How To
Find a Ghostwriter
or Copywriter
You can hire a copywriter
or ghostwriter to do many things, write your website copy,
write articles, write an e-book or PDF guide, basically
anything that requires creating content that you can or don't
want to write yourself.
There are lots of places like, elance
for example, that offers these services at a reasonable cost.
But whether you use a service like elance or search on your,
own here are few tips to help you find someone that will meet
your expectations, deliver the information that you expect at
the price that you want to pay.
Posting
your project
Start by
posting level of experience you need.
For example, you may want someone with 2-3 years of
article writing experience or you may require someone with
5-10 years of e-book writing experience.
In order to find an
experienced writer in your topic of interest, post the
topic or project idea in your request. If you are worried
about someone seeing your posted idea and stealing it, use
generalities. For example, if you need a book
written about menopause say something like, 'in the
area of women's health care' . Simply specify the topic
category, you don't need to be any more specific than that
at this point.
Specify when you
would like the project to start and when it must be
completed.
Indicate that the
chosen candidate may be considered for future projects.
Adding this to your post encourages a candidate to work
hard for you but it may also inspire a candidate to bid a
lesser amount in the hopes of more work in the
future.
Indicate how much
money you are willing to spend. Using a cost range is
preferred, for example $10-$25.
How much research a
candidate has to do is often figured into their price. If
you can tell them where to do their research, provide
items of information or perhaps have them speak to an
individual for obtaining information, then you won't be
charged for the research portion of the
project.
Describing Your Expectations before
hiring
Specify that you get
100% of the copyrights when the document has been
completed.
Be clear that you
want the document written in 100% original quality
content
Discuss the tone of
style you are looking for. This is not often easy for a
copywriter to determine so send them an example of some of
your writing so they can pick out the style you write in.
This helps a lot in getting a document that you will be
happy with.
Clearly specify that
the document must be written with perfect grammar and
there are to be no spelling errors. Also specify spelling
preferences, for example, U.S., British or Canadian, there
are differences, for example, the word
aluminum is a U.S. spelling, the British
spelling is aluminium
You could get bids
from individuals all over the world so be clear that the
candidate is fluent in English, in other words, English
cannot be their second language.
Get a sample of their
work before choosing a candidate. If your choice has been
narrowed down to 2 or 3 candidates, consider having each
of them write you a sample page on a topic of your choice
and use that as a tie breaker.
Once you've narrowed
your choice down to a single candidate ask for references
of those they have previously written for.
Make sure the
candidate guarantees 100% of their work before you commit
to hiring them.
When
dealing with writers
Keep in constant
contact with your writer. There have been horror
stories where writers simply stopped in the middle of
projects and were never heard from them again.
For places like Elance or other
qualified bidding services this is a big “No
No” and it goes against the writer's quality
score. But when it comes to private individuals, this can
be a problem, for this reason asking for references is always a
good practice.
When the candidate
has written the first few pages, have them send it to you
before continuing, that way you can see if they are
delivering what you expect.
Provide the
copywriter with as much information as you can,
specifically with regard to research. The more research
information you can provide up front, the better off
you'll be with regard to getting the information you
want and the less it will cost you in time and
effort.
Get your bid or
settled price in writing. Be clear and document
carefully any changes to the original
price.
Where to
Find a Ghostwriter or Copywriter
Elance - This is
one of the top online bidding services that has a very good
reputation for providing quality content services.
Your favorite topic
forums. This is a really great way to get
interested candidates, just be sure you follow the guidelines
above.
Use your favorite search
engine by typing in the following:
freelance copywriter or
freelance copywriter + topic name or category
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