Why no one can find good writers & how I find them

Helloooo content connoisseurs.

It’s your friendly neighborhood content guy (FNCG). Spoiler alert: this is the last time I’ll be using this moniker (more below).

In this issue, I’m going to show you my dumb face and finally tell you who I am. And then we’re going to talk how to find great writers (because if you’ve ever tried to do that, you know it’s way harder than it should be).

• Main course: How to think about content ROI & what to put in place to make sure you’re getting value

• Snack: How a 6mo old affiliate site generates 3.6M visits/yr riding celebrity coattails

• Morsels: Links from Neil Patel, Brian Dean, Hubspot, and more

Let’s dig in.

P.S. I’m testing sending on Sunday instead of Saturday; let me know if you like one better than the other. 🙂 

P.P.S. This issue includes free resources (docs for writing tests, etc.), just a heads up so you can keep an eye out.

Finally revealing my identity…

Figured I’d just tell you guys who I am so we can connect other places outside of just this newsletter.

My name is Perrin Carrell. My ultra-quick bio:

I’ve been doing content and SEO for 15 years. I’ve created content for Fortune 500 companies, personally written and published 2,000+ articles in my career, helped create some of the most reputable SEO courses out there, built and sold about half a million dollars worth of personal websites, and grew a successful content agency over 4 years that I was able to sell last year.

I’m a nut for content, and I hope we can get to know each other 🙂 

If you want to stalk me, here’s my LinkedIn.

Feel free to connect. Always happy to have new friends!

Main Course: Why no one can find good writers & how I manage to find them

If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s finding great writers.

But believe me: I was absolutely not always good at finding writers.

I’ve tried probably every tactic, agency, and recruiting firm out there. And for whatever reason, writers are almost universally one of the most difficult positions to fill.

And for us content marketers, it can be even worse.

Not only do we need writers who can put good words on paper, we also often need some overlapping skills: social media, email marketing, SEO, and so on.

First, why the hell are good writers so hard to find?

Writers in general are not hard to find.

Good, reliable writers who can produce good, high-quality content at scale? Extremely difficult to find.

Good writers are mostly hard to find because to be a good writer, you need to be good at a lot of different things:

• Great writers need to be killer researchers

• They need to have high drive and work ethic

• They need to be able to take in and understand virtually any topic, industry, etc. — and do it quickly

• They need to understand business and what makes customers tick

• They need to have high standards

• They need to be fast

• They need to have thick skin

• They need to be able to easily change tone

• And, in addition to all that, they need to actually be good at writing, which is rare

• For content marketing, they usually also need to be comfortable writing in several formats (social, email, blogs, etc.)

The best writers will be good at all this stuff.

In other words, great writers usually share bunch of professional skills plus a bunch of personality traits.

Super tough to find.

But there’s a way to do it, and there’s a way to do it on a reasonable budget while still paying people fairly.

I’ve tested LOTS of different hiring platforms and tactics — LinkedIn, Indeed, recruiting firms, and so on.

This is the best and most efficient way I’ve found to find and hire great writers.

1. No matter what kind of writer you’re looking for, start with UpWork.

Yes, Upwork.

And, yes… even if you’re looking to fill a full-time position.

Why UpWork? Isn’t UpWork just a freelance platform?

Yep. But when we’re trying to fill a role as tricky as a writer, resumes and portfolios are often not enough.

The single most important thing when hiring writers is to somehow see how they would actually write for your business.

It’s very, very hard to get that visibility in a traditional hiring process.

In a traditional hiring process, we essentially have to rely on resumes and interviews and then commit to hiring someone full-time for a salary, including taxes, benefits, unemployment, etc.

To be clear, I love paying those things for good employees.

But finding good writers can be so iffy it makes that kind of commitment significantly riskier.

Instead, we need a way to do two very important things:

1. Ask writers to complete a writing test that we can pay them for (Impossible on larger job boards)

2. Hire multiple writers for short trial periods to assess performance

UpWork makes it far easier to do those things.

That does not mean we can’t hire full-time — or that I’m recommending hiring freelancers only — no (more on this below).

UpWork is just a fast, flexible, marketplace, and it’s full of great talent.

2. Use the job description to sell yourself based on what almost all writers are looking for.

This is where you bring home the bacon.

Of course, a job description needs to outline the requirements of the job and the kind of person you’d like to fill the role.

But that’s not what it should mostly be about.

Your job posting should sell writers on why working with you would be a good decision.

You should make your job so desirable that writers are lining up to get a crack at it.

Some of that is money. More money is always great.

But most of the time writers — and especially freelance writers, which is who we’re talking to on UpWork — care a lot about other things, too.

They care about the following:

• Long-term, flexible contracts

• Easy, clear instructions

• Having good, friendly, easy-to-work for clients

• No/low work outside of writing

So, in addition to just being a clear job description in general, our job description should sell those things.

I usually do this by featuring a “What We Can Offer You” section, front & center.

I could honestly write a whole issue just on job descriptions for writers. Since we don’t have that space here today, I’m just going to give you a sample.

Feel free to download this job description sample/template (it’s set to view-only, so File > Make a Copy).

3. Use screening questions as a built-in, mini-test

In UpWork, you can create screening questions as part of the job description.

Most people use these to ask about experience, etc.

We should do that, too.

But the hidden value of screening questions is really to use them as a small, built-in test.

In other use, for one of our screening questions, we can ask candidates to write a couple paragraphs about something.

Usually we want to:

• Make sure it’s short and reasonable

• Make sure it includes a tiny bit of research

• Make sure we specify a voice/tone we want

Then, because of AI — we want to use anothe r

And look: we’re not looking for Hamlet here.

We just want to have some way — any way — to filter by skill.

This is especially true if we decide to hire overseas talent.

There are some GREAT overseas writers. I’ve hired lots of them. However, when hiring overseas writing talent, it’s also usually means much higher volume — and higher volume of lower-quality applicants.

A sample might be:

“As a super-quick first test, please write two paragraphs on advancements made in cancer research in 2023. Please cite 2-3 sources”.

4. Give them an full writing test (and pay them for it)

Usually we want to shortlist at least five candidates.

Then, we want to give those candidates an actual writing test. And most importantly, we want to PAY them for it (it’s the right thing to do, and we’ll get much higher take rates).

Because ChatGPT is now a thing, we kind of have to make this a two-parter.

Our writing test should:

• Ask for about 500 words on something super specific

• Ask for something else about the process/rationale

  • This is important so that we know our writers didn’t just plug our prompt into an AI tool and give us the output.

We also need to ask for detailed formatting and citations.

Formatting and citations are something AI cannot do, and they’re essential parts of good content.

I created a template for you to use here, too (also free). Check it out here (same thing: File > Make a Copy).

NOTE: Writing tests should be short and clear, but they should also be a tiny bit vague on purpose; it gives you a chance to see how resourceful writers are.

Lastly, pay them.

Asking writers to do any work for free is whack as hell. I usually pay $50 for a test that asks to write 1,000 words.

Track writers in a spreadsheet, including what you thought of their test.

5. Hire 2-3 writers for a temporary gig

What we want to end up with is at least two good writers.

Then, we want to bring those folks on for a temporary gig. Now, this has to be juicy enough to be enticing to a good writer.

Usually, that means we’re aiming for like a 3-month stint.

Test the 2-3 writers for that time.

Look for:

• Ability to learn and adapt to your systems

• Ability to create quality content autonomously

• Attitude & reliability

• Potential to move into a management position (spoiler: hiring a manager to do all this for you next time around is a true unlock)

6. Keep the best writer(s), pay them well, and bring them on full-time if possible

When you DO find someone great (or, ideally, multiple people), move them into full-time roles if possible.

Treat them well, pay them well, and prosper.

How to do this TODAY:

• Get on UpWork

• Fire up a job posting

• Follow the steps above

• Bonus: Boost the job on UpWork for $30; it’s worth the extra visibility

• Bonus: Invite great people manually after you post the job

Snack: How a 5mo old affiliate site generates 3.6M visits/year on the coattails of internet celebrities

This is a tale as old as time.

Or as old as Phil Knight, Nike, and Michael Jordan, anyway.

One nearly-foolproof way to get traction is to use celebrities to market your thing, whatever it is.

But it’s easy with shoes.

Can you do it with… an affiliate site?

Well, someone did. And they did it with out any kind of actual deal with any real celebrity.

I cut my teeth in the affiliate marketing world, and I know how hard it is to build a strong affiliate site in 2023, so I was fascinated (and more than a little impressed) when I found this fledgling affiliate site absolutely crushing it.

The site in question: routines.club.

Here’s the basic idea of the site:

• Collect routines of celebrities (real world celebs, and internet celebs, interviewing them if possible)

• Create ultra-detailed daily routines, something they’re always being asked (i.e., something with strong interest) (example)

• Use those celebrities names to promote & attract organic traffic

• Recommend the products they use as affiliate products

It’s genius for a couple reasons:

• It leverages celebrity brands for a friggin’ affiliate site

• The keywords have volume, making it a strong SEO play

• The recommendations are not coming from the affiliate site; they’re coming from the celebrity, creating massive trust where it otherwise wouldn’t exist

• It builds relationships with celebrates they’re able to interview, and if they share, it creates insane distribution, again… for a friggin’ affiliate site

As far as I can tell, this site was started about six months ago and generates 300,000 visits per month (screenshot), or 3.6M visits per year.

How you can do this yourself

• Find a way to write about celebrities as they relate to the types of products you sell (ideally with something that has some search volume) — bigger is better, but it’s worth going “smaller” if you’re able to connect with them

• Interview them if possible

• Feature that celebrity in headlines, images, etc.

• If you interviewed them, ask them to share

• Measure and repeat

Morsels: Content marketing links

• Google Launches August 2023 Core Update (link)

• 100 Things to know about Google Core Updates (link)

• How To Start and Master Video Marketing for Optimal Results (link)

• 5 Reasons Why Your PPC Leads Are Not Converting (link)

• Revolutionize Content Creation by Overcoming These Antiquated Beliefs (link)

• Text (link)

• Branded Search Traffic Share: Do You Dominate Branded SERPs? (link)

• Unlock Audience Personas With the Power of LinkedIn Profiles (link)

That’s the issue.

If you missed last issue, you can read it here: The Most Underrated Type of Content.

Go forth & conquer.

—FNCG