welcome to our course on hiring writers
we've done a lot of work before
recording this course to make this as
simple as possible for you we're just
gonna give you our exact process for
hiring writers we're going to give you
the contract that we use we're gonna
give you our sample job posting we're
gonna show you how we make our how we
assign topics and how we pay our writers
what pay scale the twos and we're even
going to handle the training of your
writers for you one of the videos in
this course is a video that you can
literally just say as soon as you hire
somebody to say hey go watch this video
and they'll know everything they need to
know to get up to get started writing
and to write articles that will do well
with SEO the most important thing that
you do on your website is create content
and so hiring writers and outsourcing
that work is not a menial task okay so
this is really important you need to
make sure you get it right and that your
writers know exactly what to do and that
they write in the way that you want them
to
it's tempting when you're starting a
blog to say okay I'm gonna I need to
outsource this part of the work because
it's really repetitive just somebody's
just creating creating content I'll do
the monetization and every time I try to
do that in my own business the website
starts going down this is actually the
most important thing the most important
part of the work of all the things you
could do as a blog owner creating that
content is number one in it's rare that
I have a work day where I have another
task that's more important or more
valuable to the business than if I just
sit down and create a new piece of
content but having said that it's a
because it is so valuable if you can get
a team of people helping you with it you
can be even more successful absolutely
all right so now let's walk you through
the steps we have ten steps to hire
trained on board and get those writers
working for you so step one is actually
for you to do the keyword research and
to create your own hit list this is
super important you you shouldn't
outsource this part we've tried it just
doesn't work maybe down the line maybe
you've got a writer that's been writing
for you for a year and they figured it
out great but if you're hiring new
writers it's it's
worth it to have them just go pick their
own topics you need to own the strategy
for your website you need to be the one
deciding what type of content is going
up there so make a list do the keyword
research and make a list of the posts
that you want them to write yeah maybe
if you become a big organization on your
blog and you have 20 writers if you
could hire one as your editor and you
really train them on the keyword
research but you as the blog owner know
a lot more about keyword research even
if you're newer at this then somebody
who is just a writer on a website and so
we feel like it's essential that you
still do the keyword research and have a
list of topics that the writers could
write about and they can select which
topics they think okay I can go ahead
and write on that so what does a hit
list look like for us how we've always
done it is just on Google Docs we have a
big bolded headline that just says these
are articles to write and then another
big bolded headline that says these ones
are taken and so any of your writers
just go on to the shared Google Doc they
see oh okay this one is you know how to
sharpen ice skates and they say oh I
know how to do that and so you'll you'll
write the headline for the article not
just the topic sharpen ice skates but
write an actual headline like that they
can copy and paste that because that's
another kind of important thing you want
to get your headlines right and then
I'll usually just have two or three
bullet points one that says you know is
this a response post staple poster
pillar post is this a 1500 word article
or is this a 3500 word article I'll just
tell them exactly what I want the end
result to look like and we will train
them on what exactly those things mean
they'll get that in the training and
then also maybe if just some ideas pop
into my head immediately sometimes I'll
just throw that in to make their job
easier you know if this is 11 tips for
photographing Hawaii maybe if just a
couple ideas pop into my head as I'm
creating the hit list I'll just throw
them in there just makes their job a
little bit easier they kind of have a
jump start on writing the post you know
maybe just one or two quick sentences in
there or if it's gonna be kind of an
opinion article you know maybe you say I
essentially wanted to come
as a positive review or I didn't like
this project product make this a
negative review etc so that's what your
hit list is gonna look like just a few
sentences they grab it put it in the
taken as soon as they start writing and
then they go to work for you all right
step two you need to choose a pay scale
you need to decide before you ever post
this job how much you're going to pay
now standard pay for a writer is gonna
fall anywhere from about two cents a
word up to about ten cents a word and
those are radically different payments
if you think about it a 2,000 word
article is $40 a two cents a word it's
$200 at ten cents a word and so you're
gonna have to decide what's going to be
right for you anywhere in that two to
five cents a word you're probably gonna
get a pretty good return on your
investment if you're gonna pay people
more than about five cents a word you
need to be pretty picky about what they
write and what they had an article
better be good yeah yeah and there are a
lot of a lot of kind of professional
freelance bloggers out there that are
that are doing well but that's what
they're wanting to charge but if they're
gonna write that kind of article they're
probably gonna spend days researching it
and writing it and editing it and making
it really good if they're not doing that
I wouldn't pay more than five cents a
word usually two to five cents is a
pretty good place to start as here as
you're getting started hiring and
working with other writers now when
you're paying pour per word it of course
incentivizes them to write longer
articles which is probably what you want
since we usually find that with SEO
longer articles rank better but you you
still want to make sure that they hit
certain limits you know that you're
saying 1500 words because sometimes it's
a really easy quick answer and they
might not have a whole lot of time that
week and so they write this little 500
word thing and chuck it out there and
they they think oh that's fine I'm just
gonna get paid less because it's a
shorter article and you need to make
sure that they understand that that's
not okay because a 500 word article is
just rarely gonna write yeah all right
step three is to publish your job
listing we have a sample job listing for
you I think what's important in a job
listing is to just at least
point out what your blog is about not
just the topic but like what's your
mission with your blog um kind of
interest them in the topic you know if
this is a camping outdoor site then let
them know like this is a dream job in
your free time you're gonna get to write
about pocket knives and bows and arrows
and cool stuff and then and you're
looking for a writer that at least knows
something on that topic now in your job
listing I think it's very important that
you make sure that the people applying
for the job have actually read the job
listing when we walk through how to post
that listing you'll see that often these
are on kind of job boards and people
just grab a whole bunch of email
addresses of people hiring writers and
just just Chuck stuff out there and so I
we usually put a little secret word in
ours like make the subject of your of
your email aardvark and and then you'll
know who actually read the job posting
and who didn't why that's important is
that they're okay with the topic and
they're okay with the pay scale right
from the get-go and here's the thing
when you post this job you're gonna
start getting dozens and dozens of
emails of people that are applying for
this job and many of them won't actually
read the job listing and so if the
subject line contains a secret word
fantastic everybody that doesn't delete
them those are not those are not people
that you're gonna be interested in
because they didn't even read the job
posting they're probably not interested
in you they're probably not going to be
happy with the pay scale so just delete
those ones that helps you weed out a
whole bunch of applicants right off the
bat okay cuz that's that's a pretty big
job so now that a question is where do
you publish that job posting we've used
a lot of different methods where we have
by far got the best success is by simply
posting on our own website right on that
blog saying hey we're looking for people
interested in this topic - right and
then having a page with information
because those are people who actually
know something about your topic and
probably care about it if that's what
they're googling and so I do think that
is a great way to go but if you're
has no traffic whatsoever right now
that's not an option
exactly so there are a number of places
different job boards they're all over
the place I think what would be best is
if we list some of our favorite ones
just in the notes okay and that way we
can update that list over time and you
can have the most up-to-date and best
places to list job postings again I
really really like just putting it I
mean we just have a contact form on our
website so we're looking for writers and
then you just put something in the
sidebar or maybe a little aware load on
the tahoe bar that just says hey we're
looking for writers click here and it
takes me to a contact form and the
contact form is the application form
mm-hmm then you're good yeah it's really
simple we have never had problems
getting people interested in writing
yeah hey you know it may not be that
much money depending on how much you're
paying but for a lot of people just
being able to earn a little extra money
in there on you know total side job just
when they wake up early on a Saturday
before the kids wake up and sometimes on
a topic that they're interested in is
interesting and so we've never had
problems finding people alright next you
need to choose which writers you want to
try out so this is where you're gonna
actually go through those applications
you're gonna read through what they
wrote if you did ask for maybe an
example a sample of their writing that's
a good thing to put in that application
form if you ask for that you can read
through that sometimes they'll get that
sometimes you won't mm-hmm especially if
you're posting on your own website you
won't always you'll you'll often get
people who say I don't really have a lot
of experience I've never really been a
blogger but this is a topic that really
interests me that's actually okay that's
a good thing just look at their writing
look at their their grammar you know did
they did they follow the instructions
did they answer the questions and you
know did it was it intelligible was it
good and if so then maybe it's worth
giving him a shot so what you're gonna
do is you're gonna take that list of
applicants you're gonna narrow that down
to probably between five and ten times
the number of people you actually want
to hire okay so that's that's kind of
the next step choose which ones that you
want to try out and then the next step
is to train the writers we are going to
want to see some sample
from them but before we do that we need
to tell them what we're looking for if
you skip this step and you just train
the ones that are the final we accepted
you then you'll get a lot of sample
writing that wasn't good but it's only
because they didn't know what you were
looking for so this is where you put us
to work for you
we've already created a training video
for your writers all you'll have to do
is send it to them and they'll know what
the steps are to write on your website
and what exactly you're looking for so
just send them send to these finalists
you're your hit list and say hey pick
one of these and write an article I'm
going to pay you whether you get hired
or not otherwise they're not gonna want
to do this um and then they send in the
article if it's junk yeah maybe you
wasted a little bit of money on this
article that wasn't good but it saved
you so much time by not just bringing
them on and then later having to say
sorry we don't need you anymore
absolutely so they're gonna write that
article you're gonna pay them you're
gonna publish the ones you want so it's
probably best don't give all these
people access to your word press just
have them write the article as a
document and it can even just be a
Google Doc they can send it to you you
read through it and then the ones that
you liked and that you would actually
post on your site and these people you
want to hire then you're gonna bring
them on board you're gonna sign a
contract you're gonna follow go through
a few legal things give them a login to
your WordPress and get them set up as a
writer so they won't have access to all
the other admin stuff on your site but
they'll be they'll be able to to create
and post new sites or new new posts yeah
and that contract really is very
important yeah what happens if you hired
a writer and you didn't check every
article they submitted but then you find
out hey this is blade Erised
and then you go back and you look at
their last 20 articles and they were
also plagiarized if you don't have a
clear agreement with them of what
exactly they needed to submit to you you
may just be out of luck but if you're
clear about what you are hiring them for
then you're just you're gonna avoid
problems with them it's just a contract
is just a formal way of setting
expectations for both sides
so don't skip this even if it's a friend
you still want to have expectations
clear and will provide you will go ahead
and provide you with a simple contract
the contract that you can just take and
use with your writers and and give you
some examples of some of the legal
requirements you may need to fulfill and
speaking of legal requirements I am an
attorney in the United States in the
state of Idaho but I am NOT your your
attorney and so this is just what we use
you need to hire an attorney to
customize the law to your particular
situation this is not legal advice this
is just a template of what the way that
we do it and you need to decide what's
best for your business all right the
next step is to create a publishing
schedule for each of your writers we
like to have writers only write two
three articles a month at the most that
gives them time we never want them to
feel pressured stressed about oh I got
to publish something tomorrow they
should have some time to between
articles to to research them to and to
do a good job of writing and so what
we'll do is if you know if we want 20
articles written a month then maybe that
means we need 10 writers but we're not
gonna have one writer write 20 articles
a month yeah I think that's been our
best schedule is twice a month you and
I'm at first like I set this up the
first and third Thursday you write write
and then it's like well is this the
first Thursday because it's the first
it's not the first full week and it gets
complicated yeah and so if you just say
you publish the first and fifteenth and
then if they're busy on the 15th we'll
find they can write it on the seventh
and then they just schedule it to post
on the fifteen exactly so it really
should work for everybody's schedule to
have a set date because they can write
it whenever they want but that twice a
month I think is important it keeps them
engaged and it you know keeps them going
in your system and not forgetting about
you but if you just give them a list
people just get busy with other things
and never get to it so I think an
important hey I need you to publish on
these dates and if I look on fifteenth
and there's no article like I am gonna
notice and I'm gonna follow up with you
yeah another thing that you're gonna
want is a really good group
communication tool so that you can talk
with your writers back and forth
um email things get lost things get miss
okay so a good group communication tool
will be just really really valuable
there are lots of good free ones out
there we'll make some good
recommendations also in the notes for
this video so that we can keep that
updated as well and then you'll need to
pay your writers I usually just do it
every month if you do it twice a month
it just kind of ends up being a lot for
you so the way that that we've done it
but in fact for for one of my businesses
my wife does it you do are doing it for
income school and I think the best way
is just they need to send you an invoice
the you know in the first couple days
over the month and they say okay I wrote
two articles one was 1,500 words one was
3500 words and then I say you know let's
say I pay him four cents a word I just
do the math and then just pay them with
paypal it's really simple not that
difficult you know takes you maybe an
hour once a month and you'll get all
your writers all paid you also want to
make sure that you're keeping a record
of how much you've paid total each of
the writers because in the United States
at least and possibly in some other
countries you're gonna have to send them
a form at the end of the year saying how
much you've been paid as an independent
contractor in the u.s. that's called a
1099 it's really not complicated I mean
it's like one hour once a year to do
that but you just want to make sure
you're keeping track all right
so now the writers have written their
stuff you've paid them so as you go to
publish these posts on on your website
you need to go review the post and you
need to add images there's a reason that
we have you do this and not your writers
and that is to ensure that you're only
using images that you have the rights to
we have run into this issue many times
with writers using their own images and
we don't know if they took the picture
we don't know if they just grabbed the
picture from Google we just don't know
and we don't ever want to be getting in
trouble for using images that we
shouldn't that we don't have rights to
use that's right and also it's a little
bit complicated to show them you know
how we resize the image for your
particular blog to make sure the page
loads fast I think that's kind of
outside of what you're asking them to do
especially because you're paying per
word so I think the images need to be
you and you should just put a second set
of eyes on it
I do not read every article that's
published on my sites I would spend all
day as an editor if I did because
articles are coming out constantly on
the sites but I do want to spend some
time each day just log on quick give a
glance and see if you know the title is
looking right if it's formatted nicely
you know if they use giant paragraphs
that make it look ugly or you know they
had a little bit of a different writing
style than what your other writers do
and you kind of one just put things
together again you hired this out so now
don't spend all your time going through
but but just give it a glance that's it
those are the 10 steps for hiring a
writer for your blog it's really not a
complicated process and you've just
stolen exactly what we do in our
business to do this I think it's a
pretty streamlined approach and has
given us the best result at keeping
those writers overtime and not having
them you know every two weeks another
one is quitting and we've got to hire
another yep absolutely and so throughout
the rest of this course you're going to
get all the resources that we mentioned
in this video the training guide
everything that you need