Should I hire a blog writer? What should I expect from a blog writer? Is hiring a blog writer worth my investment? These are ALL good and valid questions that you should answer before you shell out some cash. Here’s the thing. Having regular blogs on your website is highly valuable, dare I even say crucial for a successful SEO strategy. Why? Well… lots of reasons… I actually have a whole blog on the topic. (P.S. I’m not the only one who thinks blogging is crucial for your business) But for this blog I want to focus on two key reasons you need to blog regularly- it tells the Google Analytics Gnomes that you are updating your website often and therefore (within a mix of other factors) they will index your website higher than your non-blogging competitor. The second reason is this: blogging regular high-value content helps you connect with your audience and HELP them, and after all, that’s the reason you’re in business, right? But when it comes to blogging, so many business owners just get overwhelmed and freeze. And while I would love to help you create consistent, high-value blogs for your audience, I truly do believe that most business owners need to do these 5 things before their hire out blogging to either my team or anyone else.

6 Things to Do Before You Hire A Blog Writer

1. Figure out who your target audience is before you hire a blog writer

• You know the old saying, if you’re talking to everyone then you are talking to no one? Well, it’s true. And if you, as the business owner (or marketing director if you work for a larger company) don’t know your target audience, then your blog writer/ content writer won’t know who to write to, what keywords to incorporate, or what tone to embrace.
• While a good blog writer will help you hone in on these things, the more you know your own audience, the quicker you will be able to make progress on your content goals and create (or hire out) quality blog content.

2. Establish a good rhythm and frequency for you

• Can you and your business realistically churn out 5 long-form pieces of content per week? Great. Then do that. If you cannot really do that, then don’t force yourself. It’s ok. Establish rhythms that work for you and your business and get really good at being consistent (preaching to myself here). I always encourage businesses who have never blogged to start with 2 blogs/ month and work up to 1 per week unless it makes sense for them to blog more than once per week.

Worried about how you’ll ever come up with content ideas for a blog?

Read this and get off the content idea struggle bus forevaaa

3. Set realistic goals for your blog and content in general

• As much as we all wish 900 people per second came to our new baby websites and read our entire blogs and took action on ALL the things, the truth is people are busy. Do YOU read every email sent your way and every blog you see advertised word for word? Chances are good that you probably scan them or don’t even click over to read the blog anyway. So don’t get your heart broke if you don’t have 500 hits per day on your blogs unless you are already getting a ton of traffic to your site.
• Growth takes time. Consistent website traffic takes strategy and consistency on your part. Don’t lose hope if you don’t see the massive increase you want in the first 3 days.

4. Establish content pillars based on you and your audience

• Nobody wants to be sold to all the time. Today’s consumer wants to know that

1. You know what you are talking about (so you can ultimately help them solve their problem)
2. You care about them as a person.

• Do not, I repeat, do not just talk about what you sell all the live long day. You can talk about things that surround your main content pillar, let people know how to buy from you, and how you help them in every blog post. However, not every blog post needs to be about the sale.

5. Try writing a few blogs yourself before you hire a blog writer

• As a professional copywriter, content writer, and content strategist I often find that people are better at communicating than they think they are! Oftentimes, people just don’t communicate best through writing so they brush it off. But they shouldn’t! If you truly do communicate best by talking things out, then do that! Just record yourself talking and then go back and put it into written form! There are even some pretty cool dictation tools (some free and some paid) that you can use to put your talk-it-out session into written form so then you can just go back and edit (or hire someone to edit).

Check out this entire blog on tips to talk out your content

6. Repurpose other content

Do you have a podcast or produce regular YouTube videos? Can I let you in on a secret? It is TOTALLY ok to repurpose those for blogs. Now please, for the LOVE of all things holy, please do NOT just have the blog transcribed, delete out the “ums” and slap that thing up and call it a blog. A blog repurposed from a podcast or youtube video should be a more succinct, outline, highlighted version of the audio content. If you want to hire out the re-purposing I would suggest investing in transcribing software and then hiring a Virtual Assistant rather than a copywriter or content writer to put it into blog form. (If you need a recommendation for a Virtual Assitant, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with my gal.)

I know that blog writing is not for everyone and honestly, most businesses are probably better off hiring it out. However, I still believe that you, as the business owner or marketing director should still at least try it for a bit to get a feel for it. If nothing else, you’ll fully appreciate the work that you end up hiring out. If you still decide that you hate creating your own blogs/ you really could be spending your time on other income-generating activities, THEN hire a content writer (like myself) who will learn your voice and help you communicate high-value content with your audience.

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