willing to contribute to your blog for free is quite difficult. Here are three options for when you have zero budget for writers:
- Source from the Community – If you operate a community website for a niche community, you may be able to find individuals in your community that will contribute to your blog for free. If your industry has an engaged community on social media or social sharing sites, you can reach out and ask people to contribute. Some people would love the opportunity to write about something they’re interested in and get published on a platform that people read.
- Ask Friends and Family – Your friends or family members may be willing to support your success by contributing articles to your blog.
- Swap Blog Posts with a Partner – If you have partners in your industry, you can work out an arrangement where you write a blog post for their website and they write a post for yours. While this doesn’t exactly help you find a writer, cross-promotion is still a valuable marketing strategy that can positively impact your business.
Free posts are obviously cost-effective, but you’ll have a hard time enforcing any quality or editorial standards while you’re not paying writers. People also tend to lose interest when they’re not being rewarded for their effort, so it’s usually better to hire someone.
Hiring Low Cost ($0.05 per word or less) Blog Writers
Due to the high cost of living, most North American writers couldn’t make a living by writing for $0.05 per word or less. However, thanks to the Internet, it is possible to hire foreign English-speaking writers in countries where the cost of living is much less.
Even in foreign countries, the best writers can find work at outsourcing companies that market better quality services for higher prices. To find the cheapest options, you’ll want to focus on Freelance websites with lots of international members.
Here are some places to start your search:
- Fiverr – A digital services marketplace with many low-cost service providers
- Craigslist – A popular global marketplace for goods and services
- Freelancer – A global freelance marketplace with lots of international members
- Kijiji – A marketplace website for goods and services
Many online marketplaces use a review system that can encourage new users to offer cheaper services while they accumulate reviews. As a business owner, you may be able to hire a great writer for less money if you promise to reward their great work with a positive review.
Hiring Medium Cost ($0.05 – $0.15 per word) Blog Writers
Most professional and freelance writers fall into this relatively wide price range, including the more expensive overseas outsourcing companies and the majority of domestic freelance writers. In this price range, you can find a great writer with professional experience delivering the type of content your readers will love. You can look at hiring in four different ways:
- Hire a Freelance writer through an online marketplace.
- Hire an international outsourcing company through its website.
- Recruit other bloggers to write guest posts on your blog.
- Hire a full-time writer to produce content for your website.
Here’s how to find blog writers for each of these options:
Freelance Writing Marketplaces
International Outsourcing Companies
- Outsource2India – Outsource writing to India
- Outsourced – Outsource writing to the Philippines
- SunTec India – Outsource writing to India
- Textbroker – Outsource writing to an International team, managed in UK
Guest Blogging and Blog Exchange Marketplaces
- Accessily – Buy guest posts from high-quality websites
- Guest Posts – Host guest posts from other bloggers on your website
- GuestCrew – Hire bloggers to write blogs for your website or talk about your website on their blog or social media
Job Posting Boards for Hiring a Full-Time Writer
Hiring High Cost ($0.15 per word or more) Blog Writers
The most expensive writers are subject-matter experts with a reputation in their field and some kind of influence or following.
While you might find these people on Freelance websites looking for work, they are usually busy doing the things that make their opinions and insight exceptionally valuable. Many such people would still appreciate the opportunity to make some money on the side and build their personal brand by contributing to your blog, but you may have to stretch your budget to make it worth their while.
You can use a professional social network like LinkedIn to hunt down subject-matter experts that may be interested in writing for you.
You can also reach out through your professional/industry network to find someone with the right qualifications to write a high-impact post for your blog.
You can also look in the author’s bio of high-quality articles from authoritative publications in your specific niche and try to contact that author or connect with that individual on LinkedIn to see if they’d be interested in contributing to your blog.
You can also look into hiring a professional marketing firm or copy-writing agency. Professional marketers produce great content, but hiring the pros can be expensive, so it is crucial to make sure your blog is set up to capitalize on their hard work.
Summary
Finding a great writer for your blog can be a tricky process. You need a writer who knows how to write content that ranks, who has the capacity to deliver work when you need it, and whose cost structure and pricing aligns with your budget.
Using our resources, you’ll be able to easily find and connect with writers and outsourcing teams at a full range of quality levels and price points. We hope this helps you understand how to find writers for your blog!
Brian Bui
Keep reading
