The best place to find freelance writers

Yes, I know it can be quite hard finding a good writer, I've managed to capture 2 but they moved somewhere else in cyberspace. I have used textbroker with medium results and fiverr for real crap.

 

Good freelance writers are out there (and on DP), if you are going to use a 'third party' site like freelancer.com PLEASE be prepared to pay good money for good content. Ask for a sample if you need to, any decent writer would do one if the gig is well paid and it doesn't have to be very long. If you choose the subject for the sample you can make it as obscure as possible with a 'just about reasonable' deadline, this would show you their research skills, TAT and punctuality. A sample of 150 words should only take an hour tops, and that includes research.
It is also worth remembering conversion rates. $50 in the US is about £29 in the UK so asking someone to do 3 hours work at that rate would be low once the conversion has taken place (and then of course there is the site 'fees'). I am not saying that you should pay more to take this in to account, more that you might be better to find someone in the US if that is where you are.

I know I have just made it all sound really costly BUT good quality will pay for itself repeatedly and should be worth the initial investment.

I hope this helps. x

 

Any smart writer will know that this is the oldest scam in the book: ask for samples, refuse all applicants, keep the free content. If you're going to write samples, publish them yourself first or offer already-published content.

Well said!

 

Most people know about the genre/topic of content requested before samples are asked for, if the sample topic is very different to the content that the work is for then this should not be a problem. There is a huge issue of trust between writers and prospective clients and this is not good business. There are ways to protect your work, I do recognize that this can be time consuming and occasionally costly.

Thanks

 

Here's a thought...through either past projects for clients or your own personal projects/sites, ensure you have plenty of already published online examples of your writing to show to prospects.

It they are asking for custom samples they either plan on cheating you or are not sure if you can write what they need. As the writer in that equation, you are already on the losing side.

 

Maybe if you ask your prospects to pay for custom samples they request, the risk of getting scammed will be reduced.

 

Same here. Finding good, reliable writer can be hard. Need to test them to see their skills and level of commitment.
Fiverr writer are taught to spin articles. I have seen this myself so I am aware.

 

I respectfully disagree: if they want a unique, original sample (that they can publish), they can pay for it. Would you work a day for free at every company you interview for?

It doesn't have to be a lot of money, but if they want original content, they should be willing to put up a nominal fee for your time and effort - they are, after all, getting an article out of it. The alternative is to do it for free, but post it on your blog before you send it to them, so they can't steal it (and inform them that it's posted).

As an employer and employee, I've worked both ways and never had a complaint. The trick is to describe the scam politely and explain why you're protecting yourself - an employer who gets upset about such a simple thing shows a distinct lack of respect for your business, and is going to be a nightmare to work with, IMHO!

You're right: trust is critical. But the first step doesn't have to be you trusting them not to screw you: how about they trust your business sense and respect your time/effort? Just because they're the employer doesn't mean they can dictate.

As far as protection goes, it's extremely difficult online. Protecting an article or two that you write for samples would incur overwhelming costs compared to the return, hence the simplified version of just publishing it first. It's simple enough to add a "Samples" section to your blog and put the work in there for future clients to see.

Of course, if it's a short sample for a big name, there's less of a protection issue. Or if it's a long-term contract (and you've seen the paperwork). I'm really thinking of one-off or short-term clients from classifieds, bidding sites and so on, where you've never heard of them before seeing their ad. Like all things in life, it depends.

 

Totally agree. I have 2 writers and sometimes I need something different doing. And one of my writers has hundreds of web links of different things and will just send me some links and ask if that is what I want.

I have never asked for free samples - i have asked for either links to their past work or paid them for one article to see how their work fairs and then decide whether I will give them a long term job or not!

 

I have gone through this road many times myself.

If you want good writers, you need to:

1. Have a decent budget. Realistically $10-20 per article for rock solid content.
2. Hire a native English speaker in the US, UK or Canada. Back to #1 - If your budget is low, you're going to get a bunch of offerings from overseas claiming they are in the US or UK but you can filter this out pretty easily by asking them some cultural questions.
3. Go on Elance or Odesk.

Hope this helps!

 

Minor correction to that, if I may: "Hire a native English speaker from the US, UK or Canada." Ex-pats write just as well as people still living in their native country.

 

1. Yes. I agree on this. If we a are looking for good article, we need to pay good writer a reasonable rate.
If the writer charge us very low for the article, we need to be careful. As cheap article are usually spun article and usually not readable.

2. I think good writer depends on individual. I have seen some non native English speaker writer better than native English speaker.

3. You can find freelance writer on Elance, Odesk or even here in this forum. I saw many people offer writer service on DP.

 

oDesk is my first choice, after that comes Freelancer.

 

As some people have pointed out, there are good writers everywhere, but it can be hard to weed out the bad ones.

In my opinion, asking for a free sample is an insult. I'm a writer, and will never do free content fr anyone other than myself.

There are other ways to see if someone is for real, though I would try and see if a writer has published samples at multiple locations, not just their personal blog. I would also ask for samples related to the content you want.

And of course, you want quality content, you want to be sure that they are a native speaker. This can be tricky if it is a non-trustworthy person trying to fake it till they make it, but apart from grammar and spelling, you'll want to look at metaphors and whether or not they are used correctly.

Hope this helps!

 

I learned the hard way that a "big player" can use their status to scam writers. The biggest loss I have had was from a major international equipment manufacturer. If I mention the name, I have little doubt everyone here will know it. I thought I had hit the big time. lol

Their American marketing team hired me to work on their newsletter. Somehow that morphed into developing a major marketing campaign but at "we're trying a number of writers out and paying you newsletter rates until we know for sure who we want to use rates." Their product spec sheets were terrible and it became quickly clear that they were written by a number of different writers. Whether they used the same bait and switch on them is hard to say.

A few years later, they closed the American offices. It didn't come as much surprise after seeing some of the internal correspondence of the marketing team and working with their art department. Those folks were absolutely daft, along with being cheats.

 

It is hard to tell if the company or individual have the intention to cheat us.
Therefore the normal practice is to get the money before writing for them. But if the $$$ is a lot, then it may be discuss to make a down payment of 50% and the balance 50% to be paid after the work is done.

Is that the same for all of you too?

 

I think the 2 writers may have found someone that pay them higher. Good writers are hard to find. Maybe you can consider paying them more to get them back?

 

In my case, it was the second half of the payment I was stiffed on. It was the second or third "project"/payment cycle with them. I never write without some upfront payment.

 

have you tried to look at the freelancer.com? it is not an easy task of course

 

Look around in the digital point marketplace, some of the writers on here are excellent, don't go for the cheapest providers, aim for the ones in the 15 USD + range (per article)