Whether you’re using our Self-Serve Marketplace or working with our Managed Services team, chances are you’ve been asked to rate us from 1 to 10 in terms of how likely you are to refer us to your friends and colleagues. We’re asking this to calculate our net promoter score (NPS) and gather valuable feedback.

I can appreciate that might get in the way sometimes, so I wanted to take a moment to explain how we’re using this feedback to improve both our services and our product. 

Why Does NPS Matter?

NPS is a lagging indicator of how our business is doing. That can cover:

1. Customer service
2. Content quality
3. Platform and technology

These are three key areas that we focus on to make sure we’re providing the best possible content creation experience for our clients.

Higher NPS scores (generally anything above 45 / 100) indicate that clients are happy, and scores below signal we have work to do.

While the scores are significant, qualitative feedback makes this data shine.

The overall NPS process is crucial because it allows us to:

• Ask follow-up questions as part of the survey
  • Why they’ve given a specific score
  • Understand what we’re doing well 
  • Identify areas where we can improve
• Provides an additional touchpoint for building relationships with clients.
  • It offers clients that we don’t speak with daily a place to voice their experiences
  • It helps Identify accounts with issues and allows us to intervene before they churn
  • Reach out to clients with success and ask them for reviews, product feedback, case studies, etc.
• Track and quantify a score over time, creating internal benchmarks

How We’re Using NPS

We ask all our Self-Serve Marketplace clients that have completed an order for custom content to leave an NPS score:

The survey shows up at the bottom of the client’s screen while in their account. We ask them to fill out the survey on a rolling 30 day time period, and clients can decline to respond, which postpones the survey by seven days.

We also email our Managed Services clients quarterly to get them to complete an NPS survey for us.

But, what are we actually doing with this data?

Client Success 

Our client success team reports on NPS as a key performance indicator (KPI) to ensure that our customers are happy with the service they’re receiving. We also look at the qualitative feedback we receive, and any service issues are followed up on and resolved.

Product Development

Our product management team (that’s me!) also pays close attention to our NPS scores and feedback. A big part of our feedback is based on our platform’s tools and features. We always want to hear how our users find the platform and their ideas for new features. We actively incorporate this feedback into our roadmap, so if you’d like any changes, be sure to fill out your NPS surveys! 

Content Quality and Turnaround

We also look at how satisfied clients are with their content and whether it was delivered on time. Comments that mention these issues are passed to our Content team, who will investigate and resolve them. For example, we’ll step in to speak to the writer or find new writers if the quality is an issue. If the turnaround becomes an issue, we can find additional writers for the client or help design their content brief to attract more writers.

While NPS is our proactive way of gathering feedback, we also welcome your feedback on any of these issues at any time. Please feel free to reach out. 

How NPS Is Calculated

If you’re curious about how NPS is calculated, I thought I’d add this quick overview.

To calculate NPS, you subtract the percentage of customers who answer the survey with a six or lower (detractors) from the percentage of customers who respond with a 9 or 10 (promoters). We also collect data for neutral respondents (scores of 7-8), but they are not included in the final score. So, if you’re happy with our service, leaving an eight doesn’t reflect that you would be a promoter.

How to Interpret the NPS score: 

An NPS score can be any number value between -100 to 100. If the score is made up of predominantly detractors, the score will be negative, and if a score is predominantly promoters, then it’s the opposite.

Generally, scores above 45 are considered good, but the higher the score, the better. 

I like Jason Lemkin’s guide to interpreting NPS scores:

60 NPS: They buy more from you
30 NPS: They stay
20 NPS: They take the other guys’ call
10 NPS: They are already trying the competition

Jason M. Lemkin
SaaS Founder, Enthusiast & Investor

One of the most important aspects of interpreting NPS is observing how your score is trending. Is it improving or declining? A good NPS score can vary a bit from company to company, so knowing your standards and how you’re performing against them is vital. 

Wrapping Up

I hope this quick look at our NPS program has been helpful. We’re committed to providing the best content creation experience possible to all our clients, so please make sure to fill out those NPS surveys when you see them. It is a massive help for us and will make our product and service better for all our clients.

The post Help Us Help You – Why We’re Asking For NPS Feedback appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

How Much Should I Pay a Freelance Writer?

As a business owner, you need to find a balance between paying a freelance writer what they deserve and not decimating your budget. This would be easier if there were a set rate for writing, but that’s not the case. With so many types of content, niches, and other factors in play, figuring out the going rate isn’t always simple.

It’s like hiring a plumber or any other home service contractor. The amount you pay a relatively new-to-the-biz plumber differs from what a veteran might charge you with decades of experience. Add offerings such as regular versus emergency service and routine tasks versus specialty tasks, and the rates shift again.

A low rate doesn’t mean poor quality, and a high rate doesn’t mean you’re getting the best. That’s why it’s crucial to consider your needs, the industry norm, and other ingredients of the project pie before you set a rate and start your hunt.

Factors influencing freelance writer rates

Many factors go into determining how much a freelance writer charges. Some are within your control, such as the length of the project and the amount of research. Other factors depend on the freelancer’s professional background and personal circumstances. Get to know each element, and you’ll be better prepared to make the right writer an offer that benefits both parties.

1. Content type and purpose

Consider what content you need and how you plan to use it. Some types of writing are best handled by a specialist with extensive experience in your industry, while a general writer can manage others. Product descriptions and broad-topic blog posts with minimal research requirements are easier to write than case studies or white papers. 

Freelance writer rates tend to be higher for content that’s used to convert prospects into qualified leads or leads into paying customers. You can also expect to pay more if you need a writer for highly technical topics. For example, a medical device manufacturer needing a case study should expect to pay more than a fashion designer who needs basic product descriptions.

Here are some of the most common types of content:

• Articles
• Blog posts
• Press releases
• Case studies
• White papers
• Reports
• E-books
• Email newsletters
• Infographics
• Thought leadership pieces
• Product descriptions
• Category descriptions
• How-to guides
• Sales letters
• Landing pages

2. Content quality

When it comes to quality, speed, and price, there’s an old saying in the business world: “You can have it fast. You can have it good. You can have it cheap. Pick two.” In other words, you shouldn’t expect top-tier quality at bargain prices. This informal explanation of the iron triangle is a business concept related to scope, time, and cost.

If you’re planning to hire a writer, think about whether you want to prioritize your budget or the quality of your content. Quality should be your top priority if you’re trying to win new clients or get media coverage for your business. For basic product descriptions, you may be able to give your budget more weight.

Just remember your published content needs to paint your business in a positive light. There’s no real benefit to paying bargain-basement freelance writer rates if the finished product is riddled with errors or makes your company look bad.

3. Additional responsibilities

If you expect your writer to wear more than one hat or provide more than basic writing duties, expect to pay a higher rate. Depending on the type of project you’re doing, you may need to pay for the following:

• Travel time, lodging, and other costs associated with on-site work
• Time spent interviewing sources
• Photography or stock photo sourcing
• Article pitches to digital or print publications
• Graphic design/document layout
• Extra revisions
• Editorial services

4. Turnaround time

Freelance writers usually work on multiple projects simultaneously, many of which are scheduled months in advance. If you need a quick turnaround time, the writer may have to reschedule other projects or work extra hours to write your content. Remember the plumber analogy? If you need someone to tackle a major leak ASAP, you pay a premium for priority status. Likewise, freelancers often charge a premium for flexibility.

Even if you’re paying extra for a fast turnaround, you should have reasonable expectations. While writing a short blog post in 24 hours is possible, a writer may need more time to collect data for a case study or interview sources for a long-form article.

5. Expertise required

It’s a good idea to write a job description or request for proposal before you start looking for a writer. The document should spell out the knowledge, skills, and abilities a freelancer needs to mesh well with your team. Consider the type of expertise required. Do you need a journalist who can write long-form articles about your business? How about a technical writer with experience writing user documentation for complex software packages? 

You may also look for writers with specific degrees or professional certifications. If you’re hiring a writer to craft content about project management, someone with the Project Management Professional certification may provide deeper insight than a generalist writer without the PMP credential.

6. Project requirements

Not all writing projects have the same requirements. Some clients provide templates and ask their writers to submit completed projects via email. Others want their writers to use a content management system (e.g., WordPress, Joomla) to write the content, add photos, and develop meta titles and descriptions.

At Crowd Content, we work with clients who have detailed requirements regarding keyword usage, formatting, backlinking, and image use. Generally, the more precise your requirements are, the more you can expect to pay a freelancer.

7. Author credit

Freelance writer rates also depend on whether you plan to give the author a byline or publish the work under your name. Publishing under the name of a well-known writer gives your company and website credibility — something Google’s algorithm loves and looks for — so you can expect to pay more if you include the writer’s byline on your site.

How Freelance Writer Pay Is Determined

There are typically three ways freelancers get paid.

• By the word: This is arguably the most common and straightforward pricing method. Paying by the word helps you manage your budget — 20 cents per word times 1000 words always equals a maximum of $200. But word count doesn’t always equal value. For instance, a 20-word Facebook post is typically more expensive than $4.
• By the hour: Many clients like to pay by the hour because it’s the system they’re most accustomed to. But if a writer works quickly, they’re penalized for their expertise. Conversely, a slow but methodical writer could exceed your budget. For those reasons, hourly pay is best reserved for add-on services, such as interviewing an executive for a business profile or attending a Zoom strategy meeting with your marketing team.
• By the post/page/project: Freelance writing rates set by the post or project are often the fairest way to approach projects that require a lot of knowledge but few words. Flat fees also work if you have a budget in mind and don’t know how many hours it will take to complete the project.

Rates for Freelance Writing Services

Carol Tice, an experienced journalist and the owner of Make a Living Writing, conducted an annual survey to determine how much freelance writers earn for various projects. The 2020 survey included more than 600 participants at all levels of experience. Approximately 50% of respondents indicated making over $100 for a short blog post (500-800 words); for longer blog posts between 1,000 and 2,000 words, most writers reported earnings of up to $350. 

According to Tice, writers should expect to be paid hundreds of dollars per page for case studies and white papers, as they’re “heavy-duty lead generators for businesses that help them book millions in new revenue.” Short marketing email prices ranged from $100 to $750 per email.

As of 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median pay for writers and authors at $73,150 or $35.17 per hour. Using that model, you could estimate how long a project would take and pay by the hour or the project. For instance, a blog that should take about 2 hours may cost about $70. But using that rating system across the board doesn’t consider industry, expertise, or content type. Content focusing on specific niches and requiring extra education or credentials is priced higher than articles requiring basic research. An agency outsourcing content for a portfolio of end clients might encounter the following rates for an article or blog:

• Education: 25 cents per word
• Business: 30 cents per word
• Fintech: 50 cents per word

The rate for a buyer’s guide or email template might be slightly lower in each category, while the rate for technical writing, such as a white paper or case study, nearly doubles. When you work with Crowd Content, you get access to teams of freelancers who write at various pay rates. We review your budget and let you know what to expect regarding quality and turnaround time.

Making Room for Content in Your Marketing Budget

Content is one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign. Whether you run a small business or work in the marketing department of a Fortune 500 company, great content helps you boost your search engine rankings and increase conversion rates. If you want high-quality content, you need to pay reasonable freelance writing rates based on the scope of the project, your company’s needs, and the writer’s skills and experience.To see how a freelance writer can help you grow your business, look at Crowd Content’s content creation services today.

The post Freelance Writer Rates: How Much Should You Pay in 2024? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

But the purview of a skilled ghostwriter isn’t limited to life as an A-lister’s assistant. Freelance writers also lend their talents to all kinds of web content, novels, marketing copy, and even social media posts — they’re tasked with creating content someone else will officially take credit for.

If life as the wizard behind the words sounds enticing, this could be the career for you. Here’s everything you need to know about finding ghostwriting jobs and turning your creative writing abilities into professional opportunities that could change your life for good.

What Is a Ghostwriter?

Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone has the tools to tell their story effectively. Even those who are equipped may not have the time or inclination to put words to paper. That’s where a ghostwriter comes in.

Ghostwriters are professional writers who craft material for others, taking a client’s vision, story, or idea and creating a polished, publication-quality product that the client can attach their name to and call their own. These writers for hire are generally invisible to readers — hence the spook-inspired moniker — and write for financial gain rather than a byline.

Our post, What Is a Ghostwriter Best Able to Help With? takes a deeper dive into the world of ghostwriting and how it can benefit your clients. But before you take that leap, here’s a look at the essentials.

Is Ghostwriting Just for Books?

While many writers picture juicy celebrity confessions when thinking about ghostwritten material, Britney Spears and Prince Harry aren’t the only people who hire ghostwriters. Ghostwriting jobs come in many forms, ranging from tasks requiring full-length fiction to orders for social media snippets. In addition to traditional “as-told-to” memoirs and autobiographies, some examples of ghostwriting services include:

• Nonfiction books: Ghostwriters often assist experts who are knowledgeable and respected in their field but might not be skilled writers.
• Novels: Ghostwriters might oversee books that are part of a series or continue the work of prominent authors who have passed away — Carolyn Keene, “author” of the Nancy Drew mysteries, wasn’t an actual person but a whole team of ghostwriters!
• Articles: It’s not uncommon for a prominent business person, such as the CEO of a company, to hire a ghostwriter to pen an article that will eventually be published in a newspaper or magazine.
• Blog posts: Brands rely on ghostwriters to keep up with the high volume of content needed to populate a company blog.
• Website content: About Us pages, landing pages, and general copy might sound like they come from the company, but they’re usually written by a ghostwriter.
• Newsletters and emails: Letter from the owner? Maybe, but it’s more likely a letter created by a ghostwriter and approved by the owner.
• Social media posts: Ghostwriters are often the voices behind those pithy posts you see on platforms such as Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
• Speeches and video scripts: Sometimes, ghostwriters put words into people’s mouths by generating scripts for speeches, promo videos, webinars, and other presentations.
• Song lyrics, short stories, and other types of creative writing: If you have a flare for the fantastic, you may find work as a ghostwriter who specializes in creative content that’s less about marketing and more about storytelling.

What Does a Ghostwriting Job Involve?

The nuts and bolts of each ghostwriting job can differ depending on the project and the client. Your instructions could include:

• Rewriting: Sometimes, ghostwriters rework preexisting content rather than writing content from scratch. The goal could be to improve the quality of an earlier draft or alter the perspective of the piece to better speak to a new audience. There might also be a need for updated search engine optimization — this is especially true with web pages or marketing copy designed to help a site rank.
• Expanding: Sometimes, a client needs help turning a rough draft or even a pile of scribbled notes into publish-ready content. This happens most often with specialty content in a fact-driven niche, such as fintech or health care. Your job is to transform disjointed ideas and statistics into a well-written piece that maintains the integrity and accuracy of the original information.
• Writing from a general topic, idea, or title: The most common type of ghostwriting job involves the client giving you a general subject or title and asking you to create new content from the ground up. You’ll probably be given a content brief that includes an overview of the appropriate style, word count, target audience, and crucial points to touch on. The rest is up to you.

ALSO – How to Get a Ghostwriter to Craft an Ebook That Drives Results
ALSO – Ghostwriters – the Secret to Maximizing Your In-House Content Team

What Qualifications Does a Ghostwriter Need?

Part of learning how to get ghostwriting jobs is ensuring you have everything you need to catch a potential client’s eye. Freelance writers who want to pursue a career in ghostwriting can benefit from meeting basic educational requirements, such as a bachelor’s degree in English, communications, journalism, or a related field.

That said, many clients consider hands-on experience in lieu of a degree, meaning talented ghostwriters can still enjoy a fruitful career, even if they don’t have a college diploma hanging on the wall of their home office.

What Skills Make a Good Ghostwriter?

While the skills required to ghostwrite a novel may differ significantly from those required to write clever advertising copy, there are some basic skills that are almost universal.

• Expert-level writing skills: First and foremost, ghostwriting is about words, and ghostwriters should be able to deliver polished prose. All content submitted should be clean and require minimal editing.
• Flexibility and adaptability: While many writers have their own recognizable style, ghostwriters need to effectively capture the voice of their clients so the writing feels on target to the listed author or brand.
• Ability to follow directions: Clients may have specific dos and don’ts for projects, and a good ghostwriter should be capable of adhering to any guidelines presented.
• Research competence: While many clients will provide information and resources, ghostwriter will sometimes need to embark on research of their own. A good ghostwriter understands how to source and cite appropriate material and fit it seamlessly into the content they’re writing.
• Focus and discernment: While clients are responsible for coming up with the basic skeleton of an idea, a good ghostwriter should be able to finesse, refine, and nurture that idea into something truly compelling.

How Can You Build Your Reputation as a Ghostwriter?

There are several smart ways you can build your reputation as a writer and demonstrate to potential clients you’re the right person for the job.

• Create your own blog, or offer your services as a guest blogger in your area(s) of expertise: Whether it’s fiction or nuclear physics, blogging is an excellent way to make a name for yourself in your niche and show the world your writing chops. This approach also showcases your authority in a given niche and can attract clients looking for writers who can double as subject matter experts.
• Set up a digital portfolio: Several sites, such as Clippings.me and Journo Portfolio, offer free or low-cost online portfolios for writers. These sites let you easily share your clippings with potential clients in a polished, professional manner.
• Reach out to local businesses: Network with other SMBs, particularly nonprofits or those you have personal connections to, and offer your services at discounted rates in exchange for the right to use the finished content in your portfolio. Bonus points if they agree to a written testimonial you can use on your website.
• Join an association: Joining a professional association, such as the Association of Ghostwriters, can provide you with vital resources, opportunities for networking and learning, and even job leads. Many professional organizations offer lower-cost associate memberships that include benefits geared toward newer writers.

How to Find Ghostwriting Jobs

Are you revved up about a future in ghostwriting yet? If you’re itching to make a career switch or change up the types of writing projects you’re tackling, a lot hinges on finding ghostwriting jobs. 

1. Freelance job boards: If you’re ready to dive into your first assignment or just want to check out what’s available, you can find listings for ghostwriting jobs on some of the Internet’s many freelance job boards. Sites such as Freelancer generally offer search functionality and filters, making it easier to find the positions you’re looking for.
2. Advertise your services: Sites such as Fiverr let freelance writers post small advertisements with services offered. While these small-scale ghostwriting jobs may not be enough to pay your bills, they give you opportunities to test the waters and make vital connections.
3. Classified sites: Sites such as Craigslist, especially in bigger cities, often have postings in the Writing Gigs section from companies looking to hire ghostwriters. Be careful — no one verifies clients on these sites, and scammers are plentiful.
4. Cold outreach: Most companies with robust digital marketing programs need a lot of content, so it follows suit that they need a good team of writers. Cold emailing the director of marketing or someone in a senior content position could net you an ongoing gig. This approach is especially effective if you’ve positioned yourself as an expert in a given niche and approach companies in that space.
5. Crowd Content: Crowd Content’s unique platform offers writers a place to find work based on a quality star rating. One distinguishing feature of Crowd Content is that it provides ample opportunity for talented, reliable writers to demonstrate their ability and move up in the ranks, accessing higher-paying jobs. The platform vets both writers and clients before jobs are posted — there’s no chance you’ll be stiffed on pay or have to chase down a client to get work approved.

ALSO – 9 Benefits of Freelance Writing as Told By Top Content Writers

Applying to Be a Ghostwriter

If you plan to work as a ghostwriter through a freelancing platform, you’ll have to go through an application and approval process before you can access actual ghostwriting jobs. At Crowd Content, the sign-up process for freelancers starts when you create a dedicated account. Then, you’ll be asked to share some basic information, including your name, geographic location, and general work experience.

The most important part of the application is the writing test. Follow the directions given to create a high-quality, task-specific sample that showcases your ability to:

• Write well
• Follow directions
• Review content and refine as needed

If you’re approved, you’ll have access to work either through the Marketplace (jobs created and reviewed directly by clients) or Managed Services (high-volume projects run by Crowd Content’s experienced content managers). From there on out, every job counts! Only take on tasks you feel confident writing, and reach out to the client or the content manager if you have any questions.

How to Thrive as a Ghostwriter

You’ve applied for a ghostwriting job, and you’re hired! Now what? Sometimes, the hardest part of being a ghostwriter isn’t finding a gig but keeping it. These tips can help you find long-term success in a highly competitive field.

• Deliver your best work every time: Time is money when it comes to freelancing, and it can be tempting to cut corners. But always remember someone will be publishing this project with their name attached. If you’re not 100% proud of what you’re submitting, the content isn’t ready to be submitted.
• Meet every deadline: Deadlines aren’t suggestions. They’re commitments you make as a professional writer, and your ability to keep those commitments could make or break your reputation and your relationship with your clients. While there are valid reasons to miss a deadline such as medical emergencies, delays should be the exception, not the rule.
• Communicate with the client: If you have a problem with meeting a deadline or something isn’t going as planned, make sure to let the client know as soon as possible. This is ultimately their project, and keeping a client in the loop can keep the process running smoothly for all involved.
• Ask questions: If something about the job isn’t clear or doesn’t make sense, ask for clarification. Most clients are more than happy to provide additional guidance to ensure they receive the quality writing and focused content they’re paying for.
• Be professional: This is a business relationship, and it’s important to treat it as such. Be polite, and always treat clients with respect.

ALSO – 10 Things to Know Before You Start Writing

Are Ghostwriting Jobs Right for You?

While writing without a byline may be a turnoff for many writers, it can be a lucrative career choice for others. It can also be immensely rewarding to be the driving force in helping people get their stories out into the world. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in ghostwriting, visit Crowd Content’s freelance writing job page, and take the first step toward success.

The post Ghostwriting Jobs 101: How They Work, Where to Find Them and How to Thrive appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

What does all that have to do with editing? Everything.

Businesses tend to pony up for copywriting services without too much hesitation, but when it comes to the other two tiers in the content marketing system (editing and quality assurance), the ROI isn’t always so easy to identify. A good writer should be able to forge a cohesive message, work in the right keywords, and arrange words in an entertaining and accessible manner, but even the best scribes benefit from a keen eye and the digital version of a big fat red pen.

Investing in copy editing services is like supercharging your copywriter; their talents are suddenly magnified and, at the same time, given extra focus until your vision is expertly tailored for maximum connection, conversion, and engagement.

Crossing I’s and Dotting Your T’s

See what I did there…? Seriously though, as potent as great content can be, web copy or blogs marred by typos and grammatical oopsies can be just as potent — albeit in a decidedly negative fashion.

Editors are the gatekeepers who swoop in and clean up any literary detritus accidentally left behind by the creative types. Some writers are technically brilliant; others are stellar at generating compelling concepts but wouldn’t know an infinitive from a gerund.

A talented editor ensures that you’re never called out on social media for an oh-so-egregious your vs. you’re error (and we all know how forgiving those eagle-eyed commenters can be) or surprised by awkward copy that makes your new site launch less than perfect.

I can practically hear the “but what about Grammarly?” protests already, and it’s true that there are tons of online editing tools that will catch basic errors and keep you from inserting commas willy-nilly, but AI editors are deeply flawed too.

Grammarly flags every instance of passive voice with admirable enthusiasm but eliminating those completely will likely cause your content to read aggressive or robotic. Other times you’ll intentionally use colloquialisms or grammatically incorrect language to make a point or reinforce a specific voice; Grammarly can’t recognize tone and giggle at cheeky reference the way a real editor can.

When you’re commissioning content for a live audience, you should hire a live editor to review it.

A Quick Review: Two Types of Editors

The confusion over why you need an editor when spellcheck is so darned effective (not) is probably at least partially connected to the misconception that an editor is an editor is an editor.

Nope.

A copyeditor is the hawk-eyed specialist who pores over things like parallelism and punctuation. They can typically rattle off the finer points of Chicago style or AP guidelines with the greatest of ease, and their ability to spot even the tiniest typo is legendary.

A strategic content editor, on the other hand, is your audience’s representative during content creation. Your customers have wants, needs, concerns, and questions. They have pain points that must be addressed and preferences in terms of visual components. Your editor looks not so much at how a piece is written, but at how it reads. Does it tick all the boxes attached to your brand persona? Does it slot into your overall content marketing strategy? Is it useful? Will your audience care?

A copyeditor is valuable; a strategic content editor is priceless.

Ann Gynn, editorial consultant for the Content Marketing Institute, defines these two types of editors this way: “Strategic editors (or someone who has that role) are critical to ensuring first that the content meets the needs of the audience and the company. Second, this editor can review and edit the piece to ensure the content is written appropriately — it puts the topic in the relevant context, includes pertinent details (and excludes unrelated ones), is accurate, and explains the topic in a way that the audience can understand and wants to read/consume.”

She goes on to say, “Then, this editor can smooth the rough edges, refine its structure, and make it audience ready. A line editor or proofreader who is fresh to the copy will be able to catch grammatical and style errors more easily.” As the strategic editor for CMI, she focuses on making sure that the content published speaks to the brand’s audience and meets the company’s business goals and needs.

With the rapid evolution of technology, we’re now also seeing what you might call a third type — AI-based editors. Cynthia Spiers, who heads up content and digital at Acrolinx, relies on human content creators, but then everything is put through the company’s content optimization platform. “Powered by artificial intelligence, it ensures the content we produce is aligned to our content strategy. That means that the platform understands our standards for brand, style, tone, and terminology, and it evaluates our content against those standards,” she reports.

Here’s the Sad Part

We heard from more than 50 companies on the subject of how critical an editor is to the content creation process, and more than half of them don’t understand that there are different types of editors. In fact, they view editors as little more than human spell-checkers. These are brands that are missing out.

Shelby Rogers, content marketing manager for Solodev and DigitalUS, sums things up quite nicely on this front: “I’ve seen on a handful of reputable marketing resources that editing should be an afterthought, and I cringe each time. Clearly, no one thought to edit that piece of ridiculous advice. Editing — both prescriptively and conceptually — plays a massive role in our content creation.”

Highlighting Your Differentiator

Brands get ahead by showcasing whatever makes them different from their competitors. That much you probably already know, but the how of this whole scenario is harder to pinpoint. Some C-level suits turn to a strategist, but marketing mastermind Seth Godin backs a different approach.

According to Godin, the key to building a better brand media property is to avoid playing it safe and instead figure out how to make your content more interesting. “You need editors, not brand managers,” says Godin, “who will push the envelope to make the thing go forward.”

Good editors are strategic and largely responsible for driving results. Have a specific business goal in mind? Editors shape drafts to better conform to the task at hand. When your messaging threatens to meander away from the point, an editor can step in and tweak the content until it better adheres to the directive. Concerned that your core values aren’t reflected in your home page? Editors also look over content to see whether you’ve had a chance to shine.

There is such a thing as flawless content that is also lifeless. Cold copy never drives traffic. Bring on an editor who has a feel for your brand’s heart and soul and you have another person on your team who’s dedicated to capturing the spirit of your message rather than just joylessly adhering to the style guide.

The Importance of Consistency

The modern editor isn’t just a proofreader with an attitude but a smart and savvy brand tactician that knows how to wield content on a way that fuels max ROI. When you’re churning out content on the regular – and by all accounts you should be – it can be tempting to try and be all things to all people. Don’t.

Random acts of marketing are disorienting, and a disoriented audience isn’t inspired to take action. It’s fine to have blog posts, newsletters, emails, eBooks, white papers, case studies, and social posts all in various stages of development and publication, but each type of content needs to relate to each to each other and back to a central strategy for any of it to make sense. Editors are big-picture people who monitor flow, delivery, and cohesion, asking for rewrites or revisions and rallying the troops so that everything that arrives in your inbox commands the right kind of attention not just separately but also as a whole.

As Lisa Barone, Chief Marketing Office for New York-based creative agency Overit, puts it, “It’s great for content to be well-written and grammatically correct, but if it doesn’t connect to the larger marketing strategy than it isn’t truly serving its purpose.” Her content editors are tasked with upholding strategy and brand standards and ensuring a high level of quality control.

Barone goes on to say, “A good editor is someone well-versed in the industry and larger business goals who can help guide a writer to make sure he or she is touching on the important aspects of a topic, that they are finding the right way to engage, that they are using terms with correct context (not just grammatically correct), and that they are seeding content for reader shares from the very onset. There is a lot more to content than simply words on a page and a good editor can help guide this process.”

At Crowd Content, we utilize a three-tier editorial system that funnels content from the writing stage through editing and QA, so our clients get the best of copyediting and that strategic eye. You get exponentially more attention, and those extra steps often translate into content that sells faster and reaches farther. In other words, it fuses the talents of our visionary writers, editors and reviewers into a dynamic, multitasking Transformer-like entity that could very well save the world. Or at least give your brand the market share it deserves.

The post Are Editors Essential to Your Content Marketing Success? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Placing a direct order with a writer is simple.

• On the standard order form, accessible from your account on crowdcontent.com, scroll down to the blue Pricing and Word Count header.
• Click the Direct Order button. A box will appear next to the button. Within, you can search the database of writers available at the star level selected.

More About Star Levels

Four-star writers are classified as “Expert” level. They have extensive professional experience and proven track records with Crowd Content clients. Three-star writers typically have diversified expertise in particular subject areas and write with personality and persuasiveness. Writers are bumped from three- to four-star level through a manual process conducted by an administrator, and they must have proven themselves to be successful content creators with Crowd Content clients.

Direct Order – From a Writer’s Perspective

When you place a direct order with a writer, they receive an email notification and are prompted to login to their writer account at crowdcontent.com. Included with the email is an encouraging message that reads: “It’s a pretty big deal to get Direct Orders from a client. This means that these orders are available only to you. Way to go!”

This is the primary benefit of a direct order — the order placed is available to only that writer, ensuring no one else without the knowledge of your requirements will pick it up.

Why Hasn’t My Writer Picked Up My Order?

The network of writers at Crowd Content is comprised of full-time and part-time freelancers. Many writers produce content for clients as a second job, and those who write full-time work with a large number of clients to ensure a stable income. Sometimes, freelancers aren’t available or don’t have room in their schedule to complete your order by deadline. Other times, they might be willing to complete the order, but only at a higher rate. If that’s the case, they may decline the direct order, giving you an opportunity to either raise the star rating (if applicable) or find a different writer who is available. Your customer success manager can also assist with finding a suitable writer.

Something to keep in mind when watching your direct orders: Writers have a maximum amount of orders they’re allowed to have in their queue at one time. Depending on the writer’s account, their claim limit may be set at 1, 3, 4 or 5 orders. If a writer’s queue is full, they’re not able to pick up an order right away, but they may pick it up after clearing existing work.

Writers also work on a schedule, just like any other service provider. If the deadline for the order is set for four or five days in advance, they may not have picked it up yet because they’ve planned to do it within the next day or two. For instance, if a direct order is placed on a Sunday and the due date is listed as Thursday, the writer may not pick it up until Wednesday. If you’re ever in doubt as to a writer’s availability, you can message the writer or reach out to a customer success manager for assistance.

What Can I Do If My Writer Hasn’t Picked Up My Order?

A few options are available if time is running out and you need content sooner rather than later.

• Message the Writer: Oftentimes, the writer is aware of the direct order, but isn’t able to get to it right away. By messaging them, you can get an idea of a time frame and when you can expect the order to be completed. If you’re a regular client, many writers will rearrange schedules if possible to get content to you when needed.
• Customer Success Manager: Reaching out to your CSM is always a great option. They can help you get in touch with the writer to find out their availability or suggest other potential writers who have similar skills, experience and pricing levels.

The moral of the story is: if your writer hasn’t picked up a direct order yet, don’t panic. Any number of reasons can exist for why they haven’t picked it up. Perhaps their queue is currently full or they’re busy with other projects at the moment but plan to get to it soon. Don’t hesitate to message your writer to get an idea of a time frame, and definitely contact your customer success manager for help getting in touch with your writer to find out their availability.

The post Why Hasn’t My Writer Picked Up My Direct Order? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The platform provides a simple interface for placing individual orders with writers. It asks simple, essential questions about your content requirements to ensure writers have all the information they need to complete it. It lets you select the type of content you want and add tags for relevant qualifications to help you attract the right writers. A large instruction box is provided for inputting specific details or providing outlines. The Crowd Content order form lets you provide as much supplemental information as possible to assist the writer with content creation.

But what if the order’s in progress and you forgot to include an essential piece of information? What happens if the content you receive doesn’t quite meet your expectations, and you want the writer to make revisions? At Crowd Content, we understand how important it is for you to be able to communicate with writers to ensure quality content.

Client-Writer Communication Options

• The In-task messaging chat lets you send messages to the writer directly — they’ll receive an email when you send your message. If they’re currently working on the writer platform, a pop-up notification appears on their homepage.
• Use revision requests to send the content back to the writer for polishing and fixing. You can include a specific message for what you’d like altered. This ensures the content they create is engaging your target audience, increasing search traffic and matching your content creation needs.

Guide to Messaging a Writer

Follow these steps for messaging a writer directly about an order:

1. While logged into your account on crowdcontent.com, click the Content tab at the top of the page. Detailed information is provided in the given table for each order, including which writer is working on creating your content, the quality level, its total cost, current status and the date of last update.
2. To communicate with a writer on an order, click on that order. The information for that order will load, and in the bottom right corner of the page is a small clickable tab that opens the in-task messaging box for that order.
3. Click on the in-task messaging tab to open the box. This is where you can send a quick message to the writer directly, and they can respond back, much like a chat interface.
4. Type your message and press enter. Your message will appear in the box, and the writer will receive an email and/or popup notification on their account.

Guide to Making a Revision Request

Suppose the content you receive doesn’t quite match your expectations — or maybe it does, but a few details are missing. Whether it’s minor revisions or something more extensive, revision requests are an excellent tool to ensure the content you receive is tailored and polished.

To make a revision request:

1. Find the individual order you need revised on your content page.
2. Click on it, then click the Request a Revision tab. A text box is provided where you can explain to the writer what changes need to be made. A current copy of the content is provided on this page as well for easy reference.
3. Once you’ve stated exactly what needs to be fixed, click the orange Request Revision button.
4. The writer will receive an email notifying them of your revision request, and they will have a certain allotted time (usually 24 hours) to make the revision and send it back to you for approval.

Getting in touch with your writer, whether through in-task messaging or requesting a revision, is a great way to ensure he or she understands exactly what you’re looking for, which can help them with future orders you place. Our community of writers aim to exceed client expectations so your content needs are met. You can also contact your customer success manager with any questions.

The post How Can I Get in Touch with My Writer? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

How It Works – The Workflow

When you place your first order, and any subsequent orders after that, it reaches a large pool of writers who can view and access orders at your preferred star level and higher. For instance, if you place an open order for 4-star content, it reaches all available 4-star writers in the system. Placing an order at the 3-star level makes it available to all 3- and 4-star writers. Similarly, 2-star orders are available to all writers with 2, 3 or 4 stars.

Writers receive an email notification when your orders have been placed, so they can log in and decide whether or not to write the order depending on their time constraints, interests or skills. After your order is placed, a qualified writer will pick it up to work on and complete it according to the deadline you set and the minimum time allowed by the platform — 24 hours per 500 words. To set a custom deadline, scroll to the bottom of the order screen, select Advanced Options and use the Processing Time dropdown.

If you place an order that requires 500 words or less, you can set the deadline for 1 to 10 days. A 1,000-word order requires a minimum deadline of 2 days and a 1,500-word order needs a minimum of 3 days. If you need content faster than that, you can call us directly and we’ll put you in touch with a qualified writer who may be available to complete it for you right away.

After the writer produces the content according to your instructions and guidelines, they’ll submit the content for you to review. At this stage, you have two choices: Choose to accept the content as-is or send it back to the writer to make revisions. If you request revisions, you’ll have an opportunity to provide specific guidance for the writer to let them know exactly what you want changed. The writer has 24 hours to complete revisions, and then the content is sent back to you for further review. If everything looks great, then you can accept the content, and the writer is paid. Once the content is accepted, you can use it as you need for your business.

How Many Orders Can I Place at Once?

You’re not limited to how many orders you place in the same day. If you have a large batch of orders to complete, such as hundreds of product descriptions, you may be better suited for our Enterprise services — you can contact your customer success manager for more information on this.

Different Order Types

At Crowd Content, we offer several content types that can be sorted into four main categories.

Custom Content

Custom content is our specialty: Entertaining articles, blog posts, web content and press releases belong here. You can provide a specific title, instructions and exactly what topics you would like covered in the written post. Our writers are skilled at being able to help you meet your business goals through developing and implementing successful content strategies.

Product Descriptions

This is a specialized category and applies to written descriptions of individual products on an e-commerce website. Depending on your product types and preferences, product descriptions can be short, long, or somewhere in the middle, and they should include strong keywords to help drive eager buyers to your site.

Facebook Posts

Need help promoting your latest blog posts? Want to keep your fan base engaged? You can do that effectively with a batch of custom Facebook posts. Customers must order a minimum of 10 posts to use this service.

Twitter

This is an excellent platform for promoting your brand and getting the word out to the masses about how great your business and services are. Our Twitter-savvy writers will create a minimum of 15 tweets for you when you choose this content option.

Going Through the Order Form, Step by Step

Once you’ve signed up for an account on crowdcontent.com and communicated with your customer success manager, you’re ready to place an order. Our simple, one-page interface asks essential questions related to content creation and ensures writers will have everything they need to create great content.

Campaign

The default value for this is “Campaign 1”, but if you’ve worked directly with a customer success manager, they may have created a custom campaign for you with specific pricing and services. This is selectable here.

Folders

Customized folders let you keep content in an easily accessible place. They can be organized by topic, date, or content type — the labels are totally up to you. Folders make it easy to group individual orders together. During each stage of the content creation process, that order remains in the folder you selected for easy retrieval later.

To create a new folder, go to your content queue and click the + to the right of label Folders on the left sidebar.  

Content Types and Categories

The next drop-down let you choose the type of content you need, whether it be Facebook posts, tweets, an ebook, a blog article, product descriptions or a press release. The box directly under content type lets you select a category for the content. Categories are important because writers add tags to their profiles to match category types, so someone who is extremely knowledgeable about photography equipment or animals is more likely to write your order if it falls into their area of expertise.

Instructions

The rest of the order form changes based on the content type, but in general, it lets you provide specific directions and guidelines for the writer. For instance, if you’re placing orders for tweets to be posted on Twitter, there is a field for you to include your business’s Twitter handle so the writer can view your current Twitter page. An instruction box lets you provide details about your order, links to Google docs or links to example content.

Order Type, Pricing and Word Count

Next, you must select an order type. On Crowd Content, we have three basic types of orders:

• Open Order: The most common type, these orders are available to writers at the star level you select. We recommend 3 or 4-star content for most orders, because these writers have proven skills in the industry and often have specialized areas of expertise.
• Direct Order: This type of order is placed with one writer that you choose yourself. The individual writer selected is the only one to have access to a direct order.
• Team Orders: This restricts order access to writers placed on a team that you create. Gather as many writers as you’d like and place them on individual teams; this way, you know your order will be picked up by someone you hand-selected.

Pricing is based on word count, star level, and services selected (such as whether you’re just using writing services or writing and editing). When you fill in the word count fields for each individual order, the sidebar on the right updates to reflect accurate pricing based on the word count provided and the star level selected for both writing and editing.

Editing & Proofreading

Editing and proofreading services are also available for each order you place at an additional 3 cents per word. Just as with a writing order, you can choose to place editing open, direct to a specific editor, or to a team of editors.

Advanced Options

Advanced options let you upload a relevant document, spreadsheet or PDF for the writer to use as a reference. There are also several other order options included here:

• Keywords: The writer will include keywords you select when you indicate them in this box. You can include a total of up to three keywords. The system lets the writer know when they submit the order if they’ve met your keyword requirements. Keywords are extremely important for SEO.
• Target Audience: You’ll receive better copy in the end if you let the writer know upfront who the intended audience is. You may have formal buyer personas in place that you can summarize, or you can say something as simple as “golf enthusiasts.”
• Suggested Outbound Link: If you have a URL you would like the writer to link to within the order, insert it here.
• Identifier: This option lets you tag the article with an identifying number. For product descriptions, for example, this may be the model, item or UPC number.

• Metadata: Choose this option if you would like the writer to create a meta title and meta description to go along with your order.
• Layout: If you need multiple fields available to the writer, you can use this option to create a layout that contains the fields you need. If you don’t select this, the writer will have access to a title field and a single text field.
• Language: Use this option to indicate the language you’d like the writer to use. The default is English (US).
• Processing Time: Choose a time frame when you’d like the order returned to you. Most clients choose 1 or 2 days as an appropriate time frame, but options are offered up to 10 days if needed. You must give the writer at least one day for each 500 words in the order.
• Point of View: Indicates from what perspective the writer should create content from. Options include:
  • 1st person – Using pronouns such as I, me, we, us
  • 2nd person – Using pronouns such as you, your
  • 3rd person – A company, the business, and pronouns such as it or they
  • Let the writer decide: Often skilled writers know what perspective to write from based on the content you need. You can check this box if you’re not sure, and the writer can choose whatever seems appropriate for the content type.

• Things to Emphasize/Things to Avoid: Text boxes are provided for both of these fields for you to indicate exactly what points you want the writer to emphasize and things you definitely want avoided.

In general, the more information you provide to the writer about what you want, the better chance you’ll have at receiving quality written content that suits the needs of your business. Anything you want to see in the created content should be communicated when you place the order — this way, the writer has everything they need to create quality content. If you placed an order but missed an important detail, find out how to get in touch with your writer and message them while it’s in progress.

The post How to Place an Order: Tips and Tricks for Your First Order appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We’re calling it Crowd Content Community, an easy-to-use commenting platform with built-in gaming elements that encourage and reward positive community-building behavior.

The first gaming elements were released this week in the form of Awards and Coins.

What Are Awards?

Awards are achievements you earn as you participate in the Community. We’ve introduced a collection of Awards representing various activities and outcomes that surface in a typical blog community. As you participate and make progress in these Award categories, you reach Milestones.

It’s a simple system, but there are some formulas working “under the hood” that help us reward high-quality contributions more heavily.

In other words, not all Awards are based on your activity alone. Some Awards represent positive outcomes that your activity has created.

For example, leave a comment, and you’ll move closer to your next “Comment Count” Milestone. Leave a comment that others Reply to or Vote on, and you’ll also progress in outcome-focused Milestones like “Reactions Received” or “Replies Received”.

These outcome-focused Awards represent the behaviors, or strings of behaviors, that are likely to grow a community and help it thrive. Because of this, outcome-focused Milestones and Awards tend to be weighted more heavily when it comes to the number of Coins you earn for progressing through them.

The more you can get others involved, the more you’ll be rewarded.

What Are Coins?

Virtual currency, “Coins” can be redeemed for real-world rewards, like cash in your Writer Account.

You earn Coins as you achieve Awards and Milestones. You also earn Coins as you increase your Rank (A.K.A. your overall status or “level”). You can view progress towards your next Rank by hovering over the gold crown.

In future updates, we plan to add a Rewards Store where you can redeem Coins for rewards other than cash. At this stage of beta, however, you can redeem Coins for cash in your Writer Account (view “How It Works” in the Community tab of your Writer Account to learn more about redeeming coins).

The way Coins are redeemed and valued is likely to change in the future. This is just a starting point. The platform is in beta, so you should expect it to grow and change as we learn what works and what doesn’t. Our goal is to create a balanced system that is rewarding and sustainable.

How Can I Maximize the Number of Coins I Earn?

As we’ve hinted at already, users who are able to create positive outcomes will be more heavily rewarded. These positive outcomes are results that indicate the community is growing and thriving.

Over the last year, we’ve researched community growth by interviewing community managers, surveying community members, and analyzing the results of our own prototype for this platform (early users will remember the Community version that used Social Points as a rewarding mechanism).

Through our research, we’ve identified several outcomes that add value to a community, helping it grow and become vibrant. Some of these outcomes include:

• Inspiring discussion (receiving replies to your comments)
• Breaking the ice (being the first commenter, leading to more discussion)
• Making meaningful conversation (receiving upvotes, or sometimes downvotes, on your comments)
• Developing relationships (working together to spark, or maintain, discussion around a topic)

By rewarding users who help produce these outcomes, we hope to create a positive environment where users can engage in fun, candid discussion about the content on our blog. The intended result is an added layer of user-generated content below each article that adds value for the reader and enhances their content experience.

Get Involved and Send Your Feedback

If you’re a writer at Crowd Content, you can get started right away by browsing content on our blog and leaving some comments (login with your Writer Account email and password). The best way for us to optimize the new platform is to get people using it and hear their feedback, so the more participation early on, the better.

We’re always open to hearing about what works, what doesn’t, what you like, and what you don’t like, so please don’t hesitate to voice your opinion. You can leave any comments or questions you have below this article, or email us at writers at crowdcontent dot com.

Now comment onward, have fun, and be rewarded!

The post Now Earn Coins with Crowd Content Community (BETA) appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today Scott explains how you can order content in multiple languages.

We’ve had a lot of companies come to us recently requesting original content in multiple languages. This video shows how you can get just that.

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Content in Multiple Languages appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It is common for a company to upload style guides and any other relevant information that will help the writer.

As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your account manager. 

The post Feature Friday: How to Add Attachments to Your Order appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We want you to be able to leverage the power of images with your content marketing. That’s why we’ve made it easy for you to download high quality Bigstock images from directly within your Crowd Content account.

This video explains how you can easily retrieve photos that you have previously downloaded.

If, at anytime, you need a high quality photo to compliment your content marketing, you can choose from millions available directly in your account.

The post Feature Friday: How to Get Your Bigstock Images appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

As an online marketer, writing irresistible sales copy is one of the most important sales techniques that you can master. Regardless of the degree of awesomeness you have to offer your target audience, a forgettable sales copy will do nothing to improve your bottom line.

So how do you create a sales copy that sells? Keep reading for four fast tips on how to create website content that puts your business front and center.

1. Catch Their Attention with a Compelling Headline

When you think of a typical sales copy, your mind may conjure up images of bold, red font, highlighted text, or an overabundance of exclamation points. While these tactics may initially capture a reader’s attention, they may also come across as overly aggressive.

As Heidi Cohen explains on Content Marketing Institute, a headline that catches the eye and piques interest is an effective way to encourage your audience to keep reading, without weakening your credibility or brand image.

2. Talk to a Person, Not a Faceless Group

This may be a difficult skill to master, but it holds the key to relating to your audience. When creating your sales copy, don’t write to a nameless, faceless crowd. Create a customer persona, and write for them. How is your product, service or cause a good fit for their needs or desires?

Apple provides an excellent example for what it means to write to your audience. In its iPhone5 sales copy, the word iPhone is used 81 times. The words you and your are used 110 times.

The sales copy not only shares information about the product, but also how the product is relevant to the reader.

3. Readability Matters

On average, a majority of readers will skim a page. According to the Nielson Norman Group, only 16% of readers will actually read every word. Effective website content caters to both types of readers. It packs inspiring, information-rich content in a layout that is easy to digest.

While the actual content of your sales copy is important, its presentation matters as well. Have you ever visited a page that had a dark background, with small text that was only a few shades lighter?

How long did you stay on the page? It could provide the coordinates for the fountain of youth, and its readers would be none the wiser.

By ensuring that your sales copy is both rich in information and readable, you can ensure that it provides the biggest impact.

4. Don’t Forget the Call to Action

The final step to creating a great sales copy is including a call to action. An effective call to action encourages the reader to take the next step, whether that is to make a purchase, connect with your company or find more information.

By following these tips when creating website content, you can ensure that your sales copy gives you the best results possible.

The post How to Write Irresistible Sales Copy appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It can be a pain to come up with titles and descriptions that meet the proper character count for meta descriptions and titles.

That’s why we’ve made it easy for you to get metadata for your content. Our writers have you covered!

Having properly formatted meta titles and meta descriptions are essential to looking good on the SERP.

Check out this video for more information on how our writers will take care of your metadata for you.

If you would like more information, do not hesitate to contact us!

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Unique Meta Descriptions and Titles appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We want to make sure you have all the tools you need to get involved.

Here’s the quick facts about our referral program:

1. We’ve seen clients make over $700 from referring their network to our network of writers.
2. Once your referral spends $30 on content, we put $30 in your account for you to spend on content or high quality, Bigstock images.
3. You can keep track of your referrals progress from within your account.
4. You can use your custom link to post on your social media page(s), embed on your website, or email to your friends.

For more information on how to get the most out of the Crowd Content referral program, please check out the video or contact your account manager.

The post Feature Friday: The Benefits of the Crowd Content Referral Program appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Enter the Crowd Content Resource Center. Here, you can read up on the latest SEO, social media, and content marketing trends.

Questions about how to navigate your Crowd Content account? No problem. You will find a library of explainer videos that will help answer frequently asked questions.

If you would prefer to have a conversation about any of the above topics, feel free to contact your account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: How to Navigate the Resource Center appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Easy billing is a great feature for anyone who is ordering content regularly, or has a content campaign scheduled in advance.

You can customize your automated settings. For example, every time your account balance gets below $50, you can set it to automatically add $100 to your account. 

This quick video will give you all the information you need to get set up.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to your account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: How to Use Easy Billing appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This feature is really handy if you have lots of content being processed through your account. You can easily see the status of your content the, and when a writer has sent you a message about your content. You can even reply to messages from within your notification center. 

Because I manage a ton of content, this feature is my go-to. I can easily stay in touch and up-to-date with my team of writers.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact your account manager at any time.

Happy Friday!

The post Feature Friday: How to Check Your Notifications appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

These fields are hepling us streamline how we match your order to the most qualified writers.

If you have any questions about this, or any other feature, contact your account manager today!

The post Feature Friday: How to Get the Best Writer for Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Campaigns is an excellent tool for the savvy online marketer. It allows you to schedule your blog posts, tweets, facebook posts, and really any content, all at once in one place.

Contact your account manager if you would like to have the feature enabled in your Crowd Content account, or check out this detailed guide about how a campaign works.

The post Feature Friday: How to Start Your Content Campaign appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Why does this help you?

Do you have questions about how something works within your Crowd Content account? Our Youtubbe channel is where you will find the answer.

Don’t feel like watching a quick tutorial video? No worries. You can reach out to your account manager at any time via email of phone.

The post Feature Friday: How to Find Crowd Content Tutorials appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Our writers have been busy creating high quality content for you for a while now. Over this time, they have gained some serious knowledge in all sorts of different industries.  

Now, you can easily find a writer who specializes in your business by simply typing in keywords that pertain to your business.

For example, say I’m a marketer and I need a writer who specializes in marketing and SEO. I can simply type in “marketing” and “SEO” then all the writers who can write about marketing and SEO will appear.

From there, you can check out their profiles and decide if they’re a good fit for your content.

Check out the video for more info!

The post Feature Friday: How to Find Yourself the Perfect Writer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This week’s feature showcases how you can easily delete and rename your content folders. Additionally, Curtis demonstrates how you can drag content from one folder into another. 

This is a great feature for content marketers with high volume of content, and for e-tailers who like to keep their product descriptions organized.

If you have any questions about this feature, do not hesitate to contact your account manager.

The post Feature Friday: How to Manage Your Content Folders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once your writer has completed your content, you have a ton of options for exporting. Today, we’re focusing on full HTML export.

If you have any questions about this feature, do not hesitate to contact your account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: How to Export Content in HTML appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This feature enables you to make an offer for a lower price to your writer. It is typically used when you have worked with a writer in the past and would like to place another, very large, order with them.

Once you make an offer, it is up to your writer to decide if they accept or decline your offer.

Check out the video for more details!

Our writers work hard to provide you with the high quality, unique content.  Log in or sign up and get started with yours today!

The post Feature Friday: How to Make an Offer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

From within your Crowd Content account, you can easily have your writers create Facebook and Twitter posts for your company.

Once the social media content is completed by your writer, you can distribute across any social media platform you have in your Hootsuite account.

Insider tip: if you feel that your tweets can also serve as Facebook, Linkedin, and other social media updates, you can schedule it all at once.

The post Feature Friday: How to Streamline Your Social Media Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Whether you’re looking to attract new eyeballs to a site or keep the current audience happy, these tools can help you tackle the task with greater efficiency and purpose.

1. Flickr Creative Commons Search

A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes the cost of top-quality photography for a website does surpass the price of a thousand-word article too!

Savvy content producers are increasingly turning to the large array of options available through Flickr to populate their articles with compelling images.

It’s important for a website operator to maintain an ethical relationship with the larger community on the Internet, and when using images they should turn to licenses that permit them faithful and free use rather than appropriating images outside of copyright laws.

With the Creative Commons Search feature on Flickr , a site owner can quickly find superb images available for free use in return for attribution and a backlink.

2. Quickly Create Infographics with Easel.ly

Website visitors love to look at and share infographics, and the website Easel.ly allows you to quickly put together sharp-looking and informative images that audiences will enjoy. The site includes easy-to-use templates that allow anyone to snap together visuals in a jiffy.

3. Keep Up with Social Media Using Storify

Content creators are increasingly turning to social media as a starting point for new articles and to understand general trends about what users love. Storify allows a website operator to develop a better sense of what’s currently popular in the social media zeitgeist.

4. Google Fonts

Creating compelling content is one thing, but presenting it in an engaging fashion with professional typography that draws readers in can be quite another problem.

Modern web fonts allow content creators more options than ever before to produce good-looking and compelling websites, and one of the best places to start is with fonts from Google’s repository.

Google Fonts allows site owners to search through tons of freely available typefaces and find something that’s well-suited to their goals.

The post Christmas Present: Free Content Creation Tools! appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If you have changed your address, you can easily update your account information under the Edit Account Info tab.

Are you one of those people who likes to change their passwords every couple of months? If so, it is easy to do in the Change Password tab.

Should you wish to attach a picture to your profile, you can do so under the Change Picture tab. Here, you can upload your headshot, company logo, or use an avatar we provide for you.

Finally, we have a Low Funds Notification option where you can set a customized threshold for when you would like a reminder to add funds to your account. This feature is handy if you are running content campaigns and have content scheduled to place months in advance. This feature will ensure you are notified when your account hits a certain balance so that you have enough credit for your scheduled orders to place.

For more information on features available within your Crowd Content account, check out the Feature Friday library!

The post Feature Friday: How to Change Your Account Settings appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If you are new to Crowd Content, you can cruise through writer profiles and choose a writer who looks like a good match for your brand’s voice. Writer profiles include real time client ratings, topics where the writers excel, and many other stats what come in handy when you are vetting writers.

If you have placed previous content orders, you can easily go back and choose any of the writers who have written for you previously.

Writer teams make it easy for you to organize which writers you want on specific projects. If you would like a hand setting up a team of writers, don’t hesitate to contact your client account manager at any time!

The post Feature Friday: How to Create and Manage Writer Teams appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

A good description helps to market products. This is why large corporations spend millions of dollars every year trying to come up with catchy descriptions that customers will remember.

This approach works well for advertising campaigns, but isn’t effective when you need individual descriptions for dozens or even hundreds of unique products.

When dealing with large batches, the optimal solution is to use multiple product description writers at the same time. This approach creates the marketing you need while offering the following helpful benefits.

Alternate Voices

Rick Polito of the Marin Independent Journal once described a movie with the following phrase: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.” IMDB describes the same movie with this phrase: “Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home.”

Both describe The Wizard of Oz, but with very different voices. Your marketing will seem less stale if the products descriptions are written in many different voices.

A single product description writer usually can’t easily change voice, but multiple writers will each have unique voices.

Avoiding the Bottlenecks

Just like any other process, content marketing has its share of bottlenecks. This is particularly problematic in product marketing, since many products have a small window in which they sell best.

If you don’t have the product descriptions when you need them, you’ll miss your window of opportunity for sales.

The biggest bottleneck is usually the actual product description writing. A few hundred words times a few hundred products equals tens of thousands of words.

In order to clear this bottleneck quickly, hire multiple product description writers. Even a dozen writers speeds up this part of the process by roughly ten fold.

Finding Writers

The only problem to this solution is finding writers. Advertising agencies are expensive and specialize more in brand messages than single product descriptions. A convenient alternative is to hire product description writers from a content creation website with a good reputation.

The post Use Multiple Writers for Batch Product Description Creation appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once your content has been written and is completed by your writer(s), the next step is to export and publish your content to your site.

At that point, your content is published. If you custom exported the content, you can mark it as published. If you used the Crowd Content WordPress connector, it will automatically be marked as published.

All completed and published content will appear in the published folder. If, at any time, you would like to unpublish your content, you can do so by clicking ‘mark as unpublished’.

Feel free to leave any questions below, or, contact your account manager for more details.

The post Feature Friday: Mark Your Content as Published appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The first step is to click on the order your writer is working on.

In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, you will see a box that says ‘Message Your Writer’, click on that.

You are now in the chat window with your writer. Both you and your writer have the ability to send a message.

If your writer is not online, they will get an email with your message.

This is a handy feature for your writer if they are looking for more information or specification on your order.

Most of our high volume users like to use the chat feature to open up the lines of communication and build a relationship with their writers.

The post Feature Friday: How to Message Your Writer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once you are in the app directory in your Crowd Content account, scroll down to WordPress and click Install App.

From there, you will be prompted to fill in your WordPress information. Once you have filled out this information, click Add WordPress.

You're now ready to export you fresh blog post to your WordPress account!

Simply open the blog post (in your Crowd Content account) that you would like to export to WordPress, click Tools and Apps at the top of the screen.

From there, scroll down to WordPress and click Publish to WordPress.

Now, if you go into your WordPress account, you will see the blog post ready to be published.

That's how to use the Crowd Content WordPress integration!

Happy Friday.

The post Feature Friday: How to Connect Your WordPress to Your Crowd Content Account appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today, Matt demonstrates how to order SEO metadata with your content.

We’ve made it easy for you and your writer to work together to get the metadata you need for your SEO strategy.

From within the advanced order option area in the content order form, you will want to click ‘yes’ when it asks you if you would like metadata.

You can specify keywords, or leave it up to the writer to decide.

When your writer picks up your order, they will be presented with 3 fields.

Metadata Title- This section defaults to the h1 title of your order. It can also be customized based on your strategy.

Metadata Description- A best practice for metadata descriptions is anywhere between 150 and 160 characters. We’ve set the character limit to 156 to ensure there is no overage.

Metadata Keywords- As previously mentioned, you can decide whether you’d like to provide these for your writer, or, you can leave it up to the writer to decide what best fits.

Once the writer has returned the SEO metadata and content back to you, you can export the content in HTML or as a CSV file.

If you have questions about this feature, feel free to leave a question in the comment box on this post, or contact your client account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: Getting SEO Metadata with Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Whether you’re an accounting guru or a business owner keeping your financial records, we’ve made it easy for you to retrieve your transaction history.

You have the ability to sort by debits (orders), credits (deposits), or by date range.

If you’ll be printing off your transaction history, you have the ability to download as a PDF.

See you next week. Have a great weekend!

The post Feature Friday: How to Retrieve Your Transaction History appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Curtis from Crowd Content explains what you can do with orders that are placed, but not being written yet. Learn how to Edit, Pause, Copy, or Delete a placed order. You can also view the History of a placed order to know exactly when it was placed and if it has previously been claimed by a writer who may have dropped it.

The post Feature Friday: Options Available for Placed Orders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today Scott explains how amazing instructions for your content writer can result in amazing content.

When you order content for your blog, web copy, or wheatever it may be, it’s important to remember that writers do not double as mind readers.

We have created an advanced order options area where you have the ability to provide detailed instructions to your content writer. These will get you on the road to having high quality content for your site!

Here’s a list of your options:

1. Keywords- SEO savvy? Here’s where you enter the list of keywords you want your writer to incorporate in the final product.
2. Target Audience- Providing your writer with the target audience allows them to adjust the tone of the content to cater to a specific niche.
3. Language- What language do you want your content written in?
4. Processing Time- Our algorithm is intuitive in that it auto calculates a processing time based on your word count. However, you can customize turn around time based on your deadlines.
5. Writer Point of View- You can choose from first person, second person, third person, or, let the writer decide.
6. Voice Tone- Do you want your content to be fun, informative, light-hearted, professional, serious, witty, or informative? The choice is yours!
7. Purpose of Content- Is the purpose of your content to entertain, promote, inform, or sell?
8. Call to Action- Do you want a call to action? You can choose from buy, sign up, or, find out more.
9. List of Main Benefits- If you want to put an emphasis on main benefits, here’s where you let your writer know.
10. Things to Avoid- Is there something in particular that should not be mentioned? It is common to ask writers to avoid using long paragraphs in this section.
11. Attachment- If you have more information in an attachment, feel free to upload it here.

These advanced options are just that- options! If you want to leave it up to your writer, don’t worry about using these options.

See you next week!

The post Feature Friday: Advanced Order Options appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Search engines and people in general have become increasingly bombarded with content en mass. Websitemagazine.com shares that over 70% of businesses realize that publishing is becoming more and more important a role in marketing efforts and are investing heavily in content.

If you don’t write your own content and you seek blog writers for hire, keep in mind some very important things to avoid some common mistakes when hiring blog writers.

Tap Key Emotions – Stop Trying to ‘Sell’

If they (your target audience) like and trust you, they will buy/engage from/with you. It’s not about you or your product. Gone are the times where just placing advertisements everywhere and expecting a certain percentage return on that investment will result in direct sales.

Now, buyers are more sophisticated than ever and want to be given something they consider value added up front. It’s like dating, you have to be willing to take them out a few times to gain their interest, give them something to believe you are interested in them and only then will they be willing to take a closer look at what you are selling.

They need to trust you have their interest in mind. When hiring blog writers, be sure they have a heart for your audience and knowledge of what moves them.

Create a Content Creation Culture – Don’t Just Hire and Forget About Them

Be involved with your writers. You have to set the bar high and remain engaged yourself. Don’t just hire a blog writer and expect a superstar overnight. Set goals and expectations by

• Investing in qualified hires. You get what you pay for.
• Using analytics and feedback to increase engagement, decrease bounce rates and improve content overall.
• Inspire ~ give incentives and rewards to your writers, friendly competition is healthy and authors that perform particularly well should be rewarded or highlighted for their contribution.

For more help in finding and differentiating between good and bad writers, ideas to help you identify your needs and goals check out our resources page as well!

The post Common Mistakes When Hiring Blog Writers appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You have the ability to filter by content type, content quality, writer, or, by rating. It is also easy to search by date range. 

For example, if you want to place an order for product descriptions but you can’t remember who your go-to writer were, you can filter by product description orders, and add a sub filter for content you rated as ‘exceeded expectations’ in the product description category.

Using this filter, you will see all the details from your previous product description orders that exceeded expectations.

These are great tools to have if you are a high volume customer and need to find a certain piece of content or a writer who you worked with in the past.

Check out the video for a quick overview of how to make the most out of your content tab!

The post Feature Friday: Managing Your Content Tab appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We call this feature the bulk CSV upload tool. It allows you to uploaded huge quantities of SKUs that you received from the product manufacturer, or elsewhere.

You have the ability to pick and choose which product descriptions you would like to have rewritten, or you can select all of them.

Once you have decided which descriptions are getting fresh content, you can provide instructions to your writer.

Once the order is placed, your writer takes care of it.

Just sit back, relax, and expect your descriptions to be returned to you within the deadline you chose.

Bigcommerce  user? We are partnered with both so you can quickly and easily order fresh description from within your account.

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Product Descriptions in Bulk Quantities appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Our qualified writers can create creative and engaging Facebook posts that are unique to your business and industry.

You have the ability to provide basic or detailed instructions for yiour writer. Additionally, to give your writer an idea of what you like, you can show example pages of businesses who have done a killer job on their Facebook posts.

Once your writer has finished your order, you have the ability to upload the posts directly into your Hootsuite account using our Hootsuite integration.

Check out the video for more details!

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Facebook Posts appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today, Scott demonstrates how to use the Crowd Content Shopify app.

It’s super easy to use! To install the Shopify app, all you need to do is go to the app directory from within your Crowd Content account.

From there, click ‘install’ on the Shopify app. To connect your store to Crowd Content, simply enter the URL of your Shopify store.

If you have go to create an order for product descriptions now, all of your existing products will appear.

You have the ability to pick and choose which products you would like to include in your content order; you can do choose 1 or 100, the choice it yours.

Furthermore, you can choose to the descriptions written fresh, or re-written.

Finally, you have the ability to choose from either professional writers or standard writers, depending on your budget.

If you have any questions about how the Shopify app or how to get the most out of your product descriptions, do not hesitate to contact your client account manager at any time!

The post Feature Friday: Product Descriptions For Your Shopify Store appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today on Feature Friday, Curtis explains how easy it is to export large quantities of content from your Crowd Content account.

Last week on Feature Friday, we showcased the apps and tools you can use to export your freshly written content.

This week is a bit different. Curtis focuses on how you can export large quantities of content all at once via csv or zip files.

These options are especially handy if you want to store your content on your desktop, or, if you are hosting your e-commerce store on a platform outside of Shopify or Bigcommerce.

Shopify or Bigcommerce store owner? We have you covered too!

Check out this how-to guide for importing and exporting content directly to and from your Shopify or Bigcommerce store.

The post Feature Friday: Different Ways to Export Your Content | Part 2 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You have a number of different options to choose from.

1. Copy HTML – Content formatted in HTML. This is a great tool if you are placing your content on your website.
2. Copy Text – This tool put your content into notepad to be placed wherever you need it.
3. Download Documents – Use this tool to download your content as a word document.
4. Constant Contact – Enables you to export your content directly into an email in your Constant Contact account.
5. Mail Chimp – Similar to constant contact, you can export your content directly into an email campaign or create a new one.
6. Bigcommerce – Product descriptions? No problem. Use our Bigcommerce integration to export descriptions directly to your store.
7. WordPress – Any content you have created that needs to be uploaded into WordPress can be done directly from. 

Next week on Feature Friday, we will demonstrate how you can export major batches of content as zip and CSV files.

The post Feature Friday: Different Ways to Export Your Content | Part 1 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We have created amazing profiles for each and every one of our writers. These profiles showcase their areas of expertise and keep their performance stats updated in real time.

Helpful information you now have access to:

1. Mini Bio- These were created custom by each writer. This area outlines their education, experience, and unique value to Crowd Content clients.
2. Quality Star Level– You can see whether the writer is 1,2,3, or 4 star quality level. This is determined by our rating algorithm that uses real time performance.
3. Category Badges– If the writer has badges at the top of their profile, it means they are among the top 10 writers in that specific category.
4. Testimonials and Recent Ratings– A real time ticker provides all recent ratings and reviews by clients.
5. Category Performance– This shows how many orders the writer has completed in a specific category. It also shows their average client rating (out of 5) for that category.
6. Writer Statistics- This area displays the number of words and orders the writer has written on the Crowd Content platform. It also shows how many orders the writer currently has in progress and their average words per hour (WPH). 
7. Writing Samples- Part of the writer application process is providing us with a sample of their writing capabilities from a predetermined category. The writer sample shown in the profiles is from the application process.

It’s a win-win. Clients are now able to search through our ‘crowd’ of content writers and pick the one(s) whose qualifications best suit their content requirements. Writers now have their great work on display for potential clients to view.

We hope you enjoy this feature! Stay tuned for cool new features being released over the coming months!

The post Feature Friday: How to Search and View Writer Profiles appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The first step is to integrate your Bigcommerce store with Crowd Content. Now, anytime you place an order for product descriptions, the order form will automatically load the inventory from your Bigcommerce store.

You can easily pick and choose which product descriptions you would like to have freshly written, or, simply, a re-write of what you are using.

It’s common for e-tailers to receive inventory from the manufacturer with only a title attached to the product. In this case, you will order a fresh product description. You can choose your word count and provide any additional instructions to your writer.

If you have product descriptions from your manufacturer, you will want to create a product description re-write order. This is an SEO best practice every savvy e-tailer is conscious of.

Once your writers have completed your ordes, the descriptions can be uploaded directly into your Bigcommerce store.

The best part? No copying and pasting!

Check out the video for step by step instructions!

The post Feature Friday: Product Descriptions For Your Bigcommerce Store appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once you are in the referral tab, you will have access to a unique link. You can share this link on your social media, website, or via email with your friends. 

You can track your referrals in the My Referrals tab from within your account. 

Check out the video for more details!

The post Feature Friday: Crowd Content Referral Program appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

When you are at your dashboard in your Bigcommerce account, there is an apps icon in the top left corner.

After clicking on that icon, a list of apps will appear. Once you find the crowd content app, click install.

You’re good to go! Your Bigcommerce store is now synced with Crowd Content.

In a few weeks, we will demonstrate how to create and manage amazing content from within your Bigcommerce account. 

The post Feature Friday: How to Connect Your Bigcommerce Store appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once a writer completes your content, they submit it to you for review. After reading it over, you have couple of options.

If you are happy with your content, you can rate and accept it right away.

After reviewing it, if you decide that you would like changes made, you can request unlimited revisions for up to 3 days.

We use gamification to constantly rank our writers. If they are recieving good ratings, their quality level will reflect this in real time. 

Fresh, relevant content is so important for search engine ranking, telling your brand story, and building a loyal customer base. We are commited to getting you the content you are looking for!

The post Feature Friday: How to Review and Rate Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Open orders allow you to send your content order out to all qualified writers. For example, if you placed an open order for three star quality content, your order can be picked up by any three or four star writer on the Crowd Content platform.

Once you have established a relationship with a few writers who have successfully completed your content orders, you can add them to a team, and place team orders.

For example, if you have four writers who have created amazing blog posts for you in the past, you can create a “Blogging” team. Once you place an order with this team, only writers on the team will be able to pick up your order.

If you are particularly impressed with one of your writers, you can send a direct order to them. This is a great feature if you want to keep a uniform voice across your website, blog, or social media content.

It is common to use a mix of open, team, and direct orders. Give it a try!

The post Feature Friday: How to Use Team and Direct Orders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Hootsuite is a leading social media dashboard that allows you to quickly and easily upload, distribute, and manage you social media content. 

The Crowd Content integration with Hootsuite allows you to rate your content, add funds, and create orders from within your Hootsuite account. 

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Tweets | Part 2 of 2 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This week on Feature Friday, I demonstrate how easy it is to order a batch of tweets in your Crowd Content account.

To start, simply enter the hashtags you would like your writer to use, an example handle where your writer can visit for reference, and you’re on your way!

You’re busy running your business, so why not let our talented pool of writers craft some creative and share-worthy tweets for your twitter profile?

Next week on Feature Friday, we will show you how easy it is to load these tweets into your Hootsuite account using our Hootsuite integration. Stay tuned!

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Tweets | Part 1 of 2 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It’s a really intuitive feature. As a customer, you can choose the keywords you want used throughout your content, and add them to your order. 

Once your writer starts creating your content, there is a real time count on their dashboard of how many times they have used your chosen keywords.

Kewords are a a great way to optimize your content for search engines, such as Google. So why not start incorporating them in to your content?

The post Feature Friday: How to Incorporate Keywords Into Your Content Creation appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Every week we will be doing a short Feature Friday video outlining cool features that you can find in your Crowd Content account. 

This week, founder and CEO, Clayton Lainsbury, shows us how to download Bigstock images directly into your Crowd Content account.

In just a few clicks, you will own the rights to high quality, royalty free photos, that you can incorporate into your content marketing.

Google is on the look out for fresh and unique content. Why not compliment it with an eye catching image? Check it out!

The post Feature Friday: How to Download Bigstock Images in Your Crowd Content Account appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Previously, we only offered PayPal as a payment solution. Although you were still able to use a credit card by checking out as a “guest” through PayPal, some clients asked us to offer a direct credit card method.

Pay with Credit Card or through PayPal

Now, when adding funds to your Crowd Content account, you will see the following screen:

If you would still like to use PayPal to fund your account, simply click the “Pay with PayPal” button and you will be taken through the same process as before.

If you want to pay with credit card, click the “Pay with Credit Card” button and you will see a form like below:

Using this form will allow you to pay with credit card without ever leaving the Crowd Content website.

100% Secure Solution from Payment Leader, Stripe

This credit card form is 100% secure and is provided by credit card payment leader, Stripe.

Stripe is used by thousands of businesses online, including several Fortune 500 companies. You can view businesses who already use Stripe in their customer gallery.

You will also notice there is a “Save Card” option on this form. This simply means that your card details will be saved on Stripe’s secure servers. When you make a future payment at Crowd Content, we will ask you if you want to use the saved card, meaning you don’t have to re-enter your card information every time you make a payment. You can easily clear the saved card at any time.

Contact Your Account Manager with Any Questions

We hope that this new payment option provides more convenience for some of our clients. If you have any questions about these updates, please don’t hesitate to contact your Client Account Manager. Thank you!

The post We’ve Added More Payment Options appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We’re happy to introduce the My Writers section and Direct Order Offers.

My Writers: A Comprehensive Set of Writer Management Tools

Look at the main navigation of your client interface and you’ll see a button for the new My Writers section of your account.

In My Writers, you can see all writers you’ve ever worked with at Crowd Content. You can also add and remove writers to your Favorites list or your Blacklist, create writer Teams, and leave notes about specific writers.

Favorites list and Blacklist

Up until now, you’ve only had the Blacklist to work with. We’ve now added a Favorites list, too.

If you Blacklist a writer, that writer will not have access to any of your future orders.

If you add a writer to your Favorites list, you can easily find that writer again by going to My Writers and clicking on the Favorites label on the left.

Also, when placing an order, you can make it available to only your Favorite writers by clicking Team Order and selecting Favorites. Our system automatically creates and maintains this Team for you as you add and remove writers from your Favorites list.

Creating and Managing Writer Teams

In the My Writers section, you can now create Teams. This can be very handy for ongoing blog projects or for large batches of product descriptions.

To create a Team, simply click Create Team on the left area of the My Writers section. Enter a name for your Team and click Save.

You then have a few different ways you can add writers to your Team:

1. Drag and Drop. When in My Writers, hover your mouse over a writer’s profile. You will see four vertical dots to the left of the check box inside the writer’s profile. Click and hold your mouse on the dots (you will see “cross hairs” when in the right spot) and then drag the writer to the Team you want him or her on.

2. Add from Writer’s Profile. You can add writers to a Team, Favorite them, or Blacklist them from anywhere on the website. This is done using the writer’s profile which pops up whenever you hover on a writer’s image. To add a writer to a Team, bring up a writer’s profile and click on the “three person” icon. You can then add the writer to one or more teams using the check boxes.

3. Use Batch Select to Manage Multiple Writers. When in My Writers, you can use batch select options to Select All or to select multiple writers. Then use the batch controls at the bottom of the page to Favorite, Blacklist, or Add to Teams.

Leave Notes about a Writer

We’ve added the ability to leave a note about a specific writer that can help you identify him or her in the future. This note is for the client only and is not viewable by the writer.

To add a note to a writer, bring up their profile and click on the “paper” icon on the far right. Then click into the text area to write a note. Simply click off of the text area to save the note.

You will then able to see the note quickly later by just hovering on the blue paper icon.

Direct Order Offers: Pricing Flexibility when Working Directly

Before, if you were placing a Direct Order with a writer, you were forced to pay the price of the Quality Level that the writer was currently at.

For example, if I wanted to place a Direct Order with Conrad Richards, who is a 4 Star writer, I had to pay the 4 Star price of 12 cents per word.

Although our 4 Star writers are proven, skilled authors and worth this rate, we realize there are situation where both the client and writer would like to engage at a lower price. For example, for ongoing jobs that become routine or jobs with simply requirements, writers are willing to work at a discounted price.

We listened to feedback from both clients and writers to bring you Direct Order Offers.

Make an Offer to a Writer

Direct Order Offers start out on the client’s side. Now, when on the order form and selecting Direct Order, clients have the option to “Make an Offer”.

To do this, select Direct Order, choose a writer, and then scroll down to the pricing section of the order form. You’ll see a blue text link that says “Make an Offer”.

Click this link. Then, click a Star to choose a pricing level different than the writer’s normal rate. Then place the order.

This will send a Direct Order to the writer, offering it to them at the price you’ve selected.

Writers Counter Offer or Accept

If the writer is happy with your offer, he will simply accept it and then start writing your order.

However, if the writer feels differently about the job in question, he has the option to counter offer. For example, if you offered a 4 Star writer a job at 2 Star pricing, he may counter offer at 3 Star.

The writer also has the option to send a note with his counter offer to explain why the pricing doesn’t work for him in this situation.

After a counter offer from the writer, the client has the option to accept, counter again, or edit the order (delete it, change to an Open Order, send to a Team, or place a Direct Order with a different writer).

Thank You and Keep Sending Feedback!

As always, we want to thank our clients and writers for the continued feedback. It’s your passion for creating great content that helps us to continue improving the Crowd Content platform. Please keep the comments coming and enjoy these new features.

The post New Features: Writer Teams and Flexible Pricing on Direct Orders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Are you an eCommerce store? Check out the eCommerce How-To Guide.

We have put together a couple videos to help get you started.

Step 1: Create a Free Account
Step 2: Add Funds to Your Account
Step 3: Create a Content Order
Step 4: Sit Back and Relax while We Create Your Content
Step 5: Chat with Your Writer if Necessary
Step 6: Review and Accept Your Completed Content
Step 7: Easily Distribute Your Content
Step 8: Use Your Favorite Writers Going Forward
Step 9: Contact Your Account Manager to Say Hi!

Step 1: Create a Free Account

If you haven’t already, create your free client account here. Just enter your first name, email address, and create a password.

Don’t worry. You’re not obligated to purchase anything by creating an account. This is just our way of letting you explore the platform with no risk.

Step 2: Add Funds to Your Account

When you’re ready to start ordering content, click the green Add Funds button in the top right of your screen.

We’ll ask you to enter your full account information (if you haven’t already) and then allow you make a secure payment with PayPal or major credit cards.

After adding funds to your account, you will instantly be able to use those funds to place content orders.

NOTE: Alternatively, you can Add Funds immediately after creating your account. The system will automatically take you through the process.

Step 3: Create a Content Order

Click on the green Create Order button in the top right of your screen. You will be taken to our easy to use order form.

The order form guides you through the process of creating the perfect brief. It asks you questions you may not have thought of to ensure that your writer gets the information he or she needs to create your content.

Remember to select your Content Type (Custom, Tweets, or Facebook Posts) and to check out the Advanced Options, where you can add keywords and more specific instructions for your writer.

Step 4: Sit Back and Relax while We Create Your Content

After placing an order, Crowd Content will match your order with a group of qualified writers. An interested writer from the group will claim your order and start working on your content.

You can watch it all happen on the Dashboard or the My Content section of your account. We’ll show you which writer has claimed your job and when he or she claimed it.

Most orders are claimed by a qualified writer within a few minutes. If you see that your order has not been claimed within 12 – 24 hours, you may want to edit your order instructions or contact your Client Account Manager for help.

NOTE: Your order can be claimed by writers at or above the Quality Level you specified in the order form. This means that you could potentially get a 4 Star writer even if you choose 3 Star Quality Level. This doesn’t happen all the time, but can happen if a higher level writer is interested in your topic and willing to work at a lower pay rate.

Step 5: Chat with Your Writer if Necessary

While a job is in progress, you can chat with your writer by using the instant messaging system.

To access the instant messaging system, click on your order from the Dashboard or the My Content section and then look for the ‘Message Your Writer’ tab in the bottom right corner.

If your writer doesn’t respond right away, don’t worry. He or she may be working offline. We’ll send him or her an email notification about your message and you should get a response soon.

Step 6: Review and Accept Your Completed Content

When your writer has finished writing your content, we’ll send you an email notification. You can then view the completed content in your account.

If the content matches your requirements, you can Accept it and leave a rating for the writer.

If the content doesn’t meet your expectations, you can easily request a revision at no extra charge. The job will be sent back to the writer with your instructions.

If needed, you can keep requesting revisions until the content meets your needs for up to three days after the initial order is completed. There is no cost or limit to revision requests (except for requests to rewrite the content out of scope from the original order brief).

Step 7: Easily Distribute Your Content

Once your content is complete and you have accepted it, you can easily distribute your content to your preferred platform.

Upload your content directly to WordPress, HootSuite, Outbrain, Constant Contact, BigCommerce, Shopify, MailChimp, or Copy HTML.

Step 8: Use Your Favorite Writers Going Forward

After you have worked with a writer at Crowd Content, you have the ability to place a Direct Order with that writer.

This means that the order will go directly to the requested writer, not allowing any other writers to have access to it.

To place a Direct Order, click Create Order just like you would to create any other order. Under Order Type, click Direct Order. Then click the writer dropdown and choose the writer you want.

NOTE: When placing a Direct Order, you must pay the rate on the writer’s profile. This rate will match the Quality Level of the writer, which you can see by hovering over the writer’s image.

You have a couple options to manage your writers.

You can Add to Team or Favorite writers that you would like to work with in the future. Both options become available once you click the box to the left of the writer profile.

To Create a Team, you will find a blue ‘Create a Team’ in the left hand column.

Alternatively, if you aren’t happy with the work of a writer, you can easily blacklist the writer by hovering on his or her profile image and clicking the blacklist button (it looks like a no parking sign). By doing this, the writer will not have access to any of your future orders.

Step 9: Contact Your Account Manager to Say Hi!

Remember, every client at Crowd Content is assigned a dedicated Client Account Manager. This person is here to help you in any way he or she can.

We love hearing from clients, so please, don’t hesitate to get in touch! Whether you have questions about the platform or about your content strategy, your Client Account Manager can guide you in the right direction.

The post Quick-Start Guide for Crowd Content Clients appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

For many, YouTube is synonymous with multimedia marketing. However, it’s not the only platform worth investing in when promoting a brand. Here are 5 excellent alternatives that deserve some attention.

1. Vimeo

A strong contender in the multimedia marketing arena is Vimeo, a hip, professional video hosting site with a rabid following. Businesses will want to look at the Vimeo PRO package, which costs $199 per year and boasts 1080p HD support, 50GB of storage space, advanced analytics and numerous branding options. If you’re looking to differentiate yourself from the many competitors that host their media on YouTube, Vimeo is a wise choice.

2. Dailymotion

One site that deserves more attention from online marketers is Dailymotion, a video hosting site that features a diverse array of content. Users can upload videos up to 60 minutes in length or 2GB in size. Due to its smaller user base, it’s easier for brands to attain the top spot in their respective niches. Thanks to decreased competition, it’s easier to attain a higher ROI than on YouTube.

3. Blip.tv

Though it may not have the name recognition of YouTube, Blip.tv is nevertheless a popular purveyor of premium web content. Blip allows for uploads of up to 1GB in size and offers a 50/50 split on advertising revenues. Thanks to its comprehensive suite of tools for promoting your content and monitoring analytics, it’s perfect for brands that publish videos as part of a larger collection rather than as standalone advertising.

4. Viddler

For business video hosting, Viddler
might just be one of the best options out there at the present time. It allows uploaders to use custom branding and geo-filter access to videos based on location. Videos can be monetized either by in-video ads or by selling access to premium video content via a subscription model. Finally, Viddler boasts some of the best default analytics capabilities of any video hosting platform around.

5. Metacafe

As the go-to site for short, entertaining video clips that can easily go viral under the right circumstances, Metacafe can be a powerful weapon in the hands of the right marketer. Though you won’t get rich from ads on your Metacafe submissions, you can significantly raise your brand’s profile and get tons of publicity with little effort. For companies that specialize in media or entertainment, Metacafe is good bet.

Closing Thoughts

While YouTube has been a reliably effective video marketing tool for years now, it doesn’t define the current multimedia landscape. If you’re willing to venture off the beaten path, there are plenty of sites that present viable alternatives. There’s multimedia everywhere online today and you don’t need to default to YouTube to achieve a decent return on your efforts when promoting your brand in the video marketing sphere.

The post Beyond YouTube: 5 Alternatives for Multimedia Marketing appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

1. Embrace Negative Keywords

Avoid paying for unwanted traffic by using negative keywords effectively. When applying negative keywords, your ad will not show to users entering search queries that include a negative keyword that you have specified.

For example, if you are a new car dealership, you could list the word “used” as a negative keyword for your PPC campaigns. Consequently, if a users searches for “new and used cars”, your ad will not show.

Using negative keywords effectively can help filter out traffic that does not match your target market (keep the tire-kickers out so you don’t waste your money on them).

2. Geo-Based Keywords

In terms of online marketing, location can be everything. If you are targeting customers in Miami, you don’t want folks in San Diego clicking on your ads (wasted ad spend).

All major search engines have geo-location features that use IP addresses to present ads specific to a searcher’s location. You can narrow your focus by adding location to your keywords by using the full name of your state, the state abbreviation, or just the city name if it’s distinctive enough. To get more out of your location-based keywords, mix it up with different variations.

3. Spruce Up Your Calls-to-Action

When someone clicks your ad, you know that you you’ve at least piqued their interest. CTAs like “learn more” and “click for a free estimate” encourage a clicker to take action without feeling pressure to commit to a decision. There is an inherent fear of clicking if you don’t know where that click will lead.

Let searchers know exactly what they’re getting by using CTAs such as “click here for free shipping” or “get started with a free download” to make it clear what that click means.

4. Use Keyword Phrases

Searchers who know what they’re looking for tend to be specific with the terms they type in that search box. Somebody shopping for “coats” is likely to type in something like “red fall coats” in an effort to get more productive search results.

By using various keyword phrases throughout your content, you have a better shot at coming up in somebody’s search engine results page. By getting more specific, you also get away from overused keywords not likely to produce results.

5. Don’t Default to the Homepage as Your Landing Page

A homepage is not necessarily a landing page. Don’t automatically send searchers directly to a generic homepage if another page on your site is more specific. Choose the landing page that best matches your ad copy. In other words, your landing page should be a continuation of your ad copy with more details and additional CTAs.

Finally, take the time to test and analyze your PPC campaign before you commit a major chunk of your PPC marketing budget on it. You can test multiple ads simultaneously to compare and contrast your results. Test for one variable at a time to get more useful results. Consider factors such as the times when you get the most clicks and how many conversions you actually get.

The post 5 Tips for Better PPC Results appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The Crowd Content platform now lets you order Tweets or Facebook Posts from our stable of talented writers. We make it easy to get high quality social media messages that engage your audience and drive traffic to your website.

Highlights from this update include:

• Easily order the number of Tweets or FB Posts you need
• Tweets and FB Posts are priced per unit, so you only pay for what you need
• A sophisticated brief ensures writers get the right info about your brand to align messages with your brand
• Writers create Tweets and FB Posts through a special interface that controls character counts to ensure compliance with Twitter and Facebook
• Full integration with HootSuite – automatically send Tweets and FB Posts to HootSuite and then to social channels

Easy to Use, Transparent Pricing

The recent update makes it easy to order Tweets and Facebook Posts. Before, we noticed that many clients were ordering these social media messages through the normal order form.

Although this did work, it was clunky and required a good set of instructions to ensure the writers delivered what was needed. With the recent update, you now see the following options under Content Type when placing a new order:

• Custom – use this option for any content type other than Tweets or Facebook Posts
• Tweets
• Facebook Posts

If selecting Custom, you will see the normal order form and will still see cost per word pricing.

If you select Tweets or FB Posts, you will see unit pricing on a per Tweet or per FB Post basis.

Updated Order Brief and Quality Control Measures

When creating a Tweet or Facebook Post order, we display special options that allow you to provide writers with brand information. This ensures that your writers will create social media messages that engage your audience and align with your existing online presence.

For example, when ordering Tweets, special fields let you list your Twitter handle, competitor or example Twitter handles, and even hashtags that you want mentioned throughout your Tweets.

Maybe the best part of the recent update is that writers now create Tweets and Facebook Posts inside a special interface. The interface provides a separate input field for each social media message to be created.

The Crowd Content system counts and displays the characters for each message (seen above), allowing the writer to optimize the message for the appropriate platform. The system doesn’t even allow the writer to submit their content to the client if one or more messages have exceeded the appropriate character count.

Note: Requesting links in your Tweets? Don’t worry. We properly allocate 23 characters for each link, aligning with Twitter’s procedures when processing Tweets with links.

Fully Integrated with HootSuite – Just Click to Post!

As icing on the cake, our integration with HootSuite means that completed Tweets and FB Posts automatically appear on your HootSuite dashboard.

From the HootSuite dash, you can view all content from your Crowd Content account (not just Tweets or FB Posts). We take it even further by allowing you to actually place orders and request revisions from your HootSuite dash.

In other words, this integration is fully functional, allowing users to manage their Crowd Content account from the HootSuite dash or from the main Crowd Content site – it’s your choice.

To learn more about the HootSuite integration, read this announcement on our blog.

Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy Today

These new features let you source engaging social media content from Crowd Content’s qualified writers and make it easy for you to publish that content to your social media networks.

Engage with a talented writer today who understands your niche. Remember, after sampling writers, it’s easy to work with your favorite writer(s) on an ongoing basis by using the Direct Order feature. When doing this, you effectively create a team of quality content writers that is an extension of your company.

As always, if you have questions or comments about the new features, please don’t hesitate to contact your dedicated Client Account Manager. Thanks!

The post Automate Social Media Marketing with Tweets and FB Posts from Crowd Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

How It Works

The cookie-based technology works by placing a piece of code on your site. This code drops an unobtrusive browser cookie whenever a visitor comes to your site. When that same visitor browses the Web, your ads strategically appear where they are browsing. Retargeting providers such as AdRoll, Google Remarketing, Bizo (for business-to-business re-targeting), and Retargeter can help you coordinate your retargeting efforts.

Why It Works

Retargeting is effective because you are targeting people already familiar with your brand. After all, they showed some interest – just not to the point of taking any action. Research shows that marketers can expect a higher ROI by retargeting customers rather than focusing on entirely new potential customers every time. Think of it as a first date that hasn’t said yes or no to a second date.

When to Use Retargeting

Retargeting tends to work best with your other content marketing strategies. You can get an increase in conversions with this technique, but you aren’t going to increase traffic to your site with retargeting alone. It’s best to use other marketing tools that are already working for you to drive traffic to your site and then incorporate retargeting to increase your conversions.

Types of Retargeting

Looking closer at retargeting, there are different methods for accomplishing the goal of converting curious website visitors. Site Retargeting is the method where you use cookies to track visitors to your site that browsed or added a few items to their cart without making a purchase. Additional methods of retargeting include:

Search Retargeting

This method involves targeting individuals via search engines. You use certain keywords and phrases relevant to your business. This method does, however, make the assumption of interest in your business based on guessing the searcher’s intent.

Email Retargeting

This type of retargeting focuses on the actions someone takes when receiving an email from you. You take a different approach based on whether someone actually opens your email, doesn’t even open it, or creates a link and forwards it to friends. While some unopened emails may have ended up in spam folders, your best bet marketing-wise is to focus on individuals who either open or forward your email.

Engagement Retargeting

This method focuses your retargeting efforts based on the actions taken by visitors to your site or blog. A visitor watching your videos, for instance, is likely to be more responsive to new videos you post via your social accounts or through YouTube. You can then create highly targeted – and usually more effective – display ads.

If you think about it, it actually makes sense to go after an audience that has already shown an initial interest in your business. Your goal is to remind people of the potential value you offer in meeting their needs – and make a conversion. Retargeting really has broad appeal since every business has “almost customers” who browse without taking any action. With a little effort, you can get these tire kicking fish to take the bait.

The post If at First You Don’t Convert, Retarget appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

What’s even better, your completed content now automatically appears on your HootSuite dashboard. This allows you to distribute it across Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks in seconds.

Install the Crowd Content App at HootSuite

To get started, you need to connect your Crowd Content account with your HootSuite account.

If you don’t have a Crowd Content account, create one here.

If you don’t have a HootSuite account, create one here.

From the HootSuite dash, go to App Directory > Free Apps > Crowd Content and click Install.

After connecting your Crowd Content account with your HootSuite account, you will be able to manage your Crowd Content account from either HootSuite or from Crowd Content.

Enjoy Full Functionality from Your HootSuite Dashboard

The Crowd Content app at HootSuite is fully functional. You can do almost everything from the app that you can do from the main Crowd Content website, such as:

• Add funds to your account
• Place orders for Tweets, Facebook Posts or other content from Crowd Content’s writers
• Review drafts from writers and request revisions if necessary
• Accept and rate content orders
• Place Direct Orders with preferred writers
• View a Dashboard showing your recent activity

Distribute Content to Twitter, Facebook and Other Social Networks in Seconds

The best part about this integration is that all of your completed orders from your Crowd Content account will automatically appear on your HootSuite dashboard.

You can then simply click the “Share” button beside any completed content piece to share that content via Twitter, Facebook or any other social network supported by HootSuite.

More about HootSuite

A social media management system, HootSuite helps businesses and organizations collaboratively implement campaigns across social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ Pages and LinkedIn from a single secure, online dashboard. Some of their advanced functionality includes tools for audience engagement, team collaboration, account security and comprehensive analytics for end-to-end measurement and reporting.

The post How to Use the HootSuite Crowd Content Integration appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The new messaging system makes it easy to communicate with writers. It’s also super quick. We’ve designed it like an instant messaging tool for quick, insightful conversations.

Sign in now to try it out.

Take Your Content from Good to GREAT

Sometimes, just one extra clarification or note can take your content from pretty good to amazing! That’s the effect we’re shooting for with this new messaging system.

Before, you could only communicate through your revision requests or your Account Manager. Now, you don’t need to wait for the content to be submitted. Reach out to your writer with a quick message to give them that key piece of information that will make your content perfect.

Writers Get the Full Story

We started to notice that even when clients create awesome order instructions, a writer may have a question or two. These questions are often small, but can make a big impact when answered.

Before, writers were forced to make educated guesses if they were unsure about part of a client’s instructions. Now, they can simply fire off a quick message to the client and get the answer they need. This allows them to get back to work quickly and create higher quality content.

How Does the Messaging System Work?

The messaging system is really easy to use.

To use the messaging system, you need to have an order that is “Being Written”, “Being Revised”, or “Completed”.

If you have an order in one of the above statuses, click on the order in your Crowd Content client account.

You will see a tab that says “Conversation with Writer”.

Simply click on this tab, type a message, and click Enter. The message will be sent directly to the writer working on that order.

Email Notifications

If a writer sends you a message and we detect that you are not signed in to your Crowd Content client account, we’ll send you an email notification about it. You can then sign in to your account and respond to the writer.

Quick, Polite Answers Make the Job Go Smoothly

We strongly recommend that all clients be responsive with writers. Our writers take content quality and turnaround time very seriously, so if they are asking you a question, it’s because they want to deliver a high quality, engaging piece of content to you.

Please do your best to respond quickly to any questions you get from writers. Also, just like we suggest with order instructions and revision requests, please always be polite and respectful to your writers.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support. We hope you enjoy using the new messaging system and encourage you to sign in today to test it out.

The post New Feature: Now Chat Directly with Your Writers! appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We just finished adding a new wave of the Web’s highest quality writers! We’re encouraging all clients to sign in and place a few orders to test out the new writers.

Crowd Content is dedicated to finding, recruiting, and retaining the best writers on the Internet. We’re extremely happy about this latest cohort of new writers and know that you, as clients, will benefit tremendously from the added skill and fire power.

We’ve Raised the Bar for New Writers

That’s right, we’re now asking more from each writer who goes through our application process. All aspiring writers are required to fill out a challenging application form that helps us determine their skill level. Most importantly, the application form requires a new and unique sample to be written by the writer on the spot!

Writer’s who perform well on the application process are asked to join the Crowd Content writing team. Writer’s who struggle during the process are thanked, but unfortunately are not allowed to write for Crowd Content at this time.

Look for Higher Quality and Faster Turnaround Times

The new writers we’ve added really know their stuff. They also work quickly, so expect your turnaround times to be faster and more reliable going forward.

On top of that, we’ve added an incentive system that motivates writers to satisfy you! Writers who perform well are rewarded, while writers who perform poorly are penalized.

Some of these rewards and penalties are focused directly on content quality and turnaround speed, reinforcing the tendency to deliver great service on every order you submit.

Expect New Features and More Control in the Coming Weeks

We have to admit that we’ve been spending a lot of effort and resources on fine tuning the writers’ side of Crowd Content. We believe that awesome writers create awesome content, which you as clients benefit from.

However, we’re now turning our focus to the client interface. We’ve been listening to your feedback and we’re adding the features you are requesting.

Look for a slick new design to surface soon along with a new set of features that will give you more control over your content ordering process. We believe that more control gives you the power to execute a better content strategy, so that will be our main focus over the next couple of months.

What are you waiting for? Sign in now and order some content from these great writers!

The post We’ve added New, High Quality Writers! appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Basically, you want to follow these 5 best practices when placing scheduled content orders:

1. Schedule Orders Ahead of Publish Dates
2. Generalize Your Order Instructions
3. Manage Titles Effectively
4. Lockdown Your Favorite Writer
5. Use Multiple Schedules

How Does the Schedule Feature Work?

Before we get into best practices, let’s quickly recap how the schedule feature works and where to find it.

The schedule feature allows you to set up recurring content orders. You can find it by signing in to your Crowd Content client account and clicking “Create Order”.

Near the bottom of the order form is a section called “Recurring Order Schedule”.  If you click Yes, the schedule feature will open up and you’ll see each day of the week listed.

From there, it’s pretty simply. You just select the days of the week that you want your order placed on. After you submit the order, the schedule will be live, and that order will be placed each week on the days you’ve specified.

1. Schedule Orders ahead of Publish Dates

It’s important to know that the schedule feature specifies the date your order will be placed. It does not mean that your content will be ready on that day.

Because of this, you want to set your scheduled dates well ahead of your desired publish dates (if you have publish dates).

If your content orders require a lot of research and time to create, give yourself lots of time by setting your schedule dates up to 3 or 4 days ahead of your publish dates.

2. Generalize Your Order Instructions

With a scheduled order, the same set of instructions will be sent to the writer(s) every time it is placed. Because of this, you need to think of your scheduled order as more of an overall project brief and not a specific order for one piece of content.

For example, if you have a blog about social media marketing, you may want to use language like below in your instructions:

We need 3 blog posts per week about social media marketing. We are a marketing agency so please create content that would be interesting to our clients and our potential clients.

Please view the example websites listed below for blogs that have content similar to what we are looking for…

The key here is that we are not requesting one specific title or piece of content. We’re explaining the overall project and listing guidelines that will apply for every post going forward.

“But I want to specify my own titles,” you say. Check out the next tip on title management to see how you can do it!

3. Manage Titles Effectively

Managing titles with an automated schedule can be tricky, but here are a few tips to simplify the process.

You basically have two options:

1. Let the writer(s) create their own titles and topics
2. Specify your own titles and topics ahead of time

If you want the writer(s) to create the titles as they go, then you simply need to state that in your order instructions. Something like the following would do:

Please create your own titles and topics as you go. Please make the titles exciting and interesting to the social media marketing community.

If you want to specify your own titles, try this approach. Generate a long list of titles ahead of time. You might have a bunch that you’ve already thought of or you might want to do a brainstorming session with your team.

Either way, you want to end up with a list of 10, 20, or more titles.

Add this list of titles to your instructions for your scheduled order. State that you want the writer(s) to go through them one at a time and cross them off as they go.

IMPORTANT: When taking this approach, remember that you will need to “re-load” your titles every so often. For example, after 15 of 20 titles have been written, you will want to repeat the title generation process again and then add the new list of titles to the order instructions.

To add the new list of titles, go to the Project that your scheduled order belongs to. You will see the schedule at the top of the page. Click Edit. Add the new list of titles (delete the used ones if you want) and then click Save Schedule.

TITLE GENERATION TIP: Can’t think of any titles? Place an order to the crowd for 150 words asking the writer to generate titles around your topic. For example: “Please create 20 – 30 blog post titles around the topic of social media marketing. Each title should be around 7 words long and be in ‘how to’ or ‘top X’ format.”

4. Lockdown Your Favorite Writer

You should look at your first couple orders as a bit of a testing period. You don’t know the writers yet, and you’ll probably have a few different writers complete your first couple of orders.

However, once you see a completed order that you really like, you can easily request to use that same writer for all your scheduled orders going forward.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Project that your scheduled order belongs to
2. Click Edit on the scheduled order (to the right)
3. Go to the bottom of the order form and click Yes to view Advanced Options
4. Click Yes to use a writer from a previous order
5. Select the order that you liked and click Save Schedule

After doing this, all future orders for that schedule will go to your preferred writer.

5. Use Multiple Schedules

Some clients want to use 2 or 3 different writers for their blog. This gives their blog a few different perspectives and can help increase the frequency of new blog posts being published every week.

To use multiple writers, you’ll want to use multiple schedules, too. Simply create a schedule for each writer.

Make sure that the “previous writer” selected for each scheduled order is correct. Name each scheduled order differently so you can identify which writer is doing the content.

Summary

It’s easy to automate your content creation efforts if you use the schedule feature and follow these best practices. If you run into any problems or have questions, get in touch with your Client Account Manager. They can help you get started and provide assistance along the way.

You might want to check out the articles below, too, for related advice:

5 Steps to Powering Your Blog with Crowd Content
How to Place an Order: Tips and Tricks for Your First Order

The post Automating Content Creation: 5 Best Practices for Using Schedules appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

A few striking, well-placed pictures can lend a lot of weight to your prose in ways you never imagined. Thankfully, you don’t have to spend any money to use great photos within your content. Here are five topnotch sites for free photography.

Creative Commons

As the granddaddy of freely available stock photography, Creative Commons is the go-to place to find pictures with permissive licenses. Aside from the official Creative Commons Search portal, you can find great photos via Flickr and on Google Advanced Search. However it’s found, a photo released under a Creative Commons License is good to go.

Stock.xchng

Another fantastic stock photography platform is Stock.xchng, a tantalizing alternative to Creative Commons Search. Within its voluminous web pages, you’ll find all manner of eye-catching snapshots that are perfect for any blog post, slide show or article you’ve got in the works. With nearly 400,000 photos and counting available, it’s nearly impossible to not find the perfect picture for your latest piece of content.

FreePhotosBank

If you want your stock photography to really stand out, you’ll need to think outside the box and use sites that aren’t quite so high-profile. FreePhotosBank is one such website that hosts thousands of royalty-free photos taken by some seriously talented amateur and professional photographers from around the world. For some truly unique images that’ll complement your content, think FreePhotosBank.

Wikimedia Commons

Like Creative Commons Search, the main Wikimedia Commons Search site is arguably one of the best places on the web to find a wide variety of images for any occasion. At present, Wikimedia Commons has over 15 million images available to not-for-profit users. Whatever you might be looking for, Wikimedia probably has it in one form or another.

MorgueFile

Despite the somewhat morbid name, MorgueFile is a truly innovative site with plenty of options for those who need flexible stock photography. What makes it special is the morgueFile Free License, which allows anyone to use posted pictures in any way they like so long as they don’t directly profit from them or lay claim to ownership of them.

Words of Advice

Integrating stock photography into your content for maximum impact is a subtle art. Even the best content written by the best content writers will fall flat if not paired with engaging imagery

For the best results, ensure that your chosen images will compliment your content rather than overshadow it. More importantly, avoid clichéd pictures that are seen all too often across the web. Long story short, the aforementioned sites are a virtual goldmine for all your stock photography needs in any scenario.

The post Top 5 Resources to Find Royalty-Free Graphics for Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Easier, Faster, Better

The new changes make Crowdcontent even easier and faster to use than before. Not only that, but many of the changes are designed to increase content quality and writer performance, meaning you can expect better results.

Most of the new features and upgrades were based on feedback from clients, so we want to thank all of you for your ideas. We hope that the new system helps you achieve your content creation goals more efficiently and effectively.

A list of the most notable changes is below. Keep reading to learn more about each item and why it’s important.

• Automatic Content Scheduler for Recurring Orders
• Easily Select a Writer from a Previous Order that You Liked
• Create a Similar Order Using the “Copy” Feature
• Order Form Tweaks to Increase Quality and Writer Performance

Automatic Content Scheduler for Recurring Orders

Welcome to a blogger’s heaven. You can now set up a recurring order schedule that will automatically feed you daily or weekly articles.

The scheduler feature is so easy to use. To create a recurring order, simply click Create Order like you would for any new order.

Near the bottom of the order form, you will see a question asking you if you want to place this order on a weekly recurring schedule. Click Yes.

A menu will drop down with a box for each day of the week. Simply select the days of the week that you want the order to be placed on. For daily orders, select every day.

After placing the order, your schedule will be saved. Your first order will be placed on the next day to occur that is selected in your schedule. If today is selected, an order will be placed immediately.

For example, if today is Monday and I create the scheduled order below, an order will be placed immediately. The next order would be placed on Wednesday.

On the other hand, if today is Tuesday, your first order will not be placed until Wednesday.

IMPORTANT: The schedule only specifies the days that your order will be placed. It does not mean that your order will be ready on that day. If your publish date is important, be safe and give yourself a 2 or 3 day cushion. Look to the estimated turnaround time in the Order Summary for an idea of how much cushion you need.

Want to edit an existing schedule? To do this, hover over My Projects and click to view the project that your scheduled order belongs to.

You can see all schedules that belong to that project at the top of the screen. To pause, edit, or delete, use the buttons on the far right.

Below your schedules, you will still see all the orders that belong to that project. This includes orders that were created by your schedules and non-scheduled orders. See the screenshot below for an example of the new My Projects view.

Easily Select a Writer from a Previous Order that You Liked

Previously, if you wanted to use the same writer from a previous order, you had to place a Managed Order and then tell your account manager which writer you wanted. Managed Orders have now been eliminated and replaced by a new feature that makes it easier to request writers from previous orders.

To select a writer from a previous order, simply click Create Order like you would for any new order.

At the bottom of the order form, you will see a question asking you if you would like to show advanced order options. Click Yes.

At the top of the Advanced Order options, we ask you if you want to use a writer from a previous order. Select Yes.

A drop down menu appears with a list of all your previously completed orders. Simply select an order that you were happy with and we will ensure that the current order you are creating will be sent directly to the same writer.

Create a Similar Order Using the “Copy” Feature

You can now easily create a new order that is similar to a previous order by using the Copy feature.

Note: the Copy feature will replace the Templates feature. If you have existing Templates, we will keep them active for another 3 weeks. However, after that time, all Templates will be removed and you will need to use the Copy feature going forward.

The Copy feature is a lot easier and faster to use than the Template feature was. To create a similar order, simply locate the order that you want to copy. The best way to do this is to view the project that the order belongs to. You could also find the order on the Dashboard in your trail of recent activity.

When you find the order you want to copy, put your mouse over it and you will see a History and Copy button on the far right. Click Copy.

After clicking Copy, an order form will appear with all the same instructions and variables selected as the order you are copying. You can change anything you want, like the Title, before placing the order.

Order Form Tweaks to Increase Quality and Writer Performance

You might notice a few other changes to the order form and wonder why they’re there. Aside from the features discussed above, we’ve added a few tweaks that will increase the quality of content delivered through Crowdcontent. We’ve also added tweaks that will help you get your content turned around faster.

Here’s a list of a few performance based changes we’ve made and a short explanation on why we added each of them.

Suggested Character Limits: You’ll notice that if you write too much in your Instructions to Writer section, you will see a friendly warning asking you to stay within the suggested character limit. When re-vamping the order form, we analyzed thousands of orders to see which ones were getting completed the fastest and were getting the highest quality ratings.

We found that order forms with important, but concise instructions not only were turned around faster, but were also more likely to meet the client’s expectations. This is probably because shorter, concise information is easier for the writer to grasp.

Because of this, we are now asking clients to challenge themselves and attempt to condense their instructions into smaller, more concise snippets of text.

Remember, the character limits are only suggested and you can go over them if you wish.

Exception: If you are pasting some example content for the writer to view, you will probably be over the recommended character count and should ignore the warning.

Example URL: We now have a dedicated field that asks you for an example URL. We’ve found that showing your writer an example of the style, tone, and format you want is the best way for the writer to get “on your level”.

Your Example URL can be an existing page on your website or a page on another website like a competitor or industry expert. Writer’s will never copy or duplicate the content on an Example URL – they will only use it for inspiration.

Publish URL: If the content you are ordering will be published on a website, or will represent a website, please list the URL to that website here. Seeing the final destination for the content will help the writer understand the feel and brand the content should represent.

Keyword Limits: You will notice that the number of keywords you can specify is now limited depending on what your maximum word count is. We noticed that some clients were asking for a high number of keywords relative to the word count of the order.

It’s important to understand that as you add keywords, the difficulty level for the writer increases. In extreme cases, it becomes virtually impossible to include all the keywords while still creating a readable document. We feel the limits in place now still allow you to create keyword rich content, but, at the same time, ensure that the content will read well and not be viewed as SPAM by search engines.

Keep Sending Your Feedback

As we already mentioned, many of these upgrades are the direct result of clients voicing their opinion and telling us what they need. To us, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can count on us to keep listening and keep improving the Crowdcontent content creation platform as we move forward.

If you have ideas for new stuff, have questions about the recent changes, or find any bugs with the new features, please contact your Client Account Manager.

The post You Asked, We Delivered: New Features Are Now Live! appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

1. Pinterest

Before you say, “Well, Duh,” consider the impact that Pinterest has had on the SEO world in the last year. It could be argued that Pinterest is the most important content curation site online at the moment. Any e-commerce vendor, marketer, offline merchant and website admin can put forth their best content in a structured manner in seconds. Better yet, it’s one of the best viral marketing sites around.

2. Bundlr

If ever there were a cloud application that was custom-built for content creation, Bundlr is it. It allows users to bundle content from around the web into distinct packages with an easy “Bundle This!” browser extension. You could consider it to be a spiritual successor to Evernote, but with a focus on sharing rather than personal use. In other words, it’s every content curator’s dream.

3. Storify

One of the greatest challenges for any content curator is coming up with a compelling story to tell to their followers. After all, nothing spurs people to action like a solid narrative. Storify takes the headache out of the composition part of the process by providing a dead simple user interface for curating content across various social networks, making effective viral marketing a cake walk.

4. Attrakt

Sifting through the incalculable volume of new content that’s created online every day for curation purposes requires some intelligent software. Fortunately, an intelligent search engine for just that purpose exists in the guise of Attrakt. It allows users to bookmark their favorite sites and search them for content based on specific central themes. Conversely, it’s also the perfect way to share your knowledge of a topic with others.

5. Curata

The name really says it all with Curata, a platform squarely aimed at those who want to curate an experience for their clients. Curata’s own CEO pointed out rather eloquently why content curation is so popular, given the current frenzied online environment. Curata absolutely nails it on every front, especially when it comes to organizing and cataloging content.

Curate to Content Success

Nowadays, the task of curating content to deliver a structured experience for one’s followers is oftentimes too great a challenge for any mere mortal to tackle on their own. That’s where the tools we’ve just profiled come in. By curating an experience for your audience using these versatile utilities, you’ll put yourself head and shoulders above the competition. Tailoring said experience to the right demographic will always win in the long run.

The post Top 5 Resources Every Content Curator Should Use appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The new dashboard is just the first of many updates to come over the next few weeks at Crowd Content. We’re really focusing on making Crowd Content even easier and faster to use, and that’s what these updates are designed to do.

How to Use the New Dashboard

The main advantage of the new dashboard is the easy access to all recent order activity. In the past, we’ve had feedback from clients saying they wanted an easier way to view the status of all their orders. Clients also wanted the ability to view the status history of a single order.

The dashboard is now the first page you see when you log in. On the left, you will see a “status trail” of all recent actions relating to your orders. For example, you can see when an order was placed, when it changed to being written, and then when it became ready for review.

The dashboard also shows images and titles from recent articles on the Crowd Content blog (on the right side) and has a banner messaging area up top for communicating updates and promotions.

Dig Deeper to View the Full History of Any Order

If you have an order that is taking longer than expected to be completed, you can now click on that order and view its full status history.

For example, you can now see if multiple writers have claimed and unclaimed your order. This is a great way to tell if your order instructions are too demanding or unclear. If you see that multiple writers have claimed your order, but it’s still not being written or not completed, you may want to delete the order and revise your instructions to make them easier to understand.

More Feature Upgrades to Come!

We have a bunch of new features in the pipeline that will be rolled out over the next few weeks. Keep your eye on the blog and login to your client account regularly for up to date information.

The post New Dashboard Shows Order Status and History appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Impossible Dream

Creating marketing pieces that appeal to everyone is impossible. Word choice and the stories you tell will resonate with some and alienate others. If you do not make a conscious decision to aim at your target audience, then you may end up creating a variety of marketing messages that dilute your brand and fail to connect with those customers you hoped to reach.

Every marketing campaign should begin by identifying a specific customer. With a clear picture of this person’s attributes, likes, and fears, your company can create blog posts and marketing messages that speak directly to this target audience. Once you connect with these ideal customers with a clear brand statement, they will go on to help spread your message beyond the original demographic.

Begin with the Basics

To begin, you will want to draw up an ideal customer profile including specific details about:

• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Education
• Family Situation

A forty-year-old man with a high school diploma and three kids has a different worldview than a twenty-four-year-old woman enrolled in law school. The language they use is different, and they probably do not have the same fears and dreams. When you create your marketing pieces, the language you use will attract one more than the other. This is okay as long as you have chosen the right target.

Filling in the Details

Once you have the basics established, you can further flesh out your image of your target audience with details about the types of entertainment and cultural experiences this consumer seeks. He may watch football on Monday nights. She may visit museums on the weekend. They both might benefit from your products and services, but they do not respond to same messages.

The more you know about your ideal customer, the easier it will be to find the stories and references that will attract this audience. Do you know who your target audience is? Start with the simple exercise mentioned above to better understand your target audience and begin developing a marketing strategy to reach that audience.

The post Who Is Your Target Audience? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

When business starts to take off, these companies find they need to focus more energy on actually running the business. They then have less time for creating the content that pulls in new prospects.

In this situation, ghost writers for hire can fill the gap. These writers can help pump out the content that draws new leads while you and your company focus on your core capabilities and existing customers.

So How Do You Choose The Right Ghost Writers for Hire?

On the Internet, you can choose from thousands of ghost writers all over the world. You may be tempted to simply compare prices and go with the least expensive bidder, but beware that several other factors matter more than fees.

Voice

A ghost writer must be able to write in a voice that will appeal to your target audience or your content marketing strategy will fail. Hiring overseas writers at rock bottom prices is today’s equivalent of being “penny wise but pound foolish.” The money you save will fade away when your marketing pieces fail to connect with the readers you hoped to attract.

Choose a ghost writer who can mimic your audience’s grammar and word choices. If this writer can mimic your voice, that is even better.

Consistency

Lowest-bidder hiring practices create an inconsistent voice for your marketing pieces. Some organizations end up spending as much time hiring new writers and editing their content as they once spent creating content in house, all in the name of finding the lowest price.

Strive to connect with a writer or group of writers who know your standards and can deliver the words you need. Then work out a long-term arrangement to provide a consistent voice for your target customer.

Reliability

Writing does not scale very well. A writer who produces 3000 words a day probably cannot double his output on demand. When choosing a ghost writer to hire, make sure he can deliver the volume you anticipate.

Some writers band together so that they can offer the scale and stability businesses expect. Your company may find that an agency with several writers can provide the quality you seek with the reliability your organization needs.

Budget

Of course, price matters. Although you might like to spend whatever it takes to find the perfect ghost writer for your business, you have a budget. Be honest about your budget from the beginning, and you can save your organization a lot of time and trouble fielding proposals that are out of your range.

The current economy is volatile. Your organization must be ready to seize opportunities as they arise. Finding the perfect ghost writer for hire can give you that extra boost you need to stay on track with your content marketing strategy and still run your day-to-day business effectively.

The post How to Choose Ghost Writers for Hire appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

A content calendar is essential to organizing production. In this article, we’ll show you how a calendar helps manage your content and enrich your SEO processes.  We’ll also help you create an SEO content calendar by providing a template and tips on filling it with SEO content.

What Is an SEO Content Calendar?

A content calendar, also called an editorial calendar or a content plan, is a schedule that lays out when and where you’ll publish articles, blog posts, and other digital content. If social media is part of your marketing strategy (and it should be), you can also use a content calendar to plan your social posts for the next few months.

The calendar is a tool you can use to keep key details of your content strategy in one place. Need a reminder of what’s in the pipeline? Wondering who’s been assigned to the fintech piece? Pull up your content calendar. It should be accessible to and updated by your whole team so everyone can work in sync.

On a strategic level, an SEO content calendar breaks down the steps you’re taking to make an impact in the SERPs. The calendar also sets out the requirements of the page: audience, keywords, search intent, and goal. Each piece should have a purpose before it’s placed in the schedule.  

A content calendar has many benefits for product-based and service-based businesses:

• Having your content planned several weeks or months ahead of time makes it easier to come up with ideas for an article or blog post.
• Developing a content calendar streamlines your SEO strategy.
• An editorial calendar can help you stay organized, eliminating the problem of publishing duplicate posts on the same site or forgetting an important publication deadline.
• Content plans increase consistency, ensuring your site has a steady supply of new content to attract new visitors and improve your search engine rankings.
• Creating an editorial calendar makes it easier to see gaps in your content marketing strategy.
• If you work with multiple writers, a content calendar makes it easier to assign work and track each piece through every step of the editorial process.

What Should a Content Calendar Include?

Content calendars provide a snapshot of upcoming content — usually on a weekly or monthly basis — including the project title and due date. When you view individual entries, you can see key details such as:

• Content title
• Assigned roles (writer, editor)
• Publication date
• Status
• URL slug
• Graphic requirements
• Links to project briefs
• Notes

Some marketing teams expand this information to include search volume, target audience, meta title and description, funnel stage, and social media distribution. You may want to consider keeping these details in a content brief linked from the calendar to conserve space. 

The bottom line: Your calendar should be designed to incorporate the information that’s most useful to you as you oversee your content production.  

Tools for Creating Your Editorial Calendar 

For many businesses, a spreadsheet such as Google Sheets offers enough functionality to organize a content strategy. You can share the document, customize fields, use color coding, and create dropdown menus for changing the status of projects. 

If you require more capabilities, a specialized platform such as Monday.com, Asana, Jira, or Trello can help you visualize workflow. Some of these tools enable team members to change view layouts and highlight their personal tasks. You can also drag and drop items as they’re assigned or moved through writing, editing, and QA.

You may need to explore these platforms to discover the right one for your needs before investing in a software right away. Ultimately, your content calendar should make work easier and more enjoyable, so take some time to find the right one. 

Incorporating a Calendar Into Your Content Process

Before entering content ideas into your calendar, make sure you’ve done your research to ensure that your content performs well in the SERPs. To perform well with Google’s helpful content system, it’s important to deliver valuable content to your readers rather than publishing content with lots of keywords and  little to no benefit.

1. Conduct keyword research

SEO content begins with keywords — words and phrases customers are searching for. When you nail your keywords, you can tap into the right audience for your products and services. 

• Primary keywords are the main terms in your SEO strategy. Ranking well for these keywords can drive thousands of new visitors to your site, increasing revenue and helping you build a stronger brand.
• Secondary keywords can target a more specific audience. They often relate to a user’s search intent or reason for conducting an online search. For example, a recipe website might use “chicken recipes” as a primary keyword and “30-minute chicken recipes,” “chicken recipes with cheese,” or “slow cooker chicken recipes” as secondary keywords.

If you’re new to keyword research, here are a few ways to uncover search terms relevant to your website and readers:

• Use SEO tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs to get ideas. When you enter seed keywords, these platforms return a list of related keywords you can incorporate into your content.
• Visit competitor websites to see what keywords other companies in your industry are using.
• Consult with subject matter experts to find out which topics are most important to the people in your target audience.
• See what long-tail keywords (three to five words) Google suggests when you start typing in search terms related to your product, service, or industry. For example, entering “all-terrain bike” brings up “all-terrain bike vs. mountain bike,” suggesting readers are interested in a comparison of the two types.
• Survey customers to find out what information they’re interested in.
• Run a content gap analysis to see what topics your competitors are ranking for but your website is missing.

2. Sort your keywords

Once you have a long list of keywords, sort them according to search volume and competition to determine which ones you want to target first. Your top priority should be keywords that have high search volumes and low levels of competition, as it’s easier to rank for these keywords than to rank for terms that have high search volumes and high levels of competition.

As you sift through the keywords, move terms with low search volumes to the bottom of the list. You shouldn’t ignore them entirely, but you don’t want to put a lot of effort into targeting a keyword that gets only 10 or 20 searches per month.

3. Develop content titles

Page titles are extremely important, as they tell readers what your content is about and give them a reason to keep reading. Titles also help search engines understand the focus of your website and determine if the content is relevant for specific keyword searches.

Although a good title should include your primary keyword, craft it with your readers in mind. If a title isn’t dynamic enough to draw them in, few people will take the time to read the entire page.

To make your titles as appealing as possible, follow these tips:

• Explain exactly what the reader will take away from the article.
• Promise to solve the reader’s most pressing problem.
• Use numbers to help readers understand what to expect.
• Share news you know your audience will care about.
• Ask a question.
• Incorporate adjectives to help your titles appeal to the reader’s emotions.

4. Schedule your content

When creating a content calendar, it is important to put each piece of content on the schedule. The calendar should follow a consistent publication schedule, whether that’s once a day or once a week.

For SEO purposes, it’s best to publish as often as possible, but frequency is less important than quality. Publishing two great posts weekly is a lot better than publishing low-quality content daily, especially when it comes to building your reputation and establishing your website authority.

For each title, write down a target publication date and where you plan to publish the content. When you’re done, you’ll have a schedule you can follow for several months or even a year. If you want to scale, consider outsourcing content, ordering several pieces of content at a time.

5. Write exceptional content

Once you have an angle in mind, determine what type of content you want to create. Articles and blog posts are some of the most popular types of content, but you have plenty of options: 

• Listicles
• Infographics
• Case studies
• Buying guides
• Industry reports
• White papers
• Customer profiles
• Q&As
• Press releases
• How-to guides
• Checklists
• Tip sheets
• Fact sheets

Consider the search intent of your audience and the best format for addressing their needs and helping them accomplish their goals. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little too. Diversifying your content can make your site more inviting to explore.

As your calendar fills up, assign roles to your in-house team or content agency and make sure they’re clear on deadlines so content is published on time. Use your editorial calendar as a road map for managing workflow, giving writers as much lead time as possible. They’ll need to research each topic thoroughly and consult industry experts when necessary. 

And here’s a pro tip: Provide writers with detailed content briefs that emphasize the importance of creating high-quality SEO content and following E-E-A-T principles.

** maybe an Insights from the Crowd quote here: “Think of your editorial calendar as the engine that keeps your content production humming. Each piece gets you closer to your ultimate destination — search visibility, organic traffic, and conversions.”

Integrating SEO Into Your Editorial Calendar

Search engines consider hundreds of factors when determining how to rank pages for specific search terms. When you create and implement a well-designed content calendar, you can send positive signals to Google and improve your positioning in the SERPs. 

Freshness factor

One factor Google considers is query deserves freshness, which applies to topics that change frequently. The QDF factor is the reason news sites tend to rank well for search terms related to current events — the more often they publish, the more accurate and up to date the content is likely to be. Use your SEO content calendar to set a consistent schedule, and stick to it to increase your freshness factor.

Content length

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to the length of a blog post, research shows that the average Google first page result is around 1,400 words.  Using an SEO content calendar can help you to schedule plenty of lead time for writing and editing longer pieces of content. Make sure your team hasYour team should have time to thoroughly investigate a topic, find unique angles, and provide well-written, comprehensive insights.

 Semantic keywords

Semantic keywords are words that are closely related to your primary keywords. They typically provide more context, making it easier for both readers and search engines to understand what your pages are about. Google considers the use of semantic keywords when determining if a page is relevant for a specific keyword search. 

If you sell sneakers, for example, you might use “running shoes,” “athletic shoes,” “athletic trainers,” or “walking shoes” as semantic keywords. You can list semantic keywords in your content calendar for each page title to ensure that your writer knows what phrases to include.

Duplicate content

In some cases, a site may be penalized for having multiple pages with identical content. Even if you make a few edits to each page, the search engines can tell these pages are nearly identical, resulting in lower search engine rankings and fewer visitors to your website.

Without a content plan, it’s easy to publish multiple pages on the same topic without realizing it. Creating an SEO content calendar keeps you organized, ensuring you have just one page on each topic and helping you avoid duplicate content penalties.

Page quality

Search engines consider many factors when assessing the quality of a page, including grammar, spelling, reading level, and the availability of supplementary content. If you don’t have a content calendar, it’s difficult to stay organized, making it more likely that you’ll publish content with typos, grammar errors, or inaccuracies that could hurt your rankings.

Keyword usage

Your search visibility hinges on smart keyword usage. You have to identify the right search terms and use them in several places on a page, including the H1 tag, URL slug, title tag, description tag, and H2 and H3 tags. 

Keyword research ensures your website aligns with what your target audience is searching for and helps search engines determine page relevance. Set keyword requirements for each piece of content in your plan so your team knows at a glance which ones to use.  

Get Expert Help With Content Development

Need a partner to help plan your editorial calendar and create content that appeals to your audience? Crowd Content takes the guesswork out of writing articles, blog posts, white papers, case studies, and other digital content. Find out how our content creation services can support your team’s workflow, help scale production, and increase the flow of organic traffic to your site.

The post How to Create an SEO Content Calendar (With Template) appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You’ve seen these videos out there, and you really want one. You know the videos I’m talking about – they hit you in the face, grab your attention, and get you excited. They’re quick, probably animated, and use a fun voice that makes complicated things sound simple.

I’m talking about the “explainer video”.

Explainer videos are trending big right now because they allow you to deliver a large amount of information in a bite sized format. Your audience appreciates this – they save time plus they get a more complete understanding of what you’re offering them.

BUT – explainer videos only work if they’re done right. A poorly designed explainer video can have adverse effects, leaving the viewer confused and turned off.

Last week, we launched the new Crowd Content explainer video. We think it turned out pretty good. We’re sharing our process below so hopefully you can take a few pointers to help with your next explainer video project.

First, Let’s Talk Price

There are tons of video creation companies out there today. They all want to make your video. Some of them are really good, too, but, some are also really expensive.

You can see a list of the top video agencies here.

We shopped around and found the going rate to be anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 for a 1:20 (that reads 1 minute and 20 seconds) video. Yah, pretty steep.

But, it doesn’t have to cost that much if you’re savvy person and somewhat resourceful. Keep reading to see how we produced our entire video for $650.

Be Your Own Project Manager

Agencies are expensive because they handle the entire production process for you. Just take a look at Demo Duck to see what this entails:

1. Project Research
2. Script and Creative
3. Voiceover Recording
4. Style Frames and Storyboarding
5. Video Production
6. Sound Design
7. Publishing and Marketing

Anytime a company packages multiple processes into one offering, they have an opportunity to create margin (mark up prices). They also have to pay the salaries of the people at their own company who manage everything. That’s where your big price comes from.

By managing your project yourself, you don’t have to pay anyone’s salary (except your own) and you pay cost for the needed parts.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”o15D0″ via=”yes” ]Explainer videos don’t have to cost that much if you’re savvy and somewhat resourceful. #digitalmarketing[/ctt]

The tasks and responsibilities should be broken out like this:

1. Project Research – You do this
2. Script and Creative – You do this
3. Voiceover Recording – Outsource
4. Style Frames and Storyboarding – Outsource
5. Video Production – Outsource
6. Sound Design – Outsource
7. Publishing and Marketing – You do this

Find a Freelance Video Producer

This is your first step. Once you find this guy, he will take care of steps 4, 5, and 6 in the list above (they all go together).

You should be able to find a decent video producer on any freelance platform or by doing a few Google searches. Just make sure they have a few examples that you can check out to ensure the quality and style works for you.

This is where you save the bulk of your costs. Our freelancer charged less than $400 to do our 1 minute and 20 second video, but he would have done up to 2 minutes (not recommended) for the same price.

Create Your Script

Demo Duck says the script is the most important part of your video and I agree with them. The script determines many aspects of the final video like what information you will communicate, what style of voiceover will be used, and the visual feel.

Here’s how to create your script:

1. Forget about your video for a minute and just think about your company (or product/service). Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. This could be customers or investors. Then ask yourself, what problem am I solving for my audience? If you understand this problem and the pain it causes your audience, you can create a compelling script and video.

2. Start your script by telling a story about someone (yes, you can make this person up) who has the problem. Refrain from doing anything else at this point other than talking about the problem. Show how big the problem is, how frustrating it is to have this problem, how much money it costs to have the problem, how much time it wastes. You get the idea.

When viewers see you talking about a real problem that they face, they listen. They get excited, anticipating that you will reveal a solution to that problem! And, of course, you will.

You should spend the first quarter to third of your script talking about the problem.

3. Introduce your company, product, or service as the solution. Continue telling your story about the person who had the problem. Talk about how easy his life is now because he is using your solution. How much money or time is he saving? How happy is he? Try to quantify things with real numbers if possible.

IMPORTANT: focus more on benefits at this stage than features. You will be eager to talk about all the cool features you have – resist. Understand that people with problems do not care about features – they care about benefits. If you don’t understand the difference, look here.

4. Explain your secret sauce without really explaining it. After you show them all the benefits of your solution, your audience will have some questions and maybe some doubts. You don’t want to answer all of those questions at this point. However, you should touch briefly on the big picture of how you can do all of this for them. This usually relates to some kind of special technology you have developed or how amazing your people (you) are.

5. Finish your script by reviewing the 3 most important things you already communicated. This could be (1) the problem, (2) the benefit of your solution, and (3) your secret sauce (why you?).

6. Include a call to action at the very end of your script. This video will probably be on your homepage or on your landing pages. It might also get shared around the internet so don’t pass up this opportunity to tell your audience how to get your amazing solution! Sign up now! Create a free account! Buy, buy, buy!

[ctt template=”4″ link=”G3JCn” via=”yes” ]Keep the cost of explainer videos down by outsourcing key elements to professional freelancers. #videomarketing[/ctt]

Script and Video Length

I’ve seen explainer videos as short as 30 seconds and as long as 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Basically, you want your video to be as short as possible. If you can communicate everything in 30 seconds, then leave it at 30 seconds.

In my opinion, 2:30 is too long. I wouldn’t go over 1:40. We opted for 1:20, but now I’m thinking we could have stuffed it into 1 minute.

To help you condense your script, review the points above about creating your script. Benefits are usually easier to explain quickly and easier for people to understand. Features and processes are long-winded and viewers will become bored easily.

To help you match your word count with your desired video time, look at this table from Voices.com.

Hire a Voiceover Talent

This is the fun part. You get to hear your script come to life through a professional voiceover talent.

We strongly recommend using Voices.com for this part of the process. They allow you to post your job in front of hundreds of great voices. You can specify the style of voice you are looking for (we used the “guy next door” – great for tech companies), which narrows your results.

Voiceover talents will respond to your job posting and actually read a snippet of your script back to you. We had 64 responses, but it didn’t take long to preview the sound of each candidate and narrow it down to a few finalists before selecting the winner.

You can specify a budget, but you will get a range of quotes from the different applicants. We saw anywhere from $100 to $300. In the end we opted for a candidate quoting $250, which was higher than we wanted, but his voice was just too good to pass up!

Put It all Together and Review

When you get the voice file from Voices.com, send it to your video producer, but don’t make your payment on Voices.com yet. Leave the job open until the video is complete in case you need a few small revisions.

Your video producer will create the scenes, match it with the voiceover, and then add a few sound effects to spice it up. At this point, you’ll want to watch it several times. More importantly, get someone who wasn’t involved in the production process (or who doesn’t yet know about your company) to watch it. They will offer a fresh perspective and let you know if certain parts are too confusing.

When you’re happy with the product, get the final video file, close up all your payments, and start spreading the word!

Save

Save

The post How to Create a Sweet Explainer Video on a Budget appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

First, Why Buy Content?

I mean, why not just write it yourself? You are a perfectly capable human being who most likely knows a thing or two about internet marketing and has a decent writing style.

This may be true, but, it’s not the point.

The point = you are looking for a scalable opportunity. You want to fill your website with high quality content at the fastest pace possible while keeping costs reasonable.

To reach this target where you’re populating your website with fresh, relevant content every day, you will need to engage in a content marketing plan with an efficient and high volume content creation partner.

Crowd Content specializes in driving high volumes of high quality content to your website.

Content for Sale

As a side note, try to avoid places that provide pre-written “content for sale”. You need unique content written on demand and customized to your exact needs. Content for sale that is previously written will not fit with your site’s marketing angle.

Step 1: Sign Up

Create a free account with us. You will be able to see the client user interface and simple order process.

Step 2: Load Your Account

Deposit funds into your account using PayPal or credit card. If you have a promotional code, enter it into the “My Account” area. You are now ready to buy content.

Step 3: Create an Order

Click on “Create Order” and choose whether you want a Crowd Order or a Managed Order. Crowd Orders are best when you need the fastest turnaround. Buy content with a Managed Order if you have arranged special circumstances with your Client Account Manager.

Complete the intuitive order form. This form elecits all the required information from you that will help your writer create the highest quality content possible for your needs. With the order form, you can leave some questions blank, but we encourage you provide as much information as possible. Content buyers that follow this principle tend to get more high quality content pieces than average.

Step 4: Review Your Content

After the writer returns your completed content within your specifed time period, you have the opportunity to review it and (1) accept the order or (2) request a revision. There is no limit to the number of revisions you can request. All revisions are free of charge!

The post How to Buy Content with Crowd Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We listened to your feedback and learned about you. Then we put our developers to work, building all the new features you asked for. (Okay, not all, but most). Finally, we’re ready to release “the upgrades”!

Login and take a gander at these new gems (features):

File Uploads!

That’s right, we now have file uploads! If you have multiple orders that you are managing

with a Microsoft Excel file, you can upload the file during the order description process. You can also upload Microsoft Word or PDF documents for orders that will benefit from supplemental materials, like re-writes.

At this time, file uploads are only available when doing a Managed Order (described next).

Managed Orders

We now offer two types of orders: Crowd Orders and Managed Orders. A Crowd Order is the exact same process you are used to at Crowd Content. Your order is submitted to our crowd of writers and automatically matched to the most relevant writer in our system, who then completes your order.

Managed Orders, on the other hand, involve assistance from your Client Account Manager. When you place a Managed Order, your order is not submitted directly to the crowd. Instead, it is submitted to your Client Account Manager.

Your manager will then manually locate a writer (or writers) to complete your order. All other functionality remains the same. You can still review, request revisions, or reject all within your Crowd Content account.

Use a Managed Order when:

• You want to request a writer you have used in the past
• You have a file to upload with your order
• You have arranged some special circumstances with your Client Account Manager

Use a Crowd Order when:

• You want the fastest turnaround time
• You want to expose your order to a high number of potential writers

New “Slick” Style and Navigation

Check out the new look of the user interface. Clearly labelled sections and convenient drop down menus help you stay organized and get things done faster.

We also know how much you love your account managers. That’s why we added their picture and contact information to the top of your page. Remember, these guys are here to help you in any way possible — including system support and advice on content strategies — so use them!

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