How to Hire a Freelance Writer

From time to time, you may have the occasion to hire one or more freelance writers. Even if you are a freelancer, there are times when you may need to outsource some of your work in order to meet deadlines. While freelance writers abound online, there are some things to keep in mind before you hire one.

Anyone can be a Freelance Writer

This is both good and bad news because if you're the one trying to break in as a freelance writer, you want to know the door is open to you. But if you are trying to hire freelance writers, you need to know that not everyone who calls themselves a freelance writer, or a writer for that matter produces quality material. Although there are many skilled and talented freelance writers online, there are even more who have no writing talent whatsoever, preferring instead to spin keyword stuffed articles for buyers who care nothing about quality writing either.

For this reason and others, you will want to request to see samples from writers you have not worked with before. This will give you an idea of their writing style and how much attention they pay to grammar and spelling. You'll also want to be very clear about your instructions and let any writers you hire know that you will take steps to guard against plagiarism. Unfortunately, too many freelance writers think they can get away with claiming another's work as their own. Many people who hire writers use a subscription service like that found at http://www.copyscape.com. This type of service lets you enter text and it checks to see if that same text appears anywhere else online. Not only do you want to use this type of service diligently, but you want to let any potential writers know that you are using this as a deterrent against plagiarism.

Where to Find Online Freelance Writers

There are various ways to find online freelance writers. You could just contact a content broker and let him or her handle the whole thing. Just tell the content broker what you want and they will get the project completed using their own staff of writers or they will hire freelancers. Of course, you can avoid the middleman and save money by hiring the writers yourself. There are various auction sites you can use to find freelancers; just post the job, look over the bids you receive and choose the writer or writers you want to complete the job. You can also use online classified ads to advertise for freelancers.

Freelancer Needing Freelancer

What if you are a freelance writer and find that you need a little help from time to time. Instead of incurring fees from advertising the job, you can often find other freelance writers at community forums who would be willing to help you out. This way, you still retain all the control yet you don't have to pay any fees. Whichever way you go about hiring freelancers, look for writers you can form long term relationships with so that you'll always have a backup.