Writing is one of the most common things that is outsourced. It may be for a blog post, an article or just general content. Some of the challenges that you have to think about when outsourcing writing start with the ability of the writer to actually write. Does the person that is going to be doing your writing for you have the ability to write consistently and clearly? Will they be able to create something that you would want to use as your own content. Before outsourcing writing projects, you may want to see some samples of what people have done before. Using some of the services that are available online, it can be a bit of a crap shoot. People sometimes will put off their samples as their own work when in reality they didn’t actually do it. Sometimes you really just have to do a few sample projects with somebody to see if their writing is going to work for you. Running their writing through copyscape or doing a Google search is also a good idea.
Writing Knowledge
The main thing that people need to be concerned with is whether the writing is going to be knowledge based or not. Does the person need to know what they’re talking about? Or can they sit down with Google and pull up what they need to know in a couple of minutes and essentially summarizing work. Knowledge based writing is often more expensive and harder to find. A lot of the people in the U.S. who are doing outsourced writing are actually college students trying to make extra money. So most of the time you’re going to find somebody that has the basic knowledge to do the work that you need.
Language Issues with Writing
One of the challenges that you also run into language proficiency. Ideally you would like their native language to be the same as yours. The last thing you want is broken choppy language that might not actually translate correctly. It’s not something that you would want to use on a website, book or for product descriptions. Be sure to ask about their language capabilities. Do they have an understanding of your language. The Philippines in particular has very strong English language capability and that’s why they’re used extensively for call centers. Most times people don’t even realize when they are using somebody from the Philippines.
Writing in Your Voice
One of the last things that you want to consider when outsourcing your writing is what is your voice? How do you talk and does the content that you’re going to be getting from an outsource provider sound like you? It may or may not be applicable depending on what sort of writing you’re doing. If it is strictly product based and your voice is not a key component then it’s probably fine. But if you want somebody who’s going to write like you would write, that may be more of a challenge. Typically when I outsource I’m not worried too much about what their voice is because I’m looking at it as more of an outline. I always edit all the writing that I outsource. So by the time I’m done, I’ve saved myself probably half of what it would have taken me to write it in the first place but I’ve added my own voice to the product. So I’m both saving time and making it my own at the same time.
