What if you Hire the Wrong Freelance Writer?
With all the benefits surrounding freelance workers like a higher degree of specialization, lower costs, and more flexibility to get a job done fast, it’s no wonder businesses are rushing to find the best freelancers available.
You can’t grab just anyone, though. You need to do your due diligence, check the freelancer’s background and portfolio, and confirm their professionalism and reliability.
Here at Sustainable Sense, we’ve gone through the process of trialing freelancers to weed out the pretenders and only work with the best. If you want to be sure to avoid any freelance mishaps, contact us and we’ll get to work on your project.
If you want to hire your own freelancer just be sure to run your background checks or you might run into one of the problems listed below. Here’s what can happen if you hire the wrong freelancer.
They Misunderstand the Scope of Your Project
Despite your best efforts to communicate exactly what you want delivered, sometimes that information just doesn’t get received. Sometimes it’s the case that the client didn’t specify their needs, but other times it’s the freelancer ignoring those needs, misunderstanding those needs, or simply just lacking the technical knowledge to fulfill those needs.
Misunderstandings happen, but they can be avoided if the freelancer asks the right questions (even the “dumb” questions) instead of assuming what the client wants.
There isn’t much worse than eagerly anticipating a freelancer’s work only to open it and say, “no, this isn’t at all what I was looking for.”
They Don’t Factor in Your Target Audience
This is critically important for copywriting. If I’m writing copy, I need to know who is going to be reading it, what job titles they hold, what motivates them, and maybe most importantly, what are the problems they experience that your product, service, or company is helping them solve.
Some writers, both freelancers and staffers, ignore this point and just write about the topic from a general lens. This might relay information, but it probably won’t drive sales, get subscriptions, attract members, strengthen brand reputation, or whatever your goal behind the copy may be.
No target audience? No results.
You Get a Low-Quality Final Product
Maybe they understand the scope of your project, and write for your target audience, but sometimes it just falls flat. This does happen sometimes, but it can be cleaned up during revisions (unless they miss the next point below as well).
However, sometimes copy is just filled with grammatical and factual errors or is sloppily written with run-on sentences that seem to go on forever without holding anyone’s attention and by the end of the sentence the reader has forgotten what the idea at the start of the sentence even was to begin with, meaning that they won’t remember the message that you are trying to conve
Kind of like that last sentence, right?
They Don’t Stick Around for Revisions
There are almost always revisions to be made. Sometimes they are small word changes, other times full sections need to be rewritten.
Revisions are a vital component of the writing process, but some freelancers think it’s okay to deliver their draft and then go on holiday.
That’s not how it works.
We always include two rounds of revisions with every project. You probably won’t need the second, but it’s there in case you do.
They Take Days or Weeks to Respond
Perhaps the biggest fear for anyone hiring a freelancer is that they’ll disappear in the middle of a project. You won’t be able to contact them, you won’t know if they plan on finishing the project, you won’t know if you’re getting your deposit back, you won’t know anything.
Good freelancers provide regular updates, even if there isn’t much to say, just so the client knows that their project is coming along smoothly, or if any obstacles have been encountered along the way.
I have a hard time understanding how anyone could treat a career and a client so disrespectfully, but it does happen.
They Ask for More Money
A deal is a deal. And if the freelancer underestimated the amount of work it would take to complete the job, that’s their fault and nobody else’s. Good freelancers will still deliver a quality product and use this as a lesson, getting better at estimating the cost and time commitment of projects moving forward.
Bad freelancers will come back to the client and explain that they miscalculated and need more money from the project.
If the client changes the scope of the project halfway through, yes there are grounds to make the argument for charging a higher rate, but if it’s just a simple miscalculation on behalf of the freelancer, that’s too bad. A deal is a deal.
Their Drafts Need Better Editing
One of the downsides of working with freelance writers is that usually nobody is reviewing their work before the draft is submitted to you. Some freelancers hire editors to clean up their copy, but usually you are getting self-edited work.
Now, some freelancers self-edit better than others, but it’s always a bonus when you get a second pair of eyes on written work before it gets submitted.
Working with a team of freelancers, like at Sustainable Sense, there are always at least two sets of eyes on each piece of work.
They Don’t Handle Criticism Well
Continuing on the editing theme, some freelancers don’t receive criticism very well. You might find that some writers will push back on edit suggestions, and some push back is healthy. But if you can’t handle someone editing and criticizing your work, then freelance writing is not for you.
At the end of the day, the client is paying for the freelancer to work for them. The client has the final say, and freelancers should be able to adapt to what a client needs.
Take the suggestion, understand why it’s being made in the first place, and rewrite what is necessary to fit the narrative that the client is trying to create. Who wants to work with anyone that can’t handle criticism?
They are Just Plain Exhausting to Work With
Hiring a freelancer is supposed to save time and energy. However, that isn’t always the case.
Freelancers that exhibit any number of the above traits can be a royal pain to work with. Every communication becomes a hassle, and even though you probably aren’t going to hire them again, just getting through the one project with them is exhausting.
At Sustainable Sense, we’ve gone through the vetting process for you, and we only work with knowledgeable, dependable freelancers. We remove all of the guesswork when it comes to hiring contract writers, giving you the peace of mind that your project is in good hands.
There’s a reason why clients keep coming back to work with us. Find out why for yourself. Let us know what you’re working on, and we’ll see what we can do to make your life a whole lot easier.
One Response