How many times have you heard the saying “Content is King”? One hundred, two hundred, or maybe three hundred times?

I would have to admit that I’ve heard people say this too many times to count and now I often cringe when I hear it repeated as the “golden secret answer” to blogging success. Are you kidding me? If blogging could be summed up as “content is king” I would be a trillionare by now!

Can you really rely on content being king?

In a nutshell. No.

Just say you have created fantastic content and you are really happy with it. You feel great about what you have done and now relax and sit back, waiting for the floods of traffic to find you. Some people stumble upon it accidentally, others see it appear in your RSS feed. After your post has ran through your RSS feed and front  page you are sure people will continue to see this content for years to come.

Wrong!

Wake up and smell the roses or just simply come to your senses! (probably easier to do) Successful bloggers are always promoting their content on Social Media sites, Video sharing sites, other blogs, and so on. This is not a secret, but people still say that “Content is King”.

Social media is the here and now and SEO is for the long run. I am not saying SEO lasts forever; I am just saying it lasts longer than relying on nothing at all.

Brian from Copyblogger.com says “If you have no people on your side, your content isn’t king… it’s just a lonely loser with delusions of grandeur.” This is a quote from an article discussing the fact that Content could not be King without a Kingdom.

I agree that content can pull you out of the water if you already have a huge following, but otherwise it will not even keep your Blog afloat for long.

What other factors make up a successful blog?

Do you simply build a business and wait for customers to find you? Hell No!

The other side of the equation is marketing, and without this, you might as well be selling electric heaters in the Sahara Desert.

As well as having absolutely fantastic content, far better than any of your competition, you will also need a few extras such as:

1. Social engagement: This is good and bad as it is easy to create so called social engagement, but good if you have the real thing.
2. Interaction: Again this can be good and bad as it is getting  harder to tell the difference between spammers and real people. Also how do you know I am not making all the comments myself? (not that I would have time but it could happen)
3. Search engine optimization: I know you do not want me to go on about SEO again. I seem to be obsessed with it. See my SEO checklist to learn more.
4. Blog post promotion: Yes this is one thing that many webmasters never complete. Generating traffic for each new post is the difference between a successful and a dead blog.

Do you need SEO to have great content?

No. But you need SEO to help your great content get found. People often presume that they do not have to optimize for the search engines, however sometimes Webmasters forget that there are real people searching for real content in the search engines.

It’s a catch 22 situation. Search Engines are non human machine like THINGS but the human’s are using them. All of what the Search engines shows the humans depends on the overall human response to the content.

• Do humans visit your content as a result of a search engine query?
• Are they engaged with your content enough to stick around and comment?
• Does your content inspire them and move them to share your content through their social media outlets?
• Blog layout. Can your visitor see the content immediately when they land on the page? (this is the latest algorithm update)

You can get your content into a great SERP (search engine ranking position), but to stay there you will need to employ this package deal:

1. Great content. Exactly what the human wanted to see in the results.
2. Relevant content that fits in with the topic of your website. People do not want to take advice about “caring for cats” from a dog lover’s website.
3. SEO both onpage and offpage, so the search engines can see what your content is about in the first place.
4. Obvious social media buttons to allow content to be shared easily.
5. A decent search volume for your keyword with the least competition.

It is your responsibility to get your website posts in a position in the search engines where the right visitors find your content.

Some people spend too much time concentrating on creating content for the search engines, when in actual fact, the search engines only care what the humans want. If I were you I would be studying my SEO checklist and start becoming a search engine optimization expert as SEO helps you create great content in the first place. Its a viscous circle.

So what can we do?

If you are sitting back and wondering why you are not getting any website visitors or why your blog is not making any sales then you need to look at how you are promoting your content. I have clearly stated that building a WordPress website is extremely easy, but making this website successful is hard work. If you are one eyed and think that content is king then you might be in trouble. It’s like having a car without petrol to drive it. What good is that?

A how-to post is always going to lead traffic to your blog because whenever someone out there wants to know how to do something, he is almost definitely going to type in “How to -something-” in Google. Everyone needs help at various points of their lives and every call for help starts with a “how to”. It could be “How to invest in Forex”, “How to choose a good web host” or even “How to break up with my boyfriend”there are many web content strategies to help you create quality content that will please both the humans and the search engines.

You can direct traffic to your blog as well as help the community by writing a good and helpful how-to post in the seven easy steps below:

1. Choose a Topic for Your How-to Post

Of course, choose a topic related to your niche for your how-to post. If your website is all about photography, then you might want to write on “How to select a good camera”. If you write about health and organic products instead, then maybe “How to spot a fake organic product” might be of interest to your readers. If you find it hard coming up with ideas on what to write on, just put yourself in your readers’ shoes and think what would you like to know or learn. Also, don’t just think of drawing traffic to your blog but do sincerely help and benefit your readers.

2. Plan the How-to Steps

Your how-to post should not be just a crappy one written with the objective of pulling in readers; it should be one that readers would find helpful enough to revisit your blog from time to time. After all, that is what you want – return readers. As such, plan the steps well before you start writing. You don’t want to miss a step or give wrong instructions that would result in your readers losing their faith in you. If you think that some steps can be omitted or need more detailed elaboration or instructions, do so accordingly. Take some time to organize.

3. Write the Introduction

Start your article by letting your readers know what they will be learning about. Tell them what the end result should be and share with them the benefits or advantages that they would reap from successfully following the instructions step-by-step. If you think that your readers need some knowledge, preparation or tools beforehand, let them know first so that they can prepare the necessary.

Some writers find it difficult to write an introduction without starting on the article. I am one of them. So what I do is to write the article first and then come back to the introduction later on. This way, I would have had a better picture of the article’s contents and the words for the introductory paragraph would flow really easily. Thus, don’t fidget if you get stuck at the introduction; just move on and writing it will be a breeze at the end.

4. Write the Instructions

Now, refer to the list of steps that you had drafted earlier and begin writing the steps. Explain each step in detail but be as concise as you can. A common grouse among readers who try to follow given instructions is that they don’t quite get what the writer is trying to convey. As such, be clear and assume that your readers have no knowledge whatsoever on the subject matter.

It would be very helpful for the readers if you include an image or example for each step. You are actually most encouraged to try out the instructions yourself before writing so that you’ll be able to explain things better to your readers, as well as to get snapshots of the processes. Once you have done so, share your personal experiences with the readers so that they will be able to relate to you better.

5. Write a Conclusion

Summarize your article by prompting your readers to try out the steps. Motivate them further by telling them what they could do next once they have mastered this one. The most important part of the conclusion is the call to action. In a call to action, you would ‘instruct’ the readers to leave a comment, share the post on their Facebook page, read posts of similar interest or even purchase your product, whatever your objective is. Just a simple line at the end of the article would do, such as “Tried the above? Share your stories in the box below!”.

6. Proofread Your Article

Just like any article you have written, your how-to article needs to be proofread. In fact, more detailed scrutiny is needed as you don’t want to mislead your readers with missing steps or wrong instructions. Spelling and grammar are equally important too, for one would be skeptical if you write on “How to be a good writer” if your article is peppered with spelling and grammatical mistakes.

7. Give an Interesting Title

Last but not least is this important step of giving your article an attractive title. “How to be healthy” is decent enough but don’t you think “How to look younger and live longer” sounds better? You could also add a number to the title, such as “5 ways to losing weight”. People love concise lists and shortcuts to achieving their goals, so grab the attention of your readers with such a title.

After you perform some Onpage SEO,  it is now time to promote each post you publish to give it s fighting chance amongst the masses out there on the internet and to grab your share of the traffic available.

This itself a how-to post, written in the seven steps listed above. If you’re reading this, it only means that it is indeed a good how-to post!

Do you have any more tips to share on “How-To” write a great how-to post?

Whether you are a novice in this building websites business, or have been at it for a while now, you’re most likely dividing your time between developing your content, and figuring out how to form backlinks to increase your rankings in the search results. It’s difficult to start a business, especially when writing creative content is a component.

However, you know that you will never get ‘there’ if you skimp on quality. So, you push forward to create compelling and informative content.

If you aren’t currently spending three times the amount of time preparing and researching for your article than you are writing it, then you should change your strategy. Research is vital.

The key to quality content is to generate a comprehensive outline that contains valid details and quotes. This will help organize your work and give you a tool to help write more easily, rather than winging it as you go. But, there’s an added bonus to having a detailed outline. It will assist you in creating even more material later, turning your effort into an investment.

This applies to all writing, no matter what the content is about. It could be about flat screen TV’s, home business opportunities, printer cartridges, travel guides or an L-shaped computer desk with a glass top. A well-crafted outline can assist you in generating more content.

Another Way to Put It…

To repurpose content means to work with the same information, but putting a different spin on it. An example would be an article I wrote on how article marketing of today is not effective. My message within the article is that it’s simply a waste of time, even though the meaning of that will be diverse to various marketers.

Novice marketers can consider this a preemptive strike, to steer clear of it all together. But, for those already established in the marketing forte, it can be a source of recovery, a way to get out with minimal loss of ranking.

Both articles are claiming the same thing, but with a different approach depending on your intended audience. With a great outline as your foundation, each article can be crafted with ease.

And, I did this.

Making the Difficult Part More Productive

Anyone who knows me will know that I believe article marketing of today is being taken over, and is no longer effective. Google even agrees with me that its future is bleak. There simply is no value to those seeking information when they read inferior articles that are being circulated by inferior sites.

So, I opted to write a detailed article on ‘why you should avoid article marketing like the plague (the title, actually). So, I started to collect information through research such as data and quotes from Google. I then applied that with my own knowledge and experience to produce a thorough outline for the article. The entire process for just the outline was more than three hours, and was over 3,000 words that helped to build my case against article marketing.

Someone who is new to marketing could use an outline like this to compose some impressive content for their site. However, that was not my motivation.

That master outline allowed me to generate two separate and good-sized articles, with one over 1,900 words, and the other almost 3,700. I used a different approach on each one, while focusing on the same topic.

Next, both were accepted by two well respected sites when I submitted them as guest content.

Let the Perks Roll In

The pieces were published on PR3 and PR6 sites as guest content. I used their influence to gain quality ratings in the SERP, by incorporating anchor text within the articles, which then directed traffic to my site.

Whether you are just beginning, or are just now considering a combination of ranking and traffic, utilizing reputable sources that accept guest content is an area certainly worth considering.

That in itself would be considered a success, if it were the end of my story. But, it’s not. In addition to gaining more traffic through Google, I also had the advantage of viewers tweeting the URL, bringing even more traffic to my site. It was also interesting enough that AffiliateABCs.com interviewed me on the subject and then posted it on their site. More exposure.

I still wasn’t done though. The next thing I did was to hire a freelance writer to use my master outline to generate three additional articles, all unique, yet stemming from the same information. I then submitted the new articles to three additional sites that accepted guest participation. All three directed more traffic to my site.

The reason I was able to direct more traffic and readers to my site was due to placing anchor texts within the articles. You are typically allowed two anchor texts per each posting. So, in the end I had the luxury of 24 of them leading readers to my site, and all from high PR sites. You can’t get a beginning site to rank any quicker than that.

Not bad, considering this all stemmed from my initial three hours of research.

My particular topic was my own drive in getting the word out about article marketing of today. However, it could be about any topic such as computer laptops, home office supplies, ergonimic chairs or a Bestar home office computer desk. You can benefit significantly by using this method of content conversion, no matter what the topic is.

Article Marketing in Another Form?

No, it’s not another form of article marketing, certainly not based on today’s standard.

One difference is that the 400 to 450 word SEO article is inundated with keywords, written solely for the purpose of a search engine to pick it up, rather than a quality piece intended to be read by a human. Whereas what I am referring to is a well planned, informative article up towards 1,000 words or more, packed with value for a human reader.

Another difference is that converting content is not spinning. No software is used. Most importantly, you cannot alter the point of view with spinning, just the words. However, when repurposing content, as I am referring to, you can change the angle, yet use the same information you gathered for the master outline.

Distribution is another area of difference. Software programs can automatically submit your material, up to an incredible 500 ‘directories’ per day. Sure, that is a large amount of backlinks. However, when identical links are submitted in mass amounts, Google will catch it, and determine that they are from ‘content farms’ and deemed to hold no value.

PR3 sites (or better) that are highly regarded are obviously the best bet for your quality articles, as long as they accept guest content. You will reap the benefits with higher ranking in the SERP, if you follow these guidelines for repurposing your material.

To sum it up, article marketing, and what I am referring to are not the same…at all. If you want to find fresh and valid access to quality readers, and build your site in a quick and effective manner, then repurposing your quality content is the way to go.

Of course this is just my opinion. But, it’s based not only on my research, but also my experience. I am very interested in learning what you think about what you just read. Please leave any comments you might have in the comment box below.

You will receive *solid* money-making tips and advice directly from James Martell when you subscribe to his long running affiliate marketing podcast (since 2003). James has been a full-time affiliate marketer for 12+ years and has been *successfully* teaching others how to earn extra income with affiliate programs for over a decade. A sought-after speaker, James has presented at Commission Junction University, Digital River Lab, Affiliate Summit, Pubcon, The System Seminar among others.

We all know that we need to create quality content to rank hing in the search engines. Until recently the rules of Internet marketing stated that if you wanted to rank well in the search engines all you had to do was spend some time on keyword research, position those keywords strategically throughout your article and BAM! You were ranking. Now, the rules are a little different. If you want to rank high in the dominate the search engines now, you have to back those keywords up with some quality content.

But hasn’t quality content always been the number one requirement if you wanted to rank well? Not necessarily. In the past you could churn out content all day long with article spinning software and it didn’t matter if it was good content or not. As long as you were able to get it published somewhere online then you got a backlink or two out of it and that’s all that mattered. Like I said, though, the rules have changed.

Quality Content Rules

As more and more people come to the Internet in search of information, the search engines are focusing on making sure those users find what they’re looking for. They’re looking at things like how long the reader actually stays on your page, how many pages they view while they’re on your site, and how often those users share your content with their friends. Today, if you want to rank well in search engines, you need to create quality content, which means you need to engage your readers.

Keyword Research

Keywords still play an important role in ranking. You need to use keywords so the search engine bots can identify your content. But the idea that you need to mention your exact keyword every 100 words or so is out the window. Use longtail keywords and LSI to make you blog posts and articles sound less like they were written by a robot and more like they were written by someone you’d like to get to know. Knowing all these details will help you combat the new Google panda update because your blog will rock!

Pillar Posts and Internal Linking

Create a high quality pillar post for each of your categories, something that lets your readers know you are the authority on that specific topic. Then, each time you write a new post, use anchor text to link it to the relevant pillar post. Use plug-ins to create links to related posts. Give your readers a reason to stay on your blog longer and read more of your content therefore reducing bounce rate.

Easy Navigation for your Quality Content

Using keywords when you set up your categories helps you in two ways: It’s another way for the search engines to identify your content. But it also makes it easier for visitors to find their way around your site. And if it’s easier, that means they’ll stick around longer. See a previous article about creating categories for your blog by using your related keywords.

Creating an easy navigation system on your blog is one of those important SEO techniques that is often neglected.

Alternative Media

Give you readers something different to look at occasionally. Use charts and graphics to illustrate a point. Create videos to highlight that How-To article. The key here is to use your own, original creations instead of just pulling random YouTube videos or copying an image you find on Google Images. Create original content and your videos and graphics and comics will be the ones that everyone else is using on their blogs. Always make sure you have your link included on your content so when it does get copied everyone will know where it came from.

Social Media

No one can deny the importance of the social networks. Whether you like it or not, sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Digg are here to stay and that Google +1 Button will soon be one of the most important features on your site. Remembering that, and incorporating it into your business plan will help you rank better. Every site should have the standard Sharing buttons and Follow Me links, but go a step further – Create content that people will want to share. Every time you write a new blog post or create a new video, ask yourself “Is this content good enough to engage my readers? Will they want to share it with all their friends?” If the answer is no, then add some more polish until it shines.

Define your USP

The new definition of quality content is content that engages the reader. Period. If your reader can find your exact same information on dozens of other blogs, then you need to find a way to set yourself apart from the crowd. What is your USP – your Unique Selling Point? Why should searches come to your site? What makes your blog so different from all the others? Why should they stay there and keep coming back? And most important, why should they share your information with their friends?

The new rule is – If you want to create quality content to rank high in search engines, then you need to stop worrying about search engines and create quality content that engages your audience.

When building a website most of us still believe that content is King and therefore you will need a Web content strategy that will get you writing killer content for your website. This has to be one of the most important aspects of a website, for without great content, the website will surely drown in a sea of millions of better websites. Even though I think that content is not the only king, it is damn important!

Many Webmasters are great at building websites, good at installing plug-ins, and even fantastic at getting traffic, however they fail when trying to write killer content. I have been building WordPress websites for 3 to 4 years now, and have developed an amazing Web content strategy that ensures that I never get writer’s block, my posts are always long and detailed, and I do not get bored when writing killer content.

Why would you want to follow my Web content strategy for writing killer content?

There are some very simple but obvious reasons why you should follow my Web content strategy for writing killer content!

• Writing killer content will make your website popular.
• Using my Web content strategy will make your life easier and save you time.
• I have successful content that makes me thousands of dollars.

6 Top Web Content Strategy Tips For Writing Killer Content

Find out what is popular and write about it

Investigate other blogs or websites in your niche and find out which articles are the most popular. Which articles have the most digs or tweets, or which ones are listed on the most popular content list? Also take note of the titles at the same time. This will show you what people are interested in, and what you should be putting on your website.

Another great way to find a topic is to write about something that you have noticed is missing when searching in Google. For example, sometimes I get comments and questions on my website and I go in search in Google to get the answer. If the answer is missing this is an opportunity that I should not miss, because believe it or not, this is probably a common problem that is being searched for.

you can also find out what is popular by going to somewhere like BitlyNews or  Popurls. There are many websites like this that will show you the most popular articles and content on the Internet at the moment.

Create a catchy title for writing killer content

After you have found out which topics are popular that are related to your niche, you need to find the right keywords using Google keyword tool, to see the exact keywords that people are searching for. Here is a recent post about how to find which keywords to use in your title and in your content. If you investigate on other websites you will notice that readers love posts that have “five tips”,  “10 reasons”,  “top 10 list” , and titles that starts with something similar. They really love lists and tips! Therefore after you have found your keywords you should try to incorporate something like these phrases in your catchy title. This is a common Web content strategy that you will see on a lot of blogs and websites now days.

Ask yourself questions about the topic

Sometimes when you have a great title, you have spent so much time developing it, that you end up with writer’s block. My number one web content strategy is fantastic for bringing out the words in you. What you have written your catchy title, underneath this you should write a minimum of five questions that you think people would want to know about this topic. That’s it, that’s all you have to do. The more questions you write the better, and maybe you could even add a few headings and subheadings while writing killer content. Simply look at this post that you are reading to see what I mean. I started with a title, and added the questions in, and then filled in the blanks. You must try this because it really does break up the monotony of writing thousands of words per day.

Below I have an example of a title I have written with five questions below it. As I go and fill in the blanks under these questions I will also think of more things that are missing and add them in. it is amazing how this web content strategy will help you in writing killer content. It will also help you write a longer article. Please click on the picture to enlarge it to see my questions. It took me less than a minute to think of these five questions.

The correct content layout – Important web content strategy

Of course by reading my articles on this website you can see that content layout is definitely a number one web content strategy that I am sticking with. I have a little bit of help with one of my favorite plug-ins,  SEOpressor,. This is fantastic plug-in will help me with my search engine optimization, but also keeps me on track with writing SEO content. It tells me when I have not got heading one, heading two, or heading three tags. it also tells me if I haven’t got enough keywords or even images with the correct ALT tags. see the screen shot below, SEOPressor is telling me that I’m not doing a good job so far.

You must also make sure your content is easy to read, split up into clear readable sections, and must look appealing to the eye. People do not like wrongly formatted and messy looking articles.

Linking to more relevant content

You have made people hungry for great content and they want more! You must lead them to other places within your website or blog. If you do not do this you are wasting your traffic and not giving people what they want. Linking to more relevant content within your website is not only for onpage search engine optimization techniques, but also to enhance your killer content. You do not want people to be thinking, “What do I do now?”

It is also okay to link to outside websites that are useful and relate to your topic. Any information that will complete your article is great to include and will enhance your readers experience.

Use the right tools when creating killer content

If you are serious about creating killer content and following my Web content strategy, you will need to buy one special tool to really kick your content into gear. I do not purchase products lightly and when buying Dragon Naturally Speaking I was a bit skeptical, as the price seemed a bit overboard. However my husband encouraged me to buy this program and I cannot believe I did not have it sooner. it is a program where you simply talk into a microphone and the text is typed for you. This is what you are reading right now as I have not touched my keyboard today. Of course this program does more than that, but when you are building websites and writing killer content, this is one of the main things that you need for. After having this program I cannot even stand the thought of typing out even a comment on a blog. It is just so much faster and easier to talk than it is to think and type at the same time.

If you are interested in writing your content faster and easier here is a discount link Save 5% on Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium with Coupon Code: mi6qbq39z.. using coupon code: mi6qbq39z

Web content strategy – extra tips

1. Once you have finished writing your killer content you must make sure you go and promote each post and give it all the attention that it is worth. Here is an article I wrote previously about generating traffic for every new post that you publish on your blog or website.
2. Using my exact Web content strategy will actually turn you into a professional writer. You will see how easy it is to fill the blanks in and write huge articles in the minimum amount of time. If you practice this way of writing killer content you could probably pick up some extra work at Elance.com or Odesk.com, the most popular outsourcing websites.

Please feel free to make a comment below and let me know if you have a Web content strategy or any tips for writing killer content.

One of the hardest parts about being a websmaster is coming up with new content and products continually to keep your website visitors engaged. It doesn’t take long to realize that if you do update your website regularly, the traffic also comes in at a steady, reliable pace. Therefore we need a constant supply of articles, ebooks, giveaways, and more to run a successful website.

I struggled with this for two years, and yes I did outsource some of the work, but it was still too much for me to handle. Then I stumbled upon Master Resell Rights website and was shocked! There was free content, more than I could ever handle. It was nuts.

I could not resist and joined asap. It only costs $19.95 per month and you would not even believe what you get…I probably shouldn’t be showing you this, but hey, why wait like I did to find out about it?

What’s inside the Master Resell Rights website?

It basically has everything you need to start selling packages. All products have rights set to them. Some are private label rights, others have master sell rights, and so on….Private label rights products basically allow you to get the product and rebrand it as your own and do what you want with it…

There are products available for almost every niche and you can also request a product.

What can you do with these Private label rights products?

• Rebrand the product and sell it on your website
• Use a product for a bonus for your other products
• Give the product away as a gift

Each product comes with the rules or rights clearly stated. It is up to you to adhere to the rules.

Can you make money from Private label Rights products?

Hello?? Yes you can. It’s up to you how you sell it but people are making big money out of selling and using these products. Private label rights does not just involve reports and products, there are also articles to use for content. If you don’t like the articles you can edit them and make them your own original, interesting content.

Webmasters are making a full-time income by using private label rights products.

What sort of products are at the Master Resell Rights website?

• Ebooks
• Reports
• Video packages
• Audio packages
• Website themes
• Rebrandable software
• Email Templates
• Complete mini websites
• Sales pages for products
• Goodies just for you…personal use only..
• etc etc etc..

Click Here To Join

There are even archives from previous years.  Click on the banner above (my affiliate link) if you are interested. You can also use this stuff in your membership websites.

Here is a video showing the inside of the website…I cannot show you everything because there is too much!!!

Hey what do you think? Can you see yourself making money out of these PLR products? Please make a comment and let me know what you think…

I have too many WordPress websites to provide content for them all and I outsource some of the work to specialized article writers on Elance.  You can go there to expand your staff beyond just you and outsource a job that you would usually perform.

Unfortunately when I first started creating WordPress websites from scratch I wasted a lot of money on unnecessary mistakes. It is not always easy to judge how well a person will do a job from half way across the world. There is no face to face contact with some contractors, although I like to try and achieve this through Skpe. I have writers in the USA, the UK, and even Europe.

5 tips for hiring the right person on Elance.com

1 ** Be clear about what you want

If you are vague with your job description then what ever you haven’t mentioned, usually happens. It is almost your fault for not finding the right person on Elance.com. You need to be precise and take time writing your listing.

2 **Set a price range

Set a price range of what you want to pay because otherwise you are wasting both your time and the writers time when they put in a proposal. You do not want extravagant quotes coming in.

3 **Set you job job criteria

Set you job job criteria and be strict and stick to it. If you are upfront with the rules now, hopefully you will flush out the people that do not suit you. If they get freaked out when they see your criteria that’s good. You only want the right person for the job.

4 **Delivery for the job

Tell people exactly when you expect delivery because people can get very slack when working unsupervised. Just remember that the people applying for this job are from other parts of the world and have different work ethics. What you think is normal and courteous, may not be in their country.

5**Escrow

When hiring the right person on Elance.com always use Escrow which allows Elance to hold your funds until you are ready to release them. Do not release the funds before the job has been completed.

A friend of mine released $200 accidentally before receiving any work and the writer mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth, along with the money. He used Escrow but his inexperience led him to push the RELEASE FUNDS button. If the writer had not supplied the work and the funds were still in Escrow they would have been returned to him. Elance is great that way.

Example job listing – hiring the right person on Elance.com

I need many articles but this job is for 25 to see how we work together. I am a serious buyer and will continue to give you work providing you adhere to these guidelines:

—–Criteria—–

*** You must be able to write in good flowing English.

*** You need to engage the reader and make them feel like you are talking directly to them.

*** You must deliver articles on time, as per schedule.

*** All articles are to be on the same Word 2003 doc. We do not accept word 2007. (This is so my VA can open them.)

*** The file name must be labeled clearly. Eg. Niche_yourname_1-10 and Niche_yourname_10-20

*** Each article on the Word document must have its own title.

*** All articles need to be 500 words in length. They should also contain subheadings and sometimes bullet points.

*** All articles will be checked through Copyscape so make sure you are providing 100% original content. No PLR content.

*** While writing an article you must wear red underwear. (Just checking if you are paying attention)

*** You relinquish all authorship of articles.

*** You must provide the same high standard throughout the whole project. If your output does not match your sample work then we will have to cancel our job.

—–Subjects—–

1. Subject one

2. Subject two

3. Subject three

—–Samples—–

See the attached sample and then choose a topic from above and write your own sample article to send to me. I will not accept previously written articles. I want you to choose from the subjects above.

—–Pricing—–

I am on a budget as I buy 100’s of articles a week on a variety of niches. For this project I want to pay $4 for 500 words, however depending on the quality of your sample, this price may increase.

I will not accept any bids higher than $100. Please do not waste your time if you cannot fit to our budget.

If your asking “WOW, did she even get any responses to this job advert?” Well the answer is yes! I had about 5 applicants and I actually chose 2. That’s how good they were.

Update: Since this post was published I have hired many more people to write for me. Hiring the right person on Elance.com or any other job website gets easier with experience. Also the key is to keep great writers busy with your work so they have no time to work for others.. Ha Ha.

Hiring the right person on Elance.com definitely requires that you scare a few people off first.