This is a collaborative post.
Blogging is one of the biggest and fastest growing businesses in the online economy. There are blogs on every subject, in every corner of the world, written by both amateurs and professionals. Some post as a hobby, while others turn blogging into a career. If you want your blog to be your business, you might be thinking about hiring other writers to keep your content fresh and up-to-date. If you are going down this route, there are some things that you will need to consider.
Image – free for commercial use
Maintain Invoices
If you use freelancers, they will generally charge you by sending an invoice. Make sure to account for the invoices properly. Each invoice should show the amount payable against the work that has been done and includes the contact’s details. It should include any local accounting specifics too, such as an Australian business number if you operate in Australia. Hold onto invoice after payment has been delivered. If you’re hiring writers, you might need help from a payroll services company.
Contracts For Long-Term Work
Keep contracts or agreements for long-term projects. This will help you and your writers stay within agreed bounds, which helps projects to run smoothly. For example, if you hire a freelance writer to produce 200 articles, then you will need an agreement in place stipulating that they cannot leave halfway through. If you pay per article, the writer could leave the project early, leaving you with a problem. Writers should be reminded at the end about the payment so that everyone remembers the terms of the contract.
Pay Rate
Rates should always be agreed upon beforehand. Freelancers will charge more than employees because they need to provide their own equipment and space. You can expect faster work, however, than you can from regular employees. In blogging, rates could be set per hour or per number of articles. If you are hiring staff for the first time, inquire with other blog owners to get an idea of fair salaries.
Responsible Attitude
To keep healthy relationships with your writers, you need to be responsible towards them. Be clear about what you expect, and fulfil their expectations.
Whether you decide to hire freelancers or salaried staff, there are a few things that you should always maintain. An employer needs to take care of the office space, administration, maintenance, and other things for salaried staff. For freelancers, you don’t have quite the same list of responsibilities, but if certain tools or resources are needed to do the work, you will need to provide these. As an employer, you need to look after administrative details. This covers everything from payroll to accounting, which needs to be on time and properly maintained. If you expect trust and hard work from your staff, you need to give them the same. Take a balanced approach to your management. Don’t make your management style so rigid that employees find you a pain to work with, or so flexible that the quality of work suffers. Manage in a way that builds understanding.