Feasibility of hiring content creators

http://net.tutsplus.com/ sort of like what you would be doing, people get paid to post on net.tutsplus

Pretty much. Yes. I'm thinking of creating a topic list and have writers send me samples in those areas. Hip hop producer relevant articles, news, equipment, tips, ect.,

$100 per article It's generally frowned upon to ask people to write on spec. Asking for examples of previous work is of course ok to evaluate the quality of their work.

Wow $100 an article, eh?

You can go to odesk.com and find someone in the Philippines who can write decent content. I outsource a lot of stuff for web development and SEO purposes.

Hi Malachai,

We sometimes hire writers for the Treehouse blog. I'm going to send this to Josh and Eric; they should be able to tell you a little bit more about hiring writers.

Sounds good. Thanks guys!

Hey Malachai, I'm assuming that you're looking for quality (let me know if I'm wrong). Here a few key points:

• I prefer to use Craigslist ($25 per posting) or the Problogger forums ($50 per posting)
• Do not hire any writer from the Philippines or India. I'm not saying that there isn't quality there but it's much harder to find it. You'll have an easier time with US/UK based writers.
• Ask them how much they charge per word (or whatever their preferred method is)
• Definitely ask for relevant examples (make sure their posts are properly formatted and easy to understand)
• Ask them how much volume they can do per month
• Ask if they know how to do keyword research. This isn't required but it's a plus if they can. You can easily point them to a few articles on keyword research and ask them to demonstrate whether they understand the process or not.
• In your ad, ask them to repeat a random sentence in their reply to you such as "i love hip hop". If they forget to repeat the sentence to you, it shows that they haven't read the ad thoroughly and you shouldn't consider them (failure to follow directions).

Here's a template you can use:

------begin-----

Title: Hiring EXPERT writer on the outdoors/camping/travel

We're looking for a world class writer on the topic of outdoors/camping/recreation. Possible topics might include how to use a trailer jack, top travel destinations of 2013, what to bring on your trips, secret travel tips, and more!

Writing should be broken into subheaders and bullets with relevant pictures. Looking for AT LEAST 1,000+ words per post. Please also include 2-3 RELEVANT past examples that follow this format. Any applicant that cannot follow these instructions will not be considered.

Please also tell me why you think keyword research is important and what your process for keyword research is. Bullet point format is fine. The reason I am asking this is so you can take care of keyword research on your own without guidance.

Finally, please write 'i love camping' to show that you read the whole ad through.

Must be able to meet deadlines and understand how to post to Wordpress.

There is bonus potential for others who have more hustle (especially people that have written for other travel/outdoor related blogs).

-------end-------

I've used Elance and oDesk before for writers and generally haven't had a good experience. However, if you're looking for e-commerce product descriptions, those sites usually have some good providers.

Hope this helps :)

Outstanding advice! Thanks so much for the template, I will certainly hack into that

No problem! One more thing when hiring anyone:

"If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys."

I know that when you're just starting out, money is tight. If you don't have a lot of extra capital, it's better to either not have a blog or spend time writing content on your own. You'll just have to hustle a lot in the beginning.

Yuppers. Let the hustling ensue.