As a freelancer there is a limit to the total time you can spend writing. Limited time means a limited amount of inflowing cash. Sometimes that money may not be enough to take care of all your expenses. And, even if you’re able to meet all your expenses through freelancing, you may have your own ambitions in life. Now, even if you could take up more jobs, it doesn’t mean you could complete them all and earn more. In fact, if you’re not able to complete the work you have taken, it would just add an ugly black spot to your profile. Then what can you do to enhance your income.
Well, one thing you can do is take extra work and outsource it. When you get the hang of it you may even convert yourself into an entrepreneur and start a freelance writing business. Next question is how you should go about it.
You must already be aware of many of the website where you can find freelancers who would do your projects at much lesser rates. In fact some of them might be the same from where you took the projects. oDesk, vWorker, Elance, Guru, and Freelancer.com are some such websites where you could find the writers you need. Each of the websites has their own systems—with both advantages and disadvantages. It is up to you to decide which website suits you the best.
Starting out. Since each of these platforms may have their own system, things would seem overwhelming at first. However, as you make yourself familiar with one system or the other this would appear easier than nibbling upon a pie. First you’ve to finalize the platform that you’re going to use, and for that you may have to play a little with each of them and learn of their usage along with advantages and disadvantages. Once, you know what fits your needs the best, it’s time you post those jobs. Within a short period of time you’d start receiving bids from various freelancers. You must carefully go through their profiles, ratings, reviews, credentials, asking price and portfolios before you pick a candidate for the job.
Posting project requirements. While posting the projects description and requirements there are a number of things you should keep in mind.
- Post a description that is easy to comprehend, clear with its directives and as informative as it could be.
- You milestones should be stated appropriately.
- Ask someone to proof read the project description before making it live. At times things may seem quite clear to you, while it may not make a bit of sense to others who aren’t as informed of the project as you are.
- You may even invite some of the freelancers with adequate skills. Some tasks are niche specific and hiring a niche specific writer is going to yield better results than a writer unrelated to the niche. For example, for medical writing it is best to hire a writer who has some knowledge of medical field.
- If you’re worried about the safety of your intellectual ideas and property, it is desirable to create an NDA. Also, do a thorough background check of the freelancer you’re going to hire. Do not forget to make your terms and conditions transparent and reasonable.
- In order to avoid scam and spam, both, you may put the project description in form of attachments. Lousy freelancers and spam bots wouldn’t download the attachment. Also, you may place certain keywords or question in the project description that the bidder would have to repeat or answer. This would make sure that the bidder has read the description before bidding.
- And, of course, an interesting project would attract more and better freelancers.
How to hire writers directly. It’s not really mandatory that you should hire your freelancers through freelancing websites. In fact if you’re looking for long term employees it’s recommended that you hire them directly. Depending upon the geographical location of the desired freelancers you have different options.
You can search for US/Canada based freelancers through craigslist, monster or linkedin. For the eastern countries you may contact them directly through linkedin, facebook, or even local job boards.
Selecting the right candidate. It is important that the candidate you select is suitable for the jobs. If you don’t take necessary precautions you may end up hiring a freelancer who cannot be relied upon. An unworthy freelancer may just leave you in the middle of project, and the deadlines would then hang like naked swords above our head. Or, they may even be unskilled or inexperienced to complete the job in time or with appropriate quality.
You must prevent yourself from landing in such a situation as it may prove hindrance in your progress and for doing preventing it there are certain things that you must keep in mind.
- Before selecting a candidate perform a background check. Look for their feedbacks and ratings. Hire only those who have sufficient ratings and trustable feedbacks. For more difficult jobs you may even want to hire freelancers who have ample of experience behind them.
- DO NOT hire a freelancer who post a nonspecific proposal or the proposal itself requires grammatical revision. I mean if someone cannot write a good proposal how do you think he/she can write a good article?
At the beginning everything may seem overwhelming and it would appear a little difficult to outsource all your projects in good hands. Nevertheless, worry not. As time progresses and you get the hang of it, you would see that you’d be able to find the right freelancers in little time. With time you would also have a growing list of freelancers who you’d like to hire again. In fact if a freelancer has done a good job, you may consider keeping him in your permanent list. Eventually when you’ve been through all this for a while all you’d be doing is counting the incoming cash flow.
