From Outsourcing News comes this post and post snippet:
Now, I find it interesting to hear of a few recent job postings over the past while that are seeking bloggers to write a 300-400 word post for $10? Come on, give me a break! This is what I call Blackhat blogging - Hiring a blogger with pennies to write content simply for SEO purposes for your business. My personal opinion is that it is not a good business practice and is diluting the blogosphere with junk content. Now, I am not sure of the company’s intent, but it would seem too not look favorably upon a business who hires bloggers for pennies just to fill content, without consideration of the impact it may have on their business and reputation as a whole.
Source: Blogger for Hire - A Good Business Practice or Not? | Outsourcing News in Internet Marketing
First I will acknowledge that some people hire others to set up splogs (spam blogs) for purely SEO and Adsense reasons. Yes, this is bad. Splogs like these often steal content from other blogs to boost their post numbers and SEO value. Not good. However, there are a large number of businesses, large and small, they outsource their blogging to folks like us because they don’t have the capabilities to do it themselves. Maybe they don’t have the people to do it (numbers), maybe they don’t feel that they can write “well enough”, maybe they just feel that setting up and maintaining a blog is beyond their technical capabilities. For whatever the reason they seek out folks like Jim and I (and our cadre of pro-bloggers) to help.
While our clients are looking for an SEO boost, since that is a huge benefit of blogs, they are also looking for the benefit of becoming a resource to people looking for information in their niche. Pets, frieght, gadgets. The goal is content. The goal is offering value to readers. That isn’t black hat SEO, that’s good SEO.
If you’re wondering how our bloggers work with our clients, it’s actually very simple. We get content direction from the client about what they’d like to see on the blog, our bloggers find it, our bloggers post it. Pretty simple. Sometimes a client would like a bit of news or an announcement posted, no problem. Our bloggers, though, are independant writers. They write about the topic. They write to make the blog interesting and actract readers. Yeah, it really is that simple.
Jim is fielding calls from companies daily. Companies looking to add blogs to their online media mix, but unsure if they have the skills. Jim, with deft skills, talks about everything I’ve said above. Too good to be true? Our clients don’t think so, they’re too busy being happy and driving their business.
As a paid blogger I can say that the arrangement works great just as you describe.
Thanks Greg! It is also very cool to write for other people and expand the areas you are conversant in.
Somedays I wonder what I am going to write about and there are days it feels like a burden - I always seem to find something interesting or learn something that is worthy of the readers time.
I love every minute of it.
Choosing a wider range of topics can always help but obviously as another commenter said, so can paid blogging.
Being the author of the above blog post snippet from http://www.blog.esalesguru.com, I fully agree that outsourcing blog writing is quickly becoming a very popular and even necessary business practice. I think the important issue for me is that businesses are spending the necessary time and effort to ensure they are recruiting the right blogger that will gel with their audience and content - this is key! Yes, Blogging makes for great SEO no doubt, as long as splogging and other black-hat practices are not apart of the mix.
Our company, ESalesGuru.com is actually gearing up to launch a new Outsourcing Solution specifically tailored to Internet Marketing Projects and Services. One of our content channels focusses on Blogging and blog market services. We anticipate our portal will be an excellent avenue for freelance bloggers to build their client base and grow their revenues.
Thanks from coming by Craig. Maybe we could work together on this new endeavor of yours.
I find a lot of the people who approach me asking if I do freelance blog writing are looking for quantity and cheap. They are just wanting to pour a ton of content into their properties. Sometimes I feel like referring them to auto-content-generating scripts … but I fear they would actually use them!
I agree Chris. Lots of companies think blogs are a panacea and think, hey if we slap a ton of content up there …
I think that pro-blogging is at a tipping point. As companies find that paying for a good writer writing good content is well worth the investment, I think things will improve for all of us.
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