OK - having jumped into the outsourcing of writing content for my site it was interesting to get the results back. I placed a project on Get A Freelancer and, having got 18 bids, went with a freelancer that had good feedback (they are quite new so had not got a huge number of reviews) based in Ontario. Have to say it was very difficulty to know on what basis to choose from of the bidders - made me realise that there is a bit of trial and error in all this.

The copy that I had back from the lady in Ontario was, in my opinion, excellent - it was a lot better than I could have done (admittedly not hard!) and the turnaround speed was incredibly fast. So - methinks - I am on to a winner here.

I then went back to Get A Freelancer with a project for a different site I am working on but with a very similar brief to my first attempt. Again I got a lot of bids - 19 I think - so had plenty of choice. Because of the success of using somebody from the American continent, who has English as their mother tongue, I went with a bid from a lady in the USA. Quite frankly it has been less than impressive. I had to ask her to redo elements of the first lot of text she sent through - that was OK. Then the remaining text just has not turned up - no communication. Nothing.

We are not in a huge hurry for this text so I have not chased it up yet but nevertheless this is pretty shoddy and not what we are looking for in the longer term.

So - my conclusions based on this limited experience are…

  • Write a thorough brief for the freelancer - this will ensure you get what you want and give confidence to freelancers that they are dealing with professional buyer which, in turn, leads to more bids
  • Don’t assume that using a freelancer who has English as their mother tongue will guarantee quality writing
  • Choose a freelancer that has at least some track-record and check their reviews
  • Agree how payment will be made from the beginning
  • Treat freelancers fairly - they are only human!
  • Communicate with the freelancer and explain what you want in as much detail as possible
  • Ask for a portion of the work to be done first which you can then check and provide guidance before the freelancer does all the work
  • Check the text in Copyscape - it is very cheap and could save a lot of hassle in the future
  • Pay the freelancer as soon as the work has been finished and checked
  • Give feedback via the freelancing website.

If there are any other tips for successfully outsourcing copywriting please let me know - I am still rather new to this!

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