If you’re interested in creating digital marketing content, an online training course, or any other type of written materials for your business, you’ll need to develop content. To keep costs relatively low, you may prefer to hire freelance editors and writers rather than work with a marketing agency.
But managing content writing projects can be a herculean task. You need to define your project’s goals, budget, and schedule. You need to put together a team of freelance writers and editors. You need to train your team and define ground rules. You also need to create an editorial style guide. Finally, you need to take care of all the logistical details—from the cloud platform to use to NDAs.
Here are some things you should know before getting started with your content writing project to increase its likelihood of success.
1. Create a style guide for your team of content writers and editors
Every business that creates and distributes written content could use an editorial style guide. Sharing it with your team will help them save time and ensure the content they create reflects your brand.
For more details on how to create a style guide, or to download a template, read my article Editorial style guide for small businesses.
2. Prepare detailed guidelines for your team
Whatever the goal of your content writing project, specific guidelines are invaluable. They should include the following:
- target audience,
- recommended resources (dictionaries, style guides, grammar checkers, etc.),
- ideal content examples,
- keywords,
- SEO guidelines, and
- any other information that your writers may need to reach your quality standards.
In addition, explain why your examples are ideal—for example, the first sentence includes a keyword, or the conclusion ends with a call to action.
Give detailed guidelines to your freelance writers and editors so they have the “recipe” they need to follow to create high-quality content.
3. Have an effective strategy to prevent plagiarism
Plagiarism is a plague for any content writing project. Unfortunately, the cure is not simply investing in a plagiarism detector.
Using a thesaurus is enough to get the green light from this kind of app. Passing an automatic plagiarism test will create the illusion that a piece of content is original. Instead of hoping your plagiarism detector will be effective as a deterrent, take measures to prevent copyright issues.
Here’s a strategy I’ve suggested to my clients:
First, ensure your writers know what plagiarism is, and train your editors to recognize possible plagiarism issues.
People don’t change their writing style overnight. So, if an average writer starts producing exceptional content from one day to the next, an experienced editor will notice. Also, when a writer who normally uses British English changes to American spelling, this may be a sign their content is someone else’s.
Second, understand the root cause of the problem. Based on my experience as an editor and project manager, content writers plagiarize for three main reasons:
- They act in bona fide. Professional content writers know what plagiarism of text is and avoid it. However, less experienced freelance writers might not know plagiarism of ideas is a problem. Train your writers to recognize and avoid plagiarism, and underscore the importance of creating original content.
- They don’t know the subject well enough. This prevents them from distilling the information they gather from various sources and form opinions of their own. To circumvent this problem, hire experienced content writers who are either familiar with the topic or genuinely interested in it. Also, put them on the right path to finding the resources they need to research a topic well. You may need to pay to access high-quality information from industry magazines, professional associations, databases, and more.
- They cut corners. Working with unmotivated freelance writers is one of the biggest risks to your content writing project. To mitigate this risk, ensure your content writers are motivated. Ensure they receive fair pay for their work, and praise them when they exceed your expectations.
Investing in plagiarism detectors can be helpful, but it’s not a foolproof method to prevent copyright issues. Instead, use this kind of software as a tool to ensure your content is not—by chance—too similar to other publications.
4. Avoid rewriting and too many revisions
If your small business isn’t thriving, you might not afford to hire the best content writers out there. However, this doesn’t mean your content writing project is doomed. You can work well with less experienced freelance writers if they are motivated to succeed. But to be able to improve, beginner writers need timely and constructive feedback.
Working with experienced editors is essential when you need to train a team of content writers. But make sure your editors don’t spend their time rewriting entire pieces of content, doing research for your writers, or formatting content.
If you ask your editors to rewrite the content your writers create, you can expect at least two consequences: One, your writers won’t improve their writing skills. Two, your editors will spend their time—and your money—trying to salvage content instead of making good content great.
Rewriting is frustrating. No matter how experienced the editor is, if the original draft is poor quality, rewriting it won’t make it brilliant. Whether you pay your freelance editors per word or per hour, you’ll get the most value for your money if they make good content great—and not if they make poor content good enough.
As well as preventing rewriting, define the number of revisions a draft may go through. Limit it to two or three. Too many and your writers will feel it’s a daunting task to finalize a piece of content. Too few and you risk producing content that doesn’t follow all guidelines. Having a clear target in mind will help your writers and editors strive to meet all requirements.
5. Trust your team, not your grammar checkers
Online grammar and style checkers can detect many errors, but relying on these apps won’t make your pieces of content look professional. I’ve explained in another blog post why grammar checkers can’t make documents perfect.
Similarly, style checkers help, but only up to a certain point. For example, most of these apps flag passive voice as an error, but as any professional editor knows, passive voice has its purpose. The software also flags other “zombie” mistakes: The word however doesn’t have to be replaced with but every time, and not all long sentences are “very difficult to read”.
Variety is the spice of life—and the spice of writing, too. Asking professional content writers or editors to blindly follow an app’s suggestions is like scraping a chalkboard with your fingernails. Imagine how much you can alienate your team if you don’t trust their judgment.
Do you need help managing content writing projects?
Assembling a great team, creating detailed guidelines, actively preventing plagiarism and rework, and relying on your writers and editors can help your writing project succeed. If you lack project management skills or the time to effectively manage content writing projects, get help from someone who has the right experience.
If you need a freelance editor to help you manage your content writing projects, send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
As of 2022, I no longer offer project management services for content writing projects, but I’d be happy to join your team of freelance editors. I can edit the drafts you receive from your writers, as well as create a style guide and guidelines, and help you train new writers.
I’ve worked with hundreds of freelance content writers. Since 2012, I’ve edited about 2000 buying guides for an e-commerce company and managed teams of freelance writers, and I’ve also edited about 5000 pieces of content (blog posts, articles, white papers, and product descriptions) for a major content writing agency.
Related posts:
- Editorial style guide for small businesses
- The small-business owner’s proofreading checklist
- Things you might not know about your web content writer
Last revised on 26 June 2022
