Do you want to develop your online presence through a blog?

Maybe you’re already writing your own blog (or at least you intend to, when you get around to it). Or maybe you’re considering hiring a content marketing service to take care of it, writing or just editing your blog and posting it on a regular schedule.

But which is the better choice?

At Scribe On Demand, we’re obviously biased in favor of hiring a writer! But every blog is unique. Consider the following factors as they apply to the specific purpose you have in mind for your blog.

Message

Who is your audience? Are you writing for lay people? Potential clients? Other professionals in your field?
What’s the purpose of your blog? This goes hand in hand with your audience. What are you trying to accomplish for that specific audience? Do you want to educate and inform potential customers? Establish yourself as a resource and an authority on your topic? Drive traffic to your website with up-to-date news and interesting commentary? Given your purpose, will you spend more time explaining your message to a writer than it would take you to write it yourself? If so, maybe you need a blog editor rather than a writer.

Time

Where is your time worth more? If you could earn more in an hour than a writer would cost you, perhaps that hour is better spent tending to your business instead of writing your blog.
In that calculation, consider how long it will take you to do a competent job on a blog post. It might take an experienced professional writer only an hour to write a weekly blog post that would take you three hours.
Consider the schedule you want to maintain for your blog. Will you be able to make your blog a priority, or will you keep up with it only when you get around to it? If regularity and a reliable posting schedule are important to your blog’s purpose, be honest with yourself about your ability to maintain a schedule. A professional writer might help to keep your blog on-target.

Quality

Are you confident in your ability to write coherent, well-organized, error-free posts? Will it bother you if you do make mistakes? We often see amateur writing that is unclear, inconsistent, disorganized, riddled with typos, or bloated, written in a stream of consciousness instead of distilling the key points. (Sadly, we sometimes see this in “professionally written” blogs too.) These weaknesses can drive potential readers away or cause them to question your competence.
How much does uniqueness matter to you? Will you be satisfied with “one size fits all” content from a content farm? Or do you want to establish a relationship with a professional writer who becomes part of your team over time, helping to convey your unique tone and message through an understanding of your business goals?
Do you need to optimize your results for search engines so your audience can find you? If so, do you already know how? Will your audience find your posts every time and come to rely on them as a trustworthy and reliable source of information, consistent with your purpose in writing a blog in the first place?

No single strategy will work for every business; it’s based on your calculus of the factors above. You may start out writing your own blog and hire a writer when your business takes off. Conversely, you may hire a writer, find yourself dissatisfied, and need to retain the services of an editor. Ultimately, it’s not just whether you hire a writer but which writer you hire that will determine your blog’s success!

At Scribe On Demand, we maintain fresh, interesting, reliably excellent content for law firms, legal service providers, technology companies, professional organizations, and you name it—even for the food and beverage industry! Got an idea for an ongoing blog about your business?

Your blog: write it yourself or hire a writer?