Why should you outsource your blogging when you could do it yourself? Of course you could do your own blogging. But have you? Have you even started? You could also do your own plumbing. It’s easy, said your brother the Master Plumber. You could also build your own house using leftover palettes. There’s probably a YouTube video made by those guys in Indonesia where they do (and it includes a swimming pool, too!). But have you? No!
Sewing Buttons on Pants
Here’s another thing that hasn’t happened. Sewing a button on those pants, the ones you wore five years ago that used to be your favorites. Hasn’t happened. Inevitably, you end up at the dry cleaner and ask them to do it. And that’s way easier than blogging, right? So if you haven’t sewn that button on your favorite pants, why wouldn’t you outsource your blogging? There are plenty of online resources, such as this: The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business. I like their idea of hiring specialists, not generalists.
You’re Great at What You Do
What you do is raise money for your startup. And manage people. You’re great at networking, talking to people, and finding new business. So if you’ve ever wanted to outsource your blogging, why not now? After all, there are people with tons of talent, a background in writing, and years of experience. You might enjoy my previous article: Outsourcing Your Blogging Might Be the Best Thing You Do.
Find Someone Qualified to Blog for You
If you don’t know where to start looking for someone who could write for you, try asking around. You might be surprised at who has people writing for them. Often, bloggers are ghost writers and no one knows where they are (or who they are). Of course, doing a Google search could help you, but you might only find the biggest agencies that way.
What Questions Should You Ask?
There are a number of questions you could ask a would-be blogger. For instance:
- Where did you go to school?
- How much experience do you have?
- Could I see some examples of your work?
- Tell me something you do that no one else does
You might like this article: Hiring a Professional Blogger? What You Need to Know First.
Here Are Some Answers You Might Hear
I studied English at Berkeley, have many years of experience (five is a good minimum number, by the way), and yes, I’ve written hundreds of articles. Your results may vary, of course. There may be other questions you want to ask a professional blogger. There are some good comments on this Quora thread: Should I hire a professional blogger for my startup?
What Else Do You Want to Know?
If you were hiring someone, what other questions would you have about the process? Let me know in the comments! And thank you.
In general I agree with you; in reality, I’m not so sure. What I’ve seen often are people who write horribly because they hated writing in school, or people who, when tasked to write about their subject, suddenly find themselves having writer’s block.
I write for my accountant, but we trade services. She’s got lots of clients and doesn’t have the time to write. Since I write on financial topics and she likes those, we’re a pretty good match. I know not everyone is knowledgeable of other topics when they first start, but I wrote for a wedding blog for 2 years at the beginning of this decade and learned a lot.
If people are comfortable in sharing their knowledge, it’s preferred to having someone who doesn’t know what they know doing it. If they’re not, or they hate writing, it’s probably better having someone else write for them… as long as they read the articles from time to time to verify it’s what they want.
Hi Mitch,
I think we’re in agreement about having someone edit the writing, if you’re not a subject-matter expert. Otherwise, you could have posts that make no sense. So part of the writing process has to be at least one pass by an editor so that there are no glaring errors. People who hate writing or don’t write well could find someone in their niche to help out.
That sounds like a good trade you have going with your accountant. You already know the subject matter and you’re a good writer.
Having an extra set of eyes to look over your work (especially if the subject is outside your area of expertise) is invaluable.
Thank you–I always appreciate having another point of view.
Carol