How To Hire A Blogger

Are you looking to hire a blogger but don’t know how to go about it?

Chances are that you’ve hired a few in the past, but you ended up regretting it.

It could be that they couldn’t meet deadlines.

It could also be that they didn’t deliver as expected in terms of the quality of their work and lack of professionalism.

Whatever your experiences might have been, it doesn’t always have to be that bad.

There’s the right way to go about hiring a blogger for your business.

This blog post is your definite guide to hiring a blogger without taking the wrong steps.

Read through to discover all you need to know.

Check out blogger profiles of various job seekers on Fiverr

How To Hire A Blogger

Outsourcing is the new wave now in the business world.

Outsourcing is the process of contracting or hiring a third-party (other than yourself, employees, or team members) to handle specific tasks for which they’ll be paid.

It has been in existence for a while now, but it’s becoming more popular in these times.

As such freelancing professionals are becoming quite popular and useful for most businesses these days.

There are a lot of reasons why businesses are considering outsourcing tasks to freelancers or remote workers.

For one, it proves to be more cost-efficient for most businesses.

You spend less on procuring office equipment as the contracted professionals work with their equipment.

More so, it improves your business’s growth by allowing you to focus on other aspects that need your attention.

Thereby making you more productive and efficient in the business.

As a business owner or an organization lookingto outsource a blogger, you might have several reasons for doing so.

Part of your business goals might be to promote your business by publishing more content on the company’s website.

Hence, you’re seeking to hire a blogger to enable you to push more content to the business’s website and get more engagement.

Thereby helping you gain a wider reach and promote your business.

It could also be because you lack good content writing skills, and you need a professional blogger to fill up that void in your business.

Whatever your reasons might be, there are numerous benefits of hiring a blogger.

Some of the benefits of hiring a blogger include;

It will help you save time in your business.
It would bring about more organic traffic, leads, and sales, thereby leading to a more effective content marketing strategy.
You’ll also get to grow your business and your brand.
Lastly, it gives you the opportunity of working with different professionals who could share valuable insight and bring new perspectives on how to grow the business.

Now, let’s discover how to hire a blogger for your business.

Step-by-Step Guide On How To Hire A Blogger

Identify Your Business Goals- First step to hiring a blogger

The first important step to take when thinking of hiring a blogger is to identify your business goals.

By this, we mean identifying how hiring a blogger will impact your business.

It also means identifying if hiring a blogger is right for your business at the time.

It could be that you’re just starting in your business and are yet to get your business out there to the large internet population.

As such, part of your marketing strategy is writing content around your business niche and publishing it on your company’s website.

By this, your goal is to promote your business through content marketing, and hiring a blogger will help you accomplish that goal.

Hence, it becomes clear what you hope to achieve and the specific tasks you need to outsource to a pro blogger.

This is why identifying your business goals is an important first step to take when hiring a blogger.

Create A Job/Project Description- Second step on how to hire a blogger

This involves stating clearly, especially in a written document, the job/project requirements.

It is the duties, roles, and responsibilities a person is expected to handle at a job.

It also involves the requirements someone filling up a job position is expected to have.

Hence, have an outline of the main duties and responsibilities you want to be handled by the blogger you intend to hire.

If you’re unsure about the duties, roles, and responsibilities, you can do some research as there are many resources out there that can provide you with such information.

This so that you do not expect results that are not in line with a blogger’s duties.

Nevertheless, here are some of the duties, roles, and responsibilities of a blogger.

Researching and generating content ideas that are in line with the business’s goals.
Write content (blogposts on a website).
Edit, publish, and promote content.
Promote content through ads on emails and social media platforms to reach a large audience (the business’s target customers).
Optimizing blog posts on the website through effective SEO strategies.
Keywords research and formulating the best SEO practices.
Work with other members of the organization’s team to achieve content marketing goals.
Among other things.

The other aspect of a job/project description is the requirements.

What requirements or skillset is the person filling up the job position expected to have.

Requirements of a blogger include;

A Bachelor’s degree in English, marketing, or any other related field.
Writing experience or a level of expertise in his/her field.
Excellent communication skills (written and spoken).
Excellent research skills (keyword and content research).
Impressive knowledge of SEO best practices.
Proficiency with computer, Microsoft Office, and various content managing software such as WordPress, Keyword Research, and SEO tools.
Knowledge of how to use various social media platforms to promote content.
Creativity and innovation.
Ability to follow instructions and meet deadlines.
Ability to recognize the brand’s unique voice and incorporate it into the content.
Teamwork/team spirit (if the blogger would be working with other team members).
A keen eye to identify the target audience, their needs, and trends in the business’s niche.
Strong work ethics and professionalism.
Among other things.

Now you know a few things about a blogger’s job description and requirements, use this information to create a job description as you plan to hire a blogger for your business.

Determine What You’re Willing To Offer

Another important step on how to hire a blogger is to determine what you’re willing to pay.

That is, how much are you willing to pay the blogger you intend to hire.

There are a lot of factors you must consider before taking this step.

Firstly, you’ll have to research the basic rate for hiring bloggers.

This will guide your decision on how much you’re willing to offer.

Bloggers’ rates might differ from each other, mostly depending on their level of expertise or years of experience.

Furthermore, the rates could be charged per word count, hourly, or per blog posts.

This should guide you on your decision on the amount you’re willing to pay for the blogging services.

Another factor that you need to consider is your budget.

Budget is essential in business, as you can find out here.

It makes no sense to pay for services outside what the business can afford as it would not profit the business in any way.

This is why you must identify the business’s budget for marketing and promotion of the business.

After then, you can make an effective decision based on your budget on how much the business can pay to hire a blogger.

Prepare And Post A Job ad.

The next step to take on your decision to hire a blogger is to prepare a job ad.

What does this mean?

Firstly, a job ad is an announcement telling potential candidates that there’s an opening for a position or positions that might be of interest to them in your organization.

The job ad should contain details about the position, duties, roles, responsibilities, requirements for the job, time frame, benefits, incentives, etc.

More so, the job ad should be engaging, attractive, precise, clear, and straight to the point.

After preparing your job ad, the next big question becomes where to post or advertise the job opening.

Gone are the days when advertising was costly due to traditional advertising, such as billboards or media houses.

Now, you could advertise at little or no cost through the use of various online platforms.

All you need to do is to identify where your target audience is and advertise there.

To hire a blogger, your target audience will be job seekers, freelancers, or professional bloggers.

Hence, you should post the job ad andcheck out blogger profiles of job seekers on Fiverr or professional platforms such as LinkedIn, Upwork, Freelancers, Toptal, Jobberman, etc.

Bear in mind that most of these platforms have their policies guiding operations on the platform.

Find out what these policies are before posting a job ad.

This is so that you do not violate these policies and incur legal penalties.

Review Applications/Applicants For The Job

After posting the job ad, applications might begin to roll in.

Not all the applicants would be suitable for the job.

Hence, you need to sift through the various applications you’ve received for the job opening.

It would be best if you had certain criteria you’ll use to shortlist the applications.

This is because reviewing every application might be strenuous if it’s in a large number.

Hence, you might decide to use years of working experience or focus on only well written and detailed CV with proven track records of yielding results.

Afterward, carefully go through each of them to see if they match your description for the job, or their skills are useful for your business.

Reach Out To Selected Applicants

By the time you’re done reviewing various applications for the job, you must have had a few selected applicants that match the job’s description.

The next thing to do is to reach out to them.

This could be via email, phone call, or text.

Most times, applicants provide details on how they can be contacted.

Check the applications to see the best way in which you can reach out to the selected applicants.

You could also ask for work samples or referrals from the selected applicants to determine their work quality.

Discuss The Job Offer/Contract/Project

After reaching out to the selected applicants, the next step is to discuss the job offer.

You need to be formal and polite at this stage, as this will form the working relationship between you and the applicant(s).

This is the stage where you and the applicant(s) discuss the job’s requirements in detail.

You can also request further information on the blogger’s skills and expertise to know how it can add value to your business.

Another important thing to discuss at this stage is the blogger’s rate.

Before now, you’ve already done your research on the basic rate for bloggers.

As such, you’re equipped with accurate information to aid the negotiation process.

The blogger might demand a high rate depending on his/her level of expertise or working experience.

However, you both will need to discuss further, find common ground, and settle for a mutually beneficial rate.

Test The Blogger

This is more like an interview process, where you put the blogger’s skills to test to see if he/she is capable of handling the task.

For instance, you could give the blogger a series of tests around your business’s topics to write on.

This could be to see if the blogger can capture your business’s voice in his/her write up.

This also allows you to determine if the blogger is as efficient as his/her job profile describes.

Discuss Work Terms/Guidelines

After testing the blogger’s skills and abilities, and you’re certain that he/she is fit for the job, then it’s time to discuss working conditions.

As a business, you’ll have certain policies and guidelines that determine how you run your business.

Hence, it would be best to discuss some of these guidelines with the blogger you intend to hire.

Discuss the rules that would guide the working relationship between you and the blogger.

Some of these guidelines might include; displaying your work on public sites, sharing passwords, security or sensitive data, and communication methods.

It might also include working hours.

However, most freelancers have flexible working hours.

Hence, setting strict working hours might not be the best decision to make when hiring a blogger for your business.

Another important work term or guideline to discuss is meeting deadlines.

This is very crucial to how productive and efficient the blogger you hire will be.

Hence, ensure to discuss these terms with the blogger and be very clear when doing so.

This is to avoid misconceptions and misunderstandings in your working relationship with the blogger.

Discuss The Method Of Delivery/Payment

This step involves discussing how works will be delivered to you and how you intend to pay the blogger.

You could either give the blogger access to your business website and other work software so that he/she can work directly on your site as a visitor.

Likewise, you could allow the blogger to do the work and send the file to you via email or a cloud drive like google drive; whichever way works best for you, ensure it is clearly stated at the beginning.

Also, how would you like to pay the blogger?

Is it at the end of every task or monthly?

Decide on this, discuss it with the blogger, and ensure that you both agree on something mutually beneficial.

Start With A Trial Period

Having stated and done all and work has started, don’t be too fast to finalize all arrangements.

Give a little time to test the working relationship with the blogger you’ve just hired.

This could be a trial period of a few weeks or months.

At this time, observe one or more things about the blogger, if he/she is someone the business can work with on a long term basis or the entire duration of the contract.

Observe things like;

Does the blogger meet deadlines?
Is he/she receptive to feedback?
Does he/she pay attention to detail?
Can he/she work with the rest of the team?

At the end of the trial period, and you’ve observed that the blogger is someone you can work with either on a contract or long-term basis, then it’s time to finalize things with the blogger.

Finalize The Contract/Agreement

Everything is ready at this stage, and you’ve entered into a working agreement with the blogger; it’s time to finalize things.

This could be officially introducing the blogger to other team members, discussing benefits, incentives, and other important organization policies, and signing some legal documents.