Running a business can mean your time is limited. You already know that blogging can lead to great success, but what do you do if you don’t have time but want fresh blog content?
Before you abandon blogging altogether, consider hiring a contract that can work independently on your blog content. Take these essential steps to a successful experience with your independent contract blogger.
Discuss Your Blogging Strategy
While you are interviewing candidates for the position, talk to each about what you plan to accomplish with your blog. An experienced blogger will help you achieve those goals and uncover more you might not have considered!
An important component of your blogging will be not only to narrow down topics you want covered, but how often you want them to write blog posts. You will also have to determine if they will blog or schedule on the site or if you will post the blog posts yourself. This might change the cost of the blog posts, so keep that in mind when you determine how much you want to pay and the amount they wish to charge. This will also determine if you are a good fit and how the business relationship will go.
Get it in Writing
It might be tedious and boring, but having a written agreement keeps you and the contractor honest. A good contract creator you might use if you do not hire contractors regularly is the Freelancers Union Contract Creator. If you find that you hire contractors more often than once in a blue moon, you might want to create a template you keep in-house. Whatever you decide, don’t forget this important step!
The great thing about contracts, believe it or not, is that they can be changed. Do you find that less blogging is better for your site? Change the contract for fewer updates. Do you want to give the blogger more control? Change the contract and costs to reflect that.
Review Work Regularly
Don’t let your independent contract blogger freely run your blog without occasional check-ins. Depending on how much time and control you want, you might check in with them once a week or once every few weeks. The frequency you check in might depend on how often you want the contractor to blog or when you feel they should update you on the status of their writing.
Remember, blogging is a great way to keep people coming back to your website for helpful content. Consider hiring a contractor and watch your business take off!
Have you ever hired a contract blogger before? What was your experience with them? Please leave a comment below!
@MHarrisWriter
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Nice post Megan. I would only add that business owners need to be prepared to compensate correctly. Too often I find that business owners do not understand the amount of work that goes into a single blog, well a blog that is done correctly. It is up to the contracted blogger to educate the business owner on the amount of work that is required and the reason for your fees. Many have no clue…
Thanks for saying it, Gerry! Finding someone with a grasp of grammar and an understanding of the proper use of language is difficult enough. Then you expect them to assist with the growth of audience and sharing? They can't do it for peanuts!
Great comment! I'd like to cover this in a future post. Beginners are notorious for under-charging so it's important to get some guidance. Thanks for sparking the new idea!
I'm so glad you posted about this Megan. My clients are always surprised to find that I have a questionnaire that I ask them to answer and that blogging for them isn't just about writing a post for them! It's planning, writing, formatting AND publishing!
One thing I always insist with my clients is that I send them brief outlines of the posts I'm scheduled to write. This way they get an idea of the content I'll be including and it gives me the reassurance that I'm on the right track. I've never had a client ask me to rewrite something because of this.
@Gettysburg Gerry – You've hit the nail on the head with your comment! One way to make clients understand the amount of work involved is to lay it out to them and involve them in it.
Once they realize just how many things they need to okay (at least initially), they stop questioning rates.
Samar – That's a great idea to have an outline! I usually brief the client on the main points of the article. If they want to move in another direction, I make changes accordingly.
Hi Megan, along with initial scheduling of posts discussion, I'd also make sure to include what happens after the post is published. For example will the contracted blogger be obligated to responds to the comments their post receives and for how long after? Can the contracted blogger not post the same article anywhere else? etc.
Though is may seem pretty standard blogging protocol, it is always best to include as many specifics as possible when developing your agreement in writing.
Jacob – That's a good point. Most of the clients I've worked for do their own blog promoting. If they want me to do it, that would fall under marketing/PR or even social media management for their business and would include more fees. It's important to have an agreement that outlines this.
As for the blogger commenting – usually this isn't something I have done, as with ghostwriting the readers would approach the business with comments instead of me since the byline doesn't have my name. Of course, every situation is different and other agreements might include responding to comments to the post.
I also usually have it in the agreement that the post will be unique and not written anywhere else. Some clients don't really care about this, but it's good to consider. You might approach clients on the same topic but write it completely differently, and that is usually fine.
What a great discussion here, this, this right here is why I am enjoying Steamfeed.com so much…
Good post Megan and as a small independent service provider your advise on "Get It In Writing" is so darn true. We subscribe to the Mike Monteiro of Mule Design technique. I am sharing a great talk he gave on the subject but I will warn you if you are not familiar with Mikes rants, it is a bit over the top… http://bit.ly/Q3Twyu
Thanks for sharing, Randy! I think I have seen him speak before and love his advice. This video was actually the first of his I came across.