How Do I Hire the Best Blog Writer?

You can likely find a blog writer in every city, town and hamlet, but how do you find the best blog writer for your business? The first tip to save time and money is not to hire a full-time employee. Then you’re on the hook for more than just the writer’s salary; plus you have to go through the hiring and onboarding process. If the writer doesn’t work out, you have to let that writer go, a chore in itself, and start the process from scratch.

So your best bet is to seek a freelance writer or blog writing service like Ray Access, where you can pay per hour or ever better: per blog post. But the question still remains: How do you hire the best blog writer? Fortunately, there are ways to discover if the writer or writers you’ve contacted have the chops to write your blog.

What Makes the Best Blog Writer?

Unless you’re an expert writer or an SEO expert, you may not be able to discern what makes a writer the best blog writer. Anyone who can string together several sentences doesn’t necessarily know how to write the best blog posts. So first, let’s review the purposes of having a blog attached to your business website:

• Blog posts can be about any subject, as long as you’re able to connect it to your business or industry in some way.
• Blog posts are often posted to social media platforms, so they’re a way to reach out to a new audience who may not have heard of your business.
• Unlike website content, blog posts can be light and fun — they should entertain and engage readers, to interest them in your company.
• Blog posts allow you to capture different keywords than are otherwise on your website.
• Blog posts provide insight into your industry, tips into purchasing decisions or how-to information that’s not available anywhere else on your site.

The best blog writer can deliver on these counts. Find a blogger who can write in various styles, handle research tasks and incorporate keywords seamlessly. That may seem like a lot to ask, but for an experienced blog writer, these objectives are par for the course. The trick is finding the right writer or writers.

What Questions Should I Ask a Blog Writer?

To uncover whether a blog writer is a good fit for your business, ask the following seven questions and pay close attention to the responses:

1. How long have you been writing blog posts? This is self-evident. The longer a blog writer has been working in the field, the better the results. You pick up tricks along the way with experience.
    
2. What industries have you written for? It’s not as important to find a writer who’s written for your industry as it is to find one who’s written for a variety of industries. The former writer can delve deep into your industry, but a versatile blog writer has proven they have the ability to research and write compellingly for multiple industries. That’s valuable experience. Plus, a writer from outside the industry may bring new ideas.
    
3. Do you have samples to show? Every experienced writer should have samples of their work. When you review these samples, look for engaging writing from the first line. It shouldn’t be boring. Does the sample make its point without a lot of wasted words? Does it include keywords and a call to action?
    
4. What article lengths have you written? This question confirms that the writer can create short posts as well as long-form posts. The range, from 500 to 2000 words, requires different writing and research skills, and you want to be certain the writer you hire is up to the challenge.
    
5. How long does it take you to finish an assignment? The best blog writer can turn around an assignment within a week — even quicker if needed. It’s best to hire a blog writer who can plan out a schedule weeks or months in advance, but sometimes you may need something quickly to take advantage of recent news.
    
6. What do you charge? Some blog writers charge per word (such as two cents per word). Others charge by the hour, but this means every post may cost you something different, since you’re dependent on the speed of the writer. Ray Access charges per assignment. If you want a blog post with at least 500 words, we charge $75, regardless of how long it takes us.
    
7. Do you provide any related services? Some blog writers do keyword and market research. Some, like Ray Access, provide common-sense keywords (unless you have your own) and blog post ideas. We brainstorm and compile lists of blog post ideas well in advance and run it by our clients for approval well before we’re supposed to write the blog posts.

If you can use this list of questions to find the best blog writer for your business, we’ve done our job. But if you’d rather leave your blog writing in the hands of the experts who provided this advice, contact us today. We can answer all of the questions above to your satisfaction.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.