Looking to outsource content writing? Any business owner, blogger or content marketer will tell you that finding the right writers is a hustle, and often you have to try a bunch of them to find the ones that understand your brand and your style.
In this post, I take you through several platforms that connect writers to business owners, making it easy to find, manage and even train your group of freelance writers. The platform you choose will depend on how hands-free you want to be when it comes to content development, your budget, and your writing style.
Platforms to Outsource Content Writing Services
Now, here are some of the best places to start when it comes to outsourcing content for your business:
1) Fiverr
Fiverr is a freelance marketplace that brings sellers and buyers together over a range of services, from content writing, graphic design to anything you can think of. I love Fiverr because it’s a great place to test a bunch of writers without burning through your budget and their rating system gives a glimpse of how good freelancers are.
When outsourcing content from Fiverr, keep in mind the following:
- Level 1 and Level 2 sellers tend to deliver quality work and have reviews that you can use to gauge their expertise.
- New sellers, though they may be great writers, may not have enough reviews, but since their rates are usually much lower than level sellers, you can still test them out based on their profile and gig descriptions.
- Pro sellers do guarantee quality work and have been vetted by the Fiverr team, so if you don’t want to dig through, you can simply buy Pro gigs and work with expert and experienced content developers. A pro gig might go for $100 per article, which is still cheaper than what independent writers charge.
That said, though many gigs go for $5 for, say, 300 words, I have found that more experienced writers on the platform charge around $30 per 1000 words, which is still a steal, especially if you find one that understands your space.
How to find the best freelance writers on Fiverr
If you are in a particular niche, start by searching for your niche instead of the general phrases like content writers. This way, you will find writers who are experienced in writing for your type of audience. For instance, you could try phrases like:
- SaaS writer/SaaS writing Services
- Health writer/Medical writer
- Technical writers
- Crypto content writer etc.
Next, go through the results, looking for leveled writers (Level 1, Level 2 or Top Rated) or new writers with good reviews if you prefer. Read through their gig descriptions or reviews, and whenever you need clarification, simply contact the seller to start a conversation. Once you are confident that the seller can deliver the best content in your brand voice, place an order or ask them to send you a custom offer.
2) Writer Access
Writer Access is a content marketing brand that makes it easy to streamline content development. You can hire writers, editors, illustrators, animators and graphic designers from this platform.
Writer Access leverages AI-powered tools to help you find the best talents, optimize content and streamline your workflows so that you don’t have to be hands-on. If you haven’t mastered content strategy, joining this platform may be all that you need as you get access to 200+ trainers to help you maximize returns on your content investments.
Why Hire Writers using Writer Access?
Writer access has a pool of hand-picked and highly rated writers and designers, guaranteeing quality work. Get matched quickly with the help of an AI text analyzer.
With Writer Access, you also have integrated tools that help with your content marketing needs, including:
- Buzzsumo for discovering trending topics
- Grepwords and MarketMuse for harvesting popular keywords
- SurferSEO for on-page content optimization
- SpyFu for tracking STEPs performances, so you know how your efforts are measuring up.
Apart from the SEO integrations above, you also have access to publishing integrations so you can instantly push approved content to your marketing channels, whether WordPress, HubSpot or social media channels.
The Buyer Persona and Journey Map Builders help you guide your writers to create content that meets the needs and wants of your audience. You also have access to Brief Builders and Wizards if you want more control over what topics your content should address.
Membership starts at just $39/month and is suitable if you don’t have a team that oversees content production. However, if you produce content at scale, you might want to choose the $59 or $99 plans.
3) Upwork
Upwork is another freelance marketplace used by many brands to outsource content and other marketing tasks. Typically, you post a job on the platform, and freelancers will bid on your project. During this bidding process, you have a chance to evaluate applicants and choose the ones that appeal to you.
The next step is to interview them to see if you can work well together on the project. Once you are ready to proceed with a writer, you need to hire them either at a fixed cost or on hourly rates, depending on the nature of your project.
You can expect to pay anything between $15 and $80 per hour for good content writers or an average of $100 per article. Upwork is also a goldmine for clients as the platform has hundreds of thousands of really great content developers who are experts in SEO and copywriting.
4) Verblio
If you want a more managed content platform, then using a content marketing agency like Verblio is a better option for you. Unlike Fiverr and Upwork, you don’t need to manage freelancers yourself.
Verblio handles everything for you, giving you a full content writing service, from research, drafting, editing to proofreading. Compared to the other services, Verblio is a little bit more expensive, averaging about $120 per 1000 words article, which is typically still below the industry’s standard in the US.
Verblio currently serves over 1000 digital agencies and businesses across different industries.
Why use Verblio?
Verblio keeps your preferences in one place: With Verblio, you can set your tone and voice, business info and preferences and have writers have access before working on new projects, reducing the back and forth communication each time a new writer is onboarded. This enables the Verblio team to onboard new writers on your behalf. You can also add feedback and have them saved and accessed from the same pane as your preferences.
With Verblio, you can quickly scale content production without compromising content quality or brand standards. By leveraging the marketplace, you make it easy for expert writers to find you; this way, you get the right writers who provide the right content that enables more customers to find you.
5) Crowd Content
Crowd Content offers two options:
Content marketplace: Granting you access to a pool of 6000 plus highly-qualified writers.
Managed Content Services: Where the Crowd Content team hires and manages all the aspects of the content development so that you only need to wait for ready-to-publish content for your blog.
With Crowd Content, you can request any type of content, from blog posts, social copy, Press Releases, City Pages, Product descriptions to White Papers.
Crowd Content is great if you want your content fast, as it has turnaround times that are as short as 24 hours.
To get quality work, you might want to work with 3 and 4-star writers, though you might have to pay five times or more per word.
6) Textbroker
Textbroker has been around for a while now and has a reputation for only accepting the best writers. When listing a project on Textbroker, you can choose to allocate it to a particular writer, especially if you’ve worked with them in the past or have the team assign it for you.
It doesn’t offer a managed solution by default, but you can opt for managed service and pay an extra amount on top of the freelancers’ rates. This also grants you access to a dedicated content manager. The rates vary depending on the writers’ expertise, but you can expect to pay anywhere between $0.013 and $0.075 per word.
7) Scripted
Known to accept only 2% of the applicants, Scripted is a great platform to find freelance content writers for hire. It doubles up as a marketplace since you can manage everything, including processing payments.
One thing worth noting is that you can set your own budget that you want to stick to, and freelancers who want to work with you will have to accept.
This is a great platform if you want to hire copywriters on a budget. You can have sales and marketing copy written for you at a fraction of what it normally costs if you choose to work with independent copywriters.
Like Writer Access, Scripted got SmartMatch technology that makes it easier to find the right freelancers for your business. Freelancers are grouped according to industry, skillset and level of experience.
To use Scripted, you need a monthly subscription starting from $199, with $100 of that going to content credits.
What Content Can You Outsource?
These platforms enable you to outsource any form of marketing content, including:
- Short articles
- Listicles
- Ultimate guides
- eBooks
- White Papers
- Thought Leadership articles
- Website content
- Copywriting (ads copy, social media copy, sales copy)
- Newsletter content
Wrapping Up
If you want to outsource content writing, having the right strategy is your best shot. First, identify the content types that need to be written, and then identify some of the best platforms where you can find suitable writers. The second thing you want to do is assign a team member to be in charge of your outsourcing account or opt to do it yourself.
Also, keep in mind that you need to allocate enough budget and pay freelance writers fairly if you want to land and retain quality writers.
