Once I began working with freelancers, I’d expertise a sinking feeling when a primary draft hit my inbox. Would this piece be any good? Or, would I be rewriting a complete article myself to get one thing usable?
Or maybe, I discovered a gem — a freelancer who would make my day with a lightweight edit, sturdy writing, and a grasp of the subject material at hand.
I might do something in my energy to make them comfortable. Please don’t go away me, I’d whisper to my laptop computer as I typed a praise-filled thanks e mail.
4 years later, I’ve cracked the code. I now run HubSpot’s Freelance Community, a contract program with over 40 writers.
My staff creates over 800 items yearly. I really feel like I’ve a group of uncommon gems, every with their very own specialised insights that may assist our viewers develop.
The very best half? I’m lastly able to share how I made this program a actuality.
However first, right here’s somewhat about me. My identify is Kaitlin. I’m a journalist by commerce who’s made the transition into the great world of content material advertising and marketing. So, my first function working with freelancers was in that previous life at enterprise publications.
In 2022, I used to be recruited by HubSpot for a brand-new problem. My mission was to construct a strong group of freelancers to serve HubSpot’s full portfolio of English blogs.
Infrastructure is every thing.
Once I first joined HubSpot, I used to be launched to 11 freelance writers. I additionally inherited a typical working process (SOP) doc that described write new posts and replace current ones. The remainder was mine to construct.
I spent most of my days creating the muse to help freelancers at scale.
Earlier than I joined the staff, freelancers have been an additional activity that our writers and weblog managers leveraged solely when wanted. Infrastructure was wanted to standardize these processes.
Right here’s what I labored on.
Investing in Private Coaching
The SOP doc I acquired on my first day was important for serving to me get oriented in my function. Nevertheless, the doc was 21 pages lengthy.
Positive, all the knowledge was useful, however I knew our writers would skim the doc at greatest. That they had dozens of shoppers every and wouldn’t spend the afternoon studying the textual content carefully over espresso.
So, we needed to regulate. I break up the SOP into two shorter paperwork — one for updates and the opposite for brand new posts. I then arrange a studying administration system with an onboarding course.
New writers would want to sign up and watch quick movies about write for HubSpot, who our personas are, and use admin instruments like our invoicing system.
I might see who truly accomplished the course and remind others that this video sequence was a vital a part of onboarding.
The end result was loads sooner than studying the doc, and I used to be in a position to assure compliance. Plus, I nonetheless despatched alongside SOP paperwork so the writers might evaluation them at any time.
I then took coaching one step additional. For every new author, I created a custom-made Loom video about their first posts. In it, I might evaluation each ingredient of their task in Asana, our challenge administration platform, explaining any HubSpot-specific jargon and the way we anticipate submissions to be formatted.
Once I began this course of, I discovered that I acquired fewer e mail inquiries about easy questions. As a substitute, we have been in a position to deal with hard-hitting editorial wants.
Past that, just a few writers have informed me this was probably the most organized onboarding course of they’ve skilled, which all the time provides me a heat fuzzy feeling.
Making Processes Gentle-Contact
Freelance writers are busy folks, all the time on the reducing fringe of an article or weblog publish. As a program supervisor, I wish to make sure that they’ll deal with what they love — writing — and breeze by any administrative challenges.
I started standardizing our assignments. I linked every thing our writers would want, like related paperwork and assets, in an e mail despatched initially of each month. Every task had a clearly marked value, a hyperlink to an Asana activity card with directions, and a hyperlink to a Google Doc the place they might write.
Writers not needed to copy, paste, and format partitions of textual content when engaged on updates. They didn’t must dig within the annals of our web site for related information factors. They may peruse data in a single place after which get to writing.
Professional tip: This will look like a easy step, however as a frontrunner, you must take away redundant, pointless duties out of your writers. You already know your inner programs greatest. Make them as straightforward and light-touch as potential to your freelancers.
Rethinking Content material Briefs
Lastly, I fully shifted how we wrote content material briefs.
As a staff, we have tracked our weblog assignments in Asana for the reason that very starting.
Nevertheless, traditionally, the task directions have been quick bullet factors meant for in-house writers. For instance, we’d ask them to shorten intros, write new sections, or add hyperlinks to related product mentions.
These bare-bones briefs labored for in-house writers who spent months out of their function onboarding. Nevertheless, freelancers wanted extra particulars to provide their greatest work.
I started translating posts for our exterior staff. If an instruction had jargon, like “take away further parameters to inner hyperlinks,” I might reformat the bullet into customary language, like “take away UTM monitoring codes from hyperlinks.”
For brand spanking new posts, I additionally started creating proposed outlines. That included how lengthy intros ought to be, what subheadings we would wish to embrace, and the way every part ought to be formatted.
The end result? First drafts began to reach in higher form, requiring fewer edits and fewer rounds of revisions from the writers.
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With these components in place, I used to be in a position to deal with staffing this system. I put out calls on LinkedIn for writers and vetted their portfolio items.
Because the variety of assignments I acquired grew, I introduced writers with related B2B experiences on board.
Listed here are the ratios I used:
- 40 items for 11 freelance writers
- 60 items for 30 freelance writers
- 80 items for 50 freelance writers
That progress would have prompted chaos and not using a sturdy basis.
The Rise of AI — and Squashing Get-Wealthy-Fast Schemes
In November 2022, ChatGPT launched to the general public. Anybody might write a brief textual content immediate and generate … properly, something. That features full-length weblog posts with correct headings.
Sure, AI hallucinated, developing with faux information. Typically, the output sounded stilted, however that by no means stops grifters.
Shortly after ChatGPT launched, my TikTok was stuffed with get-rich-quick gurus promoting programs on make passive earnings by freelance writing. Simply kind a immediate, have AI generate an article, and ship it to program managers like me.
Positive sufficient, I began to obtain items that have been somewhat fishy.
That supply’s firm couldn’t be referred to as “ABC Internet Design Firm.” The writing appeared too generic, with no distinct voice.
I started to feed submissions into Copyleaks, a plagiarism and AI content material checker.
And guess what I discovered? Anyplace from 60% to 90% of the textual content in these posts was generated by AI.
In March 2023, I despatched out a memo to our writers that said AI might solely be used within the analysis and brainstorming phases of writing.
For items that had already been submitted, I reached out if over 10% of the textual content was flagged as AI-generated. Writers had seven days to make modifications to the AI parts of their writing.
If modifications weren’t made inside this timeframe, our editors would step in to rewrite the sections. In these circumstances, the editor acquired the byline for the article as a substitute of the author.
For all items assigned since March 2023, we carried out a zero-tolerance coverage for AI-generated or plagiarized work. If a chunk got here again flagged, we required a rewrite of the publish earlier than fee was issued. We then eliminated the author from our roster.
To many, this might sound strict. Nevertheless, I consider that preserving human perception is crucial to incomes visitors.
Each two days, folks create sufficient content material to surpass the world’s inhabitants, based on Neil Patel’s session at our most up-to-date INBOUND convention.
Of that, round 94% of net pages that rank on Google get zero visitors. AI exacerbates this problem.
We constructed a program that pays folks pretty for his or her human writing, stuffed with actual ideas and useful recommendation.
AI-generated content material might by no means be outstanding. It’s the typical sum of all of the writing on the web. To earn engagement, I do know we’d like that human contact.
Freelance Community 2.0: Pivoting to E-E-A-T
In April 2023, the content material advertising and marketing realm shifted once more, this time with an replace to Google’s Core Algorithm.
One of many largest modifications was an elevated emphasis on E-E-A-T — or experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
As a substitute of AI-driven content material, Google started to prioritize work crafted from lived-experience. Meaning a lot of “I” statements, private anecdotes, and professional ideas that would by no means be replicated by a content material generalist.
Websites throughout the web misplaced visitors in droves, together with yours really — the HubSpot Blog. We needed to fully remodel the Freelance Community in response.
To start out, I wanted to see who on the staff was a secret material professional (SME). Meaning I used to be on the lookout for freelancers who had a job as a marketer, customer support consultant, gross sales individual, or net developer.
To take action, I despatched out a survey to our present writers asking which fields they labored in beforehand and for a way lengthy.
I discovered that quite a few our writers had expertise that already made them SMEs. One among our writers spent years as a help rep, making him an incredible match for Service Weblog articles.
One other had spent eight years at a advertising and marketing company, specializing in public relations and disaster administration.
With this data at hand, I might pair our writers with assignments that matched their lived experiences. They may then weave in related tales and useful ideas a basic content material author wouldn’t know.
Subsequent, I shared the worth of gathering quotes. We nonetheless had quite a few nice writers who might talk advanced concepts however lacked direct, skilled experiences within the topics we cowl.
To fill the hole, these writers would want to behave like journalists, gathering quotes from professionals within the area.
I requested who felt comfy reaching out for quotes.
Our staff started making connections to inner HubSpotters who might add their views as sources in posts.
Past that, we shared our favourite assets (like Help a B2B Writer and Featured) to assist our writers nonetheless making the transition.
After that, I needed to discover new writers who have been lively practitioners to workers the Weblog. Whereas quotes are useful, there’s nonetheless an actual place for thought management and how-to articles from individuals who lived the expertise. I booked a gathering with every Weblog’s managing editor to ask what they appeared for in an SME.
Let’s use our Gross sales Weblog for instance. Jay Fuchs, Gross sales Weblog editor at HubSpot, mentioned his ultimate SME had hung out as a enterprise improvement consultant and an account govt. Administration expertise within the B2B area was a bonus.
I turned our dialog right into a scorecard to keep away from hiring bias and put out a name for writers.
That’s how we discovered Mark Burdon and Michael Welch, two of our SMEs on the Gross sales Weblog. They’re in a position to share the expertise of monitoring gross sales metrics and operating groups. They complement our workers’s journalistic efforts with knowledge straight from the supply.
My 5 Largest Learnings
Up to now, I lined the broad performs we made to construct the Freelance Community. However I’ve realized so a lot over the past two-and-a-half years. Listed here are the 5 largest classes that I consider may help anybody operating a contract program.
1. You’ll want to pay honest.
On this planet of freelance writing, you typically get what you pay for. In my expertise, a low price ticket results in sloppy work. And even worse, your writers could churn. So, we have to pay competitively and keep in keeping with business tendencies.
If it’s important to take a look at instruments for an in-depth evaluation or collect quotes, I might plan for the next price ticket. I additionally encourage my writers to inform me if a publish is extra work or for much longer than we anticipate. That permits me to regulate the worth accordingly.
2. Editors are your make-or-break.
I’m so lucky to work with a staff of nice freelancers. Nevertheless, even the most effective writers make errors. That may vary from clunky sentences to typos or lacking alt textual content to improper formatting.
That’s the place enhancing is available in.
Along with our freelance writers, the Freelance Community has two contract editors, Taylor Cromwell and Margaret Cousino. They guarantee that all the requests within the temporary are fulfilled and that the ultimate drafts are error-free.
Past that, our inner Freelance Community staff does a top quality evaluation.
All of our freelancers — writers and editors — have a number of shoppers with completely different model guides. I advocate for having a closing set of eyes inside your group.
Belief me, your inner staff will catch the final little issues others could miss.
3. Don’t workers what you don’t know.
In 2022, I used to be tasked with discovering writers who might create coding tutorials for our Web site Weblog. I put out a name on LinkedIn and located just a few builders.
Their work appeared ok to me. The issue? I don’t know code and couldn’t fact-check their writing.
That was my largest failure as a program chief. We had sub-par content material that we needed to shelve. A few of it by no means acquired printed.
My largest studying: Don’t discover writers for topic areas you already know nothing about.
I’ve began tackling this problem once more, honing in on HTML and CSS technical writers. Nevertheless, I’m working hand-in-glove with Jamie Juviler, the Web site Weblog’s lead editor.
I’m taking part in the function of a recruiter, reaching out to potential candidates. Jamie truly evaluations their work and decides who’s proficient sufficient to remain.
4. Suggestions makes the world go spherical.
My program makes a minimum of 60 assignments a month. These days, we’ve been doling out upwards of 100 items. I’ve all the time discovered it troublesome to provide suggestions with such lofty objectives. That’s why I’m so grateful for my colleague Marja Vitti.
Marja joined our staff in March 2024. Since then, she’s carried out a suggestions program that permits us to provide kudos for nice work and proper inconsistencies early.
Our editors now write feedback all through the submitted Google Doc and tag the author for evaluation. Then, we make one other clear copy and ship it to our inner weblog staff managers for add.
The writers get useful suggestions. Our property homeowners internally get an easy-to-read, easy-to-upload model of the textual content. It is a win-win.
This technique has proved particularly useful for our material specialists. They’re nice writers with distinctive insights of their fields. Nevertheless, they typically don’t have a technical website positioning background.
This commenting system permits them to be taught as they develop with us.
5. Typically, it’s important to break up.
Not each author is the suitable match. In at present’s panorama, you might have to say goodbye to your content material generalists in favor of material specialists.
I’ve needed to write many breakup emails on this function. It’s my least favourite a part of my job, however generally, it’s important.
You’ll have a author that’s all the time late. Or maybe, they’ll’t adapt to your new EEAT-driven technique, even with all of your coaching assets.
Your staff ought to be lean and stuffed with nice writers. You’ll have to say goodbye to those that don’t make the reduce. And, that’s okay.
You’re Not Operating a Farm
If I wished to farm, I’d purchase chickens! Horrible jokes apart, operating a content material farm sounds interesting on paper. Yow will discover content material generalists, pay them the naked minimal, and play the amount recreation. To me, that’s an enormous mistake.
Your viewers needs human insights from material specialists — ideally individuals who have spent years working within the area you cowl.
We additionally know that Google rewards experience underneath its E-E-A-T system. So, even in case you’re working at a smaller quantity, what you do create could have extra affect.
For those who want your personal Freelance Community on a good finances, right here’s what to do:
- Discover SMEs in your area who write insightful LinkedIn articles or posts for his or her firm weblog.
- Get them to jot down items primarily based on their lived experiences, with anecdotes and their professional ideas.
- Publish and promote their work.
- (Go away fully AI-generated posts behind.)
I don’t consider creating content material with freelancers like farming. As a substitute, I consider myself as a museum curator, discovering useful gems and displaying them for the world to see.
Good luck! I hope you discover as a lot pleasure as I did as you curate your personal museum.
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