Using O Desk Freelance writers is how I plan to grow my article writing business into a full time income that will support my family and me.
Article Writing – A Business?
Yes. Writing articles is what I do to earn a crust, so it is my business. It is in the early stages of growth yet (Dec 2010) but it is growing. All businesses must either grow or go under and let competitors take their market share.
My article writing business needs to grow faster. Instead of writing three articles a day, I need a hundred and three articles every day. Clearly I cannot write more than a tiny percentage of that number, so I need to find writers who will write articles for me.
I regard articles as my stock in trade, rather than as an art form. If I can pay a writer $3 for a 500 word article that will earn me $3 a month, then it makes sense to ask that writer to write full-time for me. No one writer can produce the 103 articles a day that I need, so I am going to need twenty to thirty writers.
I cannot afford rent on the large office I would need and the 30 computers my writers would need on a conventional business model. I need to employ freelance writers who are paid by results.
O Desk allows me to have my own team of freelancers who write for me on a regular basis.
O Desk – How Does It Work?
O Desk acts as a kind of marketplace where buyers (people like me) and sellers (freelance writers) can get together. O Desk adds 10% to whatever I agree with a writer as their commission.
For that 10% oDesk runs the website and handles the credit card processing. I just pay o Desk once a week for articles my writers have completed satisfactorily.
- I post a job
- Writers apply with their hourly pay rate
- I decide which writers to try out by giving them three article titles and the way I want the articles written in terms of article SEO
- Writers’ computers are loaded with an oDesk system that monitors how much time they actually spend writing
- Writers send me the article and their time sheet
- I sign off to O Desk that the job is done and it is added to my credit card bill for that week.
O Desk – How Do I Start Hiring?
You need to have your credit card authorised. This involves a charge of $10, which O Desk refunds if you do not order any writing, or the $10 can be used towards your first week’s credit card payment for articles received.
O Desk – When To Start?
Get your credit card authorised straight away, that is the first obstacle and I believe in overcoming obstacles one at a time.
As soon as you have articles that you KNOW are going to pay start hiring ODesk writers to do them. Start slowly, take on one new writer at a time. Gradually scale up your article orders until you have two writers working 25 hours a week each on your work, then advertise for new writers.
If you find someone who writes perfect articles for a good price then consider giving that person more writing to do. Just be aware of the dangers of putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Which O Desk Writers Are Best?
I hire writers from the Philippines because they write in excellent English and $10 goes a long way in the Philippine Islands, so my articles cost $3-7 each.
O Desk does have US and UK writers who quote low rates and you can try these if you want to keep your money in the local economy.
Employing foreign writers keeps them alive, it is not charity, you are allowing them to earn a living. There is no unemployment benefit outside North America, Australia and Europe and without a job these writers’ families will starve.