Even before the economy crashed, we’ve always received a steady stream of emails from “seo content writers” asking for work. Sometimes their contact information ends up in a dedicated folder within my Outlook and, more often than not, their email is just deleted. A couple times, I’ve even thought of setting up a page with each of their contact information and making the page public for anyone in the web world to browse through. However, I figure that doing such would merely add to our work by escalating the number of content writers contacting us. And there are a lot of people who can type, and an online index of them could eat into valuable work time very quickly.
Most writers typically send a url with their “business website” for prospective partner companies to browse through in order to see the scope and quality of their work. Probably 10% of those who submit contact information are rewarded a brief visit to their website by me. The sites are typically plain and simple with a few sample articles, pricing, etc. I’ve noticed that many contact writers claim that they “head large teams of SEO writers.” This reminds me of a not-so-pleasant experience I had a couple years back. Through an online site, I came across a lady in the U.S. who seemed to be a quality writer. Others gave her a good approval rating, she’d passed the English & grammar tests offered by the work placement site with flying colors, and everything about her seemed to be rosy sunshine. That is, until I hired her and gave her a decent contract with a large volume of articles to write for one of my clients. I quickly learned that she, in turn, outsourced to some overseas writers (probably the lowest bidders), and the writing I ended up with was your typical mish-mash of strangely ordered words that could only be compiled by someone who was in the middle of learning some version of not-quite-so-American English. It took us more work to make use of those articles than it probably did for the original writer to write them.
SEO content writers can have some value. All too often, those that are “good” come with a hefty price tag. If we, at Sozo Firm, charged twice what we currently do, I could probably take advantage more of these top dog writers (some of which are recently laid off newspaper journalists, etc). However, with the economy still affecting us (and our clients), we strive to be careful when it comes to “excessive expenses” such as risky outsourcing of content. It’s best to do it in house as long as possible.
Just a few minutes ago (the reason that prompted this blog post), I received an inquiry from yet another “seo content writer.” And, I bravely checked out her website. Humorously enough, the wording was very awkward (some word choices really baffled me). And, what really made me laugh was the blatant typo in the “Editorial Services” section (hint: “Editorial” was spelled wrong!). Nothing like telling a prospective customer that you’ve got top notch editorial skills and you’ll meticulously go through their website and proofread it … all while you can’t even spell properly the word “editorial.”
But, enough ranting and raving as I’ve got a workload up to my ears to complete today and the morning is already rapidly flying by. If you just happen to know a quality SEO content writer who is reasonably priced (hey – we’re not a super high priced firm and we can’t spend all our client fees on content development) and who really has his/her act together, send them our way. I’m not looking to hire full time or even part time (unless the person is located in Pennsylvania – then, possibly part time in a couple months from now); preferably an independent contractor. Pop me an email if you’ve got someone or if you can help yourself. But, be forewarned … no typos in your sample content!
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