Questions You Should Ask a Freelance Writer
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 6:26 am
Thinking about hiring a freelance writer
Yes, hiring a Freelance Writer has its benefits, but there are a number of skills and knowledge that you should verify with this person that you are going to hire to give them the responsibility of something as important as writing blog posts for your company. Here are 8 that we consider to be important:
What type of content do you like to write fishing and forestry email list most?
This is important because the more affinity the person feels for the topic they are going to write about, the faster their ideas will flow, so always ask what they like to read, what they like to write, what their interests are, in order to measure how much of a connection they may have with your company.
What kind of content do you dislike writing?
If it's important to know what he likes, it's even more important to know what he doesn't like to write about, because let's be honest, how long can you last writing about a topic you don't like? And yes, it's hard to know if he's lying to you just to get the project, but in the long run you'll realize how true his answers were.
What tone of communication do you like to use?
If you read several blogs, you will notice a change in the tone of the conversation and the style of the writer. Of course, this depends on the audience you are targeting and the topic of the article, and obviously the writer can, in most cases, adapt to the tone you want.
In this sense, it is important to know what difficulties the writer you will hire has at this point, and in this way know how much time he can adapt to the tone you want. For some writers with much more experience this point is a piece of cake, but for others it is more difficult, so it is better to clarify it from the beginning.
What topics do you have experience in?
For example, if you work in the marketing department of a company that sells shoes, it would be ideal for the person who writes your blog posts to have knowledge about fashion, trends, etc. Of course, if they don't have this, you can give them a chance to see how they do, but if they do have it, it's even better.
What sources do you consult?
If the person claims to have experience writing for your source, ask which sources they normally use so you can confirm whether their sources are of quality and authoritative for the topic and target of the project.
How do you structure the article?
Even if they are not writing news, the person writing for your blog has to be familiar with the structure of an article, for example, they should know what the inverted pyramid is. They should know what an H2 and H3 are, and how to use them. How they structure ideas within the text, writing in blocks or short paragraphs, all of these are important for you to know from the beginning, to avoid surprises halfway through.
Do you have knowledge in SEO?
One of the main objectives when we decide to create quality content for our blog is organic positioning in Google, so it is vitally important that the writer you hire has knowledge in SEO. Here we leave you a Test with which you can test this.
What is your availability?
First of all, you need to be clear about what time of day you can count on them, whether they are available 24/7 or have office hours, or if they prefer not to be disturbed and just make the delivery. This is important because you will know what to expect in the event of an emergency or extra request, and also to gauge how well that person adapts to the delivery you need for your project.
Disadvantages of a Freelance Writer
Perfect, now you know what the benefits of hiring a freelance writer are, and we also told you more or less what questions you should ask candidates to choose the ideal one, but now it's time to learn about the risks and disadvantages of a Freelance Writer, which you should take into account when hiring one. over, for example, a Content Marketing agency, what are the disadvantages of working with these writing professionals.
Duplicate content
This is a never-ending problem, freelance writers –not all of them- work on several projects at the same time, and in view of this, some copy and paste content from other pages and this is definitely not correct nor will it help you achieve the objectives you have with the campaign. Here is a video where Matt Cutts, from Google, explains the negative impact that brings one of the disadvantages of a freelance writer .
Yes, hiring a Freelance Writer has its benefits, but there are a number of skills and knowledge that you should verify with this person that you are going to hire to give them the responsibility of something as important as writing blog posts for your company. Here are 8 that we consider to be important:
What type of content do you like to write fishing and forestry email list most?
This is important because the more affinity the person feels for the topic they are going to write about, the faster their ideas will flow, so always ask what they like to read, what they like to write, what their interests are, in order to measure how much of a connection they may have with your company.
What kind of content do you dislike writing?
If it's important to know what he likes, it's even more important to know what he doesn't like to write about, because let's be honest, how long can you last writing about a topic you don't like? And yes, it's hard to know if he's lying to you just to get the project, but in the long run you'll realize how true his answers were.
What tone of communication do you like to use?
If you read several blogs, you will notice a change in the tone of the conversation and the style of the writer. Of course, this depends on the audience you are targeting and the topic of the article, and obviously the writer can, in most cases, adapt to the tone you want.
In this sense, it is important to know what difficulties the writer you will hire has at this point, and in this way know how much time he can adapt to the tone you want. For some writers with much more experience this point is a piece of cake, but for others it is more difficult, so it is better to clarify it from the beginning.
What topics do you have experience in?
For example, if you work in the marketing department of a company that sells shoes, it would be ideal for the person who writes your blog posts to have knowledge about fashion, trends, etc. Of course, if they don't have this, you can give them a chance to see how they do, but if they do have it, it's even better.
What sources do you consult?
If the person claims to have experience writing for your source, ask which sources they normally use so you can confirm whether their sources are of quality and authoritative for the topic and target of the project.
How do you structure the article?
Even if they are not writing news, the person writing for your blog has to be familiar with the structure of an article, for example, they should know what the inverted pyramid is. They should know what an H2 and H3 are, and how to use them. How they structure ideas within the text, writing in blocks or short paragraphs, all of these are important for you to know from the beginning, to avoid surprises halfway through.
Do you have knowledge in SEO?
One of the main objectives when we decide to create quality content for our blog is organic positioning in Google, so it is vitally important that the writer you hire has knowledge in SEO. Here we leave you a Test with which you can test this.
What is your availability?
First of all, you need to be clear about what time of day you can count on them, whether they are available 24/7 or have office hours, or if they prefer not to be disturbed and just make the delivery. This is important because you will know what to expect in the event of an emergency or extra request, and also to gauge how well that person adapts to the delivery you need for your project.
Disadvantages of a Freelance Writer
Perfect, now you know what the benefits of hiring a freelance writer are, and we also told you more or less what questions you should ask candidates to choose the ideal one, but now it's time to learn about the risks and disadvantages of a Freelance Writer, which you should take into account when hiring one. over, for example, a Content Marketing agency, what are the disadvantages of working with these writing professionals.
Duplicate content
This is a never-ending problem, freelance writers –not all of them- work on several projects at the same time, and in view of this, some copy and paste content from other pages and this is definitely not correct nor will it help you achieve the objectives you have with the campaign. Here is a video where Matt Cutts, from Google, explains the negative impact that brings one of the disadvantages of a freelance writer .