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.