Do you outsource content? How much? What's your posting schedule like?

[Samwise89]

I'm curious about this. I want to take it more seriously and I'm earning enough that I think I can reinvest and set up a posting schedule. I need a frame of reference though in the context of an authority site.

• How much do you spend each month on outsourcing content?
• How many posts do you publish monthly?
• What is your posting schedule?
• How many words in general are you posts?
• Is this for easy to write blog posts or do you hire an expert for high quality posts?
• Do you hire from Upwork style sites or from agencies like Word Agents? Or did you bring it in house?
• What do you pay per word or per 100 words, whatever figure you know.
• Do you pay for keyword research and optimization or do it yourself?
• Do you bother with on-page or publish the posts exactly how you get them?
• Do you feel the need to read and edit each post before you publish?
• If you do, do you pay an editor to do it? What does this cost you?
• How do you deal with adding images, interlinks, and outbound links?
• How long does it take you to publish a post on average?
• Has this made an impact on your organic traffic numbers?
• If so, how long did it take before you saw the growth?
• And most importantly, is it an ROI-positive effort?
• Do you see the 80/20 principle play out in which bring you traffic and income?

I'm so ready to get past bootstrapping and writing all this myself. It's so slow. There's endless topics to cover that I can't possibly make a dent by myself.

My hope is that I can use all this content to steady interlink back to my money pages with certain anchors and push them forward, and that after a certain indexation size and constant publishing schedule, Google gives me a boost.

 

[Potatoe]

I can answer based on my experiences both as an editor / writer selling content, and as a publisher ordering content. Others I can answer based on projects I've worked on.

Just as a disclosure to be totally transparent so there's no confusion, I'm not referring specifically to my own personal sites with all of these answers. I'm thinking of a handful of successful sites that I've worked on, along with my own processes, when answering these questions.

• How much do you spend each month on outsourcing content? $1,400 - $2,400 is the average sweet spot I've noticed for growing sites that have already got some traction where the owners have wanted to really push them harder with daily posts. If you don't have this much to budget towards content, don't get discouraged, it just might take longer to get out of the earlier stages and to a point where you can invest more in content.
• How many posts do you publish monthly? 60-90, but upwards of 120-150 for sites with good social exposure already in place. In other words, if they're making their money back and an ROI on nearly every post that gets published, within hours of it being published, it's not a hard sell to scale up content production.
• What is your posting schedule? No schedule except X posts per day, except when it comes to scheduling them to social media. For timely stuff it's ASAP, for other stuff it just depends when the fans/audience interact the most with a page, which you can test and figure out before too long.
• How many words in general are you posts? ~800, but it could be 250 if it's a super quick viral post that needs to be up really fast, or 2,000+ for something more in-depth. There's almost always a way to flesh things out and bring more info and value for the readers without having to resort to filler content.
• Is this for easy to write blog posts or do you hire an expert for high quality posts? Both, just depends.
• Do you hire from Upwork style sites or from agencies like Word Agents? Or did you bring it in house? I've had great success finding people on Upwork and going to niche forums to find expert-tier hobbyists on particular topics. We've also had solid results building in-house teams with people that were found in the same places. My experience as a writer helps me A TON when it comes to finding solid writers to hire, and ensuring they stick around.
• What do you pay per word or per 100 words, whatever figure you know. I've found a very reliable writer who does daily posts for a backburner site of mine who charges on the lower end of the scale, but I think overall 5+ cents per word is where you start to get into the sweet spot for typical blog content and that's the bare minimum rate I charge personally.
• Do you pay for keyword research and optimization or do it yourself? I do it myself on my sites / I have been hired to do this for others as part of a larger content strategy.
• Do you bother with on-page or publish the posts exactly how you get them? I put a great deal of effort into training so that posts are as close to ready-to-publish as they can be, but I've also worked as an editor on projects where they prefer to hire less expensive writers and have an editor tidy things up, so in those cases there are a lot of edits to do. Both ways can work great, it just depends where you want to deploy the resources. I think the best route for long term projects is to have a skilled editor who is going to work closely to help the writers improve and learn the best practices. The editor is incentivized to help the writers get better because it makes the editor's job easier, and the client ends up with a very strong writing team filled with writers who could transition into editors as things scale up.
• Do you feel the need to read and edit each post before you publish? 100%, but with writers I've grown to trust and who are consistent, the level of proofreading and editing drops dramatically for lower-impact posts (Referring specifically to my own projects here). For stuff that's going to get tens of thousands of clicks for a client and be under greater scrutiny, obviously a quick proofread isn't enough - there's a much higher level of care / fact checking / making sure all our bases are covered. You need to double check any data or numbers, you need to make sure there's no typos in people's names, you need to make sure there aren't any inaccurate claims, all that good stuff.
• If you do, do you pay an editor to do it? What does this cost you? I am that editor, and about $300 per week is a starting point for sites that post at least a couple times per day.
• How do you deal with adding images, interlinks, and outbound links? Depends on the site... For viral stuff, I'm choosing the featured images because it's do or die. For my affiliate sites, I have an assistant who curates images and formats them correctly, adds the alt tags and sources, etc. It took a lot of effort for her to develop the right feel for it, but now that she's got the hang of it, it saves so much time.
• How long does it take you to publish a post on average? Anywhere from 10-15 minutes for a huge super breaking news type story, to a couple of hours for impactful posts, to a few days or a week for really in-depth stuff.
• Has this made an impact on your organic traffic numbers? Yes.
• If so, how long did it take before you saw the growth? I wouldn't expect much within the first few months for anything new, even with a consistent injection of very high-quality content. I mostly work with sites that are already semi-established, and it's been a while since I've launched a new one of my own, but generally speaking... give it some time. Work on social while you're waiting for organic.
• And most importantly, is it an ROI-positive effort? Strictly speaking from my experience and of people I've worked with: Yes. There are also people who don't make money, and moving parts besdies just the content that will determine if your site is successful or not.
• Do you see the 80/20 principle play out in which [posts] bring you traffic and income? I haven't noticed it.

 

[stackcash]

Being that I both sell content services and buy content for my own niche sites, I think this should be helpful!

How much do you spend each month on outsourcing content?
How many posts do you publish monthly?
What is your posting schedule?

These types of question and answer won't help you. Everyone's site is different and has different needs. As such, what someone else is paying monthly is going to be meaningless to you if you're in a different situation.

With that said, I might be spending $10,000+ a month on a brand new site to build out the core content. On an established site, I might just be spending $200 to keep it fresh.

In regards to number of posts and posting schedule, it depends on where your site is in its lifecycle. Assuming that I have all of the keyword content already created for my entire niche and I just need to keep it fresh, I am posting one blog post per silo/category per month.

How many words in general are you posts?

For blog posts, about 25% longer than the competition or 1,500 words if there is no competition.

For evergreen guides and linkable assets - as long as they need to be to make them great.

Is this for easy to write blog posts or do you hire an expert for high quality posts?

I both write my own content and use my team.

Hiring an expert can be very tricky. You'll find experts that are willing to work for the rate you're offering - but they won't be able to put together a paragraph of well-written text to save their life. The experts that can write well typically want big money. You'll need to spend an ungodly amount of time digging for someone that can both write well and is in your budget.

It's best to develop your own standard operating procedures, content templates, and rules for writers...and then find writers in your budget that are able to meet your expectations.

Do you hire from Upwork style sites or from agencies like Word Agents? Or did you bring it in house?

Both. I write, I use my team, and I also have custom teams for certain sites.

What do you pay per word or per 100 words, whatever figure you know.

You can find writers that will be good for your needs at any rate. It just depends on how much you want to dig for them.

WordAgents prices projects based on the requirements of the project - it's a WIDE range.

Personally, I pay about $.06 to $.10 per word for the content that goes on my sites.

Do you pay for keyword research and optimization or do it yourself?

Always do research yourself. You can have the writer do basic formatting / optimization / posting. Then, go back and perfect the optimization yourself.

Do you bother with on-page or publish the posts exactly how you get them?

This is a serious question?

Do you feel the need to read and edit each post before you publish?

Again, u serious? You're spending business assets to leverage your time. You damn well better be checking to make sure you got what you spent your hard earned money on.

If you do, do you pay an editor to do it? What does this cost you?

It depends on what you consider to be an "editor."

If it's just a person that you hire to check the outsourced content against your standard operating procedures, then maybe $20-$25 an hour.

If you're expecting line editing / copy editing - then you should be prepared to pay almost as much as you paid for the article itself, plus an hourly fee to post / optimize / format / publish the content.

How do you deal with adding images, interlinks, and outbound links?

It's annoying, but I deal with it just fine.

It should be part of your operating procedures. Image and video sourcing will increase the rate you pay to the writer.

How long does it take you to publish a post on average?

A "post" has a million definitions. If you're just copy/pasting text and clicking the publish button... then 30 seconds.

If it's a 10,000 word article and you're using a visual content builder and you want it to look like god's gift to eyeballs and you're optimizing for 56,000 longtails... then 14 days.

Has this made an impact on your organic traffic numbers?

Adding content to my websites? Yes, of course.

If so, how long did it take before you saw the growth?
And most importantly, is it an ROI-positive effort?

I think you're just messing with us with these questions at this point. You know the answer is that it depends on a million variables.

More content + More Links + More exposure = fast growth

Good competition research + good optimization = good ROI.

Do you see the 80/20 principle play out in which bring you traffic and income?

80/20 is always at play. Don't bother paying attention to it. Target your keywords. Write your content. Build your links. Wait for rankings. If you're not ranking on the first page, then update content, build more links, interlink more, build supporting content, do a tech seo audit and fix things as necessary, write more content, update more old content, build more interlinks, build more links, do a tech seo audit and fix things as necessary, build out other traffic funnels (email / social / paid), write more content. etc etc etc. (and stop asking questions that have no value to you!)

 

[Cash Builder]

• How much do you spend each month on outsourcing content?

As @stackcash said above, this all depends on what stage your site is at. I am currently growing my site, so at the moment I am spending roughly $300 per month on content. In the next few months I would like to double that, if budget allows.

• How many posts do you publish monthly?

This all depends on what I am posting. A typical month will see me posting 4 -6 money posts and 10 – 20 supporting / informational posts. Again, I would like to ramp this up in a few months.

• What is your posting schedule?

I upload and format at least 1000 words per day. Sometimes just 1000, sometimes 5000, it all depends on what other tasks I have to do that day.

• How many words in general are you posts?

My main buyers guides are usually 3000 – 4000 words long, depending on the competition. Informational articles are usually 1000 words, sometimes 2000 if it needs it.

• Is this for easy to write blog posts or do you hire an expert for high quality posts?

I have the same writer for all of my articles. Once my budget increases I may look for an expert to write the buyers guides and reviews, but at the moment I am happy with my writer.

• Do you hire from Upwork style sites or from agencies like Word Agents? Or did you bring it in house?

I found my writer on Upwork and now work with them directly.

• What do you pay per word or per 100 words, whatever figure you know.

£10 / $13 per 1000 words.

• Do you pay for keyword research and optimization or do it yourself?

I do all keyword research on on-page optimization myself.

• Do you bother with on-page or publish the posts exactly how you get them?

I spend on average 1 hour editing and formatting 1000 words of content.

• Do you feel the need to read and edit each post before you publish?

Yes, this is the main bottleneck for me at the moment.

• If you do, do you pay an editor to do it? What does this cost you?

I don’t have an editor yet, but hopefully will soon!

• How do you deal with adding images, interlinks, and outbound links?

This is all included in my formatting of the post. I spend a good bit of time on interlinking as I believe this is one of the most important aspects on on-page.

• How long does it take you to publish a post on average?

1 hour per 1000 words.

• Has this made an impact on your organic traffic numbers?

Yes, adding content to my website has increased my organic traffic, thankfully!

• If so, how long did it take before you saw the growth?

When my site was new, it obviously took ages before I seen any traffic coming my way. Just over a year until I broke the $1000 per month mark. Now my site has age and authority, I can post an article and see it go straight onto the second or third page, and then slowly rise to the first page. There’s obviously a lot of variable that affect this though.

• And most importantly, is it an ROI-positive effort?

Adding content should always be an ROI, if it’s not then there’s really no point in adding it.

• Do you see the 80/20 principle play out in which bring you traffic and income?

On the surface, yes. What I mean by this is that only 10 – 20% of my content is actually making me money, but that’s not to say the other 80% isn’t doing its job. They are supporting the main money makers, adding relevancy, bringing in the links. Every piece of content that you post should have a purpose, whether that’s making money, supporting pages, informing your customers, attracting links.