The real qualities you should look for in a content writer

The real qualities you should look for in a content writer

Content writers are all over the place online, literally everywhere you look if you need one, which makes finding a great writer a difficult task.  You can go to any marketing forum or blog to post a thread or article looking for writers and you'll get hundreds of responses during the lifetime of that post.  You can even go to freelancer marketplaces and sift through thousands of writers selling articles for $10 or less, but you'll never get high quality content that actually converts into a sale.  Usually you get what you pay for, so finding a freelance writer for a few bucks will get you content that is worth a few bucks, and you'll likely have to edit the content after you receive it.  You're paying a writer for their services, which they should be good at, and you won't want to edit anything after you receive the work you paid for.  You should just have to pay for the service, get the work when it's done, and copy/paste it to your website and save the page.  You shouldn't have to do work if you're hiring someone to do it for you, that just doesn't make sense.

In this discussion I'll be going over the real qualities you should look for in a content writer, and they are:


Is there a language barrier?
No matter where the writer says they're from, you need to figure out if there is any sort of language barrier.  You can easily do this by asking them questions and looking through their responses with a fine tooth comb.  Subtle hints will show if the person is actually a native speaker or not, and you'll definitely want someone that can write in your language well if that's what you're targeting, which you likely are. 

I like to hire writers from the United States because there's almost never a language barrier for me.  The only times I run into a language barrier problem is when someone obviously fakes their profile and has it show they are from the US but they clearly don't know English as well as they claim to.  I'll weed out the bad writers by asking a few questions, which will get a few responses, and I can see how their grammar and spelling are within the responses to make an educated decision if I want them on my team or not.

Are they professional?
Most writers will treat you like a human being that isn't just a sack of money, and that's what a professional should do.  The writers that always try to get you to sign up for their premium services tend to be less professional and are more focused on making money than producing a great product for you.  Another way to see if they're professional is to see what kind of work they've already done, and evaluate it yourself to see how they portray themselves in their writing.  You'll be able to see how they write, what kind of tone they have in their general writing, and if they're a professional in every article they post to their blog or publish for a client.

When you see a writer putting his or her tone of voice or personality into their general writing, this doesn't mean they are less professional, it just means they didn't write it for a client.  If they have a very different tone in their clients writing, it shows how professional they are because they can adapt to the writing that is needed, and that's what I always look for when I need a new team member to write up content.

Do they provide samples of their work?
A professional writer will always have samples on hand to show you what they can do.  They may not have something that is related exactly to your niche, but this isn't a deal breaker because you're just seeing how they can write and not if they can write for you.  A good content writer can produce top notch content for any niche out there, not just the ones they're familiar with.  I've actually written up thousands of articles for clients and I had no clue what their topic and keywords were all about until I researched it.  After doing some research I was able to produce some amazing content that the clients loved, and that's what a great content writer should be able to do.

Have they been writing for a while?
Hiring a writer that has been doing it for a while might cost you a little more, but it's always worth the extra penny you invest into it.  Think about it, you're hiring someone based on their experience and knowledge, which means you get all of their secrets and techniques at your disposal, which is a great asset to any business.  If you hire a writer that just started, you might pay more for less quality, where as if you pay for someone like myself you'll pay a little more but you'll get a great deal more than the average seller

This metric of choosing the best writer isn't always a deal breaker, I've actually found a few amazing writers who have just started out, but they actually had a background in journalism.  You can sometimes find these bright gems in a sea of bad writers, but it's incredibly difficult and you'll have to work with hundreds of writers before you find one.  It's usually just easier to hire a writer that has already proven himself or herself and play it safe.  Remember, you're paying a premium for your content, so you'll want to get something amazing in return.

Do they require you to link back to their website?
Some writing companies or freelancers will give you a discount for a backlink on your website to theirs.  Sometimes they will even give you a discount for it, which is actually pretty enticing, but you should probably avoid it for SEO purposes.  If you share the writers website, without them asking you to do so, that's perfectly fine and the writer will be grateful.  However, if they ask you to place a link on your website for them, they're likely new and should be avoided.  They're having you pay them and also taking advantage of you at the same time, which is no good.

Can they produce large articles in a short amount of time?
If you give tight deadlines, you will be able to weed out all the "content writers" that are simply a middle man for an actually writer.  You'll pay the middle man and they will send the work to the writer, then they will answer all your content and delay you as much as possible if something goes wrong, which can get pretty annoying.  If you want to find a great writer, give them a tight deadline on your first few orders and see what they can do for you.  If they send back some amazing content every time within the tight deadlines, you've got a great writer on your hands


In conclusion
Finding the best content writer for your website is a difficult thing to do, so I'm glad you landed on this page and made it through all of the key points to search for when trying to find someone right for your website.  If you can filter out all the bad writers, and the ones who are telling lies, you will be left with an amazing content writer that will get everything done for you on time and it will be better than anything you've purchased before


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Thanks!

Tommy Carey