Developing a blog is one of the most effective ways you can make your brand discoverable and generate leads.

47% of your customers will usually view 3-5 pieces of content on your blog before making a purchase. The more you blog, better results you’ll get. Studies show businesses that publish more than 16 blog posts per month gets almost 3.5X more traffic than the businesses that publish less than 4 blog posts per month.

However, finding the time to write blog posts while running a business is not easy. And it’s even more difficult to find talented writers to join your team. This is where outsourcing comes to help. Thankfully, you can outsource your blog content development to skilled freelance writers at an affordable cost.

There are many benefits to hiring freelancers to work for you. For example, you can easily find expert writers in your industry from around the world to write for your blog and they will cost you less than hiring an employee.

The difficult part is finding the best freelancers. Because the popular freelancing platforms are often crowded with millions of terrible freelancers who would simply waste your time and money.

In the world of freelancing, the key to avoiding scam and making great hires is to have a good vetting process. It will help make sure you hire the best and find writers with the right knowledge about your industry and who write exceptional content.

Here are a few tips you can follow to get that job done.

When searching for freelancers, businesses often turn to the most popular platforms, like UpWork and Freelancer.com, to find talent. This is a mistake that you should avoid.

Freelancer.com alone currently serves over 27 million professionals. Unfortunately, most of these people are cheap freelancers with poor skills who are simply competing for their next gig by any means necessary. Some freelancers are even using controversial tactics, such as automated bots, to bid and apply for jobs posted on these sites.

If quality is a concern, you should avoid these popular freelancing platforms, especially Fiverr. Instead, use niche freelancing job boards and sites to find quality freelance writers.

Here are a few of the best freelance writing job boards and marketplaces you can use to find great writers.

Ask the Right Questions to Vet Freelancers

Once you post a job on a job board or find several potential writers for your job, you need to interview them to find a writer who’s truly capable of the job and have the right skills to write about your industry.

You can start this vetting process by asking for links to their previously published articles. Use those examples of work to determine the quality of the writers. Make sure the writer uses a simple and conversational writing style and always back their claims with links to research studies and statistics.

You can also use a plagiarism checker tool to see if the article content is original or any part of it has been copied from somewhere else. Grammarly is one tool you can use to make sure the writer hasn’t made any grammatical or spelling errors.

Another important question to ask is pricing. Different types of freelance writers use different pricing methods. Some charge per word and others use fixed pricing to charge per article. For example, some writers will charge the same price whether the article contains 750 words or 1000 words.

There are also copywriters who charge by the hour. Settle on a suitable pricing strategy to ensure both you and the writer are on the same page.

Offer Guidance to Achieve the Best Results

At first, your freelance writer may need some guidance to get into a workflow and start producing great content. It’s your job to give them directions on what kind of content you’re looking for and give advice to help them deliver the best results.

Don’t expect your writer to come up with blog post ideas for your blog. At least not for the first few months. You’re the one who knows the most about your target audience and what kind of keywords you want to target through content. So, do the research yourself.

Use Quora and BuzzSumo to come with effective blog topics. Then use AdWords Keyword Planner to analyze and find the right keywords. And use CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to craft the perfect titles for the blog posts.

Also, send a small description to your writers on what the outline of the article should be to make sure they cover all the right points in the article.

Treat them as Part of Your Team

Building a good relationship is the most important part of working with freelancers. The quality of the work your freelance writers deliver will depend on how well you treat them.

Be sure to treat your freelancers as equals and as a part of your team. Make them feel valued. Maybe ask for their advice every once in a while. It’ll definitely make a huge difference.

Communication is key to building relationships. You can use project management tools to help communicate with your freelancers clearly and efficiently. Use tools like Asana to outline your projects and goals to help your writers deliver their work on time. Use Slack to communicate easily and avoid getting lost in lengthy email threads.

Conclusion

Of course, it will take some trial and error for you to find the best of the best freelance writers to build a harmonious relationship with. You’ll learn how to pick the greatest freelancers as you grow your business.

Just remember to value your writers just as much as you value your customers. Because you may be hiring freelancers on short-term contracts, but the content they produce will generate revenue for your business for a long time.