Creating a blog for your business? Congratulations! You’re investing in one of the most powerful strategies to grow your customer base. But of course, as you’re probably painfully aware, blogs take time, and this is a long game. That’s why it’s crucial that you find good blog writers for hire, but the right ones for your specific blog.
A few recent posts can freshen up any website. But there’s also a cumulative effect that comes from having several months’ worth of material on hand.
Think of it like the snowball that starts the avalanche… the more there is, the more customers it will attract, and the more momentum it will continue to gather.
The great news in all this is that, while the best results will be seen after some time has passed, a quality blog will continue to pay dividends for years. This is especially true if you keep adding to it as you go. Keeping it current with new content, but also having your back catalog available to boost your search engine profile.
“Great,” you say. “I’m in business for the long haul, so that doesn’t frighten me.” That’s exactly the right attitude… but that being said, there are some things that you want to consider in the early stages. A little bit of planning at the start will give your blog the best chance to shine down the road.
So what do business owners wish they’d done differently, a year into the process? Where do you find the right blog writers for hire? And how do you maximize their effectiveness?
1. “I Wish I’d Had My Website in Better Shape”
This is one that you might not expect, partly because it’s less to do with any blog writers for hire, and more to do with taking advantage of the increased traffic that’s about to be coming your way.
Think about it. If you are having an open house, you want to make sure that it’s clean and attractive. If you’re kicking off a new business with a grand opening at a new location, you want people able to buy items there already, or to order from a catalog.
If your website isn’t the best possible condition already, then having a lot of visitors isn’t going to help you very much. They might appreciate the interesting information, but if they wander off and put their dollars elsewhere, you’re basically just leaving money on the table.
So there’s the first task. Have your homesite looking its absolute best, and making sure that people can easily move from your blog to your storefront or find your contact information with a minimum of fuss.
2. “I Wish I’d Gotten Rid of the Old Blog”
In addition to the site itself, you may already have some blog posts from a previous attempt to create one. Maybe you hired a freelancer a few years ago, or wrote some material on your own.
Whatever the case, your blog needs to be consistent in tone, look cohesive, and be professional.
Ultimately it’s your choice on whether to try to merge the two blogs, or to delete any old posts. But if you’ve found some new blog writers for hire and you’ve still got some “leftovers,” a decision needs to be made on what to do with the previous material.
Important questions to ask should be: does it look like these posts all belong together? Are they similar, or would it seem odd or jarring to a new customer?
Keep in mind that when a company overhauls its logos or changes its corporate color scheme, it often does all this at once, so as to avoid a headache. The goal here is the same. Whether you keep your old posts or kick them to the curb, the end result should be a consistent product, so that a first-time visitor doesn’t wonder why everything is so haphazard.
3. “I Wish I’d Found a Company With Multiple Blog Writers for Hire, Rather Than Just Relying on One Writer”
One of the biggest concerns small businesses have is that they don’t often have the time or the budget to hire a full-time writer. Sure, Amazon and Target may have people in-house, producing loads of content. But those are giant corporations.
What do you do when your staff is just a handful of people?
The next step can be a critical one. Many people start to look for a writer who will make posts for them, assuming that this is all that they will need. It’s one job, why not hire one person to do it?
The possible downside of this is that one writer may have multiple businesses already on the slate, and yours might not be at the top of the list. That could mean missed deadlines or inadequately sourced or poorly written copy.
If a writer misses too many deadlines, you could find yourself scrambling to find a replacement.
A content company like SteadyContent, however, gets around this potential pitfall by keeping a large roster of writers readily on-hand. That makes your job a lot easier.
In addition, all of the basic information contained in the posts gets settled ahead of time, so that everything remains consistent. You’ll give a description of your business to SteadyContent, and work out the rough outline of your goals and what you want your blog to contain.
After that, the writers get to work. If one of them isn’t available one month, someone else will be, and your posts will be on time.
4. “I Wish I’d Found a More Credible Blog Writer”
This is the risk of outsourcing, and one of the main worries that any business owner has about finding blog writers for hire. What if they’re just not that good?
When you look at a freelancer on Fiverr, Upwork, or any of a number of freelance sites, you’re hoping that the feedback you see is accurate. But even if you are fortunate and find a good freelancer, it’s often the case that the initial price of these writers will wind up being more than initially advertised.
With SteadyContent, you know what the cost is going to be upfront. No sneaky fees, or haggling from an individual writer. Every one of our blog writers reflects on our company, and we take care to hire only the best and the most credible writers available. In fact, nineteen of every twenty applicants fail to make it through our screening process.
You pay an agreed-upon price, and it’s up to us to deliver.
5. “I Wish I’d Given My Blog Writer a Bit More Guidance in the Early Going”
This is an important one.
When you start working with blog writers for hire, they’re going to research your company and your business. They want to get an idea of your region, what services or products you offer, and what the overall attitude of your customer base is likely to be. There are a few ways these writers find this information.
First, when you contact SteadyContent, you fill out a questionnaire that gives you a chance to share some details about your company and your aims.
Secondly, any writer will take a thorough look at your company’s website. That means looking at your services, and whatever previous blogs might have been there.
Writers might even look at things like Yelp reviews, or other customer feedback sites, in order to get an idea of what people are saying, and what perceptions there are that might need to be addressed.
(Whether a Yelp review is valid or not, other customers do read them, and it’s important for a writer to look at your blog as just one piece in a larger puzzle: your web presence as a whole.)
So it’s especially crucial that you’re aware of what that means, too. If you don’t have a large web presence already, or if your website is very sparse with information, that questionnaire becomes all the more important.
Think about what your ideal customer is. What are they looking for? What is your ideal customer interaction?
The more information your blog writer has to go on, the more they’ll be able to help you, and provide content that’s perfectly targeted to your needs, and those of your customers.
6. “I Wish I’d Hired a Company With a Track Record”
Any time you do business with someone you haven’t met, it’s a bit of a roll of the dice. Inexperienced freelancers and new companies are a risky proposition, and they could leave you in worse shape than when you started.
SteadyContent has been providing quality content to businesses like yours since 2010. That may not seem like much, but when it comes to the world of internet sales, that’s a serious chunk of time.
The world of online sales changes rapidly, and the best companies are the ones that adapt and thrive.
SteadyContent has stuck around by doing just that, and today, we work with scores of small businesses and hundreds of fantastic writers, putting great content on the web.
SteadyContent Today
Today, SteadyContent produces roughly 5 million words of quality, SEO-driven content every single month.
We take pride in making sure that our customers are more than just “satisfied.” Having grown from a small operation, we know how important small businesses truly are.
So take advantage of our introductory offer (a reduced rate, for those who want to “try it out.”) Or let us know if you have any questions.
At SteadyContent, creating great blogs is our business… so that you can focus on yours.
