Tweet

Share

Save

For those of you at the point in your careers when it’s time to consider outsourcing, you are facing quite a challenge. Finding a way to get quality content at a rate that will offer you a profit is not easy. The trick is to develop your skills to the point where you become a qualified editor. You need to be a good spell checker, grammarian, teacher and mentor. Having a gentle touch with nudging writers in the direction you need is important. Hopefully, once you’ve reached this point, you’ve also managed to increase your rates to a profitable point. Here’s a great piece on how to increase your rates, by the way.

For me, it was about establishing myself with an excellent reputation, learning how to sell myself effectively and then building up enough work to sustain myself. I then began bidding on work beyond what I needed at twice the usual rate. It only took a few months for me to establish new clients at the new rate. One older client still gets the old rate, but only because I love the job too much to give it up.

Outsourcing Writing Work

So now I outsource some of my work, and I use Textbroker for most of it. But there are downsides. You don’t really know what you’ll get. You may pay for a level 4 writer, but get level 3 work. Being a softy, I’m not going to reject an article unless its truly junk. I feel bad for the writer putting all that effort in for low pay.

Well, that’s about to change. Textbroker (no affiliation) has changed their rating program. You can now see how writers do it specific areas of the content.

Other improvements are making the job for outsourcers easier. They have implemented new features (which I haven’t tried yet), such as:

1. SEO Options: Keyword-Checking
2. New Order Form
3. Order Templates
4. Automatic Export to WordPress and more
5. Improved Evaluation Options
6. Feedback Tab

The evaluation options are what I’m focusing on today, although I am also excited about the templates option as well. Now you will be able to report on the following components of style when evaluating writers:

- Subject Knowledge
- Spelling and Grammar
- Style, Tone and Phrasing
- Dependability and Responsiveness

I think the biggest problem I have had is with style. Writers who have been spending too much time doing keyword work forget how to write for voice, which is most important to me. Style is easily fixed when I post the work, which is why I still use Textbroker. It is still the most dependable source for work I have found, with the fewest complications in managing. It’s quick and easy.