Hiring Others for Content

Ok. I've been doing some site building on a site, and it turns out a friend of mine has knowledge in the field. What I'd like to know is whether I should consider hiring him to write some articles for my site.

So what are your opinions?

 

i'd rather say that it depends on the friend. The level of comfort you share with him is a factor.
He can ruin you by ranting around the place that he wrote your articles.
But if he is a person known to you and is given decent "wages".i dun think any problem will arise. You may get the benefit of reduced rates as he may be known to you

 

Ultimately, your web content will be what draws visitors to your website. It is a reflection of the hard work, time and effort you've put forth making your website a reality. If your friend has any skills writing at all, you may consider hiring him to write articles for you. Then again, a working relationship between friends can get complicated so you may want to take that into consideration before you make your decision.

 

Denise,

That is why I asked, because in general, I do worry about business partnerships with friends anyway. So it sounds like I should probably stick with my own content, or hire someone I have no personal relationship with and make sure that their writing is of acceptable quality.

 

If he is a good writer I would hire him. Just because he knows about some about it doesnt mean he can write about it in a good way.

//Andreas

 

Ok. Another part to it. Would you just pay a set $ up front, or would you offer a share of the ad revenue from it?

I know that fixed $ up front would be easiest. (Don't have to worry about what happens if you split.) But for adsense at least it wouldn't be too difficult to do a percentage split, similar to the way ads are done on DP, or as they are in a lot of the adsense plugins I've seen.

I feel that offering a percentage in a way might lead to a better piece, since in the long run, it could be more profitable than I could offer just for a single article, which again is a one time payment.

Any additional thoughts out there?

 

Key words -- "could be." As a personal preference, I would almost always take a set fee over revenue any day, because that way I am guaranteed a fixed amount of money.

 

Perhaps make him a featured writer? You could dedicate a section of the website to his articles.

Make a section of the site and give him a byline. If sharing revenue, this would make it easier to track.

It might help the site to grow if you could parlay it into several featured writers.

However you compensate him, treat it as you would any business transaction. Make sure it is spelled out who owns the copyright (including if he is getting a bio/backlink/etc.) and reprint rights. I would want those details clear if one of my friends asked me to write for them.

 

Denise, that is true. It "could be" that I ever make a profit after domain and hosting costs.

As far as setting it up as a business transaction, I've heard enough stories involving friends and business that I would definitely do that.

So what might generally be a reasonable cost to have someone write a 300-400 word article? I've seen enough threads about paying too cheap of a price and basically getting birdcage liner...

 

I would say four to five cents per word would be fair

 

It honestly depends on the writer, i.e., level of experience, time spent on the article, depth of research involved, etc. 2.00 for a 400 word article is unacceptable. Base an estimate on all the factors listed above; professional writers can make up to .35 cents or more per word depending on how established they are.

 

Only hire your friend if you know his work is quality. I had a friend do some content work on my site before, it was subpar, and it's very awkward to tell your friend his work was poor.