Well, I had my first ever experience with an average writer whilst outsourcing some content on elance this week. I’ve heard stories of people having trouble getting good writers, and I always wondered at that, as I’ve had fantastic writers who have actually taught me a lot about how to write great articles. My best writers have taught me how to design an article so it presents the subject matter in a coherent and meaningful way. They taught me the power of a good introductory section, and underscored the idea that it is often important to provide some background material when publishing articles for syndication.

Previously, I probably was more interested in presenting the information itself, and did not write to the level of my audience enough. Perhaps I don’t always get it right now, but I know I’ve improved simply from learning from their examples. On top of that, I got some great content!

This last writer wasn’t bad - I would describe the author as average. His articles actually reminded me a little bit of some PLR that I frequently bemoan. They lacked personality, and a sense of connection with the subject. And you don’t have to be an expert to convey a sense of connection with a subject - it all comes down to good research, and not hurrying the writing of the job.

I recognized the sense of haste with the writing. I recognized it from the times I did it myself. The difference was, I actually knew my subject matter, so I was at least providing good information. But when you’re in a hurry, the structure of the article, and the way you use language, often betray you.

There were other problems. In some instances, this writer clearly had done very little research, probably no more than beyond the first few websites he came across. Unfortunately for him, the subject matter, and the questions implied in the keywords, required more research. So, he padded the article with a lot of other irrelevant stuff, as well as using excessive and circular language ie. he would repeat and restate information to reach the word limit and try and cover up his lack of actual information. I was very disappointed.

And it was easier and quicker for me to quickly go through the articles myself than try and get him to provide something he really couldn’t. I think I’ve just been very fortunate in my choices of writers previously. Because his articles were average (as opposed to really quite bad), they didn’t need much in their structure changed. So, I could edit the excess language and put some useful information in there so the subject was covered.

Interestingly, this writer was one from a previous project I had already awarded. I couldn’t be bothered going through posting another project (this one had the same specs), and I wanted to try a different writer though I was happy with the woman who I awarded the project to. So, I ignored some gut instinct and went with him as well.

That was my lesson - go with your first impressions, your gut instinct! I talked myself out of it. A lot of these articles were female oriented, and I thought I was subconsciously having doubts because he was a guy. Turns out my subconscious (or whatever it is), was picking up something else - average quality, and a bit sneaky (covering up in the article).

Outsourcing is an excellent way to grow your business. It has so many advantages that a small incident like this is just one of those little things in the grand scheme. Like dealing with poor performing employees in a brick and mortar business, outsourcing can bring its own set of challenges. But if you want to truly grow your business, you cannot do everything yourself. There are time limitations, as well as the fact that you ultimately want to have the essential business tasks taken care of. Otherwise, it’s just a job in disguise!