Where to find decent quality content, at the right price is one of the most commonly asked questions I get from our Internship participants. And having been in the business of churning out sites over the past few years, I’ve often found content to be one of the biggest bottlenecks to being able to scale.
I’m of the opinion that you can’t reasonably expect to scale your online ventures without outsourcing at least some of your content to a content writing service, but if you’re working to tight budgets, you don’t want to be spending good money on crappy content.
With that in mind, I thought I’d put together an overview of my ordering process and templates I use to get reasonable-quality content from iWriter.com.
^ note that I didn’t say amazing quality content there. If you want amazing quality content, be prepared to pay up. In general though, I have found that giving very clear ordering instructions and paying for iWriter’s 4.6 star and above content is enough to get money-site quality content that you can use for the bulk of your articles. I still produce the main “money page” content myself.
The other benefit of iWriter is that articles are usually turned around in 12 hours, 24 hours max. And if you don’t like the article, you can reject it. I’ve ordered over 400 articles now with a 95% approval rate. I’ve never had a question asked following an article rejection.
My iWriter ordering process
I’m usually building sites in niches where I am familiar with the available keywords, but not necessarily the topic overall > I build 90% of my sites on the keyword research, not due to experience or interest in a niche. So my biggest issue with ordering content is actually knowing what to ask for.
Here’s what I do to quickly define an article structure for a topic I know little about:
- I look at 3-4 other sites ranking for the target keywords I want an article on.
- I see what long tail keywords they are ranking for (usually using SEMRush, though now also Ahrefs Positions Explorer feature).
- I note what they’re using for their title tags and sub headings throughout their ranking pages.
- I copy every heading and sub heading I see from the 3-4 pages ranking on page 1 for my target keyword.
- I note an approximate word count of each section of content on those ranking pages.
- I also take note of the article length overall (I use the SEOQuake toolbar extension for this).
- Once I’ve identified all the subheadings from the competing pages, I compile those into a list of sections for my article order and assign an approximate word count for each section, in line with what competing sites have done.
I usually start with a little less content than I think I’ll ultimately need. You will find that 2000 words is about the average length of article for the top 10 results. 1000 words will usually be enough to get you on Google’s radar and my view is that it’s no point spending time and money on a complete, thorough 2000 article until it’s showing signs of life. Once a 1000 word article starts to rank at around page 5-6 of Google, I’ll then go back and add more words to it to beef it up and make it a better resource than other competing pages.
^ My strategy is basically that if you have 10 main “money pages” on your site, rather than shelling out for 20,000 words of content (10 x 2000 word articles) upfront, get 10,000 words done (10 x 1000 word articles), get all the content up and invest further once your site is showing to you (via climbing rankings) that it warrants further investment. That saves you from potentially going all in on an unproven asset.
OK, back to the order process…
iWriter asks you to complete the following fields when ordering:
Project Description: This is what writers see so make is fairly clear what you’re needing. Also, people browsing the iWriter site can see past orders, so never put your domain anywhere. If I need 10 articles done, I only order 3-4 upfront and I’ll get to why shortly.
Category: Choose one to match your article order.
Article Length: Choose an article length. Tip to cut down on costs is if you need a 1000 word article done…. you can save a few bucks by ordering 700 words and asking for the writers to produce the body content but not to an introduction or conclusion. You don’t have to get a full article written and there may be instances where crafting certain parts yourself is required. Just mention this under Special Instructions.
Article Language: Choose a language.
Submit to: This is where you choose what calibre of writer you want your writing job to be shown to. I’ve found that you can go with 4.1+ star writers, but you’ll find yourself having to edit nearly every article. It’s worth paying a touch extra for the Elite category, which is writers with 4.6 to 5 star average reviews.
Price per article: I just go with the default article price, $18.50 for 1000 words.
Keywords: Input a keyword to be targeted, which I usually make the main target keyword of the article.
Writing Style: Choose from friendly or professional tone. Haven’t really found a difference between the two.
Article Purpose: I usually define the type of article and the site it is going on with a general description (see templates below).
Special Instructions: This is the most important section and clarity is very important here. If you give the right instructions, you’ll usually get a decent quality article that is not just a bunch of fluff words. I also dangle a carrot here of further articles for the best writers < that’s a simple way to get slightly higher quality articles as writers strive for ongoing work.
BIG TIP: When you get a high quality article written for you, be sure to add that writer to your favourite writers list. From that point on you can assign your orders to that small group of proven writers and they get first option to pickup your work. It almost guarantees a high quality article every order.
iWriter Order Templates:
Below are a few of my templates, following the guidelines above. I save them to a Google doc for future reference but iWriter also stores your previous orders so you can quickly load once you have a template that works for you. Feel free to use something similar and I hope they help!!
1000 word career article template
Project Description:
1 x article on ultrasound technician training programs (how to become an accredited ultrasound technician)
Category:
Reference and Education
Article Length:
1000
Article Language:
English US
Submit to:
Elite – 4.6 to 5 star writers will see your request.
Price per article:
$18.50 (default recommended)
Keywords:
ultrasound technician training
Writing Style:
Professional Tone
Article Purpose:
provide a thorough overview of ultrasound technician training programs and how to become an ultrasound technician. This article is going on a website that features health careers.
Special Instructions
I have additional related articles for this project and if the writer who takes this produces a high quality article, preference will be given to that writer.
Please address the following sections in your article:
100 words on “Should You Become an Ultrasound Technician?” (an overview of the benefits of a career as an ultrasound technician).
100 words on online ultrasound technician schools and classes, including what is taught in them and how the training material is delivered.
200 words on types of ultrasound technician training programs
100 words on the benefits of doing the course online
100 words on the benefits of doing an in-person course (as opposed to online)
50 words on costs associated with the various courses (how much it costs to get accreditation)
100 words on job outlook & career opportunities
50 words on salary expectations and rate of pay
100 words covering what to look for when choosing a school to enrol in
100 words for the concluding paragraph
State/City based career article template
Project Description:
Set of 5 x articles on ultrasound technician training programs in certain US cities
Category:
Reference and Education
Article Length:
700
Article Language:
English US
Submit to:
Elite – 4.6 to 5 star writers will see your request.
Price per article:
$12.50 (default recommended)
Keywords:
Ultrasound Technician Training Charlotte
Ultrasound Technician Training Jacksonville
Ultrasound Technician Training NYC
Ultrasound Technician Training Richmond VA
Ultrasound Technician Training Seattle
Writing Style:
Professional Tone
Article Purpose:
The website features information about various health careers. These articles are to provide visitors to the website with information about Ultrasound Technician training and class providers in individual cities or locations (as per the keywords given above).
Special Instructions:
I have a large number of similar articles to be written and will favorite the best writers and award them first option at future articles.
This is an initial set of 5 x 700 word articles (one for each city mentioned in the Keywords section above). Each article should include:
Introduction: (50-70 words about the benefits of being an Ultrasound Technician in the given city and about the city/area itself)
50-70 words on Ultrasound Technician Salary expectations in the given city
50-70 words on Online training courses available the given city
List of 6-8 Ultrasound Technician training providers where individuals can do Ultrasound Technician classes in the given city. Include to name of the training provider, the website, the phone number and address. Also include any other relevant details about the training provider.
Finish the article with a brief conclusion about why becoming a Ultrasound Technician is a great career option.
1000 word amazon affiliate “best” or “reviews” article template
This is one I use for main review articles on Amazon affiliate sites. For example, the main article targeting “elliptical reviews” and “best elliptical”. So not for an individual product review.
Project Description:
1 x article about buying an elliptical machine, including overview of top selling models
Category:
Shopping and product reviews
Article Length:
1000
Article Language:
English US
Submit to:
Elite – 4.6 to 5 star writers will see your request.
Price per article:
$18.50 (default recommended)
Keywords:
best elliptical machine
Writing Style:
Friendly Tone
Article Purpose:
Article should include a thorough elliptical machine buying guide that includes the key points on what to look for when purchasing an elliptical machine, along with a summary of the key information about 5 top-rated elliptical machines.
Special Instructions
I have additional related articles for this project and if the writer who takes this produces a high quality article, preference will be given to that writer.
Please address the following sections in your article:
100 word introduction about the benefits of buying an elliptical machine for home exercise
400 word elliptical machine buying guide
100 word summary of each of the following 5 elliptical machines:
{Link to amazon product pages for 5 models to be reviewed}
Wrapping Up
Obviously there are a number of ways to get content. I’ve just found iWriter to be a very efficient way to get reasonable content. In fact, iWriter have an affiliate program and I’ve opted not to put our aff link in because I genuinely believe they are worth a shot and didn’t want the article to come across as an affiliate commission play in disguise!
Hope these templates help and if you have a process for getting content from an alternate content provider to iWriter, feel free to let us know in the comments below.
Mez says:
It looks like you’ve done all the keyword research and at least some content research for the articles, and you’ve even taken the time to create a detailed structure for each article.
Considering that you’ve already done all of the hard work yourself, I can’t help but wonder why you would outsource the last (and arguably the easiest) part at $18.50 a pop.
How long would it take an experienced blogger/content writer to come up with a quality 1k word article based on information that has already been thoroughly researched and synthesised into a detailed structure? 20 minutes max? I’m not sure that kind of work justifies $18.50. In fact, in the time it would take me to create and submit the job on iWriter, then review the final article, verify its accuracy and make edits where necessary, I could probably have written it myself!
Or perhaps you also outsource the keyword/content research to someone you trust to do a good job? If that’s the case then your system makes a lot more sense.
GregNunan says:
Hey Mez, the keyword research and content research needs to be done irrespective of if I write the article or outsource and those are crucial parts to do well so I don’t outsource that. They’re the most important parts and where I believe the real money is made in building sites > solid foundation of research. The actual writing of the articles is hugely time-consuming. I gladly pay $18.50 for 1000 words because writing a 1000 word article on a topic that I do not know well would most likely take me 1 hour to do on average (plus it’s not enjoyable). Even if it was only 30 minutes to write 1000 words, it still means I’m essentially paying myself $37 per hour for a task that I can outsource and I can extract more value from each hour of my time than trying to save $37 on content outsourcing.
If it’s a topic I know well and am interested in, then that’s a little different but as I point out in the article, most of my sites do not fit this description.
Raj says:
Thanks for the great article. I was really looking for it and found at the right time. Would you mind to recommend some of your fav writers to me.. :) Also, what is your opinion on text broker and oDesk?
Raj says:
Hey Greg,
For Amazon affiliate site, do you give the writer the link of the product in amazon site. Other wise, how would you trust the writer to make sure that you indeed got the best selling models?
Project Description:
1 x article about buying an elliptical machine, including overview of top selling models
Thanks Again, Greg.
Raj says:
Sorry, just read the last line where you mentioned the link to the amazon product pages.
Thanks Greg.
Raj says:
What do you think about putting 4000 word article on a single money page to help in getting google ranking as I heard somewhere that google loves huge articles now a days?