I’ve used a variety of outsourced services for articles, and one that I keep coming back to is iWriter. Their prices are reasonable, and they keep expanding their writing services. The latest addition is creation of kindle versions with all ebooks they produce. I haven’t gone that route yet, but I do still use their basic article services.
Getting started with outsourcing writing
iWriter is pretty simple. Setup an account, put in a few dollars via paypal. $25 is probably a good number to start with. I would not go full bore and do lots of articles. iWriter is not without it’s quirks and it’s best to see what is going to work best for what you are doing. Doing 5-6 articles to see what you get is a good test. You have the option of selecting the writer rating at different levels, or selecting individual writers that get first dibs on the projects. If you do select individuals, you can set how long they have to respond before the project becomes fair game for the rest of the crew. I’ve done it enough times that I usually submit to the same group of writers in the mid tier. I haven’t ever just submitted to the top tier writers because their is automatically a premium in doing this. It may be worth the extra, but I just haven’t had the need.
Improving your odds
I try to use only 4 star or higher writers. After you have done a few articles, you will get a feel for the ones you like and you can target them. The down side is the good writers are busy. Now everyone has to start somewhere, so if you are too restrictive you might miss a great new writer who just hasn’t had much exposure yet. Generally if they don’t have 3 plus stars, they aren’t worth your time. One of my pet peeves with iWriter is that if your first choice writers are busy your project opens to the anyone who thinks they can put two words together. This is where you get a lot of crap. My approval rating for articles I received is about 80%. This is largely because if I don’t get something from my core group of preferred writers, the articles are terrible.
Beware Copyscape
One of the good things about iWriter is that they require all submissions to be reviewed through copyscape. If you aren’t familiar with it, a lot of schools now use it to check papers for plagiarism. Basically it scours the web looking for possible sources that are too close. The bad news is that the algorithm is not foolproof. I can’t tell you the number of times I have reported people for deliberately doing stuff to subvert copyscape. It’s generally pretty easy to spot, but it can be hard to prove. Basically you will see syntax or word usage that really doesn’t make sense. An example would be the phrase “Kick the bucket” being written as “kicking the water pail”. Most are more subtle. If I see this I start checking google for the correct phrase and I can usually find it. If you have something that doesn’t sound right, you can request a rewrite, or if you find blatant plagiarism, you can submit them to be banned. It’s a temporary fix for the community since AlexinRU will show up in a couple days as DonnainPO. With any luck they will quickly find that it’s just not worth their time to try and game the system and not get paid.
Watch the clock
Many bad writers will play the odds and hope that you don’t get around to reviewing their work before the review timer expires. When that happens, they get paid regardless of what they wrote. You’ve got a couple days so it’s usually not a problem, but I have missed a couple deadlines. Try to do them in batches that you will have time to review, otherwise you may find yourself paying for garbage.
Be sure to tip for good work
Once you find writers that fit your needs, you want to make sure they are available for future projects. Tips will definitely make a difference. If an article is confusing or the English is bad, I will generally send it back for a rewrite. You will either get it back or you won’t. If it generally meets your needs, but will require a little editing, I may or may not tip for these, but I will accept them. If it is well written I almost always leave a tip of $1 or more – which on a $3.50 article does make a difference to most writers.
Check out iWriter for your next outsourced article writing project.
