As an online business, you probably have a pricey budget for your business operations and marketing activities. You also have a website, since we’re living in the digital age where online presence is just as important as other business processes.
However, you’re committing a grave online mistake if you’re leaving your website to stay static like a TV set tuned to the same channel all the time. Why? No one will discover your business.
What’s the solution to this? Blogging.
Blogging is one of the surest ways to put your business ahead and place yourself where your target audience can see you. Blogging is the best way to generate organic traffic for your business.
If you already don’t know, organic traffic is traffic that comes organically to your website from search engine results. In short, there are no ads or other paid rankings. Blogging gives you the leverage to bring in organic traffic.
Now that we’ve seen that blogging is supposed to be an essential activity for any online business, you’re probably wondering how much blogging services cost.
How Much Do Blogging Services Cost?
When outsourcing blog writing, you have two options:
- Hire a freelance content writer
- Hire a professional content agency
With the first option, you simply go to a freelance marketplace and hire a freelance writer who might charge any amount from as low as $5.
However, cheaper writers might submit low-quality and plagiarized work full of grammatical errors that you might not even use on your site. You simply get what you pay for. The cheaper the writer, the lower the quality.
What about professional content agencies?
Content agencies, on the other hand, diligently vet their content writers so you’re assured of quality.
Besides, some—like CopySmiths—offer detailed plans and packages where your business gets a comprehensive content strategy, quality assurance and blog posting.
As for the prices, you might come across three payment plans. Here’s a breakdown of the payment plans.
| Payment Plan | Description |
| Pay per hour | Most businesses are used to paying for services on a per-hour basis. With blogging, it might be an issue when you have a cap on the total amount you’re willing to spend. If the writer is not familiar with your niche or the article needs more research, you might have to spend more. The time spent editing and proofreading may add to the costs. |
| Pay per word | A pay per word plan helps eliminate the unpredictability of pay per hour. Pay is based on the output, instead of the time spent. It’s more favorable when you want to monitor your budget. The rate is based on experience, quality and industry expertise. Primarily, you can expect to pay anywhere between $0.03 and $3 per word for quality blog posts. |
| Pay per article | Some writers and agencies have a flat fee for each article, with a minimum word count per article. It’s ideal for business owners since there’s a set amount for each article. However, always double-check to ensure they’re quality blog posts, since writers offering a flat fee may focus more on reaching the word count rather than the quality. |
Expect to pay about $35–$200 to a content agency for each blog post. The figure you pay per article depends on the length of the blog post and the amount of research required for each. Some articles may cost up to $2,000.
Is it Worth the Investment?
Now that you’re convinced you should start a blog and keep it updated, or already have one but need to keep posting, why should you pay for blogging services?
Outsourcing blog writing has various advantages to businesses. They include:
Professional Writing Skills
One of the vital advantages you’ll enjoy from hiring professional writing services is exceptional writing skills.
While your marketing staff might pride themselves in writing great proposals and emails, crafting top-notch blog posts is a different ball game. Nowadays, you need to have more than just good grammar and impeccable writing skills to craft great blog posts.
“You can’t hire just anyone to write your blog. You need to find a writer who fits with your business brand, its mission and the level of knowledge your blog provides. Of course, this writer also has to be able to fit in with your goals and get results.”
— Neil Patel
Remarkable blog posts need to be created for human readers. It should provide pure value so that it answers their questions and breaks down technical topics in layman’s language.
The content also needs to follow certain formats and include headings, subheadings and bulleted lists to make it easier to understand and more interesting.
Also, remember that blog posts need search engine optimisation (SEO) to be discovered on search engines and rank. Professional writing services understand the technical aspects of SEO, such as keyword research, backlinking and use of images.
They also understand that keywords shouldn’t be used haphazardly, but methodically so that they flow naturally with the rest of the content.
When it comes to a call-to-action, professional writers don’t sound too salesy or crafty. The content need not make the readers feel compelled to take an action.
Content agencies have quality assurance measures. If you’ve ever come across an unprofessional blog post on a business website, you’ll appreciate the need for quality assurance. Content agencies guarantee non-plagiarized work that’s also free of errors.
In case you have many online brands under one corporate umbrella that might need copious amounts of content, content agencies have many content writers who can satisfy your demand for huge volumes of content.
Focus on Other Business Functions
Outsourcing your blogging activities to a content agency gives you much more freedom by freeing your time and clearing up your calendar.
When hiring a professional writing service, they may ask you the following questions:
- What does your business do?
- Who are your competitors?
- Which brands would you love to emulate?
- What do you want your blog to help you achieve?
During the hiring process, you may only need a little time to explain these basics for them to understand your business needs. After that, you may review the first couple of blog posts to ensure they are up to standard and meet your expectations.
Once these basics are in order, things will become more straightforward. Communication is seamless through email, while other agencies have invested in platforms specifically for communication purposes.
You’ll barely need to go through the articles and ask for edits. If you have to, you can schedule monthly or bi-monthly reviews with the agency to discuss top-ranking articles and content that didn’t perform as expected.
As we mentioned, some agencies have packages where they take over your entire content activities, including content marketing strategy, blogging and posting. With such, you might only have to offer the direction you’d like the content to take.
Once you hire a content agency, you shift your focus to other business activities, such as marketing, customer relations, new products and finances.
You have more time to invest back into your business and help your business reach its goals.
Outsource Your Blogging Processes
As you can see, outsourcing blog writing doesn’t have to be expensive. If you’ve been thinking of hiring an in-house content team, be aware that they could end up costing you even more.
With outsourcing, you’ll only have to pay based on the plan you agree on, instead of worrying about a salary and other employee benefits.
At CopySmiths, we understand that getting organic traffic is not a breeze. This is why we churn content with your business goals and marketing strategy in mind. We stick to our principle of helping you achieve more by doing less.
