Stop Outsourcing Content Writing Overseas
Categorized in: Content
Inbound marketing strategies like SEO are all about the content, but what if you have none? Well, you pretty much have two options. You can hire an in house content writer or outsource the work. Depending on the size of your company, you may not need to hire a full time or even part time staff member and outsourcing may be the best option.
However, not all outsourced content writers are good. In fact, many are very bad. Falling into the bad category are overseas content writers. There’s a reason (actually there are many reasons) why an overseas content writer will write a 1,000 word article for $5. You get what you pay for. If you’ve chosen to outsource your content writing, don’t outsource it overseas because this is what you’ll get:
Problems with Speakers of English as a Second Language
Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? If you have, you know how difficult it is to actually learn it in the first place, never mind get good enough at the language to write on a level that a native speaker would. Aside from the fact that keeping all the grammar and spelling rules straight is difficult even for native speakers, problems with the writing extend well beyond that. Languages usually can’t be translated line by line. Nuances such as cultural understanding, differences in idiomatic expressions between the two languages, and differences in the ways that speakers of languages actually think make it pretty much impossible for someone oversees to write the high level content you need for your SEO and inbound marketing efforts to be successful.
Spelling and Grammatical Errors
Even if someone who is writing from oversees thinks they are abiding by proper spelling and grammar rules, something usually goes wrong. It’s either written very sloppy and is poorly proof-read, or their understanding of the English language isn’t what it needs to be in order to justify getting paid for their writing. Not only that, but many overseas writers tend to rely heavily on tools such as language translation software and spelling and grammar checkers and everyone knows that those programs tend to be unreliable. For instance, a spellchecker won’t notice if you use the word, “your” instead of, “you’re”. Grammar checking tools may not even pick it up. The writer needs to have a proficient understanding of the language in order to create high quality content, and this simply doesn’t happen when outsourcing overseas.
Poor Content
Chances are pretty good that you know a poorly written piece of content when you see it. It’s filled with structural issues, bad sentence composition, and a generally poor understanding of the original content’s intent. Not only that, but when you plan content that will be used in your marketing and SEO, you know that it needs to extend well beyond the basics. If you outsource your content overseas, chances are pretty good that each piece of writing that is returned to you will have at least one of the above mentioned problems – if not several of them. The bottom line is that if you take your marketing efforts seriously, you can’t entrust your content to writers who likely won’t be able to handle the assignment as well as you need it to be handled.
A Bad Reputation
Any smart person can spot content that’s been written overseas in an instant. Not only will you be known for producing poor content, but you’ll also be considered cheap because you weren’t willing to pay money for a good U.S. based content writer.
Plagiarized Content
There’s a reason that that article only cost you $5. It’s because it likely wasn’t even written just for you. It probably wasn’t even written by the person that you hired. They merely found something similar to what you were looking for online and tweaked a few words so that it wasn’t an exact copy. This is still plagiarism and it is a practice that is not only illegal, but it also hurts your marketing efforts.
Poor Understanding of U.S. Copyright Law
Writers based in the United States understand copyright law. They know that when they ghostwrite their work, it’s customary to grand the client “all rights”, which means that the content absolutely can’t be used again by the writer. Overseas writers cut corners all the time, and one of the schemes they use is to write a large set of articles on a topic and reuse these articles over and over again for several clients. This practice violates the writer – client relationship and indicates a poor, or irreverent, understanding of U.S. Copyright Law. It is also a highly shady practice that can negatively impact your business and marketing.
There is nothing wrong with outsourcing your content writing, but make sure to hire someone that is U.S. based. Content is an important part of an inbound marketing strategy, but it needs to be good content. Content should enhance your brand and brand reputation, not diminish it. If you think that the quality doesn’t matter because you are only focused on getting some links don’t even bother- Google knows what’s up, and they won’t let you get away with that.
LIKE AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
