Tag Archives: content writing services

Looking for a content writer who can work remotely?

A content writer who can work remotely can be of great advantage. If you’re looking for one, it means you want to avail great talent at minimal cost and with greatest efficiency. Why is it so?

For a big business it makes sense to have in-house content writers because, to be frank, many of the resources in big businesses are simply wasted. People are hired for no obvious reason. Salaries are paid without knowing why they are being paid. New software is purchased at the drop of a hat. Even when good software is available in the market, they get their own software developed. What I’m trying to say is, when it comes to big business, they’re not very much concerned with using their resources efficiently.

Small businesses on the other hand need to be very careful. If they are not careful, they’re going to lose their business. As a small business you don’t want to employ an in-house content writer. Looking for a content writer who can work remotely would be the best option for you.

Why look for a content writer who can work remotely rather than employing a full-time content writer for your small business?

Saving money is just one of the many reasons. Personally, why I would recommend a content writer who can work remotely is because you don’t get stuck with the content writer you have hired. Let’s accept that – human beings are unpredictable, and so are their talents. Maybe the person who appeared for the interview seemed awesome at that time, but now, he or she just cannot come up with the sort of high-quality content you need for your business. Even if occasionally he or she can come up with great content, the persistency is lacking.

As a business owner you also know that hiring someone can be a pretty expensive affair. You have to place an advertisement. You may have to go through an HR agency and then pay that agency. You will need extra space. You will need extra computer or laptop. You will need extra software. You will need extra resources like electricity and Internet connection and telephone and furniture. There will be many hidden costs that won’t be apparent immediately but will leave quite a significant impact on your account books. If you need to hire multiple content writers, then you can multiply these expenses.

There are no such problems if you hire a content writer who can work remotely. You don’t need to pay an HR agency. You don’t need to invest in infrastructure such as furniture, computers and software, electricity, office space, employee benefits and risks of litigation. You simply tell your content writer (who works remotely using his or her own resources) what you need and he or she delivers. That’s it. Don’t like the work? You can simply move onto another content writer. Isn’t it simple?

Another big advantage of working with a content writer who can work remotely is that you can negotiate the compensation. I’m not suggesting you pay peanuts for the quality content you need for your business, but if competitive rates are available, why not avail them? This is not the case when you hire someone full-time. Whether you can afford or not, you have to pay industry rates. You can surely negotiate, but some of the expenses are simply non-negotiable.

When you look for a content writer who can work remotely, global talent suddenly becomes available to you

As a realistic person, a business savvy worldly wise person, you know that the talent you require isn’t just confined to your geographic region. I’m a content writer based in India, but most of my work comes from English-speaking countries like USA, Britain and Australia. Why don’t they work with native English speaking writers? Aside from the sort of fee that they charge, it isn’t always necessary that they’re going to be better than someone placed elsewhere. An ability to write well is totally different from an ability to speak a language. Being a native English speaker doesn’t mean you’re also a good writer, but you can certainly be a good writer even if you’re not a native English speaker (I’m using English just an example, you can apply this logic to any other language).

So when you work with a content writer who can work remotely, you can access global talent. You don’t need to depend on the writers available in your city.

Even the difference of time zones can work to your advantage. Many clients send my work when it’s night on their side and on my side it’s already day. I work on the document and send it and by the time their day starts, they already have the needed content with them.

So are you looking for a content writer who can work remotely? If yes, do contact me to carry this conversation forward. Who knows? You may decide to work with me. Although, yours is the ultimate decision.

What to look for in a professional content writer for your business

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Looking for a professional content writer

Finding a professional content writer for your business can be literally equated to finding gold wading through streams of water hoping that small trinkets will somehow find their way into your sieve. No, I’m not exaggerating. Considering how important content writing is, you can ill afford to make mistakes while hiring a professional content writer that is just right for your business? How do you do that?

This recent Copyblogger blog post begins with a very important note of advice: go for a content writer who has a very strong, confident writing voice. What does that mean?

I write socio-political articles also for a couple of online publications. Recently someone commented under one of my articles “Typical Amrit way of writing”. It means the person who left this comment not only frequently reads what I write, she can also recognize my voice. In fact this is not the first instance: I remember when I used to work with a team of writers (I no longer do that – I work on my own these days) I sometimes used to suggest my clients that one of my writers should write for them. Most of them used to insist that I should write because they wanted the content written just the way I write. As a professional content writer they recognize that I have a voice, a unique way of writing, and they want that for their businesses as well.

The blog post further says your professional content writer should have the following qualities:

He or she should have a good command over spelling, grammar and usage
He or she should be able to give an interesting twist to the existing facts and data so that your readers find the content interesting, compelling and if possible, entertaining.
The professional content writer for your business must understand how to write content that helps you sell more because ultimately it is your conversion rate that matters. He or she should know how to form headlines that can hook the readers, the email subject lines that encourage your recipients to open your email messages, write blog posts that are informative as well as engaging and write landing page messages that convert more clicks into purchases and subscriptions.
He or she should know why he or she is writing using a particular content writing strategy. This is very important because unless you know what you’re doing, you cannot make it manifest in your words. If you understand the objective of what you are writing, your writing becomes clearer and more convincing.
The professional content writer for your business must understand and accept the importance of professionalism and ongoing education. Unless your content writer continuously invests time in growth and education, he or she is not going to keep up with the evolution of your business

Some extra points that can help you find the right professional content writer for your business

The above point talks about the inherent qualities of the professional content writer that you aim to hire for your business, but what about his or her business sense? What makes him or her professional and committed? Here are a few more things you should look for:

He or she runs a professional content writing business: Although I don’t mean to say that content writers who don’t have a business providing content writing services cannot write well or they are not professional (you can never define individuals in such strict terms) but it always helps if the person you are hiring is running his or her own business because then he or she will understand your business needs. He or she will be better equipped at meeting deadlines because in meeting your deadlines lies his or her success as a professional. He or she needs to get more business for his own enterprise and this can only happen if he or she is able to provide you top-notch content writing services.
Your content writer has a professional website: Again, you may hire a content writer from one of those freelancing websites (Elance, Odesk) and there is no harm in it as long as you get the results, but just to be on a safer side, make sure that the content writer at least has a website that is constantly updated. This shows that the person is serious and isn’t providing content writing services simply because he or she has got some extra time or because he or she is between different jobs. Many people approach me for content writing work because they have taken a break for 4-5 months. Among such people you cannot get professional, committed content writers.
Your content writer maintains a blog: A content writer without a blog is like a driver who doesn’t like to drive. The job of a content writer is to write and no content writer can be so busy that he or she cannot maintain a blog to showcase his or her writing skills. It also shows that the content writer cannot manage his or her time properly.
Your content writer has a social media presence: This is not necessary but just to make sure that you can contact your content writer in case you are unable to reach him or her via email or telephone.

These are more or less the attributes that you should look for in a professional content writer for your business.

20 benefits of hiring professional content writing services

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What are the benefits of hiring professional content writing services? This is a serious question because it is going to be a long-term commitment and if you’re thinking of hiring professional content writing services, both in terms of money as well as time (although in terms of time the service you hire is going to take care of most of the stuff).

As a busy professional you recognize the importance of content for your business website but either you’re not comfortable writing it yourself, or you don’t have enough time. Writing content for the purpose of content marketing is often a full-time commitment. Content writers like yours truly can do that because well, since I’m already creating content for my clients, it’s easier for me to quickly open another document and create a blog post for myself. This might not be the case with you. You may be working in altogether a different field and it is often difficult to sit quietly on a daily basis and create high-quality and valuable articles and blog posts. This is why you need to hire a professional content writing service.

Below I have listed 20 benefits of hiring professional content writing services.

Publish content on a regular basis: Whenever one wants to implement a solid content marketing strategy the biggest hurdle is the content that needs to be written and published on a regular basis. When you have assigned this task to the professionals, you can rest assured that you will be getting reliable, engaging, compelling content on a regular basis.
Get high-quality content on an ongoing basis: This goes without saying. Any professional service that you hire deserves to be called professional only if it provides you high-quality content without errors – grammatical as well as spelling.
Enjoy better search engine rankings: One of the benefits of hiring professional content writing services is that they can provide you keyword-centric content without going overboard. This is very important. Your content writer should be able to use your keywords contextually without overusing them and at the same time sound trustworthy and compelling. This is not as easy as you may think. Simply using your keywords doesn’t mean your content is going to give you a good conversion rate even if it gets you better search engine rankings.
Avail greater accountability: Professional content writing services are bound to provide greater accountability and this is a big benefit of hiring them. People should be able to trust them and rely on them. If many businesses are already relying on the content writing service that you have chosen for your business, then you can rest assured they’re going to be accountable to you.
Get a dedicated content writer who is not influenced by your business: In order to influence your customers and clients you need to speak their language. This is often not possible for someone working in your organization. You need someone who is an outsider and hence, can empathise with your customers and clients, and then write accordingly.
Have a greater choice of content writers: A good benefit of hiring professional content writing services is that you are not bound to a particular service or a particular content writer. Don’t like someone? You can ask the content writing service to change the writer for you, or you can change the service itself. It’s all up to you and you are in total control. This is not the case if you have hired someone in-house. Hiring and firing employees can be an expensive affair, but this is not the case if you hire professional content writing services.
Update your existing content regularly: It’s very important to regularly update your existing content to keep it fresh and relevant. By hiring professional content writing services you make sure that your content assets that are already there are not neglected because due to lack of time this is something that gets ignored while you try to create as much new content as possible.
Stop worrying about new content writing ideas: This is also one of the major challenges when you want to create new, fresh content for your website or blog, or even when you are contemplating getting your content published on other websites and blogs – how to get new content writing ideas? Although there is tons of stuff you can write about just when you are about to write, nothing comes up in your mind. People working in professional content writing services are used to coming up with new content writing ideas; for them it is a habit (of course, also a professional compulsions). So you don’t have to constantly worry about what to write – it is done, most often, behind your back, without bothering you.
Easily scale your content writing requirements: As your business expands so will your content writing requirements. You don’t need to hire new people for that. Professional content writing services are well equipped to meet your demands. They will automatically be able to provide you more writers or more time from an existing writer. Inversely, you don’t have to fire an employee in case you need to cut down on content publishing. You simply have to let it be known to your service provider and that’s it.
Save more money: One of the greatest benefits of hiring professional content writing services is that you don’t have to spend money on getting new employees and give them all the employment benefits that businesses often have to give. There is no extra money involved while hiring a professional content writing service. You pay just for the content you get and nothing more. You don’t need to dedicate computers and software to the writer. He or she doesn’t need your office space. He or she doesn’t use your electricity and your furniture. Remotely he or she can quietly work and get paid for just the content he or she gives you.
Establish yourself as an authority: As a professional who depends a lot on personal branding you need to establish yourself as an authority and you do this by constantly sharing your expertise and wisdom with your target audience. If you don’t have much time you can hire a professional content writing service and it will provide you all the needed content in a well-written format. All you need to do is provide them some insightful input and accordingly they can create high-quality content for you on an ongoing basis that will help you establish yourself as an authority among your peers as well as audience.
Make your brand more recognizable: Recognition, familiarity (unless you’re really screwing things up) builds trust and when people trust you, they are more eager to do business with you. By publishing authoritative content on a regular basis you make it easier for people to find you, come across your content and then remember you. By hiring professional content writing services you can rest assured that quality, authoritative content is always being written for your business.
Create a reliable content stream: Reliability is very crucial when you want to continue a successful content marketing campaign. Even small gaps can lead to a totally wrong direction.
Exploit all the promotional channels available to you: Since you never lack content you can exploit all the channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging, Guest Blogging and Tumblr (just to name a few) to promote your brand and get more traffic to your main website or blog.
Engage the right audience on social networking websites: You can engage your audience on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter by consistently posting authoritative content that links back to your own website or blog. People will respect you more if the content comes from you rather than from other websites. When you link to your main content, encourage people to interact with you, ask questions and seek answers.
Get published on reputed websites and blogs: This is a great way to get back links from authoritative websites. By hiring professional content writing services high-quality content is easy to come and since it is easy to come, you don’t have to just focus on your own website or blog. You can also share your valuable content on other websites and blogs, exposing your brand in front of a new audience as well as getting links from those websites and blogs.
Engage customers on your website or blog: As I have already mentioned above, engagement doesn’t just happen with a few blog posts and articles. You constantly need to publish new content and then gradually people begin to respond. As they respond, according to their response, you create new content and then according to your new content, they respond again, and the cycle goes on.
Enjoy higher conversion rate: Compelling content gives you a higher conversion rate. It doesn’t matter how good your search engine rankings are and how well you can engage people on social networking websites, unless you have compelling content on your own website, created by a professional content writing service, you’re not going to enjoy a higher conversion rate.
Get more subscribers to your email updates: Building your own mailing list still is one of the best ways of building targeted traffic to your website because people willingly subscribe to your mailing list. If they like your content, if the content they like is regularly published on your website, it gives them a reason to visit your website repeatedly and if they really find your content valuable, they won’t like to miss it. This is the time when they will subscribe to your email updates.
Broadcast your email marketing campaigns regularly: Email marketing content is as important as website or blog content and in many cases, even more important. When people open their emails, go through its contents and then click the links included in the message, they come to your website with a purpose. They are already inclined towards dealing with you. By hiring professional content writing services you can ensure a continued supply of high-quality content for your email marketing campaigns.

How to find the killer content writer for your website or blog

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Once you have decided to create quality content for your website or blog it is very important that you find a killer content writer for the job. I know I’m using a clichéd phrase, but what I mean is, you need a person who understands your business, understands your audience, knows what language to use, and then communicates your message convincingly, preferably, repeatedly, using the appropriate language, to your audience. I know, a long sentence, but you get the point, right?

So how do you find such a content writer?

You first have to decide whether you want to hire someone full-time, part-time or you would rather outsource the content writing job. Since I am a content writer, I’m going to write this from the perspective of someone who is looking to outsource the job. So with this settled, how do you find a content writer who can really deliver with a punch and build you a formidable business asset? Here are a few things you can do

Recognize, acknowledge and accept the importance of content writing for your business

What the heck does that mean? you must be wondering. Aren’t you looking for a content writer because you know that your website needs content writing? Many business owners think that way but still they don’t understand content writing and therefore, they expect their content writer to charge as low as $ 5 (just a ballpark figure to explain the trend) for “quality” webpage content or blog post. Just as you have to pay a premium for a quality computer, quality smart phone, quality software, quality web design, quality food in a quality restaurant, and a quality four-wheeler, you also have to pay good money for a quality content writer. If you don’t think that, you’re either not serious about getting content written for your website, or you have a different perception of the real world.

Acknowledge that the content writer you’re planning to hire is running a serious business just like you

Considering the amount of money some people want to pay to their content writer (for example, $ 5) they think that the content writer is just a good-for-nothing, out-of-job fellow who has somehow gotten hold of a computer and an Internet connection and is now trying to make a living off the Internet without having spent any money. I’m not saying such people don’t exist, but if you want to hobnob with such people, then maybe you also have the same sort of attitude and running the same sort of business in your basement, mostly surviving on freebies abundantly available on the Internet.

If you’re doing serious business, then you have to collaborate with a serious person. If you need business class services, then you need to get a person who is running a business. If you want professional content for your website or blog, you need a professional content writer who provides his or her services as a business rather than as a hobby or an in-between-jobs activity.

But how do you know that the content writer you’re contemplating working with is a serious business owner or at least a professional content provider? Here are a few things to consider:

He (or she) has a website with all relevant sections (homepage, services, about section, FAQs, contact form, etc.)
His website shouldn’t look as if it was designed back in 2003
He has clearly and convincingly described how he works and what procedures he follows in order to deliver effective content
He has good command over the language (the language in which the content is to be written)
He has a visible presence on the web – since there is a great possibility that you will be looking for a content writer on the Internet, you should be easily able to find him.
He should have a blog that is regularly updated. Being a content writer he should have lots of content on his own website so that you can get a fair idea of how he communicates
His fees and rates should be there on the website
He shouldn’t be one of those “professionals” who would go to any length vis-à-vis the pricing in order to get your work. If he is too eager to please you it’s an indication that he is not very confident and if he is not confident he won’t be able to apply his skills with confidence to your writing too.
He should reply to your email messages or phone calls or Skype messages within a decent time span. It doesn’t mean his replies should reach you within minutes because he is supposed to be working and not constantly monitoring the messages people send him, but a time gap of, let us say if it is not very urgent, should be at least eight hours.

Remember that these are basic traits and there might be many more characteristics that you may look for in order to find the right content writer for your business.

Have a clearly laid out plan for your content marketing campaign

There is a reason it is called “content marketing”. Hiring a content writer doesn’t mean your job is done and now it is up to him to do your content marketing. Have a plan. You should know what you’re trying to achieve by getting content written for your website or blog. You should know what topics need to be covered and why and what sort of effect they should have on your traffic as well as the people who decide to stick around your website for awhile. Remember that you are the one running your business. You know it’s nitty-gritty. You know more about your customers and clients than the content writer. You know there are various triggers (if you don’t, you need to do your research you need to hire someone who can do it for you) that motivate your customers and clients.

Once you have a plan you will know exactly what your content writer needs to do.

Decide what you want: a content writer, a content marketer, or both

A perfect solution would be a content writer who knows a bit or two about marketing too. This is because effective content writing has less to do with impeccable writing and more to do with convincing writing. How do you convince people? If you can market your idea in a compelling language. Remember that it shouldn’t be perfect language. It should be able to persuade people into doing business with you. A knack for marketing makes your content writer confident and lucid. He knows how to communicate the strengths of what you’re offering in an effective manner (to streamline your sales funnel).

Be ready to let your content writer do what he does best

In order to let the killer content writer create killer content for your website or blog, you will have to let him do his job the way he likes to do it (as long as he is delivering something that helps you grow your business). Once you’re convinced that he understands your audience and he is able to create content accordingly, don’t meddle too much. Don’t force him into writing something he is uncomfortable with. Don’t impose your ideas about how to write because it’s he who is in the business of writing content and not you. You might be a legal eagle but writing is not your calling (unless you are John Grisham, of course), so stick to your expertise and let the content writer do his job.

How I handle repetitive revision requests from content writing clients

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Confused content writing client

I normally don’t charge extra from my clients for multiple revisions. Whenever I undertake a new content writing assignment I let it be known to my clients that although I charge an hourly rate, once I have submitted a document in its complete form from my side, I stop tracking the time and afterwards, if there are some revisions, I don’t charge for that time.

This can be a bit tricky and counterproductive and you have to draw a line somewhere. Why in the first place a document needs to be revised?

It carries lots of errors in terms of wrong data, misspelled words, typos and grammar mistakes
The brief sent by the client is not fully used or is completely ignored
Something more needs to be added to the initial brief sent by the client
Some features need to be added or removed as the client has had a rethink
The copy doesn’t carry the needed punch and the client thinks that it won’t make the desired impact

Most of the reasons mentioned above are not unusual and they happen (first reason being an aberration rather than a reason in its true sense) with almost every content writing and copywriting project. It’s fair enough. It rarely happens that the first draft itself is accepted by the client.

The problem arises when, just because I’m not charging, the client thinks that revisions can go on and on and he or she wants to change the document every second day simply because he or she cannot make up his or her mind. This means the client neither respects his or her own time nor mine. Even if you have to change a single word, 5 minutes is the minimum amount of time it takes to make sense of what the client is trying to convey, open the document, make appropriate changes and then send the revised document again to the client. I don’t charge because I assume that if a document needs to be revised, something goes wrong on my side and hence, I shouldn’t charge.

When do I charge for revising the document?

I normally charge for revisions when a document is completely changed. For instance, I have prepared a document according to the brief sent by the client. I have submitted the document for review and while reviewing the document, the client thinks that he or she sent me wrong information and this was not what he or she intended to say. It means I may have to rewrite the document from scratch. I charge for that time.

I also charge if I need to do extra research. Sometimes the clients says, “simply look up the information on the Internet,” but often it is not as easy as it may sound (or conveniently assumed). Searching the right, verifiable information can take up lots of time. That is why, if the client cannot provide me the right information and I have to look it up myself, I charge for that time, and I convey this to my client.

When do I put a stop?

I have been providing content writing services since 2004 so I have enough experience to know whether a client is non-serious or not. You are not gaining anything by making me revise the document again and again. It either means that you have lots of time on your hand or you are not clear about exactly what you want to communicate, and this is not my problem. You provide me information and according to that information I write your content. If there are some writing mistakes, if the content is not compelling enough, point that out and I will try to rectify it to my utmost capacity. But if you’re simply making me change and revise because you want to view things from different angles, then sorry, it takes lots of my time and I need to put a stop.

Have I ever lost a project because I refused to revise multiple times? I don’t remember actually. I rarely work with senseless clients. I will be frank. The most senseless clients I have encountered are the ones I worked for when I used to develop and design websites. Big time wasters.

Content writing clients are more professional. Maybe this is because it is a newly-emerging field and people who want to hire content writers are anyway serious about their business. They know exactly what they want.

Anyway, would I abandon a project midway just because I don’t want to revise again and again and again? Yes, I would. Instead of wasting my time, I prefer to lose money.