Seeking Quality Freelance Writers: the Definitive Guide to 20 Outsourcing Hubs
Everyone knows that content is king, but content writers are the real brains behind the blog posts, newsletters or sales pages you seek to attract potential customers with. It makes sense to hire freelance writers to fulfill your content needs because besides saving money and time, you get to have at your disposal someone who’s truly qualified to do the work so that you won’t have to.
Here are the best 20 outsourcing hubs where you’ll find some of the highest quality freelance writers around.
1. People Per Hour
Employers can trawl the vast amount of Hourlies (at this point of writing, there are close to 25,000 on the site) and see which one fits their needs as well as their budget. All you need to do is pay a down payment which will be held by PPH, and upon satisfactory completion of work, you can then release the rest of the payment to the freelancer you’ve hired. That way you won’t be scammed and your worker will be motivated to deliver quality services in a timely fashion.
Tip: Check out the Collections section under ‘Buy Services’ – you’ll find a bunch of useful services curated under a common group such as “Get your business off the ground in one day” or “Social media starter kit”. Service providers collected under these groups will offer solutions you’ll most likely need to fulfill your needs.
2. oDesk
oDesk is an established site that takes great pains in presenting only the most qualified freelancers to employers. Upon registering, freelancers are recommended to take and pass the oDesk Readiness Test. Once successful, (an icon on their profile shows this) potential employers can then select these applicants and be assured of their commitment to their job.
Tip: Hire a new freelancer and pay them hourly – that way you’re payment will only be released to the worker that completed a satisfactory job within the stipulated timeframe.
3. Freelancer
The Freelancer (formerly Get a Freelancer) site has been through several site rebrands, and both employers and freelancers are loving its latest look. Touted as the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace, their numbers are certainly no less impressive (almost $1.3 million worth of jobs posted and 9.5 million professionals at your disposal). Large companies such as SGWCorp have been using the site for years now and have experienced nothing but utter satisfaction.
Tip: Whether you need content or web design, Freelancer helps you host a contest so that you can be the judge of all the entries that you receive, and need only pay for the one that you deem fit to be the winner!
4. LinkedIn Jobs
Every serious writer is sure to have a well-furnished resume on LinkedIn. Take advantage of this fact and trawl the myriad of writers on the site after doing a quick search.
Tip: Although you aren’t really looking for interns, you may select that option when you post a job for free on LinkedIn Jobs. This is because your job listing will be viewed on the LinkedIn Student Jobs portal by thousands of graduates and university students.
5. Elance
Elance’s pool of candidates is impressive – with 2.5 MILLION talents under their belt, you can certainly find a bunch of high quality and dedicated writer to fuel your site with content that other businesses will envy.
Tip: If you already have a battalion of freelancers to your name, you may want to check out the Elance Private Talent Cloud that’s an individual platform on its own.
6. FreelanceJobOpenings
Established since 2008, this site has been helping employers connect with potential freelancers for little or no fees at all. The best part is, your job ad will be syndicated to various other sites and Facebook groups as well as tweeted to other freelancers to maximize visibility.
7. Problogger
The Problogger site has long been established as THE go-to site for both freelancers and online business owners. As the meeting point for both parties, it’s only fair to say that the Job Board offers maximum exposure for employers who posts projects there. The fee is astronomically value-for-money at just $50 for a 30-day job listing period.
Tip: Be sure to insert a link to your company website, preferably to a page that outlines the requirements to the job so that you can elaborate without being restricted to the space given on the Problogger job board.
8. Craigslist
Many business owners needing content for their websites have reported great success finding the right freelance writers by posting a writing contest on Craigslist. Obviously, each entry is paid (you don’t want to be labeled a cheapo) and before long you’ll find your inbox inundated with a good mix of writers.
Tip: If you’ve got a budget to adhere to, considering posting in areas other than the San Francisco Bay area to lower the posting fees ($25 per job per category as opposed to $75 in the SF Bay area).
9. 3Desk
3Desk is a rather new platform that connects freelancers with employers who want to have access to freelancers working around their area, so that a project can be completed in person if need be. Approximately 408,000 people have joined the 3Desk community, of which 250,000 are freelancers.
Tip: While most people hire freelancers who work remotely, 3Desk lets you take advantage of their location-based platform to employ freelancers situated near you.
10. Guru
Guru is one of the more established freelance hiring sites online, having accrued a massive pool of 400,000 online workers (or Gurus) for business owners to benefit from. There are also plenty of payment options to choose from (Paypal, wire transfer, checks or e-Checks or credit card). What’s more, Guru rewards employers like you with Guru Loyalty Dollars which you can then accumulate and use to pay freelancers the next time you use their services again.
Tip: Use SafePay, an Escrow-like payment solution that ensures your funds will only be channeled to the freelancer you hired after you’re satisfied with the work that’s been delivered.
11. LingJob
You can search for ready-made content at LingJob or even request for a unique one to be written by one (or more) of the many capable writers here.
Tip: Take advantage of the Short Job feature – request content that’s no more than 1,000 characters in length and you’ll find it done in a jiffy. Even when inundated with work, most writers will find time to deliver a short piece and it won’t even cost you premium price.
12. iFreelance
iFreelance connects you with freelance writers without even paying a single penny when you post job listings! There are also no transaction fees involved, thus attracting more freelancers and potential workers for your business.
Tip: If you want to get optimal exposure for your projects, you can buy an upgrade that costs a little under $10, which will give you better bids from talented freelancers.
13. FlexJobs
FlexJobs don’t have groundbreaking numbers in terms of candidates in their roster (there are 35,000 registered freelancers here) but what they lack in quantity, they make up for it in quality.
Tip: Take a peek at the most recently-posted resumes so that you may see the best qualities possessed by a candidate before deciding on hiring him or her. You can even sign up for email alerts that will deliver resumes right to your inbox daily.
14. Mashable Jobs
This site not only promises quality writers but also other freelancers who are well-versed in other niches such as those in design, music and business solutions.
15. MediaBistro
So reputable is MediaBistro that they even have a job posting satisfaction guarantee implemented. Granted, the prices are a little on the steep end but with that kind of investment, you’ll be tapping into their 550,000-strong pool of talents consisting of professionals from the TV, magazine, PR, newspapers and advertising industries.
Tip: Try the Job of the Day option and gain maximum exposure through this section as you’ll enjoy 45,000 pair of eyeballs (or pageviews) traversing your job posting at the top of the boards.
16. Scripted
Scripted’s writers may not command dirt-cheap prices like its competitors, but you’ll be sure to get top notch writers for your writing projects. The site itself offers great insight on how to tackle the act of hiring freelancers if it’s your first time, as well as oodles of case studies that described the success other companies have had while using Scripted for their content needs.
Tip: At a loss for words? Scripted gives you the option of picking their writers’ brains by suggesting a list of topics free of charge! You can list things to mention or avoid and even desired keywords so that writers may adhere to your set of requirements.
17. Constant Content
This is one of the better content providing sites out there, giving you the options to purchase the right to use a particular article or buy full rights so that you alone own the article that’s written uniquely for you. With 70,000 writers in CC’s roster, you’ll definitely find a good writer who would strive to provide the kind of content your audience will love!
Tip: Before buying an article you have your eye on, do log in and click the preview button to further scrutinize the piece.
18. Webmaster forums
Some of the more well-known webmaster forums such as Digital Point, Warrior Forum and Talk Freelance are populated with freelancers who are almost always ready to respond to your tasks.
Tip: If you have huge project and need to hire a lot of quality writers, consider paying to have your topic pinned to the top so that it would attract maximum attention.
19. Facebook Groups
More people have realized that Facebook’s not just a time-waster, but when used correctly, it’ll help bring home the bacon. A lot of freelancers are turning to Facebook Groups as a means to get freelancing gigs, and so should you if you want quality writers to join your company. Search through the myriad of Facebook groups or pages created to help students and stay-at-home moms get a few paid writing jobs, and if you look hard enough you’ll get a few good writers that will dedicate their time to writing just about anything you want.
20. Twitter
Did you know that some of the most influential freelancers are on Twitter? People like Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) who writes for Huffington Post, Bill Simmons (@sportsguy33) who writes for ESPN and occasionally moonlights as a guest writers, as well as Brandon Mendelson (@BJMendelson) who started off as a freelancer and is now a renowned contributor for Mashable and CNN, have found clients on Twitter and went on to become successful writers by impressing potential clients with their writing skills and portfolio links on Twitter.
Tip: You, too, can seek quality writers that suit your business needs by searching and following the right people on Twitter. Start by searching on FollowWonk.com using the “freelance writer” keyword and you’ll be presented with a list of influential freelance writers on Twitter based on their amount of followers, tweets, age of account and social authority.
As a freelancer I am very much happy to know your writing concept. Your entire all of writing concept is really very handy for a successful writing career.
Thanks for sharing this post Adam Prattler. It’s a nice article with very good information. Through this post the writer gain a lot of profits this is one of great way to earn a money. Freelancing and 3Odesk these are top most site to get a freelancing work. After reading this content readers will definitely gain lot of knowledge. Each point is very attractive and helpful for us.
Hi,
This is (shubham srivastava). I am an enthusiastic writer. While surfing the internet, I found your site – (add site name here) that seemed to be very interesting and informative.
I would love to discuss an opportunity to create an article for you. My article would be custom made for your site and would be helpful for your readers.
Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in.
I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
Your shubham srivastava