The freelance gig economy has changed how businesses hire writers, and artificial intelligence is changing how businesses find freelancers. Advanced AI algorithms now have the ability to match businesses and freelance writers who should be good matches for each other.
The Challenge of Finding Good Freelance Writers
Finding good freelance writers goes beyond ensuring someone has read Strunk’s “The Elements of Style” and knows how to structure a call to action.
You need writers who match your business’s budget, industry and tone, and writers likewise need clients whose projects match their natural tone and style. When there’s synergy between a business’s content needs and a writer’s predisposition, projects go smoother and faster for all involved.
Unfortunately, not all businesses and writers will be good matches. Even among the most accomplished writers, only some will be well-suited for a particular project. Others will provide good work, but the work may not meld with a business’s brand quite right. That’s fine, so long as you can find the writers who are good matches.
The Manual Process of Finding Freelance Writers
The traditional way to find freelancers has been to go through the process of finding freelance writers manually. The exact process varies slightly depending on where specifically you’re hiring writers, but it generally goes as follows:
- Place job/gig posting for writers
- Receive applications from interested writers
- Review writers’ rates and expertise
- Review brief samples of work
- Choose the writer(s) who seem best qualified
For example, a typical process on WriterAccess is to place a Casting Call. Writers who are interested in the Casting Call will respond, and you can review both their profiles and casting-specific notes to determine who seems most qualified.
While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with this manual process (we at WriterAccess still have it available), the manual nature of this has two significant disadvantages.
First, going through the work of reviewing applications is time-consuming. A standardized format, such as the WriterAccess profiles, can make finding each applicant’s relevant information easy. Someone still has to spend time reviewing different applicants, though, and that’s time which could be better spent on actually productive work.
Second, the most accomplished freelance writers likewise don’t want to spend time compiling applications. The time that they’d have to invest in an uncertain application could be better spent working on a contracted project that will definitely pay. This isn’t to say that successful writers won’t take on your project (they very well might), just that they’ll be less likely to apply if they’re already busy.
The Advanced AI Process of Finding Freelance Writers
Artificial intelligence eliminates the time-intensive manual process of reviewing and submitting applications. It instead uses machine learning and algorithms to decipher what businesses and writers are likely good matches for each other.
Search filters have long been able to restrict freelance writer listings by budget and area of expertise, but accurately determining tone and style is beyond the capabilities of a standard search filter. That’s where AI algorithms are beneficial.
AI is able to analyze your business’s needs and writers’ past work to find who might be a good match for your business. Although you and the writer must still speed a few moments to confirm the likely match, the time required is much less and the probability of a successful match is much higher. AI simply makes the entire process more efficient.
AI-Powered Style Matcher for Writers
At WriterAccess, we’ve made substantial investments to develop an AI-powered style matcher that can assess businesses’ needs and writers’ natural tones.
When we first investigated this concept, IBM and Cambridge had independently used artificial intelligence to classify writing according to different personality aspects. Writers theoretically wrote in line with their personality, and thus AI could predict how writers would write in the future based on their past work.
Cambridge had conducted this research on a much larger sample pool, and we approached them about developing a tool that’d specifically help businesses find freelance writers. While the concept could help find freelancers in almost any field, writing seemed especially well-suited for this because written pieces provide so much data to analyze.
The result is our AI-powered style matcher. Choose your type of content and industry, and then upload a sample piece that’s akin to the style and tone you’re looking for. Our AI-powered matcher will identify writers who are likely good matches for you.
In this way, the AI-powered writer search tool is helping both writers and clients. Clients are seeing the most promising writers for their specific projects, and that not only makes initially identifying a writer easier. It also leads to more long-term relationships between businesses and writers, and that’s what everyone involved aims for.
A long-term relationship lets businesses get consistent work from the same person, and writers enjoy having consistent work from a known client.
Find Freelance Writers
If you have a project, try our AI-powered style matcher to find freelancers that are well-qualified. The tool can show you the best candidates from among the thousands of writers that are on our platform. You’ll likely be excited about the candidates that artificial intelligence – and they’ll undoubtedly be glad to hear about a new project that aligns with their natural style.
Try the AI-powered style matcher now. Or give all our tools a test drive with a free platform trial.
