Excellence in freelance copywriting

Writing all of the copy for your web site yourself can be tiring and time consuming, especially if you are not a professional freelance copywriter. It can also be daunting when you type freelance copywriter into your browser's search engine and are presented with 44,800 possibilities.  The problem is that it is difficult to determine what sort of service lies behind those possibilities. Although the Internet has its share of excellent writers it also a lot of hacks, plagiarists and tardy writers listed who have paid big bucks to be listed in that search engine too.

Here are a few things that you should look for when looking for a freelance copywriter:

A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine Optimization is.
A freelance copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services. If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that your project will be late simply because that is already less than one quarter of writer's union fees. It also means that the writer will also have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your project.

Writing all of the copy for your web site yourself can be tiring and time consuming, especially if you are not a professional freelance copywriter. It can also be daunting when you type freelance copywriter into your browser's search engine and are presented with 44,800 possibilities.  The problem is that it is difficult to determine what sort of service lies behind those possibilities. Although the Internet has its share of excellent writers it also a lot of hacks, plagiarists and tardy writers listed who have paid big bucks to be listed in that search engine too.

Here are a few things that you should look for when looking for a freelance copywriter:

A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine Optimization is.
A freelance copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services. If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that your project will be late simply because that is already less than one quarter of writer's union fees. It also means that the writer will also have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your project.

A freelance copywriter who can establish a firm date for when you will receive the deliverables.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a freelance copywriting service is highly linked or highly rated in the search engine is not necessarily your best choice. Remember that search engine listings and indexing can be paid for.

You may not also not necessarily find the freelance copywriter of your dreams on the Internet. There are plenty of copywriters listed in the phone book and also within creative agencies that are capable of doing the job for you.

Probably the two main sites where freelancers conglomerate on the Internet are guru.com and elance.com. Both of these sites use the auction format. You post your project and name a budget and the writers that belong to these organizations bid on them. These are both reputable places to find writers willing to do your copywriting but keep in mind that both sites charge monthly enrollment fees as well as listing and transaction fees in order for you to do business.

When looking at writer's profiles on either elance or guru, it is a good idea to take a good look at any samples that they might have posted. You can also tell a lot about a writer by the way their profile is written. If the description of their own services is riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes you can pretty much assume that the copywriting that they produce for you will also be plagued with similar problems.

As these are online market places, they have their share of nuts and wackos. It is well known that really good freelance writers can be a bit eccentric as many of them on the Internet work at home and don't see a soul all day. Don't expect a freelance copywriter to deal with you like one of your corporate chums would. Many of them are freelance because they can't stand the corporate world and its jargon and protocol in the first place.

It is also important not to judge a writer too much on any negative feedback that may have been left for them for other clients. Both guru.com and elance.com slant their feedback systems so that a client can leave feedback even if there has been no contract has been signed or a single word has been written. Even an excellent writer's rating can be adversely affected by feedback left by a client that has not assigned or paid a cent to the writer!

Another thing to consider is the number of clients that the freelance writer has had as opposed to the actual feedback. For instance if you notice that a writer has completed 90 successful transactions but only ten people have left both positive or negative feedback, then you can pretty much assume that they are good freelancers. This is because on both guru and elance less than 10% of individuals actually leave feedback for a writer.

Another indication that you are looking at the profile of an excellent copywriter is a high number of repeat customers. Both elance and guru allow you to see who has assigned articles to a copywriter and how many times. If the writer has lots of repeat business then that is more of an indication that they offer reliable and accurate copywriting services than a five star feed back rating.

Both elance.com and guru.com also tell you how much money the writer has made that year from selling their services. Chances are that the higher the figure is, the better the writer is.

Another way to find a freelance copywriting service on the web is to type the words "copywriting portfolio" into your search engine. This will lead you to thousands of sites displaying portfolios that feature different types of copywriting. However keep in mind that some of these sites will be off shoots of creative agencies or advertising agencies who will probably want to charge you an arm and a leg for a brochure and some of them may belong to writers who have launched their business on the web. They might betrying to offer customers an option that is a little more expensive than what is offered on  elance or guru but not as expensive commissioning the work from an agency.

As is true with all business-to-business enterprises on the web, the type of writer you should avoid is the one that cannot maintain a web site. If the writer's site has broken links, bad grammar or other problems you might encounter that old adage "You get what you pay for!" if they offer to do your copywriting for next to free!

Comments

[Engin Iye]

. . . all excellent methods to get you to the top. I have tried many myself and those mentioned above have lent postive and productive results. In the URL above, ranking factors uses statistical analysis of high ranking sites and uses filters to improve factors of your site. Improving these factors and tweaking what you have will improve the probability of ranking your site higher. I use this to see where I am at. I also keep up with the Joneses to see if anyone has popped up overnight to kick me in the shins. I run it a lot . . . just to see.

Thank you for the forum to offer some assistance.

E

[Annie]

elance and Guru are places to find cheap copywriters and yes, $25 hour is too cheap -- copywriters should be getting $50 hour at least.

[Mark Vane]

Hi, Found a cool news widget for our blogs at http://www.widgetmate.com/news . Now I can show the latest news on my blog. Worked like a breeze.

[Neil Wheatleu]

Thanks for the tip about Elance and Guru!

[Matt Mcfalling]

Thanks for all the great tips, and I personally have enjoyed some success with rentacoder.

But to be completely honest I have my best success with this little program called Muvar which can be found at http://www.MuVar.com.

Thanks,

Matt Mcfalling

[BrooklynSkyDesign]

A great way to cut down on the client's cost -- and YOUR time -- (if you can get the client to do this) is when working with a client in a highly technical field, try guiding them in writing their own first draft: tell them what the copy should contain (e.g., tell them ‘tell your customers how you can solve their problems,’). This can be quiet effective, as you can see in any article I wrote here:

http://www.helium.com/tm/523387/polonius-lordhamlet-words-words

[Mikael Jisander]

Thanks, I will check out the link tips.

[Qurratulain]

A super read here! Thanks for the tips!

Below $25 is really very low, but I've come across such rates more on Webmasters' Forum besides Elance and GURU

[Bobbie Louise]

Finding a good copywriter is key in effective marketing. But the question is, do you know what a good ad is? Glyphius.com has software that rates your ads for search engine effectiveness. Check it out!

[Louise K]

Thanks for the great post and the helpful suggestions and links. I use both elance and the glyphius software mentioned in the comments. Actually, I try to use as many of James Brausch's products as I can. I suggest subscribing to his newsletter which is full of useful ideas and strategies. It can be found at www.Jamesbrausch.com

Thanks again!

[Gavin Allinson]

James Brausch and his products are getting bigged up here in these comments. The one I am interested in of his, is his Freedom Business System. Has anyone purchased that yet?

Gavin

[Daniel Mcgonagle]

This is an information that is obviously of great value. I totally
agree with your statements.Thanks for sharing it!

[Cymantia Tomlinson-Bey]

The longer I've been a FLCW the more I've learned it's not about your ability but about how well you've proven your worth. Clients have to be educated about the process. Some people think $25/hour is too much. We must teach clients to respect the fact that we are professionals and have to eat too.

I'll try some of the search methods to see how I rank. Very informative.

[Jason Leister]

You can also check out Copywriter Catalog to look for freelancers.

http://copywritercatalog.com

I created the service to make finding a freelance copywriter just a bit easier.

Just launched last week, so we're busy getting all of the copywriters setup.

But it's free for business owners to go searching for copywriters.

[Bill]

http://www.freelancewar.com - Get freelance work, or get freelance work done. No commission fees or monthly service fees.

[Bill]

http://www.freelancewar.com - Get freelance work, or get freelance work done. No commission fees or monthly service fees.

[Freelance Copywriter Leeds]

Great info will help me lots. Thanks

[Hssiegel]

I hope that soon I will be in a position to take advantage of your tips on hiring a freelance copywriter. As a beginning internet marketer with a beginning internet marketers budget, the copywriting falls to me right now.

Trying to economically lighten the load and still produce good copy, I have been considering some copywriting software.

I have used the ones that you fill in the blanks and out spits a sales page. It's actually a help because it gives me a basic layout to start with.

But the software that looks like it can really seriously improve my copy is one called Glyphius by James Brausch. It is based on statistical analysis of previous good and bad copy in a database. It scores your copy against it. Then like a video game you tweak your copy and try and beat your score.

I have not taken the plunge yet, still that budget thing, but I was wondering if anyone has had experience with it or if you have any opinions about it or copywriting software in general.

Thanks for your insights.

-Scott

[Keep It SEO Simple]

It's amazing how many freelance writers offering their services on the Internet give away their lack of ability in the reply itself. As you mentioned in your post, poor grammar as well as glaring spelling and syntax errors are rife on writer replies. Get it together people! How can you expect to be trusted to do a job when you can't even sell yourself properly??

[Note Taking Nerd]

Ted Nicholas suggests you call the supposed clients of any of the samples a freelancer gives you to confirm whether they wrote em or not.

In his Magic Words That Grow Your Business (Must have for any copywriters library) he mentioned that a big name copywriter was claiming he wrote a piece that Ted had actually written.

So take the time to get in touch with the actual clients the writer worked for to confirm they're the real deal.

Your suggestions are awesome.

mynotetakingnerd.wordpress.com

[Mike]

Thought this was funny -

http://vice.typepad.com/vice_magazine/2008/12/vancouver---im.html

[Jerry]

Thanks for suggestions about what to look for when hiring. Although I rarely hire copywriters anymore since I took the copywriting course at http://www.secretcopywritingcourse.com for nearly no cost. Anyone looking for a cheap outlet should check it out.

[Matthew Gallagher]

Diversity is key in creating high-quality copy consistently. A service I use and found through another site is http://www.mgcopy.com. He is a copywriter who turns out quick, quality product and utilizes SEO effectively.

[pay per click services San Diego]

A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine Optimization is.A freelance copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services. If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that your project will be late simply because that is already less than one quarter of writer's union fees. It also means that the writer will also have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your project. thank you for this information.

-faith-

[Ragnar]

Outsourcing your work can be a great time and actually moneymaker, with more time to focus on the actual promotion you should be able to see sizeable leaps in your income.