Are certain types of content best outsourced?
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What types of content are best outsourced? It’s a question that many people ask.
I’ve had a lot of comments over the last few days from bloggers saying they don’t want to outsource their blog writing. One blogger brought up a good point: how would a blogger be able to get her voice and style?
It’s true. And there really are certain types of content that shouldn’t be outsourced. I’ve covered these earlier this month. I don’t want to repeat that. Instead, I’m going to offer suggestions of the types of content that are best outsourced.
Informative Blog Posts and Articles
If you offer informative blog posts and articles that don’t need your personal voice, why not consider outsourcing them? These two are actually the most commonly outsourced types of content.
While you want a voice, there’s no need to get your personal voice. It could be like having guest posters on a regular basis. You may give your freelance blogger a byline and allow her to use her own voice.
The most important elements of these types of content is the factual information, engaging content and regular posting. Do you have time to do all that research, the writing and the posting on a regular basis?
Your Sales Copy
Why write your own sales copy? Can you even write compelling sales copy without coming across as too salesy? This is something that many people struggle with.
Outsourcing this type of content is another very popular option. Professionals spend time learning how to craft the compelling copy and making it stand out. They learn how to format it and use buttons and pictures to draw people in.
Press releases would also fall under this. These are important when announcing new products, services or new exciting news for your business. However, they have to be written just right.
eBook Content
You want to write an eBook. This could be a collection of your current blog posts or you may want to write something from scratch. It’s a great way to make extra money and market your company, but this type of content takes so long.
Many people will outsource their eBook content because of the time it takes. Some people also view it as difficult, although that is not the case. The formatting for Amazon, Smashwords and other places is very easy to do and there are step-by-step guides on each site to help. However, outsourcing frees up your time to do other tasks.
You can also hire someone to do the content to promote your upcoming eBook. This would link back to the sales copy and even blog posts.
Outsourcing is a great option when you just don’t have the time to write. Yes, there are certain types of content that you should write yourself, but there are also some that are perfectly fine being outsourced. In fact some of them are best outsourced so you have time for other tasks.
Do you outsource any of your tasks? Maybe you’re considering outsourcing to others. Please feel free to share your experiences, thoughts and comments below.
Copyright Alexandria Ingham, 2014. All rights reserved.
4 Responses
We’ve never outsourced, but do use guest bloggers. However, we spend nearly as much time proof reading and doing the photos as we do with our own content!
That is an issue with guest blogging. With outsourcing you can get someone else to handle the proofreading and photos for you too.
Alexandria,
What a helpful post! I’ve been struggling with selling some devotional books on my website. I can’t figure out how to engage people’s interest on them myself so I’ve been asking a virtual assistant that is helping me with some of the technical issues of my website. Maybe I can let her have a go at it and see if she fares better, knowing the sales side of the coin as well.
Thanks,
Amy
Hi Amy. That’s great to hear that you have a virtual assistant already. Hopefully she can help you with better engagement. Not all VAs can though as they don’t necessarily know the best sales content, but there’s never a problem with asking.