Corporate Branding
Before becoming the content manager here at Bell+Ivy, I was a freelance writer for many years. I’ve worked with hundreds of different clients, and it’s been awesome because I love writing. Now, as the content manager, I’m not writing as much, but I manage a team of freelance writers.
Since I’ve been both a freelancer myself and now a content manager, I know the ins and outs of both sides of the process. If you’re new to managing content and working with freelancers or a skilled veteran, it’s good to discuss what to look for when working with the authors.
It’d be great if everyone had your company’s best interest in mind when working with you, but that isn’t the case. There are some amazing freelancers out there, but there are some who are hoping you lack the knowledge of this type of work. These bad actors will use this as a way to take advantage of you and your company. Knowing what to look for will not only help save your company money, but you’ll be able to weed out authors who aren’t up to par.
First, it’s important to know how freelancers get paid. Before you hire a freelancer, you should have a rough idea of what you’re willing to pay an author. As mentioned before, there are a ton of great authors out there who do incredible work. These are the types of authors who deserve higher rates, but this will depend on a few different factors.
There are two pricing standards when it comes to working with freelance writers: per word or per piece.
First, let’s look at the price per word. With this type of pricing, it’s important to look at how much you’re willing to pay for a piece of content, and if the content is for a client, you need to make sure there’s some type of profit margin. Websites like Textbroker.com pay writers a little over 0.2 cents per word for authors who write at a high school/college level. In my opinion, that’s pretty low. A good starting point for authors is usually around 0.4 to 0.6 cents per word. This equates to paying an author $40 - $60 per article. When choosing where pricing should land in this range, take into consideration the following:
For some, flat-rate pricing may be a better option. Most writers aren’t going to land exactly on the word count you give them. Typically, they’ll be about 50 - 100 words over or under the word count. If you don’t want to bother with the math of it all, flat-rate pricing is your best bet.
When you’re working with freelancers, feel free to haggle. During this negotiation time, try to put yourself in the author’s shoes and think about if your pricing is worth their time. If you don’t know, ask someone who does. As a freelancer, it was brutal when a person minimized my work and assumed it didn’t take that much time. I appreciated when the client was open to negotiate the pricing and willing to hear my thoughts on the ease or difficulty of different aspects of the content.
Batch pricing is a great negotiator when you’re working with an author who does good work. After a few test pieces, if you like their work, discuss sending them batches of orders. Here at Bell+Ivy, we manage the content of various clients, and some need multiple pieces of site content and blog content each month. Once I find an author I like, I’ll see if they’re willing to negotiate for some guaranteed work.
Many authors will take you up on this offer because sometimes freelance work can dry up.
For those of you who need content for an extremely small niche, these authors are often worth more. Sometimes, specialized knowledge is worth the price. Most freelance writers will do a little research and can provide decent content for a wide range of topics, but if you’re trying to present yourself as a thought leader, pay a little bit more for someone who really understands the industry.
If the author is trying to negotiate with you, feel free to shop around in the same way you would when buying a car or TV. This is a great way to learn what type of pricing is normal or too high. It’s important to note that the cheapest price isn’t always the best option. There are many people who charge next to nothing because they’re terrible writers, and there are places out there who are just content mills writing incoherent content. The last thing you need is it looking like a 3rd grader is writing blogs for your website, or even worse, for your client’s website.
Now that you’ve hired some freelancers that you can count on, you need to know the details of managing these writers. Like any job, there will be times when they come to you for a raise, so you need to know how to evaluate their work. During my time as a content manager, I’ve had sub-par writers try to charge me more, and that’s when we ended our relationship because they weren’t worth the higher price they requested.
Whenever you’re receiving content back from authors, you should keep mental notes of how long it takes you to edit their work (or keep notes on them somewhere). I have authors who use commas like their throwing darts while blindfolded, so these take me a bit longer to edit. I also have some authors who begin 50% of their sentences with “but”, “and”, “because”, and more.
Yes, I know that some of those are just my personal stylistic choices, but there comes a point where it’s just a little excessive. If it’s something that’s really bothering me or just flat out wrong, I’ll send the author a friendly note and see if they fix it in the future.
Some authors are worth a raise, and you should consider it if they meet some of the following criteria:
How much of a raise do they deserve? That’s up to you. If it works better for you, maybe just give them a bonus now and then for some good work.
Finally, be ready to turn an author down and part ways with them. I’ve had authors ask for raises, but their writing is riddled with grammatical errors, and they take me a lot of time to edit. Surprisingly, it’s usually these authors who ask me for a raise.
Sometimes, they’ll ask for a raise without directly asking. They’ll say something along the lines of, “I’ll be busy with clients who pay X this month, so I won’t be able to write for you.” I’ve also had authors who were clearly bluffing. They’ve told me they couldn’t write because they have clients who pay twice as much that they’re going to write for instead that month, and they’ll ask me for work just a few days later.
You know your budget, and sometimes a good author is just out of your budget as well. For the freelancers who do actually get paid twice as much as we’re paying them, I’m happy for them, but there’s an endless amount of freelancers out there ready to take their place writing for you.
We’ll close this out with some suggestions for places to find freelancers:
Textbroker.com and RightlyWritten.com are great if you need a high volume of content written. Both have project managers you can work with who will create a team of authors for you. Both of these sites have set prices already, so there isn’t much room for negotiation.
Upwork.com is a great option if you want to find individual freelancers. You can do this with Textbroker.com as well, and both provide you with the option to negotiate prices with the authors.
These websites are just some of the sites out there that we trust here at Bell+Ivy, but there are many more. Using these sites are convenient because you pay through the site, they take a small cut, and then the author gets the rest.
I also have a small team of authors who I manage outside of these platforms. All of our communications are view email, and they invoice us once a month. If you happen to stumble across freelancers outside of the content platforms, they can be a great option. Some of them have recommended other authors who have turned out to produce the best work.
Content management is a must in our field, and good, reliable freelancers can help lift your website or client’s website to the next level. They can also cause a log jam in your workflow or cost you when it comes to your bottom line. Now that you know the best practices for hiring and firing freelancers, you can make the best decisions possible.
