This study will look at the 5 best AI content generators for long-form SEO blog posts. But most importantly it will focus on using brand new AI that is the first to be able to detect GPT-3 AI-generated content all to try and answer… can Google detect AI content? 

Since OpenAI released its GPT-3 API a large number of amazing AI content generation tools have been built. These tools can do a lot of things from writing emails to creating a Facebook ad. However, for this study we are focusing our efforts on long-form SEO blog posts that have the objective of ranking in Google.

We will be using Originality.AI which is the world’s first AI trained to detect if a piece of content has been created by AI tools using OpenAI’s GPT-3 API which tools like Jasper.ai use or other popular NLP APIs. 

What Originality.AI Was Built to Do… AI Exposing AI

The unchecked proliferation of AI content is not without its concerns. How do we responsibly/ethically use this awesome power of AI content creation? How do we ensure that Google does not penalize us for leveraging AI content?… these are all questions I think I am in a unique position to try and help answer.

Who Am I to Talk about AI Content?

Although I am an engineer, I am not an AI developer however I…

• Founded (and now sold) a done-for-you AI Content Agency: Rocket Content… where we were the heaviest user of Jasper.AI, and our team partnered with Jasper to develop a course and webinar for Jasper.AI’s agency users.

• Manage a portfolio of content sites some of which we are ethically leveraging AI content 
• Founded Originality.AI where we built our own AI that is able to predict if content was produced by AI (the world’s first GPT-3 AI detection tool!)

However, clearly I don’t know it all since I have my name on an AI patent that was not approved!

Before we get to the results of the study that determines if Google can detect content generated using GPT-3 (or any of the popular NLP models) we need a little background…

What is AI Generated Content?

AI Generated Content is when a machine produces content such as a blog post, article, headline, blog intro, ad copy, social media content, product description, content idea, chatbot response, email or even images. It has exploded since May 2020 when OpenAI provided access to the API of their pre-trained NLP called GPT-3. 

The Secret about ALL AI Content Generators

There are multiple pre-trained natural language processing models but it was really when GPT-3 came on the scene that the quality of the content produced became useable for marketers. 

So why was GPT-3 such a big deal in allowing an AI content generator to become useful? It was not the first or the only NLP model that has an API which developers can build tools with.

Pre-trained NLP model capabilities, up to this point, are best measured by their number of parameters, the table below shows the most popular NLP models that AI tools could choose to use and the number of parameters:

• Open AI GPT-2: 1.5 Billion
• EleutherAI GPT-J: 2.7 Billion
• EleutherAI GPT-Neo: 6 Billion
• Open AI GPT-3: 175 Billion (DaVinci) 

The “secret” is that ALL tools rely on the same API’s to create their content. These pre-trained NLP models are so incredibly costly to train that it would be impossible for even the best-funded AI tool to compete with its own NLP model. At a 30:1 difference in the number of parameters for GPT-3 to its nearest NLP competitor, the reality is that all effective AI content generation tools are using GPT-3 as their foundation.

Even though they are all using the same base there are still differences that can result in a big change in the quality of the content produced.

Fun Fact – EleutherAI (GPT-J, GPT-NEO) (scary sounding name) is actually truly open source while OpenAI(GPT-2, GPT-3) is very much for profit. The community, such as huggingface, of developers around AI is incredible!

Okay, enough nerding out…

Can Google Detect AI Content?

Yes, the study below shows that it is possible for Google to build (or has already built) its own AI that can successfully predict if content was created with an AI tool using GPT-3 (or other NLP model). We know this because at Originality.AI we built and trained our own AI that can predict if a piece of written content was created by an AI content generator using GPT-3 with 94% accuracy and higher for all other available NLP models.

Originality.AI has shown that the rumour GPT-3 created content was undetectable is wrong. Originality.AI was able to build a model that can detect content produced by all of the popular NLP frameworks with a high degree of confidence:

• GPT-3 Detection Accuracy is 94.06%
• GPT-J’s Detection Accuracy is 94.14%
• GPT-Neo’s Detection Accuracy is 95.64%.

As we head into 2023 there are no other tools that can do this and we are gearing up to be ready when GPT-4 goes live. 

So what? Why do we as content marketers care if Google (or others) can detect content that was created by a bot?

Google has come out and made it clear that it does not want AI-generated SPAM content in their Helpful Content Update they basically said as much. However, where it gets a little more mirky is what about content that was initially created by AI but then a human verified its accuracy and added some additional value? Will this get impacted by Google? No one knows!

The risk for all web publishers that don’t write every word themselves, right now is that writers they have hired are using AI writing aids to help create content faster and are now publishing content that could be identified as AI-generated.

As covered in this article or this article or this article it is widely understood that Google is scared of AI content damaging the usefulness of the text-based web which would result in Google making less money.

Now that the stage is properly set let’s get to the studies results!

STUDY: Examples From 5 Of The Most Popular AI Content Generators and Determining if Google can Detect Their Content?

We ran samples from 5 of the most popular long-form content AI generators through Originality.AI to test the confidence with which the content could be identified as not human-generated. In addition, we ran a control set of human-generated content to verify the probability score was identifying human as human and bot as bot. 

Here are the results…

Source of Content	AI Probability Score
Jasper.AI	79.14%
Rytr	95.00%
WriteSonic	99.43%
Frase	100.00%
Article Forge	100.00%
Control (VentureBeat)	2.4%

Jasper produced the content that had the lowest probability of being produced by the GPT-3 API. This likely reflects a lot of the extra work they have done on top of the OpenAI API.

To help show the tool is providing accurate results we ran the 5 most recent articles at VentureBeat covering AI through the tool and you can see the results below.

Although the AI at Originality.AI can not say with absolute certainty if content was created by GPT-3. You can see from this study it does an impressive job at determining what is human-created content and what is bot-created content. 

Originality.AI Exposing GPT-3 Content…

Here are the AI probability scores for the editorial articles from Venture Beat we safely assume are human-generated…

Below is a detailed breakdown of each tool and a video showing an example of the output of each tool being tested by Originality.AI 

1. Jasper.AI

Jasper.AI is an incredible tool, they have established themselves as the leading AI content creation tool with a $125M raise. 

This tools popularity and recognition is for good reason, they were our go-to tool when we built RocketContent.ai

The downside is that with their popularity, they have the challenge of needing to be a tool for all marketers looking to leverage AI. They are not focused on long form SEO content in particular like some of these other tools are.

They are definitely the best tool if you are signing up for an AI Content Creation tool for the first time or need an AI tool that can do it al!

Can Google Detect Jasper.AI Content:

Yes, using Originality.AI we are able to identify when content has been created by Jasper.AI. 

In the video below I show live as I use Jasper to create content and then test it with Originality.AI to see if it can be detected as generated by a GPT-3 tool.

Pro:

• Rich Features
• Quality output
• Community & Support

Con:

• Cost
• Trying to serve many masters

Pricing:

Jasper.ai Is Best For:

Anyone buying their first AI content creation tool. With its diverse group of tools it can support any marketer whether they are writing emails, sales pages or creating blog posts. It has established itself as the lead tool for good reason. 

If you only care about producing long-form SEO blog posts with a team I currently prefer WriteSonic.

See Jasper.AI Examples – Here

2. Rytr

Rytr is an interesting option for writers… it has the most affordable “unlimited” monthly plan.

When we used it we struggled to have it efficiently produce full blog posts that didn’t wander wildly off-topic. It seems that other AI tools have produced the ability to extract more focused content as the text gets longer but Rytr definitely struggles with this. 

The product is not as polished, easy to use or feature-rich as Jasper.AI so it is not best for people’s first tool.

The content produced does not seem to be at the same level as other tools. Within GPT-3 you can select which model you want to use and my guess is that Rytr has not selected the premium.

However, it is fast and the most economical unlimited tool. 

Can Google Detect Rytr-Generated Content?

Yes, using Originality.AI we are able to identify when content had been created by Rytr. Originality.AI showed with an average of 95% confidence that the content created by Rytr was produced by a bot. 

In the video below I show live as I use Rytr to create articles and test them for originality.

Pro:

• Affordable unlimited word count monthly plan
• Plagiarism checker integrated
• Easy to use

Con:

• Not great for long-form blog posts
• Not as feature-rich as competitors

Pricing:

Rytr is Best for:

I think of Rytr as the cheaper version of Jasper.ai. It is best for freelance writers who are producing a lot of lower-cost content and looking for a budget-friendly AI solution to help them. 

Rytr is your best low cost option, even though all these tools rely on the same NLP the results as you can see in the examples do vary. The Rytr examples are not as good as most of the other tools. 

See Rytr Examples – Here

3. WriteSonic

Write Sonic has become our go-to tool for creating long-form SEO blog posts. The content stays on point and flows well. 

Where many tools such as Jasper.ai and Rytr try and be a swiss army tool for digital marketers Write Sonic has focused more heavily on the use case for writers producing blog posts. 

It has some nice features to make it a good fit for teams of writers including the ability for multiple users and to select different quality content options. 

It is definitely not the lowest-cost option with the cost per word being as high as $0.01/word.

Can Google Detect Write Sonic Generated Content?

Yes, using Originality.AI we are able to detect WriteSonic content as being bot-generated. For the example articles that were run through the tool it predicted with a confidence of 99.4% that the content was bot-generated.

In the video below I show live as I demo WriteSonic, show examples of content and run them through the tool at Originality.AI:

Video

Pros:

• Great long-form content 
• Able to add multiple users
• Able to get started quickly
• Does have a free-trial

Cons:

• Expensive
• No Unlimited plan
• Fewer features than others (which is also a positive)

Pricing:

This is not the lowest cost option but it can produce excellent long-form content if that is what you are looking for.

Write Sonic is Best For…

Web publishers with a team of writers looking to leverage AI to increase their team’s efficiency.

WriteSonic and Jasper.AI are our current tools. 

Write Sonic Examples – Here

4. Frase AI Writer

Frase is a phenomenal tool that started as a great way to make content briefs easily. 

It has evolved a lot over the last 2 years and has now added AI content writing to its features. 

Because it was originally built not to be just an AI content creation tool the complexity is higher than most. 

Can Google Detect Frase.io AI Writer-Generated Content?

Yes, using Originality.AI we are able to identify when content was created by Frase. Originality.AI’s AI predicted with a full 100% confidence that the content was bot-generated.

Pros:

• It is the best tool to quickly create brief analyzing the top 20 results on Google
• Feature rich tool for SEO writers that goes beyond simply having a bot create content

Cons:

• Can be complex… the tool has a lot of pieces to it and if you are looking for a simple AI writer this is not it.
• Limited to 30 articles per month unless you pay a sizeable $149.99/month for unlimited

Pricing:

Frase AI Writer Tool is Best For:

If you are a serious SEO writer who writes a lot of your own content and would like to have an AI writing assistant paired with a lot of other more advanced SEO content tools to optimize your content to rank. I would suggest signing up to Frase because of the other features first (brief creation etc) not because of its AI writer. 

We use Frase for brief creation to provide writers with the ability to ensure they completely cover a given topic. 

5. Article Forge – Strongly Not Recommended 

Article Forge is the only tool on the list that explicitly says they do NOT use GPT-3. However, it raises the first of several questions… what do they use if it’s not GPT-3.

There are a series of concerning issues when testing Article Forge that has me warning people to NOT USE article forge!

Article Forge has some very interesting functionality for SEO content managers:

• Bulk content creation
• Automatic uploading & scheduling

Just upload a list of keywords, add a login to your site and poof perfect SEO-optimized, factual and helpful content published on your site… but this claim I fear belongs in the bucket of too good to be true! 

Here are the issues I was able to identify with the help of Originality.AI…

Issue 1 – Article Forge Content is Easily Identified as AI

Article Forge states they do not use GPT-3 but don’t explicitly state what they do use. Since our AI is able to consistently identify their content as AI it means they are likely using GPT-2, GPT-J or GPT-NEO. The quality of the output also suggests it is not GPT-3. However, since our tool is able to detect it that means it has to be one of the NLP models our AI is trained on so either GPT-2, GPT-J or GPT-NEO.

Issue 2 – Articles are Mostly Rewrites of top Ranking Articles

Here is how I went about testing this theory on how Article Forge works…

Theory: Article Forge finds top-performing pages for a given keyword and then uses AI to re-write sections of it. 

Test Theory:

• Create an article using Article Forge
• See that it passes keyword plagiarism (ie Copyscape or Originality.AI)
• Enter each LONG paragraph into Google and see how similar it matches up to the same article repeatedly

Conclusion: 

Article Forge uses an NLP API to re-write sections of top results in Google for a given keyword resulting in an un-original article in the eyes of Google.

Potential ISSUE 3 – Article Forge Content Does Not Rank in Google

The example articles at Article Forge do not rank well even if you search a full paragraph of the article. This could be a unique Google manual penalty to a portion of a page or it could mean that Google has been successful in identifying Article Forge content as not helpful.

There is indexable relevant content on their homepage (no googleoff tag or no index) that was produced by the tool. It should rank very high if we search an entire paragraph of the example article. However, when I grab the first paragraph and enter the entire thing in Google the Article Forge article is the 7th result.

Article Forge Summary

I would strongly recommend not using Article Forge since it appears that Article Forge is using either GPT-2, GPT-NEO, or GPT-J to re-write sections of top articles in Google for a given keyword. The result is generally a worse copycat of the original article that barely passes Copyscape but is in no way Original.  

If either a user or Article Forge team member wants to communicate if/how I am wrong please reach out!

AI Content Generation Tool FAQ:

It’s clear that as a blogger, content writer, instructor, or student, you know plagiarism is unacceptable. Google frowns upon it as well and may blacklist your website if they find duplicate text. That means fewer rankings, less traffic, and fewer sales and nobody wants that.

Luckily, Copyscape comes in to help you check your content against billions of similar pages on the internet. If there are any matching sources, the app will show you the matching text and the source it matches online.

The plagiarism tool offers a free service that allows you to paste a URL and check for any duplicate content online. A Copyscape Premium lets you paste text or upload a batch of files and check for plagiarism. Furthermore, you can create a private index to let you check new content against what’s in the private database.

The other product is Copysentry which protects your website against content theft. The tool monitors the internet for your content’s copies and emails you whenever new copies appear. I like Copyscape because it’s fast, easy to use, clean (no ads), supports the most popular languages and alphabets, and checks content against almost the entire internet.

However, there’s no way to verify whether the app has thoroughly checked all the revealed sources. Moreover, it can’t save plagiarism reports, doesn’t support cloud platforms like Google Drive, and its customer support is slow.

These shortcomings may prompt you to look for Copyscape alternatives. Keep reading to discover the best tool for your needs.

Best Copyscape Alternatives To Try

1. ProWritingAid

You might know ProWritingAid as one of the best grammar and proofreading checkers. But it also features a plagiarism checker that checks your content against over a billion web pages to ascertain its originality. While it doesn’t come with a free version, it’s an affordable Copyscape alternative.

This tool bills you based on the number of checks rather than the number of words. You can check high-volume texts like novels and eBooks without paying much.

You pay $10 for 10 checks, $40 for 100 checks, $120 for 500, and $200 for 1000 checks. As a premium user, you can generate plagiarism reports and access other tools, such as grammar checker, thesaurus, and readability reports.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly’s Plagiarism Checker compares your content against more than 16 billion web pages plus academic papers within Proquest’s databases. When a section of your text matches the content on web pages or in a database, you’ll receive a plagiarism alert.

The free version displays the number of grammar issues in the content and whether it’s plagiarized or not. But it doesn’t show you where the issues are. The plagiarism checker in Grammarly Premium highlights the plagiarized sentences and displays the plagiarism percentage.

Besides, you can see the sources of matching content on the right panel in the form of web URLs. You can click those links to dig deeper and confirm the details. The highlighted sections will disappear as you rewrite the plagiarized content in the Grammarly interface.

In addition to checking for plagiarism, Grammarly is a grammar, spelling, and punctuation checker. So, while rewriting any unoriginal content, the tool also shows grammar errors in your content with suggestions on what to do. This is one of the features you won’t find on Copyscape.

You can use the free version to check for plagiarism, but it only says whether the text has plagiarism or not. It also displays the number of writing issues in it. To see the specific unoriginal text and other grammar errors, you may need to upgrade to the Premium Plan, which starts at $12 a month, or Business Plan, which starts at $12.50 monthly.

3. Copyleaks

Teachers, SEO writers, businesses, bloggers, students, and anyone else uses Copyleaks to check for duplicate content and plagiarism.

Copyleaks uses AI and machine learning technology to analyze manipulated text and spot identical, similar, and paraphrased content sections. This tool finds what other plagiarism-checking tools let slip through the cracks.

What I find impressive about Copyleaks is the ability to generate accurate and comprehensive results as PDF reports. This is a feature you’d be hard-pressed to find on Copyscape. The CheatSpot.AI feature allows teachers to receive alerts when there’s suspected cheating. This feature uses White Ink and Character Development methods that most plagiarism checkers lack.

Bloggers can use Copyleaks to compare individual webpages on two different websites to detect possible copyright infringement. But that’s not all. Online course instructors can integrate Copyleaks with their favorite learning management system (LMS) in less than 30 minutes to help check for plagiarism and duplicate text within the LMS.

Copyleaks offers a free limited trial that lets you check 20 pages monthly. The premium version targets two types of users. The Academia and Education version costs 10.99/month to check 100 pages or 25,000 words. On the other hand, the Business and Enterprise version goes for $9.99/month for checking 100 pages or 25,000 words.

4. Plagtracker

PLAGTRACKER provides an online plagiarism checker tool that would thoroughly scan your document and give a report by highlighting a number of the plagiarized text. Once you upload the content on the website or paste it into the text box, the tool compares it against all academic articles on the internet together with their database, which contains over 20 million documents.

This tool is best for students and teachers who handle academic content online. Plagiarism can get a student penalized for copying another person’s work. That’s why this tool will check all your essays thoroughly, making sure your work is entirely original.

PLAGTRACKER is free software. Besides checking for plagiarism, you get other features to proofread your text and fix grammar errors. When dealing with large documents, you will have to upgrade to a premium account since it provides you with the capacity to scan larger files more quickly.

PLAGTRACKER’s premium account isn’t pricey and has more features than Copyscape. The app’s excellent features include an instant report (online version), PDF report (offline version), grammar check, compatibility with multiple file formats, reference processing, unlimited checking volume, and more.

The billing is on a subscription model at $14.99 per month, but there’s a 50% discount for the first month, which means you pay $7.49.

5. SmallSEOTools

The Plagiarism Checker by SmallSEOTools works by matching your content against billions of other pages on the web. It processes the results within seconds and generates a report. What gives the software an edge over Copyscape is the built-in rewriting feature. If your content contains unoriginal text, you simply need to click on the rewrite button, which will automatically rewrite the text, making it unique.

Plagiarism Checker also supports several document formats, including .docx, .pdf, .doc, .txt, .odt, .rtf, and more. Provided your document is in digital format, you can upload it and let the software do the rest. Want to check an entire web page? Well, this free tool gives you a feature that would allow you to paste a URL and check whether any of its content is copied elsewhere.

Did you run a plagiarism check and want a report to send to relevant parties as proof that they stole your content? No worries, as the tool generates a report that you can download and share with others. The sharing option is right there in the app.

Moreover, this excellent tool allows you to check for plagiarism in languages other than English. Hence whether your content has been written in Chinese, Italian, or French, the tool processes it trouble-free.

Interestingly, they have a WordPress plugin that lets you check for plagiarism within a post or page in WordPress without copy-pasting your entire post. Plagiarism Checker from SmallSEOTools has a Free Plan and four premium monthly plans. The Free Plan lets you run unlimited words for up to 20 queries.

The Basic Plan costs $4.99 per month for up to 500 queries. You can run 1000 queries for $9.99 in the Standard Plan, 3000 queries for $19.99 per month in the Business Plan, and 10000 queries for $49.99 per month in the Professional Plan. If you prefer an annual plan, you can buy it at $99.99, $199.99, and $399.99 for the Basic, Standard, and Business Plans.

6. CopyGator

CopyGator is an online tool that will help you detect any content copied from your posts. The application achieves this by monitoring your RSS feed and comparing them to data generated from other feeds.

The software will automatically update you if any of your feeds match other blogger feeds by sending a “collusion.” Depending on the similarity level, this feature will describe how much of your content has been copied, such that some are labeled “near” and others “exact.”

In addition, the online tool will provide you with more information concerning when, where, and how your content has been plagiarized. Guess what? All these services are provided to you for free. CopyGator works like Copyscape’s Copysentry, but it’s free.

7. Plagiarisma

Plagiarisma is a perfect plagiarism-checking tool for students and teachers. It scans essays, research papers, dissertations, and coursework and compares them to its massive database of internet sources, past essays, past examination papers, published journals, and old dissertations.

The tool also compares your text against the current and past published content on Google Scholar and Google Books. The software is fast and supports multiple formats, such as Docx, Doc, Txt, PDF, RTF, and HTML. The duplicate checker supports over 190 languages and can check text and URLs.

Plagiarisma isn’t limited to plagiarism detection; it also checks the text for grammar errors and has a synonymizer for rewriting content using synonyms. Besides, it has a similarity checker that compares two pieces of text using the Levenshtein method and Fuzzy logic. Copyscape doesn’t have these extra features, which is why Plagiarisma is its great alternative.

This tool is free but has four premium options, including $8 per day, $15 per month, $25 for three months, and $45 for six months.

8. Plagium

Plagium is owned by Septet Systems Inc., which provides advanced search solutions to the government, industry, and public. One of its unique features includes uploading any file, whether a PDF, word document, or text file. After uploading, Plagium scans the file and creates a report of any text duplicates.

The software offers a free quick search option that allows users to scan their documents quickly. But if you conduct many searches, you may be required to sign up and search for $0.04 per page. It also provides a deep search at $ 0.08 per page, which compares your text to more sources on the internet.

The third option is File Search which lets you compare various text documents and generate a visually friendly report that you can easily understand and work on. The cost is $0.005 per page. More importantly, Plagium integrates with Google Drive, allowing you to work hassle-free between Google drive and the tool. There’s also a Google Docs Plagium addon. The last three features aren’t available on Copyscape, making Plagium an ideal alternative.

9. EasyBib

EasyBib has the plagiarism checker and grammar checker working together to indicate duplicate text and grammar errors. Using the tool is easy: click on ‘check your paper,’ paste the text in the text box or import a file from the computer or Google Drive. The software will conduct plagiarism and grammar checks simultaneously and display the results.

The results come in three categories: grammar, plagiarism, and expert check. You can click on each option to see the errors and edit.

I uploaded a random file from my Google Drive and ran a check. The results appeared after a few seconds. I could only see part of the grammar errors and was prompted to sign up for a free trial to see all grammar and plagiarism errors.

There’s an option to choose the English language for checking your document. You can choose U.S. English, UK English, CA English, and AU English. While Copyscape only checks for plagiarism, EasyBib checks for plagiarism and grammar mistakes, making it an impressive alternative. EasyBib has a free account and two paid accounts at $9.95 per month and $19.95 per month.

10. Unicheck

Are you looking for more than just pointing out similarities? Unicheck is an online tool that will help you achieve authenticity. Trusted by over 1100 learning institutions globally, Unicheck provides a complete solution for academic institutions to detect duplicates and text modifiers and prevent content cheating.

The tool can unveil the manipulation of texts, and if detected, it will provide you with the details of the modification listed in the report. However, it only focuses on the crucial matches and will ignore common phrases. That means you get a report on the relevant information only.

Unicheck allows you to access its simple and easily understandable reports anytime, which are also available for download. This tool is a great Copyscape alternative, especially when dealing with academic content since an instructor can analyze a student’s progress by viewing the statistics accumulated over a period of time.

Conclusion

In my opinion, ProWritingAid’s Plagiarism Checker is the best Copyscape alternative because it scans your text against over a billion pages online, making it difficult for any duplicate content to be left out. It has many other features like grammar, style, diction, cliche, structure, transition, overused words, and more. So, it takes care of all your content needs.

Its pricing model is also reasonable; you pay according to the number of checks rather than words, making it an affordable option. The tool is user-friendly and integrates well with Google Docs and MS Word.

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Over the last few months, I have received numerous emails asking about writers and where to find them. Writers can often be a headache for people to outsource and can sometimes eat up a lot of time. Our team likes to hire and fire fast and not spend much time on a writer if they don’t produce something great the first time.

Hiring a writer is more than just paying for a service; it’s an investment in both your company and yourself. It ensures your company is properly represented and saving yourself hours of time that can be better spent focusing on any of the countless other tasks that come with running an online business.

There are also many different writers out there, too. There are writers who specialize in different fields, such as SEO, copywriting, dissertation ghostwriters, essay writers, writers to maximize business plans, content writers, white paper writers, resume writers… the list is almost endless and all of which can be found on freelance sites.

First, if you are looking for a writer for hire, you need to think about exactly what you want.

Before you can actually go about hiring a writer, you’ll need to decide whether you want to hire one as a part of your staff, work with a freelancer or an agency. All options have their own benefits and drawbacks.

Working with a freelance writer is a more streamlined process and oftentimes more cost-effective. Interviewing can be tedious and time-consuming. Instead of meeting with multiple people, you can place an ad online and make a decision based on the submissions of writing samples you receive (risky but fast).

Whereas hired writers are either salaried or hourly, freelancers are usually paid per project. If you find a writer who you’d like to work with more consistently, you can offer to pay a retainer fee to reserve a determined amount of time for your projects.

Compared to the possibly-costly process of firing an employee, ending a relationship with a freelancer is much easier. All you have to do is send an email letting them know you’re no longer interested in working together (sometimes you can get someone who sends a million emails asking why they were fired and for another chance – as I have experienced!)

Hiring a writer as part of your staff isn’t without its perks. Even with email, Skype, and other modern technologies, nothing compares to communicating face-to-face. Sometimes, explaining exactly what you want is easier in person.

Working with a content management team such as Content Refined, offers the ability to be hands off and hire a skilled team who just produces quality content. Plus, many content management teams also offer scheduling and marketing services.

Most content management teams have a team of writers so you can rest assured knowing there will always be someone available to take on your project. If you’re dissatisfied with the quality or style of the assignment, you can simply ask for a different writer’s spin on it.

Like with freelancers, payment is usually per assignment and based on the services provided. However, you’ll likely end up paying more when working with content management teams, which makes sense since a team is bound to have more expenses than an individual. However, with additional services like promoting content across various social media platforms, your money will be put to good use.

Now that we’ve gone over why hiring a professional writer is essential, let’s take a look at the 5 best places to hire writers.

#1 Upwork

“To connect businesses with great talent to work without limits.”

This is the biggest and best platform that we hire a lot of our team from.

Upwork is a website that connects freelancers with those who are looking to hire them. This does not only have to be article writing it can be a wide range of different tasks from hiring a VA to getting someone to build you a website.

#2 Facebook

With over 1 billion users active on a daily basis, Facebook is undoubtedly one of the best ways to find a professional writer. Unlike Upwork—which only provides you with the information submitted by the freelancer—Facebook gives you far more insight into who you’re dealing with as a person.

Experienced freelancers may even have reviews on their wall and clients on their friend’s list. We have only recently started to use Facebook for hiring, but the outcome has been fantastic so far. They are a bit more pricy then the other places listed here but can sometimes be worth it.

By utilizing its search function, you can easily connect with thousands of people—both individually and in groups. For example, this group https://www.facebook.com/groups/copyjobs/ features over 13,000 members who are all skilled copywriters.

Because business dealings managed via Facebook are usually done in private, it’s hard to discern how payments are usually handled, we usually use Paypal for our transactions with them.

The greatest pro of finding writers on Facebook is its massive user base. The biggest downside is its publicity and the risk of scorned clients or freelancers posting negativity on your wall.

#3 Fiverr

Fiverr (Not recommended) is almost the antithesis of Upwork. Instead of posting jobs, those looking to hire a freelancer, select a category, then a sub-category of work and choose the freelancer they feel best fits their needs from the listings. We find that the pool isn’t as large as Upwork but there are still some good quality writers if you give it enough time.

Rather than applying to different jobs, freelancers on Fiverr post a listing that specifies what type of work they’re willing to do, their skills, and their rate. Each listing comes with three options: basic, standard, and premium—each with its own rate and services offered.

The going rate for 1000 words seems to be anywhere between $10 and $25, depending on the seller.

The biggest advantage of using Fiverr is being able to compare and contrasts the many different sellers to be able to find the one that’s ideal for you.

The biggest downside to using Fiverr is the inability to post jobs with specific requirements and I find the pool isn’t as big as other platforms.

#4 Onlinejobs.ph

Onlinejobs.ph is a website that allows you to outsource work that you have to skilled individuals in the Philippines. I haven’t used this one but I have heard some great things about it.

When looking for someone to hire, you can either post a job and wait until someone applies or search through the site’s resume database using keywords.

Once you’ve found someone you’re interested in working with, you’re ready for the next step: Ironing out the details like payment (which is handled via PayPal) and expectations.

The greatest part of using onlinejobs.ph is its TimeProof tool: Software that records any activity, takes screenshots of the freelancer’s screen, and then sends them off to the employer automatically.

As with all outsourcing, you run the risk of working with someone who isn’t too familiar with your language, which may end up leading to issues. In my opinion, this is the biggest disadvantage.

Before working on onlinejobs.ph, it’s important to remember to read up on the conversion between your nation’s currency and the Filipino peso.

#5 Guru

Guru.com seems similar to Fiverr in how employers sift through freelancer listings and profiles in order to find someone that can provide what they need. Like Upwork, the website manages payment by serving as a middleman. Unlike Upwork, where the website’s team ultimately decides if the work has been fulfilled satisfactorily, Guru claims that the employer ultimately decides whether the provided work is worthy of payment.

Leaving the terms of payment up to the employer is simultaneously Guru’s biggest pro (for the employer) and con (for the freelancer).

Out of the 5 websites listed above, I’d have to say Upwork is the best for finding writers. Even though Facebook has a massive user base, the straightforward and streamlined bidding process for Upwork makes it easy to find someone to work with.

If you have any questions or know of any other places, I would love to hear about it! Please mention any other writing resources below and what it’s advantages/disadvantages are (self promotional posts are allowed within reason 🙂 )

5 Tips for Managing Writers

Now that you know 5 locations to hire writers here are 5 tips on how to manager the writers you have hired.

Building up any website takes a lot of working with writers to get the most useful quality articles possible.  Across all my money sites, I work with a team of writers to keep the content new every week and to keep the organic traffic numbers growing.

As you can imagine, that’s a lot of writers to manage.  So this week I thought I’d share the best ways to hire and maintain a team of solid writers, keep them organized, and keep on track with what everyone is doing.

In addition to these practises I have developed over the years many of these lessons have been learned via ContentRefined.com where we have produced over 1,000,000 words/month for clients!

1. Hiring Writers

I’ve talked about this before, but hiring freelance writers shouldn’t be taken lightly.  You want a native English speaking, strong and competent writer with solid experience.  I always ask them to do a test assignment before bringing them onto the team. Here’s an example job posting from UpWork.

To check for grammar, I always ask the applicant to fix a couple of grammatically incorrect statements.  That’s a quick way to check whether they’re legit English speakers or not. If they provide some examples of their work, that’s a good way to quickly check them out as well.  But the best way is to assign them a test article to really see their chops.

2. The 10% Rule

I stole this rule from Jack Welch, former GE CEO, about maintaining the best teams.  In a nutshell, he says that you should fire the bottom 10% of your staff every year.  I apply this (in a way) to writing teams to make sure that they’re always stacked with the best writers.  Say you have 10 writers on a content team. Every month or so, I cut out the 1 bottom performer and replace them with someone new.  Constantly refreshing teams like this has worked well for making sure that writers are on their game and not getting lazy.

3. No Second Chances

Another tip with freelance writers: don’t give second chances.  It’s happened a few too many times where I’ll give somebody the benefit of the doubt for a mistake or a late assignment, and sure enough they go out and repeat that bad behaviour every time.  When you depend on sticking to a schedule and you really need writers to be on the ball, you can’t let anything slide. If they screw up, move on and hire someone new. You don’t have to be rude about it.  Just let them know the problem(s) and why you can’t continue to work with them. It’s not personal; it’s business.

4. Keeping Organized: Spreadsheets!

A master spreadsheet that shows the status of team members has been the most effective strategy for keeping track of everybody.  I check in with a spreadsheet like this one pretty much every day to review the work in progress.  If I’ve assigned something and haven’t heard back from the writer for a day or two, I’ll follow up.  If there’s still no response, those articles need to be reassigned.  This simple spreadsheet will save you the huge headache of confusing emails and trying to mentally keep track of everybody.  Just be sure to actually update it and don’t let things slip by, because that will make things confusing really quickly.  Especially if you’re dealing with 10 or more writers, and various writing teams across different businesses, you want to make sure everything is well-organized.

I also always have an editor go through every article or piece of web copy that I have written.  It’s great to have a second set of eyes on any text to help with spelling, grammar, flow, and readability.  It’s usually this editor who I also get to run every piece of text through Copyscape to check for plagiarism.  So in this master spreadsheet, you can keep track of what’s on your editor’s plate at the moment too.

5. Consistent Payments

Some freelancers will want to stick with UpWork for payments for security, but more often than not our writers ask for PayPal.  It avoids the UpWork fees.  No matter which way your writers want to go for payments, I recommend that you stick to a consistent pay schedule.  Every week at the same time of day is ideal.  Let your writers know when they can expect to be paid, and keep track of the work they’ve completed on a week by week basis.  Here’s an example of what that payment tracking spreadsheet can look like.  In this example, payments would ideally be made on Sundays, because the weekly tracking goes from Monday to Sunday.  So writers know that if they hand something in on a Monday, they won’t be paid until that coming Sunday.

Final Thoughts: Keep Your Writers Happy

Consistent work, positive reinforcement, and clear communication are probably the three main things that have helped me keep some awesome writers around for a long time.  When you’re working with someone primarily through email, it helps to have a friendly tone and to be as clear as possible with direction.  Mutual respect and trust is the goal.

What have you found to be the most effective way of managing writers or content teams?  Are there any tools you use that I should be checking out?  Let me know in the comments!

Content writing is one of the steps that has to happen within content marketing. Content marketing consists of a series of steps, including business strategy, keyword research, content writing, publishing, and marketing the created content. Too often, the process of content writing gets mistaken for a business doing content marketing.

Content Refined delivers exceptionally high valued content to enhance your website and improve its rank on search engines.