Content writer for hire

Looking to hire a content writer? Have the website but don’t know what to say? Need some carefully crafted website content to hook your audience and call them to action? I can help!

You have just seconds to capture the interest of a reader before they move on. Why risk that with poorly crafted content? If you put your all into your business, why let it down with low quality copywriting?

You know from your own experience of using the web that a page needs to be interesting, intriguing, amusing, entertaining, persuasive or all of the above if it is to hook the audience. If your strengths lie elsewhere, why not hire a content writer to do it for you? A content writer like me.

Contact me here at Coastal Content to discuss your needs.

Coastal Content writer for hire

With almost 15 years’ experience writing for the web, including some with leading brands, you’re in safe hands with me. I can research, write, edit and publish your web content so you don’t have to.

I deliver quality, readable website copy that delivers on the goals you set. Whether that’s to sell, inform, educate, entertain or attract links, I can help.

I write:

• Website content
• Blog posts
• How-to guides and tutorials
• Product and service reviews
• Press releases
• White papers
• Case studies
• B2B copy
• B2C copy

Why should you hire me as your content writer?

Why should you hire me as your content writer? That’s easy. I’m fast, accurate and can do all the work for you. I know how difficult it is running a business so have built my services around making your life easier.

Hiring me as your content writer goes like this:

1. Contact me with your brief or idea.
2. I’ll quote within 24 hours and we can discuss any details.
3. Once agreed, I will research and write your content.
4. Your content will then be edited and re-edited before submission.
5. I can publish on your website or blog for you or send it via Word or Google Docs.

That’s it!

The price includes all research, edits, SEO keyword research, competition research, writing and publishing. Two revisions are also included so we can tune every piece of content so it delivers exactly what you need!

Prices can also include meta descriptions, summary tables and any other content you might require. Just let me know when you send your brief and I’ll take care of the rest.

How much will content writing cost?

The million dollar question. Except it won’t cost anything like a million dollars!

Every project is different and prices depend on how much research, competition analysis and writing I’ll need to do. As an example, a five page website costs just £100/$125. A 1,000 word SEO optimised and fully actionable how-to guide would usually cost around £40/$50.

I can charge per word, per piece, per project or whatever you need.

Five reasons to hire a content writer

If you’re reading this, you’re already interested in, or are thinking about hiring a content writer. If you still need convincing, I have five compelling reasons why you should hire me.

1. Content writers are professionals
2. Content writers know readability
3. Content writers value consistency
4. Content writers are flexible
5. Content writers look at your business through the eyes of your audience

1. Content writers are professionals

If your car won’t start, you call a mechanic. If a pipe bursts, you call the plumber. If your electrics blow, you call an electrician. In other words, you call the right person for the job. It’s exactly the same with web content.

You may be able to write stuff yourself and that’s great. But do you know about readability? About weaving keywords or key phrases invisibly into content? Know the psychology of consumer behaviour? Know how to use confirmation bias for your benefit or how to leverage Fear Of Missing Out to prompt a desired response? I do.

Going back to that original analogy. You could fix your own car or your own plumbing but we both know that a professional will perform the work faster and to a much higher standard…

2. Content writers know readability

Many non-professional writers will read a little about their chosen subject and then launch right into the writing part. A content writer will actually leave the writing until much later.

First we research the subject. Then we research the target audience. Then we research the competition. Next we align your brief with that research. We then perform keyword research if required. We then plan the structure of the piece.

Only now would we begin writing. The actual writing is one of the last tasks we perform aside from editing and publishing!

With search becoming more demanding, the structure and readability of a piece is just as important as the words you use.

Have you ever landed on a page to see a wall of text? Or a page with no headings, no subheadings and no organised layout? What happened next? I bet 9 times out of 10 you will have quickly clicked away.

I won’t let that happen to you.

Readability is also about language choice, sentence structure and paragraphs.

We don’t read online in the same way we do a newspaper, magazine or book. We scan a web page seeking quick points to fulfil our need with minimum time and effort. That’s why a web page is structure so very differently than other media.

Shorter sentences. Universal language. Short paragraphs. Quick points with no fluffy language or padding.

The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery is credited with saying, ‘Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.’

The same is true for content writing and the editing that comes after it.

Direct, actionable and to the point. That’s what your audience demands and that’s what we give them.

3. Content writers value consistency as much as your audience

Humans think in patterns. It comes naturally and we never have to think about it. We have to actively unlearn this behaviour when we learn critical thinking and data analysis and it’s tough!

A good content writer will use this behaviour for your benefit.

For one off pages, we ensure there is a coherent structure that flows logically from one point to the next. Even if the reader has never landed on your website before, they will automatically know what information you are trying to convey and where to find what they are looking for.

For a series of pages or blog posts, we write pages with a similar structure, similar layout, similar use of links, menu and interactive elements to help build consistency.

People are comfortable with consistency. They know where they stand. They know what to expect and they know what’s coming.

As long as the key messages and content of the pages are unique, we can leverage patterns for your benefit.

4. Content writers are flexible

Part of a content writer’s training is to be able to flip from one subject to another quickly. We could be writing about cars one minute, computers the next, reviewing a WordPress theme in the morning and a new computer game in the afternoon. It means that no matter what you want us to write about, we deliver.

It also means we can switch between audience types so we always deliver the content your audience looks for.

For example, younger audiences have completely different ways of reading and engaging with a piece of content than older readers and professional audiences respond better to different vocabulary use than general readers.

That’s why audience research is key. So your web content says the right thing in the right way to the right people.

5. Content writers look at your business through the eyes of your audience

Finally, content writers look at your business through the eyes of your audience. We may be paid by you but we actually work for your readers. This is often the most difficult thing for a client to get their head around. You pay us. You provide the brief. But we write for your audience.

We aren’t doing it for you. We are doing it for them.

It’s the audience that reads your web content. It is the reader we want to engage with it and perform the desired action. It is the audience we will call to action. Therefore, it must be the audience that we write for.

This is the single most important aspect of content writing as far as I am concerned. It is also the biggest mistake non-professional writers make. They write web content with themselves in mind and not the person who will be reading it.

Convinced yet? Still need more reasons to hire a content writer?

Five ways a content writer could help your business

There are more than five ways a content writer can help your business but I don’t want to bore you so we will stick with these.

We can help you:

1. Rank higher in search engines
2. Convert visitors to customers
3. Build authority in your industry
4. Engage and entertain your audience
5. Be heard online

Content writers can help you rank higher in search engines

Anyone can dump a bunch of keywords onto a page and hope it ranks. Not everyone can weave keywords, phrases and terms into website content to they are effectively invisible to the reader while being obvious to search engines.

Keywords are only one aspect of search engine ranking.

Other aspects include the quality of the content, delivering content to satisfy search intent, making the page work with voice search, including rich snippets with your copy, structuring the page correctly, using readability rules to define the layout and a whole lot more.

Content writers can help you convert visitors to customers

Copywriting and web content writing is about features, benefits and the call to action. Many who write their own content will spend a whole lot of time describing what a product or service is and all the technical details they are so proud of and then wonder why the page doesn’t convert.

Website content is not about the details. It’s about the features and benefits. What will the product do for me? How will it enrich my life? How much more attractive will it make me? What problems will it solve?

Answering those questions is what converts, not a list of specifications.

The detail and specifications do matter but nowhere near as much as features and benefits. We would add those below the fold, further down the page.

Content writers can help you build authority in your industry

Authority is key when you’re trying to compete. If you sound as though you know what you’re talking about, people will have much more confidence in your ability to deliver. This will convert naturally alongside great copy and calls to action.

Building authority isn’t just about how much you know but also about your ability to communicate your knowledge to your audience. I worked with a professor of psychology on a personal website project once. He was the cleverest person I had ever met and was fascinating to talk to. However, he could not communicate his knowledge effectively.

Scientists throughout the ages have suffered the same fate. As have other experts in their various fields.

Authority is a combination of showing what you know without showing off. Communicating your expertise well enough that those without the same level of expertise can understand it and making knowledge accessible to everyone, regardless of educational ability.

I can help you do that.

Content writers can help you engage and entertain your audience

This builds on the communication point above but also goes back to seeing through the eyes of your audience. By viewing your business through their eyes, a content writer will know what to say, how to say it and how to guide them to the outcome we want.

This is part art and part science. You need to be a good communicator and be able to see things from other perspectives. You also need to know how to perform audience analysis, create audience personas and how to connect with a variety of personality types.

Content writers can help you be heard online

Good content writing is worth reading. Great content writing is worth sharing. Love it or hate it, social media is everything. Written correctly, web content can even encourage others to do your marketing for you.

Content that is interesting, entertaining and shareable means people will do the hard work for you. They will share it. They will rave about it. They will promote it and tell their friends.

Getting content to this standard is tough but once published, it can be like a runaway train. It takes on a life of its own and can be shared hundreds or thousands of times.

Content writer FAQs

Should I use a freelance marketplace to hire content writers?

You could use a freelance marketplace to hire content writers but I wouldn’t recommend it. I have used them both as an aspiring writer and as an employer as part of a content manager role. My experience wasn’t great. It involved writers promising and never delivering, writers missing deadlines, not reading the brief and not fully understanding the subject matter.

If you have the time and patience to fully vet freelancers, your experience may be much better than mine. If you don’t have the time and patience, hire me instead.

How can content writing improve your business?

Professional content writing improves your business in a number of ways. It engages the reader, ranks well with the search engines, demonstrates authority in your niche, effectively calls to action, educates, entertains, informs and gently guides the reader to where we want them to go.

How to evaluate a writer’s skill level?

You can evaluate a content writer’s skill level in a couple of ways. You can ask to see examples of their previous work. You can also provide a test piece for them to complete as part of the filtering process. Expect to pay for that test piece as nobody works for free, but think of it as an investment in finding the right fit for your needs.

I do a lot of work for agencies so my name doesn’t appear on the vast majority of my work. Therefore I am more than happy to write a test piece to prove my worth. Other writers will likely be the same.

What is the cost of a content writer?

The cost of your content writer depends on their experience and the brief. The more complicated your project, the more you should expect to pay. Some content writers charge by the word, some by the piece and these prices vary hugely depending on where you find them. Expect to pay from $40 to $100 per 1,000 words for top quality content that is ready to publish.

What is SEO-based content writing?

SEO-based content writing is exactly the same as all content writing. A professional will integrate keywords or phrases throughout the page content seamlessly as part of the package. Some can develop their own keywords while others depend on the brief to list them.

It isn’t all about keywords either. It’s about structure, intent, language, accessibility and a whole lot more. As search engines have become better at understanding how we search online, they have also become more demanding in how we deliver that content to rank highly.

If you’re looking for a content writer that delivers the brief and so much more, contact me at Coastal Content to discuss your needs.