Hiring a new writer is a much more complicated process than it first appears. While our site provides you with a number of helpful tools, those tools by themselves aren’t enough. The more comfortable you are with the due diligence process, the more quickly you’ll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and zero in on exactly the writers you’re looking for. Below, we’ll walk you through the steps in the process. Until you’re comfortable with the process, feel free to bookmark this page and refer back to it as needed.
Step 1 – The Topic Filter
When our writers develop their profiles, the overwhelming majority of them will list the topics they know the most about and enjoy writing about the most. Take them seriously. If you’re looking for a business and technology piece, and a writer you’re interested in mostly writes lifestyle and culture pieces, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Sure, every once in a while, if you spend enough time emailing back and forth, you’ll be able to convince a writer to cover the topic you have in mind, but you’ll save yourself an enormous amount of time if you take each writer’s preferences seriously and respect them.
Step 2 – The Stats Filter
You can easily see how long a writer has been a member with us, how many pieces of content have been written in that time, and gain a number of useful insights by pouring over their profile. If a writer has been with us for years and has only produced a few dozen pieces of content, he or she is a part timer, probably writing as a hobby. If you’re looking for a writer to create a dozen pieces of content according to a tight schedule, odds are, the hobbyist writer isn’t for you.
Again, with good communication, you may be able to lure that writer into the fold, but it’s a time intensive process. Your better off to look for a writer who is producing full time and can handle the volume you’re looking for.
Step 3 – The Interview Process
Once you’ve identified a few possible content creators, before you start handing out work, you’ll want to make contact and ask a few good, hard-hitting questions. Although we’ve referred to this as “The Interview,” it doesn’t have to be anything formal.
Start by writing an email and introducing yourself, explaining why you’re writing and the kind of content you’re looking for. If you get a response back, spend some time getting to know the potential writer better, but also asking very specific questions like:
It’s not a complicated process, but it is a process. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it, and the more quickly you’ll be able to zero in on exactly the writer you want for the type of content you need to have created.
