When you decide to hire a blogger, there are plenty of freelancers out there who are looking for work and are quite good at what they do. Freelancers will often go after the blogs and articles they know. Some stick to health and fitness. Others tend to gravitate toward legal blogs and articles. Those of us who just like to write will take any job. Not because we’re arrogant, but because we love to learn new things. It’s how we challenge ourselves. The key to hiring a good blogger is to find someone who you can work with, even when you don’t always get along.
Similar Voice
Find a blogger who has a similar style and voice. You don’t want something representing you and what you love if they sound like a stick in the mud who is only trying to pad their word count and make your piece sell. You want someone to write the way you might speak to a client or a friend. You want character and a personable approach that makes the person easy to talk to and easier to understand.
Sense of Humor
Most of all, you need someone who has a sense of humor. We are all going to make mistakes. You as an editor or the owner of a business are going to (at some point) give really bad direction. As a writer, I (at some point) will turn in a piece that makes me look like I cracked up and should be put in a home. The point is, we make mistakes. Own them, offer to make it right, work it out, and go on your merry way. Oh, and laugh hysterically when no one is looking! Our work is supposed to be fun and most times it is. We just need to make sure to keep it in perspective.
Don’t Be “That Guy”
As a freelancer, we always have that one client who has revision requests that are longer than the word count of the blog or article they want us to produce. Take it from someone who has dealt with it from the creative end. It’s not that we don’t like you. Honest, we really do, but when you are instructions are longer than the article to begin with, we start to ask ourselves why you even need us. In most cases, we write a certain way or format something a specific way for a reason. Partly because we know what works. Partly because it’s our creativity and spark. When you start to be “that guy”, we start to pass over your blogs to other freelancers.
When you want to hire a really good blogger, appreciate our creativity and the fact that it can be hard work sometimes. You try to make artificial turf and bail bonds sound interesting and exciting. It happens. We love what we do so we try to keep it fun. Don’t take things so seriously and let us explore our creativity. Together we just may hit the jackpot!
Wendy M writes on a variety of topics with health and environmental topics being her most common subjects. She has most recently been published on both eHow.com and Livestrong.com. Wendy specializes in health, fitness, diet and alternative therapy pieces.
