5 Steps to Quick and Easy Outsourced Content Creation
I’m working on a new website project that’s basically an affiliate content site. More on that a little later after some testing. In the meantime, I needed to get some good content created quickly and decided to test out a new service I heard about called TextBroker (direct link).
How it Works:
You can sign up for an account for free, but you’ll need to deposit at least $25 to submit a writing project. You can deposit funds via credit card or Paypal. You can request multiple articles written by multiple writers or select your favorite writer(s). Pricing depends on the quality of article you want, the number of words and of course, the number of articles.
Step 1: Create a Project:
Once you have your account set up and funded, you can create a “project”. Their system uses “projects” as a way to group writing assignments that are related to each other (like assignments for articles that are all for the same site).
Step 2: Select a Category, Quality Level, Timeframe and Word Count
Then you just select the category your assignment best fits in, the quality level of the writing you need, the turnaround time and the number of words. More on each of these things:
- Category: Pretty simple…just select the top-level category that best matches the topic for your article(s)
- Quality: This affects your overall cost and quality is graded from 2 to 5 stars. The pricing for each quality type ranges from 1 cent/word for 2-star quality up to 6.7 cents/word for 5-star quality.
- Processing Time: How fast do you need the articles back? Pretty simple, huh?
- Word Count: This also affects the overall cost but you can request any range for your word count.
The other thing that affects your pricing is the number of articles you want written, so let’s talk about that next.
Step 3: Add Your Article Title(s) / Topic(s):
You can request a single article or multiple articles by just entering the titles/topics for each article, one per line. Keep in mind that different writers may end up writing your articles, so you’ll want to also have a good description of what you’re expecting from your articles in general. But TextBroker has you covered there too.
Step 4: Add a Project Description
You can give potential writers a description of what your articles should include, what they shouldn’t include, the writing style you’re looking for, etc.
One cool thing is that they do though is they allow you to use a placeholder by just inserting [PLH] wherever you need to within your description. That way, if you’re requesting several articles all about designer watches, you can have titles like:
- Rolex Watches
- Omega Watches
- Breitling Watches
- etc.
And then you can have a description that reads something like this:
“I’d like to have a short, informative article written about [PLH]. The article should be written for people interested in buying [PLH] and should include information on where to find them, price ranges, features and how they differ from other designer watches.”
And of course, the [PLH] is replaced with one of the titles shown above. So…
Writer 1 sees “Rolex Watches” and writes that article.
Writer 2 sees “Omega Watches” and writes that one.
And so on…with each article specific to that particular type of watch.
Step 5: Order Your Articles
Once you’re done, you click the “Calculate Order” button and it shows you the estimated cost (based on your max number of words). And you can review your orders, move them, change them or delete them from within your account page.
Pretty cool little site. I’ll add another blog post once I get the articles back.
P.S. – I didn’t select an individual author so I’ll be getting articles written by multiple writers. But once you find a good one, you can select them individually instead of taking whoever comes your way. Nice!
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Category: Outsourcing |
Tags: articles, content creation, Outsourcing 
8 comments
I have been debating whether or not to outsource some of my article writing for a while now. I guess my only fear is the quality of the work. I assume that the best way to find out is just to give it a shot and see how it goes. Obviously it’s not going to break the bank and could be a great way to add some efficiency and leverage to my business. I will definitely check out textbroker and see what they have to offer! Thanks!
Dennis@Horizon Fitness T91 Treadmill´s last blog ..Horizon Fitness T91 Treadmill updated Mon Nov 16 2009 4:11 pm CST
I am completely against outsourcing. I think that it takes away the quality in link building and article writing. Also, outsourcing anything takes away jobs from citizens in America. Not what our economy needs.
Thomas,
Excellent point. And to be honest, I go back and forth with on that issue too. I’m intensely patriotic, having served in the Air Force for 8 years. And I hear what you’re saying about the current economy…trust me, I definitely get that! But for something like writing articles, I’m okay with outsourcing. I don’t think that the writers I’ve used from Textbroker were overseas, unless they happen to speak EXCELLENT English. There’s no way to know for sure unless you ask.
But for other, higher-level jobs, I’d rather set those aside for folks here stateside (when and if I need that kind of work done). By “higher-level”, I mean things like web design, most graphic design, virtual assistant work, etc.
I welcome any other thoughts that you or others have on this though.
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I am slow. I have not written any articles yet and know I need to get going on it. I like the idea of doing keyword research and then hiring someone to write articles for me. I will check out textbroker and within 3 months have at least a few articles written by myself or someone else. My Dad was in the Air Force also so I appreciate your service.
I also like the idea of hiring within the states since there are lots of people willing to work for a reasonable fee here.
Clay,
Thanks for the feedback. Definitely check out Textbroker when you get a chance. Because of the way it works, it’s pretty simple to give it a test run and see what happens. I was lucky enough to find a good writer right from the beginning, but even it took a little trial and error it would be worth the effort.
Also, as far as writing articles on your own, you may want to try writing articles based on lists. If you haven’t heard of this before, the basic idea is to come up with lists related to your topic / niche and then write articles based on them. For example, “12 Must-Read Business Books for 2010” could be the title for an article or blog post. Then each item in the list would be a quick summary of the article. In this case, 12 because we’re talking about one book per month, but in general, I’d stick with 3, 5, or 7 items. Some other ideas:
“7 Tips for Getting the Most out of Google Analytics”
“5 Ways to Get More Done in Less Time”
“3 Commonly Overlooked Tips for Marketing Your Business in a Recession”
This is especially good if you have a great headline (the ones above are so-so). And it’s easy to write articles because it chunks the article down into manageable pieces.
Just a thought. Hope that helps!
I also feel a bit uneasy about outsourcing articles. Although, this might be because my business is still small and I want to personally have control over everything, including the articles. I’m a bit of a grammar Nazi so I’m uncomfortable leaving the writing to others.
Darren,
I can definitely understand wanting to make sure your articles are up to your standards. There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of bad writers out there and bad content creation services. And quite honestly, depending on your topic, you may need someone that has first-hand experience with your subject matter. I find that some topics just can’t be researched that easily…not without having articles that sounds like they’re just based on Googling a topic versus having actually been there, done that.
But even with all the above, just be sure you don’t get stuck in the trap of working IN your business instead of working ON your business. I’d argue that other than a few select tasks, you can probably find someone to outsource nearly anything to. It’s just a matter of finding the right folks. After all, that’s what most companies do when hiring employees, right?
Sorry if that was long-winded. Just a few things to think about.
Well, I think textbroker is pretty nice. You don’t need outsourcing which doesn’t really help us Americans because it takes away opportunities for us. With textbroker, you can have a quality work. But I hope it doesn’t cost much. I might give it a try. Thanks for the information!