Working with writers is not that difficult when the writer is sitting right across your room. But things are changing quickly, aren't they?
Thanks to the technology, hiring virtual writers is now an easy and cost-effective alternative for SMBs and young entrepreneurs.
With freelancing going mainstream in the last few years, finding a writer is not a problem anymore.
"Freelancing industry is the fastest growing industry all over the world."
Hiring a Freelance Writer
This is probably the easiest of the process.
if you're a student and need help from a professional essay writing service, you can find many quality options online that are available to help you with assignments.
If you are a business or an entrepreneur, you can find many content writing agencies, as well as online platforms, from where you can pick the top talent at very affordable rates. Some examples are Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, Guru, etc.
As there are tens of thousands of freelance writers available, the real challenge is, to find the best one, and to work with writers in an effective manner, who in most cases, are working with multiple clients at the same time.
While posting a job on online hiring platforms, make sure to provide a clear job description, requirements, your budget and your expectation from the freelancer. Once you have hired the best available writer, it is always easy to delegate tasks.
How to Work With a Freelance Writer?
Hiring a writer for a small one-time job is one thing, but if you want to have an effective, result oriented and more productive writer for a long run, things get little trickier. It needs a smart approach.
Here are some tips to bring the most out of your freelance writer.
Communicate for Success
Communication is one of the biggest challenges in working with freelance writers. When it comes to remote staff, communication is not as simple as talking to your employee right in front of you.
A good practice is to establish "Office Hours" for freelance writer or writers to keep them all online at a specific time. This makes things simpler to communicate.
Ask them to be online on specific "Communication Tool" (For example, Skype) instead of using their own tools of choice. A good online option is to use slack.com for your online team communication.
Be Prepared to Train
You may have hired the best available writer, but you still have to spend some time in introducing your work culture, expectations and work process. Most virtual staff can come up with exceptional skill sets, but they mostly are followers.
You need to show them a direction, process flow and orientation of your business. Provide past examples, feedback, and access to information related to the job.
Adding more Personal Touch can Earn Loyalty
Freelance writers constantly look for better opportunities and are more likely to switch jobs. You may not like this if you are hiring for a long term.
A good practice to keep them loyal is to add a personal touch to communication. Ask the writer about his/her family, hobbies, and culture in a friendly way. Your writer can see that you care that can translate into more commitment and loyalty.
Choose Appropriate Technology
The success of your project that depends on freelance writer critically depends on the technology you choose to communicate, gauge work, train and provide feedback. What tools are you going to use when you need to explain something to your writer?
Maybe Jing is a good tool that allows you to easily capture screenshots, put comments and share with your writer. Similarly, you need a chat window like Skype to be active during the work hours. Use technology to share your live screen like teamviewer.com especially while training, monitoring tools to gauge the performance and share documents to collaborate.
Measure the Productivity/Quality
To build a dream relationship with a freelance writer, you need to provide frequent feedback, especially at the early stage of an employer-writer relationship. But the effective feedback directly depends on your ability to measure the productivity and quality of the writer.
The key is to not to just track the work, but do the analysis and provide feedback if you feel something is not right. It is important to be very clear and organized when providing feedback about the quality and edits you require.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, establishing a highly productive team of freelance writers can be your doorway to an increased bottom line, cost-effectiveness, and virtual freedom. Out of the many tasks that businesses and entrepreneurs can outsource now to a virtual team, writing jobs are the easiest due to the large pool of freelance writers available, so why not take advantage?
The simple success equation to work with a freelance writer is
Hire Right + Guide + Set Clear Goals + Delegate + Track/Provide Feedback = Best Result