How to Get What You Want Out of Your Freelance Writer

Good communication makes the world go round.  Let's face it—wars have been started because of poor communicative ability between world leaders.  In the business world, companies have failed and partnerships have crumbled because of poor communication.  In order to make a business work—yes, your business—you must communicate very well with everybody you come into contact with.

You must communicate with your clients, your customers, your employees, your associates, and yes, even your competition.  Even if you're kicking someone out of your store after a heated argument, a perfectly clear explanation is still required!

You could say communication is "king", and a higher ranked king than "content."  If you cannot communicate with your audience, all the great content in the world won't mean anything.  The same lesson applies when you are working with a freelance writer and or an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing company.  If you are the website owner (or working with a website owner as a web hosting provider) then you may have to outsource some of your writing, marketing and SEO duties to a professional firm.  A professional firm is made up of many freelance writers who can create articles, copy and web content for you.

Explaining Your Vision

When you decide to order an SEO package, or a series of articles for SEO or an article marketing campaign, you will be asked to provide instructions for your project.  This will include the article word count, article topics, the direction of the content and the style or "voice" of the writer.  One of the most common problems we see in the SEO business is that the client expects so much from the SEO firm (and rightly so) but is inevitably disappointed at the end result because it didn't fit the right "vision."

When the client pays good money for a series of articles or an eBook, he or she has certain expectations.  Believing he/she is receiving top quality SEO services, the client also believes that the SEO firm (and the freelancer working on the project) has the same vision of the finished product.  A job well done is a job well done, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn't happen precisely that way.  Your vision of a completed project might not be the same as a freelancer writer's vision of a completed project.  A writer must use his or her own creativity to develop the message, this is true.  However, all of these different writers have very different styles, approaches and experiences.  This make for numerous variations on what you might call a "job well done."

A freelance writer approaches a new task from his/her own perspective.  The writer only knows how to create a project according to the instructions you provide, and according to the type of material he/she has written before.

Therefore, the writer could approach the project with any number of preconceptions—some of which may be misguided.  Let's say you're trying to market a web hosting company.  The writer could approach his/her series of articles with any of these preconceived ideas, none of which are "wrong" in general, but may be very wrong for you personally.  For example:

• A hard sales approach, encouraging the reader to buy, buy, buy!
• A series of technical articles, meant for experienced web users
• General interest articles appealing to newbies hosting their first website
• An objective series, that raises interesting questions and answers them in detail
• An edgy male voice, designed to appeal to young male demographics
• An emotive voice, that stirs the emotions (or "heartstrings") of readers

You have to understand that every sentence you DON'T provide in terms of instructions, is giving a freelance writer a little more "leeway" to interpret your general instructions in whatever way he/she sees fit.  Therefore, if you say something like "choose your own topics!", you can't be too surprised if a freelancer goes in a direction that you're not personally happy with.

If you say something like, "I want an edgy voice and controversial stuff…" you can't be too surprised if a freelancer talks about issues that you (or your targeted audience) is uncomfortable with.  If you tell an SEO company that the word count or the keyword usage is left to the writer's own discretion, you might be underwhelmed with what comes back to you, because you presumed it would be "more" or "less."

Be Specific…Nothing is Too Redundant!

This is why we in the SEO writing business encourage our clients to be specific and give us details so that we can prevent misunderstandings.  There is no such thing as being "too redundant."  If it's that important to you to get a 3% density, say it three times.  Put the statement in all caps or bold the words.  We don't take offense to emphasis.  We want to know how important these details are to you!

We don't presume to "know" exactly what to do, because we work with hundreds of clients every month and they all take very different approaches to their businesses.  What makes sense for a web hosting company (in terms of web marketing) might not make any sense to a used car lot or a restaurant.

Remember, a writer's experience in writing a series of SEO articles can be very different than your own marketing and researching experiences in your unique field.  Only you know the research you have done.  We encourage you to share this research with us and tell us what you think works and doesn't work, in terms of communicating your message.

Are there specific topics to avoid?  Is there a major keyword issue that needs to be addressed?  Is in-depth discussion on a central issue more important than covering a variety of topics?  Make these issues clear right away—as soon as you order the SEO package and first make contact with the SEO writing company.

One helpful hint to keep in mind: direct the freelance writer to existing samples or "live" articles that can be used as a reference.  This way, if the writer is in doubt, he or she can simply follow the same examples as set forth in the provided sample.

The key to web marketing success is in proper communication.  You owe this to your audience and to the people you work with.  Good communication is how you get what you want out of your freelance writer.  When everyone is on the same page, and there is little room for "interpretation" of the instructions, there will be fewer problems in reaching a shared goal.

Please, talk to us and let us know your thoughts, concerns and every last minor detail.  This will help us all to more effectively communicate and find more success in 2011!